ThomasPowers

when you get to cobbler *STOP*!

I have over 100 handled tools on my "hammer rack"; most of my work is done with about 5 hammers and I try to have duplicates of them for when I teach and students are sure that it's the *hammer* that makes a difference; so I can have them using the same hammer---or I will ask for their hammer and use it to fix the problem they are having. Some basic advice: as mentioned Modify the handle to suit your hand and work style! Do NOT work with too large a hammer for your arm/muscles; what you may save in time on one job is lost in the months of downtime when you get "blacksmiths elbow" (Now that I'm getting to be of an age; I tend to start with a lighter hammer, switch to my 1500 gm swedish crosspeen or 6# sledge with short handle for heavy work and taper down to smaller hammers as I tire.) That rounding hammer is a fine one to get started with while you look for cheap used hammers at garage sales and fleamarkets. (gotta be a pretty special hammer for me to pay more than US$5 for one though I did once run across a lynch collection sledge that I cheerfully shelled out $35 for as I remember---at a Pennsic. My most recent high dollar hammer was a British Military issue, broad arrow, 7# straight peen; paid $10 for it in southern NM about 20 years after it's issue date....got a matching one from WWII so I can have strikers swinging the same hammer...)

That's a rather common way to fall into the pit of blacksmithing. I know a professional swordmaker that started by making wood carving tools and I had a fellow come to me who wanted to make some specialized bowl turning tools so I heated a length of steel in the forge and told him to grab the cold end and bend it as he wanted it. I then showed that he could re-heat and bend it back to where he wanted it---hot steel bends much more easily than people would think! Did that a couple more times for different bends, normalized them, (they were to hold carbide metal lathe inserts and so did not need "cutting edge" heat treat.) Next weekend he bought an anvil from me and started setting up his own forge...

1: go to the scrapyard and buy a 100# piece of scrap steel. (At my scrap yard this will cost US$20) 2: get to work---it's an anvil that exceeds 2000 years of anvils used for everything from swords to ornate ironwork Honest Bob at SOFA would demonstrate at meetings using a chunk of 9"? shaft with a "stump" carved to hold it on the flat or on the edge---and he sells smithing equipment at Quad-State. If you are stuck on RR Rail and "london pattern anvils" I hope you have read the chapter in "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" on making and heat treating anvils from rail. You may also want to dig into the archives of the neo-tribal metalworkers who "specialized" in improvised anvils as part of their "culture of metalworking" How familiar with blacksmithing are you? As an engineer you are probably well aware of people solving problems where they didn't have the background to evaluate their solutions. (and familiar with the term re-inventing the wheel")

Don't try the trick where you blow on the base of the fire and it bursts into flames---unless you like the Uncle Fester look...

It's a mutant variation of the stuff some folks call rain and claim that both fall from the sky---who do they think they are fooling! (we have less than 1/4" precip for the year so far down here and .01 inch up where my shop is.)

I've used coal like that before! I saved up all the "you're a smith here is this absolutely lousy coal that has been sitting in the celler for 50 years" until I needed to do a trench forge out in the back yard to box fold some 3/8" thick plate several feet long. Filled the entire alleyway for the entire block completely impenetrable smoke.

I always ask; but seldom has been told I can't sub-divide stuff at the scrap yard *EXCEPT* when the people running it wanted to sell a complete assembly for a lot more than the piece parts. Get friendly with them and they will set stuff aside for you as it goes by the scales. Having access to a scrapyard is fairly rare these days and to be cherished!

I think Steve was just pointing out that the devil is in the details and not many were provided. All of the nearly 200 other countries that are on this site read 400 as 400C and not 400F which is why I try to use degF after a number in my posts mentioning temps. Doing stuff BEFORE you do your research is throwing away time and money. Your description of what you did is how to SOFTEN a blade after hardening. Drawing temper to a blue is pretty soft for a knife---in the 500's degF so the soaking at 400 degF was pretty useless as the highest temp in tempering is the controlling value. You can make knives from files without having to reharden them by taking them as they come: hard and brittle and drawing them to the temper you want them to end up with and then working THE METAL COLD; never let it heat up enough to turn colour. As it stands you need to normalize, harden and then temper that blade and if it's already edged it may crack in hardening. If you live in the USA you should be able to ILL "The Complete Bladesmith", Hrisoulas, at your local public library. (see how many questions have a location function? why we suggest you edit your profil to give a GENERAL Location)

Note that knife grade steels in knife sized sections are often prone to hardening when we don't expect them to. Most of the books and charts are based on steel in 1" sq cross sections and it's tribal knowledge that some steels listed as requiring a quench to harden may harden in air---or being laid on a cold surface or PLACED HOT IN A VISE! Also water quenching steels may need an oil quench to preven cracking and oil quenching steel may shift to an air quench, etc Also when annealing such steels in dry ashes, vermiculite, etc the thin blade may need a heavy hot bar as a backer to keep it from cooling too fast to anneal. I tend to shut off the propane forge and place the blade back in it and shut up the door to it and let it sit overnight.

I used my bench mount hole punch for steel: "Whitney punch" And another tip for cutting BSB with tin snips: I used "bulldog" short bit and long handle snips and cut from the back of the blade toward the front and let the hardened last little bit just break off---saves your blades from having to be sharpened a lot.

Actually in general they didn't most of the world used fairly low layer counts when they were making swords for use. Japan is one of the few examples where they often went for fairly large layer counts as they were: A. still starting with bloomery material and B. using the repeated folding and welding to drop the carbon content of the material---often from nearly 2% down to 0.5% Most of the world dropped pattern welding swords as soon as they got better steels and just took it up again fairly recently (for my warped values of "recent") as ornamental weaponry. The exception to this of course were damascus gun barrels and even that became an ornamental option in the 1930's (The Hunting and Fishing Museum in Munich, Germany, has a number of very nice guns with beautifully patterned barrels done duing the 30's and 40's.)

Especially the extrememly brittle chinese/india blades that break if you look crosseyed at them---hence why I went to BSB.

When I've need to clay a forge I dug it out of the creek and mixed it with wood ashes---or use adobe out here where creeks are unknown and arroyos flow maybe 4 times a year. Fancy folk use fire clay from a masonry supply store. Are you over thinking this?

Sawing 1.5" diameter rod with a fine toothed short hacksaw will make digging through the stone walls of the Chateau D'If with a spoon seem like a hobby task! With a coarser sawblade 30" long it's merely tedium even if on the side of a talus slope in a wood---remember to switch hands every 100 strokes! Also the hacksaw on steroids can be useful at the scrap yard---along with the 4# hammer and a good cold chisel to remove rusted bolts so you can disassemble stuff and only pay for the weight your *want*. Keeping the hacksaw++, hammer and chisel, rags---preferably red, duct tape (to fasten red flags to pieces) and trash bags in your vehicle for lucky finds can also make traffic cop stops so much more interesting...

My Mat Sci Professor was nearly killed by a pressure vessel that was over amped once and then used at under the rating afterwards. The over pressure started a crack that cycling under pressure finally lead to "catastrophic failure" I would be hesitant to proof it and then shoot it.

"Yard art" comes to mind too---how about some large mosquito's with that auger for the probiscus? Lovely stuff for those of us that like the "old iron".

Note my hacksaw has a 30" blade---mounted a section of band saw blade in a bow saw handle---punched the holes a wee bit closer than the wood blade so its tensioned a bit more. More aggressive tooth spacing than most of the regular blades and a lot more throw! I like sandvik frames.

I'm guessing your steel distributor isn't 50 miles away then with the scrapyard 6 miles away...

Heating and adjusting the bits of tongs is a standard blacksmith practice. For rivets it's usually the angle grinder for me---or the coarse file and popping them out with a punch. If the hole is wallored out I may re-drill it and go up in rivet size

Here in the states we had a fellow cutting up gas tanks with an O-A torch retroactively cancel his birth certificate

Does dishing work better for you than raising? (or a combo of both)

Both marked brooks or only the 125?

Make it a bit longer and you could put one of the kids in it! I make my no weld chain like I do my S hools with a counterbend on the ends and close them up; it's easy to put two with the ends in opposition and give them a bap and have them link or unlink. I also use scrap for the links and so have them differing in size and length---I like the look. Making another link is a common task while waiting for the forge to come up to heat for a "real" job.(right now I'm using the scrap heavy wire used to ship rebar to the steelyard---when they don't use strapping. I bought 4 55gal drums of it at scrap rate from my steelyard...They wanted to sell me 1/4" round in 20' sticks. I'm much better suited with the scrap!)

Well contacting your LOCAL blacksmithing group is always nice. Not knowing where in the world you are at I can't suggest one to you. Here in the USA Craigslist is often used. And finally we have a tailgating section on this web site for selling items. (Brooks: often found in the commonwealth; but UK or Australia?---bit of a difference in shipping... Some have even made it to the USA as well.)