ThomasPowers

A smaller lighter anvil comes in very handy for doing road trip demo's and anvils don't take up much space, You can stack them 5-6' high along a wall... My wife calls my anvils my "harem" as the collective noun for them.

Look at the old PBS series "connections" in one of them they had a late middle aged academic take a medieval sword and cut a side of beef. No training, No muscles just a Professor and a european sword. VERY impressive!

You don't tell us if you have the *proper* tool to head rivits. You don't want a nail header type tool but more like what you would get if you covered your vise jaws with angle iron and drilled a hole where they meet that is the depth you want the rivit shaft to end up being. You will start hot but with such small stock you will be working cold for most of the time. Cut your stock to length---preferably rolling it so you don't have a wedged shape end, heat in a 1 firebrick forge---can't loose the small stuff!, drop in heading tool and form the first head. open vise and pop out rivit, anneal (as the tool may contact quench the rivet shaft). I would do a line of them at one time---multiple holes as the most time is spent opening the tool and getting them out.

I always liked how Payne-Gallwey suggested using his springmakers in Liege Belgium to get prods made. Unfortunately it's been close to 100 years and two nasty wars since then and I don't believe it's still a possibility.

GREAT, most unlikely to see a posting in the prayers section for you! I had a friend once who bought an in service 250# LG for $450, he borrowed a rock truck to haul it in and when he got back he planned on tipping up the bed until it slid in place. Well he tipped it beyond the angle of repose but it wasn't moving so he climbed in the bed to see where it was hung up. It shifted and he teleported from the bed to the roof of the truck cab. I literally did not see him cross the distance! Then he called a semi wrecker and for about $50-100 (been a while) had it safely unloaded and set up.

Very nice door for an Oven. Will you be mounting a piece of clear ceremic like my woodstove has as a window or just fill in with sheetmetal? I assume that you have chosen stone that will deal well with the heat and not shatter, crumble or explode? (Or have the stone far enough back out of the heat zone not to have a problem...)

I had the advice of several folks stationed at Fort Sill in OK (Artillery school!) back when I built my falconette and they were there for the proof testing (LONG fuse, long distance and a deep ditch!). I still regret they were sent to South Korea before I got a chance to take them up on their offer to bring it out to the Radar Range and "sight it in"...(Didn't have a proper carriage built for a gonne without trunions before they left...)

Re-forging a cutlery grade stainless without any experience? That would be a "Not Suggested" item in a big way.

Yes you can melt cans. It however is not a good casting alloy as it was designed for extrusion processing rather than casting. To get good casting alloys start with something that was cast to begin with pistons from engines is a common suggestion. Trying to cast alloys not meant to be cast is rather a pain.

Peter Wrights are marked in CWT weights all speculation about it being just pounds therefore are totally wrong. Come on folks don't confuse people when something so basic as the maker is listed in the original post!

I have a 2" smoothbore falconette that I fire using F blackpowder with dry newspaper wadding followed by wet newspaper wadding rammed hard. Even without a projectile it gives a mighty booom; but it's not a handgonne!

Well when I needed maching work on a project I made a deal with the local VoTech class and they did it for a "contibution" to the end of the year party fund. Shaper would be the way I'd go if I had to face a big chunk. Set it up and forget it!

Like Bruce said I once went to an auction of a car repair place that had been in business in the same spot since 1919. It of course had a full smithing set up stuck in a back corner because in 1919 car repair included a lot of smithing. Also had old industrial woodworking tools to work on the frames and bodies! I believe that there is BP on my method of finding anvils much cheaper than e-bay and you live in an area it should work in too!

Some folks will do *anything* to get more scrap steel---now that you got them, what do you plan to use the staples for? I used to be a tad nervous around blood until I started donating it. After seeing that I could lose a pint and still be pretty much OK I was much more relaxed about "minor" wounds... Perhaps enrolling him in a *good* first aid class so he feels like he has more control in such a situation?

We use tung oil for a hand rubbed finish the more layers the better! (Was a daily chore for months to go rub another drop of two of tung oil on the knife handles.)

What are the failure modes in moving it? What is your previous experience moving heavy fragile items? What is the cost of a rigger? Moving equipment is NEVER a time to skimp on things! Especially time! Slow is good as you can keep the ammout of energy in the system low enough that if anything starts going wrong it just stops.

Not a New thing at all! In the renaissance you can find examples of buildings that were re-worked to show the "latest" architectural "quirks". Just think of how many houses got painted white after the Columbian Exposition in the USA! (Those white structured New England towns used to be quite colourful until the "white paint" fad went through---I've know some people having to fight local historical groups to get to re-paint their homes in the documented *original* colours.)

DON'T USE SCRAP METAL FOR A CROSSBOW PROD! Really it is a major unnecessary danger; especially if you don't know the exact alloy! As for straw being the correct temper colour Yes for some alloys and ABSOLUTELY NO for other alloys If you don't KNOW the alloy you literally are playing Russian Roulette by having a stressed piece of steel aligned and quite close to your head. You don't know how many times you will luck out...

Just to menting my favorite trick on making lots of stakes: do them in 2 stake lengths and hotcut them apart at a sharp angle so that instead of forging out points all you have to do is to move the point left by the cut to the middle.

Nice that you saved the stamping! I made a small knife once from the battered remains of a buck brothers chisel and managed to save the trademark. Probably confuse the heck out of someone 100 years from now.... BTW I did read that as First Crack-Pipe Axe and was wondering...

Don't know if a propane torch will be enough, you need to heat the blade till it's glowing, slightly above the temperature where a magnet will lose it's attraction to it and then quench in cold salt water. This will harden it. Probably not need much tempering but if you want to I would ssuggest 325 deg F in a kitchen oven for 1 hour.

When I lived in Columbus OH, inner city!, I had one neighbor that liked coal smoke---it reminded her of her childhood with a coal furnace. There was another that would call the fire department on me and so they would turn out in full array trying to wedge the large firetruck down our narrow alley. By the shear grace of a beneficient diety it happend *4* times when I wasn't forging but instead using my smoker BBQ grill---as cooking was a use specifically allowed for in Columbus city fire codes there were not amused. They would never say who called it in on me but I heard that after the 4th false alarm they threatened EXPENSIVE prosecution if they did it again...and so I had no problems the rest of the time I lived there. The Bar across the ally and over slightly burned *twice*, the house next to mine burned, and 2 months after I left the detached 1920's garage my shop *had* been in burned; but I never had any fire problems!

Damascus is the name for 2 quite different types of steel: Pattern Welded and Wootz Many commercial patternwelded knife blades had the pattern welded material welded to a plain steel piece for the tang. You sure don't need pattern welded steel for a tang. You can find historical examples of wootz blades where this was done by the smith back then too! Even if you have the entire blade made from pattern welded material the tang is un likely to be etched as that is what you generally suspend it in the etchant from.

Well just like in annealing you can place sections with more mass alongside of the blade---just besure they don't go into the quench together!

You can get an exquisite NIMBA Gladiator Anvil 450 lbs. Brand New for only $2,275 Over a possible beater from a scrap yard for just a little less? Unless there is something really special about this anvil it is grossly overpriced. My 515# Fisher in MINT condition ran me US$350! My 407# Trenton in beater condition ran me $100 + a 125# PW + screw&screwbox for a postvise.