ThomasPowers

So I went to the BABA website and put in Wales in their "Find a Blacksmith" and got 22 results. Don't know anything about them or where in Wales but you might. Try it! Don't know if they will have any smithing but there is an experimental archeology conference being put on by St Fagans Museum and Cardiff University in January.

Saw this on the Arch-Metals Mailing list; wish I could attend! The 7th Experimental Archaeology Conference is scheduled for Friday 11th to Saturday 12th January 2013, to be held jointly between Cardiff University and St Fagans National History Museum. Details can be found at: http://experimentalarchaeologyuk.wordpress.com/ Some of you may be familiar with the bloomery experiments done at St Fagans, (Alas gone back to the primordial mud now). Also a tip if you visit St Fagans: If there is a fire in the celtic round house sitting down brings you out of the smoke zone and it becomes quite pleasant inside. We visited on a cold rainy day...

On the other hand there may be a smith that could help you withing 5 miles of your place. If it doesn't make you uncomfortable can you give a town or region? I live about 80 miles away from where the majority of our ABANA Affiliate live; so if you just look at that you'd miss me. I had several invitations from smiths to visit when I went to Wales this last spring.

Remember that these date from the days of "flow through oiling" and so can almost be guaranteed to leak if overfilled---or even if correctly filled on some models!

When I lived in Ohio, the blacksmith's happy hunting ground, I once threatened to build a fence composed of postvises stuck into anvil hardy holes with the vises holding 6' rods to space them around the yard. I have a self imposed limit on most smithing stuff and if I get another one over that I'll pass one on to someone who doesn't enjoy the hunt as much as I do but still could use the items.

But But if you drink your beer *cold* you can get rust on the anvil face! I used to tell my wife I wanted an anvil large enough to serve dinner on...

Note we need only a *general* location in these days you do not want to give exact information out on the net---*especially* if you are under 18! As an example I put my location in my profile as "Central NM" quite good enough for most things.

A truly large anvil makes an excellent place to serve tea o. Smugness is part of the anvil-envy syndrome...till you hear of a larger one, then yearning and coveting kicks in...

May I strongly suggest that you find your local smithing organization and attend some meetings. Starting with a knife is rather like telling us "I've never driven a car before so I thought I would start with something simple like entering a NASCAR race". Knifemaking is more the college level of smithing. O2 will be a relatively expensive steel to try to learn hammer control, tapering, temperature control, heat treating, leaving a smooth surface, etc. Learn the basics first---it's actually the *faster* route to doing good knives. (And one Saturday afternoon with a smith who knows what they are doing can save you 6 months to a year over trying to learn it from the net! If you are near Central NM, get a parent to bring you over sometimes and we can go over getting started---they can forge too, or just watch.) When you know the basics you might then think of trying my beginning bladesmithing suggestion: Get a coilspring from an auto and have it cut down opposing sides giving you a bunch of ( shaped pieces that will allow you to get used to forging the same steel again and again and try heat treating etc with the same alloy. My last visit to the scrapyard I found where someone had torched a spring like that and just left the pieces---so I scarfed them up for my next aspiring bladesmith... Oh yes, Christmas is coming, (also Hanukkah, Dwali, etc) Asking for a copy of "The Complete Bladesmith" and "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" would be a good idea!

How about *tomorrow*, a chunk of car axle, a punch or slitter and a drift and you are good to go!

Hmm wonder if it would drop through the hardy hole of my Fisher---1.5" sq.

Having seen several railroad rail grates that were sagged and burnt up, I believe that all such items are "consumables" and so should be expected to have a limited use life with the cheap to build vs how long it will last being the controlling factors. Now a platinum alloy one.... Glanced through one of Ruoff's Mat Sci texts, and the Metals desktop manual and the 1948 ASM handbook over breakfast. The latter two gave charts of the compositions of the ANSI and SAE designations alloy contents but did not address the numbering scheme per se. (got pulled into the 1948's discussion of "alloy wrought iron" which I don't recall seeing in my more modern editions...) Still looking but I'm quite busy this weekend with folks stopping by Saturday and Teaching at NM Tech Sunday--just had one of the advanced students asking me if he can make a kunai...

Wow that's a relief! You can imagine our surprise to actually get someone with a clue wanting to extend the envelope a bit... IIRC Hrisoulas has a couple of pictures of pattern welded gun work in one of his books and they might be a good place to start. If you are not going for good contrast---why use the material? You will probably want to weld in a "can" and use a propane forge and hydraulic press to try to get minimum defects. Testing the results with n >> 1 is a pretty much mandatory idea. Are you thinking of offering the PW version as a "dress up" option with a regular slide for day to day use? (Have to tune both of them to that gun...)

(and IIRC the first circular saws were used in the low countries in the 1500's---but they were quite uncommon!

Fishers are an excellent brand and are famed as "quiet anvils". People who don't know any better sometimes avoid them since they don't ring like they believe an anvil should.

White oak is probably the best of the list you gave.

Sure Hot rolled is a good choice for that use as it's generally cheaper and so you can use heavier stock without paying out the nose for it---easier to find it too. We're just throwing mashed potatoes in the school lunchroom...

As a smith I am gradually coming to resemble that anvil!

John, think of the future! Hear in sunny DRY DRY DRY New Mexico I run a retirement home for anvils where they can laze away their days after their owners have passed on...

Actually I often use a couple at the same time using the best features of each for the task step that makes use of it---so when making a fork I may draw out a handle on the wide horn of the 515# Fisher and use the thin heel of my 93# A&H to work the tines. And when I teach a class I try to have no more than 2 people per anvil and so may use 4 or 5 at the same time.

I note that it was cited as being from "Degarmo, E. Paul; Black, J T.; Kohser, Ronald A. (2003). Materials and Processes in Manufacturing (9th ed.). Wiley. ISBN 0-471-65653-4" I'll have to wander over to the University Library and see if the textbook was quoted appropriately and check my Mat Sci texts and ASM handbooks as I recall it stated that way also. Patrick, you got a minute as a working Metallurgist to give another opinion on this?

I like my handles to have a butt swell so I can grasp them more loosely yet not have them slide out of my hand. Cherry is generally too brittle for a good hammer handle, do you have any ash, pecan, hickory,... in the firewood pile?

The last two numbers refer to the carbon content in points with 100 points equaling 1% C. What you have to know is the allowable range for each designation. The exception of course is 52100 which has 1% C and thus a 5 digit designation. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_steel_grades for a more through discussion.

Personally I only do tentstakes when the metal is essentially free at the scrap yard. If you cut at a sharp angle the point is almost done so making a bunch of stakes is *fast* so instead of saying "you're willing to forge a tent stack for $1.80?" say "you're willing to make $80 an hour???" Sounds different doesn't it? production is a whole nother mindset than hobby work!

First thing I thought too; though pretty easy to make the top washer demountable. If you make your jig base fairly thick you can hammer the ring flat as you go around it and it tries to rise. However bending it on a cylinder rather than a come helps keep things straighter anyway.