Big change pending at my shop

[Andrew Garrett]

I followed that ebay link and read the description. Great price! However, I see that it does indicate that a thermocuople IS INCLUDED.

[Bob Warner]

Robert,

Maybe one day in the future I will get back into it but I think this will do me good. I will learn something new.

I thought about forging sitting down and even tried several positions to see if I could. Standing is not just the problem. Any pressure on my leg from any direction makes it hurt, standing just puts the pressure straight on. Side pressure does not have to be much to make it hurt. I sit in a chair, straight on and sleep on my back because of the side pressure I get on my leg.

I will get a bar stool for grinding and hopefully not have to rebuild my grinder stand.

I will probably start with 440C and learn on that since it is one of the cheaper steels and a talk with Paul Bos the other day re-enforced my feeling that it is a good steel.

Just got to get back into it without loading up propane tanks and all that.

Just need to build this oven and find a thread on here telling my exactly how to heat treat 440C.

[Bob Warner]

Andrew, did you get my email?

[blacksmith101]

Bob, Do you know anyone close to you that is coming to Ron's hammer-in in Knoxville, Tenn the end of the month? I could fix you up with most of what you need to build a heat treat oven including the bricks. Merle

[Andrew Garrett]

yea. i got your pm. you should have a return message by now.

[hammerdownnow]

Stock removal? Stainless steel? Wake up! Wake up Bob, you are having a nightmare! Follow the light of the forge...reach...for...the...hammer.....Bahhhhhhhhh h.bbbb!

Get the boy out there and have him do the hammering. It is getting about time to change the name to Warner & Son anyway.

I would say, try sitting. Experiment with several heights. A stool height might work just enough to take some of the weight off that leg. You are gonna get better, then your stuff will be gone.

[AcridSaint]

Hey Bob, I'm not going to be too much help on the supplies, but I'll tell you a few things I know about getting those firebricks. First off, try a local pottery place, since you'll be buying so many, it will probably even be worth the gas to take a drive out of town vs shipping. Second, call your community colleges, that's where I got my soft firebrick for my 1 bricker. It was free to me because I had an art class and I was in good with the teacher, but even if you can't get free ones from them you can still find out where they got them. Community colleges are notoriously cheap, so you might just find a good supplier through them.

Also, nothing wrong with 440C, but I don't know why you need to go stainless if you're stock removing. I only stock remove carbon steels because I don't want to pay for an HT setup or send them out, especially since I make so many crappy knives Anyways, if you're worried about using 440 there are lots of other great steel options out there. I found that it's actually cheaper to buy ATS-34 from admiral than 440C, in some sizes. Not that you'll necessarily be buying from them.

I would hang onto some sort of forge and basic HT equipment that you already have, you never know when you might want to work some carbon steel again.

[Bob Warner]

Hammerdownnow,
Hang on there buddy, I am not dreaming, you have to sleep to have dreams.

Well the Warner & son thing may happen someday but my son found out quite a while back that girls are not so bad so he is trying to collect a few. Now he's driving so he is picking them up instead of them picking him up. The phone rings off the hook and I have to get on these girls to stop calling. They will call at midnight on a school night.

Cap, I am not worried about using 440C. It just seems that a lot of people feel the need to use the newer steels and I can't afford that or know if they REALLY make a difference to the user of the knife. A talk with Paul Bos confirmed my feeling that 440C was a good steel so Iplan to use it exclusively until I get the heat treat figured out and make a lot of knives with it, then I may explore other steels.

I am keeping one forge. If I never forge again I might just fire it up to listen to it.

[hammerdownnow]

As one who has rolled down the road in slow motion wondering when, if ever he was gonna stop, I sorta know it no fun. Right know my partner has more pins in his foot than bones he says. From a high speed wobble crash on the highway this summer. Last time he wrapped himself sideways around the front of this chicks bumper. It hurts him to stand, hurts to sit, hurts to lay. The sgt. at arms, Joe tells him to suck it it up. Some chick T-boned him and chopped his off right below the knee. Joe says his foot and toes itch, but he can't scratch em'.

Don't worry about the boy, he will slow down on chasing the girls around 50 or so.

I like your plan on learning something new. Thanks to Thom Davis, I got to see the Peter Atwood video. Got me interested again in making those big tactical framelocks. Mostly benchwork and some stainless heat treating. He borrows the pottery kiln in the ceramic store downstairs of his appt. to treat his blades. You might want to snoop around some of those shops for ideas and or used equiptment.

[Raymond Johnson]

Try Axner pottery supply for soft fire brick I think there about $3 a brick, but don't quote me. This my memory talking. I think it's axner supply.com I don't remember and the catalog is at my shop. But there not hard to find. There here in Florida. Also look at there catalog. They have alot of stuff.
Good luck
Raymond Johnson