habu68

The Brazing Book

use empty cardboard boxes to mark the spaces for your forge and each of your work centers, anvil, drill, vise, power hammer, work table, etc. Then take a 4' bar of steel and move from the "forge" to the anvil, to the power hammer, vise, drill and work table. This will give you a feel for the space and save your back. Another hint: for a 10x12 space, if you can, make sliding doors or out swing doors, this way the door does not use valuable floor space. Also a window set at the level of your chop box can allow for the cutting of long stock. My wood shop has an out swing door and a window on opposite ends and my radial arm saw in the middle. I can rip 20' stock in my 10' foot building;)

Strine, I have tied that knot in 2" rope. You, sir, have an evil mind.:D

I make finger rings bent from horse shoe nails and square concrete nails, I wrap them around a piece of 3/8" rod that has been bent double to catch the head. they are sized on a handle cut off from a iron worker's spud wrench. It is a good way to add value to your work. I get 3 bucks for the rings, but then again I'm not making the nail.... I also give away more than I sell.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/3420/size/big/cat/recent/limit/recent Here is an easy blower gate, the blower is from a dead dish washer. I have it switched with a "normally off" button switch that i can step on when I need air. the can lid is over the intake side of the fan. I also have a 12 volt blower from a car heater system set up the same way. It works well for me....

your local pro paint store will have 5 gallon metal pails with lids, for a reasonable price.

I tried it sometime back with some success.. http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/wood-pellets-2496

Speaking of great entertainment for kids... how many of us old guys/gals noted the passing this week of Mr. Wizard. Watch Mr. Wizard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Since the tip of the joint is protected by the barrel, would it have to be hardened? The end that would be exposed to cutting could be hardened and wraped in a damp rag while the brazed spring was attached. Then again if this was an early iron (not steel) lock, would it have been heat treated at all? Locks only keep honest people honest..... neat lock

At the historical park I worked at, we placed large chunks of stove coal (one pound or better) in a old wagon tire on a concrete slab and pounded it with a short piece of railroad rail welded to a piece of pipe for a tamper. The iron tire held most of the "flyers" in place, untill it was removed and we used a shovel for clean up.

Another good high carbon junkyard steel is garage door springs, check with a garage door installer he will have a pile of old ones behind his shop. heat it in the forge and place the spring over a pipe in the vise and you can roll it off in 10' lengths, there is as much as 70' of rod in each spring.

A railroad bolt, that is used to hold the track plates to the track, has a 1" thread and about a 2" round head. I thread the nut on and then heat and square up the thread to fit the hardy. This gives a nice shoulder for the hardy tool. The bolt has a fair amount of carbon so they can be heat treated, shaped and polished to taste.

I have this drawing from Paw Paw's book "Revolutionary Blacksmith" He gave me a print of it when I commented on how it touched me. Toast to a fallen hammer He was heated in the forge of life, shaped by the hammer of Christ on the anvil of God, quenched in tears of sorrow and joy, tempered in the hearts of those who loved him, and has gone to find his place in the gates of Heaven. Three times we ring our anvils in his memory. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen Mike McGinty AKA Habu

I have sometimes used woodstove pellets with success. They coke up much like coal at the edge of the fire and burn hot and clean. The btu output is about half that of coal, so you need to use more of it. It is cheap and available. If you cantrol the size of the fire with water the pellets break down to a saw dust pulp that can be used for a cave type fire. Welding heat was no problem. ymmv

You don't need a fancy lathe to turn simple shapes like a bender template. A jig set up on a drill press can be used to form the die. House of Tools -Canwood Drill Press Lathe Attachment

Lindsay books puts out a book on a simple pipe bender. The illistrations on the web site give a pretty good picture on how it is built. Gingery's Pipe Bending Machine

Wyoming stoaker Anthracite coal that goes through my home town in Colorado to the big power plants is sometimes high in sulfur. This makes it hard on steel and smell bad when burning. It is lower in btu than a good Bituminous like pocahontas #3. It just means you have to use more of it and hold your nose.:(

Take some closeup photos of his hands, and his hammer in them.. at rest and working.

6 sides of the cube flatten each of the 8 corners of the cube would give you 14 flats. I guess i never counted them. And I still don't know what to call it... tho if you did not strike 2 of the points you would have 12 flats and a work in progress. Cuboctahedron I looked it up.........:p

Shure I knew that..... :rolleyes:

Gretna Green From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Gretna Green is a small village on the west coast in the south of Scotland.[1] It is in Dumfries and Galloway, near the mouth of the River Esk, and has a railway station serving both Gretna Green and Gretna.[1] The Quintinshill rail crash, with 227 deaths the worst rail crash in Britain, occurred near Gretna Green in 1915. Another interesting fact about Gretna green is that one of the telluric ley lines that traverses Scotland known as the "Rose Line" begins there at the border and continues up through the center of Scotland. It also passes through Rosslyn Chapel. Gretna Green is a wonderful, rich, cultural treasure that features often in folklore and history. Gretna Green is distinct from the larger nearby town of Gretna.[1] Both are alongside the M74 and both are very near to the border of Scotland with England.[1] Gretna is the home of the football team Gretna F.C.. [edit] Marriage Its main claim to fame are the Blacksmith's Shops, where many runaway marriages were performed. These began in 1753 when an Act of Parliament, Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act, was passed in England, which stated that if both parties to a marriage were not at least 21 years old, then consent to the marriage had to be given by the parents. This Act did not apply in Scotland where it was possible for boys to get married at 14 and girls at 12 years old with or without parental consent. Since 1929 both parties have had to be at least 16 years old but there is still no consent needed. In England and Wales the ages are now 16 with consent and 18 without. In addition, English law required the "asking of the banns" (periodic announcements of an impending marriage, with an invitation for anybody who knew of a reason the parties could not marry to state the reason) or, later, the advance issuance of a license for a marriage to be legal; this allowed people who opposed a marriage—even one that could be performed legally—to know that it was planned, and thus possibly to prevent it. This led to many elopers fleeing England and making for the first Scottish village they came to — Gretna Green. The Old blacksmith's shop, built around 1712, and Gretna Hall Blacksmiths Shop 1710 became, in popular folklore at least, the focal point for the marriage trade. The Old Blacksmiths opened to the public as a visitor attraction as early as 1887. The local blacksmith and his anvil have become the lasting symbols of Gretna Green weddings. Scottish law allowed for 'irregular marriages', meaning that, so long as a declaration was made, in front of two witnesses, almost anybody had the authority to conduct the marriage ceremony. The local blacksmiths in Gretna became known as 'anvil priests'. As a "forger", the blacksmith marries hot metal to metal over the anvil, in the same way the anvil priests forged a union between couples who had eloped in love. Gretna's two Blacksmiths shops and countless Inns and smallholding became the backdrops for hundreds of thousands of weddings. Today, Gretna Green remains one of the most popular wedding venues in the world, and thousands of couples still come from all over the world to be married 'over the anvil' at Gretna Green. In law, Gretna Green marriage came to mean a marriage transacted in a jurisdiction that was not the residence of the parties being married, in order to avoid restrictions or procedures imposed by the parties' home jurisdiction. A famous Gretna marriage was the second marriage in 1826 of Edward Gibbon Wakefield to the young heiress Ellen Turner, the Shrigley Abduction. In 1856 Scottish law was changed to require 21 days residence for marriage, and a further law change was made in 1940. Other Scottish Border villages previously used for these marriages were Coldstream Bridge, Lamberton, Mordington and Paxton Toll. But today, possibly as many as one of every six Scottish weddings still take place at Gretna Green or in the town of Gretna.

Try opening up the twist enough to put a ball bearing inside the twist and retwist, then, you can tell the kids you used 4 elvin smiths to form the ball after it was made. Put a cube in one, 12 sided (what's it called) cube in the next and a ball bearing in the third to show the steps the elves have to use to get to the finished ball. It will leave them scratching their heads.:)

Let's start a string of blacksmith phrases, history, traditions and stories. It could be as simple as "striking while the iron is hot" or "too many irons in the fire", luck of the horse shoe, loosing ones temper or Blacksmith weddings. some thoughts on the hammer and gavel to "Strike a deal" , "hammer out a deal" These are good subjects to hold a crowd when doing a demo and add to the fun of our trade.

my 8th grade earth science teacher in a much less PC time explained Stalactites and stalagmites. " think of a ballerina and bugs, when the mites go up the tights (tites) go down". Some things you never forget.

Here is the blower and saw that I picked up in the last week The blower turns with the finger tips and will run several turns after you let go. It needs a wooden handle for the crank and I had to remove the mouse nest from the blower. I went to with my wife to her chemo apointment last week and was talking to a gentleman who was also there for treatment, we got to talking about blacksmithing and he said he had a old blower in the garage that he was going to get rid of and that I could have it if I would use it. He hated to see it used as yard art. The saw required a belt and some adjustments but runs like a charm, it uses standard 12" hack saw blades. It came from Craigslist also, $25 and a $7 belt.