excellent!
A hard calk life for me
- Thread starter northmanlogging
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I changed them out last night...just for something to do. I have some rocky ground to walk on today. We'll see how they hold up.
OlympicYJ
ArboristSite Guru
Speaking of leather laces and boots, I just got my new pair of Nicks. Hatte saw a pic of em on my FB haha Gotta break em in. Think I'll just soak em in water and wear em all day one of these day. Probably next week.
Hey bob hoy are they holding up? Jest finished breaking in my wescos and them dam calks wear fast the boots are comfy as hell tho
Don't know about Bob's, but I've been in and out of the dump truck for the last 3 weeks or so, and its hard enough to drive without getting yer feet stuck in the rust holes... not to mention the clutch pedal is missing the rubber bit, so the calks would just slip right off at a critical moment.
I'll start killing trees again in a few weeks, and the experiment will continue.
I'll start killing trees again in a few weeks, and the experiment will continue.
Hey Kevin...I'd report but there isn't much to report. I should have written something before but things have been a little hectic down here. I was going to take some pictures but they wouldn't show much. The spikes are holding up great!
If I had to guess I'd say maybe twenty hours of boots on the the ground...lots of rocks, gravel and some asphalt. The only wear I have so far is that goofy little extra sharp tip is gone but the main body of the spike shows very little wear. There's not nearly the wear that the regular Wesco spikes would be showing by now.
If NM can figure out a cost efficient way to heat-treat the spikes and get some volume going I think he's on to something good.
StihlKiwi
ArboristSite Guru
Going along with the laces theme, who uses starter cord?
Good stuff IMO
Good stuff IMO
Jim Timber
1/4 bubble off
Heat treating is usually dirt cheap and based on weight.
StihlKiwi
ArboristSite Guru
Hows that loggin road going Jim?
Yep, its the making of the calks that is the real hold up, not cost effective or legal to buy a bunch of champ calks and then have them treated, So I have to make form scratch.
Also bulk heat treating of something like calks would require the heating of the threads as well, possibly leading to the threads getting fouled up. Which if I where to build from scratch I could account for in the thread size.
Secondly the geniuses at the big calk manufacturing plants are using tool steel, which in not really all that good at resisting abrasion, it gets hard yes, but abrasion resistance is key here. Tool steel is meant more to resist impacts and be easy to cut and grind, whats needed is something easy to cut, abrasion resistant, and takes a good heat treat. I already have an idea as to what I'll use, just have to do some more research and see what sizes and shapes it comes in.
As for now I'm still trying to see if there is enough benefit to heat treating to make it worth the effort of working up a batch of NM Hard Calks.
Eccentric
Mister Wizard
It would be legal if you entered into an agreement with champ or their distributors. Cost effective may still be the issue however.................although you may be able to get 'em at wholesale. Just a thought...
4x4American
Got Sawdust?
Who knows you could make a big name with them, while you're at it you should make some NM Hard Hats.
Yuuupp got on my NM hard calks and hard hat
Jim Timber
1/4 bubble off
Logging road is going fine, still considering non-swamp access and I've been busy with my primary business making things out of metal and having them heat treated. 
Tool steel is a general term for a rather large group of alloys. You'd need to know the alloy for that comment and all your assertions to mean anything. Not being abrasion resistant? Well, that's relative since it's typically meant for cutting alloy steel. Threads dimensions post heat treat will depend on the alloy and the process used to harden them. Everything I sell is threaded prior to being hardened, and they don't distort. Alloy and process used is key.
There's nothing illegal about buying someone else's product and modifying it, then marketing it yourself as a modified gizmo. Lingenfelter, Shelby, and all the modified saw guys have been doing it for decades.
Tool steel is a general term for a rather large group of alloys. You'd need to know the alloy for that comment and all your assertions to mean anything. Not being abrasion resistant? Well, that's relative since it's typically meant for cutting alloy steel. Threads dimensions post heat treat will depend on the alloy and the process used to harden them. Everything I sell is threaded prior to being hardened, and they don't distort. Alloy and process used is key.
There's nothing illegal about buying someone else's product and modifying it, then marketing it yourself as a modified gizmo. Lingenfelter, Shelby, and all the modified saw guys have been doing it for decades.
Hey jim you do realize my day job is a machinist right. This is what I do, logging is part time, becoming full time (soon maybe). In fact, several years ago and if I was union I would be considered a tool and die maker (those don't exist anymore, so now I'm just the guy that can fix and set up every machine ever)
By tool steel I mean any of the air/oil/water hardening type tool steels, 1-2-3, also known as A1 or O2 or W1 et. al.
And tool steels are meant for general tooling I.E. fixtures, jigs, vices, dies (not the type that cuts threads), punches, wrenches that sort of thing, morons use it for cutting tools, which should be made of HSS. To say nothing of carbide, diamond or ceramic cutters.
Also tool steels are designed not to warp much during the heat treat process, other steels not "tool steels" will warp much more then tool steels, and some tool steels will warp more then others. This says nothing of stainless types or any of the high nickle alloys or any of the Chrome moly, or high carbon steels. Also note, this is largely why there several classes of ansi and ISO threads, some for a looser fit so they will have a better chance of surviving the heat treat process.
Besides I thought you where a welder, now your a heat treater? Generally the two don't mix in my experience, welders mostly glue two pieces together, heat treating involves paying attention to things like actual temperature and heat times, quenching temperatures, quenching mediums, reading the work order farther then "weld" and then reading the notes on the print. Lets not forget about which hardness scale to use Rockwell a,b or c, and a few others I can't seem to remember right now.
This is all just of the top of my head.
As far as legal I imagine burning the zinc off 50 pounds of steel on a regular basis is just fine where your from.
And 4x4, making hats would involve a whole passel of jack wagons from osha and LI up my rectum, with small magnifying glasses... Boots as yet don't need much osha approval, unless you want a steel toe, then that has to be inspected and passed... Although it would be spectacular if McDonald Mine Safety where to put Skull Bucket out of business...
By tool steel I mean any of the air/oil/water hardening type tool steels, 1-2-3, also known as A1 or O2 or W1 et. al.
And tool steels are meant for general tooling I.E. fixtures, jigs, vices, dies (not the type that cuts threads), punches, wrenches that sort of thing, morons use it for cutting tools, which should be made of HSS. To say nothing of carbide, diamond or ceramic cutters.
Also tool steels are designed not to warp much during the heat treat process, other steels not "tool steels" will warp much more then tool steels, and some tool steels will warp more then others. This says nothing of stainless types or any of the high nickle alloys or any of the Chrome moly, or high carbon steels. Also note, this is largely why there several classes of ansi and ISO threads, some for a looser fit so they will have a better chance of surviving the heat treat process.
Besides I thought you where a welder, now your a heat treater? Generally the two don't mix in my experience, welders mostly glue two pieces together, heat treating involves paying attention to things like actual temperature and heat times, quenching temperatures, quenching mediums, reading the work order farther then "weld" and then reading the notes on the print. Lets not forget about which hardness scale to use Rockwell a,b or c, and a few others I can't seem to remember right now.
This is all just of the top of my head.
As far as legal I imagine burning the zinc off 50 pounds of steel on a regular basis is just fine where your from.
And 4x4, making hats would involve a whole passel of jack wagons from osha and LI up my rectum, with small magnifying glasses... Boots as yet don't need much osha approval, unless you want a steel toe, then that has to be inspected and passed... Although it would be spectacular if McDonald Mine Safety where to put Skull Bucket out of business...
Jim Timber
1/4 bubble off
I weld, I'm not a weldor. I'm a machinist. I contract out heat treating, rather than doing it by eye over a bucket with a torch. I'll skip returning insults, because you sound like you've huffed too much hexavalent chromium already. Good luck with your ventures.
A little bit of info to bring you up to speed on O2:
http://www.westyorkssteel.com/tool-steel/o2/
Applications
"Typical applications for O2 tool steel include medium run dies, press tools, drawing punches, broaches, bushings, lathe centres, chuck jaws, master cavity sinking hobs, plug gauges, thread gauges, thread cutting tools and precision measuring tools. It is also a popular tool steel for cams, cloth cutting knives, cold taps, reamers, collets, cutting hobs, strip slitting cutters, trimmer dies, tube expander rolls, plastic moulds and woodworking knives."
LOTS of cutting uses in there.
A little bit of info to bring you up to speed on O2:
http://www.westyorkssteel.com/tool-steel/o2/
Applications
"Typical applications for O2 tool steel include medium run dies, press tools, drawing punches, broaches, bushings, lathe centres, chuck jaws, master cavity sinking hobs, plug gauges, thread gauges, thread cutting tools and precision measuring tools. It is also a popular tool steel for cams, cloth cutting knives, cold taps, reamers, collets, cutting hobs, strip slitting cutters, trimmer dies, tube expander rolls, plastic moulds and woodworking knives."
LOTS of cutting uses in there.
I weld, I'm not a weldor. I'm a machinist. I contract out heat treating, rather than doing it by eye over a bucket with a torch. I'll skip returning insults, because you sound like you've huffed too much hexavalent chromium already. Good luck with your ventures.
A little bit of info to bring you up to speed on O2:
http://www.westyorkssteel.com/tool-steel/o2/
Applications
"Typical applications for O2 tool steel include medium run dies not in fact a cutting tool, press tools, drawing punches, broaches, bushings, lathe centres, chuck jaws, master cavity sinking hobs, plug gauges, thread gauges, thread cutting tools cheap thread tools HSS wins again and precision measuring tools. It is also a popular tool steel for cams, cloth cutting knives technically a shear, cold taps still not a cutting tool and cheap taps at that hss again, reamers more cheap tools hss for the defeat, collets, cutting hobs also not a cutting tool but in fact a tool holder, strip slitting cutters one cutter although I think that's a shear as well , trimmer dies another shear, tube expander rolls, plastic moulds and woodworking knives cheap woodworking knives in fact if they mean like planer knives then HSS is the correct answer."
LOTS of cutting uses in there.
Wanna try again?
right so the trials must go on! Finally got back to logging... So I got to abuse my calks again. First pick is the hardened side. Getting hard to not see a difference now. If time allows I need to work up a few for the rest of the boots, leaving the heels alone, I'm convinced its worth the effort to do at home at least.
Starter cord is fine and all and would surely make excellent laces, however para cord is just slightly cheaper, I do keep an extra cord to tie my gas and bar oil together, and I generally have at least one factory boot lace in the crummy, if not I almost always have a hank of para cord which in a pinch works for both.
I just got a hand-cranked forge. Could you recommend a procedure for hardening that I (a total noob steel-wise) could follow?
If NM is coming to Farley's bring your forge with you and he can give us all a lesson. Those calks that he treated for me are wearing very well.
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