SteveA

Looks a little like the Gingery lathe. Like maybe the guy took some inspiration from the "shop from scrap" books and did it up better. Cast iron would be better than aluminum, for sure. The ways look thicker; it all just looks a lot heavier. The carriage looks well done, too. MT1 or MT2 taper in the tailstock? The chuck looks commercial... does it come off? What's the headstock spindle and taper? Seems like with just two pulley sizes in the headstock you'll want a countershaft arrangement with several sizes to get a range of speeds. Looks really good! Steve

I'm in the process of building from that set of plans. You'll probably be done long before I am. I build slow. I've been changing things as I go along to fit what I have on hand. I think I have pictures, somewhere, that I've taken of the inline hammer at AFC's Tannehill facility during conferences. Anything in particular you'd like to see?

Seemingly everyone who comes by a demonstration has a relative or relative of someone who was a blacksmith. I like the stories about "having" to crank the bellows for the blacksmith. Dig a little, you'll find that when they were little boys around the blacksmith, they were fighting for the chance to work the bellows. And how folks always burnt down the house to get the nails out. One myth I hear a lot, that I hope we're all making a myth, is that it's a dying craft. About lifting the anvil with one hand, or however, I was surprised to find on an old-school fitness forum that there are guys who do that. They have a number of sort of "standard" lifts they talk about, like by the horn or pinch grip across the face. Now I don't figure anyone is doing that to what we'd consider sizeable anvils. Don't really know what they can do. But I seem to recall one guy mentioning that he wished Harbor Freight carried something bigger than the 55-lb, because he wanted to try something heavier. Yeah, lifters don't care much about the ring or the rebound, just the weight... Steve

The lead goes part in the hammer head and part to cast a counterweight to balance the wheel. I'd say 700 or 800 pounds is about right. I moved mine with the loader on my tractor. Hammer standing on a concrete floor with no padding - for the test run after construction - was very loud. Fastened to a wood base made of laminated 4x6s and the base set in the gravel floor of my shop, it's much more bearable. Probably should wear hearing protection more than I do, anyway... I think the offset is about 4", which would at first seem to give an 8" stroke, but then the spring action makes the head move a bit more than that. One thing I've discovered... much like a lathe or a mill, the power hammer is not an open and shut, it's done, kind of acquisition. There's a lot of tooling that I didn't know I needed... But I can make a lot more of the power hammer tooling than I can the lathe tooling. ;)

Victor or Smith. I have Smith. Went through two or three of the big box store torch sets before I bit the bullet, went to the regular welding supply store, and asked them to set me up with a good outfit. The Smith was the result. A knowledgeable guy at the welding store will be a great help. I make a point of buying my stuff there, knowing that I'll be counting on them for advice and stuff all along. There's a table in the book - I'm sure Victor has an equivalent - that shows all the cutting and welding tips and what size material they're meant for. So you pick tips by deciding that you want to cut, say, 1/4 stock and then you pick the tip that matches. Actually I've found I only need about every other or every third cutting tip size and I can still cut the in between sizes just fine. Now one other really great thing was a small Purox torch that came with a load of other stuff I won in an auction. That little torch has just been the greatest thing for working on smaller stuff... Steve

It's been years - thanks be to God - since I've had to write a resume. It's been almost as many years since I had to look at resumes. I haven't been asked to interview anyone since I got in trouble for talking about hobbies. They're not considered work related, and so shouldn't be discussed, I was told. That said, I like to see a bit of what you do outside of work. Gives me more idea of who you are, what you can do, and how you'll fit in. Hey, that's why I used to ask about hobbies. For my field, I had noticed, and still notice, a strong correlation between technical hobbies and good performance at the job. That was what I was looking for. Didn't much care whether you pounded iron, worked on cars, tinkered with cameras, or built model airplanes, I just wanted to hear that you liked detailed, technical work enough to do it when someone wasn't cracking the whip. Now that I've been informed of all the things I'm not allowed to ask... I don't know what I'd talk about if I had to conduct an interview. Always figured most anyone could wrap himself in a suit, rehearse some canned answers to standard questions about favorite classes, and generally act civilized for a half-hour interview. I agree about the experience. Out of school I put a lot of personal stuff on. I had a lot of room on a sheet of paper back then. Now I still think it's important, but the lawyers don't, and besides, I'd have to condense things a lot to get all the direct experience on just two pages... Okay, I've vented. Don't know if it helped any or not. Steve

Just heard about this film a couple days ago. Guess I'm still naive; I didn't believe it. Thought someone was joking, and it wasn't very funny. Then I realized that one more unthinkable had been done. Seen a lot of that in the last twenty years or so. Seems like the pace is increasing. I know I won't be paying to see the film, but I guess that's probably not much of a threat from a guy who hasn't paid to see one in... uh... it's been a while. Steve

I have trouble getting to my LP dealer during open hours... There was a guy named Jay Hayes, I think, where I got all the stuff for my first forge. Can't find any contact information for him on this computer. Nowadays I get the stuff from Darren at Ellis Custom Knifeworks - Custom Knives, Straight Razors, Forges, Refractory, and Knifemaking Supplies. He and his wife have been coming to a lot of the bladesmith hammer ins. Trying to get him to come around to the blacksmiths too. Steve

This is my tire hammer, built in a Clay Spencer workshop in Tallahassee Memorial Day weekend. This was the first heat, just to try things out, so all I'm doing here is mangling metal. I'm right pleased with it.

Oh yeah, and I typically get 9-10 hours from a 20-lb tank in my single Reil EZ-burner forge. From all the other times I've talked with folks about fuel consumption, your mileage will almost certainly vary. Steve

I use those chisels for tools all the time, but I forge them to shape. Forging is fun, grinding is just dirty work. Generally don't bother with any heat treat but a "floor anneal". Works fine for my serious-hobby-but-not-production use. Ever so often I do have to regrind the edge, but that's just a couple strokes on the grinder, not turning a mass of steel to grinding dust. Steve

Can't find my atlas right now, so I'll have to ask - Parke County - Is that in the area of Turkey Run and Shades State Parks? Seems like I remember a Covered Bridge Festival from my childhood when we spent a fair amount of time at those parks?

Umm... I see the "white maggot"... but all the shorts look pretty dark to me. Kind of like playing basketball when it's too cold for "shirts and skins", you just have to remember who's who? Steve

Seems to me he's talking about the state of the material *now* when he says it's annealed. I know the specs for 4140, for example, strongly recommend doing any electric welding in the annealed state. If it is 4140, by the way, not an ideal knife material. Or, if he is talking about annealing after welding, no, annealing or normalizing won't hurt the weld. If it was me, I'd do just what the others suggested and weld on a piece to handle the stuff until I could forge it out into a bar. Steve

12x12 mm is about half inch square. A little under. I think the last time I bought some - mild steel, A36, hot rolled, to be as specific as I can - it was something like 55 cents a foot. That was in 20-foot sticks. Something as long as 12 m would be special order where I buy. Notice all the weasel words in there - "about", "something like". Means I just can't remember exactly, and I may be remembering the wrong line on the invoice, and like others have said, a lot depends on where you buy. Seems like scrap, er, uh, "used steel" is maybe 40 cents a pound right now - where I go - if you found what you want that way. Maybe some of that will help if you just need a number to plug in somewhere. If you really want an exact answer, about the only way is to contact a supplier and ask. Does that help at all? Steve

I'm in North Alabama and would seriously consider coming to Tallahassee for a workshop for one of these hammers. I saw Clay's demo at Tannehill in December and signed every interest sheet that came around. Haven't heard anything, and my great fear has been that a workshop would finally be scheduled sometime when I have an unbreakable commitment on the calendar. Sure hope to see a post about when and where and how much. Steve

Room at the ABS school doesn't have to be a hotel, although I think most of my classmates went that route. I think the bunkhouse there in Old Washington is $19 a night. Camping at a nearby state park would be in the $16-19 a night range, probably, with electricity. Less if you do without electricity. Or, I camped on the school grounds for free. One of my classmates did the same a couple nights. But then, I believe the folk school has some on-site arrangements, too. I have nothing against the folk school; I haven't attended any classes there, but hope to do so. Everyone I know who's been there - mostly for blacksmithing stuff - speaks highly of the experience. But I went to the ABS school last spring, and can really enthusiastically recommend it. Steve

A metallurgist once told me 1070, but that was for a couple specific brands. Toro was one, I think. Anyway, it never hurts to add to the stash. I have a small pile of mower blades myself, and someday I'll use a piece for something... Steve

Yes, good stuff. Printed a copy for my notes. I think the lack of a striker language is just that we don't get much chance to either be strikers or work with a striker. In all the experience I've had, the communication was all spoken. As far as ringing the anvil, it is a tap, not a hard strike. I was never taught to do it or not, and never really made any effort one way or another. After a couple years of forging, I just kind of found myself doing it. Generally it happens when I'm finishing up. If I'm really trying to move metal, every blow goes into the work. It was convenient that this coincidental ringing of the anvil started happening just about the time I started doing public demonstrations. Good thing, because it helps draw people and they expect it. Steve

I too am looking forward to one of Clay's power hammer workshops. Just saw the picture in the latest Bits. I also have about all the parts gathered up for a Rusty-like hammer, but "real life" has been interfering with all the really fun metal working kind of stuff I had lined up. "Ptree" who posts over on anvilfire (cut that out if I shouldn't say that) built one, I saw it operate last thankgiving and got a very favorable impression. Steve

www.georgiaknifemakersguild.com Yes, you have to be an ABS member three years before trying for JS. Taking the intro class at the school cuts a year off that requirement. Given the pace I work, I'm not sure that matters. Steve

More of a dumb-me trick... Encouraging a really great group of spectators, mostly kids, to come in closer as I was going through finishing stuff on one piece. We really had a good exchange going. It's great to have people stick around and talk all through making a piece. Then I moved on to the next piece without even thinking to have everyone back up. Came out of the fire yellow, hot stuff went everywhere, people caught scale in their sandals, there was screaming, by a miracle no one got hurt. Steve

And again... I think there were Journeyman requirements posts on the ABANA site once upon a time. Not sure if that was a formal program so much as kind of a way to see how you were doing. I took it as kind of a self-appraisal thing. Not sure I really always agreed with what they said was more difficult. But maybe it wasn't supposed to be in order of difficulty, either. I think that's finally all I had to say. Steve

First knife project... full tang drop point approx 4" hunter. Steve, again

See you're in Georgia... especially if you're in west Georgia... I'd recommend the AFC (Alabama Forge Council), especially the annual events at Tannehill State Park. The Batson Blade Symposium is the first weekend in April every year, and the fall conference is always the weekend after Labor Day. Fall conference is more general blacksmithing. I'm sure Georgia has a similar organization. There's also, I believe, a Georgia knifemakers guild/group/society... sometime after I post this I'll remember where I saw their contact information. I just joined the ABS while attending their Intro to Bladesmithing school in Washington Arkansas. Highly recommended. As for bar stock, if you mean mild steel, I can only suggest looking under "steel" in your yellow pages. That's how I found both of the local suppliers I use. If you meant blade steel, I think of Admiral, Crucible, Pop's Knives and Supplies (I think he's in Georgia), and Uncle Al (Riverside Machine in Arkansas). Another good source for steel is to attend the blacksmithing conferences and hammerins... Steve