Glenn

Your question has been answered with a recommendation of steels to use, a recommendation of 3 books, and an invitation from Jim his-own-self to help you with your problem, right here on IForgeIron, or personally by email. Fluff? I would call it hard core, naa, holy grail information. Many folks struggle for years and don't get half as far as you have in just this thread. Congradulations on jump starting your blacksmithing and bladesmithing education. Jim, Thank you for your offer to assist him and others. A tip of my hat (shoot I will remove the hat completely - and smile) to you sir.

Rick ask if he would like to donate a full set of the material to the IForgeIron site for reference materials.

One of the guidelines of the site is "no personal attacks and no flame wars". Discuss the merits of one way vs another way untill everyone is blue in the face, but do it with facts and references so the rest of us can keep up. Jim, stick around as I would be very interested in your referrences to some tidbit of obscure literature, or a residual piece of a billet in some dusty corner of a shop or buried deep into the wall of a smithy somewhere. :wink:

You are challanged to visit at least two new locations in order to make contacts and acquire scrap or discarded metal for projects. This can be any location, business, machine shop, garage, junk yard, etc that has or generates scrap metal or items that can be used in blacksmithing. Not your old relieable sources, but brand new sources for metal that have not been contacted before. You may visit more than one location, and may collect as much metal, as many times as you wish. Then use your new found materials to make a project. There is no limit on size or shape other than a major portion of the project should be from your new found materials. Do let us know the best sources and what scrap or discarded materials you were able to acquire. Take photos and submit it for a Blueprint if you like. You may want to return a finished product to the folks that have been kind enough to provide you with thier scrap or discarded materials. Edit: time limit removed

Jim Hrisoulas has written The Complete Bladesmith, The Master Bladesmith, and The Pattern-Welded Blade. The "problem" occured when an individual made what I considered a personal attack on Jim and was removed from the site. Jim, you are hereby instructed (ok requested) to make recommendations to the books (articles) that you feel will best answer the questions ask. If by chance you are the arthor, then that is just the way it is. After all you are an authority in the field. If anyone wants to "get their knickers in a twist" over the information recommended by Jim, then please quote reference materials with page numbers, or place your personal cridentials on the table as a reference. This way we can look up your source for reference, and all learn and benifit from the discussion.

Joelon, Check your PM, BP etching information is there.

Materials: 20 feet of 1/4" round stock. Use any or all of the 20 feet. Other elements or stock may be added but the 1/4" round stock must be the major element of the work. Please reply to this thread for all the January 2006 projects.

Use the materials suggested in any way you wish to make a project. You may use some or all of the materials. You may add other elements to complete the project, but the suggested materials must be a major portion of the project. You may cut, fold, spindle, twist, warp, draw out, upset, weld, or otherwise convert the suggested materials to your liking. But once you start, you can not say oops, I messed up and start over, you have to deal with the oops. You are encouraged to make two or more of a project, a set of things, or several different projects from the suggested materials, just do not exceed the materials list. For instance a 20 foot piece of stock can be cut into 1 piece 20 foot long, 2 pieces 10 feet long, or 20 pieces each 1 foot long to make projects, that is your choice. But you can not use 23 feet if only 20 feet is on the list. Then post photos of your project and some information on how it was made. It would be nice to have these available for conversion into a blueprint so take lots of photos as the project is being built and submit them for a Blueprint. If you have suggestions for a materials list, let me know. Comments on the projects are encouraged as this can be a challanging way to exchange information and ideas. Edit: time limit removed

Going to guess that the pike head is steel and not plastic or other material. Acids will do that as will low voltage DC current. There is a blueprint on the subject that I will look up and send to you.

Katrina, Thank you for bringing this to our attention. He is on the list. Please keep us informed as to his progress.

Ralph, your on our list also.

Karl, You ask a question that needed to be reworded to fit this family forum. You had no objections to the rewording of your question. The question was answered and then the topic closed (locked) to bring an end to a sensative subject. From there, other prople objected to one word in their post being changed and softened to fit the forum. It was called "censorship" and that is what started the discussion that followed, not the question that you (Karl) originally ask. You ask a question, and it was answered. That is the purpose of the exchange of information on the site. IF people wish to visit the site, or not visit the site, that is their choice. To keep the IForgeIron site a family forum and a clean and comforrttable site is the choice and responsibility of everyone that uses the forum. As to your spelling, if any one were to object to your translating your language into English as best you can, then they should translate their English into the many different languages that are represented on this forum as best they can. In college, I took two years of German and today would not recognize the spoken language if I heard it. For me to type in any other foreign language, would be out of the question. I very much appreciate those that take the time and effort to communicate in English so we can understand each other. Karl, you are welcome and encouraged to visit and post to any section of the site at any time. We just need more folks llke yourself, who are willing to take the extra time and effort needed to translate from your language to English due to our not being multilingual.

My experience follows Bruce's suggestions. I use a side draft hood with a 13" diameter firepot and it works well. I have seen masonary side draft hoods in use and they work well. Both have straight stacks of 12" or so diameter. Side draft hoods have the advantage of pulling air up the hood from a small entrance way (usually 1 sq feet of opening or so) creating a lot of suction. A open hood pulls air from the entire opening (many square feet of open area) and tries to get all that air up the stack. For a big fire the additional heat helps with the draft, but the chimney needs to be sized according to the hood.

The sycamore wood I have experience is light weight when it dries, compared to oak and other woods that weigh much more when dry. Others will have to advise on the suitability of sycamore as a stump wood. Try to locate some 4x4 or 6x6 treated timbers, stand them on end and bolt them together from both sides. Then band the top and bottom if needed. It makes a good anvil base. My anvil stand is constructed from heavy 4x4 angle iron for both the box holding the anvil and for the legs. Place a piece of wood in the bottom of the box to cushion the anvil a bit. The anvil stand is set a bit low so the wood cushion can be changed from 1/4" plywood to 3/4" sheeting, or a 2x12 to adjust the anvil height if needed. The 4x4 angle iron offers about 3" of height adjustment while still keeping the anvil well down inside the box.

We wish the folks in Oz the best. Please keep us updated on this as that is a lot of ground to have blackened by fire,

If your question is asked in the quest for knowledge it is never stupid. Those more experienced will provide an answer, or several answers. Try all the ways suggested to solve the problem, and decide which works best for you in your situation. This is a blacksmithing forum, but I would imagine that you could ask questions on many different subjects and still get an answer. The overall knowledge base of the folks here us unbelievable.

Sort of depends on what I am working on. The one time I drill is when I am tapping threads. If presision is needed, I think drilling, if blacksmithing is needed I think hot punching. Besides the piece is most likely hot anyway. Several holes in a length of flatbar can be done either way but forging will stretch the bar will drilling will retain the dimention. This is where we need to hear from the traditionalist on how to hot punch and keep the holes on dimention as the bar stretches. Any takers on that question ?

Bill Epps has his book on how to make things from angle iron for sale in the IForgeIron store.

Fire pots in a forge, but they can also be used as a form for making circles from flat iron, the base plate for a 3rd hand stand, etc.

Dan has removed all his posts from the forum sitewide, and has been placed on the inactive list. Being inactive, he is unable to post and or defend himself. If the discussion were to continue, let us do it such a way that he does not feel the need to respond personally.

Beverly, the wife of Horfoege101 had what they think was a stroke. She is currently in the hospital undergoing tests. Prayers would be appreciated.

Dan has chosen to delete the content of his posts on this subject and replace that material with the word "gone". None of the material he deleted has been modified to my knowledge (other than maybe the spelling).

There is one last piece of business to attend to. There seems to be two requests here: Jan 22 to remove Dan's post where one word was deleted and a modification made to soften the words but keeping the intent of the post intact. Jan 23 where it could be a request to again remove the same post - or to remove the original post that was not posted by Dan. I will continue this under the thinking that it is a request by Dan to again remove Dan's post in which one word was deleted and a modification made to soften the words but keeping the intent of the post. I have sought the counsel of others in this matter and after considerable thought will leave the post to stand, as modified for the following reasons: * One word was deleted and a modification made to soften the words but keeping the intent of the post intact. * There has been a high amount of traffic generated by this discussion, some 750 views in 3 days. To remove the post would be to remove critical information that started the discussion and leave viewers without all the facts needed to form an opinion. Those viewers are most certainly forming their own opinions concerning the guidelines of the site, and how those guidelines are being applied. * To remove the post would be to remove critical information from any future viewers and leave those viewers without all the facts. This entire discussion on censorship has been presented to the public, for everyone to read. The content should not be altered at this point by removing any of the critical information from view. The entire process needs to be present to show how the IForgeIron site handles a problem, how the site guidelines are applied, and the efforts needed to keep IForgeIron a family forum, a clean site, and a comfortable site for all to enjoy. The post will not be deleted for the reasons above. Glenn - Site Admin Thank you for your time and your concerns. Let's move on. There are lots of blacksmithing subjects to discuss.

Different types of coal catch fire more quickly than others. Wet coal just takes a little more heat to start burning as your drying off the water first. Build a good fire with sticks, kindling from a 2x4's, lumber, etc then add the coal little at a time. Smaller pieces of coal start faster than large pieces. But avoid using accellerants of any nature. Saving a couple of minutes is not worth the potiential problems accellerants can cause.

Dan, I am sorry that you took my comment the wrong way. In the course of reviewing the posts on the forum, I opened your post and started to change the spelling - then stopped and made no modifications to your post, as you requested. The Moderator did the same thing, opened your post to correct the spelling, stopped, and contacted me and ask for directions in the matter. I told them to leave it alone, as you requested. This correction of spelling is something that is done when needed without any thought as to it being caused by fat fingers, or oversight in proof reading, or a best effort being made because of not being sure how to spell a particular word. It does not matter as spelling correction done to make the post look better and to be more easily read. I would not have brought it to your attention except you seemed adamant about no modifications being made to your posts, and we were trying to do just that. It was my way to show you we were following your instructions, with no ill will or offense intended, as two of us were within a keystroke of correcting the problem.