ramsies11

i think there are many many many good points put earlier on here. the rules listed by ewc arnt, in my opnion, rules, theyre more like guidlines(anyone whos ever seen pirates of the carribean will get this inuwindow) but there are some rules in smithing that should be followed. 1. as stated above, dont touch the hot end 2. hammer control, the heavier the hammer, the harder to control, someone beggining smithing (doesnt matter how long theyve used a hammer and what size it is) should use a relativly light hammer, 3lbs or less, this rule about starting with a smaller hammer doesnt just help with hammer control but also builds muscles in the arm used to let you start moving up on sizes. 3. glasses, ear plugs, and good welders gloves are a must for any smithy. 4. dont smith when under the influence, i think its self explanitory. although you are allowed to get "hammered" in any smithy ;) 5. last and most importantly HAVE FUN! :D

jigs are a great invention!! when you make your jigs put them on a think piece of sheet metal. 3/8" at the least and weld everything you need for that jig onto that peice of metal. drill two or three holes in your table and make it universal sizing for your vice/jigs. when not inuse just remove bolts and store. i was thinking on a "second table top" that is actually attatched to your table with hinges and when you need said jig just swing it up and bolt it down quickly. only uses one little section of the table and is useful. i personally own a half inch thick welding table i use quite often for everything. i havent yet made the "second tabletop" that i mentioned. i want STRONG hinges and my local supply stores dont carry them.

i dont like rough looks on anything i carry. i want it to look hand forged but not like a kid made it cold with his daddys ballpeen. i think a good polish is better over a rough sorta thing, not only for looks but cutting ability. its easier to slide off of smooth glass than to slide off of sand paper. the same concept applies. it takes more stength to cut through somthing when your blade is rough as opposed to cutting through somthing when the blade is smooth..... just my two-bits

ive always been told that if i got into blade smithing much to practice on some NON blade worthy steel untill i can forge it the way it needs to be and then use semi- good blade steel for a long long time untill i think ive become a master and then use it some more. he never told me when i could move up from the semi-good steel...... ive made junk knives that arent for anything but show before out of old wrenches. i find them perfect because they already have my basic shape, all i need is a point(if i so choose to put one) make the blade and then fit it on the handle. people have found the little piece that actually goes on the bolt is neat as a hand gaurd. my personal advice, (though not very knoledgable) is to start SMALL. when you see those huge buildings, they didnt just go out there and think they could do it really easily, they started with a scale model. my thought is, start with knives, theyre scale models of swords.

rth: whos who in the picture? glenn: can you message me about an ifi hat? my old camo hat that i wear for everything is held together with duct tape at the moment.

the soda cans wernt really what i ment. ill scrap soda cans. but i mean aluminum..... if that makes sense.

i was afraid i was getting a little in over my head. if i can find a set of cheap stamps for stamping metal, i will cheat on the back of it. but ive no idea how toproperly make a green sand cast of the basic cup shape i want.

i think your looking for either a commercial or an industrial firebrick. they run usually twice as much as economy does. economy firebrick is used in ovens and fireplaces. commercial is used in some higher end ovens and outside ovens (like acme brick has recently introduced pizza oven kits and theyre lined with commercial firebrick) industrial fire brick is stuff found in forges and furnaces in big factories. theyre all very very dense compared to their regular brick/block counter parts. the pay scale goes up on the denser ones. the density of it gives them their heat rating. economy fire brick is a little more dense than a regular brick. commercial is quite a bit more dense than economy. and industrial firebrick is very very dense compared to commercial. somthing you want to find will probabaly be industrial. you can get by with a commercial firebrick but if you decide for some odd reason you want to melt somthing like brass or steel in there, you want industrial. just BEWARE. they are very expensive little bits of masonry and they are very veyr fragile.

dan, how would i go about making said mould? im a little confused on where exactly i would pour in my aluminum and how exctly to get the shell out. and i have alot of old aluminum cookware and such hidden away in junk piles. i think all the easy to take aluminum tubing has already been stolen. and do i have to have some sort of kiln for the hardening or could i use an oven or even the propane forge/ foundry? fe-wood, i saw the bondo and plaster mould on a casting video on youtube where these two russian children made brass from scratch. that was one of my original thoughts on the mould but i didnt know how to make it.

okay gents. this is one of those, if it ever happens will it work? moments. if i was casting somthing larger (i probably never will but lets just say) an aluminum 50lb anvil. my crucible wouldnt be able to hold enough old soda cans to melt that lol. so would it work if i melted a pot fulla aluminum, poured it in the mould, melted a second pot full and poured it on the cooled aluminum already in the mold to finish the mould? second question would be if i could do what was mentioned above^ could i layer metals ontop of eachother? like say a layer of aluminum, then copper, then aluminum (i dont know how close the points are specifically but it doesnt just have to be that. just wondering.)

opera. just the general opera. and on occasion im known to listen to rap.

i know the oil rigs hire underwaters alot and alot of bridge builders hire underwaters. but thank you for the info

right now i dont have the proper equipment to cast brass or bronze. i still need a good respirator and a graphite crucible.

heres my question on this, might sound a little stupid but, why cant you make a latch for your lid and when you want to forge just tip the furnace on its side? in theory (the village idiots in this situation) if build right it should work...

my friend and i were over at my girlfriends house and her dad told us that his dad was an artillery man in WWII so his dad always sent home a massive amount of howitzer shells. what he said his father did was he cut off the bottom of it about 5inches down so he had a good deep bowl and he took a round file and made the spots for the cigarettes. my friend and i have already bought a 20$ howitzer shelll and made a very very cool ashtray out of it. being the kid that thinks he can make a buck off of anything, i was wondering how i would go about making a mould of the shell-ashtray and be able to mass produce them out of aluminum and use a nontoxic brass paint on them. ill sell them as a novelty and tell people they arent made from real howitzer shells. if someone knows how to make the mould where i can keep the stamped writing on the bottom and the depression on the firing cap on there itd be wonderful. i planned on making and selling these for about 15 bucks each.ive got enough scrap piles at my farm that i can find a good load of old scrap aluminum.

now i either watched or read this a long time ago, but i remember hearing about it (hearing also means reading because i cant remember if it was on history channel or one of the 15 blacksmith books at the library) but what it consisted of was: the foundry workers heated a metal (lets say bronze for the fun on it) where it was molten in an ancient crucible, they then had what ever they were sodering together laid out in a slight overlap, they poured a bead of it on the item, flipped it over and then did another bead. my question is: has anyone ever heard of this before and if so, do YOU remember where you saw it? i need it for an english report im doing on what im gonna be when i grow up, and i thought itd be somthing neat for the 2 paragraph history section of welding/sodering/brazing paper. (yes gents! im going to be a welder when i grow up!)

i would like some advice. ive always wanted to be a welder when i grew up, and i plan on going to TWS after highschool. and i was thinking on going to the TWS in FL. and they have a CDA in the same town, i was seriously thinking about going to TWS and learning pipeline welding(like the one in alaska) and underwater welding(thats why the CDA is important here). the first person i consulted about this idea and thought was my uncle who is a welder, who carries more weight on me than anyone else could ever do (this is a man whom ive idolised since i was a small child, he is literally my superman in my eyes). and he said it was a great ideaand i should do it definatly. then i talked to my parents about it and they said that they are cautious about it, this is a good field to be in both ways, the underwater divers work 3 months out of the year pulling like 180k a yr from my reaserch, and pipelines would earn me about that much if i worked it in between diving months in the year) underwater divers work 1 month and have 3 months off to make sure the nitrogen in the bloodstream leave the body well enough for another month of welding. if i do true underwater welding there are 4 main dangers in welding underwater. 1. issues with my tanks/breathing apparatus 2. electrocution. 3. the bends 4. the water will go thru electrolosis as a i weld down there and if the hydrogen and oxygen get trapped and get too hot they can explode. there are also dangers with pipeline welding, main 2 ive found are explosions and if your vehicle breaks down freezing to death of course out there. i was wondering what your thoughts on the matter were.

glenn is very knoledgable on this, he helped me with my business when i started setting it up, west plains iron and steel works. its short sweet and to the point. but its a nice name to help bring people in. i would personally go for the spotted dog forge out of the three, the spotting dog forge has a broader range of potential clientell. when your making somthing like this, your main point of selling is generally older people (60+ sorry if your that age range). those are the people who have the money from retire ment and (once again none of this at all is ment to be offensive twards anyone) and they feel they dont have to work harder for these items. the raven is somthing that is commonly associated with death (ever read the poem "the raven" by poe?) and the older crowd is less likely to go to a shop or buy from a place called such. also, not meaning to be harsh or anything, always when you meet potential clientell, cover your tatoos if possible, i have no idea why, but people have less of a wanting to buy from you after theyve seen a tatoo (unfortunatly this also means tattoos meaning from the armed forces. sorry gents) there are many many different things that can come by just by the way you carry yourself. if you smoke/chew dont do it infront of potential customers, it wards them away because they think their buy is just getting you another bag of chew or pack of smokes. they want to meet someone who is the epitome of politically correct-ness. just following these simple rules can help you. ive landed a contract with a local reality company because i kept the smokes in the truck that day we talked, the owner has told me that she finds smoking to be a nasty habit and if she met me with a smoke hangin out the mouth then i prolly wouldnt of gotten the contract. she now knows i do, but she understands and says dont do it when shes around. its all about how you present yourself. and if your business starts, dont ever turn down the small jobs, they might lead to bigger ones (i brazed the realitors mailbox back together too :P ) and, if you have a local flea market, make up some small stuff, and take it, you never know what theyll ask you to make next. i dont know if your business will have much welding to it, but if it does, pm me and ill give you a couple blue prints for some easy sellers.

i operate an ortamental iron and steel works business, mine have an anvil in the back round, with a gold outline of said anvil and cards amd then its just this: West Plains Iron and Steel Works Coulton Baker Founder/Operator (417) 372 3517 blacksmithingmountainman@gmail.com We deal in ortamental iron and steel! thats it, ive talked to a friend of mine here at my highschool who has a computer design class and i got like 500 for 10bucks. theyre great because theyre easy to write on, dont bleed and dont tear easy (i dunno what they do to em) the only problem is that he isnt exact when he cuts them. if your looking for some, talk to a teacher in said vocational class at the highschool near you, might do the same.

i dont see why not rusty. your fuel is just a little wet, kinda like starting a fire after it rains, it works, just takes a bit TO work.

its very nice work! ive seen alot of these animal heads but ive no idea how to forge them!

thank you all for your help. id like to close this topic now to keep people from commenting anymore on it.