Gary

Thanks jimbob!

This barrel of RR spikes followed a young man to my house tonight. He works out in the woods and found it near a rail line. The rusted side was down in the dirt and almost fell apart when he rolled it over, thinking it was empty. It weighs well over 200 lbs. The spikes were new when it ended up there and are in good shape now. They are HC too! 100_0725 - Blacksmith Photo Gallery http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/11582

I have a 150 lb. Trenton with an A 120314. Could you look up the mfg. date? Thanks http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/11580/size/big/cat//ppuser/121

Welcome back to the Northwest. I had the good fortune to work with Darryl Nelson up on Mt. Hood recently, and am taking a class taught by Mark Asperry in November at Darryl's Eatonville forge. Lots going on here, there's even opportunities at Ft. Vancouver. We have our fall workshop this weekend. The NWBA is a good group.

That Climax flux is great stuff! At our recent NWBA conference we were forging chain with it and had nary a link weld not take. The smith who brought it said he also bought up an old stash. I don't remember what's in it except the iron filings. When welding chain at home with regular borax I have to bring it to heat, bring it out give it a couple of light taps and put it back in the fire and then finish. At the conference we did it all in one heat.

I brought this up last year, there's a link to the posting below, or search "working stainless steel". I followed advice given on using 304 SS, worked it like steel and had no problems. I made several gaff hooks, I'm told they have not rusted yet. Hope this helps! http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/working-stainless-4308/

Thomas, thanks!

Thomas, how do you go about "handling" the RR bolts? I've got some and would like to try. thanks

It looks very good for a first effort. One way to get more material where you want it is to forge weld the poker end back on itself (faggot weld).First taper the end flat, then weld it back onto the body, now you have a loop, cut the loop and you have two prongs, the size of the parent stock, to draw out to the dimensions you want. Hopefully that was clear.

I start off with 1/4 x 18" stock, they generally end up at around 20" depending on the type of handle.

I made a gambrel out of 1/2 in. rd. stock last season for my brother. He hasn't gotten anything yet to try it out on.

Sorry it's taking so long. I haven't been able to get my pictures to upload. Glenn's helping out and they should be in the gallery soon. The first shows the main body and what I call the chamfered uprights. The second shows what I've found to be the normal mounting bracket for most PW vises that have them. Two of mine have these brackets. The third shows where they are marked on the bell housing. Peter Wright, Solid Wrought. Some are stamped on the top of the jaws, although are usualy too beat up to make out much. Hope this helps. Pics under Peter Wright, vise, leg vise. The reason the photos would not upload for you was the HUGE size. Reduce the size to 1024 max long or tall and it should work.