caotropheus

Gentleman Thank you very much for your kind words Yes, I made this anvil (about 1000 years ago!), and sorry about the strikers they were my son and two of his friends when they were 15 years old. I assure you they are really good sledge hammer strikers as computer games characters!

If you secure firmly the sledge hammer to a heavy support (even better, cast it into planet earth!), it will work fine. At least these guys do not seem to complain and I am sure they make it for many years! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxLpbgT3HFg

Nice video. I see that I am not the only one using "agricultural steel"!

The knife weighs 825 grams. Less 200 grams at the handle wouldn't hurt! Next time I'll have to be "less generous" with the guard, the butt and the hidden tang...

Thank you very much Gentleman for your nice comments. The handle is made of micarta yes, I cut 15 cm X 3 cm bits of tissue (old trousers, light blue and black) and used fibreglass epoxy to glue everything. I glued the guard in place with epoxy and riveted the butt only then I glued the tissue in place. The heat treatment was made the following way: after normalising 4 times and hopping the blade would not bend during hardening, I took the steel only once to non magnetic on a charcoal forge and inside used engine oil it went...Of course the blade bent a little! To avoid any accident, after hardening, I placed the knife at 200C in the kitchen stove for about 1.5 hours. After that, in order to straighten the blade I forced the blade straight with the vice and temper the blade back with a torch to blue colour. I had to repeat this procedure 3 times to get a perfectly straight blade (and hopefully tempered)... I am certain that I have a lot to improve in my heat treatment but the knife goes through 4 cm diameter branches without much effort and I cut dry wood without destroying the cutting edge, so...

​Very nice sword Master JPH. And if I may kindly ask and you're willing to share, what is this "special treatment to bone"? Is is a treatment similar to what you describe in your books?

This is my first knife and got more knife than I wished for: total length 485 mm, blade length 298 mm, width 52 mm, handle 187 mm, thickness at the ricasso 6.7 mm. I wanted to make a general purpose knife with blade around 200 mm long, took a bit of new leaf spring stock and forged this. The handle is a bit too heavy and the balance point is located at the guard. I wanted a flat butt to hammer stuff if necessary but I had to remove some stock to make the handle lighter I also left the hidden tang too bulky and micarta is heavier than I thought! Among other mistakes I made, it seems that I will have to make a lighter handle in the next knife...

Sir matei campan, that piece of cutlery is just awesome...

I know little about heat treating 4140 but I saw this as an homemade setup You can test the 4140 block you have (in current raw state) with a ball bearing for rebound and see if it is ok. If you still decide to heat treat the block by your self, you can always dig a hole in the ground and make a big and deep enough coal forge.

Greetings What is the name for the tool this gentleman using with the vice at min 2:41? thanks Used with permission John called it a filing vise.

Speak with the wife while metal is warming up in the fire! Quench the new forged "fire poker for the fire place" in water and not tempering it at once...I had to use a broom to clean the pieces after I dropped it on the floor!

Greetings gentleman I got a few "hammers" from a flail mower (more like a flail shredder to destroy orchard branches and twigs after prunning) '> Each hammer weighs 1.4 kg and they seem to have been cast. My question is, can I use this steel to forge tools? (for example, a hardy tool?) Thank you

Greetings gentleman The bicycle industry is loaded of fancy names, even for very trivial bicycle components or manufacturing methods. And this seems to be a very good commercial strategy because people are willing to pay more for fancy names. One of these names is "1020 hi-tensile steel"... I do not know much about steel, but this sounds like ordinary mild steel used in structural fabrication. Am I wrong or is there something else in the manufacture of this steel that adds the "hi-tensile" bit? Thanks

Nice work you did on the vice. This is good information that you used baking soda and that the electrolysis worked to clean the steel. Here in this side of the puddle, you can only get washing soda at the Lab supplier, not at the grocery! Usually I make washing soda from baking soda by loading a pan with the later and heating it on the gas. There are videos on Youtube.

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After the electrolysis, this is what I got Confused? So do I ? Is it made in wrought iron? Is it possible to identify it now? Unfortunately there are some cracks... :(

Thanks VaughnT I live in Israel and I bought it in a scrap yard in an Arab Village. The scrap yard owner told me he got it from an eldery guy that sold him the contents from his shed. I checked the anvil's rebound and it is about 30% to 40%. I am going to dump it inside the electrolysis bucket and lets see what comes out of it...

You can see more pictures of this tool in this thread, post #24. I used it to keep a stake anvil standing. '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

Got this at the scrap yard, weighs 4 kg. It is similar to this http://www.ferramentasacm.com/viewprod.php?pid=14 made in Portugal and it is designated as "wedge sledge hammer" If it is a sledge hammer, how was it used? as a hot cut? was it used for blacksmithing even? can I adapt it for use in blacksmithing? Thanks

Got this one just now. I went to the scrap yard, and there it was... Cost me around 18 USD. Total weight 6.5 kg, total length 29 cm, total height 23.5 cm, peg height 10.5 cm, face dimensions 8 cm x 8 cm, body height 13 cm. I have to clean it and see if there are any marks. What do you gentleman think it is its origin? when was it made? Thanks

I updated the link

In this thread you can see several ideas on how to assemble a post vice that eventually can be used for bench vices as well. My post is #35.

I - beam may be nice to straighten your blades after forging. Hammer head in the concrete is a much better anvil... Try to get biggest chunck of steel you can find at the scrap yard, on preference forklift tines, a chisel from an hydraulic breaker or a shaft from some vehicle. Good luck

Gentleman, Thank you very much for your kind answers. Your suggestions are extremely valuable to guide my repairs. Unfortunately, I have to finish a couple of pending projects before I will try to repair the vice. This will give me more time to gather information for the repairs. According to the link provided by forger, the vice I pictured is similar to the one pictured in Vaughans' catalogue. A pitty we do not have details of the spring attachment area. It seems that the spring connects to the moving jaw, just underneath the screw shaft. This seems to explain the "need" for a bronze bushing that njanvilman noticed, in this case, the spring would fulfill a portion of the underneath space and the screw would be less "sloppy". If I use a clutch realease bearing like swedefiddle referred, that will move the screw wear point like ThomasPowers referred. Since I already have a bigger leg vice than this one, I see no need to "beef up" the legs.

Greetings gentleman I was offered this vice and took some pictures as soon as I got home. I did not inspect it carefully yet, I just handled it for 10 min to take the pictures. The leg was buried deep in the soil and the moving jaw seems to be bent and it seems that it does not close more than what you see in the pictures. I saw no markings like symbols, letters or numbers. I just know that I have to disassemble the vice, clean all the rust and gunk and forge a spring. My questions are, can you gentleman identify the origin and manufacturer of this vice? Should I even try to toss the moving jaw on the forge and straighten it? Thanks PS: You Gentleman can see in the background the new 500 kg working bench that I am building...