Anybody worked with DH-2? I have what appears to be part (4ft or so) of a
bolt-on edge for a dozer blade that's just begging to be something...well,
several somethings actually, but I'm holding off deciding exactly what in
hopes that someone has some better specs on this than the "really hard
carbon steel" that I'm getting from web searches.
Here's what I located. DH2 is also known as Di-Hard (thus the "dh").
DH2
C 0.6/1.0
Si 0.3/0.8
Mn 0.5/1.1
Ni 0.4/0.8
Cr 0.5/1.0
Mo 0.2/0.5
From what I read on it, it appears to be some sort of jacketed or at
LEAST differentially hardened steel. Thus they are able to have a
wear resistant outer and strong inner.
On 29 Sep 2004 00:35:50 GMT, "Joe Bramblett, KD5NRH"
Gobae - The Smith
http://www.oakandacorn.com/cdbaforum
Thanks. We had some other irons in the fire, (literally) so we didn't get
around to slicing off some workable pieces to play with at this week's
forge night. I'm still pondering trying to make a mattock blade out of it,
but now I'm half tempted to just torch cut a double-adze, or a pick mattock
shaped head at full thickness, using the original edges as the bits, and
enlarge a bolt hole to gas weld a heavy duty handle socket on. It wouldn't
be a comfortable tool to use long term by any stretch, but I bet it would
succeed in busting up some of the rock/clay soil around here.
Another possibility was cutting a 3" wide strip, welding on a handle and
flattening/annealing the shorter side to make a hot cutter.
For sure and yet higher alloy content than 8670-modified that
circular saw blades are made from now-days.
It's for sure, deep hardening.
Edge quenching or partial austenitizing I can easily see but a hard
case around the whole thing when quenched fully-autenitized would
have to be a foot thick. ;) So if they are making a "case" around
it, they might be just austenitizing the outsides (by induction?)
and quenching.
(just trying to make sense of what you read)
I guess that works. :/ Don't know. :/ Only thing I've read that was
specific, was about automotive springs and how very important it was
-in their case- to have the same hardness all the way through for
fatigue strength. I picture the insides and outsides not working
together so its strength isn't what it could be (under the work load
of so many flexes)?
Cool thread. :)
BTW-> "low alloy, high carbon steel" ;)
Good stuff. :)
Alvin in AZ
And you and DrH will prob'ly go with the ease of working 5160 into
swords out-weighs the slight strength benefits of L6.
Hmmm... seems kinda familiar like I heard that somewhere before like
the "knife-list" or r.k.
Alvin in AZ
ps- is the "knife-list" still going?
For me it's just that I already had an idea of what the 5160 would do. It
was a price, availability and familiarity thing. Off the top I know that
Admiral doesn't have anything thicker than 3/16ths listed for the L6. Can't
say that I looked very hard though. For me, anything less than a quarter
inch is lightweight stuff. From an asthetics and strength point of view, I
think a sword should have a thicker cross section with a lot of edge tapir.
You can get thinner as the quality of the steel permits but "Flat" swords
just look cheesey. Just my bias.
GA
swords
Did a big wall hanger broadsword with a large fuller down the center. I
used my handheld grinder to do it and was not too impressed. Not as clean
and even as I would have liked. Next time around I'll go with the more
traditional draw bit. The table saw would work pretty good for the really
thin styles though. hmm.... ;)
GA
One of the meanest things I ever did was to order a fullered D2 blade from a
stock removal maker :-)
http://warriorschest.com/cutlass.htm (Maker: W.W.Woods of Vera, TX. D2,
Jeweler's Bronze, Mastodon Ivory; sheath in laminated Elephant Hide with
springsteel reinforcement)
I don't know how he did it, but the interior of the fuller is mirror
polished, the rest of the blade is brush finished.
I've often wondered how hard that is to do- I really like the Sa family
blades; all the swoopy relief and multiple scallops.
I've never quite understood why the 'integral' makers didn't go ahead and
work up fullers in their blades. It's such an obvious evolution in blade
design from the flatground stuff- can't see why people have missed it.
Chas
clean
a
ROTFLA Did he cuss you afterward? 'spose it depends on your intent as a
maker. Certainly would be a lot easier with a fuller hardy and hot metal
but as a newbie I tend to try anything that occurs to me and I really don't
mind spending hours with hand tools if it does the quality of work that I'm
after. I've learned to be afraid of what a power tool can do to a perfectly
good piece of work in a moment of what I call "a case of the dumbass". I've
varying examples of those moments. The trick is to pull out of it looking
like you meant it all along ;-) Back to the fullering though, I'm working
on an idea for attaching hardy tools to my rail anvil. After discussing
with Alvin the idea of tapping into the end of it, I'm leaning towards
welding an attachment to one end. Probably won't be much good for pounding
on but it should be fine for holding that fuller tool.
Beautifull work! (like the cutlass too) That face in the leather is awsome!
Since I started obsessing about making blades I have run across a few makers
out there who do things to the leather that I don't think I've seen before.
You're right at the top of the list!
Polishing stone sticks?
I've learned that a sharp piece of hard steel can remove a lot of stock
pretty quickly. A friend of mine has been getting involved with my forging
escapades and decided to try a small meat hatched. He brought it to me to
fix some rough edges and was blown away by what could be done with a good
file. Left here and headed straight for the hardware store to get his own.
Hmm yes, I've always been partial to fullered blades. Large cross section,
deep fullers. I think my next project is going to be a sort of cross
between a katana and a scemitar with long narrow fuller near the unsharp
(top?) side of the blade.
GA
It took him about five years to get around to making it. It boiled down to
him making some stuff to go to the Pope and needing them sheathed; heh, heh,
heh.
His work is *really* hard to sheath; big, heavy, thick, weird shapes- and
needed very precise tooling of the symbols and such. He gets nearly $3K for
a knife like the 'Cutlass', so it made a good trade.
More likely some sort of milling process.
Bill was a metallurgist for NASA for his career- very proficient with
advanced tooling and processes- very complex steels and heat-treating.
A bladesmith's 'sen' is more like a spokeshave or rebating plane- like an
'Old Woman's Tooth' slotting tool. The form is scraped, as opposed to
filing. The bit was made from 'glass-hard' steel. One would think that a
carbide lathe bit would be an upgrade-
The designs to look at for fullering/scooping are naginata blades. They were
short and made of heavy stock (by and large). The best wakizashi I ever saw
was a long naginata blade mounted in waki style, made by the Sa family- big,
meat cleaver.
Chas
So what is the popes EDC? This has me intrigued. I am guessing some sort
of ceremonial sword. Really undermines the whole turn the other cheek thing
doesn't it.
Fraser
There were several heavy short swords and a couple of battle axes- to be
used in parades/ceremony. The Pope presented them to the oldest military
order in Catholicism during the Christmas season.
Chas
a
heh,
for
Nothing like a trade for your trade :-)
Cheating ... Yeah, I'd do it too if I had the tools.
to
good
A Sen is high on my list of tools to make. After I learned to scrape off
material with the draw file action, I heard about a sen and the lightbulb
went off. Just havn't got around to it yet.
were
saw
big,
Hmmm, I'd do that for a brush cutter tool. Want to get good a long gracefull
blades first. Ever see the commercial fantasy blade that belonged to the
elf chick in Lord of the Rings? Gives me goose bumps when I see that kind
of work. Jody Samson has a thing he calls the Seaward sword that is sort of
along those lines. As soon as I figure out how to make my forge distribute
the heat more evenly I'll be doing something like that. I'll be treating my
Wak next but I experimented enough while I was forging it to know that it's
going to be tricky getting the ends at the same temperature as the middle.
Right now, by the time the ends are hot enough, the middle went too far.
I'm going to try an extention so that maybe I can get a long enough area
that the heat doesn't change too much. Thought about creating some
convection in the chamber too...
GA
heh.
He wrote an article for Knives Annual talking about stock removal v.
forging. I disagreed with him and ordered a distal tapered, curved blade
with fullers and a cupped handguard. You can see what I got <g>
She had a sword?
No; not to remember it from others.
Jody's pretty much a stock removal guy, isn't he?
Chas
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