Mark Wargo New2bs

Very nice first knife. Much better than my current projects! Mark

So, there I was trying to forge a basic spear from a 3/4 coil spring. After roughly forging the socket, I went to town on the spear blade. As you can see from the rather dark picture, two cracks propogated across the socket. The one that concerns me the most is where the socket meets the blade. I know this is a silly question, but if this is caused by putting too much stress on it while forging, how am I to avoid this in the future? Mark

I like the look of it. To me it looks as though the handle works well with the blade. Thanks for sharing. Mark

Was curious what folks were paying for scrap steel by the pound at the junkyard. I bought some leafsprings, steel plate, and such for 30 cents a pound. Mark

Had to do a double take here. I'm guessing this is the USS Alabama Battleship set up as a museum in Mobile. When I first read the post I was wondering why a nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine would need a blacksmith shop. Mark

Thanks to all who contributed to this thread and who suggested forging your own tools as well. I was tempted to try the splitting wedge idea, but after the instructors at a blacksmith class I took donated a jack hammer bit, I went to work on it today and the results are attached. It did take me a tad longer than Grant's 30 minutes (measured in hours LOL), but I surely did get a sense of accomplishment. I'm sure my wife will be happy that she doesn't have to run hold the hatchet for me too.

Is that an eagle logo on the side of the anvil? It's a bit hard to make out. My Fisher has it's logo there. Mark

Welcome to the site. Nice use of available materials on the forge. Lots of useful information to be found and lots of helpful folks here. Mark.

Was the MFC meeting cancelled last weekend due to cold weather? Mark

If you do a google search for the specific alloy you are working, you can locate spec sheets for that type steel. It will tell you the proper forging temperature as a range, the proper quenching temperature and medium, and the correct tempering temperatures. Mark

That is a nice knife. I really like the handle. Thanks for sharing. Mark

I've forged a bit with Coal, Corn, and Charcoal (both Cowboy brand and homemade). Cowboy, as mentioned, does throw more sparks than homemade. I used one bag and forged for 4.5 hours, so it cost about $1.50 per hour. Depending on the cost of obtaining other fuels and the frequency of forging that is pretty reasonable when compared to what you would spend per hour on other hobbies. Mark

Very nice. Looks like you were aiming for a no nonsense practical knife and hit the mark!

Very nice. Thanks also for the picture of axe in hand, it really shows the mass. Mark

Thanks for the insight and advice. The specific areas to check is very helpful information as I have no access to lathes or mills of any type. This is the largest vice that I've ever seen in my admittedly limited experience. From memory I would judge that the jaws are 5 inches wide. All of the metal was in great shape and the jaws had no damage. He had two that were both listed for $50, but the other was probably 30% smaller than this one and had no spring on it. I'm in no rush to have a vice, so I have time to evaluate things. It will cost me $15 in gas to go look at it whether I buy it or not, so I'm probably going to pass until I get back over that direction on other business. Thanks much. Mark

I found the pictured vice available for $50. It seems to be in good physical shape, but when I turned the handle, it would not open on it's own (It moved freely by hand after spinning the handle). Is it possible that the spring has lost it's umph and needs to be replaced? Also, the ring between the handle and the vice jaws was loose, and moved out with the handle. Would $50 be reasonable for this vice, assuming I can get some of my more mechanically inclined friends to assist in repairing the workings? I apologize for the photo quality, but it was late and I was freezing and all I had was the phone. Thanks. Mark

It is possible. It might be probable depending on the level of smithing skill of the person doing it and those helping/advising. leaf springs vary considerably in their starting dimensions. The type of leaf spring you start with will determine the physical difficulty of getting the final shape right. I have leaf springs that are thick bars of basically straight stock, some that are thick bars of stock shaped like an hour glass, and some that are 1.75 inches wide by .25 inches thick and already have the edges beveled. I would think that turning any one of them into a functional sword is going to be quite a task, but that latter seems intuitively more likely to lead to success in that it will require less moving of material to arrive at the final shape. However, arriving at that shape is easy to say, hard to do. Talking about making a knife is easy, convincing the metal to do what you want it to do is the more difficult thing. If you haven't made a knife, give it a shot and see how it turns out. Experience the fullness of the frustration. Determine if you want the vastly increased frustration of trying to get a whole sword's worth of metal to do what you want it to. All of this is my two cents worth and I'm a rookie blacksmith (if I can even refer to myself as that) who has only researched a bit of knife making and sword making. I've roughly made a few rail road spike knives.

Plus the South shall rise again!

That is just fantastic work. Thanks for sharing. Mark

Well, since I was mainly cleaning it in the kitchen while my wife recovered from a hysterectomy, I used Simply Orange and Dawn dishwashing liquid after the initial spray down with DW-40. I used a wire wheel on my dremel and a larger one on my drill to clean up the exterior. I used a wire brush on the interior. For some of the tight spaces inside I ended up using a dental pick. Currently it's lubed with motor oil. Each of the three legs is in some state of rust deterioration on the bottom, but otherwise it's in great shape.

Got the Champion 400 cleaned out, lubed up, and painted. She turns very nicely. With the air exhaust covered, the handle makes 3 rotations after you stop cranking. Sadly, it seems that the handle shaft was peened into place. Anyone have any suggestions for how to re-handle it? Mark

Practice, Practice, & more Practice. I received several books on blacksmithing and metal work for Christmas, along with the Hofi DVD on moving metal. I've read most of them at least twice now, so time with the forge and hammer seems to be where to focus my efforts. I also plan to attend meetings of the Mississippi Forge Council to network and learn new skills. Mark

On the old forum I believe it was based on your number of posts.

That does have a nice shape. One thing the fellow that taught me to make leaves showed on making the veins was once you have your initial hit in, put the chisel back in that grove and roll it to the outside, that keeps it nice and lined up as well as giving a deeper dimple in the outside of the leaf, which makes the edge of the leaf a bit wavy. We love grilling, so I better try to make the wife a steak flipper! (Yes, the wife does the grilling, heheh) Mark

Thanks. I did heat treat it by quenching it in Olive Oil and then tempering it at 450F degrees in the oven. While the temper on the point will be lost quickly, the end that is hammered should retain the temper I believe. I'm just trying to practice all the basics to improve my skill. I need to forge more in the daytime so I can line things up better. Mark