ThomasPowers

Inter Library Loan, a common set up at American libraries where they have borrowing rights from a large number of other libraries generally including University ones and major city ones too. So living in a small town in NM I can easily ILL a book that is so hard to find that a 4 year open search on Amazon.com can't dig one out to buy; or I can ILL a book that costs hundreds of dollars and read it for free! (they started charging a $1 lately down here though) When I lived in AR our small library was in a group of 90+ libraries including a dozen universities. Inter Library Loan a real research tool when you don't live in a big city---and many times when you do!

Generally boiled as it help avoids the gummies; Of course out here in NM I can use plain and then UV cure it using sunlight!

I got into smithing through historical re-enactment and so I have tried a lot of the stuff that I could dig up period documentation on.

Do you know something about an upcoming zombie attack that we don't?

I like dull ears for cubical coathooks, I can spiral the tail to hold cotes on one side but the other side uses the head and so no sharp edges allowed. Shoot I moved a cubical wall into my office just to show off my forging!

Yeah I get a lot of "it's *old*/*antique* at the fleamarket and I generally tell them I don't give a hoot; I'd pay extra for *usable* rather than *age* and so a tool that's a year old may be worth a whole lot more to me than one that is 100 years old (and I use quite a few tools that are over 100 years old and some going towards 200 years old!)

What materials are you interested in using. Some do take special care and techniques.

I've done iron smelting using early scandanavian short stack bloomeries---we were getting 15 pound blooms with no problems. What kind of ore will you be using?

And old copper pennies are actually not 100% copper. Copper on hot steel makes for problems along grain boundries; but I have seen welds done in a forge with copper added to the fire---as well as sulfur, flyash (dirty fire), etc as a demonstration that it CAN be done with a fire pretty much as bad as you could get. Sure easier to do good welds in a clean fire though!

Wow, $60!, My last major purchase book was "The Knight and the Blast Furnace" Williams; take a look at the price of that one on the used market! (It's *the* book on the metallurgy of renaissance armour!)

This is coved in great detail in Hrisoulas' books "The Complete Blacksmith, The Master Blacksmith, The Pattern Welded Blade" With pictures on how stock removal changes patterns like twist. Why don't you run down to your local library and ILL them today!

Clean the rust off the face! is that merely a rust spot or a bad ding with the yellowish rust! (would change what I think it's worth by A LOT!) It's a standard blacksmith's anvil; you may want to list the hardy dimension and if you don't have a bathroom scale a neighbor should have one (or ask a friendly Dr to use their scale).

Hmm I should take a picture of my bookcases in my study though they also have books on traditional woodworking...

About the going rate for that next door in OH so no steal.

Well back in 1120 AD Theophilus wrote instructions on using a charcoal fire for enamelling; they work BTW. It's pretty easy to make a forge into a furnace, get your fire going and then stick a SS coffee creamer into the fire *sideways* and pile the fuel around it to heat. Open the "door" and place the piece into it and let it heat till done and then let cool slowly. Note that not every type of glass is suitable. When I was experimenting I found that 8 different stained glasses spalled too much upon cooling but a 1940's truck brake lens worked great! (note that adding borax did not help the stained glass!) Also my first try at an oven was a terracotta flower pot---it melted in the forge.

Old tuna cans made great flasks for sand casting using a hose clamp to hold them together and the seam line to line them up. Lots of stuff doesn't need a large flask! For chisel cooling I made a little holder that holds a can and clips to the turn up on my forge table---piece goes into the forge and chisel goes into the can. Note for high alloy tools an empty can works too.

Heat steel to orange place on cutting saddle or plate place hot cut on piece Strike with heavy hammer repeatedly re-aligning the cutter as needed. Stop when red and re-heat Now where did you go astray? Note that for long cuts it helps to start them at an edge as having it cut through there first allows further in metal to curl away from the cut as it progresses.

Always keep some starter wood in a dry place, and then take it out and start it under a piece of tin, newspaper, etc. I'm always tossing the odd piece of scrap wood in my tool box for just this reason and when I need the dry stuff I usually have way too much! For extreme conditions dip your kindling in melted wax---keeps it dry and helps it burn. I like to do it in chunks and then split it into smaller pieces when I need to use it so there is just enough but not too much wax.

What you didn't make the nails as well? Nice job.

True enameling requires clean copper that you apply ground coloured glass to (front and back) and then you heat it until it melts and slow cool it. They make little table top heating units for doing enameling as an art form (just had one go through the local fleamarket in great shape for US$10!) If there is a community college near you they may offer a course in it I know the one less than 1 mile from where I am at now does. Sure would be nice if you would edit your cp and list your general location---someone close might be able to make a suggestion on where you could get training!

Well if you are ever out this way SWABA has it's December meeting at the Gunter's blacksmithing school! I think they let us have it there so that they can use the drool to wash the floors...*nice* set up!

Not to mention that protruding weld beads can mess up the edge of your hardy hole. If you are going to make a splitting wedge into a hardy I'd cut it in half and make a hardy from the top and a fuller from the bottom section---2 tools for the price of one!

I've always like the Little Bealings seax myself

I've been "in" over 28 and it wasn't until after AiA was published that I remember folks making a big deal about age of their anvils. Lots of stories about anvils being in the family---often wrong once we did have a good dating system...