blafen

I have seen people weld railroad track with thermite before, it may be possible to reface a horribly worn anvil face.

Use a connector with a thin sheet steel flap valve over the bottem ened, this valve has a handle and is counterweighted to seal off the end of the t connector, to dump the ash all you have to do is pull the handle and it opens the flapper and dumps the ash, i saw one on some blacksmithing show and immediately added one to my own forge. OH and be sure to use NON galvanized pipe fittigs especially around hot areas.

Thats a nice knife there, it reminds of one i made a few years back as a christmas gift.

I think for heavily dished objects like that you would need a copper disc that was thicker near the center to counteract the thinning of the hammering process so the side view of the disc wouldlook like this () sort of.

I have a square frame made of 2x4'swith holes drilled through to hold my files, and my dirfts all go in a bucket.

I have done acid etches where i wax a portion of the blade and build up a small wax dam around the area to contain the acid, i was able to etch a roughly 1" by 3/4" inch stamp into the steel with a few tablespoons of acid, be sure to do this over a container in case the acid spills out of the dam.

I would think a bath in water with baking soda to neutralize the acid then dry and oil the piece.

tie em together and weld em into a billet.

I got a bench grinder/buffer that needs a hand start, otherwise it wants to run in reverse.

I used one, it was my first forge, i coated it with clay and used a t shaped tuyere, it worked quite well when i modified it to have a deeper fire pit.

Car tire rim and some clay and a shopvac, i have also made box bellow from a cardboard box and a forge from a hole in the ground.

Boar tusks can be worked in too, if there big enough, and dont forget jaw bones those work great as well.

I payed 500 for a 200 pounder that had some minor dings, but i live in Hawaii and the pickings are slim over here.

The hardest part i find is when you slit the eye for the handle, you mut be real carefule to get it dead center and parallel to the sides or it can get real thin when you try to drift it.

Righty, hammer with right hand, tongs in the left, and my anvil faces to the right, partly because i like it that way and partly because of shop space requirements, this way i can go and work on very fine curves on the tip of the horn from the front, and it just feels more natural.

Just bang on metal, people have an aversion of yelling at the dude holding the piece of red hot steel, besides i seem to remmeber something saying blacksmiths are immune to noise laws because they need to make noise for their work.

I have done it a few times, i have a dagger with a wicked looking saw teeth i filed in and a curved thin knife made from a saws all blade with the teeth on the back.

I would assume it would take some skillful file work.

I forge in shorts with slippers on, sometimes i forge barefoot.

Vehicle scrap yards are terrific places to find steel, coil springs and leaf springs are great for knives, crowbars usually have a usable amount of carbon and old files make great knives and can be found often at garage sales or farmers markets.

I use borax, sometimes with iron filings in it. i heard if you mix boric acid (roach killer) with the borax you get an extra aggresive mix, A few years ago I heard Jim Hrisoulas refer to a mix that he would not divulge as it eats refractory at an extremely high rate and used dangerous chemicals.

Or your church could start inviting the skaters over, and help them build a mini skatepark, the kids could provide the funds and labor all they need is a place to put it, and it keeps everyone happy, the church wont have damaged rails and the kids wont show up find the skatestoppers and then redirect their anger at the church, instead they will have a safe drug free zone to skate.

you might want to try what i dd when i needed an anvil , chopped a tree down and set a 3 foot stump in concrete and put an iron abnd around thetop to prevent it from splitting and drilled a few holes in it, one hole was 1 inch around and held a variety of "hardy" tools i made from old cast iron weights and the other holes held an old sledgehammer head which could stand up to some pretty rough forging, it was quiet as well. if you do want to use the i-beam go ahead i have used them before but it was a PITA because i had a light chunk that would bounce all over the place, perhaps you should consider welding plates on the sides to close up the channels and give the edges moe support.

i built mine from a 8" 14" chunk of solid Koa wood, and i had to handsaw both ends square i then slapped on a bunch of 2x4's to bulk it up and give it a wider footprint and it has been working great, not sure where you would find koa wood in the upper 49 though.

i used mine in a gasser and ive actually melted some of the ones directly across from te burner and there is some flux damgae but other than that they seem fine after over a years use.