ThomasPowers

Hot steel no longer in use goes to a special location to cool. *STOP* before you make that uncorrectable mistake; better to have to come back and finish a project than to ruin it in the "last heat". If you are cutting on a hardy make sure it's oriented so that any offcut won't fly off and disappear somewhere it will be a fire hazard.

TONGS! there is no "cold end" when hot working copper that's short enough to reach the anvil with the hammer! Note too that heating copper too many times for cold working allows the build up of cupric oxide in the inter granular areas and it will get to where it can't be worked because it's brittle. So like knifemaking work as fast and with as few heats as possible. Silver is fun to hot forge too!

Saturday I bought an electric heat treat furnace, commercial build but old school from a retired (87 year old!) machinist. Has a thermocouple and temperature set. I may need to look into more advanced controls for it someday. I also picked up 60-70 pounds of mild steel for 15 cents a pound. He's selling down and a friend who went with me picked up 400# of steel---again! He has some lovely multi hundred pound pieces of tool steel but wants more like a dollar a pound for it. Lovely piece for a tire hammer or treadle anvil and a large hunk of D3 etc. (and a piece of semi round over a foot in diameter and a foot long that I haven't cleaned the mud off the markings yet)

cbl4823 pleas send me a camera!

Make a large compass for the garden!

Looks like it had a thick face and lots of it left. I have an old anvil with a paternity issue---side says Pow... As my name is Powers I had to get it. Over 100# and missing heel but *great* *face*. Cost me $40 and it's the anvil I bring to classes where I know that the students will be needing to sledge a lot---they can't break off the heel! I tell students starting out to look for damaged anvils as they are often quite usable and dirt cheap!

Weyger's "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" includes an entire section on making an anvil from a chunk of rail---including heat treating it after you finish getting it to shape.

For starting out I liked "The Modern Blacksmith" by Weyger now re-relaeased as "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" Shows how to get started with *nothing* and use scrounged stuff for forge and anvil rather than starting with a thousand bucks of tools.

I used a shop vac to blow a trench forge---I needed a 2'+ long hot spot to do some box folding once. I had to offset the pipes from the blower to the tuyere to waste enough air it didn't over blow the system. As to noise----why damage yourself for fun when nobody's paying you to? For a start up system I once found a small old "handyvac": solid Al case, no bag so it was cheap and a universal motor so you can use a rheostat to control it. Cost me $3 and was much quieter than a shop vac. I had a ridged radiator hose connecting it to the forge and at certain flow rates it would "sing" like an organ pipe.

Don't let your coal get packed down so tight in the firepot that air doesn't make it through to the upper regions. I sometimes have to "lift" the fire with a poker if the coke is forming a dense mass blocking airflow.

When I get a camera I'll do an anvil stack: Bridge anvil, 515 Fisher, 410 Trenton, 165 PW, 134 HB, 93 A&H and my medieval stake anvil. Shoot may twist a friend to get a picture when I re-arrange the shop after the new addition is done.

OTOH a Barn Cat will seriously reduce the mouse/rat/other rodent problems in your forge. It's the time of year I let our cat prowl around inside and live with it knocking over stuff on the shelves and tables

I can send you some chili's from NM that have a similar effect! Is there an address we can send a get well card too?

Remember when the russian Ti crowbars went through?

Just wait till you start getting those lumpy bits of coal!

To get from the propane tank to the burner you will need a high pressure propane regulator---a typical gas grill regulator will not work and a section of fuel hose rated for propane with fittings on both ends. I get both these things at a local propane company.

Actually built up anvil stands work better if the wood is used vertically and each piece goes from top to bottom---not so much flex. You can then leave a couple of pieces "long" to trap the anvil base. Here in NM I have several stands made from old mining timbers, not my favorite but you do what you have to. Funniest one we have out here is for a bridge anvil up at the university Fine Arts class. To get the necessary width it's made from an inverted tree crotch and so has two legs, there has been some suggestions as to making it anatomically correct...

Hand rubbed pure tung oil.

A-36 - 1095 pretty much anything and no bets on if 2 pry bars have the same steel even if made by the same maker! If you have a chunk you really like you could have it analyzed and see what it really is.

No; my wife says I have a "harem of Anvils"! Saw an add on craigslist for a 9000# wench all I could think of was that polka...

Turn that plate up on it's edge so the 2'x4" is up, bolt a couple of side bars to keep it from flopping over and you will have an anvil *better* than 99% of the medieval swords were forged on!

There is a German Smithing Magazine "Hephaestus" that will probably have lots of info in it. Or if he doesn't want to become a professional smith perhaps he could check out the various open air museum smithies that often have "amateurs" working them. I visited some at Hessen Park, Bad Windsheim, Lauf, etc when I was in Frankfurt for a summer.

Well my wife tells me if I do anything stupid and die from it, she will murder me! Thomas 25 years married and counting

Matt these things are cast in Mexican foundries with whatever is left in the ladle at the end of the day. Could be most anything but unlikely they would be a top grade steel as they are sold cheap! Don't know why you would be surprised if it was CI; could it be that you are not familiar with the Mexican foundry business?

Take a load to a smithing conference with a cheap price on them and watch them convert into cash fast! Then buy what you want at the conference.