IronAlchemy

I would say that tool steel is to be avoided especially if you want to forge this by hand. Mild steel will hold up fine for this use. Also, 1/2" is overkill. You can get by with 1/4" stock but I usually use 3/8" x 1 1/2" to start. There are a few tricks to making one. Have a look at the step by step instructions on the net. Froes look simple but there is quite a bit of forging in doing the bevel, a socket and a forge weld. Since you don't have a forge yet, you can substitute some grinding and welding. If you go that route, I would use 1/4" stock or less, grind a blunt bevel and weld on a piece of pipe for the handle socket. If you do a search for froes on the Internet, that is what you will mostly find.- Doug

Hypercard was an application provided with Apple Macintosh systems from 1984 through 2004. It was a simple to use user interface builder/database. It was not continued when the Macintosh moved to their new OS X operating system. My intent is to port the Yellin job cards into some system that more modern computers can run and make it available on iForge. - Doug

I had at one time a copy of the Apple Mac Hypercard Stack that contained the Samuel Yellin job cards. I think that this was created by Jack Andrews for his book, Samuel Yellin: Metalworker since he talks about it in the book and has a summary of some of the information. I have hit a dead end trying to get contact info for Jack. Skipjack press seems to have been sold at least once and Google has not helped me so far. Does anyone have a copy of the Hypercard stack and/or current contact info for Jack Andrews that they would share? Thanks, Doug

John...the list of references is pretty long. Most of the classic technique books on blacksmithing contain sections with detailed descriptions of how to make or assemble pieces. If you have anyone nearby with a good collection of references, I would try them. Here are a few of my favorites that are still in print (I think). Most have drawings but some have mainly photos. The ABCs of Blacksmithing, Fridolin Wolf Professional Smithing, Donald Streeter The Backyard Blacksmith, Lorelei Sims Werk und Werkzeug des Kunstschmieds, Otto Smirler Also, following on from Danger Dillon's post, check out the blacksmithing references in Google Books. I probably have 20 old and free references from their collection. - Doug

While the orientation is different, the linkage mechanism is similar to this pedal powered chasing hammer - http://www.persimmonforge.com/pages/pedalhammer.html - Doug

I agree that if you are welding heat treated H13 or S7 that they should be preheated to just below the final tempering temperature to affect the heat treatment as little as possible. This is the manufacturer recommended approach for die surface repair for example. In our case, these were MIG welded in the annealed state to a mild steel plate and then heat treated. Final tempering temperature is a function of the hardness vs toughness that you are looking for. We oil quenched giving an initial harness of Rc 60-62. We used a tempering temperature of 450 F and ended up with a Rc of 53-56 in the finished dies. That is quite hard compared to 4140 or H13 dies but was in line with S7 dies supplied by other power hammer makers. If we see weld failures, I guess we will have to rethink our process. Thanks - Doug

Dave - bummer to hear about the broken weld on your die since I was on the team that worked on welding those up. Could be we just executed a bad weld. I did cut one die up to check the welds and it looked good so, I hope, it was not a general problem. Let me know if your repair has problems. I would be happy to re-weld and heat treat them for you. Ciladog - I am interested in your comment on 1000 F preheat. The Crucible spec sheet does not recommend that high a temperature. Several sources recommend 600 which is what we used since it was also the max temp on our oven. Sounds as if you have some experience that would suggest higher is better? Thanks - Doug

Very nice chisels Ed. I really like the form. Is there anything more that you can tell us about how you did them? I want to do some socketed chisels for my wife for Christmas and could use advice. Are these mild steel for use in ice? I notice the 3" is chipped a bit. How did you forge the sockets? Are they forge welded? Thanks - Doug

I only yesterday posted my Gichner's 2011 pictures on Flickr. I had a picture of a wheat head done by Jonathan Nebhor that you might get some ideas from. http://www.flickr.co...157629871002596 You can also find some pictures of how to cut one step-by-step in "The ABCs of Blacksmithing" by Fridolin Wolf, pp 96-97. We can thank Judy Berger of BlueMoon Press who worked with Fridolin Wolf to consolidate two of his German volumes into a single English translation. - Doug

LOL...you have to be careful what you ask for around here. :D I learned a cool new and potentially useful technique on casting pewter on wood though. Very nice. Thanks for posting the question! - Doug

I just sat through a very good hands on session by Ron Claiborne at the Batson Blade Symposium on how to do silver wire inlay. You can find some good descriptions online as well as a section in Joe Keeslar's book, "Handles and Guards". A few pointers from what I was taught and have barely used myself: The wood that you use is important. The preferred wood is curly maple since it will not chip or split easily. The wire used is actually rectangular not round. Using a chasing hammer, you only lightly tap it into the groove you cut. You are not really upsetting it into the groove. The wire is held in place by lightly moistening the surrounding wood to swell the groove closed when you are done. Cutting the groove is like chasing. Ron used tools made by grinding down the ends of 2-3 inch sections of old hacksaw blades. The tool thickness should be about the thickness of your wire, 20-24 gauge. These tools are hand held and struck with a chasing hammer. You lightly chisel a groove to about the depth of your wire height, tap in the wire, dampen it, file flush and finish along with the handle. You can use nickel silver, fine silver, gold and I am sure other malleable metals. Joe Keeslar recommends 0.013 x 0.055 or 0.008 x 0.055 wire in his book. The technique is very doable requiring a minimum of tools, a steady hand and a little practice. Good luck with it and please share back how it goes for you. - Doug

Freeman - I have a Refflinghaus and live just south of Chapel Hill. Give me a call if you want to experience one in person. As to hardness, my Leeb hardness tester shows mine to be Rc 60-63 across the entire surface so certainly mine is impressively hard. No dents or chips yet but I have only had it since last summer. I do like that it does not dent with a missed blow as my smaller Hay Buden does. Dick Nietfeld at Shady Grove Blacksmith Shop was good to do business with. - Doug

Pete - Your suggested approach sounds sensible. However, my experience with 4140, H13 and S7 is that it depends on the temp control in your kitchen oven and what hardness you are shooting for in the final product. My kitchen oven swings +/- 30F so it is quite difficult to hit, for example, a 450F temper for S7 to hit hardness in the upper 50s Rc. Also, the amount of radiative heat gain from the oven elements may affect the metal temperature especially at the surface. I see this as a soft surface hardness that needs to be ground away on hammer dies to get full hardness. Until I get a tempering oven with decent control, I just take the risk and wait for my heat treating oven to cool. Typically, you let your piece cool to 150F before tempering. However, the quench is largely completed at a much higher temperature. For heavier sections, I quench to a level below the key transitions from the TTT curve and let it cool slowly to 150 while my oven cools. For small tools like drifts, punches and chisels, I just don't worry about the stress in the tools and temper later at some convenient time. - Doug

Rob - Welcome to the craft. I live just north of Pittsboro so we are practically neighbors. Drop me a personal mail if you would like to connect. I first started forging to make woodworking tools myself but went over to the dark side completely once I got started. Cheers, Doug

KYBOY et al. - fantastic series of posts and very timely for me. I am signed up to do a 2 day hawk class with Ryan Johnson at JCCFS in March and had been starting my homework to get the most of it. You guys have made my homework easy! The trip is my wedding anniversary so the project just has to be for my wife! Fortunately, she is the woodworker and does most of the wood splitting so I have a few ideas. Any ideas for alternative sources for 1075 to 1095 stock? Admiral Steel seems to be the source for 1/4" to 1/2" bar and they have been good to deal with in the past. However, they don't have any eCommerce presence. Many Thanks - Doug

I did the plate welding and we did it with the tire broken loose from the rim, wedged back with wooden wedges to keep it away from the heat, and the gap filled with wet rags. I know we have some pictures of it but they have not been posted anywhere yet. - Doug

Trip, we are doing a build in Hillsborough, NC on Dec 10-11. I don't know your personal situation but you will definitely save yourself some time and head scratching to attend and help with a build before attacking this solo. We may be within striking distance of you. I am pretty sure a pair of extra hands would be welcomed. Email me if you are interested and I will connect you with the organizer. - Doug

Senft, I have done a little with flame enameling as it is called. I learned it from Clay Spencer whose wife does enameling. I have mainly used it as an accent for a few leaves in a small design or for white dogwood flowers with blush shading. Sorry but I uncharacteristically don't have any pictures handy. If I can find any in my collection, I'll post them later. Here are my notes from Clay's demonstration: Background: Klyr Fire - a material that helps enamel powders stick to the surface Veins or chisel detail will be obscured by the enamels so they need to be very bold to show at all Use medium expansion enamels designed for copper Colors can be mixed Use #2030 fusion flux Process:Clean surface - does not need to be shiny Apply Klyr Fire with brush Use small sieve to dust on flux lightly to completely cover surface (borax can be used) Dust on enamel to completely cover Dry Klyr Fire on hotplate on low Fuse the enamel using a propane hand torch; follow these steps and don't hurry a. Slowly heat to be sure Klyr Fire is dry. (Do not let it bubble - very bad.) You can recoat at this stage without cooling. b. Increase heat until it goes through an "orange peel" stage c. Colors will change when it is done (this stage takes ~1 min @ 1500 in a kiln) You can use paper patterns to apply designs when sieving powders. Order enamels from Thompson Enamel PO Box 310 Newport, KY 41072 info@thompsonenamel.com or sales@thompsonenamel.com

Monty, I visited Elmer Roush's shop in Brasstown in the spring when I took a class from Dan Miller at Campbell Folkschool. Elmer demo'd doing a socketed arrowhead. About a dozen pictures are posted in my Flickr set for that class. I have included a link to a picture of his final arrowhead but you can see the full series if you follow the link. This was a viking style arrowhead forged in mild steel using charcoal. https://secure.flick...157626535597712 Arrowheads are small and the socket is challenging. You'll know you have great hammer control when you can do these. Good luck, Doug

Thanks for sharing back your progress. Next time I need to restock, I guess I'll try Fred since he is only about 15 miles from me.

Very nice. I love this motif and you did a really clean and striking rendition. I had always called this the Eye of Horus but was corrected one day by an itinerant doing some stone work for us. Apparently he was classically trained. In any case, the right eye is the Eye of Ra (the sun) and the left eye, is the Eye of Horus (the moon). I think that the way you have it laid out, this would be the right eye. It is modeled after the eye pattern of a Peregrine falcon.

You might check with Fred Pugh in Pittsboro at 919-542-4164. He used to sell a few years ago. I found this reference from 2010 on ArtMetal for a place in Wendell. I've never checked them out. Bridgers coal & Farm Supply, 15 North Gypress St, Wendell, NC , 919-365-7000.

Nol Putnam forged a gun into what might have been a hook at Gichner's in 2009. I have some photos posted. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironalchemy/sets/72157612412459641/ I think that this was a fundraiser for a local group.