Latticino

NO! Hopefully you would research it enough to get to this CDC site which would tell you that even though it etches metal just fine, it is horrifically dangerous to use: https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/hydrofluoricacid/basics/facts.asp#:~:text=What hydrogen fluoride is,may be called hydrofluoric acid. Please learn to do research from respectable sources.

You appear to be misreading my note. You will likely NOT GET ANY SIGNIFICANT TOPOGRAPHY etching cable, so polishing afterwards is NOT RECOMMENDED. Hopefully this is clear enough for you to understand. Pretty sure Moses didn't try to etch cable damascus... If you mean he got "close enough" to the promised land, I doubt he would have agreed. Recommended class or reading good reference is to avoid getting hurt yourself, hurting others or the environment. Acids are not something to play around with. What would you have done if you saw someone posting that hydrofluoric acid was a good option for etching your blade?

Couple of suggestions: Get yourself a pair of vinyl gloves and use them during the etch process. Muriatic acid is not good for your skin. Also avoid breathing the vapors. Cable Damascus is a very subtle pattern. As I understand it, you don't really have two different types of steel, so you aren't really etching for topography that you can later emphasize by polishing the high points with a hard backed 2,000 grit sandpaper. I believe that the white lines between the darker areas are just showing the decarbonization at the welded interface between cable wires. I recommend that you complete your etch, neutralize, and clean off oxides with soap and a soft cloth. During the etch, if you must remove oxides, also use a soft brush. Some folks recommend going with a slow, light etching solution (white vinegar or ferric diluted at least 1:4 with distilled water) and letting it etch for a long time. I haven't been very successful getting a cable damascus etch to really stand out (which is why I switched to pattern welded 1084 and 15N20 even though I love the traditional cable look), so can't give good advice on that, but you might want to try a final soak in highly concentrated instant coffee. In pattern welded steel it can really punch up those blacks. George's advice for test coupons is really on point. Strongly recommend you follow this.

If you know what you are doing you can make a smaller "viking style" hand axe out of the 1.5" round 4140 stock. It is certainly possible to hot punch the eye solo with a good drift (see videos by Brent Bailey or our own JLP). It is a lot easier with a helper swinging that big hammer. It's a great team project with a striker, but it helps if you make the tooling first. You need at minimum a hammer eye punch or slitter and an axe eye mandrel/drift. You may find it helpful to have a flatter and a radiused top tool to match the curve of the belly you likely think you need (note there are a great number of different types of "viking" hand axe. Some had rather simple lines, some superlative silver inlay. You can go in either direction, but I don't recommend going for a bearded axe on your first try unless you are a fairly experienced blacksmith).

Frosty, Yeah, on my phone to answer and conflated locker room showers and residential restrooms.... It is exhaust duct either way. We typically don't call it "ventilation" exhaust.

In my opinion flexible aluminum duct is not appropriate for either kitchen hood exhaust or forge flues. It is just barely acceptable for laundry dryer or bathroom shower exhaust.

More importantly it might be worth investigating what you want to use the forge for to see if there are more economical alternatives, or if the whole undertaking is impractical. For example if you are only going to bend or twist 3/8" rod, you can likely do it cold with the right leverage. If you plan to make knives, the fuel cost is only a small fraction of what can be required for abrasives to finish the work. Certainly not discouraging you from getting into smithing, but if sourcing a 55 gallon drum is going to break the bank, forging may not be a reasonable path. I see preowned, reconditioned drums around here for around $20 -$30.

So something like this? curtis jere crane lamp

Back in the 70's her album "Recollections" was one of my favorites. I think I still know most of the lyrics by heart.

Also loved her in the Silly Sister's group. Look them up if you don't know them. Actually also saw Judy a year ago. She certainly still has the charisma, but that polished voice from the 70's isn't quite there.

I'm a big fan of Steeleye Span as well. Of course, the traditional song/jig "The Blacksmith" that they do has been recorded by a great many artists (it's a fairly popular Irish music staple), but I heard it from them first. There are a couple of other blacksmith themed instrumental Irish tunes as well including: "The Merry Blacksmith" and "The Blacksmith/Blacksmith's/Blacksmith's Daughter", both reels. I also don't usually care for lyric screaming, but each to their own.

As far as value goes, things are pretty variable. Would cost you around $400 to replace it with a new one, but there aren't all that many being manufactured today. I've seen post vises in that condition sell for anything from $45 (yes I bought that one myself...) to $175. They do sometimes get posted for outrageous numbers, but rarely sell at them. Needless to say, if you want a reasonably quick sale you will want to be closer to the $75-$125 range. The New England Blacksmith group in your area is quite active. Perhaps someone from that group can help you out.

Many folks use spiral duct for their forge flues. You are correct that typically this duct has a galvanized coating and, if overheated, can be a problem. In my experience an old school overhead hood entrains enough shop air to cool down the flue gasses to a point where it is not a problem, but the super sucker style is so effective that the flue can get overheated, particularly if you are building a larger forge fire. You can probably go with spiral duct if you have some kind of black steel or stainless connector between the super sucker hood and the following duct. I would use a piece that is at least 3' long for this purpose. Please note that most of the snap together duct with the snap together longitudinal seams that others have been advocating are also typically made using galvanized sheet metal as well. IMHO spiral duct is a significantly better option than snap seam duct, but usually a lot more expensive and only available from a sheet metal duct manufacturer (snap seam duct is available here in hardware stores).

Also get the hood opening closer to your fireball if possible and be sure to start the stack drawing fumes by burning something inside the "barrel".

To allow the turndown ratio you will want for heat treatment (it is really nice to have the capability to turn down to around 1250 deg. F for a subcritical stress relief pass) I would recommend considering making one of your burners rather small and the other large. The small burner gets tuned for the lowest temperature you want to run the forge at, and the larger one cycles with setpoint. This way the smaller one acts as a safety pilot (if aimed correctly) and you only need one set of controls. I like a thicker castable refractory layer than 1/4", but only if you are using the correct material. A lightweight, castable, high alumina refractory like Kastolite 30 works extremely well, but I like to see it at least 1/2" thick (if not 3/4") for real structural stability. Of course you do have a bit more time to heat up, but there is a thermal mass benefit as well.