Countryboy39067

Cool tool huh? Lol I did a lot of safety wiring nuts and bolts while in the Air Force. A pair of safetywire pliers is a cool thing to twist small rod like 1/8th stock for forge projects.

Anyone thought of using coke. In my opinion it doesn't hardly smoke. I have none of theses issues since I live in the middle of nowhere. Deaden the anvil, go with an induction forge and remind the neighbors you can provide cool and unusual gifts anytime through out the year......then remind them you swing a big hammer!! Sorry guys. I'm a military veteran who loves this country but I believe we have become way to whiny!!!

I'm unable to post pictures of it. Can anybody tell me I it's a complete unit if I email them a photo?

Apparently this guy has: Alexander G. Weygers,


Sorry, couldn't resist that.

In the book "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" on page 279 the author teaches how to make hammer dies using rail track filling the space with a carved to mate hardwood. Has anyone tried this?

I got it all freed up using BD 7-77 penetrating oil. Any suggestion on motor size?

Thanks for posting! A founding father swinging a hammer. Who woulda thunk it?

My brother-in-law calls me up and asked did I want this old drill press. I said sure, be there in a jiffy. It's a little froze up but it's a Champion brand belt driven drill press stamped 1904!!! I'm tickled red, white and blue!!!

Grader blades and the like are made of Abrasion Resistant steel....AR series steels. These are hign Manganese alloy. Typically .25% carbon and 1.5% manganese. Very tough stuff to work with conventional cutting tools. The Ar steels wear harden with abrasion... if your drill bit slides, your done!
Joe B

In my local steel supplier handbook they are listed as 1055

These blades are pretty heavy and it seems fairly common that they just dump them on the roadside when they put a new one on in the field. I have one that I got that way. They were working on the subdivision nearby but dumped it on my place (along with a lot of less desirable trash).

I'm a country boy so I know all about the odd things used as land corner markers. This was pushed up in a dirt pile where they had trenched for the water run off into a creek. It looks to have been buried atleast 10 years ago and was on my sisters land not in the road rightaway. No worries, I get my metal off of family land.

alright well these are cell phone pics but it's all i got for right now hope ya enjoy

They used sections of grader/bull dozer blades for the tops of the shop built anvils at the community college I went to. Those were around 1/2" thick.

I have a chunk, or two, that I have found over the years, but never messed with it in the forge.

I inherited my Hay Budden #100 anvil. In a discussion with my dad the subject of where it came from popped up. I've heard they stopped making this anvil around 1921 so it leads me to believe it belonged to my Great Grand Father. My question is, can an anvil be soaked in something to remove rust? I used a cup brush on a 4 1/2 grinder to clean it up about a year ago and only found the "100" stamped on the side but found no other markings. I would really like to know the year model for sentimental reasons.

I used some of a grader blade to make the hot cut dies for my guiletine. Works great and I have not had to resharpen the cutting edge with over 4 years of a lot of use.

I was curious, so I got my search engine going. One supplier of blades for Caterpiller and Komatsu says that their blades are either high carbon steel or boron steel. Further searching mentions that boron in a quite small amount (0.0005%) can be added to medium carbon steel allowing the steel to behave like high carbon in end use. I could find no information on carbon content. As with all junkyard steeel, it is still a crap shoot.

http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

Go ahead ad mess with it.......I hope you have a power hammer...........mb

Sorry if this is a repeat thread. I did a search and had no results before I posted this. No worries. If it's not forgeable I can always find a use for it elsewhere.

Hey guys. Can anyone tell me what kind of steel grader blades are made of. I live on a gravel road and found it in the road ditch near my house. It similar to the blade on the common 3 point hitch box blade. It has some spring to it so I'm really excited finding such a large piece. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Ok you're wrong. (slightly)

Clay hardening does not "temper itself". It is used with shallow hardening alloys and prevents the clay covered part from hardening in the quench as it misses the nose to form martensite. Note that it doesn't work well or even at all for deep hardening alloys.

Tempering tongs make it a lot easier to temper the center of a blade than just holding a rod on it----think of a pair of tongs with rods welded on the end so the oppose.

Heat in forge and apply to both sides of the center at once. (for more fun you can forge or mill a center shape to cover a central ridged blade like a double edged blade.)

Correct me if I'm wrong please. Its my understanding that a clay coated blade tempers it's self somewhat leaving the spine softer and the edge very hard. The hot rod idea suggested is used after a tempering heat then soften the middle section of the blade. Essentially the rod idea leaves a blade softer the the middle with a saw edge and standard edge slightly softer than quenched brittle/hard like a clay coated blade.

For some reason round rod never entered my mind. Thanks for the info.

A friend of mine asked me to design and make a knife for him. It's a survival type with saw teeth in the spine. How would I go about tempering the blade to keep the edge and saw teeth hard and give a little flex via a softer center? Its forged from a leaf spring and is 8"" from point to plunge cut. Approx 3/16 thick. I'll can only email pics. My phone won't let me post pics on here. Ill send a picture to anyone who wants it. Thank!

Nice!! It's fun making something awesome out of something someone discarded as junk. Keep it up!