Borntoolate

Was looking through some old posts where some folks had gotten tired of answering questions that have already been answered in other posts. Sometimes people don't even search. Maybe they just try a little and give up. Then they just ask a question that has already been asked. I have often tried to find older info using the IFI search function and simply got frustrated. I find the better way to search IFI is not through the IFI search function. Personally I use Google. Search for - "Iforgeiron Collars" or "Iforgeiron scrolls and collars" for example. This last one was started in 2009. I had seen it before but could not find it on the site. Google spotted it right out. BAM! I mention these because I know they work and have had to come back to them a few times. I was frustrated with not finding them within the IFI search function. You very quickly can find what you need witrh google. Or, you get close and find a link to a better post within the posts you find. My intent is not to complain about the search function on IFI but rather to provide a better way for everyone to find what they need on the site. INcluding the new folks as well as the older folks.

Thanks, Banjoe. I feel the same. Let this thread continue!!!

congrats Brian. Many more

So, I stand Corrected. Apparently I am the fellow in this case. Banjoe I apologize publicly and completely.

I would avoid home depot and lowes. The steel yard if you have one will be MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper. Around here the steel yard is all 20' lengths but they will cut in half for you. So you need to be able to haul 10' lengths. Prices seem reasonable. I got tired of always using scrap for everything. The steel yard here is for mild steel only though.

I get mine here. Hope pasting this is not against policy of the site. I don't make anything off this. This is just where I have gotten my coal. It was $35 a while back. I bought 1000# of it at that time. Buddy Leonard has blacksmith coal for sale. This is Pocahontas #3 West Virginia Coal specially selected by Buddy for its low sulfur, low ash and high BTUs. $40.00 / 100 # sack link removed as per TOS

I think your post is more of an advertisement to sell stuff on this forum disguised by a question. Not a very good disguise. I may be wrong but I am thinking if you have all that stuff that you probably have some idea of the value. We don't really like deception here. SO. I am being blunt. I have often been accused of the guy who actually says what everyone else is thinking. The other times I am the fellow who is off base. I don't know which is true here. But. I suspect the slower than desired response on your part has something more to do with the former more than the latter. I do like to be corrected though when I am wrong.

Yup, those are it. NOtice the power hammer has a little trouble with the far end where the curl has a short radius. Metal was a bit cool... but. I have straightened a few by hand and it is a bit of a workout. Me and oldnrusty did a couple in his shop with him striking. That was better. But still tough. Interesting the difference between hot and tough and hot and hard... I think... But I haven't really hammered enough stuff yet to know if this makes sense. I did seem like this stuff was really tough to move.

When you say RR springs are you referring to those squiggly shaped things. Heck don't know how to describe them. They are sort of a C shape but with big squiggly humps. Looks like they are made to spring onto something and hold at the points of the C. After straightening a few of these out It seems to me that they could be a nicely hardenable tool steel. I am thinking to use them for tooling anyway. I was poking around and saw some literature on these that suggested they might be about 0.60% Carbon. Can anyone confirm that or is it all over the map based on age. I did not look up the C content of the materials mentioned above. I'm thinking that is the main question here?

So far: Two S Hooks. I love making these. Easy, Quick and makes small metal scraps useful. A set of fully finished tong blanks Brazeal Style. Just need to rivet after shaping the jaws for whatever they will be needed for next. I like to have some ready for whatever project might come up without having to start from scratch... drawing out the reins.... One Crawfish pot Tipper. This is a bit of a hook thingy with a looped snake like tail looking handle. Used to tip the boiled crawfish, potatoes and corn etc from the big holey pot. ~40# of crawfish and the rest, then... EAT! 50% done with metal handled hot cut from a jackhammer bit... Need to attach handle and refine/heat treat the edge. Next job, chain saw tool for tightening the chain. My saw did not come with one.

I also belief CO builds up in your blood stream and blocks your ability to move oxygen. It takes a little while for it to go away. So some exposure regularly could have a prolonged and building effect. Hope I am remembering that correctly!

I was going to say Lord of the rings above. I really like the idea of combining elven magic with blacksmithing. Anyone know how that is done? If so please post with pics! ;)

My thinking is I want to either let the rivet shrink for a tighter hold due to cooling or, in the case of tongs, I don't want a lot of excess heat in my tongs such that they can distort when you work them back and forth to get movement after riveting. So I didn't think riveting both hole and rivet hot would be good. So, in either case it seems a hot rivet in a cold hole would be best... But that's just my thinking. In the case of tongs perhaps cold rivet cold hole would be ok.

I tend to too closely match my rivet holes to my rivet size. Or, due to heat expansion when punching, I overestimate the hole size while hot. End result is I often have difficulty getting a hot rivet ro fit easily but not too easily into the cold, possibly shrunken hole. How do you personally fit your rivets to your hole so that it can readily be inserted hot and then properly headed without being too sloppy. Or perhaps I am trying too hard since a hot hammered rivet should probably fill an oversized hole within reason. Looking for guidance or a rule of thumb on this? It's very annoying to have to go through getting a rivet installed with several heats, rivets getting stuck, bent, needing be ground to fit or otherwise causing various bits of Re-work. I have done several of these and I just keep tripping myself up.

Matt, where are you located?

Let's not be too picky here. We should forge ahead when we see these things and not be too hung up on our definition of a word. My websters has one definition that says..."To form or bring into being by an expenditure of effort". The use of the word forged was illustrative I think and more matching the above definition. Now the cheese commercial was just idiotic. Actually, too idiotic to really merit any of our time typing about it... oops to late One comment I heard above about reality TV. I actually find these shows embarassing. They depict us Americans as petty, childish, shallow losers. just to name a few... This we package up and project to the world as reality. I am sure some countries think this is all there is to America. It is embarassing but it also makes me angry that we would project ourselves so prolifically in this fashion.

I like my Shop too! Thanks The sliding Glass doors came with the shop. The previous owner was wanting to make a rental unit but never quite finished. Some parts have drywall. The wood shop area that is covered with pegboard was only covered recently. That was bare insulation, framing and electrical wires just a few months prior to the pic. The sliding glass was probably meant to go to a patio...

It looks to me like Daniel could back away an inch or so and slow down. Let the hammer do just a little more work and him do just a little less. As long as an accurate hit can still be maintained. I have split a good bit of wood with a splitting mall. My plan is to make as big of an arc as possible to get the maximum velocity at the contact point on the piece of wood I am trying to split. At the same time trying to be very accurate. Usually there is a natural crack in the wood you want to hit. You can become very accurate with a long arc and a heavy splitting mall with practice. Slow, deliberate... So, with forging you can't be too slow... wasting heat. It's a balance. Now. I understand splitting wood and hitting a hammer head that Brian is holding is more dangerous. But the concepts are the same. Accuracy, force, body preservation and maximizing the tools effectiveness. I think the difference with striking is that you have a different accuracy aspect in that you have to hit the tool Brian is holding accurately in 3 dimensions as opposed to ~2 dimensions for the most part when you split wood. So therefore it seems you may need to be a little more conservative on force and more accurate. My suggestion is that Daniel could move a little towards more contact force with a longer arc but don't go over board. Then again I bet Daniel is doing quite well with what he is doing. On the other hand if striker Lyle says otherwise then nevermind. Daniel, I guess I just felt that your movements were a little fast and a little forceful, in the video. Easy for youth but harder to sustain over time. Maximize the tools ability by minimizing your effort. Just like hammering. WE've met a couple time tho you may not recall. I think you're cool regardless of above. I just give what advice I think I have in the hope that is useful. You decide for yourself what is best for you. Forge on.

Never caught on to the Scale has Energy bit but now that you mention it... :) I never like to clean it ALL up. Seems it's good to have a little bit at least around the base of the anvil/Stand.

Hey, I really like the heart hook demo. Gonna have to try that one. I am not a video expert by any means but I think you could greatly enhance the video by considering your back ground and lighting better. When displaying the item for us to see it would show better if it were against a white background for example. With light shining on it from the camera side. There was one shot with the tongs holding a piece and the anvil was just behind. The piece sort disappeared as the anvil and workpiece were roughly the same color. IT was hard to see what you were trying to show us. Similar comment on the last shot. The room showed up dark and so the pieces on the floor were hard to see. They were also quite small. The heavy sunlight in the background outside causes your camera to adjust from a light standpoint to the background which was bright. That made what you were displaying dark. Once again I am not a video expert or even amateur photographer but but generally speaking you don't want bright light behind what you are filming. I suspect if you had filmed that last piece from the open doorway into a closed room it would have looked better. Anyway, my two cents. Nice video and thanks, I really liked how you turned turned the heart around.

I first received four coil springs. They just showed up. Not sure from where. Thanks? Whoever? This was a great addition to my re-bar which was about all I had at the time. A buddy of mine (Dan) had bought some property. There was a lot of "Junk" on this property. I picked it over and came home with a small load of "treaure". Thanks Dan. Old N Rusty invited me to open shop in Baton Rouge. First time I ever used a power hammer (100#). That thing scares me! Thanks Danny! My HR guy here at work brought me the brake pedal off his Chevy. :blink: Thanks Robin?

Instead of dumpster diving in the tub or oil bath maybe try magnet on a stick.

I went to a large forge when I was in, of all places (Saudi Arabia). They primarily made pipe Flanges. Long rods of steel came in. For a 4" 150# flange I want to say the steel rod was something like 4" diameter. These were cut into smaller sections something like 6 inches long. They went by conveyor into a long furnace. Maybe it was 15 or 20 feet long. Going on memory here. They fell out of the furnace, red hot, near the forge where they were placed inside and I think a guy had to activate it with both hands. So then a big die comes down and squishes the hunk of red hot metal into the shape of a flange. I don't recall now but that may have been a 2 or three step process to shape, punch the pipe hole, do final shape and then I believe the holes were drilled. So if you want to build a factory like that... first... Get a lot of money.... Then there are only about a 1000 other things to do afterwards. BUt if you have a lot of money you could probably get started. Unless you are only going to make like one flange per day, by hand, with strikers and such. Good luck getting them certified by anyone like API though...

I don't know and don't much care. I "think" I know when stuff falls in there. Mostly.... Maybe.... It usually means I need to make a different set of tongs to be able to hold onto stuff. I live in Southern Louisiana (Hot, wet, Humid) so as long as it doesn't turn green or grow mosquitoes I don't plan to find out any time soon. So far so good. It'll be a full year in about 3 months.

Only 49 more to go!