Knive from raw iron bloom. Final Stage

I finished the knive eventually without wood laminated handles but tin-plated:

tin plated bronze handles

engraved manufacturer

fish bone structure with blue niello on the back

Knive from raw iron bloom. Stage 2

I finished the handle and made a push pin lock for the blade, like the famous Boker Kalashnikov Automatic knive. The blade arrests with a resonant "click" :) The next step will be finding a nice wood for the handles. 

A litte drop of bitterness: Because I couldn't get rid of some slag inclusions during smithing, the blade has one bad forge welding (Thats where I placed the pivot). Yet I didn't realized until now, that at the pivot the layers aren't welded at all. Maybe I'll replace the blade as time comes by, but as this is my first selfmade pocket knive I'm still very pride. So stay tuned for the final step.

The unfinished folding knive with bronce handles

Folded

Detail of the lock mechanism. The blade shows a bad forge welding at the pivot.

Fits nice in my hands

Knive from raw iron bloom. Stage 1

One of my new projects is to make an small folding knive from my recent bloomery (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlB1_plOjxc&feature=c4-overview&list=UUXZw76_-xa6cK532J9bqZTw). I have chosen to make the blade from the raw, compressed bloom. By this, the blade gets a very coarse look and u can see the slag inclusions on one hand, and the inhomogeneous carbon content by etching with citric acid on the other hand. The handle is tin bronze (CuSn6). You see, there is some work to be done, especially for the handle, so stay tuned.

The blade was made from the raw, compressed bloom. I started with an iron bar (right corner) made from a part of my recent iron bloom.

Detail of the blade after smithing and grinding

Polished and etched blade

The blade and the bronze handles

Bronze Age Socketed Axe

I want to show you my new tool: an bronze age socketed axe. It's a replica made from CuSn10 bronze, measuring 85x40 mm. The original was an urnfield  Ha-B-phase type. I searched  for long a time a suitable shaft and eventually found a piece of beech. I guess our ancestors must have bred trees for this special purpose... The edge was hardened by cold hammering and indeed I was able to get it razor-sharp.

Bronze Age Socketed Axe

Bronze Age Socketed Axe Detail

Bloomery: Adjustable air blower, copper tuyeres

For my next smeltings I built an adjustable air blower. For this purpose, I installed a 1500W electric motor from a vacuum cleaner inside a wooden box. Inside, the box is separated in two compartments: One compartment acts as a silcencer, whereas the other compartment contains the motor. The air is sucked in through the silcencer and leaves the box on the other side. The compartments are each sealed by a wooden cover plate. One plate bears the adjustable resistor from the motor driving unit. By this feature it is possible to adjust the motor from zero-speed to full power continuously.
My plan is to use the electric air blower and the goat skin bellows alternately. The air will be blown into the furnance by a nozzle, made from copper. I made three tuyeres from copper pipe, as shown in the pictures.

The adjustable air blower

The adjustable air blower

The enclosed compartments of the air blower

The control panel of the air blower

Copper tuyeres

Copper tuyeres

Pressure destillation and refillable spray cans

Sometimes I miss the availability of products in spray cans, so I made effort to fill them in spraycans on my own. Therefore at first I gained some experience with liquid compressed gases as propellants by building a small destillation apparatus for liquid butane/propane. The apparatus consists of two tin plate spray cans, connected by a copper capillary tube. Each can is equipped with schrader valve which I soldered into the wall at the top of the can. The upper can is filled with hair spray by the schrader valve and heated by a hot (60°C) water bath. The lower can is cooled with iced water. By this temperature gradient, the propane/butane mixture in the hairspray filled can begins to boild and slowly condenses in the cooled can. After 1-2 hours I collected 200mL propane/(iso-)butane propellant mixture from 400 mL hairspray. This amount of liquid gas mixture is much cheaper than the same amount of commercially available (odorless) butane lighter fuel - and has a significant lower boiling point, resulting in more available pressure (~2 bar). The collected liquid gas can conveniently be extracted by the normal valve of the lower spray can into a storage vessel. As storage vessel I use a spray can, additionally equipped with a schrader valve. The residue of the hairspray, an ethanolic solution of ... what ever... is removed the same way from the upper can. 

To make your own XY-spray, you need another empty spray can with an additionally schrader valve and hold it upside down. Fill the can by the shrader valve with the desired liquid/solution (preferrably ethanol or petroleum based) and vent it by the normal exit valve of the can from time to time. I recommend a syringe for charging the content into the can. For a 400 mL spray can you should not exceed a product charge of 200-250 mL, because you have to add a propellant volume of at least 100-200 mL. This can be done by adding a weighened amount of the liquid gas (density ~0,5 g/mL). In practice you have to weigh your propellant storage vessel or the filled spray can repeatedly. Also you must not fill the can up to the brim, but let some room for thermal expansion. Otherwise elevanted temperatures maybe led the can to burst ;)

DIY Pressure destillation apparatus

Cleaning of the apparatus by extracting the hot hairspray residue (basically denaturated, water free ethanol with some hair-styling chemicals) via the outlet valve of the can

Extraction of the collected propane/(iso)-butane from the lower can into a storage vessel

Delonghi Nespresso U: Water tank DIY repair

I acquired a used Nespresso capsule coffee machine, for I was impressed by the good taste of the espresso and the small size of this machines. From the beginning I planned to refill the capsules occasionally with other sorts of coffee like my favourite trung nguyen vietnam coffee. Sadly the water tank of the delonghi "U" machine had some cracks at the bottom. The cracks seem to be a result of a bad choosen material combination of metall and polycarbonate. Whatever, the cracks made the water extraction valve at the bottom of the tank leaking and therefore useless to hold the water for a longer time; I had to fill it with only the amount of water needed to produce one cup of coffee....
Yesterday I found a piece of plastic that fits exactly the water intake port, a 10 mL syringe. Because I also had an empty water bottle, the idea was born to improvise a water tank until I'll came up with a proper replacement. After all, I was so appealed of  that improvised water tank, that I don't feel the need to replace it by an original one. So here is my idea.

A 10mL syringe with 16 mm external diameter was used. I removed the bottom and made two holes in the middle of barrel. The plunger acts like a valve, as when you pull the plunger to a point above the holes, liquid can flow trough the holes into the barrel. However if you push the plunger down, it will close the holes. I glued the modified syringe into the bottom of an nice looking water flask made from plastic and cut the neck of the bottle so that it fits the original lid of the water tank.

The new nespresso water tank for my delonghi U

The glued syringe with water inlet holes 

The bottom of the water tank 

Ready to use

The filled tank with pushed down plunger: No water leaking!

The installed tank with pulled up plunger: Water is allowed to be sucked from the machine when needed

I think its now looking even better than with the original water tank. Some refillable capsules in the foreground