Strike-a-light steel made from a file
- Thread starter sticks65
- Start date
-
Come along to the amazing Summer Moot (21st July - 2nd August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.
Good stuff.I like the effect from the files..
Your forge set-up looks interesting too,is it an old fire extinguisher?(sp)
Your forge set-up looks interesting too,is it an old fire extinguisher?(sp)
Yes its a fire extinguisher with a pipe that i drilled holes into,i use a balloon inflator for the air.
I tempered them until they reached a straw colour them dipped them in water to stop the colour going into the blues and purples..
made something like that up myself from a file but think my mistake is I quenched it in oil it throws off sparks poorly....
I quenched these first in nut oil and then strait into water to finish off the cooling i then took them into my workshop and cleaned them up so that i could watch the colour as i tempered them.
To temper them i placed them on the hot coals in my forge and when they reach straw coloured i cooled them in water.
Ive made a few of these and ive always heated them beyond the curie point for large grain growth and quenched in water.Ive never tempered them though.Funny Survival bill mentions poor sparks using oil...same thing has happened to me.Some steels are oil hardening,some are water.
Have you ever dropped one and had it shatter on you,i have so thats the reason to temper.
As you can see i must be doing something right as i get plenty of sparks from them.
I would think that old files would be suited to oil hardening.
Last edited:
Not personally but one of my customers has
Ive been using lorry leaf springs for mine,no idea what the steel is though!I know it crumbles when it overheats..
Ive been using lorry leaf springs for mine,no idea what the steel is though!I know it crumbles when it overheats..
I simply water quench the steels that I forge from files - I have not fractured any from dropping them....yet! I have cooked some of the fancy curls off in the forge though
The sparks are phenominal - even better than the ones off my "Dragons Breath" sets (un -reforged file steel) - and they are pretty darn sparky!
The sparks are phenominal - even better than the ones off my "Dragons Breath" sets (un -reforged file steel) - and they are pretty darn sparky!
That's funny John because i have cooked of the fancy curls too and was gutted.
laundich1 i had some rail way grippers that i forged crumble like that to.
Well its all part of forging i suppose
laundich1 i had some rail way grippers that i forged crumble like that to.
Well its all part of forging i suppose
The joy of hitting hot metal with big hammers!
My forge is an old Wok with an old tentpole as a tue...my anvil is a bit of railway line...my bellows an airbed pump.
One day I will upgrade......
My forge is an old Wok with an old tentpole as a tue...my anvil is a bit of railway line...my bellows an airbed pump.
One day I will upgrade......
It is a joy John for sure
The first forge i made was from a griddle type bar-b-q,i still use it for bigger projects but it was using to much lump wood for just making knives and steels so i decided to try and make something smaller and had an old fire extinguisher hanging around so went with that.:thinkerg:
I used railway line too.
works great don't it.Similar threads
