Converting a curmudgeon

[jimi43]

Thanks for all the positive feedback chaps, i should say for those that don`t know, the engineering gear belongs to my best mate, so while i have free use & supervision, i`m not an engineer.


Cheers.

I am told Whale Oil is the biz for quenching Doug. I wonder does your mate have some hidden away? :wink:

John

All my hardening is done in vegetable oil...I tried old vegetable oil (my son's a chef) but I kept getting chips in the metal! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: #-o

Before I get my coat....Senor Tubal Cain is quite clear in his small, yet perfectly formed book...that old engine oil should never be used because of the volatile hydrocarbons present which may burst into flame or explode....

You seem to have found this out Doug...yet "mastered the flame!" You're a braver man than me Gunga Din!

Vegetable oil produces a very tough black coating and in the past...I have wire brushed this off...

Now I tend to leave it in place as it is quite attractive...and polished up I feel that it may provide some rust protection. Of course I flatten the back bit to silver! :mrgreen:

I must really stop being lazy and make some more irons but your post Doug is so professional that I fear anything I do would leave me wondering if a "Doug Iron" would have been like!

Carrying on if I may with the hardening bit though...and also in consultation with the wonderful Mr Cain....I am concerned that the hardening process using a BBQ can maintain the temperature control required to get even and consistent hardening across the whole iron. If I read it correctly...the optimum crystal structure change occurs within a few degrees of the stated temperature. I work on 780-800 degrees +/- about 5 degrees.

Tempering is a bit more hit and miss....I go for max oven temperature just switched off which is about 200 degrees...to cold.

Jim

Jim

 

[Doug B]

I`ve spent quite a while really cleaning one of the blade, it`s been hard going by hand

Cracking stuff Doug. Are you going to surface grind the backs of the blades?

Definitely Brian, the last couple of blades i made cost a bottle of red wine to get surface ground & after doing this blade i think it`s a price worth paying 8-[


So tonight i manage to get to the stage of honing the blade, pleasingly there is a slight hollow towards the center of the blade so getting a mirror finish wasn`t as difficult as i first thought.

What hardness are you expecting from 150 deg?

According to the information on the packaging 150 Deg`s will give a Rockwell value of 62 & i think the work required to polish the back would suggest i`m not far out :|

Finally the obligatory shavings shot, & i`m well please the back is very dry pine, the middle some wild grained English Oak & the front Maple, all 3 have a silky smooth finish. The next thing will be to try out different honing angles when the other 2 blades are prep`d.

Cheers

 

[Jacob]

Steel a bit of a mystery for me.
A2 seems soft and easy to grind/hone.
I've just acquired another Record 5 1/2 (low ebay bid just in case nobody noticed it) and it has a newish Millers Falls blade which is very hard and slow to grind. Is this good or bad? Is a Millers Falls blade different in some way? Or are they all different randomly?
The Millers Falls certainly cuts OK.
A2 Hock blade with back bevel in Record 4 seems to cut just as well as LV la smoother.
In fact they all cut OK straight after sharpening. Is that all there is to it?