ThomasPowers

The hammer that is the favorite one for all my students is one that went through a fire and so is quite soft. It is slowly mushrooming slightly making a lovely "dress" for it *and* they know I won't yell at them for missing and hitting the anvil with it. Against properly heated steel it works quite well. I'll probably need to dress it back a bit in another couple of years... Remember that all those wonderful viking pattern welded swords were hammered out using fairly soft wrought iron hammers on fairly soft wrought iron anvils. Stop worrying and get hammering!

How bad a day? Been several times myself that I've come in from the shop feeling like I could walk under the dog's belly without ducking. (and a few times where I feel like I should duck when I go past the trusses that are set at 10'...)

1: Folks it's a self contained hammer there is not a separate compressor that could be "run longer". Take a look at how these work! Elegant simplicity in a way but hard to make changes to the basic way it works! Putting a supercharger on the air inlet is probably not a good idea! 2: I know a smith at 7000' that uses a 500# self contained hammer with no issues I know of. I can give you his contact info if you send me a pm.

Pinstripping???? Red and yellow and orange *FLAMES* is what that anvil needs! (And don't forget to stamp your name on the bottom just in case it wanders...)

For things like knifework I have my anvil about 4 inches higher than the old suggested height. For heavy work or with swages I have it lower---actually I have several anvils near the forge all at a different height and I use the one that's best for what I am doing---really saves the back for this weekend smith who tends to overdo it on the weekend and recover during the week.

Tang---the end opposite the pointy end. Bladesmith---the idgit holding 1/2 of a blade in a set of tongs with the other half now a mess of clinker in the firepot and sparks over the fire. Click---the sound/feel that tells you you guessed wrong about what quenchant to use (again) Really most books on the craft will have a nice drawing of a blade with all this pointed out on it. Why re-invent the wheel? Pictures are much better than descriptions, at least a lot of what you have listed gets drawn on the face of my anvil in soapstone while waiting for the steel to re-heat in one of my classes on bladesmithing.

I worked as a professional paint stripper when I was first married. Later we moved into a 100 year house that we had a *FULL* health department lead survey done on it, (previous owner used the basement for a shooting range). They did swab tests, timed filtered air tests and solid sample tests---had to recalibrate their instrument for the sample from the "range" as it was set for micrograms and the sample measured in *grams*. We had this done as we had two small children in our family. Their report suggested a tsp wash of all surfaces and no planting of edible plants in the yard. So yes I have some real world experience with both issues. I also have a couple of BS degrees with the math to evaluate statistical claims. I still would worry more about the stripper than the possibly lead paint. Now when you have lead in your stripper waste---how are you going to dispose of that? Wash it into the ground/groundwater? Dump it in a landfill? Best method is to save *all* of it and present it at a hazardous waste collection site. Rather a mess what with rags, aerosols, rinsing---you don't want to leave a film of easily disturbed toxic waste on it---especially if you will have hot iron on it! They still sell cigarettes too even though they have killed both my mother in law and my grandfather rather horribly so something still being sold does not indicate to me a proper level of safety. I will however change my suggestion to: that if you feel it may be lead paint; try scraping the surface with a paint scraper first to remove the most of it in a manner easily collected and stored for proper disposal. (They also sell swab test kits for lead paint) Currently I work in a town that has problems with arsenic in their water and live in one that has Uranium-238 above the legal and Radium 226 and 228 above the suggested limits. I don't worry so much about straining at flies while swallowing camels; until the danger gets above what I experience driving to and from work each day---something I do without a thought, I don't worry much about it. After all blacksmithing coal is a known source of radionuclides and mercury!

"A good sized forge for knifemaking" is generally *small*! You don't want to heat up more than you can work before it get's cold. I'd suggest starting with a lively forge as well.

Paint stripper is generally MUCH more toxic than lead paint! Wear a respirator rated for the chemicals in it! If it's a recent paint job it's unlikely to be lead based. If it is lead based paint then the stripper waste is hazardous waste---including any wash-down fluids. I'd take it outside the shop and wire brush only the face and horn. I generally tell folks that painting an anvil *drops* the price of it since we can't tell if someone has done a bad repair to it. I probably wouldn't buy one that I couldn't at least see the face of to check for welding. It looks like a dandy anvil and a very nice size for starting out and as a travel anvil later; going to make that colour your "tool colour"?

And I will counter: What are you trying to learn---How to forge a RR spike or how to forge a knife? I've had quite a few students who had to go back and un-learn bad habits they had gotten into working low carbon steel when they went to forging high carbon steels---working it too hot; or too cold, accidentally quenching it on a cold anvil or in a cold vise, etc. I came into blacksmithing through knifemaking and so my habits and reflexes are set for working High C and so it makes it harder to do plain ornamental work in low C and working real WI takes an act of will to heat to the right temps! *But* I don't usually have any problems when I do forge blades. Finally: if, by beginner's luck, you do get a good blade forged then you have a *knife* not a letter opener. (and BTW there are a lot of knife styles that do not take any extra hilting work...)

Here in NM that would be a $100 vise, in OH maybe a $25-40 vise. You are about 1/2 way in between... Doesn't look like it needs anything save a through cleaning and oiling which should help the spring out. As previously mentioned check the screw out. If the edges are still pretty square then get it! If they are worn to a slant, give it some thought. If you do get it you probably will need to clean all the crud out of the screwbox and off the screw. Soaking a week in kerosene or diesel and cleaning with a wire brush usually works well.

Anytime you get up to critical you can have issues with auto quenching (self quenching, etc). One thing to do to help avoid this is to heat the entire piece up to its draw temp so any quenching gets automatically tempered. But this makes the piece hard to work with. One way to draw a tang further back while keeping the blade cool is to stand it in a can of water that reaches up to the tang and use a propane torch on the rest of the tang.

2x6x29 is about 98 pounds in mild steel.

If you are really interested, may I commend the archeological metallurgy mailing list to you. Several industrial revolution focus folks on it.

Dull red is much higher than the folks I know use, they heat till a pine stick feels "slippery" (under 600 degF) less charring of the felloes that way. Corn cobs are their favorite fuel.

Have you tried getting it on a plane yet? (Back before the "troubles" I remember having a 90 pound carry-on, full of scrap metal, they didn't weigh the carry-ons...)

I'd go with Trenton too stamped in a diamond <> though sometimes it's stamped Trexon. If so a good brand and made in Columbus OH. Cherish it!

RR spikes, even the ones stamped HC are low carbon steel. The HC ones are up towards the low carbon/medium carbon boundry. If you want to learn knifemaking I would suggest using at least a medium carbon steel so you can get used to it's much more stringent forging limits and harder workability and can start learning heat treat. As mentioned above getting and auto or truck coil spring and cutting it into sections will give you a LOT of stock to get started with. Most auto springs are a medium carbon with about double the carbon content of an HC RR spike.

Sheet metal can be cut with a hammer and a cold chisel. Use a scrap piece as a cutting plate so you don't nick your anvil! Drywall will not be happy as a forge table and neither will you!

Remember these are not "rules" but merely suggestions! So don't make a claim that you can't prove. (Not all leaf springs are 5160, almost no jackhammer bits are S series, etc; better to tell a client "forged from an old leafspring or jackhammer bit" than to say 5160 only to find it wasn't...)

No the "dishwasher safe" applies to almost *everything* as *someone* *will* put them in the dishwasher *sometime*! (why I forged my eating set of Ti and self hilted the knife) You can often restore a handle that was accidentally washed if it is still tight to the tang; but if it's a common mishap you really need to sell the customer on making all the components dishwasher safe. Fore Historically accurate work it's usually repair/replace time!

John, Another way to look at it: the armourers I know are generally quite willing to help folk attempt such stuff for they know that nothing makes good armour look dead cheap to a person than them having found out what goes into making it themselves! Same for the knifemakers. I noticed that the year I did the best at the Festival of the Cranes I sold most of my stuff on setting up and tearing down days---to other craftspeople there. *They* know what goes into good hand work and so the price doesn't scare them.

Nothing Quite like the sound of machinery cycling when it SHOULDN'T to help one colour one's undergarments to a browner shade!

Which sets an earlier date; but does not address when they started using that stamp. If I get a chance I'll look into "Steelmaking before Bessemer, Vol II Crucible Steel" to see if they mention when they started stamping cast steel. (after all England goes way back but Anvils stamped England date much more recently...)

Ask PTree over at anvilfire.com; Jeff used to work for the company that made a large fraction of the axles used in the usa and is quite up on their metallurgy; I have paraphrased an earlier post he did over there as follows: the industry standard was 1045H below 1 3/8" stock and 1541H for axles above that size for trucks The H modified steel are much more prone to quench cracking than plain 1045/1050; so quenching in oil is suggested. These steels are also prone to grain growth if held at forging temp for very long without working the steel. 4140 was used for some very large axles used in off road equipment like big front end loaders. Such axles are not usually induction heat treated, but are furnace treated. Back to me: However junkyard rules apply!