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As promised in an earlier post, here is the Uncle Henry that had a half of a blade missing. After some effort procuring a 1/16" piece of 440C stainless steel (what research had shown me these Uncle Henry blades were composed of), I finally got to it this evening. Results were a bit mixed, I must say.....First, As shown in the photos, I had a break which resulted from not properly welding the blade on. Hoping I got it right the second time! Other issue I had was that the color of the steel didn't match when I was finished, so there is a definite and noticeable demarcation between the two pieces of the blade.
Still, there was some victory in knowing that we went from a half broken stockman to a fully intact one, even if the repair is noticeable. As with some of the other mid-blade laser welds I've done, I would consider this a display piece only, as temper and blade strength are almost certainly compromised. The second weld is surely better but was it great ? I don't know.....It didn't break...yet...The knife certainly looks better than before, however.
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That's looking good Andy, As you say, never fully functional but short of replacing the entire blade that would not be possible anyway. For display - it looks good.
Not just for display, this could be a "Sunday go to Meetin" knife. Any carry situation with light use.
I actually used it today to cut open some pretty tough tape on a box. Halfway expected it to break but it didn't..so who knows? Important thing is to make sure the welds from both sides overlap in the center of the metal - the picture clearly shows that didn't happen the first time, although I "thought" I was shooting deeply enough. Increased the power the 2nd time and I believe it made a good solid weld. We shall see.
Jan Carter said:
Not just for display, this could be a "Sunday go to Meetin" knife. Any carry situation with light use.
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