ThomasPowers

Picked up a small hammer in a junk store in Hay on Wye, Wales; even better it made it back home in my checked luggage! Now to stop by the scrapyard tomorrow after dumping the trash off at the transfer station....

Save for the way past where testing each bar of steel was considered a must to see what it really was---books on smithing from the 1700's and 1800's go over this. I've had A-36 that was really great stuff and some that was almost unusable for many of the items I forge---just like old times!

I got back from my UK trip around 11:30 pm Wednesday and we crawled over to our Daughter's house and crashed there and finally made the trip south to our home Thursday Afternoon. I didn't get to see much smithing stuff: the Smithy at St Fagans wasn't being worked the day we were there; the bloomery that was once constructed at the celtic village was now back to the muck it came from, etc. OTOH the adult son of one of the docents was interested in smithing and we talked a lot about it over dinner. I did pick up a small hammer from a junk store in Hay on Wye as well as a couple books on historical ironwork including a 100+ year old on on Foreign Armour in England, an original cheaper than some of the "print on demand" and with the original coloured plates too! My wife had a great time---her books were over 60 pounds in weight as well as some great fiber from a Sheep and Wool fest in Wales. I pigged out on fish and chips and so only lost 1 pound from all the walking carrying our luggage. Having a nice pint of Brains in the evening was good too. Thomas

On the other hand: Monday I had a nerdgasm at the Science Museum in London, UK when I was able to step into James Watt's workshop moved to the Museum with over 8000 of the original items on display---including scrap metal and things they haven't figured out what was yet... Made me feel a fool looking at his small postvise and realizing what he had managed to accomplish with it!

I assume the end is the "handle" to swing the crane---how about a basket? One thing I noticed is that there is not much room on the horizontal bar to have multiple pots suspended. Is it supposed to be a working piece or primarily decorative? (I work with LH down hearth cooks) There are some wild examples in "Iron and Brass Implements of the English House" J. Seymour Lindsay; but they require a very large fireplace indeed! Finally the ring joint around the upright does not seem to be fastened. As the upright is what turns why leave it loose? But as mentioned a fine piece already and quite saleable as is!

After conversion of retained austenite to martensite you have untempered martensite present and you had better repeat your tempering process again!

When I had a couple of feet of 2.5" I wanted to forge shafts for stake anvils from; I carefully put it aside until I could borrow another smith's powerhammers (100lb LG and 200# Chambersburg) even so it was a a job and 1/2. We welded some 1" sq to it for a handle and worked it at welding temp---this was known as another person sharing the gas forge accidentally welded their piece to mine by sliding it hot against my piece---had to be sledged off! OTOH if you have access to a 1000 pound hammer, a big forge and chainfall or jib crane system this would probably be a trivial task. With strikers I would want 3 who could strike in rhythm for a long time and a very large anvil---say 500+ pounds

Yes the B&D inquiries are "interesting" and if you have ever looked at what they charge for poorly tacked together mild steel at an "adult store" you can see that a market does exist. I have never quite understood why folks think that hand crafted items made by a master craftsman should be cheaper than wally world third world hack jobs.

It's not more constant than a double lunged bellows though.

First could you explain to me why what works for *me* must work for you? My knuckles might drag the ground as I walk and so all my tooling might need to take that in account while you being 6'8" will use the giant economy handles all the time. You really should do a mock up out of easily whittled wood, (a drawknife speeds things up!). Then you can store your mock up hanging on the shop wall for the next time you do one similar. Now go visit a good hardware store and try out various axes and see how they work for you and measure the one that feels "right" REMEMBER commercially sold items are usually not the *best* design but are the Cheapest that they can manage to sell! As that's a non-standard item you may want to look at other types of handles that can be modified. Also look at how other cultures handled the same issues (like use of root burls to deal with splitting issues for tanged axes)

What I have used: vinegar+salt, hydrochloric, tannic, sulfuric, nitric, ferric chloride, ... Each one gives a slightly different etch depending on the alloys in the billet and if I wanted typography or not. May I commend to your attention "The Pattern Welded Blade" James Hrisoulas. You can ILL it from your local public library and it will cover etching in detail by an acknowledged master of the craft. (For all you know I could be Morticia, Thomas' cat sneaking in on the keyboard to lure you astray!)

I found exactly the opposite than Doc. With my double lunged western style I could blow a forge to welding heat using my pinkie *and* by filling the top chamber it would keep pushing air out while I went to change tongs or take a swig of tea. The chinese box bellows I used as helper at a Quad-State demo took constant attention, you stopped---it stopped and took more force to use. HOWEVER my western double lunged took up most of the bed of my pickup and the chinese box bellows could fit behind the seat of my pickup and be moved by one person.

Oh yeah; forgot the TEST ALL JOINTS UNDER WORKING PRESSURE! Simple safety rule and *ALWAYS* turn the gas off at the tank when done---never expect any other valve to do the job of the tank valve.

Almost any of the knifemaker's supply places will carry blade steels. Aldo the NJ steel baron is not that far from you---I used to drive from mid NJ to Cornell... http://njsteelbaron.com/ his store shows 1095 and 1095D

When reading up on the building and testing of the first atomic bombs I learned that it can be possible to compress "incompressible" materials for short amounts of time using high explosives. However I do not suggest a very dense and heavy anvil that wants to spray neutrons out every time the hammer hits...

And as stated quite clearly from multiple sources: *NOT* *MEDIEVAL*--*ROMAN*!

Answered over at the other thread you opened on this

Well what did your local propane place say when you walked in with it and said "I need to hook this up with a redhat high pressure regulator to my propane tank?" My place would say "OK, here's the regulator, here's the hose and here's the adapter" and 15 minutes later I would be on my way home. Of course I live in the USA; could be much more difficult where you live. I also use a propane company that does the whole shebang not one that just fills small tanks on the side. (Propane is cheaper and they are great to have a working relationship with! When my truck broke down there was no problem leaving a bunch of tanks with them till it got fixed) This is here in New Mexico USA; but there was a great one in Columbus OH USA---they even silver soldered over a natural gas orifice and redrilled it for propane for me when I was converting an old 2 burner hotplate.

I second asking Frank Turley. Are these to be made from bloomery wrought iron or modern mild steel?

That's a way to do it you can also do something like take a longer piece and bend the end down and then forge it to form the beard if your skills can handle that. The basic idea is to get more mass on the end and shove it where you want it!

"Disposable Worker Technique"?

But I don't *want* my vise leg to have "bounce" in it I want a rigid structure!

Can you build the beard into your preform before wrapping and welding?

"The resulting anvil would be a very solid mass that would not compress,breakdown,or pack." "Won't Pack"; I can see but where did the won't "compress,breakdown," come from? I'd think that mix would be subject to at least breakdown or we would see a whole lot more of it in the historical record! I'm sure one could build a wooden anvil for a light duty powerhammer and it would be better than hand hammering; just not even in the same league as a proper steel anvil. However I'm all for experimentation---as long as you control the variables so the results actually address the question---I've judged Science Fairs for years and the biggest problem people tend to have is designing an experiment that actually tests what they are trying to test. But as Sam has mentioned are you interested in the experiment; or are you interested in the iron pounding?

Design it so that it can then be used as an anvil for a treadle hammer which has a much easier life than a powerhammer anvil does. The neat thing about blacksmithing is that generally the toys do not replace each other---you need at least one of each!