NRunals

Like myself. Welcome to the site Max and Kate. I'm from Grand Rapids.

In my opinion if you can't do what you want to on the anvil, and you have the option of fixing that then go for it. As long as it's repaired correctly I think you should.

haha, yeah that thick plate can be pretty stubborn.

I always plan out what I'm going to do the night before. Then I wake up, have some coffee, stretch, get a fire going and begin.

I usually like to have the anvil about 4 inches higher than the knuckle rule. You should start out just like pkrankow suggested and see how it feels.

uggg... that makes me sick.

I really like it, good work..... also good work on the description for the video haha. If there wasn't that disclaimer people would for sure think you were a major creep.

This is my second fully finished knife, it's W-1 with black dymondwood scales and loveless bolts. It's flat ground on a real cruddy old water-stone. A friend of mine is into leather working, so he made me a bag and we traded.

Haha, me and a friend of mine have been doing the exact same thing... steel for leather.

thanks, guess i didn't think about MABA

Anyone here in Michigan have a good hook-up for coal? I'm almost out :(

I'd say use whatever you have most of/whatever was cheapest first.

haha well I guess Glenn beat me to it.

I'm not 100% sure but I'd say big enough for the 12" round to fit into it. I've seen this style before and they did something kinda neat with it. They angled the square section just a few degrees downward on the outside of the building and drilled a hole or two in it to let all the rain/snow out and you don't need any kind of a cap on the top.

That looks really nice, good job cleaning it up. For the handle you could cut the existing one off, make a new one and attach it how it was originally attached.

i would say at the very least make it rise two feet above the peak of the building it's in. also the larger the diameter of the pipe the better

thanks, yeah it was a bummer.... oh well guess it's a part of the process huh?

I've read in quite a few places that for the most part older files are W-1 and newer files might not be... does this information sound correct? i forged a blade from an old file, never got it too hot during forging, normalized it, then annealed it, filed it/sanded it where it need, turned the lights off, brought it up to a cherry red, and quenched it in water.... it warped and cracked in a couple places. W-1 should be quenched in water right? i usually use vegetable oil for 10XX steel, should i have just used the oil, or maybe used hot or warm water? thanks for any tips.

freelance i really respect you for not backing down from your beliefs.

very informative thread, very nice anvil downfish

this isn't the hammer that the thread was originally about, i didn't get a chance to take a picture of that one, but it turned out nicely. this one is from the same axle though. overall i'm pretty happy with it. it's tough enough and hard enough. the only thing i'm not pleased with is the transition from the hole to the claw. it isn't as pretty as it once was, i guess i got careless somewhere in the process... oh well, something to work on next time right?

ya know, i always wondered if pickup tongs were really something i needed or even wanted... like you said can't i just use my other tongs? this all changed when i found a pair of Atha pickup tongs at a junk shop for pretty cheap. they come in pretty handy when you're trying to maneuver a large or oddly shaped piece... or just bringing a piece to a vice. in my opinion make sure that you have the tongs to hold your most common size stock before you spend a bunch of time or money on the pickups... however if you stumble onto them by all means grab them

i saw that at SOFA this year. it was really cool

i'd like a striker to give me a hand once in a while..... i've been doing a lot of 1"+ square stuff.

if you haven't seen it this year at sofa they forge welded a new face plate on an anvil. it was pretty neat but not many people have the resources to do it. YouTube - Anvil Welding