Caladin

I've been trying to teach myself to reforge nippers and taking them apart at the rivet and selective heating/cooling seems to be a good place to start.

I was lazy and got one of these for taking forge scale off small armor pices, I have several media, the triangular stuff HF sells for taking off scale(wet), then crushed pecan hulls from eh pet store(they use it in lizard cages) plus some polish for the fine work. Just make sure the polish is an abrasive polish not a coating.. (dry) it'd do a fairly big hammer, but not tongs, nice for small stuff though.. works great for gauntlet parts... Cal-

Question, if it's that hard hot, annealing is not the issue, correct? I have a hammer head that did that, always wondered if i should have annealed it or normalized it something... my understanding of heat treat says no, but i figured I'd rather look stupid than keep wondering. and I've been scratching my head over it ever since... as it came from Harbor Freight.. Cal-

I dunno if it helps but this photo of an old Ranch cook came up today.. you can see the ribs attached.. and interestingly the tarp soread out to make a shade for cooking.. (which might be nice for the kids camping)   if you open the link in a browser it's slightly bigger and you can see more https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10987622_898172636881533_4349704045186707635_n.jpg?oh=b245e415f680db645bf5b1068214f40e&oe=555540BA

Guy on Craigslist here kept trying to sell a 12" piece of RR track, completely unmodified for about $225...several folks put up adds just to mock his price... it dropped a few times and i quit watching it.. made me laugh though... Cal-

keep a duplicate if your photos on a cloud server, google drive has a free one "Google Drive", it was stupid easy to use, until i started organizing things in folders... or upload them to PIcasa or another photo sharing site, then when you want to look at them they are right at hand... we took pics of the houses framing before the sheetrock went up, and refer to them whenever we drill into the walls.   Cal-  

Trace you hand out on a piece of 1/4 to 1/2 steel, fingers touching.. then cut it out and clean up with a grinder, then attach a cool forged handle.. momma will dig it more cause it's your hand :D E-

Don't forget, "Because it looks like fun"

looks alot like a mold you'd make for casting thin parts out of pewter, but normally those are soapstone...

what about that laminate steel like the skandi blades?

Calling block was supposed to be calling block...will not let me edit it now

I,know its too late, but you can pick up a wooden calling block, and ball punches to go with it cheap at Rio grande jewelry supply, metal ones are a bit more, but you can do,18g in the wood (cold), That said, if you had a welder, weld a bearing on a bit of rod and bang it into a stump to make a depression and you can do an amazing amount, (or a ball peen) as a teen I made a complete set of (medioche) sca armor with not much more(a vice and a jig saw in fact) Various sized ball peens make various sized depressions... Might be nice for grapes.

That ball would be awesome for armoring, to planish helmet tops, knees shoulders etc, the biggest one I have is 6.5" Cal-

I'm in Austin with a small 2 burner, and my cheap bbq sized tank hasn't frozen yet... west texas might be ok. I have aball valve right next to the forge, to adjust and turn off easily... mostly on off, i have a bbq starter so on is as easy as off.

Amazon has a hot chisel just search for "slitting chisel",but I made mine by regrinding a flat dasco chisel (the blue ones at home depot) on a 1X30 belt grinder just needs a flatter edge bevel. Just don't get it too hot... but those dasco chisels are some hard stuff...(like this one, but at home depot http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dasco-Pro-337-1-1-4-x-12-Flat-Utility-Chisel-/181366902409 ) Really Simple tongs he can make himself are found by searching "bsa tongs blacksmith" and clicking the iforge link (not related to this iforge iron) or click here: http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/tutor/gc_tongs/top_index.htm Other tools A vice, if it's a normal machinists vice make sure the jaw can be flipped to be non marring. Post vices are much better but harder to find at a good price online. A use one of either kind is pefect... Even one of the baby vices you clamp onto a table is better than nothing, but bolted to something sturdy is much better.. A decent wire brush A flat file a small box of 1/4" dia by 1" long mild steel solid rivets... again for making his own tongs and tools & simple Joinery($10 or less, try Mc Master carr if you can't find them any other way (they are fast but no cheap) It's not a typical answer, but I'd get him a cheap 1" by 30" belt sander... and a set of asst.belts(Can get more at home depot, lowes etc), help him to make his own tools and clean things up Harbor freight has on for $40ish http://www.harborfreight.com/1-in-x-30-in-belt-sander-60543.html and a cheap electric drill (HF ~$20) and a nice set of Cobalt (the metal not the brand) drill bits... expensive but oh so worth it...(Dont' buy neiko brand, get a brand you've heard of) Also I'd get him some 1/2" square mild steel (Twist are hella fun and easy), and some 1/8-1/4 thick 1" wide flat mild bar. as stock to work with. If he has access to a welder the list changes, more supplies and plans to make simple tools, fewer tools Cal- P.S. A fire extinguisher... should be within 5 seconds of where he is forging... really

If you want to try threaded rod, soaking it in vinegar will eat off the galvanization..... I'd recommended against tasting the vinegar though :) Cal-

Dude, have fun, if that means buying it and you can, then go for it, if you want to build on later you always can,they are not that hard. Cal-

I have one of them, bought it as my first rounding hammer, it's good enough for me to realize I like it and how rounding hammers work better than the straight peen i had, but light enough that i want a heavier (and more expensive) one now. Cal-

I've reshaped hammer heads with a 4" grinder from HF, grinding wheel and a flap wheel... I then clean it on on a cheap 1x30 beltsander but i could do it with the grinder just take more patience. Add a few cutting wheels and a vice to hold the hammer (a huge help) and don't see why you couldn't make whatever peen you wanted.... I just thred a 2lbflat faces HF 'sledge' into a short handled rounding hammer for my 7rd old to play with... took about an hour two tops. E-

I tie my Grinder wrench to the plug end of my power cord with a short piece of string. Haven t' lost one since i started doing that... to bad it doesn't work with soap stone...

If you are doing door knockers, you can use 2 of them as handles on equestrian themed wooden chests, another on top as a center piece, one on the front, as an estucheon(Key hole guard thingy) cut to surround the key hole.. volia!

Thanks! I'd planned to goto the steephollow meet, but i hit the wallet veto... hopefully the bluebonnet demo coming up!

Talking about vicegrips modified as hold downs... I started with one of these, the ground off enough threads to just fit in my pritchel...not amazing but useful. With a longer threaded rod you could drop it through the hardy and screw it down tight

I'm interested in learning alto about how blacksmiths work in very poor and primitive conditions... the guys who have to make doo with very little yet still get things done... Like the guys who still use wooden tongs, improvized anviles etc. This video:

Metals4u in pflugerville /round rock area, right on 35, they sell it to you small quantities, cut it it to fit in your vehicle... They have a south central location called i think westbrook metals, it's on the website for metals4u That's where I get my mild when i need it.. Eric (in Pflugerville)