In The Beginning

[MikeConner]

Found this old leaf spring in an antique shop in Arkansas. My best guess it that it was a spring for the seat on a horse drawn wagon or buggy. I thought it would be cool to make a few really rustic knives from it.
It's going to take a lot of work but I look forward to it.
I'll post some pictures as I go.

[poisonivie]

Com'n, man. Get busy.

[MikeConner]

Outer band flattened and annealed.

[MySRT8U]

following

[twosixteens]

I see so many possibilities there. In for progress.

[CoolArrow]

I bet it's gonna be awesome! I'm in.

[MikeConner]

I'm going to have to do another annealing process on these. 1450° anneals 1095 just fine but these are still a little to hard to drill through. I'll run them a 1525° and that should do the trick.

[MikeConner]

Inner leaf cut and most of the rust knocked off, ready to heat up and flatten. Surprisingly this leaf isn't as hard as the outer leaf. I'm guessing the outer leaf acted as an overload spring while the inner leaf supplied more spring for a softer ride. I have no idea how they went about controlling the hardness with the equipment available over a 100 years ago.
The outer leaf sections are currently going through their second annealing process. That takes a while.

[BlackHogDown]

In ...

[ReydonPete]

Looks like a good start
Following for the finish

[BURTONboy]

In

[Graysonhogs]

in

[TexasCanesFan]

Very cool project right here Mike!!!

[MikeConner]

Outer leaf sections soaking in rust remover.


Inner leaf hot enough to flatten.



Inner leaf at annealing temp.


Inner leaf annealed and ready to clean up.

[Tx_Wader]

Following...from Mike it's gonna be good