ThomasPowers

Is that a serial number on the right front foot?

Many people buy theirs from Knifemaker's supply companies; though buying directly from a company like Admiral is often a better deal. Myself I do a lot with bandsaw blade for the high Ni, high carbon and pallet strapping for the medium to low carbon and start with 21+ layers--and all free too! Now you have asked an INTERNATIONAL forum where to get something. If someone suggests a place in England, France, Poland, Singapore, Brazil, Australia, South Africa---is that going to help you? I strongly suggest you list your *location* when asking location specific questions! Many of us do that by editing our profile to show our general location whenever we post so others can say "Hey I'm right down the road from you and I get my XYZ from GHJ's about a mile over there!"

bigfootnampa, I'd show your post to my wife; but I bet she'd do herself an injury laughing at it!

I highly recommend "The Complete Bladesmith" and it's sequels to people who want to forge blades; however I also tell them that it makes it a whole lot easier if they know the basics of blacksmithing before they go into bladesmithing. tCB is not the best one to learn to forge form; it's far better to take you from regular smithing into bladesmithing. With a back ground in regular smithing you will make far fewer and less frustrating mistakes when you go into bladesmithing---in particular fire control and hammer control and good hammer control can cut hours off your filing to get a good blade!

I'm bothered by the focus on "first" as that is subject to change at any moment due to better dating or new excavation. I talked with someone from China once who mentioned that they were fist and the west was all copying them. When I mentioned that a new excavation had shown that they were second in something and so they must have copied it. he vehemently denied it and said they had discovered it on their own! (My wife has a book called "The Genius of China" that is full of "We were first!" Unfortunately I knew several examples where they were easily proven wrong which throws the rest of their contentions into question.) How about praising folks for doing stuff really really well instead of first! (The Chinese and Indian method of decarbing cast iron to make steel faced objects is a really really neat idea!)

Cast steel anvils tend to be quite loud ringers; if it's quiet; it's probably cast iron. However it may still be much better than an I beam which has minimal steel below the hammer save along the web. And the hardy hole is still a useful thing to have around even if you get another anvil. Nice to have two tools available without having to switch them at times.

As the HC ones are at the bottom end of medium/top end of mild steel in carbon content they will be a bit harder under the hammer than mild and make a bit tougher tooling than mild. One suggestion: stop thinking of them as "RR Spikes" and start thinking of them as: Steel, 5/8" sq stock, bottom end of medium/top end of mild steel... I made a spoon stake from one that I like.

One aspect of getting off marked steel is that every mill/dealer usually has a different set of marking colours so if "yellow" from dealer/mill A is 4140; Yellow from dealer/mill B might be 1020. The problem is when you have re-seller C that has steel from both A & B and may have their own marking system to boot. Confusion oft doth occur!

Most folks with a long term history of buying metal have a tale to tell of an order that was "mis-filled" and what they got wasn't anything like what they originally ordered. Anyway you could have it analyzed?

Tinknocker's stakes

I too have not attended a class the G3; however Rob, Brad and Chat are *all* top notch smiths and I have attended several demos they have done for the local ABANA Affiliate at their shop as well as Rob's at Quad-State back when it was still at Emmert Studebaker's place. As Thomas mentions their smithy is specifically designed as a teaching shop and set up so beautifully for it and so well equipped that it fairly makes me cry when I go back to mine hovel! Brandon if you are in the neighborhood and have time you're welcome to stop by my place just outside Socorro NM right off of I25.

Be sure to mention my name to Don next time you go over and see if he's taking good care of what was once *my* brake! Since you can camp at Quad-State the incidental expenses can be fairly low. Bet you could arrange a carpool to get there too. The problem is that one wants to buy stuff there. I plan to attend Quad-State if my 22 year old truck makes it from New Mexico.

Return the anvil and ask the barber to ask his customers about another one for you; I'd guess you'd find another that way before the summer's out! Being aboveboard and upright is likely to get you a lot more stuff over time than an "off reputation"

Welcome! May I strongly recommend "The Complete Modern Blacksmith", Alexander Weygers, to you! He is very much a "from the ground up scrounging and making everything as you go along" person. You should be able to ILL it from your local Library; but you will probably want to buy a copy for yourself after you have checked it out. Note that coal is actually a more recent fuel than real chunk charcoal is, (coal started to be used in the High to Late middle ages (Cathedral Forge and Water Wheel, Gies & Gies) It's use continued in parallel with that of coal until this day---Traditionally made japanese swords are still forged using real charcoal! If you look around you will find websites covering how to make your own charcoal from wood scraps---a lot easier than mining coal and without the sulfur in coal that is bad for weapon or armour smithing. (BTW most armour work is done cold these days, may I commend the armourarchive.org to your attention and yse they use the english spelling armour.) To get started do a web search for lively washtub forge. You may have the materials already to hand and could be forging by the weekend! (When Anstee started his experiments on making pattern welded swords he used a cheese weight as the anvil---got any tractor weights???) As often mentioned spending a Saturday with a smith that knows what they are doing can save months of time trying to learn it from a book or the web. The Artist Blacksmith Association of North America---ABANA has affiliate chapters all over the USA and if you can find one locally and attend their meetings you will be way ahead of the game! Unfortunately turning scrap into ingot is usually a bad idea as the ingots often are much less pure metal than the scrap was Turning the scrap in for money and then buying metal that's right for your project is generally a faster and cheaper way to go; though casting your own blade fittings directly is very doable with low tech methods. I've been doing medival/renaissance smithing for over 30 years now so please feel free to ask me stuff either by PM or in a forum.

Ahhh no; the spring pole hammer does not predate the other types. Strikers with sledges were used earlier and were gradually replaced by such contrivances in fairly modern times when *labour* became a major cost. Currently the earliest powerhammer I know of dates to before AD 1000, tidal mill powered, (Personal Communication, Penn State Medieval Technology Conference)

When I did a summer in Germany I was able to do some smithing at a Freilandmuseum in Bad Windsheim; much like historical places in the US their craftspeople may be Volunteers. Ask around and see if you can participate. (Unfortunately the smith who let me "play" was 82 back in the mid 1990's and so unlikely to be there now.)

Sam it's how the upper classes lived! We low folk used to only dream of having a pot or a window to throw it out of...

Sam are you thinking of cast *iron*? Cast *steel* AKA crucible steel was what the UK was famous for and used for the top quality levels of tools.

Local small scrap yard had a set of stout looking log tongs buried under one of it's piles. I'd be happy to inquire of it's cost if you like. The area used to have forested mountins till they were all clear cut for the mines and fuel.

I don't even have pics of the grandkids!

Visited a local small scrapyard one hamlet over and picked up some stuff: RR spike driving hammer head in good condition. A wagon wheel hub band-WI, a section of wagon tire-WI, a 3/4" x 7.5' WI rod with the ends bent around and welded to make loops, 3 1.5" x 1/4" x 8' straps---the steel I actually needed for my project, a 3' section of mine rail. I over paid: US$15 for the lot but it was about 1/2 of what I was going to spend just buying the strap I needed for a project new and I want to encourage the owner to continue to let bearded old smiths wander the yard digging through the piles... Funny thing there was a set of log tongs in great condition in the dirt under the edge of one of the piles; quite heavy duty and there was just a recent discussion on making them...The local mountains used to be forrested until they were all clear cut for mining timbers and fuel.

Do you have an ongoing series of small projects to fit the times between long ones? Perhaps something for his other business where it is not a time critical thing but always a nice item to have around.

Note that spending one Saturday with a knowledgeable smith can save you a year trying to figure out things on your own from a book or even worse a website! So if you are around Central New Mexico USA; you're welcome to stop by my smithy some weekend or I'd be happy to introduce you to the South West Artist Blacksmith Association, (of course their Oct 2011 meeting is at my smithy...).

What about ornamental items that profit from it's corrosion resistance and colour being different from regular steel. So ornamental pieces applied to a regular steel gate. (flowers, animals, plants, etc...)

Moxon's "Mechanics Exercises" has a nice one from 1703.