cracker72

Lovely! I bet they remove material aggressively.

I make a lot of bowl carving adzes for customers from hammer heads. I would love to make them from scratch but the price most folk are prepared to pay for these things prohibits.

Hey Bliss,
I had the same thing happen to me for the first time a few months ago. I work with "mystery" spring all the time but this one piece would just split and crack as I was drawing it out. I threw it out the door and grabbed another - no problem. That's as far as the investigation went.

Hey Don,

I was a mechanic for near 20 years, always lived in the country and done all my own everything! Left the oil and grease behind three year ago to make rustic garden furniture. It really took off and customers started to ask for the matching ironwork which I couldn't provide, so I decided to start making it. Then I decided to start making green woodworking tools, froes, draw knives, twybills, and it's turned into 50% of my business.

As someone has already said - don't send out any work that you would not be 100% delighted to pay money for as this is how the business grows.

Good luck lad!

I'm in the uk so I don't know if the C content of our spikes is different to yours. I've managed to get a pretty hard edge quenching at orange in veg oil.
A helpful test would be to draw out a bit of spike and try quenching at different colors. Try and snap each piece you quench to test hardness and examine the grain quality. You need at least 40 points of C to heat treat successfully.

, i'd really like to see any ideas that you have.

I find the fleas most annoying hitting my hands and lower arms. After finding a set of very thin leather gloves at Sam's, using them help me deal with the fleas in charcoal or coal. Which I know using gloves make me a wimp but they are so thin it really does not disturd my feel of the hammer or the metal much if any at all, and have saved me several burns in the process. Oh and I always use my safety glasses as you just never know where the fire fleas will land.

One question though, in comparing like a 5 gal pail of charcoal to coal, to me I seem to use twice as much charcoal, does that sound about right or am I doing something wrong? I use charcoal when I'm having trouble finding coal but in truth prefer coal. Part of it is the fire fleas and the other part is the amount of charcoal I seem to go through.
billp

I also use charcoal, but I make it myself. I find softwood makes the best. The charcoal seems to retain the resinous quality of the wood and therefore won't go to fines so easy. Lighter hardwoods are trouble, but I still use them I've just built the forge to suit the fuel. I've got a 12" round fire pot, 4" deep, with a very low hood and shielded sides and a hair dryer motor blowing into a 3/4" pipe to the bottom of the pot, plenty powerful enough. Sparks like crazy but it's contained so not a problem.

Thanks for that. I bought a 2cwt last night for £80.

Rokshasa has a picture of his in the photo gallery above, why not ask him his opinion, if you can find him?

Otherwise, matchless antiques sold one some time ago, here are his pictures and comments.

http://vintagetools.biz/435-lb-kl-blacker-power-hammer-anvil-blacksmith

Anyone know anything about this make of anvil? Any good?

I make stuff like this with my twybill, definitely a paring tool.

Hi,cracker72,great tool!To my shame i never did know what the twybill was for,so thanks for that,as well.

You know,forging a tool that has a specific purpose helps a lot,these days.So many people forging as a hobby,divorced from the actual use of an object,are wondering off into some strange,fantastical shapes...(Nothing wrong with fantasy,in my book,but,a real tool refined by the many generations of craftsmen has that shape that the one man's imagination has to work at,to rival).
Would be nice to see what you're up to with them nice hewn timbers in the photo,as well.Or the tool in action.

By the way,you wouldn't have any idea as to what that may've been used for?Is there an analog in a traditional English toolchest?

Thanks,and all the best.Jake

Hi Cracker, That location 's handy for a good coke supply (Clannaborough), Do 'ee get to Westpoint? Invite stands if you haven't been yet, we will be having a forge in weekend and barbecue in August.

Really nice! Is the short handle and long blades make for a tendancy to twist in your hand when used?

I like it.

Mark <º)))><

"Its a cracker" to quote Frank Carson here's another one made from a spanner when we were larking about one weekend

My understanding is that in use the hook to break and remove the adjacent hole walls, and the blade is used to cut out and shave the drilled holes sides to produce the mortice,
It's good to see someone making their own tools to their specific requirements, thats what it's all about.

Nice Job, Whereabouts in Devon be you?

Know what it is?


It's a tool used to clean up mortices made by drilling holes in a line.

Here's a manufactured one.



And here's the one I knocked up in a couple hours from OCS. I make a lot of cleft gates, cut many mortices, and this new tool has been fantastic.
The knife edge is used to clean up the mortice sides and the hook has a chisel edge to level the mortice floor and hook out the waste.

Wow! That's a thing of beauty, and looks like a good user too.

Here's a post I made from another forum discussing the same thing.

This is just how I do it. I don't claim to be anything of an expert, etc.
I take a piece of scrap and depending on what shape it is I heat it to orange and draw out into a strip about three inches long and quarter inch thick. While it's still red I score it into sections with a chisel, making about five marks. Now stick it in the sand next to the forge and go to bed. Next day heat one end to orange and let the forging colours run down the length of the piece so that the last section is dark red. Pull it from the fire and remember which section was what colour. Drop it in the tub. Stick it in the vice and starting with what was the orange end try and snap that section off at the chisel mark. If it's high C steel it will snap easily, low C steel will just bend. I repeat this for every chisel mark, line up the bits in order of colour and look at the metal structure at the breaks. I look for the finest grain structure with a dull grey colour which is usually in the red/dark red for hC steel.
So from this test I now know roughly what it is and what will happen to the grain structure at various quench temps.


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From left to right - dark red - red - orange.
See the grain enlargement with increase temps.

what about finding the correct quench temp on unknown steels? Quench spring steels too hot and the grain size gets really coarse, and I doubt any tempering would reduce it. hmmm... must do some experiments

Yessir,everything that Clay brings up is very valid,indeed.I,too,more often use chisels bevel down.
(Primarily log-building,where it's all curved lines,and hogging-out of material.Alaskan White spruce does not lend itself well to timber-framing,plus the climate,necessitating SIPs,which make any framing redundant... ).
When briefly participating in a couple of frame-cutting episodes,i do remember how nicely the slick worked for that sweeping,radial motion,kinda diagonally oriented to the grain.That also made me think that the wider/shorter blade is handier(sorta Japanese-style,the look that the very worn old slicks aquire-makes it easier to see what's up,for one).
But,to continue with my (pointless) )semantics:ALL the rough-out tools are rockered:Adze,broad-axe,draw-knife,slick...The reason for it is that the rocker steers the tool out of the cut(exactly as the bevel-down useage does ).And,all these tools have their flat-soled counterparts,for finishing.
The reason that i indulge in such nit-picking particulars is that i'm a metalworker,primarily,and studying the shape/mechanics of blades is so ever complex...Once,someone wanted me to re-blade their worn-out broad-axe.It was not to be,but the photos of the tool blew my mind with the complexity of curves,almost seemed that it was bent in all 3 dimentions...What it has to do with,technically,is chip relief.I noticed that someone posted the Modern Blacksmith link.Weygers sure had explored that issue very deeply,what an interesting man he was!Anyway,whatever works is the right way!!!

Sorry,i'll try to put it in a different way:When you put it against the table,the edge and the opposite,the handle end,should rise a small distance,relative the middle of the blade.Where you can rock it back and forth(thus the term-rocker).
The reason for that is that a slick is a tool used for the rougher,more preliminary stages of finishing,before there's a clear flat reference.The rocker allows the tool to ride over the irregularities.
Conversely,the chisel(being the hand-held plane,in effect),has a strict flat/level reference plane for it's sole.To finish-plane the surface absolutely flat.
(Hope that makes sense... )

Hi,Cracker,i'm glad that the "cracks" turned out to be illusory!However,(almost not worth mentioning),OCS is OCS,and with the best possible metalworking skill one can never tell,simply cannot be responsible for that pot-hole that ye olde S-10 hit back in '89...
Also,not sure if the socket is welded or not,but welding leaf-spring with all that good Cr in it is not easy,and one can often reach temps while trying that will damage it in way many an sundry!
Great job,though.I especially like the volume at the base of socket,as it allows the handle not to be sharpened pencil-like,loosing much usable strength.
And,just for the record,the difference between a chisel and a slick is that the latter has a rocker,a fore-and-aft curve.Not much,but visible when viewed end-on.(Hard to tell in that photo where it's against the table if it's there or not).
Anyhoo,great job,and a great tool!

Very nice looking. Is the hole in the blade an artifact of the material's previous life?

Phil

High carbon and/or Chrome based steels are safer oil quenched, the cracks could be stress fractures from the water.

It's 2" wide.
I've just had a look at the cracks under a bright lamp and I think it's actually scale that I've managed to hammer into the steel.