ThomasPowers

Well if you are doing a single piece one don't dish the last inch or so of the blank. it will curve up and draw the top inward so as to be un-wok-like. Early medieval multipiece cauldrons were rivited but did not hold water until you season them closed. (boiling oatmeal is a favorite). You could also tin the inside that would work to help seal it and make it a bit more food friendly. Note that tinning would have to be done *BEFORE* the inside gets messed up with food. Hand forged multigallon cauldrons often go for $250+ I hope you know what you are getting yourself into! Another tip: The curved surfaces make great parabolic IR emitters and it seems it's always has you holding hand as the focal point---make sure you wear a good glove on that hand! A good dishing hammer for working way inside a cauldron can be made from a RR bolt (not a spike; a dome headed RR bolt. Slit and drift the screw thread end for a hammer handle and it works better if the bolt is bent slightly to follow the curve of your swing. Oxy Tank bottoms make a good dishing form and remember you are trying to work the unsupported metal not the part that's resting on the metal of the form. When heating with a solid fuel forge a couple of pieces of coke or charcoal placed inside the piece right over the area you want to work next will help to speed and localize the heat. Don't leave dents they will scale through and leave holes.. Yes I have done a couple of these and have just accepted a couple more to do before next *August* loud, tedious, time consuming they are

Well you are asking us about it when we don't know anything about what you have access to either. In OH you should be able to get some nice W VA sewall seam coal that is true bliss to forge with; OTOH I was once "gifted" with some heating coal in Columbus that you could see the yellow sulfur streaks running though the chunks---ugg better to take up knitting than use that stuff!

Some folks couldn't hold onto a piece of hot iron with a pair of tongs even if you arc welded the tongs to it! Give these folks their distance and try to have them burn down somebody else's smithy!

Catalan Furnace predated the indirect process of making wrought iron from cast iron. It was a direct process smelter making wrought iron from ore. (The secondary process is over 1000 years "later" than the early direct process methods ..) I've seen good line drawings of it in old ASM books on the history of metals and Colonial Williamsburg built one and had it written up in the magazine on trades with pictures. You need to do more research! May I commend to your attention "The Metallography of Early Ferrous Edge Tools and Edged Weapons" Tylcote and Gilmour (a British Archeological Report) Hard to buy easy to ILL! I'll try to dig up the cites on the works mentioned but it may be next week before I can post them as I have a trip to Mexico this Saturday.

Whats the bottom look like? Are those flats along the front and rear feet? With that long and thin heel it's not cast all right, though cast steel anvils do ring loudly. With no other info I would guess American made, perhaps HB, or Trenton.

Can you make the plate out of a different rust resistant material and add it in after the galvanization?

I've seen it done by gripping warmed wax and then using lost wax casting to do it in Al. Not very useful as you hand changes it's grip in use and the cast grip is only perfect for *1* form.

Now silver bladed knives were fairly common 150 years ago---for cutting fruit the acids of which would discolour a plain carbon steel blade. You can even find pocket knives that had one of the blades silver for this reason. Some examples can be seen at Antique Silver Fruit Knives - Daniel Bexfield Antiques

Now repeat after me "A LARGE HUNK OF STEEL IS A *REAL* ANVIL*!" and looks a lot like the anvils that japanese swords are still forged on to this day! A36 is probably the cheapest steel you can find. If you are worried about denting it get it an inch longer and grind out the dents once a year... A36---especially in large sections will not harden a lot by heating and quenching. If you really have an issue using mild steel ask at a fork lift sales/repair place about getting a trashed tine. I have one that I found free that weighs 180 pounds. When orienting a chunk of steel anvil to forge on orient it so the most mass is under the hammer is a 4" sq x 2' long piece would be oriended vertically with the 4" square being the face. Far better than a chunk of RR rail is the broken knuckle off a RR car coupler, has a flat side and a curved side weighs around 80 pounds and can be found free sometimes. STOP Overthinking it and get to hammering. When you have some experience you will know what you want in your *next* anvil!

First call the local gas company and see if they can supply you with natural gas at that pressure in a home setting. If they can't/won't/too expensive you can get it re-done for propane by having the orifices hard soldered over and drilled with the correct size drillbit. I last had this done by a local propane company when I converted a NG to propane powered item.

Well is it good blacksmithing coal or terrible blacksmithing coal? If it's bad blacksmithing coal then you are better off with charcoal---remember that the first 1000+ years of blacksmithing was done only with charcoal. How large is your tuyere?

Well where would you expect to find the best local sources---from folks smithing locally or from someone living in New Mexico or Italy or China? If you are getting started going to meetings can really shorten your learning curve. UMBA Online The Upper Midwest Blacksmith Association is a non-profit organization of amateur and professional artists and blacksmiths. Our purposes are the sharing of knowledge, education, and to present the art of blacksmithing to the public. UMBA is an affiliate of the Artist Blacksmiths Association of North America. Newcomers are welcome to attend UMBA events Nov 14 '09 Fall Conference Burlington, WI Looks like you are in luck they have a conference coming up! Might be held at Centaur Forge as I know they have had them there in the past. If so you would be able to kill two birds with one stone! Got some nice people in that group---one of them was a student of mine 10+ years ago.

I've used my coal forge to melt brass, bronze, copper, silver (sterling and fine) mainly for casting knife fittings. Would a forge take a 6" crucible Yes, No, Maybe depending on the forge. Natural Gas is what they used when I took a brass casting course. Oil forges are famous for both being hot and reducing, Coal, Charcoal, fuel is not the problem generally if the forge is designed for it.

clean quartz sand was the flux suggested for welding real wrought iron as it already has a lot of silicates in it and with stands the higher temps to melt the sand better. Boric Acid is sold as roachpruf anti roach powder much cheaper than at a pharmacy. Have not seen it for ants... I use a mix of boric acid and borax for my welding most of the time. High Ni or Cr alloys may need a still more aggressive flux.

First thing; try to get chunk charcoal instead of briquettes. Second how deep is your fuel stack in your forge pot? Third how are you controlling the air flow, even a blowdrier puts out way too much air for charcoal!

Well first thought was: Centaur Forge - Wisconsin 117 N. Spring Street Burlington, WI 53105 Phone: 262-763-9175 Fax: 262-763-8350 Hours: M-F, 7:30am-6pm What did they say when you went to a meeting of the local ABANA Affiliate and asked the local smiths where to buy coal?

(That and the fact I'm better with a 3# hammer than with a keyboard---though my wife tells me I hammer the keys when I type and it's the keyboard that pays the bills---integration and test in a research facility)

Only a few alloys benefit from multiple hardenings though most alloys benefit from multiple temperings. What alloy are you using?

Please assume that I am always posting in dialect and so any misspellings are merely aspects of my heritage that I choose to honour!

When the ground wants to examine your piece it is *extremely* rude to try to prevent that by grabbing a hot piece with your bare hand. Be polite and let the ground examine it and then pick it up with a set of tongs.

Larrys; have you looked into joining the AZ ABANA affiliate? The NM group and the AZ group are having a conference in Feb in Las Cruces NM you might enjoy attending.

Rey; you forget that we are not speaking only to *you* but to *EVERY* new smith that will ever read these postings. Are we not allowed to teach them, who may not be as far along in their smithing, too? Otherwise it would be simpler to just say "we answered that question 3 years ago go look it up".

On that last picture you can see two plate boundries going across the face of the anvil. You've already paid for it so stop worrying and get to smiting!

My smithies have always been detached from the house and quite "airy". I leave the tank connected with the valve closed and the tanks are inside---worry more about theft than a leaky tank valve. My regulators have a fitting that engages the tank fitting and so I use them that way rather than take off that fitting and install one to put it in-line. Remember that this is about the same storage danger as a gas grill so if you are comfortable with one of those then the gas forge will be similar.

Quite likely that they could be some of the mexican cast swage blocks we see down here. Often with extremely poor castings heavily pitted and a real pain to get cleaned up enough to be usable---picture please? If so they are not antique but rather less than 10 years old; I've seen then represented as antiques though. Where are you at?