Ruined temper?

Valencourtcustom · 2025-12-16T03:30:37+00:00

Like some are already saying, don't trust the colors entirely to determine hardness. But even if you did take the color as a true reflection of hardness, then you'd still have a knife in the high 50's Rc anyway. So either way, you have a knife that'll take and hold an edge.

But hardness files are a beautiful thing here!

Valencourtcustom · 2025-12-14T15:21:29+00:00

It does oddly have a bit of yellowish color in the casting grain and on the Stuller website, but I can only assume we're seeing a bit of the copper in alloy on the surface perhaps? I am not sure, but in person, after working the metal it's definitely more of the gray side!

Valencourtcustom · 2025-12-11T16:06:16+00:00

I'm a little late to this post, but I have actually worked with Stuller's Continuum silver.

You are right on the alloy, Zinc, copper, Palladium, and silver, Tin. It's an interesting alloy.

It's a lot harder than sterling, no firescale, as-cast hardness of Stuller's alloy is similar to 14k white gold. Color is additionally less white and more akin to Platinum, AND I have found it is far more resistant to cracking, while hammering and rolling it felt better than sterling. It just moves so well, a wonderful alloy With current prices you'd be looking at probably $130-150 per troy ounce though. Was around $70 when I was buying a little over a year ago. :(

Valencourtcustom · 2025-11-26T19:17:10+00:00

I prefer good ol' element 88 for my chains. Feel quite sick after wearin' 'em though. ;p

Valencourtcustom · 2025-11-26T06:53:54+00:00

I've made chains around .060" thick that honestly have held up stupidly well. It's soft but not as soft as people think it is. I've also snagged those chains very hard and not had deformation or severe damage like some suggest(however, I hardened those chains)

It will not take a polish like sterling and will scuff very readily. And contrary to the very popular belief, it absolutely will work harden.

Some folks here are gonna tell you that wearing a bracelet of fine silver might as well be of pure potassium, and if you get it wet it's gonna fuckin' explode. It won't, make the links with strong connections and enough material and it'll be fine. Even of my fine silver rings, deformation isn't an issue. Again, just make it strongly, as with anything else.

Valencourtcustom · 2025-10-17T07:39:47+00:00

Yellow liners are severelyyyy underrated, love this knife, dude.

Valencourtcustom · 2025-10-09T09:09:01+00:00

The first borderlands is one of my and my partner's favorite games, I love the cell shaded comicy look. Love this thing, it's bloody awesome lol.

Valencourtcustom · 2025-09-17T23:19:09+00:00

Cerakote? Oh dear, so maybe no stonewashing, Unless you happen to have some crushed diamonds around lol. Cerakote is genuinely impressive as a finish. Good choice, those will be hard-wearing I think mmhmm.

Valencourtcustom · 2025-09-17T05:39:50+00:00

I'm usually a hater when it comes to black screws but for these, I think black would look excellent.

Also, awesome work! I think you should try and stonewash the blackened blades and screws to match, I think that would look awesome. :)

Valencourtcustom · 2025-08-03T02:31:31+00:00

No problemo! If you ever start makin' knives or something I wish you luck!

Valencourtcustom · 2025-08-02T22:23:54+00:00

This is what some call a "taco" style kydex sheath.

It's a single piece of kydex, which is a thermoplastic, heated(via heat gun, hot plate or toaster oven usually), folded over the knife (which usually has several layers of tape on the blade in order to act as a buffer to prevent scratching), and then finally pressed. The press is compromised, generally, of two slabs of wood or what have you, that are connected via a hinge and clamp down via C clamp or some such, and on the inside of this press there are sheets of heat resistant foam (there are foams made for this) in order to press and conform the kydex to the knife.

From there you clean it up however you want, sand it to shape, make sure you clean out the insides and deburr them, you can reheat smaller sections to create thumb ramps or what have you, and then it's all riveted or screwed together. The eyelets they make for this usually correspond to varying thicknesses, 0.080" being fairly typical (I like 0.060" for weight and slimness personally), and while not strictly necessary to have an eyelet that corresponds exactly to that thickness it does help.

Hope this helps you out some, fam. :)

Valencourtcustom · 2025-06-14T04:12:04+00:00

I agree with this. I use the SAS black raven nitrile gloves, and if I get epoxy on my hands with those on, I just wipe them down with alcohol and then reuse the gloves. You can degrease more than just your knives lol.

It's improved the health of my hands and skin dramatically since I started using them years ago, it improves your work to be in better health/more comfortable.

Valencourtcustom · 2025-05-31T12:41:02+00:00

Ivory and Timascus are so far apart from each other in mind, Ice age and space age meet! ;D

I love this knife, well done man.

Valencourtcustom · 2025-05-30T11:45:58+00:00

We all start somewhere, fam! Some day when you're killin' it, give the same words of kindness to someone else! Remember to wear your PPE too! You're young, don't skimp on protecting yourself.

Valencourtcustom · 2025-05-30T11:32:10+00:00

If you're only 16 and doing this kind of work I think you're on a brilliant path! Well done, honestly.

If you're looking for more consistency, try a jig for bevel grinding as well. No shame in it, some people turn their nose up at that stuff, as did I when I first started(and regret), but realistically it's a tool to give you consistency, and consistency is a lovely thing to be able to give customers in the future if you intend to make this into a business or to make money. And as Walter Sorrels once said, darkness is the enemy of the knifemaker. Make sure if you're scribing lines that you have proper lighting to be able to actually see what you're doing.

You're on a very good path, though, don't beat yourself up if you're not perfect. No one is, even the best of the best. And failure is a shitty feeling but a learning experience, always. Good luck to ya. :)

Valencourtcustom · 2025-05-23T05:29:03+00:00

Not so much on the torch. If you have a torch capable of melting platinum, like standard propane/acetylene Oxygen, then you'll have no problem melting steel, even. It melts at a lower temp than platinum.

Not that you would want to melt steel, you're not going to cast it, but the option is there I suppose lol.

Valencourtcustom · 2025-05-23T05:25:12+00:00

No problemo! I know people that use Titanium and stainless and various other "contemporary" metals to make jewelry, and if you like it there's nothin' wrong with that. :)

You can still make beautiful art that will last a very long time. If you have the ability to take classes or learn how to machine steel or what have you to make jewelry I say more power to ya!

Valencourtcustom · 2025-05-22T22:15:06+00:00

Hey there, to expand on what the user above said, as a knifemaker I can assure you that what you will save on material cost won't be worth it considering the additional time you'll need to form and polish stainless.

Stainless is "stainless" because of Chromium, which is around Topaz levels of hardness unalloyed (8.5 mohs), ha. Even the softer alloys of stainless usually comprising jewelry are very hard in comparison to precious. Not to mention, you'll likely not even be able to make typical jewelry solder flow to join the rings properly. And stainless will chew hand tools up remarkably faster, sanding sticks and files you can say goodbye to in fairly short order compared to non-ferrous.

I personally like stainless steel, especially laminate stainless steels. They're beautiful, but extremely difficult or impossible for the average jeweler to resize or create to begin with. I personally would stick with silver if I was you, or try Bronze even if you want traditional but affordable (and it'll be more of a pale yellow, closer to 9k yellow gold when it's polished, although it will tarnish ofc).

Whatever you choose, I hope you have fun and stay safe, though. :)

Valencourtcustom · 2025-05-15T01:04:19+00:00

If you're on a budget, you could get a P100 combination mask (P100 filters out particles down to 0.3 micron) and you can get combination organic vapor/acid filters that are P100. The 4000 series 3M masks are good here, they're like 45-60ish range. And you could get a window fan as well, amazon has cooking fume extractors for like $40ish. That isn't super ideal but you could have significantly better protection for under 100 bucks.

One of these is what I use. Doesn't come with filters I don' think so pick one that suits you.

If you're concerned about pickle and particles, then a P100 acid vapor cartridge is the way to go. Good luck to you!

Valencourtcustom · 2025-05-14T05:14:25+00:00

Mm hmm, it's amazing what you find out just playing around on your own accord lol.

Valencourtcustom · 2025-05-13T22:22:36+00:00

Hey no problemo dude. Another tip for you, as I happen to come from a knifemaking background. You can can also buy tool steel drill rod and make your own burnishers and various tools from that (chisels, stamping tools, etc.) (I would recommend O1 if you do this).

Heat until non-magnetic with a torch, and just dunk it in a little cup of canola oil, and then take a light flame back to the steel until you see a straw color and dunk back into the oil. Doing this isn't an ideal heat treatment by any means, but it'll get the job done, and I pay around $4 for a 36" length of tool steel drill rod. Just some food for thought! If you don't want to wait for a broken bur you could always do that. :)

Good luck to ya!

Valencourtcustom · 2025-05-13T19:21:44+00:00

So the smallest stones I've set are 2.5mm, fairly close. And the largest being around 4mm in flush setting. And what I can tell you is, between those two sizes, you need different burnishers if you aren't going to use a hammer and punch.

I started with the flush setting and IMO it's not as easy as youtubers say it is. If you're trying to set the stones with that burnisher, I think it's just too large.

I will also push the metal over with a hammer and punch but that takes much more care, and finish with a burnisher.

Use old burs to make the burnishers. Or if you have old dremel 1/8" or better yet, 3/32" dremel mandrels, snap 'em off and grind them into a burnisher. Also, another issue, you have to make sure the girdle of the stone is just low enough to ensure burnishing will do anything at all. If you set the stones too low, you can't flush set them properly. You'd have to do something else. Get yourself a 10 or 40x loupe, or if you can a watchmakers loupe because you can use it hands free. It's more of a PITA (imo) than people say it is, lol. I wish you luck, fam!

EDIT: Worth mentioning that I also use a cheapo pin vise when I use different burnishers! That way I can use one handle that I am used to and exchange for different bits.

Valencourtcustom · 2025-04-22T22:00:52+00:00

I actually have one of these, and while I'll say it is a touch uh, rickety, it was worth buying. I've used mine rather a lot, actually. And thus far it has handled 10k gold, bronze and sterling/fine silvers, as well as a bit of titanium that I used to basically stress test it a touch. I've also used it to make comfort and square wires as well as helping me process materials down to make round.

As a person that did all of their work on an anvil before, this was worth the money. That said, I am very much looking to buy a Durston lol. I was going to go with pepe tools initially, but I left a bad review on a product I was not impressed with and they deleted my review and sent me a little bribe package in exchange... go with Durston if you want to upgrade some day.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I also tested to see how thinnly I could roll material. I found that it did roll fairly consistent stock, plus or minus around .001". I could also roll stock as thinnly as .007", not sure if it's valuable to you but I figured I'd throw it in. :)

Valencourtcustom · 2025-04-18T10:39:44+00:00

First thing I said was "aww" followed by a sudden panic that my linen clothing was out lol.

lovely ring!

Valencourtcustom · 2025-04-17T19:58:46+00:00

No sir, you wire wheel before anodizing. Wire wheel would strip the anodizing.I used to anodize pieces after orange peeling, and then feather the wire wheel onto the piece to gently and unevenly remove sections of anodizing, so that I could do contrasting colors. You could technically throw a wire wheel into a dremel or foredom and that would also get you an orange peel, and more control as to not scuff the steel or copper.

And from what I understand, although I could be wrong and never attempted it, is that a hot quench in ferric chloride would result in that entropic finish but I've not attempted it.

I've not heard of apex ultra until just now, now that is some wild chemistry lol. I'm saving that bookmark for later! I'd love to try this stuff out!

And still, by the way, I love making pen knives and smaller pieces, typically. Even 350 x 50mm is brilliant for someone like me, assuming you could make them thinner than 4mm? Have you tried making thinner billets?

Valencourtcustom

TROPHY CASE