edge9001

MUST...HAVE...LINK.....!! seriously, please give us a link to that site.

i never knew knives could be left or right handed! I always thought they were ambidextrous

seriously, nice work.

Count me in. I'll see what I can come up with in an hour.

it qorks like this, I buy the coal, give it them and then after they see it, take it back siting their bad behavior. lol and then we all go out to the shop and put it to use. I don't think that will do anything to curb misbehavior. do you?

I intend to, but since it is too late to call them tonight, I figured i would ask on IFI and see if anyone knows anything.

I ran across a company, I;m not even sure it is still open, just off of hwy 41 near the over hear bridge there is a company benton coal and supply. I curious if this compaany is still open, or if they are still open do they sell blacksmithing coal?

I have yet to go up there and find out, so Maybe if one of you in my area know anything about them?

I've threatened my kids if they don't be good then santa will bring them coal for xmas, and then I will take it and use it...all 6 laughed and said "we'll be extra bad so you can have extra coal" i guess that qualoifies them as being good since the focus was giving to someone else....right? lol

Last I heard, there were no federal transportation laws on smaller quantities, but state laws could be put in place. Again, the last I read 90# was the break point for small quantities so 100# could be a federal law.

I did take the shutoff handle off my truck forge, forcing me to turn it off at the bottle. I was pretty bad about turning it off at the forge while working, then forgetting to turn the bottle off for transport under a cover.

I can't speak to local and state laws but federal hazmat laws allow the transportation of anything less than 100 pounds of any hazardous material. anytime you transport more than that, placards are needed as well as appropriate vehicle and a driver licensed to transport hazmat. for propane it would be a hazmat license as well as a tank license.

less than 100 pounds of anything can be transported by anyone as long as the appropriate precautions are made, such as a DOT regulated tank or transportation method to include tank containment(strapped down and capped properly)

As i said i can't speak to local law or state laws, as well as the companies policies.

I have a piece of truck spring that is 8x3x1 at its thickest point I heat it up to red heat, at the same time as my project and I lock both of them in my gasser overnight. this seems tp dp the trick. The trick to annealing steel is to get the heat to dissipate as slowly as possible. While this is a generealised idea of it, it works for my projects so far.

I think it is a good deal. If you want a smaller anvil and don;t mind giving up the anvil you have. $400 a 80# bag of coke and the 100# anvil in trade for the PW anvil you paid $300 for depending on the condition of the new anvil and just how attached you are to the PW. I would go for it.

keep in mind this is just my opinion, and we all know what they say about opinions...

I was afraid you would say that...lol

Replacing the hammer tomarrow. the old hammer will probably be scrapped. unless I can find a use for the metal. probably not, I think it will end up i the scrap bin.

Hey o have an idea i wanna run past you guys. the hammer is a cross pein hammer, and the damage is on the flat side, not the pein side of the hammer, it has visible about 1/4 inch deep. would it still be safe to use the cross pein, or would you guys say it is better just to chuck it out with the trash and replace it all together?

Dodge, I am very suprised that I managed to hreak my hammer, but having a handle come loose, I am never really suprised that that happens. after all with the pounding it takes and amount of abuse the joint takes any handle is liable to separate from the hamer head eventually. I love kobalt tools, but any time I purchase a hammer I assume I will eventually need to rehandle it. so...no suprise I have to rehandle this one. perhaps a little prematurly, yes, but it is happenning.

What was a suprise was I cracked to hammer head. there is about 8 pieces to this head now. I have cracks running as deep as 1/4 inch into the face of this hammer, at the edges. so for now I am stuck using a large ballpeen hammer, or putting a handle into a 5lb crosspeen sledgehammer head.

My 2 lbe hammer is going into forced medical retirement. it just couldn't handle the pressures and finnaly cracked up. hhmm are tools capable of getting a "section 8" discharge?

"Cheap hammer, years of rough use, or bad temperand forgeing with shiny Chinese trash for the first three years" it was a kobalt hammer and less than 9 months old. as for 3 years with a piece of chinese trash, in comparison the the hammer I have it seems like a 3 year lifespan is not trash, even if I would have to regrind the face and peen angles. plkease keep in mind that just because it is not american made does not make it a bad product, just not made to our standards. some foreign made tools need a little tweaking to be a good tool. now American made is best since it keeps out money and jobs at home, but what about those who are not american should they avoid thier cuntries internally made products, no. from a patriotic standpoint always buy american. from a logical standpoint, but the cheapest tools you can while maintaining the strictest quality control

Today while attempting to make a RRspike hawk, the head came off of my hammer. This hammer was just an off the shelf cross peen hammer, bought from Lowes. I;m not supprised that the head and handle seperated, and it's no big deal. The probelm cam when I put the handle back in it. I just put the head on my anvilt and drove the handle in. I picked it up afterwards and notice the head of the hammer is broken. I know I didn't do this when putting the hammer back in, but I am wondering how I managed to do this. Anyway it's time for me to find a new hammer.

well, I've seen several of the cheap pakistan blades with the fake hamon, and then seeing this it made me think...is that how they do it. I wasn't considering doing it, but, just thought it might work.

I would imagine the vinigar base that mustards are made from does the work, while the viscosity of the mustard is what allows for the patterning. I wonder would this be a way to fake the look of a hamon? perhaps etch only the cutting edge, or etch everything except the cutting edge?

I'm going to spend the day thursday and make a few more of them, perhaps I will have enough time to actually polish a few of them up pretty well. Of course I'll post pictures when I get them done, and during the process if my wife wants to work the camera.

It is about what you get, where you find it, and how you came across it. in order to help others know where to look and wht to expect when they find stuff. and yes salvage and free truely is best, but any advice is best. AND of course we all like to look at the nice pretty picturess ...lol.

I tried to make another RR spike hawk. This one was made for one of older boyscouts. He requested I not polish it, and to change the rr spike as little as possible to make a good hawk. I finnally figures out how to get the eye in the right place. I first drilled a series of 5 holes through the center, then hot cut the webbing between them, followed by drifting the hole to size.

this thing to me doesnt look finished but as they say the customer is always right.



as you can see the blade needs to be further filed/sanded and polished. but does make a handy hammer and the blade is well hardened and tempered. I've already tested it, it cut a 2x2 to kindling pretty fast, and still has a great edge.

I have a RRcoupler anvil, but I'm curious if in the book any modification was dont to the coupler. I assume from what ive read that this book shows how to make your own tools that it would have had some domification to the coupler. if i'm right i wanna know what changes were made.

I don't uyet have a copy of the book, does anyone have an exaple of the anvil from the book?

Blacksmiths and blacksnakes....there some poetry and symetry to it...I like it!

you make a good point.

A question about tarheelsteel75's charcoal forge. or atleast the fuel in the picture... should charcoal like that, the natural lump charcoal, be broken up into smaller pieces, or is brning it like it is ok? I burn it as is in my forge, and I have wondered for a while would it work better if i took the charcoal and break it into smaller chucks before using it.

my thoughs behind this and not doing it are:

pro's
1. smaller pieces would have more surface area, so more can burn at one time, ie...more heat in the fire
2. large pieces are hard to work with
3. smaller piece might be easier to light
4. easier to feed into the firepotcon's
con's
1. more surface area means it will burn up faster requiring more fuel
2. larger pieces are harder to break up than just burning the larger pieces
3. i'm lazy that way

anyway if you can add to either list or offer annectdotal evidence as to why to or not to reduce the size of natural lump charcoal(aka charcoal made from construction scraps) please chime in...

Yes grinding on it will to ruin the temp it has now. as the metel heats up from grinding or cutting the temper will be lost at the point you grind on it. This will be evident as you see the colors change while grinding on it. However with a forge, oxy/ace torch, or even just a BBQ grill, you can restore the hardness to the steel and then retemper. I say experiment with it. read all you can before starting and then what's the worst that can happen, you learn what not to do next time.

I would suggest reading all you can find about the colors involved with tempering, learn what the color progression is, and use it to retemper after you get done reworking your blade.

And as always...post plent of pictures including a before and after pic.

tim