Archie Zietman

Okay, I think I have figured out a design, thinking along the same seesaw pronciples. I'll just draw it up and then post it. Here is the design, hopefully it makes sense. :D

until about 15th C. as far as I know it was just two big single bellows, which works fine. All of the illuminations and drawing from 15th C. back have double bellowses in them, great bellows weren't invented yet. I'm going to try and dig up some photos of a very good medieval setup I saw pictures of once. two single bellows either weighted, or with something that when one goes up the other goes down would be great. I'll think up how it would work, I've seen a few great setups with two alternating single bellowses, worked by pulling a chain which emptied one, then when the other one went down the first filled with air again so that when you pulled the chain again it would be full. You could get a very good continuous stream with it, just have to remember and sketch it up. I'll sleep on it (the design). Good Luck, Merry Being, Archie ask around on armourarchive.org forums, they do a lot of pre-15thC. viking and norman type stuff and some people there could help I'm sure.

Hello. Today I had a rather wonderful day. I started off going to a family friend's house and making a wooden mockup for a copper firepit for a charity New Year's Eve Party I am doing the decor/design for, and got some good time with a friend and fellow craftsman, as well as some lovely bruises from flying fiberboard. I biked home, then I went to buy charcoal at Whole Foods Market, and found that they had a lovely discounted kind of charcoal. I'm not sure if it is a promotion or not, but it comes in orange paper bags instead of brown paper with drawings, and cost me $2 less per ten pound bag. I bought two as is my custom, and saved $4. I then went home smiling, and made a good start straitening and forging a railroad tie, had a lovely picnic on the harbor with my family. I love days when everything goes perfectly and lots of simple pleasures accumulate and make a peaceful weekend so satisfying. What things make your days? All The Best, Merry Being, Archie

Steve, aprepo of wood forging, I've been forging with wood for a while now, and basically what you need is a tall firepot, like a japanese forge. Always have wood on top charcoaling, and you have a thick layer of charcoal at the bottom burning. With a normal air supply for any forge, you can get the woodsmoke to burn, just like any coal gasses, in fact it lights easier than coal gasses. As to ash, if you don't blast your fire with air, the ash doesn't come flying out all over the place and just settles below the tuyere, like any other forge. My firepot is about 7 inches tall, 5 inches wide and 8 inches long, and I can work 1 inch bar in there fine, wood forging can be done, and is good if it's hard to find charcoal in your area. also, Ian, I burnt steel (white hot and sparkin') today using wood, it's just charcoal, and you get less fleas than when you buy it. All the best, Archie P.S. If you can find coal or coke, use it. edited for forge and stock dimensions, went outside to check :D

It's good that lump is becoming more popular, means it's easier for us to find forging charcoal! I was in France all over the place for 2 months this summer, and never once saw briquettes, only lump charcoal, I was itching to forge whenever I went to the grocery store. If worst comes to worst you can just have a really deep firepot and use wood.

I heartily agree with irnsrgn's way of lighitng a fire. I put some sticks about as thick as my thumb on top to have something burning to help the coal along. good luck! merry Being, Archie

I use vegetable oil, just get a very hot black heat and stick it in, then I wipe it vigerously with an oily old towel.

Making Charcoal this method works really well, and is smokeless, along with being energy efficient (using the energy in the smoke being cooked off to cook the charcoal) :D

side blast forges definitely work better for charcoal. I'm not sure why, they just do, they are also easier to build. I often forge with wood, and I just need a deep fire and it works fine.

even using wood chips is far better than the briquettes, they char-coke very quickly and don't spark like the bought charcoal. Or you could use corn. at 5 dollars for 50 pounds of dried cracked corn, it's a very good deal, work exactly like coal, just with bigger flames from burning smoke.

wow, I never knew it was actually forgeable! cool! You learn somethign new every day. :D

aluminum melts at so low a temperature (I am not sure but I think around 1350 degrees F, not even red heat for iron/steel) that you'd be far better off casting it. A good site for that is backyardmetalcasting.com good luck! Archie

A sledgehammer in concrete actually works great, though now that I have a fisher, I don't use mine much.

Hello. I have, over the past while, made several nice finds from work/play and running team. I don't have pikkies right now, but I've gotten: a 7 lb sledgehammer head (which will make a nice fork/bladesmithing anvil) many pair of huge hefty broken tongs (which need cleaning and smallening of the jaws) a 50 lb old fisher anvil, many many chunks of leafspring from along the side of the road (like, 6 in the past 3 weeks during cross country team runs, some are great for bladesmithing, others I have no idea, maybe as thick fuller hardies) 4 feet of 1/4 inch rebar (I made some nice hooks out of it) a hot cut, a subtle curve bender hardy, a rusty old hot punch (which needs some sanding but is perfectly good) and a host of other old nonsense. I'm feeling all warm and fuzzley right now. :D

Hello. What steel are the railroad ties? The round 3/4 or so inch stock which is tied in knots around bit of railroad track? The stuff is extremely hard, and only moves well at a yellow to white heat. Should be great for blades! Merry Being, Archie

get a big flat magnet and stick it on the side of the anvil. This really reduces the ring. If you use the chain as well, then you should have pretty much no ring. earplugs are still a good idea.

is it possible to repair the edges of a small fisher anvil which are all chipped and dinged up using the same method as the in the blueprint?

Hello. I am just curious, but how does one reface an anvil? If a new faceplate were simply welded on from the sides it would just reduce the effectiveness of the anvil wouldn't it? (Not being connected to the main body and sucking all of the hammer's energy out by vibrating against the actual anvil face) so how does one reface an anvil? Thanks, Archie

I'm gonna be working the bellows at a local reinactment village, and since there's tons of junked pieces, and old tongs and hammers and suchlike in piles rusting, I am going to start saving the tools from the piles, today I brought home these:, the one with the red arrow,I'm wondering what it is? the tongs are quite rusty and big, but I'll rework them to be smaller and get the rust off. But what is the big one with the arrow pointing to it? Thanks, Archie

My forge is just under a roof on poles, I dunno the dimensions but it's kinda small, like ten by fifteen feet or so, and most of it is filled with clutter and mess. :D

What I've been working on three scrolls for a small table-like stand, and also a long integral bolster knife. For the scrolls, I only know the way of making the scroll curly of heating up a long section and then knocking it to a right angle to the rest of the bar and then knocking it into a curly shape, so being able to heat a long length would be useful. And for the blades, I am having trouble straighting them using only small heated sections. Thanks for the help everyone! Archie

Hello. I sometimes have need of heating long lengths of barstock for projects (straightening blades or bars and heat treating), but my fire pot is only about 5 inches in diameter. I have heard about using a cave fire to do this, but I am unsure how, exactly. If someone could explain, that'd be great. Thanks! Archie

here is how you could forge it from a ball bearing, and braze the stem'n leaf on (the large u shape in the middle picture is supposed to be a round faced hammer :)

I have made a few trees, so might as well add in something. What I did was to use one rod for a root, piece of the trunk and branch in one. I textured the entire rod, forged out the branch at one end, and root at the other end, then heated up the whole bundle and twisted them so that it became a very treelike trunk, and then hammered the roots and branches into position. Now: apples You could probably, for apples, take ball bearings, and drive the ball of a ball peen into the top to make an indentation and slightly flatten the bottom at the same time, then braze in a stem and a sheet leaf.

Hello. Today I enlisted a friend as my shop assistant, and for a good four hours we figured out how to make, and then pounded out the shells for a half dozen iron snails. We are going to braze the bodies on, once we've forged them out too. Once it's all done, and we have a dozen or so snails, we are going to affix them around the science building of our school as a permenant installation. My mum took a picture or two, I'll see if I can get them onto the 'pooter. Merry Being! Archie :D