I actually love the fact that this failed. Why? There's people like me who are learning this trade, though I haven't gotten equipment to start yet, that hears stories of things like this happening. They may or may not believe it. By showing this, they get shown proof it can happen even to people with more experience. That makes this a great learning experience.
That is exactly why I became a dedicated Green Beetle fan. In fact, now that I am working metal as a hobby, I learn so much more from watching people’s mistakes than their successes. I am incredibly grateful to those who are willing to share their “fails” with the rest of us.
Thank you John. Flight instructor said: "Learn from others mistakes, you won't live long enough to do them all by yourself". You're my favourite channel
Mistakes like this aren’t truly failures , just valuable lessons and reminders , I’ve got a wall full of them , and a couple buckets. It’s still a nice looking piece and will look good on the wall
Sorry that the piece failed but your posting it for others to see really does help those like myself who are much lesser skilled than yourself realize that failures d ok happen. Thank you for posting.
Finally someone else that quenches in water. I will say brine Is actually safer than plain water. Salt water with dish soap, as it reduces surface tension resulting in a faster safer quench. Also recommend heating it to 150*f. Parks 50 is the safest option and works perfectly. You will wish you bought it years ago.
Guten Tag John Danke für das Video und vielen Dank für Deine Ehrlichkeit. Genau das ist ein Teil den ich sehr an Dir schätze . Du zeigst auch die Fehlschläge Deiner Arbeit . Das machen nicht viele Menschen Aus den Fehlschlägen lernen ist sehr wichtig nützlich und man lernt sie zu seinem Vorteil zu nutzen. Es ist ehrlich und das fehlt heute leider all zu oft. Danke für Deine Arbeit Danke für die lehrreiche Zeit Dir und Deiner Familie einn schönen Sonntag und eine gute neue Woche Viele Grüsse Frank Galetzka
This channel has been a godsend for me getting started. As much as I enjoy the energy of Alec Steele and the others, sometimes you just need that Bob Ross energy to make you less anxious about stuff not coming out the way it was supposed to and actually get you in the shop whackin away
Thanks for sharing John 👍🏻 makes alot of sense when you explain about the time between heat treatment and tempering , cooling stress may have been a factor in some of my failures. Keen to see prt 3 🍻😎👍
John, It was great watching you forge this axe, Seeing your process was mesmerizing. It sucks that it was flawed, but as you said, it happens. Can't wait for the next video. Army SE Oregon
Awesome little axe my friend and would never call it trash I prefer to hag my mistakes as a reminder where I can improve and not copy something that’s perfect 👍
I love that you include the failures in your videos, part of what makes you such a great teacher. If nothing else, I would go ahead and put a handle in it, make it a wall decoration for the shop or in the house somewhere, since the one side is still intact and it came out looking great.
I don't do any blacksmithing but a video like this makes me appreciate what the pioneers went through and emphasizes the importance of the smithy in those days. Bill
That axe was looking good. I hate that it failed. But thanks for taking the time to discuss reasons why it would have failed. Some years ago, I heat treated a meat cleaver made out of industrial sawblade steel. It was late so I decided to temper it the next day. It was sitting on the kitchen table and my wife and I heard that nasty little ping sound. I looked at the cleaver and there was an inch and a half crack from the edge into the body of the blade. Since then, I temper immediately after heat treat.
So good to know… I didn’t know that tempering right away was important. That’s exactly why examination of failures and explanations from people with this kind of experience are so valuable.
Thanks for this video. To a rank novice like me, “fails” teach more than watching the flawless execution of a master smith’s work. Thanks for being willing to talk us through it. The humility to share one’s failed efforts has true value in the world. You’re a prince among men.
My great-grandfather was an iron worker for the railroad in Alabama in the 1870s to the 1890s. He had his own forge. During the Great Depression my grandfather and his brother reopened the forge to repair the farm implements of their neighbors. Dad said they mostly welded broken tools and plows.
One of your best videos yet. Too many times, you never get to see reality on RU-vid. Thank you for the teaching moment. One of the reasons I have followed you is because of the time and patience you exhibit, showing all aspects, so that we can learn.
It is OK John. We live and learn an learn to live my friend. Very nice video this week. Can't wait to see more videos soon. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Forge On. Keep Making. God bless.
Very good idea for an axe. Thanks for showing the failure since that is a real life part of what we like to do. Sometimes there is more to be learned from failure than success. Keep up the good work!
Hi John! Each of us sometimes does something wrong as we would like. Great respect you showed it! For me, a great movie and I'm waiting for the third part. All the best!
John, I really appreciate the fact that you show, and explain, your failures, when you have them. Too often we get the idea that forge welding should just happen, with no failures, as shown by other blacksmiths channels. You are, and always have been, honest.
This is why I watch your videos John , You don't hide the things that can go wrong and to me that means more than success every time . And I personally would be proud to hang that little axe on my wall . Cheers . :)
I feel your pain on the crack John! I spent hours forging and grinding a camp knife from 1065 - after the quench, I was checking out the blade in my bare hands - room temp steel, I was evaluating a mild warp in the blade and thinking about reheating and straightening it, or trying to ease it straight in the tempering oven...when suddenly... *PING*...took care of that. I kept the blade to use as a template as I was really happy with the profile. Happy ending is I forged another one and it's 100% good - didn't warp, it's nice and hard even after tempering a little higher than ideal, and all's I need to do now is make up some denim micarta scales from some old blue jeans. As many others here, I really appreciate your contributions to the blacksmithing community and applaud your efforts and humility in sharing your failures along with your successes - that's the reality of blacksmithing.
Just goes to show you can know what you're doing, have a good plan and still not get the desired result. You are a great teacher John and I learned a lot from this video. Thanks.
Thanks, John! Beautiful pattern on the Damascus! Too bad it failed but, we learn! I say we because your fail was a fail for all of us that watch! So, we will all do better next time! I've seen others make cable Damascus knives but, I don't recall seeing an axe made of it! Thanks so much for all that you do for us! You are a Master!
I have been watching and learning great deals from your videos and i love that you also post the videos where u have made real mistakes, they have helped me learn so much and since i dont get much time to work on my projects you have saved me a lot of time too. Many thanx man and keep it up👍🏼
That is a great educational tool for some hands on, find the problems. Thanks John, nice to see you can still make 'em like I do. I'm still trying to make like you!
Yeah too bad that it didn't turn out as a axe. Glad to see even more experienced smiths have the same problem as the rest of us. One thing i like about blacksmithing is that can I always make something else out of my mystakes. Maybe a video on making a cable damascus axe coat hook or candle holder!😀
Wow it was starting to look like they’re really nice throwing ax too bad it failed learning experience you explained it very well as usual great video thank you Al from Vt 👍
Hope we see better results next time. Most of the hardcore bladesmiths I've watched seem to swear by Parks 50 as their go-to quenching oil, so that is probably the best option. I've been told about a solution called Superquench, which if I recall right was a solution of brine and dish soap, which is supposed to be better for the 10-- series high-carbon steels than straight water, but I've never actually tried making it... I'm just starting to mess with blade-making at this point. I think I might just invest in a bucket of Parks when the time comes.
I've quenched W1 and W2 in oil with very good success. The caveats are that these were knives, so pretty thin cross sections and I also preheated my oil up to a pretty high temperature of 140 to 150 degrees F. I tried a bunch of knives in water with these steels and every single one cracked on me. Maybe my normalizing cycles weren't good enough I don't know but quenching in hot oil got the blades VERY hard.
John, you are such an inspiration. I love your videos and they have made me decide to join a local creative center so I can learn blacksmithing. You seem like such a peaceful, kind soul. Keep doing what you're doing.
My understanding is the water quench for 1095 is for a thicker cross section. When you forge it thin, oil will be a better option. The 1095 knives I've made are all oil quench and come out with good hardness when tested with my files. Your experience far exceeds mine, but that's what I've read and my experience.
I was going to say, from the research I've done w1 and 2 and 1095 are water quenching when they're giant industrial parts. It's really just too risky in water for such small parts like axes and knives. Made a chef's knife out of some w2 and got somewhere between 60 and 65 HRC in a 130 degree canola oil quench.
Another great video! Really cool Damascus pattern and axe profile. Very helpful to see your process in diagnosing the failure cause. I know I jump to conclusions sometimes when I really should make more effort to look at a broader view. Thanks for walking us through it.
As always I really appreciate you showing off your mistakes as well as successes, especially since that corner of the eye is exactly where my last few attempts have gotten too thin.
I would hang that on my wall in my house next to my wood stove. I think it would be a great decorative piece. This is a great video since it proves even the greatest of skills still make mistakes, and uses it to educate your audience. Keep up the great video content.
Love your videos. Its not a fail. As i have heard. " its just a little bit of a happy accident" its been a long time since i watched his painting show.
absolutely love this. mistakes happen and i love that we got to see all the work that goes into something that failed, and still, you have learned from it (us too), and its amazing. cant wait to see the next video! thank you
Thanks so much for letting us follow along and learn from your set backs. It would be interesting to go ahead and hang the head, then do some destructive testing on it. Do a bunch of throwing, and use it to split wood like a froe. See if you can get the bit or eye to fail. It might fall apart on the first throw, or we may learn how far we can push the thickness of the cheeks and how well a bit can hold on with only one side welded. Take care and God bless
As a professional arc welder of multiple processes, I am impressed by your forge welding. The growing together of grain structure is the same in all processes. Your emprise on the base metal being clean is true for all welding processes and the key to success. I love watching your videos and use your teaching in my shop.
A good honest video depicting failure and trying to improve a tool because like my daughter, I'm learning all the time except my being a hobbyist. I'd like to know about the various oils, such as Canola oil or other vegetable oils, plus mineral oil quenchants which I realize tend to be expensive. A big thank you John for this video. ~Wendi UK
Just found you and subscribe. You admitting your failures and showing them and explaining how it failed is fantastic. Shows a lot about you and makes you a great teacher in this art. Thanks to you my friend and God bless. You'll get it right next time I'm sure if it.
I have no experience with blacksmithing, but I've been watching your videos for a while now, John. Your videos are really interesting. Just wanted to make a comment about how interesting the mistakes were and love the axe-series!
Been there, done that! Had some 1095 fracture on me the other day and no idea why. Maybe the water was too cold. Maybe the moon was out of phase. Could have been a gremlin in the shop!
After welding the ends of the cable try soaking and rinsing with water in muriatic acid. This removes most of the rust between the strands. Do this outside and upwind! Some borax or kerosene helps with the oxygen attacking the strands during forging. Looking forward to the second kick at the can! 👍
Hi John! Sorry to see the axe fail, but I'm also impressed that you share your failures. I did have to check though, and 1095 is spec'ed as an oil hardening steel.
All apart of it. You showed me that lol. I have a whole shelf of fails right next to my forge. I look at em all the time, find where I messed up, or see that my material was just to small, or short or whatever.🍻 And watching this I can see where I mess up alot on welding. I need to do more heats. And maybe a slower blower. I'm always starting to get it to stick, then I pull it back out and the blade end(most of the time, sometimes the flat side?) Will start to spark and burn. Last edit lol. Something else I've noticed is that I see you get the white heat quite alot and no sparks or burn. Is that just a difference in my forge and yours or the fact my blower is a little shop vac? I can get the bright orange easy. Maybe my eyes lol.. Thanks alot John!
I don't know if I would call this a fail. I have never learned so or got so much from a mistake. Never seen a fail video especially from you. But if by any chance you ever have a " Fail" video please post....🔥🔨
Dear Most Excellent Blacksmithing Teacher, Please move from the Mentions&Intentions stage to the BuyitAlready stage of a couple of Go-Pro cameras. Set them up in those semi-permanent spots you've talked about so you don't have to keep fiddlin' and fussin' with the recording device relocation problems. Not having them is an efficiency hindrance to your most excellent work and teaching. Please Sir and Thank You for Your videos. 😊😊
Sure is a shame it cracked because it looked awfully nice. Better luck next time. I use parks 50 and it works great with 1095 I haven't cracked anything while using it yet.