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Here in southern MN they mine it.
Send it out by the train car.
There is a little pile of 300 ton sitting just outside of town from a derailment several years ago.
100 ton to a car.

Saw an 80 blacksmith from Canada forge weld using a oxy propane rosebud and barn lime.
There is two types of lime slacked and unslacked
One has water and one not.
He said the wrong one a bag and a 55 gal barrel of water was enough to get rid of a body
He started blacksmithng in Germany just after WW2 and said there they ground up bricks as flux
Personaly I use anhydrous borax I buy in 60# bags from a chemical warehouse and then sell at conferences by the #

Last month tried to set the shop on fire when I had two bags of shreaded paper too close to the power hammer. When I wacked the billet the flux sprayed out and onto the bags. Yesterdays pants and shirt got little burn holes from not wearing and apron also. It really sprays but that is getting rid of the oxide which is what we want.

Welcome to this group
If you dont get the help you need here California has a very active blacksmith group where you can get hands on teachings

Ask a lot of questions here someone will respond
also check out the stickies for already asked ?s

Another source of tools may be you local blacksmith group
I beleive the NE Blacksmiths are having a conference sometime in May
Go to this groups home page then on the right is a link to groups
Hopefully there will be contact info for you
Nathan from here in MN is planning to be there with hand hammers unless his plans change.

Something that works well in a gas forge is to have a touch rod.
This is a piece of 3/16 or less rod forged to a point.
bring your piece (s) your are welding to heat when they are close to temp heat the touch rod to the same temp by color.
Touch the pieces together in the forge.
If they dont want to stick together there they will not stick on the anvil either.
This lets you know the color your iron needs to be to weld.
Another problem is dont weld weld on a cold anvil as this will steal heat from your piece causing hou problems.
Most important is practice practice practice.
Bob Patrick once told me at a demo it is like Olympic figure skater you cant do it once a month and expect to win.

When I weld with carcoal I dont heat it till I get sparks.
I heat till what I think is hot enough then shut off the blower for a minute or so then bring to anvil and weld.

A ring or attached billet is easier to weld than drop the tongs welds

Good Luck. Once you get it the next and next will get much easier.

I think the armour plating on a Humvee is aluminum
The steel is probably the same as a similar part in a GM or Ford
Low carbon for parts that are formed by a press.
Cars have had some fancy laminated hard to cut stuff according to mhy local fire depart

Just returning from Batson's Knife Symposium
One of the demonstrations was Steve Swartzer and Wally H. building a vertical gas forge.
He used a forced air blower that could easily slip off any of his forges and slip onto a bigger one he already had built if necessary. That way you only had the cost of the burner once for several size forges.

He used a castible bottom (AP Gren Mizzou I think) and kaowool lined sides and top. The top was not welded on but a plate sitting ontop. This was incase you added the gas before the fire and it had a place to vent instead of detonating. The wool was lined with Satanite

Said it would get to welding temp in about 2 minutes.

fdHe also had a bean can forge with a map gas torch from Lowes that could weld small stock

Saw Glenn walking around but did n ot talk to him.

At various conferences I have seen flatters made of a 2# or so hammer with the plate welded on. It was called a poor boy flatter.

I also watched a smith make one from a vehicle axel. He slitted and drifted the hammer handle eye like making a hammer and cut the flatter out ot the area the lug bolts would have been.

If you are making one for a power hammer you heat a piece of round stock and drive it into a half round bottom swage. This makes a combination flatter/fuller

Clay Spencer sells plans or sets up groups to do hammer builds.

Ed
Great bunch of people live near Farmer City.
I havent been to Mark and Mindy's shop but have seen her work wich is excellent but so is Mark's.
Steve Parker and Roger Lawrance live near there also and have been there.
Took two copper class at Roger's.
He might have a spare forge.
I know he sells excellent forge pots, cones and swage blocks

Tom Clark used to have a wrecher unload hammers if a tractor or fork lift wasnt avalible
Another freind I knew used a tripod of 2 or 3 inch pipe and a chain lift

But as already pointed out be very carefull. If something that heavy starts to slip dont grab it or get beween it and waht ever it is going to hit

It can also be used to drill oles through hard material like leaf springs

The test I use to see if it is a good anvil is to drop a ball bearing.
It sholuld rebound to at least 70% of the height it was dropped from

Make that going out of town to the west
You drive by the south side of the lions park
I think there was a trailer house near the road.
I turned left and went up a hill
If you come to a small store you went a couple ;;miles too far

It is a few miles out of town to the East.
I would think they would have it marked although Tom did not have a sign.
Did not wand the public driving up bothering him when he was trying to get work done.
You should be able to follow the rest of the blacksmith trucks heading out.
I will be at a blacksmith weekend near Davenport IA but would drive down the rest of the way monday if there would be anything left and some one there to sell.

Dont try to order for a couple of weeks as he is headed to the Scott Co, IA hammer in and Batson's knife sympossium in AL

Go to as many Arizona Associasions meetings as you can.
Try to find someone else close as hands one will advance you greatly as trying to learn by yourself
Welcome to the site.
If after you sign on each time click on new posts at top of page and you see only new entries.

The commercial ones were done cold probably with a punch press no forging of the points
One end has square hole to connect driers together

I agree with Jymm
Air hammer has a much larger throat making it easier to get tall tooling in.
That said I have seen Clay demonstrate his tire hammer a couple of times and it was the best running 50# little giant style hammer I have ever watched. But then most of the LGs I have watched were at least 75 years old.
Clay uses spring swages so there is some room and a shourt slitter would work but you are not going to be able to drift with it were you could with an air hammer.

thanks for including all the pictures
I have been converting all my pallet wood into charcoal for the forge.
Have several pails of nails I sort out with a magnet.
Might weld some onto sheet iron to make some bowls

Excellent work especially the filed rim

Welcome aboard
There are a lot of active smiths in your area
Go to the iforgeiron home page then on the right click on blacksmith groups to find a group in your area.

There is a hammerin at Scott Co Park north of Davenport IA this Sat and Sunday.
Ussually about 30 or more smiths in attendance.
Bud Harvey past IVBA president is the demonstrator.
I think he will be doing some treadle hammer tooling and projects
I plan to be there

Mark
Beautiful piece
I would never believed it only took 8 hours to texture
What gauge and was it done hot or cold?

I use a power hammer with tezturing dies top and bottom or you can make a spring swage
I cut lines with a chisel cold in the plates
The lines go with the direction of the stock I am feeding
If you go straight across the texture looks like durawal which I hate.

I make my own out of 2 X 4 lumber with a 55 gal drum
I have three barrels cooking right now
Made a pickup load in the last week