Maillemaker

Hello all! I'm working on a crusader greathelm (http://www.arador.com/construction/greathelm.html). Now, for anyone who has made armor, or even just riveted two plates together: How far in should I drill/punch the holes for riveting? Obviously I want the helm to fit, but I don't want to stress the metal and have it break.... I think I use 3/16 inch diameter nails as rivets. Is there a general rule of thumb?

Settle, Mr. Dean, settle.... I was allowed the summer with the anvil. Now, I work at a scout camp for pretty much the entire summer. In fact, I wrote that post from my cabin at camp. The day after I came home (last Tuesday), I delivered the anvil back to the barber. I did it as quickly as I could considering the circumstances. I never did get to meet the previous owner, but I made a J-hook and an S-hook for the barber, who proudly displays them on his waiting room table. IMHO, this transaction turned out as well as it could without me actually being able to keep the anvil. Now, I have a 106# Hay Budden that is MINE. It was a little steep at $350, but it's beautiful! The edges are clean, and it rings like a bell.

Kind of. The effect is called carburization. As I understand it, when iron is heated almost to melting and held in a high-carbon environment, the iron will begin to absorb the carbon to create steel. This process takes hours, so carburizating your steel shouldn't be a problem. At least, that's my understanding.

I make my handles out of white oak, using only a drawknife and a rasp. Menards has three and four-foot sections of 2 inch square stock. So far reliable.

Update! Gave back the anvil last week, but I've got another lined up and in transit to my smithy tonight! A pretty little 117# Trenton will soon be mine indefinitely! Thank you all for your advice! Truely I am in the company of good people.

I've been wondering lately: how do blacksmiths make springs? Obviously the steel has to have the correct carbon content, but what is the procedure for "convincing" a piece of steel to spring back to it's original position?

My grandfather's old anvil is a Trenton with B125 and A201907 stamped onto the foot. Would someone be so kind as to look up what year it was made?

So, I've been fooling around with making mokume out of coins and sheet metal, and I'm happy with the results. However........ I would like to know some more advanced pattern manipulation. I understand the "birdseye" and "ladder" methods, drilling and grinding/filing respectively. What else can be done? Pictures would be amazing. Thanks much!

In Blacksmithing there are no mistakes, only rapid design modifications.

When I started blacksmithing semi-regularly back in January, I needed an anvil. As it turned out, my local barber happened to have one sitting under his waiting room bench, accompanying the various other "old-timey" tools and nick-knacks. Now, this was a beautiful 167# Peter Wright, and after a little bit of discussion, he agreed to lend it to me on a long-term basis, saying "If you're going to use it, you can use it" implying that I should return it to him if I no longer needed it. Fast forward to June. My dad went in for a haircut and came back with some bad news. Apparently, the barber, Mr. Debrew, was given the anvil from a friend, to decorate "The Hair Shack". The friend recently came in for a trim and noticed that the anvil was gone. He was uncomfortable with the idea that Mr. Debrew had just "given it away". The long short of my story is that I might have to give my anvil back. I've bought myself the summer with a couple of s-hooks and J-hooks, but the summer is quickly closing. I'm troubled by this; my first carbon steel knife and first forge weld were done on that anvil. I don't want to give it up! What do you guys think?

Ahhhh..... See, I had thought that the scarfed ends fit together like this IIIIIIIIII/ /IIIIIIIIIII Although, it makes sense to have them like IIIIIIIIIIII\ ......\IIIIIIIIIIIII because it gives you more iron to work with. Does the same theory apply to welding chain links?

After I was approved to teach Metalworking merit badge, I suddenly felt the need to have a semi-permanent structure for instruction. I plan on only having pairs of scouts out, so a small-ish smithy will work. Your suggestions/constructive criticisms are welcome! The burned inscription reads IS: LIV.XVI; a familiar bible verse with smiths, Isiah 54:16.

Now, here's an interesting tidbit. Every so often, when I clean out the ash from my forge, I find small, hard, rocky objects down by the grate. They look like clinker: they're light, and kind of glassy with lots of air pockets. Now, I burn charcoal, and to my knowledge, charcoal doesn't produce clinker. Could I be destroying the cement fireclay in my rivet forge, now that it's being used after 50 years of flower-pot duty?

I imagine that a 40# bag of coal would take up quite a bit of space. Currently, I buy 8# bags of charcoal, and dump them into a wheeled garbage can that I found in the ditch. And since charcoal is less dense than coal, it follows there would appear to be "more" charcoal for the same weight, but it burns faster. The thing is, I'm wondering about the volumetric qualities. If I fill a five-gallon bucket with coal, how much longer will it last than the same bucket-full of charcoal?

I have a small portable forge at home (rescued from my grandparent's farm) with a hand crank blower. I've been working successfully with hardwood charcoal, but have been contemplating the switch to coal. How long would, say, a 50# bag of coal last me compared to a bag of charcoal?

I've read a hobby book that said the high concentration of iron in the quenchant dries out the skin and relieves the rash.

How long have you been smithing? Your success is ASTOUNDING to me. I've tried making chain, and I stink at it. I just can't weld at all, and you seem to have taken to it like a fish to water. Looks excellent, keep up the good work.

Well, not all artists are bad.... Leonardo Da Vinci was an artist. He was also an engineer, inventor, smith, wood-wright, architect and overall genius. I've met both the humble and understanding craftsman/woman who appreciates the work others do, and the arrogant, bull-headed ones that don't give a rat's... mule... about anything. I guess they're kind of like lawyers, the 90% give the other 10% a bad name.

I've seen much discussion of "Damascus" steel on the forums. Is there a difference between Toledo steel and "Damascus" or pattern-welded steel? Again, the interwebby is full of mythology and quasi-magical descriptions of "Toledo" blades, and this is the best place to debunk those legends.

I think I figured out what I was doing wrong. With the first, larger striker, the extra mass made me strike with a bit more vigor. I wasn't striking hard or fast enough! I practiced most of last afternoon and evening, and I was able to strike good sparks. Operator error, not equipment failure.

Alright, I'm convinced that my stock is either cursed or bipolar. So I'm at the Antigo gun show on friday, and I notice a vendor had some flint arrowheads and some beeswax. So I bartered eight arrowheads and a stick of wax for a striker. So later that afternoon, I cut up some coil spring, and went to work. First striker I ever made, and it worked great. Both the vendor and I were able to strike good sparks, and it was the way I tested the flints. So I thinks to myself, "Self, I want a striker of my own. I'll forge one for myself tonight." Same stock, same quenchant (water), and I was sure to heat to above critical before quenching for both of them. Heck, the pieces I cut were right next to each other. The first one threw sparks like fireworks, and the second can't hardly throw any. What gives? The only things I did differently were to grind the face on the first one more, and the first one was larger. Should this matter? Isn't the carbon content the same throughout the stock? I'm trying to control all the variables, and I'm trying to understand what could else could change. Also, what is the best color/temp to quench at? Unless I am incorrect, the hotter the steel is when quenched, the larger the crystal structures are, and the more brittle the stock becomes. Are large crystals better than small ones? Or vise-versa?

When you harden steel, the grain structure changes from austentite (soft) to martensite (hard). To my knowledge, martensite does not revert back to any other structure at room temperature. Tempering immediately after hardening pretty much is a precaution so you don't have time to drop the tool or break it by accident. They don't call it "glass hard" for nothing!

Bear in mind: fiction! Ironman's suit isn't physically possible, and the only thing you'd get from a radioactive spider bite is poison. Plus, would it look particularly impressive for the Norse thunder god to tote a three-pound cross-peen?

The Luck of the Horseshoe comes from the blacksmith. Legend has it that the Devil was walking through the countryside when he came upon a smithy. The smith had just finished shoeing a horse, and the Devil was overcome with jealousy as the horse was led back to the farmstead, skipping for joy with his new iron shoes. Consumed with greed and envy, the Devil appeared in the smithy in a cloud of sulfurous smoke, and demanded that the smith give his hooves a pair of iron shoes. The blacksmith recognized Satan, and unphased by his sudden, smoky appearance, proceeded to shoe the Devil's hooves with shoes two sizes too small! And did those shoes ever pinch and chafe and bite! The Devil screamed in pain and tried to remove the shoes, but the clever blacksmith had securely fixed the iron shoes to the Devil's hooves. In agony, ol' Lucifer demanded that the smith remove the torturous implements. The smith agreed, so long as the Devil would never enter a place with a horseshoe nailed above the door. The instant the shoes were removed, the Devil howled and in a flash of red flame, returned to hell. Soon after, the smith nailed one of the shoes to the lintel of the smithy, and the rest is history.