ThomasPowers

Many propane forges do not reach 2300 degF welding temps as the cost of refractories tends to go way up with the temperatures they are good for I would start with one that is commonly used by smiths. The refractory in a forge is a consumable, expect to replace it if you use your forge a lot!

Why I like having a hammer that went through a fire and so has a dead soft face---students can use it and NOT damage my tools with it! I'm thinking of tempering a few more hammers WAY back for that reason. And the part about damaging yourself when young and having to live with it later---well when we speak about that we tend to speak from *experience*! Joints and backs will come back to haunt you!

Veldt

I got to hear Paley talk about his "zoo gate" and see pics of it last quad-state: 130 feet long and 36 feet high. Impressed *me*!

New england was dripping with flypresses from the old clock making days. There used to be a used machinery paper that listed tons of them. Don't know if it's gone digital though. I'd get the yellowpages and start calling up used machinery dealers in the region and see what they have. Don't forget to ask them who they would suggest you talk to as well!

Neck? Don't recall that term in anvil jargon. Columbians have a recessed triangle with a C in it on the side of the anvil a ways below the face. Hmm need to look up "Western" anvils as they were cast---know a couple of smiths with 700+ pounders from them.

Flowing water needs to be under pressure to penetrate the steam jacket of any decent sized anvil---Charles McRaven used a high pressure hose from his local volunteer fire department to reharden the anvil he talked about in Country Blacksmithing. Anvil manufacturers often used water towers with a large diameter pipe to get enough water under enough pressure to harden an anvil---even at that large anvils tended to be softer than smaller ones; probably a feature rather than a bug as large anvils tended to see a lot more sledging than small ones!

I'd say go to a powerhammer if you need to go big---though a trained striker or 3 can work well too!

Francis---a gentleman *never* asks! My local scrapyard had several 5 gallon *plastic* buckets of spikes last Saturday.

Dr said "live with it till after the new year" So I may be grumpier than usual. Hist of Western Tech was a bit shy on Huntsman; may have to see if "Sources for the History of the Science of Steel" has any useful data.

Look up the Rob Gunter Anvil Repair method

Patina looks like a fire to me. As for grinding the edges square: the blacksmithing books from the 19th century tell you that the first thing you want to do with a new anvil is to round the edges---keeps them from chipping and prevents them from marking and putting cold shuts in your work. If you *need* a sharp edge make a hardy tool---size it right and you can have 4 edges to use before redoing it!

Powered Windows---another reason not to like them! Running an electric motor in an explosive gas mixture---Paging Darwin (I know they make motors just for that use but they sure don't put them in cars to open windows!)

There are two aspects to heating alloy steels: one is to be sure the entire piece is at the proper temperature for quenching. The other is to alloy carbides to go into solution. In knifemaking the proper temp doesn't take long as it's so thin; however it may take the same amount of time to solution the carbides as that's not so much dependent on thickness but on time and temperature. Have you asked the manufacturer what they suggest for heat treating thin sections?

So you want to possibly spend *more* money and risk extensive hospital time to make your own? And by "iron" you do mean cast iron and not mild steel right? Molten metal is much more dangerous than hot steel that may be hundreds of degrees hotter. I suggest you start hanging out at BackyardMetalcasting.com and find someone within a possible driving distance and get hands on training *before* you try it yourself. You do know that the protective equipment needed for casting iron will not be cheap right?

A lot of the old english anvils look very much the same throughout the over 250 different manufacturers identified so far. The face looks quite good for an older anvil---that's a real user! (Small anvils tend to have a harder face than large ones so it shooting the hammer back at you is a good sign!)

Seems a bit thin for so high a carbon steel; but a lot of heat treating of blades is learning how a particular steel actually works compared to the book values that are designed from 2.5 cm cross sections. Never bet you will have a successful blade the first time you try a new alloy or heat treat regime!

When I do a lot of smithing my main hammer is a 1500 gm Swedish crosspeen. When my arm is a bit out of practice I use a 2# hammer. In between I use the light one to start, then move to the heavy one for the main part of the day and back to the light towards the end of the day. I used to use the 1500 gm one all the time; then realized I was stressing my elbow doing fine work with it as I was pulling the blows. Not considering Machismo over being able to smith into my golden years I wised up and use the proper hammer for the job now.

Steel! and the TEFC motor is well worth the extra cost if you plan to be doing this awhile!

Quite some time; however the real problem he had was in getting suitable refractories to melt the steel in if I remember the write up on his struggles right. I'll be perusing "A History of Western Technology" in the Dr's office today and may get time for "Steelmaking before Bessemer" tomorrow; but possibly on pain meds. Helps to have the sources in my personal library!

Yes a fire may have drawn the temper of the face. Easy enough to tell; go over to anvilfire.com and search up the info on the ball bearing test and look at values for PWs. Especially as small PWs will generally be harder faced than larger ones. I would think long and hard before messing with the face. Charles McRaven describes re-hardeing an anvil face in "Country Blacksmithing" but it's a process that possible could cause delamination.

The spark plug gets installed in the mixing tube *upstream* from where the flame holder is and so when it lights the fame is blown down the tube till it gets to the proper area. So in my forge the spark plug would currently be seeing temps below zero F---you get much metal melting at that temp?

Considering I had a friend who set up a forge when he was living in a college dorm; all I can say is "when there is the will there is a way!"

I have read that the double lunged bellow came into blacksmithing from goldsmithing and in the 1400's. I'll have to check "Cathedral Forge and Waterwheel, Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages" to see if they list it and "A History of Western Technology" - The MIT Press----"A history of technology from Graeco-Roman times to the twentieth century told through historical writings" Note that Theophilus wrote down detailed instructions for building bellows for metal working in 1120 C.E. in "Divers Arts" easily found in English translation by Dover press. One funny thing is that Theophilus does not mention a check valve on the nozzles for the metalworking bellows but does for the organ bellows he describes. Through experimentation I have found that if you space the end of the bellows about the diameter of the tuyere away from the end of the tuyere leaving an air gap that you don't suck in small bits of burning charcoal with proper alternation of pumping (big thing is when you start pumping you build up to full alternating strokes) Single action bellows were still in use through the renaissance in places as they are show in "De Re Metallica---water driven even! and Agricola gives instructions on building them as of the mid 1500's. As for the bellows/striker I would hazard that a proper blacksmith's shop would have enough help to not need the bellows boy to run back and forth! The one person doing multiple tasks is probably more a reflection of the fall in the profitability of smithing in fairly recent times. (I have the MIT press book in my car today to reread while waiting on the Dr...)

Note that this is stainless steel foil; not aluminum foil. If you have left a proper amount of thickness to be removed after heat treat you will grind off any decarb layer---and it will be less likely to warp or crack in heat treatment. If you have ground it down to finished size then the paper and foil will help.