Dogsoldat

That's the rails off of an excavator or cat. the pads bolt up to them to make the tracks. tough stuff and very wear resistant the track pins are supposed to be really good hammer material is the dia is large enough.

The super tiny carbide drill bits that some dremel kits have work a real treat for making a relief hole in a finger nail. You have to be real gentle on the last little bit of nail and membrane as they are sharp and jump thru that last little bit in a hurry and makes for a bit more of an ouch factor.

I have a nice small spring off the steering axle of a Peterbilt. Keep dreaming of a compound ballista myself. One day if the wife lets me collect enough bits. :)

hitting the broadside of the barn is easy :) just have to think inside the box on this on

http://www.digitarc.com/Steelprods.html an old link I had sitting on my desktop from when I was looking into things. may give you a few ideas

Well I ended up with it. Wife was messaging the guy. He dropped the price a few time and she said lets go for a drive... $15 later it's sitting in my truck. It needs a little TLC been used enough with out jaws it a little deformed there and it has been welded back together by the main pivot point. I'll try to get a few better picks up soonest.

nice job, I do like the shelves under the forge and the fire brick door on the back. may just have to copy that.

Practice. Watch every available video you can and watch Brian's 28 min video over and over. Watch it enough and it will make it easier. Never thought I could forge weld, read and watched everything I could find on it then went out and played and it worked. Biggest thing like others have said, don't get caught up in how purty they look they have to function first. If you have a welder or can forge weld just start making multiple jaws and try to keep them the same but with 6-8 sitting on your bench you can mix and match so the jaws make nice pairs. Then weld on your reigns. Once you have a little more confidence in getting what you want in your jaws you can move to drawing out reigns. Somewhere there has been a chart or two posted on sizing tongs for your work, has how thick bosses and such should be. draw it out on paper and take your time and forge it out as close to your drawing as you can. My last set of V-bit tongs took a fair while to make but I spent extra time getting them to match what I had drawn out. But the extra time making them right made for a really nice to use tool. still won't win the beauty contest though. Hope you win with them :)

May not have enough mass to make a decently wide hot cut but it will work. It will require a little more sharpening. And best to not let the work cool much or your cutting edge will deform easily.

Moly disulphide should be available at any Honda shop. there was something on dirt bikes or lawn mowers that it is used for, but I'm drawing a blank right now. there was something I had needed it for pertaining to one ort he other.

:) haven't bought it yet. Thought it looked interesting more than anything else. Thanks for the replies though!

kinda have to wonder just how much of it was forks knives plows and armour gathered from the locals. no small amount of work either way though

Wife found this on a local buy an sell, guys asking $50 Anyone seen anything like it?

Nice knife. I kinda like how the carving marks worked out on the handle. Almost gives it the appearance of antler

take a comalong or chain hoist, a length of chain and three 8ft 2x4's to make a tripod and lift it out of the ground. easy to get it into a wheel barrow from there and back to your car or truck. A small anvil was found in the dirt next to an older house that had burnt down recently, guess it would be a few years back now. Dad was telling me about it one day. Never did get to see it but he was trying to get it for me. Good Luck and happy hunting!

You should try and figure out how hard it is and what kind of rebound you currently have. It may be just fine the way it is.

I wonder if it is worth a shot using a small ball pein hammer around the edges of the worst of the dents and dings. May make for a lot less material loss with a flapwheel / belt sander

www.oregonhandforged.com/bottleopeners/ nice looking combo openers/ steak turner part way down page

I don't know whether to thank you for that link or not Eddie :) All those steaks in various forms have made me rather hungry. At any rate did find a few steak turners that caught my eye. Will have to give them a try after work. I'll try to do something a little different with the handle cross section next time BIGGUN. You wouldn't happen to have a picture of one of your handy by any chance?

Need a few ideas for some BBQ tongs. I have a wedding to go to on the 19th and have a rose or two for the couple as well as a passable bbq fork. Not overly pleased with it though. The handle doesn't quite feel right in the hand, but it may have to do depending on how much time I have to play in my shop. To go with the fork I was thinking of a set of really light pick up tongs for turning things. Unless someone has any better ideas. Appreciate any help

I have my new anvil setup, we had some play time. When my friend was down picking it up he grabbed 2 bags of coal for me. Well another friend that live near the shop stopped in for a visit and I had asked her a year or two back if she'd get a bag or two of coal when she came up this way next... :) Well I have enough coal that there is no excuses to not learn how it works. Here is the new hot cut and an attempt at a swallowtailed broad head. The arrowhead started out as a piece of hay rake tine and the hot cut was a track pine from one of the pieces of junk we're fixing all the time. It hardened beautifully in a water quench, cuts into 3/8" hot rolled without loosing it's edge.

Looks like you could afford a very nice custom hammer :) Job well done.

Well it's been a looonnnggg wait but it finally followed me home. A really nice 250lb Fontanini. A touch disappointed in a good way. Flattened letter punch and two chisels trying to put my name on the bottom :) guess I'll have to bring my little etching tool home from work. Hammer jumps up into my hand quite nicely from it. Knocked my forge over so it's going to be a day or two till I fire it up and play a little. Just gotta love knocking the insulation loose.

Wow! nice looking block work. makes me feel bad I haven't been working under the house on the basement

I was flipping thru something and came across weld setups. Anyways there was a split weld maybe it could look like a pigs foot,