ThomasPowers

What *you* *don't*? Next you will be telling us you don't have minions! My wife says I have a "harem of anvils" too.... More impressive is that nice clean white shirt in a smithy! I was recently reading Labyrinth and in it one of the main characters of the medieval section hands her sword to a farrier's apprentice and he sharpens it by reforging it with the hilt on and in just minutes as she is sneaking out of the castle and needs to leave in a hurry----I felt like the "best selling author" did her medieval blacksmithing research by watching Pirates of the Caribbean The spinning research was equally bad as it had her using a treadle spinning wheel with a bobbin several centuries ahead of time---like George Washington crossing the Delaware in a Huey Helicopter!

Ric I save the tag ends of bars to make wedges for hammer handles for very much the same reason.

Good point to make as codes can be quite local! (I had some fun back in Ohio when I was restoring my house's front porch and the inspector could tell me that the original porch was not to code---but could never cite the code section as to *why*! The new owner ripped out all the original woodwork I had duplicated using architectural salvage and put in vinyl, sigh.)

Since I wear a heavy prescription the eye guys keep wanting me to wear smaller glasses---I show them the dings, chips, scratches and burns on my old pair and tell them that I quite like the big wide lenses!

OK I'm not as familiar with the AZ codes as you are.

In the states you can buy kits to modify a 55 gallon Drum ("oil drum", "oil barrel"), into a wood stove. Adding a second one above it with the flues offset from end to end can help the heating capacity a lot as well. They don't have great longevity, usually a couple of years; but the kit pieces can be then transferred to a new one. I know several folks that use them in their shop and then unhook them and move them to storage during the summer.

One Quad-State there was an entire flatbed of swage blocks turn up. A bit of a drive from Eastern KY; on the other hand I try to get out there from central New Mexico on a regular basis which is a bit of a drive further!

Blacksmith extraordinaire Bob Bergman, owner of Postville Blacksmith Shop, will be the demonstrator for the 6th Annual SWABA Conference February 18 & 19, 2012. Mr. Bergman will be demonstrating industrial tools and techniques as they apply to ornamental ironwork with a focus toward productivity, tool making “Blacksmith style”, flat die forging and fly press work. SWABA_3_fold__Final_NEW-1.pdf

Greenbeast; how much air flow were in those "houses" back when there were open fires? Modern houses tend to be quite different so using an example from centuries earlier is not a good analogy.

What about the 4" rule? Is that part of code where you are?

we had a dry year last year and so the local Chile's were expected to be on the hotter side and they were!

Not only in the shop; as I recall A noted blademaker almost lost an eye mowing the yard!

Will it meet code? I'd worry about climb-ability issues.

Another thought. If the customer will pony up the costs making the entire piece out of hammered metal would look very good indeed---a common method would be to start with round stock and hammer it square so that the entire piece is hammered over it's entire surface. You can really tell that it's hand made then and looks much better than mill rolled steel in a historical setting.

Other aspects: Hard to think but disposable income hardly ever goes UP as you get older. I used to be able to save and spend all the money I made as a teenager when my housing, food and medical bills were covered by my parents. Now I see a tiny fraction of what I make with a house and family depending on me. On the other hand when you are young you generally will move about a bit and shipping a good sized shop is a painful and expensive ordeal. Took more than a full flat bed semi load my last move---OUCH!

Unfortunately metal doesn't work that way. Pure iron is *very* malleable but add just 3% carbon to it and you get cast iron that ISN'T. Brasses usually have more than 3% other elements.

Well I'd go with dominant and non-dominant hands. As long as your dominant hand is usable you can do OK---of course if you saw "How to Train Your Dragon" the smith in it had a prosthesis that he could swap out "tooling" in---hammer, Beer mug, etc. You can improvise a holding system with a bum non dominant hand fairly easily---Tong clips help a lot. One fellow I helped through his first S hook didn't have a left forearm or hand and managed to hold the tongs between his upper arm and body---with good tong clips of course! His issues were congenital and he was blow away that I didn't say he couldn't forge but just worked with him to do it in as safe as a manner as possible. Probably the happiest student I'd ever had at the end of his first hook! (This was at an SCA event that I bring a forge to every year I can go.)

What I have: American Railway Engineering Association's Specifications for Soft-Steel Track Spikes. Original document, 1926, revised last in 1968 Page 5-2-1. "A low carbon track spike will not contain greater than 0.12% carbon nor greater than 0.20% copper. Page 5-2-2 Section 11. Marking. A letter or brand indicating the manufacturer shall be pressed on the head of each spike while it is being formed. When copper is specified, the letters "CU" shall be added. Page 5-2-3: Specifications for high carbon steel track spikes 1968. Carbon not greater than 0.30%, nor greater than 0.20% copper. Page 5-2-4. Section 6a. Bending properties: The body of a full size finished spike shall stand being bent cold through 120 degrees around a pin, the diameter of which is not greater than the thickness of the spike without cracking on the outside portion of the bent portion. Page 5-2-5 Section 11. Marking: A letter or brand indicating manufacturer and also the letters "HC" indicating high carbon, shall be pressed on the head of each spike while it is being formed. When copper is specified, the letters "CU" shall be added."

My Aunt and Uncle's "Hot Dip" uses a lot of different peppers in it for flavour. Single pepper stuff may be hot but is bland.

Impressive! I would have probably just have forged a mild steel replacement rather than work with the cast iron

I'm with Bob! "First" is a very slippery concept as any discovery of some smith somewhere doing it that way can supersede it. I'd suggest working on *best* something to be proud of indeed! (I was at the knifemaker's Guild Show back in the 80's and met a maker who was all excited that he was going to be the "first" to make a knife with a gun barrel in the center spine that would fire the tip like a harpoon---"Just like the one in the Arms and Armor Annual---"A Wheellock Dagger From the Court of the Medici"?" I asked him? He was quite put out that his great idea had been done centuries before...)

Third question: Yes, though blister steel in it's 18th and 19th century forms were not much used in medieval times...processing of higher carbon blooms was known as was case hardening. (earliest written documentation of case hardening I have found is Theophilus, 1120 CE.) Second Question: yes you can go to far and get cast iron, (30 hours at temp did it for a piece I was experimenting with using powdered charcoal in a sealed pipe tucked along the inside of my propane forge with the hours at temp chalked on the body of the forge.) However you have great difficulty welding cast iron as it's molten at the temp you would normally weld at---there are some ways to get around this but historically under carburized material seems to have been more prevalent than over as the fuel costs were massive and so going too long was an expensive proposition compared to cutting it a bit short! So you could "baby" a piece over carburized and decarb it with the attendant scale losses---look at how some wootz pucks are worked to provide a lower carbon "case" to allow working of the High C interior. *BUT* way too much work/fuel compared to just getting a better made chunk. First: Not usually "split" but just cut and stacked---like you do to process iron from a bloom to a muck bar to a merchant bar to singly refined wrought iron, USW. However a lot of wrought iron wasn't so neatly processed as you welded up scrap into usable pieces and so the "pattern" is a lot more chaotic. The etched blade from 1600 in Manfred Sachse's "Damascus Steel" shows this non-intentional patterning.

The local scrapyard down here gets mine rail from time to time and I have some trolly rail from Columbus OH and some RR rail so I have a range of sizes.

It was part of a vise but now it's a door stop not good for any hammering on than straightening a bent nail. As such I'd guess it might be worth US$20 to someone not the 200+ dollars their starting bid is! Lets hope nobody buys it as a surprise gift for a new smith needing an anvil and so blows the anvil purchase budget for an ASO.

Harrow spike used to break up dirt clods after plowing. High Carbon to resist abrasion as in "The toad beneath the harrow knows exactly where each tooth-point goes" was the auction in farm country?