ThomasPowers

What I found droolworthy was not the complete set ups at such low prices but all the REPAIR PIECES available! Note unless you can put an upper or lower bound on it with other catalogs of known dates a model may have been in production for decades!

Yes but what you don't want is the one that stops dead as soon as you turn loose---having to crank all the time is a pain---why it's better to have a large blower on a small forge than a small blower on a large forge.

When I'm make rasptle snakes I usually put a rasp and a finished one out on the railing along with a sample of coal and coke for people to handle. Even with the starting piece right there I still get a lot of "how do you make the skin?"'s

Makes a difference when it may be 100 miles to get to a specialty store; the "junk pile" suddenly becomes worth it's weight in gasoline!

Well he's one of *several* patron saints of blacksmithing; also on tap: Brigid of Ireland, Dunstan, Eligius We smiths needed all the help we could get!

What I do is to crank it at a pace suitable for my common forging needs. Then I let go of the handle and I want it to make at least 3 complete revolutions of the handle on it's own. This means that I will have time to switch tools, take a drink of water, etc in between cranking and pulling the hot piece out. As I mentioned a perfectly good blower might just be gummed up with ancient oil and work fine once cleaned out; however slop, grinding, chattering in the gear box is a bad sign!

Get the alloy designation! You do know that some alloys can make you sick while forging them right? I like to forge CP1 or 2 Ti and I made my camp eating set out of Ti as you don't need much of an edge for a table knife; but being able to throw them in the dishwasher after a long campout is a *good* thing! Bracelets can be nice too; especially if anodized and Christmas is coming. I had my apprentice forge a Ti knife once as it would really impress the idiots who don't know that Ti is less bladeworthy than a good high carbon steel. He got so many *WOW*s he kept making more; sigh. My eating knife has a slice on the back of it when I had to prove that a steel knife was better for edge taking and holding---sliced a curl off the Ti with the edge of a san mai blade with nicholson file as the center piece and a pattern welded experiment as the outer layers.

un-electroplate it?

Crack may be at the weld line for face plate pieces. But while still usable it does lower the value a lot as it may be an indication of the heel forge weld beginning to fail.

Sam doesn't have a digital clock!

search on "Cable damascus", watch out for a LOT of hits! When making blades from the stuff what alloy the cable is makes a difference. You also don't want lead or plastic interior lays in it.

Talk to your local SCA armor makers!

Auctions: when I was hunting a large anvil I used to get all het up over auction listings that said "large anvil" or even Huge anvil to get out there and find that it was 100 pounds and was considered HUGE compared to the 10 pound cast iron nail straighteners... So I started to call them up and ask how large---still got bad data. Finally I started asking them "how many people did it take to move it?" 1 person == small anvil; 2 people == small to medium anvil; a laugh and a "we used a tractor!" == I went to the auction. However I ended up getting both my 410# Trenton and my 515# *mint* Fisher by word of mouth/beating the bushes and way lower than things were going at auction; I pretty much stopped going to auctions as the expense in time and travel didn't pay off compared to talking to people around town. Personally I would not advertise "Top Dollar Paid" unless I was willing to pay top e-bay prices. I would probably go with "cash paid" myself.

The works real well part---do you know this or is it something the seller told you? (And how do they/you know good working from ok?) I've had several folks try to sell me blowers that were "great working" ones that when I checked them out were fair to bad. They thought that if it moved it was working great whereas I wanted the handle to make 3 or more revolutions *after* I let go of it. (and knowing when gummy old oil was the only issue can take experience.) Note that this is an international forum so it helps to tag stuff with the type of money---like US$145 (you could be looking at one in Canada after all...not much difference now but at times....)

Well with your hammer and tongs you will want to forge a hardy for your anvil and more tongs to fit what you want to do. HOWEVER IF WE DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU PLAN TO DO WE CAN'T TELL YOU WHAT TOOLS YOU NEED! Bladesmithing is different from ornamental iron is different from historical replicas, etc But the very minimum is: a hammer and an anvil. If I was kitting a fellow out I would want them to have: a hammer, a larger hammer and a smaller hammer. Tongs for common sizes they will work with. Hot cut and hot cut hardy. A post vise! A twisting wrench sized for the work they will do. A bending fork sized for the work they will do. A bic. A hack saw. An Arc welder (helps to build various tools and jigs...) An old lincoln tombstone can be had cheap and will outlive most of us!

It's a book; so use your favorite book site---I use abebooks.com KNIVES AND SCABBARDS: MEDIEVAL FINDS FROM EXCAVATIONS IN LONDON. (ISBN 10: 0112904408 / ISBN 13: 9780112904403 ) Cowgill, J., de Neergaard, M., and N. Griffiths. This book catalogues, discusses and illustrates over five hundred knives, scabbards, shears and scissors dating from the mid-12th to the mid-15th centuries and found in the City of London, particularly along the waterfront sites, where recovered items can be accurately dated by dendrochronology and coin finds. It is a fundamental work of reference for medieval artefacts and material culture, an essential handbook for excavators all over Britain and much of Europe. JANE COWGILL, MARGRETHE DE NEERGAARDE and NICK GRIFFITHS are former members of the staff of the Museum of London.

Why I gave up going to auctions; you can waste a day and end up with nothing *and* get annoyed when someone pays way to much for something *you* want to use and they are just going to paint it black and set it on the hearth...

I know a smith who had a fire because of linseed oil soaked rags. Another trick is to burn them in the forge when done...

"Knives and Scabbards" Museum of London has 310 medieval knives drawn to scale with cross section information and information on the metallurgy and hilting of the too. It's a great resource for leather stamping of the various centuries covered too! It includes several friction folders!

Boiled linseed oil is not boiled anymore. Now it uses heavy metal driers to make it harden faster. Unboiled linseed oil may take months and lots of UV exposure to make it harden and no longer be sticky. Now if you want to tell folks "Thanks for buying this it will be ready in about a year; come back and pick it up then...) Back in the bad old days it was boiled to speed up the polymerization process. HOWEVER it is quite flammable and so boiling it is VERY DANGEROUS INDEED!

Look into the closest ABANA Affiliate and see if there is anyone close to you. I think many if not most smiths will invite a new person over to try it to see if they like it. *AND* an afternoon with someone who knows what they are doing can save you six months or more of trying it on your own!

Make sure you use vegetable oil for the oil quenches; less loss of temper by the wife!

That was the evening demo at one Quad-State. They've got it down to a science these days!

In general you use the largest hammer you can use for extended amounts of time continuously. Using a hammer too large results in lots of downtime while you let your elbow heal, using one too small makes the time needed to forge an item extend. So I know one professional who uses an 8 pound hammer and another who uses a 3 pound hammer; both are what is BEST for *THEM*!

If you have a lot of questions it can help to add your general location to your profile as it seems a lot of questions may be location specific even if it's a "stop by and I'll show you how!" Turns out that a lot of this stuff is MUCH more easily learned in person than on the net. Look at my location for an example