Don A

Also, and some of you might know this gentleman, you need to check out this site: http://www.lucianaveryblacksmith.com/smithing.htm Be sure and run the video clips on each of the processes on the page. This is some of the best on-line demonstration I have seen.

1. Heat it. 2. Beat it. 3. Repeat steps 1 thru 2. Sorry... couldn't resist. Seriously though, you are at the right place. Jump on over to the www.iforgeiron.com side and dig in. There is a ton of good and useful information here. Be sure to check out the Blueprint section.

Check this out: http://www.knifenetwork.com/workshop/tut_chainsaw_burnett.shtml

This is the first thing I preach when I get new helper to pump the bellows. The one we use is pretty heavy. If you get to the point you are needing a gentle blast of air (just a light breeze) it is easy to pull down too lightly on the lever. You can generate a slight breeze using only the bottom chamber with no inflation of the top chamber. When this is the case, as soon as you release the lever, the tuyre pipe acts as a vacuum and draws forge gas into the bellows. As long as there is even a slight inflation to the upper chamber, this will not happen; the bellows exhales as it comes to rest. When using the bellows, always keep the upper chamber inflated.

Unless your spike is marked "HC" on the head, it is most likely mild steel and will not harden. If it is marked "HC" on the head, it has a little carbon in it an you might get it to harden to some degree. A spike will not, in my experience, get "file skating hard" like a piece of 1095, O1, or other high carbon steels.

Any of you coke users ever have trouble with the coke pieces exploding in the fire? I bought 50 lb of the metalurgic grade coke and used it, usually mixed with a little coal. Maybe it had drawn moisture or something, but occasionally a piece in the heart of the fire would go off like a small firecracker. That'll get your attention when you're looking right at the fire.

I'll second what oakwoodforge said. But the survey said "prefer". Lately I have been too lazy to build up a good charcoal supply at my home shop, so bituminous coal is what I use on a day-to-day basis.

http://www.nightscribe.com/Military/west_point_chains.htm http://www.jaycross.com/jayhoo/The%20Moores.htm I believe Paw Paw wrote about something similar in "The Revolutionary Blacksmith".

Vegtable oil, corn oil, olive oil... any light oil you have on hand. Clean transmission fluid is good, too, but it doesn't smell as good as cooking oil. Be sure you pre-heat it before you quench. Just heat up a piece of scrap and drop it in your quench tank. Also, you might want to keep a fire extingusher handy.

An old brake drum makes a good jig for your big hook. Screw or bolt the drum (open end down, lug side up) to a good size board; 2x10 or 2x12... whatever's handy. This way the drum should taper from the bottom up; easier to remove your piece when finished. Drive a big nail or a screw a little more than 1/2" from the drum. Forge the small up-turned hook on the end, and do any other hot work as Ed suggested. Then, take a good, long bending heat, catch the small hook over the nail, and bend around the drum. You can either rig it for the jig to rotate... probably a 2 man job, or you can fix it rigidly to a stump or something and just walk it around. This will be one to do in the yard unless you are blessed with a really spacious shop. Oh, by the way, you'll have to look around for a brake drum to match the diameter of the hook you want to end up with. I suppose a feller could weld the stop to the drum and engineer a crank handle of some sort to make a self-contained hook jig. I know exactly what you are dealing with here. I tried to do my first one "over the horn", and the length and vibration were a real headache.

I've not been able to go yet, but this would be a good place to start when you get to NC: http://folkschool.com/blacksmithing05.shtml

Enjoy it while you still get to keep half. One of these days you'll get married. :wink:

Irnsrgn, Thank you much for the input. I have made the valve bodies removable, so I am going to go ahead and give it a try as is, since I'm already this far in. I can't remember exactly where I picked the info up at, but I had copied this formula and saved it several months ago: BTW, this thing is only 3' x 4'. If it doesn't work to suit me, I'll drop those boards out and open everything up a couple inches. Also, I might go ahead and bob that pipe off flush and add some tapered blocks in beside it. This won't be as efficient as a cone, but it might help with the friction. Good call. Thanks again for the advice, Don

OK, let's see if this works. Here's some shots of my progress so far. I hope to get everything tied together this weekend. Let me know if you have any questions.

I like a man that draws it before he builds it... shows that your thinking. Two things I see in your drawing that I don't think are necessary. 1. - the stick to hold it level. Your bellows are normally going to be ridgidly attached to the forge pipe when in use, so it finds its own "level". 2. - the weight holder and weights. Sometimes a well made bellows doesn't need any extra weight. If it does, lay a piece of scap, a brick, or an extra hammer on top it. Neither of these things are bad; just more work. Have a look at this picture. It shows you that you really don't need to over-think the whole forge and bellows concept: http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/LC/Explore/Circle_of_Cultures/Cultures0024.JPG Keep drawing; keep building.

That'd be a monster of a forge: http://64.176.180.203/charcoalretort.htm ... probably need some mighty long tongs, too :wink:

Archie, I am actually hoping to start the final assembly on a double-action bellows this evening. Mine is made of mostly salvaged material. I wanted to build a cheap set before I went and invested in good wood and leather. This set will be mostly ply-wood, except fot the top. I glued up some 6" pine flooring for the top. I plan to use canvas ($4 / yard) instead of leather ($$$). I believe I can paint & stain all the "moderns" and still make it look good enough for demos. It is now in 5 pieces, so I'll try to get some pictures of the parts and the final assembly. Still gotta install the valves then attach all the hinges. Then it should be ready to cover.

Well, the first thing I made resembled a coat hanger that had been run over by a lawn mower :? . Looks good! Only thing you might try next time is to use a mid- to high-carbon steel so you can harden it up a bit. You'll never tell the difference when picking knots, but a heat-treated piece would stand up to the cutting and scribing a little better over time. I'm thinking that a coil spring from an old car or truck would fit the bill. Also, you might want to fix him a little leather "boot" to cover the cutting edge. I get nervous when I'm using a tool with a sharp edge staring back at me. Good work. Now get busy and make some more stuff.

This is the first one I got my hands on: "Blacksmithing for Beginners" by D. James Morre Still very helpful. A lot of good projects, too.

Archie, You might want to drop in here: http://www.knifenetwork.com/workshop/index.shtml ...and scroll down to: Forged Blade Tutorials Also some good info at: http://p222.ezboard.com/bprimalfires File steel is very high carbon; I understand that a lot of them are 1095. That'd be around 1% carbon. BUT... a lot of modern made files are not HC, but are simply case hardened. Do some research on spark testing steel so you can learn to at least tell the difference between HC and mild. And learn to spot old Nicholson "Black Diamond" files at yard sales and old garages and hoard them like gold. Until you get used to looking at the colors in steel, use a magnet. Heat your steel gradually and evenly just to the point that a magnet will no longer stick to it (use a hard magnet with a handle). This is, as far as us scroungers are concerned, the critical temperature. After forging, you need to take it to critical and then stick it in a can of ashes or vermiculite and let it cool slowly (over night). This is a basic method for annealing steel. When it's cool, it will be as soft as it is going to get. This is when you do any filing, drilling, grinding and sanding you are going to do. THEN you proceed to heat-treat your blade. I'll leave it at that. You really need to study all of the tutorials above (for starters). Way too much good information to just let it lay there. Good luck to you.

I've got a regular gig at an 18th Century historic site, and we normally have a large group of volunteer reenactors- soldiers, Indians, and generic nere do-wells. The blacksmith shop serves as a hangout for those who have nothing better to do, especially during the cold months. A couple Decembers ago, we opened the shop up at about 9:00am and it was cold. The forge is the only heat we have in there. The anvil was like a block of ice, so first thing, we threw a slab of scrap steel into the fire, let it get red, and laid it on the face of the anvil, let soak a few minutes, then repeated the process. About the time the steel had gone to black heat, a big guy from down at the Cherokee camp came walking in. In the spirit of helpfulness, he proceeded to remove the junk laying on the anvil. Since it was a good-sized piece, he went for it with a four-fingered eagle claw grip. Pssssst� no more fingerprints. As they often say, it didn�t take him long to look at it. A good time to have an icy slack tub handy.

Dan (Rantalin), What type of forge are you using? What are you using for an air source? What kind of work do you normally do (blades, s-hooks, gates & railing ,etc.)?

Wow :shock: Good stuff. I certainly appreciate it. OK, so talk to me a little bit about buying a torch. Is there a name brand, "everything you need to get started in one box" set-up available? What would you recommend? I assume that most of you would advise going name-brand and staying away from the Harbor Freight type stuff. Right? What is the whole torch rig going to cost (roughly)? What about the cost of acetylene and oxygen? I have never watched anyone weld with a torch. Do you use any kind of filler rod, or are the mated surfaces simply melted together?

I have been smiting iron for the better part of three years now, so I am beginning to think the condition might be permanent. So far, when it comes to tools, I have been a minimalist; by necessity and not by choice. My tools have been very basic: anvil, hammer, tongs

I just signed on here a couple days ago and haven't had the chance to post much so far. I recognize a lot of names here from the old Keenjunk forum, as well as a lot of the other blacksmith and bladesmith www hang-outs. It looks like a great site, and I'm about caught up on reading all of the old posts. Anybody here from the East Tennessee area?