That grain is pretty large. For lack of a better way to put it into words.... what I like to see is a smooth, velvety gray color, with no visible gra...

On the tempering.... I do three, 2-hour cycles, allowing the blade to cool naturally to room temp between tempering cycles. Sorry to bring the bad n...

Depending on the type of blade grind/geometry you apply, I think you're in the ballpark with 1084. Personally, for the type of grind/edge that I use,...

Heat is heat....as long as it's even and consistent. Personally, I think that using a mass of sand large enough for a blade is only going to require ...

I think I now understand. Personally, I would find a way to "lock" the upper end of the press in place. One press I built, I didn't "lock" the upper...

I don't fully understand what you're asking, but 1/2" angle seems terribly light for the frame of any forging press. I think far too often folks unde...

would like to start getting more consistent performance on my edges. I can only speak for myself, but I far prefer a convex edge (one that is...

Try to find vermiculite. Lime, especially in pellet form won't insulate enough to force the slow cooling needed.

I guess my question is, do you not anneal your blades prior to profiling/rough grinding? Most grinding/metal removal, as well as holes being drilled...

Whenever somebody talks about "building" a contact wheel, it makes me very nervous. Over the years I've seen several incidents where folks where inju...

Cheater! Genius idea though. I don't have a mill, but I think I can probably get it done. Thanks. I was trying to think of all of the disastr...

In the interest of working smarter, not harder, I'd just "cheat". By that I mean I would anneal the piece, throw it in a milling machine and mill ...

I tried square tubing too... it was awful. I think it has to do with the weight and how "solid" the tooling arm is.... the tubing caused terrible vib...

I am going to replace the steel ones on my KMG with AL over the summer A few years ago I tried that....using an aluminum tooling arm on the KMG...

the only one that stands out is the Wuertz TW90 I would love one of those I've wanted so badly to like the TW90, but had some bad experiences w...