tomhw

Back in the 1980's there was a farrier supply business outside of Bossier City; Simmons? They had high-priced but good coal.

Welcome to the millea- old craft and discipline of blacksmithing. Clinker is the metal/ceramic crud left by burning coal. If you are in a hurry to learn the techniques and mysteries of the trade find a near-by quango of conspirators interested in undermining the last hundred years of technological progress. You might also do a search of this site. Read everything in the library about this craft so you can ask a question that can be answered. This is basic. Do your part.

No lords-a-leapin?

If you need a hammer right now set this attempt aside, for salvaging at a later date, and start over. It looks like you used a round punch. When you drift the hole the sides will stretch thin and weaken the hammer. In the future use a hammer eye punch. It is an oblong punch with a flat face and a gentle taper. Face looks sorta like ( _________). You may get away with a drifted round hole for a hammer but for top tools and hot chisels the sides will be too thin.

If you need a hammer right now set this attempt aside, for salvaging at a later date, and start over. It looks like you used a round punch. When you drift the hole the sides will stretch thin and weaken the hammer. In the future use a hammer eye punch. It is an oblong punch with a flat face and a gentle taper. Face looks sorta like ( _________). You may get away with a drifted round hole for a hammer but for top tools and hot chisels the sides will be too thin.

We are in accord. Hobbyists, purists, and armatures are not in the same order of craftsmen as professionals who seek to provide a service to businesses with specific and particular requirements.

I agree with that. I tend toward a rough and ready approach to hardenability in steels. My shop is not qualified for much more than early 20th century ferrous technology.

It is the nature of our craft for instant intuition/ judgement to be the determining factor in instantaneous, dynamic, operations. It is one of the most interesting aspects of our craft. Smiths share with potters this sensual, time constrained, and immediate action with the medium; all directed towards a pre-determined result. You can teach yourself. However, practice and failure takes a long time. Look for an able smith who is willing to teach. Also, find an organization in your area for information and support. Until you can find your teacher or some one who can help you with a particular problem this will move you forward. When I started there were no organizations or readily available sources. I read everything that was available in the 1960's, but then there were still a few old men around who were retired masters of the craft or practitioners of it, or old guys who who knew somebody who was. Old men really helped me. I got the best leads and introductions when I started doing craft festivals. Sometimes the smell of a coal fire and the sound of a hammer against hot steel will draw old men to my forge. It would draw me to you.

I am with you on your rant. I foolishly waste money on stupid stuff. I should pay off my house and buy the Nimba Gladiator that I really should have. I do want one. My great grandchildren, if I have any, won't understand. They will still be paying off China for the money we waste today. I still want a Nimba Gladiator. I'll stick with my HB and look at pics of the Nimba Glatiator.

One of my favorite references for early new world iron work is SOUTHWESTERN COLONIAL IRONWORK co-authored by some body named Frank Turley. Get it, it is useful. I wish that it was much more detailed- several volumes at least.

Well said.

Thank you, I did not know.

WOW! can I stick my finger in that?

My forge is reinforced concrete. The cast iron firepit is expendable. I plan to replace it in ten to fifteen years. I will be 75 or 80 years old then. Where is the problem?

Link?

I like that style of anvil. Based on your photographs, it looks good. Who made it? How much does a new one cost? Given the damage, is it as useful as a new one? Would a new one really be so much better?

What is your goal? Are you trying to represent iron technology in an historical period or are you trying to make things out of iron/steel? If you are trying to represent a technology at its development in a particular time (eg. iron age, migration period, medieval) then you should research the technology of that time. Reproducing ancient objects using the methods and technology available in their historical period is possible with some research. If you want to make useful things using simple, available, technologies then the world is yours.

It is not hardenable but is harder than mild steel and holds it shape at higher temperatures than mild steel. It can work harden. It is a good metal for fire tools (e.g. pokers, shovels, and twisting wrenches), and drifts, tongs, and anything that requires corosion resistance, resilliance, and stability in moderate heat. Keep a a high heat as you forge it and normalize from a full heat.

Dan, I was so pleased by the site you published in your post that I did not look at your own site. Now I have looked at it. Your site (http://www.didbrookforge.co.uk) is an excellent site and you do beautiful and commendable work. I see that you know your craft and trade.

Thank you, Dan. You have shown me a large hole in my education. Explorer says that the site (http://207.221.52.114/p29-dama.txt) does not respond. The site (http://damascus.free...hist/perret.htm) is well done and worth a close look.

I am with you all the way with this one, Thomas. I am very much in debt to friends and neighbors, and new aquaintances. This should branch off to a new thread: "what I learned or gained from my neighbors".

Inspiration affects technology, it seems. I am referring to the romantization of "ancient blades" in the 19th century (Byron, Walter Scott, Richard Burton and so many other Victorians and "Romantics" and later Tolkein) that stirred mechanic's interest and resulted in ""Damascus" shotgun barrels, "Damascus" blades, and a real science of metalography and additional force to steel manufacture.

"Ok lets start at the beginning:" Well said, Thomas. The literature and tradition of ironwork spans millennia. I have not read it all- not nearly, but I still read and still forge. Anyone who wishes to learn this craft should read everything and hammer daily.

Well before the thirteen colonies won their independence from England the guild system proved itself unable to meet the demand for craftsmen in all trades. Children were still apprenticed to masters but in many instances craftsmen opened shops without any credentials, at all. Their abilities were judged by their customers, and success in the business was the reward. This is still true now. Check your tag line: "Those who suppress freedom always do so in the name of law and order." Free men will and act.

Yes, I agree, Mr. Turley. As for pattern welding, it is a decorative technique today but, in ancient times, was a mechanical way of producing a tool with a hard edge with a resilient and flexible body. centuries slow progress of steel metallurgy resulted in differential quenching, differential carbonization, and other techniques that made pattern welding obsolete. Never-the-less, the glamour of "Damascus steel" lead, in the 19th century, to the development of scientific metallurgy. Though it is no longer mechanically necessary, pattern welding, and wootz, produce the most inetresting and most beautiful blades.