Cold Worked Iron and Steel

I have a couple young cousins who're into SCA and that sort of thing. Apparently they've made some maille, but they were complaining that they have trouble cutting rings at a decent clip without deforming them. I was thinking of trying to make them a tool to make it go faster. I'm just not sure what such a tool might look like (although I had a couple ideas), and I was wondering if any of you experienced maille-makers have any suggestions.

I live near Portland, Oregon. I need a dish/bowl spun in copper. Size: about 9" deep and 16" in diameter with a 4" flat on the bottom. Thickness about .080" to .120". I would raise it myself except for the size. Cost should be less than $100. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I tried my hand at spinning some stainless today .037" thick and ran up against a need to anneal. Don't know how! Never had to do it.... Anybody show me the way? Thanks!

I have access to a Hossfeld bender. To many options to wing it,and mistakes are costly. I remember coming across a web page a few years ago with great instruction on this machine. Any direction is greatly appreciated! The community college purchased one with no idea how to use it, just wanted to say they had one. I don't want it to go to waste. They received nothing with it as far as instruction.I am waiting for the mfg publication, but as I recall it was not that great. I wish I could remember where I saw that link. Thank you Kenny O

I have procured an anvil and forge over the past year and have been interested in blacksmithing. But my son would like to start making re-enactment and SCA type armour. What kind of shop space and tool investment just for starting out as a hobby?

I need to find a source for motorcycle gas tank bung/caps in order to build a custom tank. They should be available for aluminum as well as steel. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Im surprised there isnt an armorers sub-forum(it's late and i might not've seen it), so i might aswell ask here. Anyone have any experience making plate armors? If so, are you willing to share your informations with me? thanks in advance

I find this stuff absolutely festinating and educational. So many techniques can transfer to other areas of metal working. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh7RrlazaRc&NR=1

found an old cheese press in an OLD shed behind our store(which is 111 years old) and the sheet metal is nearly rusted away, every thing else is good, even the press screw, so i decided to make a new box fpr it. the sheet metal is from a worn out box fan and is heavier gauge than the original. i made it all by hand(no big shear, no break) with tin snips and angle iron in a vice. the shape was hard because it has a slight taper from base to edge so the cheese comes out easier. the original also has a wire in the rolled edge and a ratchet-like strip on each side so it would lock pressed down and could be removed to use the press on the next block. the original box with all…

So I am innocently minding my business making a jig for the belt grinder out angle iron from an old cheap bed frame. I cut sections, grind the ends to eliminate burs, no problems. Then I chuck in a brand new mid grade drill biit in the drill press, and start to make a hole. I am using water mixed with ballistol for cooling and lubrication. Steam is being produced, but the bit and hole are staying wet. The hole just starts to punch through, coolant is flowing through the hole a bit, still it is all staying wet, when suddenly it is like skating on file steel. check the bit. not dull. I try another bit, skates. I chuck in a serious and sharp carbide bit, and it…

after reading the post by the late Mike Ameling i had to make this. made from mild steel, wrapped in hemp twine. (it DOES get hot!) i gave it to my uncle who told me how hot it got, so i wrapped it and problem solved.

here is the begining of my tank project not sure if it will be useable for a bike project I will concider this one to be purely practice if i cant use it on a bike it will probley be my piggy bank or something the measurements are 22 1/2 inch's long 8.5 inches tall off the base plate and 13 inches wide I looked at the scale approx most bikes vs the size of people and took a guess I still need to finish the buck today I probley wont be using a wheel on this one its going to be all slap or nothing I think I have a piece of aluminum the right size but the patterns need to be cut first thats the goal today as for what the tank will go on? I will probley l…

So I thought I would do a little practice spinning work today between cutting loads of firewood.... I have finally come to the place where I can make it work. Now I need to fine tune some of the other components of spinning. After setting the base and forming the cone I do a trim to even and clean up the edge and I get chatter. I have tried lub, change of angle, change of speed, working on the high and low sides of the arch, more positive pressure and changing the bevel angle on the cutter. The cutter is a HSS 1/4" lathe cutter mounted in a 5/8"Ø bar with a maple handle, total length is about 30". I get chatter like no tomorrow (sometimes). What am I doing wrong?

Probably is somewhere on the forum, but is there a section where people make things out of sheet metal without hot working them. IE Medival Armor? (BTW that what got me started on the search for an anvil) =]

Here's a pic of the latest batch of sheet iron pipes. These were hammered up cold using a V-shaped trough in the end of an oak block to start them. And then hammered around a re-worked punch for an inside mandrel to true up the bowl portion. I form them as a long tapered cone, then bend the bowl part and trim the edges. The tricky part is to bend the bowl enough to narrow it down to help keep the tobacco in it, while not kinking it too tight so that it pinches off the draw. The seam up the side is not soldered. I gave it an initial bead of elmer's glue to help seal it. In use it will gunk up naturally from the inside, and seal itself. They are a fun project to …

Ok, so I like to keep the learning curve near verticle:D So what? I've been able to learn how to spin copper to the point where I get repetable results, phew!!! I've been at it a while. Anyway, not one to be complacent, I thought I would try stainless. My main question- How does one go about annealing stainless? I've forged and fabed it but never needed to anneal it.

help me please i have a production bending job and i have no experience with this typ of operation i have a 48 inch piece of 1/2 emt conduit i need to bend at the middle 180 degrees with a 4.5 inch radius but it must be robust i need to make about 200 pieces for the first run and hopefully many afterward will one of those hossfeld machines you guys talk about work for this i can make dies i am a machinist thanks chuck

I have been looking at this website quite often fort he last month or so I dont know why I did not post it on here earlier, I am sure some of you have seen it It gives a whole chart of different jig sizes that produce different radius's I am sure one could adapt many uses for it I really REALLY want to make a sphere/globe now I have about 200 ft of 1 inch square tubing kicking around from when my buddys at the steel place got a whole bundle of slightly bent tubing (sometimes when you cut the straps they explode in every direction) Hopefully at least one person will have not seen it and be able to make use of it. anyways the site is Language alert This link tak…

I am an experienced SCA armourer. With starting Blacksmithing I want to forge armour to see if I can make better armour. The questions I have is: When Dishing cold steal you can change it from 12 to 14 gague is this the same with hot metal? Are there any kingdom/ society laws against doing this? Do you need to temper the piece when it is hardened? What metal is best? and finaly has anyone ever tried to forge weild a face grill? Just wanting some imput. :)

A couple of brackets I built this afternoon. You can't really tell much from the pic but the 3/8 round is very shiny zinc coated and the mount is gloss black. It makes a nice contrast.

Looking for a nice picture or photo of a sheet iron pot, circa 1820-1840. This will be for some western fur trade people. At the very least some starting dimensions to go by would also be very helpful. As usual thank you very much!

How many times should I fold a bar of steel before cooling it to make a piece of armor?

OK, thanks to your suggestions I made a footed bowl and riveted the legs on rather than welding. It took a while, but my riveting skills are improving. I tried pre-making one head of the rivet, but it turned out to be quicker and easier to form them both in place. Err, maybe the words 'quicker' and 'easier' are stretching it a little bit. It was tricky. Comments and suggestions are welcome!

Is cold worked 'matal' the blacksmithing equivalent of 'musak'?

Does anyone have a good idea on how to make a bark tool for using with cold metal on a P5 fly press? I am working with 3/8 and 1/2 inch hot rolled stock, either round or square that I have rounded. I made a tool the conventional way by drilling a 1/2 inch hole between 2 blocks of 1" stock and then running a horizontal bead down the center of each. It works ok if I heat the stock but I was hoping for something I could work cold with. I experimented around with a few different things, but couldn't hit on a solution. Any help would be appreciated.