fciron

Sir,

I went back and re-read your original question to see what all the fuss has been about. It sounds as though the information you are seeking is in the third example turned up in your original research. I would suggest you inquire at you local college or university for someone in Metallurgy or Material Sciences who may be able to explain it plain English.

I might also suggest that you be less insulting to people of whom you request favors. No one here is obligated to answer your questions; this forum is a conversation which most of us participate in for fun.

Yes, someone has built an anvil, possibly even several someones.

It would appear that none of them has ever used a 'search feature' since this seems to come up weekly.

The ball end can also be used for 'erasing' mistaken center punch marks, adjusting squares, tighten wobbly holes and all sorts of cold-worked adjustments.

I'd probably take SouthShore up on that offer and I already have a couple of anvils.

If you want to work with that anvil, I'd figure a way to mount it using that square hole in the base. If it's rare and valuable (you already have an offer on it.) then forging on it will affect the value much less than welding on it.

xxxx i made 250 of those suckers they sold fast i will try to see if i still have a few. then comes the part of my stupid camera. i am going to buy a 110 lbs round bar of titanium in 1 year or 2 i defiantly can get you pics of that. even know the bar is $2500 i make i lot off of every one. they take 11/2 times as long to forge tough. but they are worth 10 times as much one the right market. that bar only lasted 3 months. and the knifes 1/2 that. no kidding them knifes sell fast.

George, I think the plan is to use one of the empty propane tanks as a shell for the forge.

Amon, people usually use the 20 lb. (small tanks) for that, but it doesn't have to be a propane tank. It's kind of a waste to turn a useable tank into a forge. Any round sheet metal shell will work: an old five gallon bucket or a piece of round duct-work will make a good forge too. (Heck it doesn't even need to be round.)

I snagged a couple of empty freon tanks in the alley a while back so I try not to mess around with propane tanks. I do have an empty one; I let it run on the grill until it nothing else came out and then I removed the valve on the top with a large wrench. I believe it has a 3/4" pipe thread, nothing special. It had some super nasty stinky oily stuff inside that I assume is the odorant they add to the propane.

Another thought on the bolt cutters. Modify the jaws, and swage the balls directly on the rod. I have seen modified jaws for swaging the rivets on AK47 receivers.

also if you do bottom out the tenon it leaves lots of room for the tenon to upset into the hole and get stuck in the tool!

Semantics...

I made a cutter for round stock out of two pieces of leaf spring. I have them mounted so they swing past each other. I drilled holes the sizes of the stock I want to cut through both plates. Just insert the stock and pull on the handle to shear small rounds.

The blades are about 3"x 4" rectangles with a pivot hole in one corner The pivot is a 1/2" grade 5 bolt. There is a piece of angle iron welded to one blade so that it can be held upright in the vice and a handle welded to the other (moving) blade. Simple as can be and I can cut 1/4" hot rolled steel with it. Drill the shearing holes as close to the pivot as possible for maximum leverage.

Turned out great!

Incredible!! It never ceases to amaze me what we accomplished back then. All without the luxury of computers! Thanks for the link Bill!

I believe on the internet it's "pwning" a beer. It's a corruption of "ownz"

paste wax for furniture can be found at many grocery stores and hardware stores. Shoe polish is handy for colored waxes. I use an old toothbrush to get it into the crevices.

Apply wax; wait a few minutes; buff off with a cloth.

If you're out of wall space that changes things considerably. Looks like you need a tool cart. It might make sense to build something with tool storage for more than just the spring tools. I incorporated tool storage into my gas forge stand; the forge is in the middle and tool racks are on either side about six inches below the forge. I think I had a good idea of putting two expanded metal shelves below the forge to hold stock and finished forgings.

Two parallel bars works for most of your spring tools and for hammers but you still might need a few pegs for narrow tools like spring fullers.

Just to reiterate, I said, " the short-term danger of death or permanent injury from zinc fumes seems to be seriously overstated by a lot of smiths." I agree that there are very good reasons to avoid zinc fumes; I have never had metal fume fever, and I don't want to. However: (1) other metals can also give you MFF; and (2) a great many folks stop just short of saying that zinc fumes will kill you stone cold dead in minutes or days, and that simply appears to almost never be the case. Paw-Paw Wilson is the one and only example of that I have been able to find, and I've looked. In the short term, at least, bee stings seem to be far more dangerous to life.

Just trying to keep things in perspective.

I am not familiar with the 'well known' zinc incident. I do know that I and others have felt horrible after messing with galvanized stuff. I do know I can threads of white stuff coming off galvanized metal when it is cut and welded. We make a big deal about zinc because it is so readily visible and bad results occur quickly.

Bigfootnampa and I both offered suggestions for improvements. Given the average behavior on the internet I would say that this response has been quite measured.

It has also been my experience that for the beginner who just needs a handle or two the specific techniques are less important than having a clear idea of the finished product. Both videos show guys carving axe handles; as you can see from the second one the guy got the job done with a pocket knife. The important stuff is not discussed: where does it need to be thick or thin and why; how do the curves help your swing; stuff like that.

My learning process has been to modify a factory handle to suit my needs and then to use that as a pattern to make my own handles. The factory handle gives you something to play with to see how the parts work.

I learned what I know about riving and draw-knife work comes from watching a guy make chairs. I applied his wood shaping techniques to my ideal handle shape. There are lots of sources of information out there.

I'm with Mike. I wish I'd known they were going for big bucks. Now that I know the angle iron secret I could have happily sold mine at cost.

40 fullers at an average of 4 inches wide will take over 13 feet of rod and I need to see what they are.

Maddog

If my 'user error' comment was interpreted as gloating I apologize. It was intended as a defense of spreadsheets. I offered my thanks for the number crunching earlier and I also felt that a blanket attack on spreadsheets was rude. Particularly since we had just been given a good example of their usefulness.

Lewis

Thomas, that's a good point too late for me. My girlfriend is only partially employed so she started helping in the shop. She's now generated a couple of her own paying jobs and all of sudden she's got 'tool spread'. Her little earring stands (retail dispays, finish by Thanksgiving) took over an entire 4x10 foot table.

I've been working alone for 15 years, so it really chafed. Of course my outrage had to be tempered by the fact that I had encouraged it and that it was a paying job. I went and thumped stuff around in the corner.

That video does give a basic idea of what to do... but don't study it too hard. He works WAY too hard at it.

...

Just because I would grab it (I would) doesn't necessarily mean it's a good buy for someone else. If $300 bucks is your entire tooling budget, this is a hobby, or space is limited then it makes sense to concentrate on hot work tools.

If you've got a huge shop full of tools and then it's a different equation. ;)

Spread sheets be dammed. Worked one place the boss came out and said "see this" I said here is the tool show me how
to do it in that time frame. Worked in one place piecework shop after 15 yrs was told spreadsheet says your too slow.
Da m it was fast enough last yr. I left Co along with many others. Co went from 22 million to 2.4 million the next yr. Took 15 yrs to get that high. 15 weeks to get that low. Spreadsheets are a great way for companys to screw the troops or themselvs. Visited there 18 yrs later thier still in the hole. Got help try telling them they need to do 3X as much for 1/2 the pay. I don't care I moved 1000 miles away. Now it's just me