ThomasPowers

I don't think that acorn is the only term for this; just one I use, along with knob, etc.

in massed battle the shield certainly does a lot for you; so much so that weapons requiring the use of both hands tended to be deployed with someone with a shield think of the great danish axe that was used by people standing just behind the shield wall! Renaissance halberds are another example, until you get to the pike where the massed multiline array *is* the shiels as well as the offense. One on one fights can allow you to use a weapon in both hands or two weapons and block with them as well as attack Doppel soldiers are a special case

How far is the American Bladesmiths Society school in Southern AR?

Especially when a student is striking I use *tongs* to hold tools over hot steel!

*Extremely* unlikely to use a high carbon steel in that usage---it's much more expensive and harder to work with and so tends only to be used where absolutely necessary. If it is a heavy bar forge down an end to knife thickness, heat to non-magnetic and quench in water---then hit it with a hammer to see if it SHATTERS---note PPE is MANDATORY.

I know only a few commercial blacksmiths with a forge with a 2'x2' opening; it would cost a hundred dollars just to fire it up for a day's forging! What are you trying to do? (remember for things like swordmaking you want to only heat the area you can work before it gets cold; heating more than that degrades the metal. Only during heat treat do you need the whole length hot and it's far better to make a special forge for that rather than drive a dumptruck as your daily commuter car because a couple of times a year you need to haul a load of gravel...) As to stocking up for tools---start planning to go to Quad-State Blacksmith's Round-Up in Troy OH in late September---everything you need/want/dream about brand new, used, antique!

How much are you going to pay? Remember your presence in the shop is going to slow down the swordmaker and therefore *cost* them money. Many people expect to trade their time for instruction not taking into account that unless they have needed skills the trade off should be about 1 hour of instruction per 10 hours untrained labour and many shops don't have that much grunt labour---and often the smith does that when they are thinking about a problem. Finally you are asking someone to risk everything they have on you---I know many people who have said "But I wouldn't sue if I got injured in their shop"---without checking their insurance policies that state categorically that in a case of another party they *HAVE* to sue or else the insurance doesn't have to pay for anything. So one screw-up by you and the maker loses *EVERYTHING*. Apprenticeships still happen though: learn skills---welding and jewelry making are often taught at community colleges and are very helpful in a typical shop. Take the courses at the American Bladesmiths Society school. Become friends with some makers and see where that goes. Finally move to somewhere that has socialized medicine almost every maker not on their spouses insurance is one medical issue from bankruptcy (I attended a party once by one noted maker who was celebrating paying off the uncomplicated birth of his son---the son was in grade school...)

All the Roman and Viking swords were forged only using charcoal; use of coal by smiths didn't start into the later part of the high middle ages. Japanese swords are still forged with charcoal even to this day. All the wootz steel in central asia was melted with charcoal and all iron was smelted with charcoal in the west until the 1700's. Last charcoal blast furnace in the hanging rock region went out of blast around WWI So you can smelt with it You can forge weld with it You can melt steel with it How much hotter does it need to be? It does help to have a forge tweaked for use of charcoal rather than use of coal---but that is more like folks saying that diesel can't power an engine as their gas car engine didn't run with it...

I used to live in AR and everyonce in a while you could find a honking big chunk of novaculite at the fleamarkets. I think I still have my 6" wide by 16" long stone somewhere

Since you didn't post a name how will a general location make any difference? (Or should we call you Rusty?) Can you tell us about the sword you made? What is the weight, length, width, thickness, configuration? Where is the vibration node in the handle? Can you post a picture? I still fondly remember my first SLO carved with a pocket knife from a palm frond at Coco beach FL back in the 1960's---I never suspected what it would lead to!

For my forge area I have a large chunk of wide grader blade appx 18"x48" with mounting holes that I have on the floor with the vise leg acorn in one of the holes For my smaller vises I have heavy blocks of steel with holes in it. For my travelling set up I have a steel plate with a central hole for the acorn and side holes for tent stakes. I decided to drill a hole in the concrete for my armouring shop vise's acorn last weekend as it wanted to slip around and for a 100# vise that's unacceptable. I have an appropriate sized washer to deal with downward forces and not to pound the concrete on the edges of the hole.

Blacksmith's elbow, chips from an overly hard hammer face hitting a hard anvil face, having a hammer resting on the anvil being pushed off and hitting my foot. Don't recall any impact injuries as hot steel is generally in the tongs or far away... Best one I know of was a parent who demanded their toddler get a chance to hammer and was crouched behind the child "helping" when the child picked up the ballpeen in both hands, swung it up and *nailed* the guy right above his nose on the forehead with the peen.

SReynolds; I fear you are QUITE mistaken about Weygers: From wikipedia: Alexander Weygers was a polymath Dutch-American artist who is best known as a sculptor, painter, print maker, blacksmith, carpenter, United States Marine, philosopher, Aerospace engineer and author. (His wikipedia entry is worth a read: (a few excerpts)) : Weygers was born in Mojokerto, Dutch East Indies He graduated from Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen in mechanical engineering and from a Dordrecht vocational university in shipbuilding. He also briefly attended the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague In 1941 he entered the U.S. Army and his command of Malay, Dutch, Italian, German, and English led to his assignment to the intelligence operations He received a patent from the U.S. Patent Office for his discopter in 1944 and his design has served as the prototype for other similar disk and hovering aircraft that have been developed up to the present day. "Alexander Weygers as a modern Leonardo da Vinci..." and continued, "...He commands attention because he is a success by any standard of excellence in half a dozen professions... a sculptor of heroic dimensions, an inventor, a marine, mechanical, and aeronautic engineer, an artist with a camera, a designer and illustrator, and a virtuoso practitioner of endgrain half-tone wood engraving. He is also blacksmith, machinist, carpenter, electrician, plumber, toolmaker, and beekeeper. He is further a teacher and a reluctant prophet upon whom the admiring descend." Before 1940 his work was included in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and was recognized as an artist of national significance. ------------------------ What horrors if *you* should live so limited a life!

A more insulative refractory will save you hundreds of dollars in fuel over it's life Have you inquired over at backyardmetalcasting.com?

The blade looks nicely ground to me rather than forge finished with just an edge put on. Very pretty and useful looking indeed! (The old Neo Tribal metalsmithing meme was to have less than 10% stock removal on a knife)

Ahh the late 1800's is not considered old in smithing stuff I still use equipment from the early 1800's and a few bits from the 1700's That is a nice stake anvil. I envy you it! Note that if you are in central europe the date may be different than if you are in the USA, or Australia, or South Africa---why we suggest people edit their profile to include a *general* area for their location.

welcome; a lot of folks get started using spikes; but you do know that RR clips have up to double the carbon content as the spikes right? And the rail is a good moderately high carbon steel too. So if you want to do RR knives spikes are the last choice in my mind. Car coil and leaf spring are another good beginner material to get you used to forging harder metals and allowing you to practice your heat treating too.

I'm sorry to say but the History channel is not considered a good source for historical information. As for knives left in the black that is false too. The ornamentation used on knives would not work in rough forged state. (See "Knives and Scabbards, Museum of London" for over 300 examples) Also just think of the thousands of winter hours spent around the fireside---lots of very time intensive crafts were VERY common to spend those hours of boredom. You also think of modern usages, after forging a blade you could hand it to an apprentice and have *him* go spend a week stoning it. I stone finished a medieval styled blade; spent 5 hours sitting in a chair watching stuff at a demo doing it. No big deal.

typo of the original poster; fluorspar. And fluorspar is fluorspar---sorry Sal Ammoniac is used to clean soldering irons and amazon carries it amongst other places. Note this recipe was designed for pattern welding of alloys that resist welding---hence the fluorspar. It evolves toxic fumes in use and so is not suitable for welding of alloys not needing the FLUORINE in it.

OK dug out a CD that had my old blacksmithing directory saved to it before my computer died Steel Glue: Flux mix is as follows: 5 parts anhydrous borax 2 parts powdered boric acid 1 part powdered iron oxide (the real STUFF NOT the concrete dyes) 1/2 part Flourspar 1/4 part sal ammoniac This stuff sticks most anything together

POLISHED; read the descriptions written in those times, look at the examples not rusted away due to lucky depositional circumstance, look at the type of ornamentation used on them all these examples strongly scream that they were polished! As for how I suggest you study how japanese sword polishers do it even to this day using just hand work and natural stones. The renaissance hausbuchs show metal polishing as being a recognized craft As for leaving it rough---look into stress concentrators, the aforementioned rust issues, and drag in use. If you could afford a brand new $100,000 sports car would you accept it with no paint on it?

Automobile coil springs are a quite good starter steel for knifemaking. As for improvised anvils---*any* large solid chunk of steel with at least 1 flat spot on it. I once used the broken knuckle off a RR car coupler found alongside the tracks

Sounds usable as anvils to me!

I'll be going through Las Vegas New Mexico in a couple of weeks on my way to an SCA event in Colorado with a couple of forges (The Y1k set up and a more modern one that doesn't require a dedicated bellows thrall...)

I use expanded metal for a grate. When it gets completely blocked it's time to re build the fire so I take it out and hammer it clean and drop it back in. Fuel makes a BIG difference! I've forged a day with great coal and had two teaspoons of clinker; with bad coal I've had it clog the grate before the fire was even ready to use.