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I Forge Iron

petere76

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    Male
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    Mountains of Western Maine
  • Interests
    US Marine Engineer

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    western maine
  • Occupation
    marine engineer

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  1. Fellow Smiths, The a Scotish Lion, Bristol Maine, was destroyed by fire. Proprietor, Mr. Andrew Leck, was unharmed. However, the shop and its contents were reported to have been lost in the fire. If you know Andrew please send him your best. Peter
  2. Local connections work good for business names. It could utilize the town or region, body of water, mountain range etc. if it's got a tourist draw, the name sells itself. Good luck. Peter
  3. I picked up a 4.5 lb rounding hammer and I've been teaching myself the Brian Brazel method. It does move some metal and you get a lot of distance out of each heat. I was inspired with the one heat tong blank demo. The efficiency is amazing. I have a smaller ferriers rounding hammer I us to do transitions. The heavy hammers take some getting used to, you have to work with a plan. It's a say to get further along than you want to. Lighter hammers are somewhat more forgiving. The men I learned from were all New Englanders and they work with the steady rapid rhythm similar to Peter Ross or Derick Glasier. Both techniques produce beautiful work they just arrive there differently. Like most of our brethren I have a collection of hammers around the anvil base. I usually tell folks, hammers and anvils, you can never have enough. Happy forging. Peter
  4. petere76

    Frustrated

    Hang tough, you can get this. Watch Mark Aspery do his version of box tongs. Both he and Brian use similar basics, isolate and rough in a mass, form the mass into the specific part, pay attention to the boss thickness and dimension. The repative motion will give you muscle memory and your eye will get used to seeing the right form. I have a pile of scrap rebar in the shop. I don't use it for anything I care about....because it's a non specific (junk) steel. Get some decent mild steel stock .75 round or 1 in square and start making tong bits. You will wind up with a pile of them, but you will know how to do it. I used this same technique to teach myself forge welding. I made 1/2 welded chain till I got it right. Everything in time my friend. Good luck.
  5. Rough shape, sand to finish, soak head in antifreeze, linseed oil and turpentine. If you don't use your tools for a while just wipe down the handles with the turn linseed oil mix. Easy maintenance.
  6. Suggest you pay attention to properly forming the bolster. You can isolate on the anvils edge. Then you have to refine it. Use a cross pein and set the edge on the anvil so you define the shape of the bolster. You are looking for a good 1 in x 1in area at 1/2 your parent stock thickness. Also the offset for the reign should be set so that the reign side is above the center of the bolster. Terriers, make great tongs and they use the buck to forge in a curved offset, it's very strong and looks classy. For the basics, reference Mark Aspery on box tong forging. He shows good dimensions and the process to get there. Brian Brazil does a great one Heat tong demonstration. He makes it look too easy. Good luck and happy forging, don't worry you will get better, the more you make.
  7. Old school chains were end welded because it makes the chain stronger under load. When loaded, the ends tend to elongate and that gives the chain some give under load. Modern chain is welded on the straight side. The weld is under full tensile loading, no room to give a little. I'm. Always amazed at the size chains they used to forge weld. The welds on those chains are almost impossible to see. Back in the day, they did some impressive work. I can weld up 1/2 in chain but you can see the line we're the weld is.
  8. Great score. Congratulations. It has the Mose hole forge look, the layered construction and the handling holes. The feet are clearly of manufacturing style typical to that time. Has the NJ anvil guy chimed in. He has a good handle on all things anvil. Enjoy.
  9. You got a good deal. The far left is a masons hammer. Some are cast and they have a round handle hole. Second from left is a pin driver (set tool). 3rd from left is possibly a tin bangers stake. 4th from left, creaser for sheet metal work (set tool).
  10. In regard antiques, appearance isn't always the reality. I would be guided by the adage, buyer beware. The fireplace tools may not be Mr. Yellins work but they certainly are good looking. Peter
  11. Suggest using heat treated grade 8 anchor bolts. As an alternative solution, if you have access to steel plate, try mounting on a 1inch a foot over your hammer base dimensions. Use .75 in studs and weld the studs to the plate using a 6011 root pass, back grind and finish with 7018. I set up a Clay Spencer 50 lb hammer on a steel plate and it works fine. The advantage is that it doesn't fracture the floor. You may experience some cracking of the floor because the base isn't isolated from the rest of the floor (pour). Unless your floor is exceptionally thick, the constant shock will eventually crack the floor where the studs (penetrate). Big hammers have independent foundations for this reason. Another item to look at is noise. You can defeat the noise by cutting horse stall pads, rubber matting (tractor supply) to fit under the steel plate. Works great. Good luck with your install. Peter
  12. Frosty, Sorry to get this news. You and Deb are in our thoughts and prayers. Peter
  13. Mild steel works fine because you are working hot iron. Closed spring dies, like harder steel or at least some case hardening. I noticed the closed dies for forming ball ends seem to wear out the fastest. I'm using these tools on a 50 lb tire hammer. Peter
  14. Nice work, outstanding piece. How does your lower side die integrate, is it a bolt on? I thought of a quick change arrangement but I need to see it set up. I have a Clay Spencer and I use it a lot. The tooling is mostly clamp on and lift height between the dies becomes the governing factor. Peter
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