tomhw

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

I've read a lot but just feel unsure right now, and I'm at the fire on my phone so I'm not searching the forums, sorry for that.

So clinker isn't the grey stuff that feels lighter and has lots of holes?

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.

Things like plows were often optimized on a local level. So a plow made for sandy bottomland soil might be a higher harder steel than one designed for rocky fields; the one designed to resist abrasion more and the other to resist impact. However a lot of this has disappeared in modern times as factories want to make and dealers want to stock a limited range of items.

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.

For me personally; Tool Steel = the steel I feel is most appropriate for the tool I intend to make.
Beyond that there are far too many variables to chase what with O,W,A, HSS, particle steels, pattern welded and carbides being involved.

My advice to anyone wanting to either learn or split hairs is to pick up a copy of the Machinery Handbook.

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.

I took an unknown material but it was a coil spring.    My sons friend dropped it by.  Prolly from a small car...     It was ~1/2" diameter.   I bent about 3/4" back onto itself.   Fluxed, heated to just barely sparking and hammered.   Basically it came from together into a crumbly splatter.    What did I do wrong?   What happened?   I may have hit it a little bit hard?   It wasn't a tap....  But I did not expect it to just fly apart.   I am not a forge welding expert by any means!

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 don't know a lot about this, and I don't mean any disrespect to Mr. Miller, who obviously knows more about smithing than I do, but I don't think there ever was a time when anvils were just set aside when they'd done their due.  I remember when I first got my (reprint) copy of Richardson's blacksmithing book and read about the lengths that smiths went to in order to replace broken horns and feet and such. They'd spend a day putting a horn back on, and this was when a day was 12 hours or so of labor. 

 

Now it's available free on google:

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=zT5DAAAAIAAJ&dq=editions%3AjxM9l1QvAlYC&pg=PA114#v=onepage&q=horn&f=false

 

I think anvils are probably as readily available today as ever.  I don't use a cell phone, but everyone else in my world does, and I bet if my friends added up what they spent on cell phones in the past five years (much less the monthly bills) they could all buy brand spankin' new anvils that would last for generations and hold their value, unlilke cell phones.

 

This is turning into a rant. Sorry.

 

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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. 

Sometimes it will give you the angle you need for your next operation. I tend to have slitting hardies rather than blunt ones.

Well said.

Low-voltage Lighting and Lamp Cords 10 Amps 18 Gauge Extension Cords 13 Amps 16 Gauge Light Fixtures, Lamps, Lighting Runs 15 Amps 14 Gauge Receptacles, 110-volt Air Conditioners, Sump Pumps, Kitchen Appliances 20 Amps 12 Gauge Electric Clothes Dryers, 220-volt Window Air Conditioners, Built-in Ovens, Electric Water Heaters 30 Amps 10 Gauge Cook Tops 45 Amps 8 Gauge Electric Furnaces, Large Electric Heaters 60 Amps 6 Gauge Electric Furnaces, Large Electric Water Heaters, Sub Panels 80 Amps 4 Gauge Service Panels, Sub Panels 100 Amps 2 Gauge Service Entrance 150 Amps 1/0 Gauge Service Entrance 200 Amps 2/0 Gauge


Power = amp*voltage Normal open circuit voltage on a buzz box is about 40 volts and will drop some as you weld. Assuming 40 volts though means 40 times welding amps equals 220 times line amps so line amps is about one sixth to one fifth of welding amps. To meet code with a 225 amp welder you would need about a 40 amp breaker and 6 gage wire although I ran a 225 lincoln for 20 years on a 30 amp circuit (8 gage wire). I rarely welded at more than 115 amps. Once I ran a 100 foot extension cord of 10 gage wire to repair a drain under my barn (now I use a generator) I got the weld, but every time I struck an arc, I could hear the fan in the welder slow down so I was not doing my equipment any favors. A 15 amp circuit isn't close, particularly with 12 or 14 gage wire.

That first part was a table that didn't make it through the IFI forum editor. Here's the link

http://electrical.about.com/od/wiringcircuitry/a/electwiresizes.htm

Thank you,  I did not know.

Secure in the knowledge that I would not want to be at work regardless of how the election went, took the day off to get some forging done.

Last time I lit the forge, the only half inch square left in the smithy was all shorts, so a trip to the scrap yard was warranted. Picked up 40 feet of half inch square, some five eighths and a three foot bar of 2 x 1.75 for some anvil tools. Not sure if I can work that last bar without help. Got a neighbor who*s offered to strike for me, since the kid steadfastly refuses!.

While at the scrap yard, tripped over the largest metal shear I*ve ever seen, a Doelger & Kirsten 1 1/2. Looks like the kind of tool you can*t let an idiot near.


Yard guys got a little nervous I was taking pics, but I assured them I was motivated by love of machinery and metal and they helped me carry out the 75 lbs of steel I had piled up.

Got the forge lit by 10 AM and working on coffee rather than beer, spent the next 4 hours hammering away. Started as always on some nails, then reworked the nail header to get some more dome on the working end. Finished up a dragonfly without burning up any wings AND getting both wings to split, a first!

Convinced that I have tools, metal and information but not so much skill, spent the rest of the day working on Brian Brazeal style leaves with a rounding hammer. The goal is a 100 leaves to decorate the security screen door on the front of the house, and hopefully by the time I get to 50 or so (at about a dozen now), I*ll have enough hammer control and skill to tackle some of the more involved projects on the list.



I read an interview with a smith once, who was making dragon finals for a fence who said 'first you try and make them all the same, and by the time you can do do that, you vary the expressions and details to keep yourself from getting bored'. That*s what I*m shooting for.

Sorry I can't help too much here. If the fire clay is mixed with water and applied, it will shrink and crack. By hearsay, I was informed that you could temper the fire clay by mixing it with fines and fly ash from the forge, and that would help prevent the cracking. In any event, the dang clay is brittle and you have to be careful you don't break it with your fire rake or shovel. Some of the old, round rivet forges had a pressed steel hearth and sometimes they were stamped, "Clay before using." Hardly anybody does that anymore, and most of those forges had a flat, central tuyere level with the hearth. Probably, the reason for suggesting protecting the hearth is to save it from getting too hot when rivets were being heated at a building site all day long...especially if it was pressed steel. Nowadays, they nut 'n' bolt the structures together.

As Old N Rusty suggested, I line my large rectangular hearths with a cement/sand mix to the level that the firepot flange protrudes above the hearth. I learned that method in horseshoeing school in 1964. The interior of the firepot is hot, but the hearth doesn't get that hot, so it doesn't need a super duper refractory.

I suppose if a guy needed a reasonably good refractory, he could use the pre-mixed "pasty" Furnace Cement available from any building supply.

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

Link?

I've been looking out for a double horned anvil for some time, and have finally found one for sale near me. What can you tell me about this one? Looks like it's seen some use, as expected, but looks in good condition. What would your opinion be on this, and can you tell me anything about the maker? It looks like there are some markings, but the pictures are a little small.

http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1423.l2649

Thanks!

OK i make some bellows yesterday it "s blows good but its have a 4 angle shape :And i disembled it and cut to be like triangle and i loose to much on space . CAn the bellows have a shape of the board like cube or it must be trangle iS triangle shape have some reason is it bllows ari better :Because it easy to me to not cut to triangle and you can easy get same shape of two or tre board when is shape like cube is the shape have some purpose is it blowing air better

Hi guys,

I am after some advise and where better to get it from? I need to make some punches and hot cut chisels. at my disposal is one meter of 16mm round 316 stainless bar.
Has anyone used this stainless as a tool steel before?? Will it be any good??
Many thanks in advance for any help, John (lost in the world of stainless steel).

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.

http://damascus.free...hist/perret.htm

Spending time chatting with folks is still pretty common out here in the sticks. Some "city folks" seem to think that it's a waste of time and impairs productivity not realizing that it's an *investment* that can pay back big time in the future.

For example when I was given two 40' utility poles, I called up a family friend who had a 20' trailer and he cheerfully came over and cut them to 20' lengths and hauled them to my shop extension building site and came back with a manipulator to lift and set them when I was ready for them.

Then months later his brother in law showed up with a broken jackhammer bit on a weekend where he had rented a jackhammer to do some concrete work only to be stopped by the bit breaking. So I forged it back out and heat treated it and told him to come back if there was any problem---first time I had ever done a jackhammer bit; but I'd read about them here...

No money changed hands either time save for I insisted to pay the gas for hauling my poles. Folks looking out for their neighbors and friends is still a country meme.

I hope you're not refering to Faraday's work - that was dendritic crucible steel.

"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.

It is true that wrought iron can withstand a higher welding temperature than most steels, but wrought iron can also be welded at the lower, sweating, non-sparking, welding heat. Witness all the edge tools made in the old days. The tool bodies were wrought iron and the high carbon steel was bird's-mouth welded in as the cutting bits, all done at the lower welding heats. High carbon steel crumbles and cracks at a too high welding heat.