johnny99

That's Correct. Different carbon content, and alloys for different applications. Quality of the steel is a seperate issue.

Yes, Red paint! But I suspect thats not the answer you wanted to hear. The only things I can suggest are rust,a product called japanese brown,, which gives a sort of burgandy look to steel if done right. Or something along the lines of copper plating, followed by a patina. I know that some knifemakers are getting vivid reds from hot dip blueing thier knives, but I have no Idea how.

It's A-36. What you would call mild steel. Fine for forging,albeit rather expensive to buy at the hardware store. You could just about buy a twenty foot length at a steel yard for what you pay for three feet at Ace. If you were thinking you could make knives out of it, your out of luck, sorry.

Evan, It's all the same hammer. before reforging and after. He's forged an old claw hammer into a tool called an adze. Which is used kind of like a giant chisel with a hammer handle on it. to scoop out wood. Say from the inside of a barrel, or maybe a log canoe.

Well, Here are a few thought from someone else living off the end of the anvil. (nice expression by the way.) 2 of 3 partners in a shop have left and the third is probably leaving within a year. The 2 just decided it wasn't for them(one enjoyed collecting tools to much) and the third is moving back out of state. Partners = bad news! Ex partners even worse. So I can take the shop, and the name. Shop is located in old downtown, right across from a great burger joint. The name isn't worth anything, unless the client list comes with it. Old downtown sounds nice, except around here all the old historic areas have ten year renovation plans to drive out the small buisinesses and replace them with starbucks, and boutiques. Also, how will your neighbors feel about you hammering at all hours of the day and night. Because make no mistake, thats what it will take to turn a profit. The burger joint thing is irrelevant. there'a lineshaft drive currently there that i'd have to buy to keep, but would love to have anyway, so then it's just a matter of money(hammer, drill and buffer attached). The tools are worth buying from them if it's a good deal, just to save you the hastle of setting up your own. I also know I'll try to stay away from anything the other smith currently sells so I won't be in direct competition with him. Your already shooting yourself in the foot by restricting your buissiness to unpowered hand forged stuff only. Why would you also cut your own throat by not producing the things that you already know will sell in that location??? I eventually want to set up classes for demo's and it's already a great setup for this. Yes, it does sound like a great setup for teaching. Do you have the credentials to pull it off? Can you afford the insurance. My wife does not currently work, so if needed I could get her to run the sales. Ouch.!!!! I'm sorry, if this sounds harsh. But that is the nature of starting your own buissiness. And I am really not trying to insult or dissuade you from your course of action. But It sounds like your kind of highliteing the plusses and down playing the negatives in your own mind. I would hate to see you get tied up in something you can't get out of because of rampant enthusiasm. Best of luck, whatever you decide to do. And personally, I think if you listen to what I've said, you probably don't have what it takes to succesfully run a buissiness anyway, John

If your talking about just the straight about 6' black solid wightlifting bars, With the cast iron collars w/grub screws to hold the weights on. They are 7/8" mild steel. I use them all the time, as stock because they are always getting thrown away around here.

Thanks for the kind comments. Some times you get so close to something It's hard to have any kind of unbiased opinion about your own stuff. Irnsgn, I'm afraid that I feel pretty much the same way about most (found art), and a lot of the abstract fabricated stuff that's around. I think if you wan't to make an abstact statement about something. Then that's fine, but you should have a firm mastery of your choosen medium first. Before you start ignoring the rules. Or your just doing it because that's all you can do. Which is taking the easy way out, and cheating yourself and the veiwer.

Oh, ok. I was misunderstanding what you wanted to use it for. I belive you it is recomended that you don't use cement, as it can spall violently from thermal expansion. Basically the same as not using river rocks to build a fire ring. If all you need is enough for a burner, Ace hardware sells quart sized buckets of furnace cement for under ten bucks that will work for what you want, I think. BTW. I have to agree that the bentonite will degrade and crumble fairly quickly.

Just finished this for a customer today. to match some other sculpture's I did for him. I used a lot of different techniques in this one piece. The head, arms,tail, and legs are all forged to shape. the body was raised out of 14G corten, The wings were dished and then fluted on a stake. Then everything was tig welded together.

I'm pretty sure that won't work. You could use crushed firebrick instead of the perlite, but you stiil need the clay, (I think)? The cheepest unsented kitty litter you can find will be bentonite clay. you can either crush it w/a mortar and pestal, or contrive some kind of grist mill setup. Or you can be lazy like me , and just dump it in a bucket of water and let it set for about a week, stirring well a couple of times a day to turn it into slip. But the question on my mind is If you have firebricks already, why not just use them for the insulation?

The first thing I would check are the worm gears. It sounds like someone stripped off the useful bits and chucked the frame for a reason. If yyour not willing to pay what the replacement rollers cost, then your probably going to have to fabricate your own. It's not really very hard. I have made them before from roller blade bearings that I bought for a couple of bucks at the second hand store.

Thomas. Why not get one of those fishnet vests to wear over the hoses, and contain them? Shouldn't ad much weight or get to much hotter.

1. Working the metal to cold. 2. poor technique, folding wrinkles into the radius instead of stretching the metal outward. 3. bad batch of metal.

Take it all, wheather you can use it or not. Then mark it well so you don't lose track of it. That's prime trading stock.

David, I don't own a bull hammer, but I've worked in a couple of shops were that was the primary hammer. I don't recall ever having much oil coming out the exhaust. You do know that Tom's still selling basically the same hammer under the name Phoenix hammers now don't you?

Alan. This is something I have experamented with quite a bit, so I can probably answer your question. But it would help to know what you are trying to plate, and what kind of patina you want to achive, also what kind of budget and time to play around you have? If you want to do it yourself, Frosty is right. copper sulfate is the chemical you want. The stuff I use is Roebic K77 root killer. 99.8% copper sulfate. It costs about $10.00 at Ace. You can either disolve it in hot water, and then use it as is for an electoplating solution. Or add a little bit of acid to it ( I use sulfuric acid, sold as a drain opener) and use it as a cold plating solution that you just wipe onto clean steel and it leaves a copper coating. The down side is that electroplating is kind of an art, and you will need to experament quite a bit to get a nice coating thats thick enough, and sticks good. The cold plating solution, is fairly foolproof, but doesn't really leave a thick enough layer of copper to do a decent patina. You can also buy premade cold plating copper solution through most of the regular supply places. But it's a bit pricy at $100.00 a gallon last time i bought some, also hazmat shipping etc. There is a place in CA. called (Sur Fin) that sells an antique bronze cold plating solution for about the same price. Which doesn't look to bad, kind of looks like dull dirty bronze more than an even patina. But depending on the application can look pretty nice. You might also check out some of the sculpt neuveo (sp?) patinas if you are looking to get the verdigris green patina look on steel. They are not a true patina, but more like a paint. I'm guessing that heating the whole piece is the problem w/ the hot brass brush technique? If so there is a way around that. If you go to a decent welding supply place, they can order you a bronze brush to go on your grinder, (angle or bench). Then you just go over the whole piece cold and the heat generated from friction will wipe the bronze onto the piece. But the bronze brushes aren't cheap.(don't try to use the brass coated steel brushes they won't work.)

Jaka, the simplest way to make a tool to do what you want is to find a scrap hammer and cover the face with weld splatter. Put the hammer face up in a vise then strike an arc on it with either mig, or stick. Pull the electrode way back immediatly maybe 3/4 to 1 inch. So that it's throwing little globs of metal in a large area, instead of forming a puddle. Then quickly cover the entire face of the hammer. But not to thick, It's much easier to add more than to clean the whole mess off and start again. Now use an angle grinder to knock all the globs down to about 3/64" proud of the hammer face. Now, when forging, just take a pass or two on each side of the blade with your texturing hammer until you get the pattern density you like. Personally however I don't feel that textureing a blade is a good idea. Because you are creating stress risers for no good reason, and if it's going to be used for anykind of food prep, those little pits are a great place for decaying food to get stuck and are almost impossible to clean. They also invariably get to rusting down in the pits. But I understand that a lot of people like the look regardless.

Nick, remember, When you are selling a nail at a demo. It's not a piece of hardware, It's a souvenir, a tangible memory of the the experience that the person can hold onto. Isn't that worth a $1.50? Some people if not most, are strange about that sort of thing anyway. A lot of them hold forged items to have an almost mystical quality. If they do use your nail for something, I can almost guarentee it will be to hold up the frame of the sampler their grandmother made, or something else equally sentimental. So keep in mind, you don't have to compete with the prices at the hardware store for mass produced nails. By the way, if you have a good story to tell about nails and blacksmiths, you can easily add another fifty cents to the price, and expect to sell a lot more.

WHy not pull the drift between heats?

Leaf springs w/ oil qench. Whatever size I need. THe procedure is pretty much the same. Set down both ends & draw out to rat tails of correct length,forge the ends round. Forge single bevel, straitening blade as you go, or prebending first, Whatever you prefer.Bend rattails 90%, Then thread the ends. Drill 1/4" hole lengthwise through a couple of chunks of wood, 1 1/2 X 1 1/2" X 5 1/2". Drive a 1/4" dowel into the hole, then chuck it in my little wood turning lathe. Turn to a suitable shape. Ferrules are made from 1/2" copper tube, or 1/2" emt conduit. By shrinking over the square cut end of an appropriate piece of rod held vertically in the vise. (hot for emt, cold for copper). Then every thing is assembled in order and epoxied. finaly I usually use an acorn nut threaded on the rattails to cap it all. Sorry, no pictures. I suppose I could make one in the next week or so and take some if the explanation wasn't clear.

Make your own phase converter , or just swap motors. I think if I were you I would want someone who was familiar w/ power hammers to check it over for you and make sure that refurbished, and fine working condition mean the same thing to both of you. Which little giant is it? Ie.. old style, new style, wisconsin, etc... I bought a reconditioned fifty pound meyer brothers little giant fifty last week for $2200.00 without a motor.

How about stove black?

Mine is simple, an anvil, with a hammer crossing it, The whole surounded by a burst of flame. Just bellow my elbow on the inside of my forearm. I got mine on my birthday also.