Published on Jul 16, 2015 by Trollskyy
Very old wrench turned into a knife.
Posted: November 27, 2016
Categories: Videos
From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
Perfect steel to make this item
Tool steel is of the best quality for this type of craft
Tool steel is good stuff for sure. Some good books from the 70s about using old tools to make new tools. One I read was good but it only showed how to use tools steel from leaf springs to make your own carving relief tool set. nnet book and lots of info for use elsewhere.
amateurs with a forge and youtube, there should be a law as it leads the spectators astray..
you can tell he is amateur using a ball peen hammer instead of the proper tools..by smithing standards that is not even ranked as a poorly equipped shop.. plus there is no mention of tempering or heat treating which is necessary if the knife is to hold an edge and not be brittle.. although he shows quenching it (wrongly by the way) there is no mention as to lighting conditions (which must be low lighting if going by the color unless you want to overheat it, hence the scale and slag blisters forming) or the temperatures required to do a proper heat treat. a proper heat treat for a wrench is 1500-1600*F for 15-20min to give the structure time to realign and the metal to evenly heat.. and any one can cut paper with even the cheapest china knife, use it to skin an entire deer and then shave with it without sharpening it if you want to impress me.. or whittle some wood and then show it cutting the paper.. but that design also has no real purpose outside of chopping things like a cleaver.
he could have also done a lot more of the shaping on the anvil if he had the proper tools and know how. using a belt sander will take hours to a day to shape a knife depending on the size and hardness plus cost lots of money because you’ll kill many belts, you can see all the belts he has hanging around….wasteful and expensive…
and if the piece is sparkling and almost yellow/white then your too dam hot, that is a welding heat borderline on melting heat and not recommended for forging as you can burn the metal.. all the black stuff you see flaking off is burnt/useless metal that is coming off as scale or slag..the heat is too hot…he needs to learn to read the fire colors when the piece is heating.
there is a lot more to making a “good” knife than beating on a piece of metal you found.. for one, you gotta watch out for some of the no name/china brand wrenches, they are mild steel and are just case hardened and will not work for this. to see if the steel is usable for a knife you must learn to test it for carbon content. you must expose the inner core of the piece and with a bench grinder your looking for sparks that come off and explode like crazy, the more carbon the more explosions. the less carbon the less explosions. if you have never seen this it is hard to explain. you can also use a rockwell tester or a fine file. if the file will barely cut it or not cut it at all it is good for a knife, although this method will sometimes throw you off if the piece is not heat treated properly or has been annealed..
from what i can see that is alright steel shown when he was cutting it off, although it is hard to tell with something that turns as fast as an angle grinder.. plus find an old wrench that is not useful anymore like one that is worn out or rusted up, cutting up a perfectly usable wrench is dumb and would have gotten my ass beat when i was a kid.. a good wrench is worth more as a wrench and can be used to make whatever passes as money..
but all in all that is a lot of work for something that still looks like shit. them sharp hammer marks in it are stress risers and create weak points as well as look like crap. in the old days the master smith would have threw a hammer at him.. and b4 people start saying i have never and do not know what im talking about i refer you to exhibit A.. this is what a knife looks like if you have the proper tools and knowledge..
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/s526x296/15171317_1184437594977554_1631418330326945528_n.jpg?oh=c2a596de738f83bb8c2ccc2fa38a20f8&oe=58BB6396
Very nice 98k.
Always wanted to learn but only ever hacked at it.