Jason @ MacTalis Ironworks

I like to make anything in the forge, but projects that involve a forge weld just trip my trigger. I dunno why, but I have always enjoyed the heck out of any variety of welding, and took to forge welding like a fish to water. Sometimes I'll incorporate a weld into stuff "just because I can". I am one of those guys who 9 times out of 10 will reach for the wire brush and can of flux before I reach for the MiG or torches.

Just wondering if you guys could point me at something that would give me a clue as to what is involved in building a press (prints, drawings, whatever) and a rough approximation of what it would cost to build one. I'd like to have one for pattern welding, as my hammer arm is getting along in years, or more accurately, I am sick of trying to find a striker who can actually hit straight.

I guess it depends just how bad your stone is... the method I suggested would be best suited to a severely out of round stone (1/2" or more off center) while if it just needs a little squaring up to remove chips and worn edges, a dressing tool should work just fine.

1$ a pound for anvil sounds cheap to me

It is, they are averaging $2-$3 $1/lb. is a great deal.

I walk around the shop and make sure all my tools are where their supposed to be from any projects left over from the day befor, and there's plenty of water or pepsi in my shop fridge.

I do much the same, but I just look at that as normal prep work.

well how long have you been doing this tradition, i have only been smithing for 7 months and i only have boeen making nails for a month and only forge on weekends when im not in school lol and im gonna start making 6 links

I've been doing nails for years, though I just got back into blacksmithing over the summer, so I only have a few hundred nails. And, just a tip, for making chain, a pair of chaining tongs are a godsend. I finally made a pair today and it cut my time in half because I was no longer fumbling with the links in the fire. I also found it handy to pop the initial weld on my daughter's RR track anvil that I set on the corner of the forge before I move to the bick on the big anvil(I have a coal forge with a 2x3 table).

Uh oh... guess I have to up my nail production... can't be having you outdoing me :P

Well, get to work and show us how it turns out. I have yet to find the steel I cannot forge weld (albeit sometimes it is a bear)

Just wondering if any of you guys have forge startup traditions like me. For a long time, I have made a habit of making 3 nails at the beginning of each day. 1 to the club, 2 to inventory. It serves well to loosen you up, and it keeps you in a stock of cheapie product to sell at shows. A couple days ago, I decided to start making a chain. I add 4 links to it every day just to warm up my forge welding skills. And, in a few months I should have enough chain to surround our demo area out at shows. Lets here it, anyone else do something like this or am I just a crazy blacksmith?

I got no problem paying going rate on a fine hammer, if I am buying it new from the manufacturer. I do however object to paying the insane prices for old and used tools that the collectors are inflating. If I have something new, I know it is likely to be free of faults. No such guarantee with used tools. I'll pay a fair price for a tool without hesitation, but the collectors are killing us, especially the ones who are taking good, servicable tools out of the loop and just stockpiling them. I know of one "gentleman" in the area who has in excess of 100 anvils, all good makers and in excellent shape who will not sell any of them for love nor money. When I first encountered him, it was at an auction, and he outbid me on a nice 250-ish Budden. I spoke with him about it a little later and came to find out "Oh, I've got lots of anvils." I asked him if he was a smith or dealer or something, and he says "Oh no, I just like having them in my shed to look at now and then." While, I feel, it is his anvil, he can do what he wants with it, but at the same time I find what he is doing to be somewhat reprehensible from that same "removing tools from the market" sense. Quality anvils are becoming scarce these days, and I have no doubt that the collectors like him are a significant factor in that trend.

Find a piece of wood to perfectly fit the hole... drill a hole on center and drive a 1/4" steel pin into it... that gives you a center spindle. Next, cut a strip of steel a little bigger than your 1/4 by 1 or whatever would work just fine. Now comes the part you need to finesse... afix a rotozip or similar high speed tool to the bar via "some sort of clamping rig". Drill a hole in the other end to fit the center pin we installed. You can then use a carbide burr to cut a perfect circle half way through the stone's thickness. Remove the whole jig, flip the stone, and repeat the process on the other side. Stop cutting just as you are about to break through, and lightly tap the outter ring of stone you have created to break it loose. You now have an perfectly round stone. To dress the face, mount the wheel on whatever drive mechanism you plan to use and use a rough rasp to dress it. I'd imagine a large dressing wheel would work as well, but you usually don't want to spin these big stones very fast, especially one that old that has been hanging around as you said. Usually it was a treadle rig that they used to spin them. The rasp is alot more agressive than a dressing wheel would be, so I would imagine it would work better.

I know of a guy who cuts new stones using this method from old sandstone sidewalk slabs.

Someone had entirely too much time on their hands there.... Very nice pieces though.

I just looked up the metric - sae conversion on 14mm... 9/16"?!?!?! no offense man, but isn't that a little like turning a toothpick from a baseballbat?

I'm just curious what in the heck you guys are making that requires such close tolerances. Any use I have had for a ring, it was fine for it to be a little over or a little under spec size.

That is just a level of awesome that defies awesomeness... I love it. Looks like yer gonna be the next Happy Gilmore with that thing. 700yd drive? No problem, just lemme set my trajectory and charge...

That there looks suspiciously like math... I'll just hammer on it until it looks right. :P

I have always assumed that due to the difficulties in making higher carbon steels that 1018 would be a fair approximation of early steel for this era of weaponry. No doubt that there were finer steels made for finer blades, but the Empire would have been outfitting the legions with what was cheap, so they would have likely used a low grade steels for disposable weapons like this. Wrought may have been used early on, but by the latter end of the empire, much progress would have been made in metallurgy of steel, and smiths no doubt had discovered some variety of carburization. Jack Whyte wrote a very interesting and well researched series of books on the later years of the roman empire in Britain, and a few of his characters were blacksmiths, and he goes into some fairly detailed discussions regarding making swords of the era. I can't quote the passage, but the gist of it is "nobody knows how or why, but for some reason, leaving iron in a cool fire for several hours, then beating on it and quenching it makes the iron harder than unburned iron, we call this white iron because it is lighter in color. I always took it to be him touching on an early form of blister steel. For anyone interested in the King Arthur tales, I highly recommend the series as it is a very historically accurate rendition of how the legend likely arose. of course, he does take some creative liberties, but overall, it is very well written, and quite a likely tale.

On another note, I too have played with roman spears, having made a couple pila, both tanged and socketed... some day I'd like to make a sarissa, and maybe a spatha as well...

Reminds me, I need to finish dressing out my daughters RR track anvil...

Reminds me, I need to finish dressing out my daughters RR track anvil...

A bick made from an old paver breaker is handy, fuller, dogbone, and a stamp to make raised leaf veins are some of my most used hardy tools.

MacTalis is my surname among the SCA, It is a tribute to a scottish highland clan that died out in the mid-1400's.

Your wife asks you to install the new doorknob on the bedroom door she just bought and you realize you don't own so much as a single wood chisel to cut the recess for the strike plate...

Let's hear some other times your forge saved you from the wrath of the wife or the like.

I'd suggest you hold off on cleaning up the face until *AFTER* you make your beginner's mistakes---conserve your face thickness!

It's well within tolerance for using as it stands.

Good point Thomas... wasn't thinking of the "no hammer control yet" aspect.

bah! double posted

The Rules:

1. It is hot.
2. It is still hot.
3. I warned you twice, it is your own xxxx fault if you burn yourself.
4. More Tequilla!


Note: Rule 4 came into play after all the smiths at one hammer-in decided to do a shot and emptied the bottle before it made a full round... It was added for comedic value only. Forging drunk is a BAD idea, but if you get drunk on one shot... well, that is your own problem