Rashelle

Like Thomas said spring is better. It will wear better without deformation as soon. A pyramid to an elongated spike is better for the cross section the base being at the base. Some people also seem to prefer a slight relief at the top also. Steve Mankowski of Colonial Williamsburg did a demo at Fort Vancouver where he punched most of the way through the bottom of the nail header then filed it across the top to get a good even opening. Keeping it domed.

You might want to taper the underside of the hole. To help prevent upsetting and binding into the hole. I was also going to say doming the upper part may help also but Thomas beat me to it.

I can't remember his full name but there is a coal supplier James ........ that is a member of the NWBA that has been supplying some good coal. You can get a hold of him on the website, or through NWBA I believe. I'm not sure of the thing about putting other peoples names that sell things on here so a PM if you need it and I'll remember his full name. So in short that is readily available at NWBA events or through his location. Rashelle

Check out the NWBA. The website is not active but the NWBA itself is with monthly hammer-ins and periodic conferences. There are several steel suppliers in the Portland/Vancouver area. There is a nice almost flea market second hand tool type shop outside of Eugene the proprieter is named "Lance" I think. Wish I could remember the directions to it, or the name or phone number. He has some good stuff there at times. He has held stuff for me to drive down in a couple days and see about getting it. That impressed me. There is Fort Vancouver to visit also. There are also salvage and recycling yards in the Portland area. If you are looking to recycle coil springs and such. Rashelle

I really like it also. Now I'm stuck trying to figure out how to do it without modern welds. I think it'd be a bit challenging to do forge welding for myself. Ok all I can come up with is do the coils, match them up. Push the coils up out of the way like a pyramid then weld in place, push back into alignment. Sounds easier then it would be. I like it when things stimulate my thoughts. It's good work Beth. Rashelle

You are welcome Travis. Brian's recommendation means a lot to me also. Rashelle

I'll be at Fort Vancouver making some tools for making hammer heads, that style in fact. On Saturday. Complete with all the tools for making tools. Rashelle

I'm for some reason or another, (I think it's part of the junior ranger process where they have set questions they have to ask the blacksmith) asked, "What is your greatest failure?" My reply, "The only failure is the failure to learn." Rashelle

"We all bleed red" it's good to hear that from others I've been saying it for years, and agree with it emphatically. Happy Holidays everyone. Rashelle

If you are doing cheeks or also to give some depth over a hardy hole you can put a couple pieces of steel or make hump tools like Brian Brazeal teaches making hammers, to the sides of the hardy thus giving a rounded support to the front and back. It would work for axes also. With big enough pieces it might be enough to give the depth for your drift over the hardy hole anyways. Depending on the size your making the eye. With hump tools be sure to bear down on the drift while driving the drift otherwise it'll bounce up and they can move or fall over. Lol needless to say you have lots of options as everyone hare has had viable ones you could go with. Let us know what you do use and how it works out for you. Rashelle

James Austin

Open the vise enough to clear the drift but not the cheeks. Drive the drift from there. Forge the cheeks on the anvil as desired. Rashelle

For legs you might try welding on female pipe fittings onto the bottom at the appropriate size to your pipe. Then you can just screw on or off the legs as you decide to move it. Reduce weight and add to portability.

Hey Divermike is there a closeup of the fork beetles you could show? Cute little critters are fun to do. I'm enjoying every ones pictures, thinking I need to get camera/computer literate soon. Rashelle

I'm one of the people that took a week class with Brian Brazeal. To me it is very much worth the time and effort. I can't say enough good about going there. From what others have seen in person of what I brought back skill wise, learning, and what was made, there were several others that have shown an interest in going to him to learn what he helped impart to me,. Rashelle

A couple of things that might help with keeping your hot use tools cooler. Try using beeswax instead of water or oil to dip the tool in as it'll quench slower and you don't want to harden the tool. Also if you can remove the tool from the cut between blows, the air will help it keep cool, as opposed to absorbing heat from the work piece. If doing multiple heats let the tool sit in the wax to cool as much as possible while reheating.

You are welcome Ivan. It's a reference that usually works for me. Then when needed to refocus myself it was a form of punching bag or another. Archery like you mentioned was also a good form of focus. Like Frosty said forging is an exercise in control (Ok I reworded that). Archery when you can let yourself "relax into it" was my thing for years. Any forn of targetting really went with self control. Whether it was a gun, a bow, throwing axes, punching a speed bag or sparring (Never spar when feeling overly aggressive wanting to let drop ones self control) I went so far as to making all my own gear, the bow's the strings, the arrows, quiver, arm guards, finger tabs, the fletching was burnt or cut to my shape by me etc. Like forging there was a feeling of accomplishment to go with using gear made by myself that I found relaxing. Letting yourself into the moment of the arrow as the arrow left your string feeling the flight of the shaft was like a zen moment. But to get there you had to be able to let everything else go. Thus either a physical refocusing such as the punching bags and music. or the mental refocusing telling myself to let it go, or the reminder that no-ones shooting at me. I don't dwell on the memories (that would be a whole nother set of threads in a much different setting), I just let the realization that the moment will pass, relax me. It is always the moment at the moment. Sooner or later it will be a whole different moment with different feelings, needs, desires, emotions. Frosty you are also welcome. The neat thing about the speed bag is it can help with hand eye co-ordination to the point where the eyes are closed, thus not needing sight when in a rhythm, then you can change the rhythm. Might help some. As muscles and sight realign to be able to mix things up. Hammering has it's own rhythm seems to me like one may help with the other. Rashelle

A couple of things I do when frustrated, when I can remember. One the verbalization to let it go let it go let it go go go. A reminder to myself to be nice. The one that really puts things in perspective "I aint being shot at". With that one little sentence everything else gets in perspective. Some of the time it's reworded "I aint being shot at I aint worried" or "I aint being shot at, it aint a problem". (Rough life and along with the military I put in 11 years working for the criminal justice system before I realized I was burnt out and got out.) I had put up both a heavy body bag at home and a speed bag, some music and time on the bags would usually work out the physical frustrations. Helps with the desire to hit/break,etc. something. Add in footwork when working on the bags along with good tunes and after the workout things are soothed. It's another way to lose oneself in an activity. Trying different combinations and stuff allowed (myself at least) to avoid boredom from repitition and allowed a focus. Rashelle

The bladesmith people will be able to tell you more with more information from you. Though random flatbar from the hardware store is likely mild steel and you probly woudn't of been able to harden it. Makes good practice though. Rashelle

You're right Steve, I was not looking at what section this was posted in. Though the original post was asking if people had forge welded without flux. The ones I have done were/ are mild to the best of my memory. Watching tool steel sparkler makes me cringe.

You can weld without flux in coal forges as that is the type of forge I have mainly used and is the only type I've used for forge welding. Though there is the issue of either upsetting the area near the weld or using slightly larger then desired result piece to compensate for loss of material due to scale. Though it's not always an issue even without upsetting the nearby areas. It comes down to technique mostly it seems. (I'm speaking for myself as others results may of course always be different and I'm the only one I can speak for anyways.) I agree with you that forge welding without flux is valid. But like you mentioned it might be best when doing damascus that way to use a propane forge. I don't know I have only a little experience with propane. I also have no experience with damascus. The closest thing for me is welding in high carbon bits for axes.

I think this may be the link: Simon Grant Jones is the person showing it.

I haven't done blades or any form of pattern welding. But I have done forge welding without flux, as well as with borax, sand, anhydrous borax and iron, borax with boric acid, iron added, mixes etc. It's all in the technique. Get a good surface contact and the proper heat matched up amongst your pieces and you can get them to weld. Note some pieces of mild steel seem harder to weld then others (probable alloys mixed in recycled steel batches it seems.) It does work. There was a link on this site a few months ago showing a UK smith named Simon (can't remember last name) who showed forge welding without flux also. It was a good video for people to learn from. I have a new computer so can't find the link off hand, it's saved on a different computer. Long story short forge welding to me seems it's more about taking the proper steps then it is about flux. Myself and another Fort Vancouver blacksmith have been trying various flux mixtures for months. I like Iron mountain, I like plain Borax, I don't mind not using flux at all. It's all good. Just do what you would do with flux but without it. and remember that you may get more scaling in the surrounding areas, so take that into account when going about matching your surfaces. I think it is a good skill to develop if you have the desire to forge weld, then can use flux if you want without having to rely on it. I think in the end you become better by doing it without. But whatever works for yo works for you it's all good. Rashelle

Steel won't work that well for a bow. If you are looking for making a bow you're choices for a laminate would be a composite bow, such as horn belly, wood center, and sinew backing: a laminate bow using a mixture of woods, bamboo, and or fiberglass, or a stick bow using wood, even a board bow is an option. Which then lets you choose type of wood, whether to back the bow and what to back it with such as bamboo, fiberglass, sinew, rawhide, cloth. etc. With a bow the limb tips, mid limb, and near handle area bend and recover at different rates. With steel you would have a potentially powerful recovery but due to weight it would be a slow recovery. Thus lack of speed for you arrow. You would not have an efficient transfer of energy.. Hope this made sense. Rashelle

How about trying to contact the original manufacturer or whichever company now has the "name"? Someone should probly have a good idea. Even a website to the company might point you in the right direction. If I was to guess on my own I'd try something along the lines of 5160. Then do a quick search in the knife section on heat treating, guessing again tempered relatively soft. But that would be a guesstimate coming from someone who has not had to replace a chisel blade on a plow before. Thomas beat me to the post I'd go with his advice.