Elevator Cable Knife

I purchased an unusual knife about 20 years ago from a blacksmith in Virginia. He took a length of 5/8 elevator cable (H-10 steel he said) and beat the bottom half into a blade. He used the other half as the handle.

I am now into paper wheel knife sharpening and I am still amazed whenever I look at my elevator knife. The edge was polished to a very sharp finish. (I can post a photo if requested).

I also use oxy-acet brazing to build recumbant trikes for myself so I have heat available.

So, I said to myself, "How about making an elevator cable knife"?

Does anyone know how to go about doing this project?

BoyntonStu

Reply to
Stu
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Take a class in blacksmithing, or buy some books and build a propane forge.

I have made a cable damascus knife from 3/4" cable. It takes some skill. That skill will not come easily. It takes a few years of practcie. You might make one after a few months of hard work, but after a year it will be much easier.

Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

You will need more than your oxy-acet torch to complete that project.

When you weld cable together you first need to clean the dirt and grease out of it by bruning it out. The best way to do this is to heat the cable up to a good cherry red and dunking it into a bucket with two gallons water and three cups borax. Do this three times to clean the cable.

Then take the cable up to near welding heat and flux with borax. Then take the cable up to welding heat and then twist the cable, closing up any gaps and welding it together. Reflux and repeat until you have a solid piece of steel (billet).

Then forge into a knife of your design., then heat treat, temper, polish, etc...

I have information on my web site on how to make many of the tools you would need for this project.

As Ernie said, it is not an easy project. I know knifemakers and blacksmiths with a lot of experience that cannot forge weld. It is said that forge welding is more of an art than a science. You just kinda have to have the knack to do it.

If you plan to make one knife, you probably will not want to go through all of the work and expense to do it. If you want to get into it as a long term hobby, it might be worth starting.

I make knives out of cable and other various metals combined together and it really is quite an involved process but if you are really interested, I will assist as much as you need.

Check out the "Shop stuff" area of my web site and then let me know if you want any assistance.

www DOT warnerknives DOTcom

Bob

Reply to
oso_bob

That was not my finding, my jaw droped at how easy the cable welded tog.ether. It was old dirty and rusty, pulled out of the mud at the scrap yard. I built a small forge with ceramic wool and use a goss torch with large tip for the heat. Boric acid from Wallgreens for flux. If you hit it and it crumbles it was too hot. Hit it soft at first, and slowly hit harder as the cable packs down. Hammer in a way that keeps the cable from unwinding, hard to explane but you will see. Then all of a sudden it will firm up and then you can wail on it! Easy for me, harder for Ernie, YMMV. Am I an old hand at blacksmithing, no, not at all. I made a few leaves out of hot rolled steel, a knife or two out of files, and then went for the cable damascus blade. I always found the handle and sheath harder to make nice than the blade.

Les

Snip > I have made a cable damascus knife from 3/4" cable.

Reply to
PIW

There are a LOT of things you are leaving out of this explaination. If it gets too hot it is ruined and will not make a good or even a bad knife. You do not explain a method of cleaning the cable prior to welding and that will lead to inclusions or cold shuts.

Cable will tent to try to become unraveled when you start to hit it and usually will not wled because of the looseness and rapid cooling when removed from the forge. This is why you twist it, to get all the metal in contact and retain the heat longer. You have to weld on the rising heat so you only have a second to hit it when you remove it from the forge. If you wait too long, you will never get it to weld.

Even after welding ("all of a sudden it will firm up") wailing on it is not advised until you have manipulated it enough to know there are no impurities (inclusions) or unwelded (cold shut) areas or wailing on it will just break it apart.

Just because it is steel does not mean it is not fragile. There are rules to follow if you want something that is correct and just heating with a torch and wailing on a piece of cable does not explain what has to be done to do it correctly. You have thermal cycling to do and normalizing as well as heat treat and tempering.

I have already responded to this message but just want to make it clear that there is a lot more going on that your description tells. You may be very capable of doing it but you did not explain it well enough to get a new person started correctly.

All of this is based on knowing what type of cable you pulled out of the ground at the scrapyard. Was it crane cable, elevator cable or post tentioning cable? All need to be worked and heat treated differenetly and you really should know what steel it was made from to get the best heat treatment. Differnet elements in the steel require different heat treats.

Did you test your knife after you were done? Did it perform properly? Did it get hard after heat treat? Have you done this more than once?

If I were to pull a piece of cable out of the ground at a scrapyard, I would make five or six knives out of the stuff and test then to destruction before deciding how to heat treat for a good blade, then make one and heat treat as my test indicated, then test the knife. If all goes well, you have a good cable damascus knife.

I like Ernie's reply just because he does not give the impression that it is as easy as you make it sound. Some long time blacksmiths cannot forge weld, EVER.

Bob

Reply to
oso_bob

Bob, I feel like your busting my balls for trying to help here. If that was not the case sorry. From your reply it sounds like you thought I should have wrote a book here, this is not the place. I wrote in an encuraging maner because Ernie made it sound too hard, so hard as dont even try. What I said covered a few of the problems I overcame (hot short). Last one I made a few weeks ago from 1/4 galvanized cable that fell during Isabel. I know, now your head is spinning because I use galvanized :)

If you know a blacksmith that cant forge weld, he aint a smith is he? At least not to me.

At any rate the info I gave out was more than I had to start with, and just wanted him to try for himself. For me it was harder to make a good forge than a knife. A good book is "The Pattern Welded Blade" Better yet is to putzz around and see for ones self.

Alas, you can please some of the people some of the time......

Les

There are a LOT of things you are leaving out of this explaination. If it gets too hot it is ruined and will not make a good or even a bad knife. You do not explain a method of cleaning the cable prior to welding and that will lead to inclusions or cold shuts.

Cable will tent to try to become unraveled when you start to hit it and usually will not wled because of the looseness and rapid cooling when removed from the forge. This is why you twist it, to get all the metal in contact and retain the heat longer. You have to weld on the rising heat so you only have a second to hit it when you remove it from the forge. If you wait too long, you will never get it to weld.

Even after welding ("all of a sudden it will firm up") wailing on it is not advised until you have manipulated it enough to know there are no impurities (inclusions) or unwelded (cold shut) areas or wailing on it will just break it apart.

Just because it is steel does not mean it is not fragile. There are rules to follow if you want something that is correct and just heating with a torch and wailing on a piece of cable does not explain what has to be done to do it correctly. You have thermal cycling to do and normalizing as well as heat treat and tempering.

I have already responded to this message but just want to make it clear that there is a lot more going on that your description tells. You may be very capable of doing it but you did not explain it well enough to get a new person started correctly.

All of this is based on knowing what type of cable you pulled out of the ground at the scrapyard. Was it crane cable, elevator cable or post tentioning cable? All need to be worked and heat treated differenetly and you really should know what steel it was made from to get the best heat treatment. Differnet elements in the steel require different heat treats.

Did you test your knife after you were done? Did it perform properly? Did it get hard after heat treat? Have you done this more than once?

If I were to pull a piece of cable out of the ground at a scrapyard, I would make five or six knives out of the stuff and test then to destruction before deciding how to heat treat for a good blade, then make one and heat treat as my test indicated, then test the knife. If all goes well, you have a good cable damascus knife.

I like Ernie's reply just because he does not give the impression that it is as easy as you make it sound. Some long time blacksmiths cannot forge weld, EVER.

Bob

Reply to
PIW

Nonsense! I've NEVER seen a blacksmith worthy of the name that couldn't weld in the fire. The skill is basic to the craft.

Reply to
Tom Stovall

Les,

Not busting you in any way.

I just wanted him to know that maybe Ernie made it sound difficult, but you made it sound way to easy.

It is fairly easy after you do all of the work required to know what you are doing. If you don't bother to do the research to learn what it is you are trying to do, you are wasting your time. The chances of getting a good forge weld and proper heat treating and tempering is pretty much impossible to do your first time, especially if you are not working step by step with someone that does know what they are doing. I believe that is what the original post was attempting to do, get information.

My goal has always been teaching this craft to others. That is why I have a lot of tutorials on my web site. I will "Write a book" if that is what is required to get someone to understand and overcome their ignorance to get them to actually make something that they can be proud of.

As for smiths that can't forge weld, there are a lot of them out there that make their living as a smith but can't forge weld. It may be something you think is a requirement to call yourself a smith but not everyone can do everything. I can forge weld but I can't do some of the things these guys can do with nothing more than a hammer and some hot steel. Everyone has talents and I try to focus on them and ignore or at least work around their inabilities. The local blacksmiths association has a lot of smiths that have been blacksmithing for 30+ years that cannot forge weld but they can make rivets like you won't believe.

So, we can work together to get the original poster past the "CAN I" stage to the "What do I do next" stage and eventually to the "I have a cool knife" stage.

OK?

Bob

Reply to
oso_bob

I agree that forge welding is a basic skill of a good blacksmith but I do not agree that it is a required skill (in this day and age). It sure would make life as a blacksmith easier if you could forge weld but why do you think that anyone that can't do it would not be worthy of the name?

I will make the assumption that you can weld since you claim the skill as a requirement. However, I am willing to bet that you would be offended if someone said a farrier could not call himself a farrier if he used premade shoes. Nowdays you almost have to so you can conserve time.

I just think forge welding is an old skill that is not required anymore to survive. Would you say that someone is not a blacksmith if they get out the tig welder and weld instead of doing it in the fire?

Just because someone can't do something is no reason to say they can't be something. Welding does not make the blacksmith, it is just a part of the overall skillset. Not every pilot can be an astronaut and not evey singer can be famous.

Not every critic can be right, either.

I did not see you offer any advise to the original poster, did you just come to put others down and brag on yourself or are you willing to assist?

Let's see your advise on how to make a knife out of cable. After all, that is what this post is all about. Please start by explaining the transformations that take place in the steel as it is heated. Explain why steels go non-magnetic on the rise but stay non-magnetic to a cooler temperature when the temp falls. Explain pearlite, martensite and how he can tell when he reaches criticaI temp for an unknown steel. Please also explain how he will know when he is ready to forge weld when you don't know what metal he is working with. Explain how to tell the colors of the steel when you don't know if he is working in daylight, shade or at night. Please also explain normalizing and why it should be done and how to avoid warping. Is magnetic north quenching fact or fiction? What about tempering? I would like to hear your methods of tempering in the fire without damaging the heat treat. Also explain the quenching mediums and what is best for his scrap piece of cable. Also explain all of the possibilities he has available to him as flux. Should he use borax, anhydrous borax or sand?

I am sure we can all learn from such an expert, after all is is all just basic skills to you, right?

Bob

Reply to
oso_bob

Differences of opinion are what makes for horse races.

Mostly because the skill of forge welding is intrinsic to the craft of blacksmithing. Simple as that.

Did the "CJF" give me away?

You'd lose. As a matter of expediency, most farriers use factory made shoes, but any farrier worthy of the name has the skills necessary to forge whatever shoe he needs.

True for most horses, but factory made shoes can't give every horse what it needs to do whatever it does most efficiently - which fact is the reason that forging skills are still necessary for efficient farriery.

Survive as what?

and weld instead of doing it in the fire?...

That'd depend on what they were joining and the type of work in which they were involved. In blacksmithing, there's considerable difference between fabrication, preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, or reconstruction. Each category requires different joinery skills.

Personally, I run through about 10# of TIG filler rod each week and my plasma cutter runs overtime - but I can bloody well jump weld in a gasser if need be.

Alas, doing and being are inextricably entwined. Your aunt can call herself your uncle, but her plumbing gives her away.

As you correctly point out, forge welding is an intrinsic part of the overall skill set.

Dare I point out that your logic is faulty? In reality, every pilot has the skills necessary to pilot an aircraft; every singer can sing.

It only take a single critic to point out the emperor is nekkid. Lack of raiment can be a convincing factor.

I responded to YOU, not the original poster. That's probably why I edited out all of the post except for YOUR statement to which I responded.

Did you wish to digress further, or did you wish to address the issue?

I've never considered admitting to basic skills held for decades amongst my peers to be bragging. What'n hell do you think "CJF" entails?

Did you wish to learn how to forge weld?

Nope, I'm not a knifemaker.

Nossir, that bloody well ain't what this post is all about! I responded to YOUR claim, to wit: "Some long time blacksmiths cannot forge weld, EVER..." In reality, you don't know any blacksmith who can't weld in the fire. Period.

Reply to
Tom Stovall

You can't possibly be for real. I will not respond to your jabbering in the future. If you are not willing to help people, stay out of the topic.

and weld instead of doing it in the fire?...

Reply to
oso_bob
[deletia]

As real as it gets, but I have an obvious character fault, I don't suffer fools like yourself all that well and I'm too old to start making nice to idiots because it's politically correct.

In reality, you can't respond because you've made a fool of yourself. Despite your claims, you're simply wrong: the ability to forge weld is part and parcel to the craft of blacksmithing. Ask any blacksmith.

Had you read for content, you might have noticed I offered to teach YOU how to forge weld. It usually takes a student about 30 minutes to make a forge weld. It takes the intellectually recalcitrant longer - so maybe you'd better plan on a week or so.

Or what? Will you hold your breath 'til you turn blue? Whine interminably? Keep posting execrable drivel?

Reply to
Tom Stovall

Bob, I'm sorry I took your post the wrong way, it is hard to get feeling on paper. I see we do both want the same thing, other people to make damuscaus steel! So every one remember ther is more than one "right" way to do it. For a newbi I just skiped heat treat because they will be thrilled to see the pattern after etching! One step at a time, fix your problems as the occur, and each blade will improve on the last. And dont forget there is going to be a lot of hot flux squirting out be fore the wailing stage :) And yes I do hit it as hard as I can with a 3lbs hammer! And no I dont have a limp wrist at 6'2" 230 lbs. This just goes in with the way people do things different from each other.

Les

Reply to
PIW

What say ye? Do you have to forge weld to be a smith? Do you have to sing on key to be a singer?

Les says yes.

Reply to
PIW

Thanks for the many (if not confusing) posts.

For a beginner I would need:

Cheapest easiest made/bought source of heat? ________________________

Cleaning agent borax? Type? Where to buy? _________________________

Hammer/anvil shapes and sizes?_______________________________

Safety equipment for hot sprays etc?_____________________

Are there any shaping dies to forge shape handle etc.?______________

Is there a method/tool to prevent unraveling? _____________________

Technique for heat treatment/annealing?___________________________

Anything that I missed? _______________________

May I telephone someone willing to share their experience?

Thanks in advance,

BoyntonStu

Reply to
Stu

I have just learned that there are NO blacksmiths in this world that cannot forge weld. I learned this from someone that has apparently researched this issue and interviewed every person that calls themselves a blacksmith. I stand corrected in my misconception that the people that told me they were blacksmiths but also said they could not weld were telling me the truth. NOW we all know that these lifelong liars need to close up their blacksmiths shops. I will inform them to do so.

I do have a question for the all knowing. Is the author of the following book review a LIAR? If so, maybe you should straighten him out as well.

The blacksmiths Gazzette sells a book called:

How to Forge Weld on A Blacksmith's Anvil For Those Who Have Diligently Tried and Failed.

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from page "I remember meeting a fellow who had been blacksmithing for 10 or 15 years, but had never been able to make a forge weld."

I am not sure why a blacksmithing dedicated web site would sell a book on how to do something that ALL blacksmiths already know how to do.

OOPS! This author must not have met the all knowing guy that straightened me out. Could have saved himself the time it took to write this book.

Also these people seem to think forge welding is required for MASTER Blacksmiths. They recommend the same book.

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Anvilfire Guru's Den "If you can't forge weld you can at least produce traditional looking work that looks good even to other smiths."
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Seems reasonable to me that not EVERYONE can do EVERYTHING.

Reply to
oso_bob

Do you have to, no. That isn't to say a failure to achieve this skill is an excuse for a lack of continuing efforts to master the technique.

As a farrier I use a propane forge in my business, and while I do carry a Lincoln Electric 110 Wire welder I use it as little as possible. It took a lot of swings of the hammer, a lot of flux and a lot of propane to achieve a acceptable forge weld.

A gentleman by the name of Jim Poor, an international competitor with the American Farrier's Association, can forge weld in a propane forge and you'd be hard pressed to find the join. He made a point at a clinic I attended that no shoer should apply a shoe he can not build, a sentiment I've heard expressed by some friends with more years of experience shoeing than I have had on God's green Earth. I took it to heart and practice every time I am in the forge at the shop.

While you could go all your life without forge welding it is considered a skill possessed by anyone who is adept in the trade so I'd say yes it is skill possessed by adept smiths.

Scott Jenkins Certified Journeyman Farrier

Reply to
Scott J

Try to read for comprehension: I wrote, "I've NEVER seen a blacksmith worthy of the name that couldn't weld in the fire. The skill is basic to the craft..."

interviewed every person that calls themselves a blacksmith...

If you have the odd moment of lucidity, you might want to ponder my quantification of personal experience as it relates to your illogical statement.

You may know a fabricator calling himself a blacksmith who can't weld in the fire, but you damn sure don't know any blacksmith who can't forge weld.

You're kidding, right? You appear to be of the somewhat laughable persuasion that everything you see in print is worthy of belief? In my experience, it takes an apprentice less than an hour to learn to forge weld.

Presumably, a book purports to teach folks how to forge weld would be aimed at a target audience of wannabes and neophytes, not blacksmiths.

What part of, "Any blacksmith worthy of the name can forge weld," seems to be beyond your comprehension?

You seem to be basing your argument on the ludicrous proposition that any master blacksmith would NOT be able to weld in the forge.

Have you forgotten your lesson on the application of various forms of joinery from a previous post? Do you really think Jock Dempsey is of the opinion that any blacksmith would NOT know how to forge weld? Why don't you ask him?

Forge welding is a skill unique to blacksmithing and, to some degree, farriery. Simply put, if you can't weld in the fire, you ain't a pimple on a blacksmith's arse.

Reply to
Tom Stovall

I guess it is decided.

You must know how to forge weld to be a blacksmith.

It has been said by Tom Stovall so it must be so.

I know I would not doubt the word of anyone that can drop the name of Jock Dempsy.

The thread can close now since the issue has been decided and there is nothing anyone else here can say to change it.

The great Tom has made the determination for the rest of the world to follow.

Thank you Tom for taking the time to make the world a better place. We are al indebted to you for an eternity.

WOW, imagine, there will never be a need for anyone to ever think for themselves again.

Funny thing though, I have never heard anyone drop the name Stuvall.

Reply to
oso_bob
[deletia in places]

By Jove, I think you've got it!

Forge welding has been intrinsic to blacksmithing since Saint Clement was an alter boy.

A wise choice - doubting me would make you appear even more the fool.

The thread was dead from the onset because your premise is invalid: Forge welding is a basic blacksmithing skill and no blacksmith worthy of the name would be unable to perform a skill basic to his trade.

Pointing out your error does not entail any "determination" on my part, merely a rudimentary knowledge of the trade and your woeful lack of that same commodity.

"We?" Who is "we?" Have your personal vermin elected you spokesman? Or, did you purposely misuse the first person plural in a puerile attempt to add weight to your words?

As has been clearly evidenced by your attempt to defend an indefensible premise, rational thinking is not your long suit.

I'd be surprised if you had, even if you managed to spell it correctly. I'm privileged to know quite a few blacksmiths, but I can't think of a single one who is unable to weld in the fire; on the other hand, you claim such skills are "not required." Perhaps you might benefit by joining your local, state, or regional blacksmithing organization and getting to know a few blacksmiths worthy of the name.

Perchance, are you one of those folks who calls himself a "blacksmith", but can't forge weld? If that's the case, most any blacksmith can probably have you forge welding in less than an hour. It's really no big deal - forge welding is an easy skill in which to attain proficiency and a necessary skill if one is to be called "blacksmith" by one's peers.

Reply to
Tom Stovall

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