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Welcome I agree about the salfork group being great people and I live in Minnesota They have free stuff at meetings Tailgating also Check them out but it is very addicting

Welcome UMBA has meetings in southern Wis but no knife events ussually There next event is this month at Postville Blacksmith shop home of old world anvils and other things including the KA 75 hammer UMBA Online has cheap DVDs with a lot of knife info, manly forging not grinding

I watched him demonstrate at ABANA conference Excellent smith and very friendly

The differences between 20 mule team and anhyrous is when you put 20 mule team on it boils up and if you turn the piece over to put borax on the other side it falls off. The reason is even though the 20 mule team is powder dry it had chemical water in it that doesnt like the heat. When put on the hot stel it boils off the water. The bad thing about borax is in humid weather a few days to months later there will be a white stain on the iron unless you soak in acid or something as when etching damascus. Tal Harris recently told me to soak the piece in the slack tub overnight and it will wash off and not be a problem. Havent tried it yet as I am a watcher not a doer.

I use 100% Anhydrous borax Buy it by the 50# bag but sell most of it It is not the 20 mule team from the store stuff

Welcome Do you belong to BAM Blacksmiths Association of Missouri : ABANA affiliate. They have a big conference coming up end of April I am sending in my registration tommorrow I will be riding the bike with the anvil and selling DVDs

I made a couple pick up loads of charcoal 55 gal at a time this fall I did basically what Warren did. I cut 4 2.5" holes in the sides of the drum on the sides near the bottom. I use pallet 2 X 4 because I had access to about a semi trailer load. The only problem with this is all the nails but I remove them with a magnet after the charcoal is made. I light the barrels in the bottom holes and let burn for about 1 1/2 hours or until the wood has burned enough to all break when it is grabed with tongs. I then plug the holes with plugs I made from plate and pipe. cover the top. I used resealable barrels but a piece of plate will work also. The idea is not to let any air into so cumbustion stops. After the barrel cools and all fire is out I end up with about 50% yeild of charcoal to wood. When using the pallet wood the wood sticks out about 1 foot and as the fire burns this shrinks into the barrel. If you burn the wood too long before putting out the fire ou get less charcoal and it you stop it too soon there is unburnt wood. Throw the unburnt wood into the barrel near the end of the next batch. I do 4 barrels at a time. When first lighting the fire it makes a lot of smoke so dont so this if you have close neighboors or up wind from you open windows. 55 gals of wood also makes a large fire so dont put it too close to your wood pile or buildings Then there is the disclaimer dont do this at home as it is dangerous!!!

In the USA there are several types of small hammers people build from scratch. examples are 50# tire hammer, Kinyon air hammer, little rusty, and several others. Try a google search or anvilfire search for junk yard hammer. Clay Spencer sells tire hammer plans and parts

In one of the UMBA DVDs at UMBA Online there is a demo of making a beaver trap which is a large trap but smaller than a bear trap. The hand forged traps ussually had square bolts holing the jaw post to the frame but some were pined with a wedge. This post ussually had two pins in each one but occassinally the jaws overlapped and had one pin through both jaws. I have a bunch of pictures of old orriginal traps somewhere

Anyone have details on when and who is demonstrating at Batson's this year It si ussually the first weekend in April correct? At Tanahill State park, Alabama Will they send me a registrationf form? I registered the last two years but havent recieved anything in the mail

The largest one I have is marked 25 I took it to a hammerin and told a power hammer collector in the group I had a 25# hammer with in the truck at the bottom of the hill He wasnt too impressed

UMBA is having a 2 day event at Postville Blacksmith shop Feb 22/23 It is near New Glarus, WI

Another way besides spark test is to heat the piece of steel and draw it out. Heat the thin end to nonmagnetic and quench in water. When cold place this in a vise with a little of the end stickng out. Using safety glases tap the end sticking out with a hammer to see if it will break off. The easier it breaks the higher the carbon. If it breaks easily try the same thing but use oil Low carbon mah not break even with water quench High carbon may shatter in water

Nathan wouldnt be happy with a picture of his hammers and calling them art. Nathan says Homey dont do art Bad Roger in Minnesota

What type steel did you use for the blank Might try using a smaller round then finish with the hex I take it you are making a bottom one sided swage not spring swage dies.

A couple of years ago I watched a coppersmith family from Mexico at SOFA. They said they took industrial scrap copper, melted it to a liquid and cooled it into a puck shape in the ground. They then heated this blank in a wood fire and beat it with sledge hammers to make sheet which was then formed into vessels. Of course they did not show this but started with a big chunk of new copper They did wonderfull work and a copy of the DVD can be gotten from UMBA Online

UMBA Online then library RD141 has a two day demonstration dvd-r using two different fly press They have several DVD-Rs using hammers also

Try [ABANA] The Artist Blacksmith's Association of North America, Inc. then click on resources/afiliates. This is a list of blacksmith groups unfortunetly they are not listed by state but alphabetically by the name of the group so you might have to keep trying each group till you find something close to home. Then contact them to see if there is a member close or a meeting close. Cheap DVD-Rs can be gotten from UMBA Online then click on library for details. Only one title basic blacksmithing which is RD65 but houndres of hours of blacksmithing

I watched the old german's DVD also. He had some amazing stories about escaping from east germany after the war. Besides the forge welding with a roasebud torch he showed flame straighning bar and talked about straightning plate DVD can be ordered from UMBA Online It is #RD135. He said they used to grind up bricks to use for flux in Germany which is why he used lacked lime. (hydrated lime) He said a bag of unlacked lime and a 55 gal barrel of water had enough strength to eat a human body in case you have monther in law problems. Actually he did not mention anything about mother in laws. As for the white remains from Borax Tal Harris talked about leaving the piece in the water slack tup overnight and the residue will be washed away. I believe ez weld will also leave a white residue.

UMBA Online has a DVD with Ivan Bailey inlaying glass with oxy/propane torch. He split and drifted a bar then placed layers of clear broken glass in the hole with one layer of colored sandwitched inside. He began heating with a torch from a long distance kind of snuck up on the glass. He said you had to heat slowly or the glass exploded and jumped out of the bar. As the glass heated up he used a plolished ball pien hammer to smooth and compact the glass. Dont remember if he post heated or not. I also watched a local smith melt a marble into a hole in a bar with a gas forge.

UMBA Online has two DVD-Rs of the 2008 BAM conference. One of these has the Williamsburg master smiths making an adze from wrought iron and blister steal. He forge welded the socket portion of the eye to the top of the adze. They also have a DVD-R of Robb Gunter making an adze from a claw hammer with the claw cut off. The working part of the adze is drawn from the head portion of the hammer. He stated the hardest part of making an adze is the sware eye and by using an old hammer head this is already made. Cost of each DVD-R is $5 with $2 per order shipping to the US. They do ship worldwide but charge actual postage rates. There are about 150 differrent titles and they average 5 1/2 hours each.

The problem I see with 20 mule team is it has chemical water in it. It can be bone dry and still have water in it so it foams up and falls off when you put it on the hot steel. Anhydrous borax has no water even in humid minnesota summers. When you put it on hot steel it sticks. Turn the bar to put more on the other sides and when you get back to the oridinal side it is still stuck there not laying on the forge table. The problem with anhydrous borax is it comes in 50# bags at the chemical supply house.

Cut the sheets into strips 1 to 1.5 inches wide 3 to 6 inches long stack alternating nickel, high carbon and possibly low carbon so you have a stack at leas 1.5 inches tall. I arc weld a handle on one end of this stack and on the other end weld one pass across the ends to hold them together. If you dont have a welder you can wire the stack together but a handle makes it easier to control the hot iron in/out of the fire and onto the anvil. Tongs are OK but a solid handle is easier to control. Bring the stack up to welding temp. I stand the layers up/down in the fire so the heat goes through the layers. Are you using gas or coal forge. If gas forge take a rod of 3/16 or 1/8 and piont the end. Bring everything to temp and touch this rod to the billet. If it sticks in the fire it is at heat if not it will not weld out of the fire. The billet needs to be even temp so turn it as it comes up to temp. You dont want the bottom or top to be hotter. If using coal bring it up to temp then stop the air blast for a minute or so to allow the heat to equilize. flux or not each has its followers. I use anydrous borax not 20 mule team from the grocery store but that will work It is ok to weld a portion of the billot and then return to the fire continuing down the bar till it is all welded. Once welded draw the bar longer, cut or fold and weld again. The ;more time you cut and stack the finer the pattern becomes. Once you are close to finished number of layers then you must decide how you want to change the pattern but that is another subject.

Yes the famous Peter Wrong Anvils. At least one of them has been in many group news leters I built a larger one this year and unveiled it at the Little Giant birthday party in January. Weight should of been 427#s but I sued about 22 gauge so it is easy to use one fingered to pick it up

I have a large one made of 18 gauge I use to harrass passer bys in the tail gate areas of conferences. Ussually try to get the ladies to pick it or my tin anvils up to impress the crowd.