ThomasPowers

Flash back arrestors are for acetylene that can exothermically dissassociate even without the presence of Oxygen! They also may serve a purpose when combining a lower pressure fuel gas with high pressure O2 that under perverse circumstances could backfill the fuel line. Oxy-Propane or Oxy-NG On a typical aspirated forge set up they are as useful as having one on a water hose!

Please give some thought that this is an open forum and so sometimes answers may appear that don't directly address your particular particulars; but may apply to people with somewhat similar situations. If it truly must be all about *you* an open forum is perhaps not the right place. What I can say is that type of grinder is not made for *grinding* but for light touching up of a previously made edge. A good file used drawfilingly will remove steel faster. To actually grind with a sandstone wheel they used humongous water powered ones to get the SFM to actually *grind*. Also what about light in the shop? I've been in an unpowered shop the last 9+ years with 1 extension cord that is most often used for lights!

Got the propane tank outside? Don't know WHAT COUNTRY YOU ARE IN; but here in the USA having propane tanks inside is a double purple no no!

Do you have a window that opens? If so you can design a chimney that will exit it with no adaption of the window. If not: yes there were systems that used an under floor extraction system that could be adapted for an under the garage door version. It will require it to be a powered system however.

The only ones like that I have seen are the mexican recasts of antique anvils and they are generally not nearly so well done! (Also fairly recent). Name is not that important compared to usability; use it and gloat! (or stamp your own---Wylie Coyote with an anvil falling???)

DEPENDING ON THE ALLOY blue would be a spring temper and not too bad for a sword where flex and impact resistance (toughness) might be more important than having a hard brittle edge DEPENDING ON THE ALLOY Knives are generally tempered harder for greater edge retention but are generally not expected to have impact forces on them like a sword.

Are you in Essex UK or Essex USA? One is a much longer commute than the other depending...

clean it up real pretty and give it to a jewelry maker. Pretty much worthless to a blacksmith

Yeah you can't anneal D2 that way takes ramping controls to do a good job of it. What you were doing is to harden it, "improperly". D2 is funny stuff.

The brackes are often not original to the vises.

why 1/4"??? 1/8" or 16ga should work fine.

hmmm I wonder if there is any correlation between post count and curmudgeonness? Seems like some of us are too stubborn to just give up and go away. I blame it on subtle side effects of long term exposure to the radiation given off by hot steel---wish I had an appropriate place to send a thank you card. (Remember W.C.Fields' line "It was a woman that drove me to drink and I never thought to write and thank her!")

Perhaps it's a different way of looking at something. I want the newbies to succeed and not to be throwing away their time, money and efforts on things that won't and can't work. I also expect them to have done their basic research *beforehand*! Just like I would expect someone setting out to go to a new place to know *where* that place is so they at least know what direction to travel!

lots of folks buy 1' of the 2' wide stuff and turn it around so the 2' goes around the inside of the shell and the 1' is the depth of the forge.

Do you know the powerhammer trick to get consistant thickness by cutting out a hollow rectangle of stock the thickness you want to end up with and bending it over the bottom die to provide a slot to run your billet through with the sides acting as stop blocks?

In medieval times a forge would be available. A blow drier, hole in the ground and charcoal is a forge. Where do you live that there are NO automobiles---but there are computers? Leaf springs are generally a decent alloy for swords and knives; but you do need to use heat to straighten! Now repeat after me: YOU CAN'T PROPERLY HARDEN MILD STEEL FOR A BLADE NO MATTER WHAT YOU QUENCH IT IN! YOU CAN'T PROPERLY HARDEN MILD STEEL FOR A BLADE NO MATTER WHAT YOU QUENCH IT IN! YOU CAN'T PROPERLY HARDEN MILD STEEL FOR A BLADE NO MATTER WHAT YOU QUENCH IT IN! YOU CAN'T PROPERLY HARDEN MILD STEEL FOR A BLADE NO MATTER WHAT YOU QUENCH IT IN! Iron refering to real wrought iron was displaced by mild steel starting in the 1850's (Bessemer/Kelly process). I strongly doubt you are using it. If you are in the USA; go to the local public library and ILL "The Complete Bladesmith" by Hrisoulas, also "the $50 Knife Shop" by Wayne Goddard I spent 15 years forging in the inner city of Columbus OH, one of my students smithed while living in a dorm room. Stop making excuses and start moving forward!

Does it have some give in the system like a powerhammer and not none like a punch press? What is the throw? How will you adjust it for the changing size of the material? If you put bigger dies on are you not risking the structure breaking due to greater stresses than it was engineered for? My take is *BAD* *IDEA*!

I punch a hole in the ends of my preheater bars and put a piece of 3/16 steel wire through and close it around and then bend a hook on the other end. When hot I just hang the wire on the edge of the quench tank with the hot chunk down deep. With experience you sorta get to know how many hot pieces will be needed and this method means you don't have to hold it while the oils heating.

The commercial one I saw in use had a foot switch as the heats were short enough that standing there holding the piece and stepping on the switch was not a problem.

I've seen a patternwelded RR spike before by Billy Merritt and of course JPH once mentioned making a file from a knife...

"He that will a good edge win, Must forge thick and grind thin." Mechanick Exercises or the Doctrine of Handy-Works, Moxon, pub 1703 Anybody have an earlier cite for this maxim?

Generally you quench in warmed oil as it removes heat faster than cold oil due to the change in viscosity. 140 degF is often used. If you want to use cold oil and probably get a poorer quench try ATF as it's designed to be liquid even cold.

It's a popular urban myth that it increases the carbon content; but at those heats you generally scale off skin faster than carbon migrates in.

try making the ring from forged stainless to deal with possible moisture issues.

Depends on *your* forge, *your* coal and *your* skills working a coal fire. I have a smithing friend with asthma and *any* coal smoke causes him problems. Propane is a lot more to his liking. I can't address *your* sensitivity to it though.