Skills,good and bad.

[Frosty]

But we don't know what shape it was in before the surgeons got to work on my head. I'll have to ask Deb.

Frosty The Lucky.

[MAD MAX]

Max like Neil said we have monthly get togethers in Longview. It is generally the 4th Saturday of each month. This month it is Mark Aspery, next month it is Arnon Kartnazov likely doing a Japanese knife, May is the spring conference. June is Bob Denman doing garden tools, July will be on a different day as the Fair is going on, we will be there for the fair just not doing the hammer in on the regular day, July will be on the 11th Wade Seiders doing a hammer poll belt axe. August we may not be having an event as there is blacksmith week up at Mount Hood. Note the details listed above may change. In the event of cancellations where we can't get another rescheduled I'll step in and do a hammer forging demo. At least get yourself on the NWBA email list to keep abreast of current events. All the above are a 3 hour demo by the persons listed followed by open forge for the rest of the day.

​I am afraid I wont be able to make the event in May in Longview, Its so far away and I have no place to stay. If I went I would have to drive the 4-5 hours there stay maybe two then drive back. Motels are out of the question due to budget.

[Rashelle]

I can understand the desire for a place to stay. There is camping usually. It's all good though. Just trying to give you some options, what you do from there is up to you.

[rockstar.esq]

I noticed you mentioned you were trying to weld leaf springs.  I've read here before about them having an alloy that effectively narrows the temperature window for forge welding.  Narrow temperature ranges and guesstimating leads to a lot of welding failures.

Using coal outside can make colors appear differently too.  A local blacksmith, farrier, saddlemaker, and all around great guy explained how he managed to cope with different lighting conditions inherent to working out of his truck as a farrier.  He said that he waited until the workpiece was the same color as the fire and "disappeared" in it. 

Reading gave me a lot of stuff to go on, but nobody mentioned that things get increasingly harder as the stock gets smaller.  Lots of beginner projects are much, much easier if you're working with larger stock to start with.  It takes a lot longer to get to temperature but it's mass holds it longer.

Frosty, the applied physics angle is cool.  I've heard a lot of  energy arguments boiled down to "sledgehammer vs. ice pick".  It seems like fads swing from "high speed, low drag" to "knock down, dead blow" .  The most enduring and reliable are in the "sweet spot" where there's just enough of both to suit the range of work.

I'd say there's a parallel balancing act between accuracy and precision.  Centering a golf  ball in a bucket might be done with incredible accuracy using a caliper and a test fixture.  Switching to a bigger ball that jams inside the bucket is precision that's tough to improve upon.

Some people get hung up on measurements because they can quantify it.  Meanwhile somebody else has done it perfectly with a simpler approach.

[Francis Trez Cole]

Mad max forge welding is not rocket science. the Key to a good forge weld is a good saturating heat. I do it the same way every time heat the metal flux back in the fire, get it up to temperature at an even rate so that the metal is all the same temp if the piece is thick you may have to turn it over a few times to get that saturating heat. Timing is important move from the forge to the anvil and hit it once. re flux and bring back up to heat and hit once. Flux and re heat and hit again you will feel it.

Things to watch out for. To great and air blast, with wood charcoal it takes a lot of fuel so keeping the volume fuel under the work is important. other wise you are in a oxidizing fire. that will blow the hot surface metal away and cool the weld area. Keep from hitting it more than once. Again Keep from hitting it more than once you can knock the weld loose.  the color you are looking for is bright yellow I keep and eye above the fire when I see the first sparks its ready. Do not waste time wire brushing when you hit it with the hammer all the gunk will squirt out.Do not hit with full force. Just enough force to make the gunk squirt out. 

do not give up Fire management and timing and a little patients will make it happen

[Rashelle]

I'd been meaning to say for forge welding practice an easy thing to do is take some 3/8" round stock (or whatever but for practice a little bigger is better as it stays hot longer due to mass) taper to a flat point, nick the bar a bit behind the point most of the way through on the side of the point, bend the bar over (bend not fold flat) so the point touches the parent bar. Round stock being used for this practice as it is round and lets scale and flux flow out. Then bring to almost welding heat, flux, bring rest of way to heat, should look translucent almost and sort of liquidy on surface, take from fire and like Frosty said above give it a good but not hard lick with the hammer, work from the point forward to the nick. Do this at different looks to the metal. See what sticks, forge out to a spoon or round shape at welding heat at first finishing at near welding heat. cool off and then bend the piece, see if it delaminates. Cut from parent stock and repeat. Till you can see the right looks and feel.

[Malice9610]

The trick I read about that helped me, is the wire coat hanger trick. 

Straighten a wire coat hanger, and once you think the piece has gotten hot enough, touch the wire to the piece, if when you pull the wire away ( you have to leave it there for about 8-10 seconds ) you can feel it sticking to the main piece, its at the right temp, I have noticed also that if your placement in the fire is wrong, it does not seem to stick , however that is just a noobish observation, I could just be imagining things. 

[ThomasPowers]

try slipping a piece of plain steel between the leaf spring and try welding.  I've found that welding leaf spring to leaf spring to be more difficult than welding leaf spring to plain steel,

as for the You can't weld with charcoal: use of coal for smithing came in during the high to late middle ages (Gies & Gies, "Cathedral Forge and Waterwheel")  so all the celtic, saxon and viking plied and pattern welded swords were welded up using charcoal (not to mention that making wrought iron involved stacking and welding multiple times to refine the bloom) Traditionally made japanese katanas are welded using charcoal, the kris are welded in charcoal fires,...  However were they trying to weld with charcoal in a forge designed for coal?  Helps to use a forge designed for the fuel you are using. (not as bad as putting diesel in a gas engine; but...)