ThomasPowers

I ask at the fleamarkets whenever I see "barn junk" as many folks won't drag the heavy stuff to the sale. or one time I found a hardy in with some plumbing stuff and asked where the anvil it went to was---100#'r back in the garage. Of course the local implement auction owners are related to the big anvil collector out here; so I seldom go anymore even though it's 2 miles from my house.

Be very cautious in adding flammable materials to a smithy as sound dampening!

Fleamarket report Socorro NM: I bought an old cast iron file handle for US$1 and a can with 15 wood augers, 6 twist drills and a small metal chisel for $2. The augers were quite rusted---just as well as they are getting forged into a Mother's day gift...

Cut down a broken pickaxe or sledge hammer handle and use a handle for the handle! Large dowel is usually poor quality wood for impact loads!

OTOH, I've had a couple of "friendly" challenges over the years that I've replied to with "sure let's arm wrestle! And oh by the way I've been a blacksmith for the last 30 years..." generally they resolve very amicably after that....

Some folks use them to provide texture to the steel for ornamental use. I recall one fellow doing a picture frame on a granite cobblestone for just that reason. A lot of early smithing was done on stone anvils---the chinese used *jade*! Viking era smiths sometimes used basalt. One thing to remember is that they were working with real wrought iron which is forged at welding heat and so is very soft under the hammer!

Broken knuckle off a RR car coupler---about 80 pounds, has a flat area and a curved area. I don't like RR track particularly and prefer heavy compact masses of steel---old dozer parts, old Ag equipment can have some nice stuff, etc. I think that fork lift tines are GREAT; you've seen the link I post all over the place when this comes up http://www.marco-borromei.com/fork.html Do try to avoid I beam as it's mostly air no matter how heavy it is and it's shape makes it extremely NOISY in use.

Do you have access to a welder? Car muffler pipe can be used with a flange welded on.

When my daughter was having issues with the school administration---including asking to see the documentation on the policy they were trying to enforce---they didn't have one. And pointing out that what she got in trouble for---wearing a mohawk---was done by the football team as a group later and they receive *NO* problem from it; one thing I told here was that HS was training for living under a despotic system. As a student you have little recourse from arbitrary rulings and personal power decisions. If the principal holds a grudge you can be in trouble to watch yourself and document everything! (Like what you posted above! Who, What, When, Where. if it every comes down to it; having a paper trail can make all the difference!)

On a good hot day here we put stock into the lit forge to cool it off and single digit humidities are common. Since you may never feel sweaty you can dehydrate scary fast and it's common for every other sentence to a visiting friend to be "Drink more!"

I prefer to use a 300 grade stainless if I know the user will be tossing them in the dishwasher on a regular basis. Note that stainless is a tougher to forge material and more expensive too so such tools are for special friends or for people willing to pay the differential!

On beeswax, just have a block or a glob in a tin can and when the tool is hot stab it into the solid wax to cool it down. Also wax vs water: part of using wax is to leave a thin carbon film on the tool to provide lubrication when punching with it making it easier and a nicer job.

No! you want strip and for a starter project I'd suggest nickle silver strip, some folks will file the edge slightly on one side to make it easier to tap into the slices. if you get wire, anneal it and run it through a rolling mill to produce strip.

As horse xxxx is collected after every race at a racetrack to check for doping it's not an impossible task---the container on a stick method is quite common. I've never used the stuff for patination; but I have used it for vat dying of wool---particularly using indigo and then used the exhaust bath for quenching in---such an amusing smell when the hot steel hits it! As I live in a hot dry climate I wonder if the boiling is needed; reduction by evaporation would be easy out here and as my neighbor runs a small paint horse stud farm I could probably get away with the smells too. JPH you're also in a hot dry climate, have you tried both methods of reduction and see if the results differ?

It's a historical term well documented as used in the south to this present day by certain reactionary people---To ignore it is to deny history. Remember that "Those who do not learn from History are doomed to repeat it" (paraphrased as it's final exam week over at the Uni...) BTW my great grandmother was married to a Civil War Veteran, He was a "drummer Boy" and so quite young during the war and married a young lady when he was quite old and she lived till after I was born so I have a quite short "trail" from now till then. I bear one of his names, as does my Father.

You might look for inlaying of silver on wooden knife handles---a fairly common thing with several sites with how to's out there, They usually use strips of material tapped into thin grooves made with a chisel.

Since building a forge pan is so simple and easy paying big bucks for one is better for a collector than a smith!

As I recall last time I went out visiting the kin folk and checking up on my land there we still found one or two that were gravel up in the hills. Most everyone in Cedarville (up HW 59 out of Fort Smith) is either related to me or has been friends of the family for 100 years or so. Good story Stewart! When I bought my 165# PW at a yard sale the elderly guys asked me how I was going to get it out to the car. I picked it up and carried it over and my wife to be overheard one tell the other "He's more of a man than he looks!" Both the anvil and the comment made my day.

You're a blacksmith who cares what some HS sport guys think! In 50 years you can still be a blacksmith---not many Hockey players will still be playing hockey after 50 years. And being called weird is a compliment you know. Back in High School I remember a fellow telling me that I "wasn't normal"! I looked at him and said "if you are what's 'normal'; I'll get down on my knees every night and praise God for not making me 'normal'!" He didn't take that well as he had thought that he was insulting me...

start getting the jargon correct: All steel is "carbon steel" some is low carbon, some is medium carbon and some is high carbon. Tool steel usually refers to high carbon steel though it is often used for high alloy steels nowadays. Hammers are usually medium carbon steels though old ones can be a range of different alloys---some old cheap ones were even cast iron! Heat treating is usually a number of steps: annealing or normalizing, followed by hardening, followed by tempering. Some of the steps are often repeated others are not. Under knifemaking there should be a heat treating sticky that will go over all of this in more detail. Note that after tempering it doesn't matter if you air cool or quench for most alloys.

If you can build a fire on the ground and find two fire safe rocks to use as a hammer and an anvil you can smith! Finding someone local to yourself and doing odd-jobs for a decent hammer and an improvised anvil will put you ahead of some smiths that make a living from it in third world countries. If you are near me I'd be happy to show you the ropes some weekend and *give* you a hammer. Thomas

Make a replica of a known example.

When is this planned for? Summer is quite a bit different from winter in those parts! How about "Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea™ Living history museum consisting of a village, ships and 17 acres of exhibits depicting coastal life in New England in the 19th century." www.mysticseaport.org/ Or there are several "summer cottages" open in Newport Rhode Island, if you like to see how the excessively wealthy lived when money could actually buy stuff eg "The Breakers" http://www.newport-discovery-guide.com/breakers-mansion.html

What kinds of things do you *like*?

At the Roman Museum in Bath, UK there is an early anvil that has a lovely convex face on it due to it being worked on for a very long time and the fairly soft wrought iron sagging a bit. My Y1K stake anvil was based on it but is starting out with a flat face and perhaps in the next century or two it will work convex.