Is there a particular reason for using it? Is it a traditional thing to do in Finland? I just made a very average sheath for a camp knife, but I just used artificial sinew.
Oh, and another question; whe you were working with leaf spring, what did you quench in? Im wondering if Canola will work for my 5160, or if I need to buy some Parks 50.
Ive always used warm cooking oil with rapid up and down movement, if you go side to side with the movement you might get a warp.
Ive considered getting actual quenching oil but getting it here in finland in "not stupidly large amounts" is expensive and alot of the places that offer it are dropshippers.
5160 is sub 0.6% carbon but its alloyed so warm canola oil will work.
While using warm oil to quench something hot might seem counterintuitive its not.
Warm oil is less viscous, so the gas bubbles leave the metals surface faster even during rapid movement(leidenfrost effect, bubble acts as an insulator).
Using cooking oils is perfectly fine untill you start using high alloy steels, and at that point least of your problems is the right oil as you need pretty accurate temperatures and soaking times.
The spring steel i use might be JIS SUP 9 aka 5155, i have a huge supply of it that came from dismantled 80´s Landcruisers.
I use birch bark pitch because there is no real substitute that isnt messy and doesnt smell like chemicals or shitty rubber.
And yeah people here have used it for a century or two.
Wax thread is common too but it doesnt have the vulcanization effect that birch bark has.
You can add the pitch to any organic thread.
Oh right i forgot to mention, i also rub the thread with candle wax and then wipe it off with cloth.
Making 10 meters or so of the thread usually takes me about an hour or so, i just set up the thread between the house and a tree under tension and i walk along the thread while rubbing it in, usually i make few passes along the thread.
So basically when you thread the sheathe with it, and every stitch has a simple knot, the pitch sticks together like glue, so if a stich somewhere in the line is cut the whole thing wont unravel.
Just checked few websites and Etsy, yeah its about 1000 dollars per kilogram.
Pitch that still has some "oil" in from the distilling is about 500 per kg.
I tried clay hardening yesterday, again, and ive come to the conclusion that its fucking worthless to do with modern steels.
Gotta try it on 1095 tho, and temper it below 225 c, maybe then it makes sense.
