Countryboy39067

Hey friends. I just wanted to give y'all a report on a DVD I bought. I've been looking at YouTube videos on smithing for over 3 years now. I came across a great narrated video of Walter Sorrells forging a modern steel katana. I visited his website and decided to purchase the first video, Forging Japanese Style Swords. Its a 2.5 hour Dvd on forging tanto, wakizashi, and katana length blades. He demonstrates stock removal and forging techniques. I'm pleased to say the sound and video are top notch! Understandably it doesn't show every hammer strike, but it does give great detail on what is needed to create a great blade. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'm not getting anything for posting this. Just thought someone might like to know about this.

When you look at anvils, for anything but straightening only the area your hammer face hits is used for forging. If it's bigger than your hammer face, it will work stood on end if it has some rebound.

Yes I understand the principle of your statement. I'm thinking of heating up the end of the shaft just to see if it will harden. Tempering it correctly should give me a longer lasting tool, right?

Thanks I'll give it a try.

I recently acquired a piece of conveyor shaft approx. 30 inches long with a diameter of about 3 inches. I was wondering if welding a piece of grader blade cut to fit the end and sunk into a bucket of concrete would suffice as a portable anvil?

How about this. Instead of destroying historic useful tools, donate them to blacksmithing schools so when a student completes a acceptable amount of courses they get an anvil to practice what they learned. Not only would this save anvils it would help budding smiths and keep alive this awesome craft we all enjoy.

I haven't seen any blacksmithing items in the trade papers. My cousin says it's all been taken to the recycler yard he works at.

Staged and edited. Did anyone else notice the fake looking explosion graphic and the fact that the explosion miraculously made the light come back on that he turned off for better visual effect? Lol

I took an old belt drive table saw and use a thin 8 or 10 inch carburundum blade to rip leaf springs. I have also used it to split RR spikes.
I raise the blade all the way up and have very little clean up with the hand saw. Useing the rip fence sure helps keep things straight. Yuo could also make one by building a frame and table. Add 1/2 hp moter and threaded abaptor to hold the blade. Good quality Dewalt blade last a long time.
Wear gloves as the material will get hot.
Good luck

Once you get the coal burning, wait till you get a good solid clump of orange coals. They will stick together as they coke so take your fire rake and break it up. You simply need a good bed of coals equal to or larger than the piece you plan to heat. Your fire is ready to use when most of the smoke stops and you have a bed of coals. Have you ever grilled hamburgers using charcoal? It's the same principle. Best of luck!!!!

No criticism intended, we're just pointing out you don't need an expensive blade to saw through it. Plain old monometal hacksaw blades will do just fine.

Frosty the Lucky.

I did a similar thing. My firepot is approx. 22" by 8". I only use the front 8" in lenght to forge. I have the back section of air holes blocked by a plate and buried it under coal.

Yep! ASTM-65 sez the grade 1 "soft steel" spikes must be 0.08% to 0.16% carbon, and the grade 2 "high carbon" spikes must be 0.26% to 0.34% carbon. They need to fail by bending, not breaking.

Guys, sorry, but I'm a total DA when it comes to this process with the spikes, and where and how to make the cuts, could someone post up a how to on this or send me a pm or e-mail, blebass@bellsouth.net, pictures would be good as well if possible. I can pick up a ton of these each day. I have seen pictures on here of ones been made and really like the looks. Thanks Don

I use a Dewalt reciprocating saw. Handiest way I've found to do them.

what kind of spikes are
'these spikes" ?

I've been having ok luck cutting these spikes with a cutting disk on a 4 1/2 grinder.Then finish the cut with a hacksaw because the grinder doesn't reach all the way. Does anyone know of a faster more productive tool for this project?

I heated it to orange and buried it in hardwood ashes yesterday. I'm looking forward to using it soon.

Since my coal goes out real easily I simply rake the firepot out and open my ash dump. It's out in a matter of minutes like that. I heard some where to always leave the ash dump open after your done to eliminate the chance of gasses building up in the air inlet. I don't know if that statement is true but I do it anyway.

It's called arm pump in the dirt bike racing circles. The stretches work wonders but the biggest help will be to relax your grip. The tension is pumping up the pressure in the forearm muscles therefore restricting blood flow to the hands.

These things happen gradually, that hammer face starts spreading, maybe the curve means it leaves fewer marks on the plow points.

I've decide to clean it up and take it back through the hardening and tempering cycles. It will be the first tool for my demo kit.

It's certainly shaped like a cross-pein hammer. Amazing what can happen to things over the years.

Amen to the above. We lost a great man in this art from cooking off galvaized pipe. RIP Jim "papaw" Wilson!!

Staff note, this is not correct, there is a long thread about this, with real facts. Jim had other medical issues, Please get facts straight before posting rumors.

Anythings possible I guess. I never knew my grandfather to smith anything other than plow points. That could mean it's older than I thought. 50+ years old at least. Thanks for the tenon lesson.

Kevin