Problem Solving

I have three boxes of tr-19 block insulation that is 1-1/2 x 12 x 36 is this usable in any way for anyone. They were left over at the shop that I work at and if someone can use them for something they can come get them if not I am gonna trash them.

Hi folks, I am looking for experienced input on large forging in an open coal forge. I have been heating and working with 3" square in an open coal forge which we open to be about 1.5" x 3" in cross section. So far, my best bet has been to try to manage the fire under the steel and build in "heat lines" in order to fire a fresh cover of coal over the top in order to light it and keep something close to a surrounding heat. Obviously, this isn't going to be nearly good enough by itself and it requires turning the piece repeatedly which breaks up my blanket and heat lines and I have to kersmudge some semblance of it back together for each turn until I ge…

I often have my Bluetooth headset (JBL Everest 100s) on under my ear muffs while I'm working in the shop. While forging, there is no issue. When I am grinding (2 x 36 or angle grinder), I experience stuttering until the machine is powered off. Has anyone experienced this or found a solution?

So i found theses the other day and was hoping to hear ideas about what they are made of and also what good uses they have(other that the use they were made for lol)

My new anvil arrived and is sitting in place on it's new solid wood block. The hardy is much lager than my old anvil Been doing this many years so have every hardy tool I ever imagined I could ever need. So I want to make a sleeve that fits inside the anvil. Not going to even consider remaking all my hardy tools or doing something to change the shanks. Will you folks share pictures pictures pictures pictures pictures pictures pictures pictures of you solutions for me to steal? If there are no pictures it didn't happen... Thanks, brother and sister smiths! Dave

The other day, I made a pair of hooks for a customer. He liked the look. I liked the look. Sounds like a good deal all around. For a single pair of hooks, layout and cutting for the splayed end is easy enough, but it got me to thinking about how one might streamline the process. If you have an order for 20 hooks, that's a lot of finagling! If I had an Ironworker that could simply nip out the 90º notch on the end of the bar, that'd be fantastic. If I had a vertical bandsaw, I could cobble together some fence or the like. Having neither.... that's problematic. Right now, I'm scribing the lines and cutting the notch with an angle grinder. It doesn't ta…

I'm stumped . I have a reuleaux shaped piece of 3/16" plate. The reuleaux is 8" on the side. There is a 3-1/2" circle cut with a bias toward one corner. I am trying to forge a bowl from the plate and then 'suspend' a 3" brass plate inside the circle in the bowl. Currently I am forging the bowl shape using a fly press and 'smushing' the plate between two bowl shaped swages. The result is a nice bowl shape from the reuleaux plate. The plate is heated thoroughly to try to keep the metal flowing evenly during forging. Unfortunately the original circular hole is distorted during the smushing. I'm thinking I might be able to reforge the hole if I had a cone.…

Hey guys, new smith here trying to solve a problem I'm having forging with a camshaft from a 350. The technique I thought would work best on it was to hammer all the lobes on the shaft down to a similar size as the shaft is itself and then work it to the desired shape from there. What has been happening is I'll get the lobe squared off, and about halfway between the size it is and the size I want and then it snaps off the shaft. I don't let it cool very much trying to prevent it from happening, but it doesn't seem to matter much. Does anyone have any experience using a camshaft? My forge is a homemade charcoal bottom blast that seems to get the steel up to some prett…

Hey I want to begin hand forging candlesticks/candleholders but I don't know if that's possible with 14 mm square bar. Do I need to order other dimensions or is it possible as it is? Maybe upsetting the bar will help? The real difficulty here is to be able to forge out the cone, the rest is all set. I've seen some people use pipes, but I'd really like not to do that. //Eophex

Hi guys! Brand new member here, just wanted to get some advice on an idea for my senior project. I'm not sure if this is the proper place to post this, so if it isn't, sorry in advance! I'm a senior undergraduate student at UCLA studying Nordic Studies, and about to graduate. For my capstone project, I chose my topic surrounding ancient Scandinavian weapons that have historical significance behind them, having the the ultimate goal of analyzing their cultural impact through the years. A large part of my project is researching the process behind creating these artifacts, what tools and materials were involved, and what methods blacksmiths preferred. To get a good…

Hey, me again! Not much progress with the sword, as to be expected. I'm still setting up the new place, I will hopefully make a killer forge in a week, and then some tools to pile up. This is the problem: I want to make a sword with a base thickness of 5-7mm, base width of 2.5-3 centimeters and length of at least one meter, and a lot of extra material to grind because I don't trust myself enough with making clean forging work in there. I've got a 5mm thick 6cm wide 70cm long piece of spring steel. to get both higher thickness, length and take advantage of the axcess width I want to upset as much of it as I can. My question is: What is the width to t…

My neighbor and I are building a pig cookerfrom a propane tank. When we cut the door the lid sprung and we are struggling to get it back in place. Anyone have any ideas about how to shape it to match the profile?

I've got some pieces that I've just finished and need cleaning, but they all curvy and full of nooks and crannies that I'll never get a wire wheel into in a million years. How do I go about cleaning stuff like this?

I am working on my blacksmithing leaf phase and ran into a problem with the cottonwood leaf. I've been following the Mark Aspery Vol 2 process of forging a cottonwood leaf. I have not been able to get enough material spread on either side of the stem and down towards the stem area. The leaf is actually supposed to spread out below the stem like the picture. I seem to run out of material to move down to the stem area. Picture the Aspery leaf and my leaf. Any suggestion on how to do this? Sorry about the picture size but I couldn't see how to make them smaller.

I liberated a rusty jackhammer bit (about 24") from my father's scrap pile with the idea of making hammers and heavy punches. I soaked this bit in vinegar and wiped away the rust to discover it is hollow. I presume it was a water-cooled bit - not much good as stock for hammers & punches - right? Hammering-out the hollow effectively creates an internal 'shut' - right? My imagination is in neutral on this one .... need your thoughts.

Jeep guys, I need some help. My accountant wants me to make a bottle opener to mount on the outside of his 2016 Wrangler (Willys Edition), like this: Here’s the spot where he wants to mount it on his own vehicle: He says the holes are spaced 2-3/8” from center to center, and the screw head is about 5/8” in diameter. If anyone here has (or has access to) one of these, could you give me an idea of the diameter of the screws themselves and how much extra length they have (in other words, how thick my mounting tabs can be)? Also, it would be great to know whether or not the heads are in one plane, and if not, by how many degrees they’re off? He’s gi…

I have access to all the stainless I want on a bi weekly basis. among otherthing like the pins that hold the cars together at the knuckle. but my question is is about the stainless I have. I have been trying to research what type it is to see if it would be a good alternative to tooling,knives or other things. it is 1.5 in in dia and over five ft long. can anyone here tell me the type. I'm speculating it is some sort of structural type stainless. any info would be great. i have added a couple pics so you can see what i have.they do not have any numbers or nothing for identification. hope these pics help you to help me.. Thanks, Martin

When I make some of my hooks, I like to forge in a countersink for the mounting screws. My go-to punch is made from a car coil spring, 5/8" in diameter, tapered and ground to a nice angle. I might have heat treated it back when i first made it, but I can't remember. I'm sure the HT has gone the way of the Dodo by now. Anyhow, lately I've been getting this dimple forged into the end when I forge the countersink. This one formed after just ten dimples were forged into the hooks. That might not sound bad, but when you have a few dozen hooks to make, having to stop and dress the punch is both aggravating and changes how the countersinks look -- not a good thing. …

Hello folks, I have some questions relating to the ground level tenons & sockets on strap & journal gate hinges. I haven't used this type of hinge system before but am due to use it on some gates I'm making soon - close up from design attached. In the accompanying sketches I have exagerated the angle of the gate back stile for sake of explanation. Due to site circumstances the socket will not be independent & will be welded to the gate hanging post, meaning the only adjustibility will come from the top hinge. In the event of needing to adjust the gates angle it will cause the tenon in the socket to tilt. I want to avoid the tenon binding on the insid…

So, I am new to iforgeiron and I’ve only been blacksmithing for a couple of months. I’ve been working a lot on tapers and drawing out, and in the last couple of weeks have tried about 10 or so leaves. The problem I am having, without fail, is that the stem seems to twist and crack right at the base of the leaf when I start to flatten it out.....almost every time. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what may be causing this? Thanks!!

I used an old coil spring to make a cottonwood leaf. I made a point and back about an inch I made the stem. I rounded the stem and then went to flatten the leaf area. I used my 50 lb Little Giant to flatten the leaf and I could see a crack near the side of the flatten area about half way back. When I turned it over, I fond the crack traveled down towards the stem. I assume this was a flaw in the coil spring. It looked like a forge weld that didn't weld completely thru. I didn't forge weld it at any time. Any ideas as to why it would appear. Clearly it was a weak spot in the coil, but I thought it was a solid one piece of steel. I used my gas forge to heat it. I'…

Hello, I need to bend a 1.5" x 1.5" piece of angle iron into a circle about 32" in diameter with the leg out. I searched this site for anything similar, but didn't see it. I have the Harbor Freight compact bender and ring roller, but neither one of them are quite right for this job IMO. I would expect there should be a good "old school" method to get this done. I was imagining cutting a disc out of thick plywood to this diameter, cutting holes around the inside of the edge to clamp the angle to. Heat with a torch and clamp, heat and clamp, rinse and repeat until all the way around the disc, all without catching the disc on fire. However, I thought I would …

Hey Gang, I'm hoping to get some input on a project I'm starting soon. I'm sure everyone here knows what a pass thru joint looks like and how to forge it. I'm talking about a simple Split and Drifted round bar with another bar of the same dia. passing thru it @ a 90deg angle. What I'm struggling with is finding ways to pass another bar thru the same intersection @ a 45deg angle using traditional blacksmithing techniques. To be clear, I'm talking about 3 bars total going thru 1 joint. It's not an uncommon design element in grille and gate work. Of course I can weld in the third bar, but I like to try to forge my work using traditional methods first and save the conte…

I picked up a small post vice. After cleaning it up the jaws don't line up ...one side is 3/8 to the right of the other. with the screw in all the way the nut does not move.I throught it was the slot on the back jaw... the guide on the nut is worn on the front but the back seems ok...do I need to weld up the guide or build up the slot to make the jaws meet with out and overhang?

Hello everyone I was wondering if anyone had any experience in forge welding stainless pipe I have a project I'm working on and I don't actually have a welder yet and I was thinking since I need the inside of the pipe to be open I could stretch a piece of stainless pipe on both ends to fit the other 2 ends that I'm needing to connect and forge weld it but I'm not sure how to go about setting the welds with it being a pipe. Any help or insight would be awesome. Thanks in advance guys.