Good progress...

I love A2...  I really, really love A2.  I want A2 to have my children...

So today I decided to work on the decorative motifs on the corner posts.  To make the motif I needed a special sized chisel to cut some of the excess material away.  I picked up the A2 to give it another try.

Last night I went on www.anvilfire.com to ask for some advice on using A2.  I put that to work today.  I started with a very slow heating of the steel.  I laid the steel next to the fire but not directly in it while I played around with forging some minor stuff not related to the clock.  I continued with the very, very slow heating until the steel to nice even orange heat.  The other important thing about A2 is not to forge too hot, that is a yellow heat.

I formed a square cut chisel (the cut is flat on one side and tapered on the other).  As soon as the steel was no longer orange, it went back into the fire.  I always heated it back up slower than what I normally would do.  So, I formed the taper and brought the steel up to critical temp and then set to the side on the coal.  A2 is air hardened which means no quenching.

While that cooled, I took one of the posts and used the wooden template that I made a little while back and traced the pattern.  I then made minor chisel marks so that after I heated it up, I could tell where to cut.  I chiseled the metal away using the new chisel.  The chisel never deformed and even after extensive cutting, there was absolutely no sign of deforming.

All I can say is wow...  After using the A2, I don't know if I could ever go back to car spring steel.  The complete lack of deforming was so surprising.  It is much harder to work than the spring steel but the benefits are very high.  I may have to hit my friend for some more...  Although I do have a big pile of it in the garage.

Back to the post...  After cutting the excess material, I let the post cool slowly.  Even mild steel will harden to some degree if quenched.  If I am going to file a piece, I let it cool slowly.  The filing took about an hour and this is what it looks like.



Notice the slight bulge around the mortise.  This is from using the drift to open the hole up to size.  This is something that distinguishes a blacksmithing piece from something a metal fab shop produces.  Up until about the 18th century, the bulge was left on the piece.  Then the artistic tastes said that the sides should be nice and flat.  Just recently, people like to see the bulge again as it is a sign of a handmade piece.

This post is really looking like the pictures I have of the original.  I am very, very happy with how things are going.