ThomasPowers

I use coil spring for my nail headers, they'll last longer than rr spike! Also, when I teach, I have my students fuller the stock slightly just below where the head will start---easier for them to taper up to the fuller line and no further. I use a regular swing arm fuller for it. I then cut the nail off about 1/4"+ above the top of the fuller mark when it's time to head it. I should build a fuller with a built in notch just the right size so they can just insert hit turn hit and be on their way---but they do need some learning experiences... Also I've learned with students that having another header a step smaller than the usual one is handy as some will drive the piece all the way through the first one and you can then try to save it by using a smaller one. If a nail gets jammed in the header, grab the shaft in a post vise leaving only a slight gap and then tap down on the header to work it free. Tapping on the nail shaft from below may bend it making it harderr to remove.

Copper cookware has been tinned by low tech methods for centuries. It's not too hard---I did my first batch in May of this year. Tin is easy to find McMaster-Carr has it! But it was cheaper at Tin Ingot from Rotometals You will need flux however and I used the stuff sold at McMaster-Carr. Remember to clean THROUGHLY before and after tinning. As for when it was used Theophilus mentions tinning wrought iron objects in "Divers Arts" written in 1120 A.D.

It's hardf for most of us to use real wrought iron as it likes working at high welding temps---where mild steel would be burning up and most of us are well trained to avoid that high a heat. When it's way hot it forges like butter and so the time involved goes *WAY* *DOWN* on doing stuff, much faster to forge than mild steel at lower heats. OTOH your forge needs to be set up for working at that temps; Air and coal/charcoal supply that you can get away with for mild steel may not work well at all for WI. Also since it forge welds beautifully many things that we do today by drawing down larger stock was done back then by welding up stuff to make the preform you need for forging. Also are you working alone? Back in the wrought iron days a single smith at a forge would be about as common as an operating room today with only the surgeon in it. Strikers help speed things up. "Practical Blacksmithing", Richardson, is a collection of articles from a smithing journal back when they were switching from WI to MS and so will have ideas on the methods used and changes to those methods. Copies are easy to find.

Jumbly, have you found your way to SWABA, SouthWest Artist Blacksmith Association, yet? We are the ABANA affiliate for NM and would be happy to see you at meetings, our website is at: ABANA-chapter web page We'll also be doing demo's the entire State Fair over at the Street of Yesteryear (on the way to the livestock barns) stop by if you're at the fair! What kind of stuff are you needing? I hope to go to Quad-State Blacksmith's Round-Up in a couple weeks and they will have EVERYTHING for sale both new and used there! Thomas Powers President of SWABA

Well if it's a big problem for you go with stainless! Very expensive though.

Well the first thing to do BEFORE you spend any time forging on it is to take a sample piece and see how it reacts to various heat treating methods. You wouldn't want to spend the time only to find out that it doesn't harden would you? So take your sample piece and heat it to above the loss of magnetic attraction and quench in oil and check for hardness (remembering that there can be a decarb layer on the surface). If it hardens appropriately then you know to do an oil quench and then you can take the sample and see what temp is good for drawing temper---again by testing it after drawing starting at lower temps and going up. If oil doesn't harden it enough I would try brine. If brine doesn't harden it enough you can try super quench If S-Q doesn't work aren't you glad you didn't spend the time forging out something from it!

Yes and also how you are holding the hammer---details please

Perhaps Bruce's traditional large work might be helpful Anchorsmiths DVD - Bruce Wilcock Forgings He did an anvil as I recall but don't know if the pictures are still posted. You might contact him and ask.

It's always funny when the katanaphiles learn that european swords had an average weight for nearly 1000 years that was about the average weight of a katana *and* they were generally thinner than a katana So using their reasoning their japanese swords are just crowbars too.

I'll see if I can dig out a picture of it on the web. Our group suffered a barn fire which took out most of our kit close to our biggest demo date---the Dublin Irish Festival (Dublin Ohio that is.) I had to drop out when I moved 1500 miles away... Rather crude as it has to be set up and broken down every time. It uses a large limb staked to the ground at one end with a trestle holding it up and then the rope down to the work piece. I was rather impressed by how well they drew it all together so soon after the fire! IMG_0184 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Traditionally they would be made from wrought iron with just a tiny bit of steel forge welded on the end as well. Are you going that route? Are you using a spring pole lathe? I was president of an Irish Living history group here in the United States doing the time period of Brian Boru and our demo set up had a spring pole lathe as well as a ground forge with two single action bellows and charcoal for fuel. Three sounds of increase: The swish of a plow, the lowing of a cow in milk and the din of a smithy!

kitchenware!

no digital camera or cellphone! I charge US$25 at the fair and 20% goes to the club. I've done so many of them that I'm playing with the tails---red white and blue, all mexican beers, UNM colours, etc. I have a large pool of friends that supply me with way too many bottle caps!

Soldering coppers were originally heated with charcoal fires before blowtorches and still are for some uses. I have a friend who does upscale copper roof work who prefers his coppers to be heated with charcoal up on top the multi-million dollar homes he works on. Some smiths forge them into wizards or cowboys, etc as the copper is easy to work. The longer pin may have been used in RR car couplers was it found near the tracks? (It might be a 4140 steel and so hammer making stock!)

Have you looked into using carbide metal lathe tool inserts? The last set of bowl/vase tools I was involved with was set up to use them. Then the shafts can just be normalized and all the edge holding is the work of the carbide! (A pro turner came by the forge wanting some custom tooling, so I heated a bar up, out it in the vise and told him to bend it to suit himself and then normalized it---next week he had his own forge!)

I know a couple of people doing drop deaf beautiful pattern welding but their blades are thick clunky crude things, make you feel sorry for them to spend so much time on a billet and then just throw it away... We've been waiting on IV for a while now---you big tease!

To use that forge with *chunk* charcoal NOT BRIQUETTES! I would place a fire brick on either side of the firepot so I could get a deeper fire I could slide work through. Charcoal doesn't take much air to get it HOT!

Rob used to be the smith for Sandia National Labs doing all sorts of very high tech jobs and he really knows his stuff. He and his sons now run a blacksmithing school out here in NM, USA. (Rob is the guy who got me forging Titanium....)

They make lots of scale! Tonight I have to finish off rasptle snake #'s 9 & 10 of this years "crop" for the NM state fair. Last year I sold a dozen, paid for the winters forge propane. I get used farrier's rasps as starting stock. I also thin down the tail and thread punched bottle caps on it to make "rattles" that give a pretty good impression of the sound of the real thing!

Straight from the jug is too strong you want to get a differential etch where some stuff etches and others do not try a 1:3 or 4 dilution and let it sit a longer time. Also different alloys like different etches, you may want to try with different acids to see what gives you the best definition.

And don't have a piece that's half in half out of vinegar you will get a line at the transition point deeper than where it's immersed! For weird flat shapes a large trash bag or other piece of plastic can be draped over 4x4's to make a "pool"

Lets see: 1700 was over 100 years *before* the Victorian period started. The chain is modern electrically welded and so around 200 years after 1700 The handle is worthless for use to hold/control such a weapon The ball is too large (and looks like cast iron from what I can see) All in all about as misrepresented as possible without claiming that Elvis fought back an alien invasion with it...

I would weld it from the back and if there was any traces of the weld work that in as a decorative touch...

"The Complete Bladesmith", "The Master Bladesmith", "The Pattern Welded Blade" all by JPH James P Hrisoulas

One of those tapered sq sledge heads is the one my student was working on making a shaft for in those pics---not many of him as it was his camera...also his first time using a powerhammer and a 100# LG and 2.5" sq stock is a rough way to learn! I hope to have both finished off before our next conference as I bought the heads at the last one...