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I Forge Iron

Stu in Tokyo

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  • Website URL
    http://www.ablett.jp/workshop

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  • Location
    Down Town Tokyo Japan
  • Occupation
    We run a liquor shop
  1. Well I did not get the tongs, they went for just slightly over what I put in for a bid ($50) I was out with the family on Sunday when the bidding ended, so I could not get to a computer, but even if I could have, I don't know if I'd gone much higher, as I do think making my own tongs would be a good thing to do. Thanks for all the input just the same! Cheers!
  2. I'm a Canadian.......eh......... born and raised in BC, came here for SIX MONTHS 16 years ago........ My wife in Japanese and both of our daughters were born here, but they speak English as well as Japanese. I'm not "Just visiting" anymore, I guess this is home now. Cheers!
  3. I'd love to find a smith here that would be willing to teach, or even just let me poke around, but traditionally the majority of the smiths are not here in the Kanto area, but further South. I'm finding more and more stuff here about it, and I even found this on auction......... Looks like it still works, they say there is Coke in it now, but the person selling it knows nothing about it. If I were not living in Tokyo, I'd have a go and see if I could win it:D One other thing about Japan, there are really few old machines here, of any type, the oldest you will see will be from the 1930s, but they are rare, mostly the late 40s and on, as during the war, most anything made from steel that was not in use for the war effort was melted down and used for something else. Cheers!
  4. I've been bopping around the net, trying to find some forge and or blacksmithing related things here in Japan, I found a few pages that I thought I'd share with you guys, as I think there might be some interest..... Masa Sama Making hammers Kajiba Sama Making Knives Onsite welding of a rail at a train station This page was run through a machine translator, so the English is kind of strange. Just thought they might be of interest. Cheers!
  5. Helps a lot guys! I have not had a problem, yet, with the rest, but I've only just started using it, and I've not really done any heavy work with it. The reason I'm thinking that they may need hardening is that the ones you buy are all "Hardened" this might just by marketing hype, but the commercial curved rests all state that they are hardened. One other thing is that the soft steel straight "T" rest that I made takes a beating, and needs to be filed and sanded smooth all the time, the use of the turning tools on it leave divots, so a hardened rest would not have this problem, I hope. Thanks again for the great info, I'm learning stuff here every day! Cheers!
  6. OK, I want to make some more curved tool rests for my lathe. So here comes the very uninformed questions..... I have a bunch of 1" dia steel rod that I can use for the post part of the tool rest, the part that fits into the banjo on the lathe. For the curved part, the actual "rest" I was wondering if I could use something like the axle from a motorcycle, or a BIG long bolt from a motorcycle? I have a lot of old bike parts, they GOT to be better, read harder, steel than the mild stuff I buy at the DIY center......... No? So, if I have this chunk of harder axle steel, I would have to make it softer to work, right? (told you there was a bunch of uninformed questions in this post!) I think that I would heat the axle up to RED and then shape it, let it cool, drill and tap a hole in one spot for the post to thread into. I then drill a hole and tap it in the post, put in hard bolt and then Then I heat the axle rest up again, and let cool, finally I heat it in the wife's oven, to harden it.......... right? :confused: What am I missing? Cheers! Cheers!
  7. White vinegar eh? Heck we sell that in the liquor shop! OK, I'll give that a go, thanks! :D
  8. Thanks Ed, I'll give that a go! So far, the rest has worked fine, but I'm known as Mr. Overkill in some areas Cheers!
  9. And a good one Ken, thanks. The problem is, I'm having trouble finding good stock that thick. I need to find a good scrap yard that will let me pick through their piles, most won't let the public in the door................ I guess I need to show up with a case of beer in hand........... Cheers!
  10. OK, the main reason I wanted a forge is to make some tools up. One that I made recently was a curved bowl rest for my wood lathe......... I made this one out of 1" thick mild steel, I've used it a lot and it works well, so far, but to bend a piece, I needed to use the 3/4" stock. Here is a pic, at the time, I did not have a forge, only two propane burners, little ones, and I could only get one small section of the piece somewhat hot, so the bend is not the best, but it works.... Now that I have a forge, I will make another one, and I'll even try for an "S" curve. Now, this is just mild steel, I would really like to make this the best I can, can I harden it in some way? Heat it up, to non-magnetic, quench it, then heat it up in the oven to a set temp for X number of minutes and then let it cool...? Oh for quenching, I got some old Safflower oil from a buddy, about a gallon of it, should that work? Cheers!
  11. Thanks Alan, I have the vice, so I'll use it. Cheers!
  12. I don't know if this is exactly the right place to put this thread, but I thought as it has to do with "Sharp Things" I'd post it here. I don't know how this will go over, some consider it cheating, or a short cut, but it just works! I also use a lot of water stones for my sharp things. A buddy of mine, Tod Evans, shared this idea with me, and this is SO good, I just had to share!! ;D Basically you get a round piece of fairly thick MDF, and attach a piece of leather too it, mount it on something that spins, and then you add oil and polishing rouge to the leather. Yep, that simple, but I like simple......... Ready to cut out. Cutting a rough circle with my jigsaw (it will be trued up on the lathe) I also cut a piece of leather slightly larger than the piece of MDF, you can also see the mandrel I bout to chuck up in a drill or on the drill chuck on the lathe. I needed to drill a hole 12.7 mm in diameter. Drilled the hole and fit the mandrel With the drill chuck on the headstock of the lathe, I tried to true things up, but, the mandrel was too flexible, and the whole disc wobbled badly.........plan B I took out the mandrel, and mounted the disc on my 6" faceplate, this worked VERY well. I was easily able to true up the edge and the face of the disc, but man that MDF is DUSTY to turn, notice the cyclone hose right there..... I bought some glue that is designed for sticking leather to wood, it is a kind of contact cement. I let the glue sit 10 minutes, like it says on the package, then I stuck it together, and pounded the heck out of it, then for good measure............ I clamped another piece of plywood on top of it and let it sit for 15 minutes or so. Back on the the lathe, I trued up the edge again, cutting off a thin slice of the leather. The minor spots of glue on the face just scraped off with the back of my razor knife. Tod told me to now soak the leather in oil, so I did, he said any old oil would do, so I had some electric chainsaw chain oil sitting around, I figured that it would work well. I really soaked it and let it sit, then soaked it again. Then after 10 minutes or so, I wiped off the excess oil, and back on the lathe it went. Here it is loaded with Rouge, Tod said it would make a paste, and it sure did. So, how did it work? Man alive did it work!! I cannot believe how well it works, I have a bunch of chisels, they are ones that I inherited or I won on auction, that were in fairly rough shape, and needed a lot of work. I just ground them on the grinder, on the coarse wheel, and then went straitght to the Power Strop. Most were sharp enough to shave the hair on my forearm in less than a minute, WOW!!!! Bright, shinny, and SHARP!! Can't thank Tod enough for suggesting this, boy will this be a time saver! After sharpening 10 chisels, the Power Strop is still in great condition. You have to be careful how you present the chisel to the power strop, but it did not take me long to figure that one out. Man does this work!! Cheers!
  13. Hi Strine, tell you what, if you can read and write Japanese well enough to sign up for Yahoo Japan's online auctions, you are welcome to these tongs Scrap yards are not easy to find here, and if you do find one, they are often closed to the public. $10 don't buy much gas in Japan Cheers!
  14. Well, I have not won the auction yet, my bid is the only one in there, and for 3 days there was nothing, so I hope that the interest in these old tools is low, and I'll ge a deal. Cheers!
  15. I just found these on auction here in Japan.......... The auction is at $10 right now, I figure for that money, I might get a start on a collection of tongs....? 4 days to go, I wonder if there will be much interest in these old tools. Wish me luck! :D
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