Problem Solving

Help! I don't have a vice. I am looking for a stump vise (don't want to buy one off eBay) but in the mean time, I have this railspike knife I'm making. So far it's coming out great but I want to add details to the doghead I'm putting on the handle. Any ideas on how I can do this without a vice (or a welder if that matters any)? I have one of those small 55lb blue anvils from harbor freight. I was thinking that somehow the hardy hole might be able to help. But I'm afraid the edge of the hole will put creases in the metal.

I bought a piece of 2" x 18" long hot rolled mild steel rod to use create a horn for my railcar coupler anvil. The attached picture was an earlier picture before I finished up the stand. The bigger hole in the coupler is approx 1 3/4". The length the hole passes through the coupler is 8". Being hot rolled my understanding is that the rod will likely be a bit over 2" OD. So I'm looking for suggestions on what the best way of getting a horn shaped and mounted in the coupler. I'm mainly going to use the thick portion for working on hooks and things like that. The cone portion for bottle openers and opening up curves that got closed up to much. 1.) Shaping the horn. I i…

I'm in the middle of a garden trellis that requires pieces of 1/2" round bar to intersect perpendicularly at a few spots. The plan all along has been to slit the horizontal pieces of 1/2" round so the solid pieces can pass through vertically. Essentially a section of grate. What's killing me is slitting and drifting the round bar. I can make a single hole that's not too off center, but I need three in a row and can't get them lined up. I drilled pilot holes which was probably a mistake. the essential question is, can I take a length of 1/2" round bar and put 3 roughly aligned 1/2" holes in it? Wish I could use square. thanks

I've been asked to produce some crosses for a Charity Art Auction for a local non-profit that I care about. Someone on their board was the recipient of one of my crosses her husband bought from me. I want to create a small "story board" to display with the crosses, showing the progression of a Frederichs Cross from raw material to slit to being opened up, fully opened and then finally polished. I'm thinking each piece in sequence mounted on an attractive piece of wood...but I'm not sure how best to secure each piece? It probably won't be any larger than maybe 12" x 5", but I imagine it's something people will want to pick up and study a bit - it will get handled. So …

I have some railroad track that I want to turn into knives. I cut an 8" length off with a cutting wheel, and now I want to reduce the bottom plate and the upright piece into strips 8" long and roughly blade width wide. The actual top part of the rail I'll draw out with a buddy's power hammer or on mine someday when I get it built. Originally I planned to anneal the 8" length of track in my forge then cut it from both ends with my port-a-band saw, but then I thought it might be quicker and easier to just cut the strips with a chisel while it's hot. The plan to anneal would be to stick it in my propane forge, heat it up then shut the forge down and close it up with firebric…

Did a search of this site and tried google but didn't find what I was looking for. I'd like to make a wall mounted hat/coat rack with an integral ball on each end of the hooks. Never having done this before it seems like a bit of upsetting would be needed to get the mass for each ball. Not sure if I'm going with flat or round stock. Maybe 1/4 x 1". thanks

Hello! I need some help. i am building square fire pit the top dimensions are 1x1m and at the bottom is 40x40 cm. it will be made out of steel plate of an old diesel tank. the plate is 4mm thick. Is that enough for the fire pit? thank you!

I ran out of 4140 a couple of days ago, and before I could go to the scrap yard to find more I got iced/snowed in. Now I need to make some tools for a project (chisel, round and square punch, drift, etc.). I do have some 1084 stock left over from a knife project, and I was wondering if I could make my tools out of that. I know the carbon content is twice as high and the alloy metals are different, but what does that mean in terms of this stuff performing for tool making? Thanks for your help.

since my small gas forge will not reach welding temps I am rebuilding my charcoal forge. In the mean time im trying to figure out the better way to wrap steel bits to weld them. I have a project for a chisel of sorts for my father-in-law and wanted to use old materials we used at work. The main body will be old nails with a cutting edge made from a couple old sawzall blades (I do not recommend anyone use these as they are a pita but the work for me for some things). I tried a wire wrap to hold the nails together while all in line but cannot get the wire tight enough to hold properly. I have though about stacking them in a square where the layers alternate orientation and …

I am looking for somewhere to aquire some 5160 in 3/4 thick 1 1/2 wide bars. I am making a run of Tomahawks and have been using mobile home leaf springs as stock. I can find 5160 but not in this thickness. I use mostly all scrap for what I do but in this thickness even scrap is tough to get. These springs work super good and I am only guessing that they are 5160 but I thought it would work well. Finding ANY high carbon steels in this thickness seems tough.

As many of you know, I'm a beginner that is strapped for space; I live in a small apartment with my wife (a beginner corset maker) and haul everything into the yard each day I want to forge. I try to make everything I have multi-purpose, but if this can't work, please call me out on it. I have a Diamondback Two Burner Blacksmith forge that I've been setting up on a wooden table. The first time I fired it up, I only had kaowool underneath the forge, and it left a rather large char mark with a good deal of smoke. I went out afterward and invested into some fireplace bricks from Tractor Supply, as that was one of the suggestions I was given to protect whatever was undern…

This project is to replace an existing old chain link entry gate for a volunteer community garden with a fabricated, more artistic one. I would like to use the existing 2 1/4" diameter galvanized posts (see attached drawing) which were placed by a commercial fence company several years ago in what was likely a sufficiently deep hole to prevent frost heaving but only about 8" diameter concrete footer. The inside dimension between the two posts is 49". I made my gate* 48" wide (which may be a problem, I realize now). The gate will weigh approx 150#. My question is the best way to hinge it. I was thinking that pintles would be best given the small gap size available. …

Anyone got any tips for forging a bottle opener with an owl handle? I have no problem with the opener end but the owl is proving difficult. The picture shows my third try. It's not good, but the first two looked like intoxicated parrots. Using 1/2 mild. Started by upsetting the end and then chiselled the beak on the corner. Flattened each side and punched the eyes. Chiselled a tail and formed some folded wings. I will have to have some more tries to get it right, but wondered if any of you have been successful. It needs to be like a barn owl with the heart shaped face. Australian owls do not have ear tufts. There is one in the Iron Menagerie book, but I don't think it's p…

I have been practicing on leaves but the stems keep breaking off. What is the problem. I can't keep cracks from happening. Am I working the steel too cold? Am I getting the steel too hot? Do I have too much impurities in my fire? I can't seem to get the small stuff to stop cracking and breaking off.

hello we have to realize for a house in the countryside a shed or pergola or patio to be fixed to the wall and then place an iron portal measurements are 20 feet long high 11 ffet larga13 feet iron one hand resting and hooked to the wall of the house from 'backed up to a portal formed by two pillars iron uprights and a beam iron might help size the various parts and materials required have a drill welding and grinding machine thanks

What steels would you guys use for pattern welded billets that were intended for non-edge holding applications? For example a door handle, fireplace tool, or vessel. We are looking for good contrast and forgeability here, slicing thru armor not required! I'm more interested in modern alloys than having wrought iron in the mix for the sake of repeatability.

So I've been striking out on what I think is a common technique. I can't wrap my brain around the process and oddly enough I can't find a single reference on the ol' internet- and I haven't been able to get to the library. Maybe I'm looking under the wrong topics? Would love a reference and/or discussion. A bit of a two part question- the first leads into the real project... Part 1 How do you make an angled mortise and tenon joint? This seems to be a common technique in traditional stairway pickets in order to maintain a nice joint while keeping the picket nice and vertical and the handrail at it's correct angle (that is without the handrail cap). It's rea…

So, today I was working on finishing up a candle tray for holding 4, 3" pillar candles. The tray is 4 1/2" wide x 21" long, with a 1 1/2" rim welded around the circumference at a 45 degree angle to the base. The material is 3/32" thick. The legs are 3/16 thick by 3" wide, and will be riveted to the base of the tray where the scrolls meet. Before riveting the legs to the tray, I heated the tray, using a rosebud tip, to a black/dull red heat. Once heated, I applied a wax finish. Next I waxed the legs. The next step would have been to rivet the legs to the tray, however, I noticed that after waxing, the tray had warped about 1/2" from left to right along its leng…

Yesterday I made about a dozen necklace sized blacksmith crosses, I have orders for a half dozen because someone wore one to church after buying it at my show several weeks back, and then others wanted to know where she got it. A little after-show perk! So today I went to polish the crosses on my scotchbrite wheel and 1" sander, then went to clear coat them after they'd cooled down. It was then that I noticed several of these had somehow become magnetic! What tha? This is a new one on me, can someone explain? They showed no magnetism prior to forging, all were made with generic 1/4" and 1/2" mild steel. I've made dozens of these before, have never seen that! How …

Hi all, Please forgive a stupid newbie question. Can you click on the image below and tell me if this is possible? If I take the bottom 2" of a piece of 1/4" x 1" stock, can I edge-hammer it into a square section roughly 1/2" x 1/2"? It seems like going the other way--taking a piece of 1/2 square stock and drawing out the top 6"-- would be much more labor intensive, but I don't really know that. The goal is to make a tang chisel with integral bolster, but I'm just trying to think about the first step. Thanks!

I'm getting ready to start on a sofa table for our house. I have a request from the boss to make the base along the lines of the drawing I did below. This design is based on a lamp she really likes. Of course, it can't be an easy design...... :rolleyes: . Thinking that I will have flat stock along the bottom of the table to attach to. Then attach the legs to the flat stock. For the flat stock I have some 4" x 6" x 3/8" angle that I can flatten out. I'd guess the table slab at around 30 lbs max, maybe a little less. It is about 60" long x 18" wide x 1-1/2" thick. The top of the table will be appoximately 36" off the floor. On the legs I was thinking …

When I manage to find a vid of a pro doing a demo, the metal behaves beautifully. An abana vid showed how to forge a scrolling wrench. What kind of stock is it? What's the standard type pro's use for fire place tools, railings, deco grills, etc. etc.? It looks like they're working with play-doe. Regular handforging. Not power hammer on tool steel, or a rookie with a lousy aim smaking dull red rebar. Just good metal. Menards stock works, but not like whatever the big boys use.

A couple of times recently i have experienced the corners on a piece of steel cracking. Today was the worst/most demoralising. I spent 5-6 hours tapering 12mm square bar, and noticed some slight cracking but managed to not make it worse. Until i came to scroll them all, the edges opened right up and now they're not worth what i'm meant to be charging for this project. What could be causing this? I'm forging with gas Could it be too hot, too cold (unlikely i think), too rich or too lean burn? Too long in and out of the forge? I spent 90mins doing a pair of them at one point I now face the prospect of replacing a whole days work with not a lot of time to do it in …

Hello All, My steel supplier has job where he has to punch several thousand holes in two pieces of plate. He is reinforcing the edge of a large shovel tool made from 1/8" plate and is adding a 1/4" plate to the edge. The unit has to be bolted...that is the gig. Holes are 7/8" diameter round. Does anyone know of the tool to punch through BOTH plates if clamped in place. My thought is a portable hole punch.....hydraulic or electro-hydraulic. --punch the hole in the thickest plate first and use that as an alignment indicator for the second hole and punch it in place. That requires two holes at two different times which is slower than punching both at the same go.…

Dear All! In spite of my limited forging experience I may have a chance to get a bigger order. A local project needs a hundred key fobs shaped after its logo. I said I give it a try although the time we have is very short: 3. of october. You can see the shape in the picture. Also the sizes are shown but for sure's sake: longest curved line is 50 mm, shortest line is 8 mm, the lower one with the right angle in it is 24 mm, and the other lower straight one is 18 mm. I tried it two ways: 50 mm 10x10 square stock cut into three parallel sections on one end up to 30 mm. The 20 mm uncut section drawn down to be the longest top line. - Total failure. 50 m…