Problem Solving

I am working out the details for a piece and have a question on cracking. When I cut the smaller thin section away and forged it out, all was fine. I then closed up the "Y" and began to forge the shape on the bottom of the "Y", where it goes into what I call the Gumby Foot (left side of first picture). While I was drawing that part out, the crack began to appear. Do you guys have any tricks for stopping this kind of thing? I'm using "off the shelf" mild steel and I didn't quench that area. I believe it has to do with the vibration caused from hammering... Suggestions? Thanks!

Hello, I just finished my forge and fired it up today and since it didn't fall apart i guess it is a success. The first project that i am going to be working on is a set of handles for a butterfly knife for my dad's birthday. What i have in mind is somehow punching out his name in them but i am not sure how i should go about this. I will be finishing up a pair of tongs tomorrow but other than that i have never forged anything before and have never been instructed in blacksmithing. Any tips or ideas? Thanks in advance for all the advice

Hi guys, I am making something in mild steel and I'd like to rivet it together using aluminium bronze, or some other alloy (strength requirement is negligible). The item is to be situated outdoors. I'd like to galvanize and paint the majority of it (the mild steel shapes) and leave the rivets in their natural finish. How can this be done without either damaging the paint / coating on the mild steel or ending up with paint all over the rivet heads...? Any help much appreciated. Al.

I have a iron door on my house that I'm trying to make a similar replica. The arch that's on the top of the door is my problem.I need to form an arch out of what is prob square tubing, 16 gauge galvanized steel for a door frame. Any idea how its done. Hand forged or machine? Details would help. I need a really smooth finish?

Howdy all, I was asked today if I would be able to forge a mortar and pestle, I said yes, thinking about several ways to go about doing it. Thinking more on it now, I'm curious to know which might be best for such a thing. Here's a couple of the ways I was thinking about... -a 3/8"-1/2" plate, cut into a circle, worked hot into a form. The downside to this would be the hammer marks inside, and also not having a steady base. any suggestions for a base? Also, getting an appropriate depth could be troublesome. -a circle or square of VERY thick plate, say 2"+. Work it hot by bashing a large diameter mill ball into it. this would have the advantage of having a sturdy fo…

Amateur blacksmith here. I want to forge a leather punch to put my symbol on a leather pouch and some other leather bags/sheaths I have. Punch should be 2" diameter circle. Symbol is a triangle made of three triangles inside of a large circle about 1/4" thick. please be very specific. I've made a knife, some stakes and a crowbar. So I have a little experience, decent hammer control and a good amount of strength but little knowledge of terms yet.

I just purchased a Champion 400 Blower. It had had the oil drained from the gear case. I filled it with 75w-90w gear lube and it seemed to work just fine. I checked the internals and the gears appeared brand new. There wasn't any play in either the gears or the output shaft the impeller is mounted on. I tried it and it seemed pretty quiet. I came back about 2 hours later and most of the gear oil had drained out. Does anyone have any recommendations on sealing the case or the shafts? There do not appear to be any cracks in the case other than the seam in the top cover. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I'm trying to forge a branch and I've run into a problem: the stem for my leaves is so thin that it loses heat before I can get it welded to a larger piece of stock. I've stuck a RR track anvil in the fire to cut the distance I have to travel to a minimum and still no dice. As you can see I've burned the stems off of a couple of leaves now trying to get them to weld: The bar stock I'm using for the branch is 3/8 and to get the look I want the stems have been drawn down to 1/8. Any suggestions on how to get these welded without resorting to MIG?

I just discovered a fungus growing on the bottom of my anvil stump. The stump and anvil were stored up off of the floor on a dolly and in a dry environment. It is a new stump so there must have been some residual moisture. I have treated it with a fungicide to stop the immediate infection however am looking for a treatment that will cure the problem permanently. In the past I would have treated it with CCA but that option no longer is available. Any Suggestions ?

Hi guys, i've been doing wrought iron work for years with all kinds of scrolls, twistts and etc and when i measure a space for a scroll to fit in i usually take a piece of stiff wire and wrap it around a scroll jig of the size scroll i want to use and then do the same thing on the other end and then straighten the wire out and measure the length of the wire to determine the length of flat bar needed for that size scroll. My question is this, what is the best way to measure a space for the length of flat bar needed to do a scroll for that space end to end, in other words, lets say i have a space 19" tall and i need to put a scroll in that space thats going to stretch the e…

I did a search through the forums but didn't find an answer. In the photo is a trivet I made with the legs and handle riveted together. Used a vise to to hold the trivet upside down while I heated and lightly peened the 1/4" round stock used for the rivets. The vise was holding the top part of the trivet. When that was done I inverted the trivet and rested the peened part of the rivet (bottom side) on the anvil horn and work on the top section with heat and light hammer blows. Usually the rivet bends and once straightened it works. I don't want to buy pre-made rivets before I learn how to do it this way. Is there a rivet "set" that I can make or locate that will…

GOOD DAY ALL BLACKSMITHS I am planning on forging a ball with spikes to make a flail. where do i start .this will be my first attemp at forging a hollow (solid too heavy) ball. Thanks

Sticky Problem - I use a fair amount of duct tape. However it is way to wide for some applications. One day I got the bright idea that I would just curt a roll in half. Fired up the table saw sawed it in half. Got the tape cut but the blade was fowled . It was a sticky mess. So I used all of that cut tape up and tried to think of another a way to cut the tape without the mess. Got the bright idea that I should freeze the tape and then cut it. Didn't work - Gooey mess again. I suppose that my next effort will be to make up a mandrel and try to slice it in the lathe. My fallback is to just tear the tape down the center as I use it. I did that for years…

I'm in the process of designing a chair I'd like to build, but I'm having difficulty settling on the material size to use for the supports. I'm pretty new to blacksmithing, couple of years, and I've never made anything that was intended to bear the weight of anything other than plants. I've seen one set of plans that uses 1/2" by 1&1/2" square for a bench, although presumably that would be overkill for a chair based on the number of people sitting on it. Would anybody with some experience let me know what works best?

I have some long bar stock that was given to me by a friend who works with steel, pretty thick & really expensive. Anyway, It's treated so I cannot even cut it to length, like I said....thick. I could use a hacksaw if it weren't hardened, right now 10 minutes of hacksawing did not even start a cut. I have a smaller length of it that will fit in my oven I'm going to use. I was going to normalize it in my kitchen oven so it could get workable & soft (I'm doing stock removal, no forging involved...so I need it soft to make cuts) & I was looking online to see what a good temp. to use would be and seen this, http://www.fergusonperf.com/pdfs/56.pdf The steel I…

I have been forging a lot of wrought iron this year. On a series of historical type projects. All of the material has been reworked scrap that I have accumulated over the years. It has come from a wide range of sources ranging from about 1800 up to the 1940's. When I test to see if I have wrought iron I do a spark test and a break test. I have found the spark test to be unreliable as there seems to be a lot of variability in how wrought iron sparks. Wile a lot of it follows the classic orange sparks with no or very few little explosions I have noticed that some ( a very small proportion though) of wrought iron does spark like very low carbon steel. It will have sp…

I recently saw a gate a blacksmith made and finally realized that the coloring was from tempering not any coating, patina etc. It was stainless steel. My question is, after heating and beating stainless it looks dull. How do you polish? it to show off the heat related coloring. Once clean a torch can be used to temper to color choice. If you grind it, you lose all the hammer marks that add to the appearance. People's suggestions?

Hey everybody my name is John and this is my first post to this site and I am curious as to how everything works. I have two problems that happen every time I start a new project. First of all, I've been forging for about three years, but mainly in the spring and summer so more like one and a half years. I am only 20, so I still live at home and I can't build a workshop or anything like that, so I just forge in the sunlight out of a small brake drum forge. The first problem I have has actually only affected the last few projects I've worked on. I'm not doing anything different, so I don't know what the problem is. The last three projects end up cracking and I'm afraid tha…

Not wanting to risk a visit from the jack booted RR Dicks or be vaporized by a patrolling drone from homeland security for my handfull of spikes that I picked up at a level crossing, I've found a solution......... I have taken to making my own............ Ya never know, the RR could turn em into IED'S.........Now what to make out of it????................:rolleyes:

I built 3 Colonial Style Flint Strikers yesterday in the forge. When I strike them against my piece of flint, they won't make a spark. Any ideas what the problem is and how to fix it. I am thinking the steel might not be hard enough. Thanks to everyone.

I've been lucky enough to have scheduled demonstration gig at the Transportation Museum next month. I've been nervous about working with the public but I'm hoping it goes well for me. I want to have some relative things to talk about with folks. I started researching the model T but haven't found out much about how the front axle was drop forged. I've familiarized myself with the parts to horse drawn buggies and have a few examples of the sort of work that went into manufacturing a buggy along with photos highlighting aspects like joining and tapering. I hope to be able to answer questions regarding the process of moving metal. I'd like to talk as time allows about the hi…

A client has asked for some burglar bars to be installed on a commercial building that he owns. Not a big job, just three windows. Any thoughts on the spacing? I was thinking 6" o.c. Thanks, BCT

I have a peice of staneless steel that wouln't spark, what tipe of staneless steel could it be?

I am planning on installing a magnetic start switch on my power hammer and I am trying to get some info so I can start shopping for one. What I have is a 3 HP single phase motor on a mechanical hammer and the only thing i could find for a switch when I set the hammer up was a disconect switch for a heating / air conditioning unit. I have heard of guys using magnetic starters on their hammers (supposed to be better on the motor) What are you guys using? and where did you get it? I do not want to fry this motor, I did get a good deal on it but I had to search low and high to find it, a new one is not cheap

Trash rack ideas please! I am going in (some materials and lots of labor) with a co-owner of our pond lot and putting a new drain into the embankment to save his basement (the 3rd owner is a problem with this, but hey, 2/3 is majority!) We are installing a 12 inch corrugated plastic pipe essentially level at the desired height of the pond...hopefully a couple inches lower than the collapsed drain. The collapsed drain was an iron pipe 100 ft long and would fill with debris. We need to prevent this as the new drain will probably be 20 or 40 ft long. The body of the drain will be under an expected 12-24 inches of soil for most of the run. Limitations: price, $100 i…