ThomasPowers

The only thing not shown in the pictures are how the wax catchers are attached. Make the individual pieces and assemble! Put your own spin on it!

Of course many of us would be using spikes made to the old spec with a few new spec spikes thrown in...

Sure wish I could edit out my typos!

Which do you admire most: The fellow with a glorious pristine tool chest full of spanking new tools who never does anything or the one with a battered scratched and dinged tool chest full of worn tools that's pushing *great* work out the door on a regular basis? If I was you I'd go out and plannish around the dings and get to work! If you are afraid of using your tools cause they will get used then you are in a sad place. (One reason I buy used pickups---I'm going to throw rusty metal in the back of them so even hail damage doesn't bother me!)

If it is a "real" belt grinder and you are wanting to do blades it's #1; followed by a good drill press if you plan to do bladesmithing. If stock removal then it's a toss up between the saw or the press if the saw works well.

LC spikes are already defined. Page 5-2-1. "A low carbon track spike will not contain greater than 0.12% carbon nor greater than 0.20% copper.

Belt sander or belt grinder? What's the belt size and hp of the unit? What type band saw what condition? What brand drill press? What do you want to do with your tools? What tools do you have already?

I see; perhaps you should wear your *heavy* *coat* tonight...

If you have an electric blower put it on a foot switch so it's only on when you are standing on it---helps a lot. Charcoal is better off with a hand crank blower or bellows. When I use charcoal I generally place a couple of firebricks to make my firepot narrower and taller. I often make a fire in a raised firepit and transfer hot cols to the forge as needed in a just in time charcoal production system. This way I don't have to have the heat or smoke of it coaling in my forge but don't have to *buy* it either.

Funny I have that as MAX percent carbon not min percent American Railway Engineering Association's Specifications Page 5-2-3: Specifications for high carbon steel track spikes 1968. Carbon not greater than 0.30%, nor greater than 0.20% copper.

Grant, how *is* your flux capacitor coming along these days?

Yes a good slitting chisel is miles better to work with than drilling and filing. Now it works a heck of a lot better still if you have a stout screwpress or treadle-hammer. I slit 1" sq HC steel in one heat with my screwpress and a chisel held in a chisel holder---the chisel being made from a hot hard high alloy steel. You can make an all in one tool that does both the slitting and the drifting in one go if you have a good bolster to go underneath the work piece.

I'd go with MacRaven's volunteer fire department high pressure hose---a garden hose is unlikely to be able to blast through the steam jacket.

Lovely place; would make a great smith's village! Very restful on the eyes after all the desert around here. That smelter should have the remains of a blowing engine somewhere around it and maybe even the charging arch. One I've seen in the Hanging Rock region along the Ohio River still had it's charging arch semi intact---we did a tour of a bunch of them during the IronMaster's Conference at Athens OH that time) BTW Iron smelting is not the same thing as iron mongering (they seem to have gotten it wrong with iron mining too, no sign of a mine in those pictures!)

In a rather odd discovery I once found out that the local roofing supply company stocked real charcoal for the oldtimers who used a charcoal fueled heater for their soldering coppers when doing high end copper work on roofs (had a friend who was such an old timer"). When we were smelting ore into wrought iron we used to buy it directly from the manufacturer in 40# sacks---but that was back in PA.

Having spent some time in Europe I have noticed that while you get a lot of stuff being made to replicate the old stuff already there you also get sort of a rebellion against all the "old" and for new and interesting styles; however made by people with a sound base in "old" techniques. So someone might live in a 300 year old apartment building yet decorate their apartment in cutting edge modern---or look at the Bauhaus style. Here in the USA without the centuries of "baggage" we often admire the old styles; and sadly we often don't have the old skills base---on the other hand we're more likely to innovate in style and technique as we come from a frontier "make do" culture. Note that Yellin's gothic revival stuff was often forged by smiths fresh off the boat from Europe.

OK; I'll go ask and if they're cheap get them for you as a gift...be willing to trade for a copy of your book if you have an extra one and I'll cover shipping of them too. If the guy is reasonable. I probably need to go out this weekend and find more steel anyway as the next pot is due to arrive tonight and I'm guessing that the current spider won't fit it...now if you don't want them then it's ok to just say no. You are under *no* obligation. I've been given powerful gifts from other smiths and need to share the luck. BTW my e-mail address is my name, no caps all run together, at zianet dot com

The hooked ones are steak turners and usually sell well when explained to folks and then the follow up sales as once they use them their friends and family turn out to need them too... There are two types of twists there: dice twist and pineapple twist. Searching on those terms should get you instructions.

Lots of us use warm vegetable oil, anything from used fry oil from a fast food place to peanut oil leftover from Thanksgiving's Turkey Fryer. Not in the league of a good engineered quenching oil like a parks 50 quench oil. We generally advise against used motor oil as it's fairly contaminated with nasty stuff Some folks use clean ATF.

Take a look at these demigauntlets for sale over at armour archive http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=134901

Trenton's were often quite shallowly stamped and I've see a number of them where the markings have vanished due to someone cleaning up the anvil with a angle grinder.

It was 42.2 C in the shade here recently; but humidity was only 14%. Hard to get steel to rust out here (NM USA)! Of course I don't have to heat my shop in the winter either...

It's de laminated and then someone has cleaned up the delaminated section Sad that the "sweet spot" is totally faceless.

Frank's school also has a world wide reputation and he's been doing it longer than a lot of folk have even been around much less smithing!

I agree with Frank; except I always have a few on hand from the scrap yard I can *give* to new smiths who want to do something with them so they don't have to run afoul of the authorities trying to get them from the RR right away. A lot of new smiths will run out and collect a big pile of them and then 30 years later realize that most of that pile is still around.