stretch

I tried my method today and here is a 1/2" X 2" hot rolled steel bar hammered on one side 50 times. A couple times it wasn't right flat on the anvil when I hit it so it jarred me a bit, so this is not all it would do with 50 hits. If I had hit square 50 times it would have been more. It is deflected 9/16" . It went faster than I thought.

If you are just putting them in the tray anything will do. If this is a coal or coke forge that is. I have even used rocks and gravel when I wasn't near a place to get bricks. If you are using them for the firepot then a refractory would work the best because you could make it into whatever shape you need.

Actually you can staighten a spring by hammering only on one side. Make sure that when you hammer that the under side on the anvil is flat so the blow is solid with no bounce. They used to recurve springs by hammering them only on one side. Springs used to straighten out with use so they had to recurve them. A lot of the old blacksmith shops had forms that they had to be recurved to. I have done it on some planer blades and it works. Have not tried on springs because have never had to staighten them without heat. It is loud and might take a few minutes, it does work though.

depends if you mean mild steel or the steel that we buy from the steel supplier. The steel we buy now is not mild steel. Some of it is called A36 and is called this because it has been recycled so many times it can't be call mild steel. This steel can be case hardened very nicely. I haven't seen good mild steel in years. A little over 20 years now. I buy old cold chisels and the like at second hand stores for usually $1 each if I buy all they got. This makes most of my tools and I bought a bunch of H13 a number of years ago which I am using up. Axles make good tools and a collection of sledge hammers I got from a foundry i forge into tools.

Thanks, I enjoy doing stuff like this

Here is a Dinner Triangle I made a few years back. The triangle is round stock hammered octogon for effect. The fish is a piece if 1X2" hammered out. The piece hammered out on top with hole punched to hang it is how I do all the triangles I do. They ring beautifully.

I had a 25 lb and now I use a 60 kg Heboe. Of course it will do more work than a 25lb mechanical, another big difference I noticed right away was the accuracy of the Heboes. Not all loosey goosey like a mechanical. I was only commenting on finn saying that the 25 lb mechanical was the best at drawing out and an air hammer was kind of so-so. I was clarifying the difference in air hammers.

A air hammer such as a Heboe or Sahinler or Nazel is far better than a mechanical hammer. I used to have a 25 lb mechanical and there is no comparison. By air hammer here you must mean one that needs a compressor. The self contained air hammers are the best out there. I use mine for stamping, cutting and whatever else I need it for. The more I use it for the more I learn how versatile it is.

These are a 3/4" shaft with about a 1 3/4" head done in one heat. I have tried to do with two people and almost killed him. To used to working alone.

I have a 10 ton and love it. The only thing I wish I had thought of was a c frame press instead of the h frame I have. . Can be a lot more versatile. I have learned to use the h frame I have with great results. I agree, it is a lot easier to have one to big than to small. I find when you get a tool you start with small stuff and it gets more and more facinating (spelling) to forge larger and larger pieces. I think my flywheel is 234 lbs. LOVE IT

If your colors run to fast then you left the piece out of the water to hot. After heating end of chisel to cherry red(canadian cherry) I usually dip in water from 1 to 1 1/2" until the piece above that loses all color, then polish the hardened piece til shiny and turn it hard side up in a vise to wait for the colors to run. It will take sometimes 5 minutes to run and you will have a wide color band, it is less likely to have a fracture line this way. Then drop in water after the color you want reaches the cutting end. I usually have about 1" of the end hard this way and have only had one chisel break because of to hard in 30 years. I have done 2" diameter concrete chisels to 3/8" chisels for fine work this way with great results. The key is to have slow color run and dip the chisel up and down so no fracture line. Packing the metal after forging and before tempering helps a lot too.

Here is a couple pictures of the belt grinder. One with the adjuster. This is with a 48" belt. I just move the top wheel and adjuster up 6" and it becomes a 60" grinder. I put the platen in, there was nothing there when I got it. I went into a glass shop and asked if they had an old grinder and they come out with this and wanted $50 dollars for it, only took me a minute to get the $50.

It looks like real old steel. I am not a metalurgist so don't know how to weld something like this, I know from welding the old purer iron that it is quite different. Have welded small amounts, just didn't need the strength this needs, just find an old early 50's truck axle and forge a new one if not sure how to weld it. Good place to learn something new

Mine would be passing through !!!!!

When I used to make them I used truck coil springs. Heat them up and unroll them. !/2 ton truck uses about 9/16 size springs and 3/4 ton uses about 3/4 inch. Lots of them and makes good dinner triangles. At junk yards there are usually all you need and quite cheap

No need for any of that, I haven't made any knives for quite a number of years now. To busy for making knives.

I just do the grinding on the platen and slack belt. I have never did any grinding on the wheel. No need to. This is the only grinder I use in my shop except hand held angle grinders, three grinders with different wheels on each one. haven't used a stone grinder since I got the belt grinder. Have had a couple given to me, gave them away right after trying them out. I like the belt grinder, use it for sharpening drill bits and everything. Not in the shop until Monday, will get a picture then.

If you have a lathe and access to metal and have access to a frame, good sealed bearings that size are cheap. Use the frame you have and just use metal wheels. I have a salvaged belt grinder from a glass shop and it has metal wheels. Works great with no slippage at all. Have used it for about 15 yrs with no problem. It was a 60" and now have it is down to 48". Depends on price and availability of each size of belt. I can use from 1" to 4" belts on it. Put my own platen on it and it is 2" and that is the only limiting factor to the width of belts I use. The wheels are about 4" diameter and have had very little trouble with not fitting something to grind in the machine. I have not had a need for a third wheel to give more clearance behind the belt. Works great

You can get any length of blade you want. On the big blades they are never a certain size. They always cut and weld them when you order them. Just a few days and there are your blades. Odd sizes don't matter. I always buy 2 blades when I buy them so I am never out of a blade. Don't buy carbon steel blades, you will be sorry, they hardly last a cut and if the steel is hard forget it. HSS steel for the teeth and I have got a year out of a $60 blade.

I have a 30 ton punch press that I tried to use the way you are trying to use it. It is very hard to get it unstuck when it doesn't go its full stroke. I did it for 2 days to finish a job then took the flywheel and all the other stuff and making it into a hydraulic press. It is very hard on the body unsticking a stuck punch press for 2 days. If you had a 100 ton and did 30 or 40 ton work with it, it might not stick, because it would be big enough to finish the stroke. If you tried the cam idea and made sure it didn't go over or close to going over dead center and bounced it back up it might work.

You can get an awful lot of work done with a flypress. I have, by flywheel weight a 10 ton flypress. To make these bolt heads, I figured out needed 56 ton and I made them with my 10 ton machine. I don't know where you will get non flammable hydraulic oil to protect yourself if you spring a leak in your hydraulic press, you could make a pretty good press for the shop out of a log splitter. It would be a bit slow, would work though. You could leave it laying down or stand it up, depending on what you want. These clavos have 3/4" stem and are over a 1 1/2" head. It takes a couple hits. I made about 150 of them.

That is a screw press I think. Get a close up of the screw before you buy it. If it is normal thread then it won't do the same thing as a flypress. You get the power in a flypress from the screw pitch and the flywheel.

I use vinagar all the time for removing the scale from my work after forging. If left in for a day or even 2 you can take the steel right down to the bare steel and it will come out a dull gray. Just rubbing it while it is wet and in the water will take the scale off. Wear rubber gloves cause it will make your hands very black. After dipping in baking soda to kill the vinegar, then wash off the soda, dry it well and then a quick wire brush or whatever finish you want works real well. It cleans metal very good and prepares it for almost any finish you want to put on.

Here is a set I made for my wife. Made out of 1 1/2" scd 40 pipe. Also 1 I made for an old historic Church.

Thanks. The fly press was used to bend the joist hangers. All the other pieces were textured on the hammer, larger than needed and then cut out with a friends plasma cutter. Then the lines were put in the corners and such by hand. All the bolt heads were made on the flypress too. They are about 1 1/2" square and decorative round heads.