ThomasPowers

Propane tanks are not controlled like welding tanks; but you *do* need to make sure it's within test date with some leeway. My local propane dealer inspected my fleamarket bought tank when it was next due. Propane is great for forging, heating---rosebuds as it has much less rate of draw problems than Acetylene and gas forges as it's cheap and easy to get re-fills it also makes a superior cutting fuel according to my weldor friends and I notice that all the scrapyards seem to use it preferentially. I would not lock yourself into the Harbour Freight stuff just because it was cheap *now* as it may end up costing far more over time.

The problem is NOT that the tongs would melt in use. FAR FAR worse is that the tongs would conduct heat into your hands so using copper or Al alloy tongs would be much like using no tongs at all and grabbing the hot section of the piece! You quickly learn how short a piece of steel you can use and still hold it with your bare hands. I have never been able to find a length of copper that I could do the same with. It seems that when it's long enough to cool down before it gets to my hands I am a fathom away from the anvil and so can't swing a hammer to hit it! And as mentioned this reads to me as "Hi I want to do a much more complex and *expensive* method to make a much less usable product..."

Does having the vise bracket horizontal inside the vise cause issues running long pieces down? As a smith it seems like you could heat it and rotate it so that it sits flat against the vise leg leaving maximum room to fit stock down past it. (and yes you will probably have to forge a transition and use a different piece to do it as your set up doesn't look to me to have any mode of tightening it up if the dimensions change.)

Very nice! I like to make my lids flat to use to hold tools when I'm working and to sit on when I'm not. Of course out here we don't get much in the way of precipitation...(and I don't bend down to pick tools up off the ground like I used to!)

Well known to blacksmiths. Note that pre-treating bars may run into difficulty where they have been spattered with oil or grease; however after the piece has been through the forge that should not be a problem...

3 CWT, nah I want a *big* one!

The first time this NM fellow made it out to Quad-State he bought 30 anvils and a new trailer to get them home...

Next time you are out this way let me know and I will introduce you to a fellow with around 500 anvils.

Well I'd guess that less than one in a thousand were mounted on a stakeplate!

What Rarity? Fishers are a common anvil and 1892 is not "old!"

Thom; I see pineapple twists in your future! Pattern welded ones! With *sprinkles*! I hope to spend Saturday morning at the scrapyard and afternoon at the forge---wanna come along? And yes Thom is my apprentice in the formal SCA sense. Minion in a Evil Overlord Sense and a good friend.

Just drop some red hot steel---some of those hoses will then clean themselves off the floor!

Well the starting bid is not the selling bid. I can pick up a rock from the parking lot and put it on e-bay with a two million dollar starting bid. Unlikely I'll sell it though...

Actually if you have a double sided axe there is a lot more moment arm to twist the axe out of plane when you hit at an angle and almost all your hits in a battle will be at an angle or onto sloping armour. Not good to have it twist in your grip upon impact! As for balance---for a war weapon you generally don't want balance you want the force to be out where the impact is---think of it more like a japanese or european cutler's steady hammer where almost all the weight is on one side of the eye. Have you looked at the popular large professional throwing knives? Massively blade heavy as you want that part to be leading when thrown. "also you have two blades, if one gets fouled up then turn it to the other side" Now what happens when that other edge is blocked and forced into your face? If one edge gets fouled you then have a mace and keep on going. Axes are more an impact weapon in use against people wearing armour anyway. What we can say is that in Europe for over 1000 years people who used axes as weapons *professionally* preferred them to be single edged---a strong case for usage!

Swageblock looks in quite good condition for the most part---you should be very happy with it!

Good would be mild steel, bad would be cast iron. Fabulous would be medium to high carbon steel.

Have you read: Mechanick Exercises, Or, the Doctrine of Handy-Works Applied to the Art of Smithing, Joinery, Carpentry, and Turning / By Joseph Moxon originally published in 1703 (looks like there is a new edition out in paperback!) Note that "turn of the century" can refer to quite a number of centuries including one just past a decade or so ago...

Weygers covers handle making for chisels.

Out here large timber is rare save for cotton wood and large cracks are common in it. I make hand forged staples to bridge the cracks---some of which I can even store tools in! Actually most of my "stumps" come from old mining timbers. Softwood and creosoted a passel of years ago so I don't worry about the termites----very aggressive out here where there is so little wood for them to find!

instructions for making such a cutter are in several of the early blacksmithing books. ISTR one in Richardson's "Practical Blacksmithing" from about 130 years ago...

I've know folks using stone anvils for decades. One preferentially used one to texture work as it had a rough surface. Stone anvils were used in early medieval times most likely for bloom consolidation and rough forging of large items where the *small* iron anvils would be overwhelmed by the large pieces and hammers. (Basalt was one stone used in Europe and jade anvils were known in the far east!)

By "english pattern" do you mean London Pattern or one of the myriad other patterns?

Sachse"s Damascus Steel" book has a beautiful sword from the year 1600 that has been etched showing the amount of patterning that exists just from making a steel billet in that time for the use. No intent at all! I bought that book back when it only came in German just for that one picture!

I make handles for camping cookware by taking election sign wire---about 1/8" and making baskets over a foot long. To get even baskets you need to heat evenly---the propane forge is much better than the coal for this! Sometimes I will unwind in two goes one for one end and another for the other and blend them in the middle. Unwinding them a bit too much and then rolling the basket on the anvil face while tapping funky areas down can help as well as the screwdriver technique mentioned. For long baskets I generally don't sweat perfection as they look quite nice even with natural variation---I don't want to make stuff look cold bent by machine! Now the pots I use are Revere Ware found at the fleamarket as they have a great handle stub to rivet my basket work handles too. Toughest basket I've made was from *OLD* rusty barbwire. Unfortunately enough folks have liked it that I need to do some more---this time I was thinking of dipping the ends in acid before welding to clean the rust off.

I agree with David. I take a forge on the road quite a bit, camping, teaching, demo'ing and pretty much everywhere I am nowhere near the parking lot. You might think of making a dual use set up where it could be mounted on the receiver *or* legs could be slipped on it to use it elsewhere with a free floating battery