ThomasPowers

An excellent addition to a tool collectors hoard. A not so good addition to a tool users collection. I've seen a number of these broken as they really are only good for light work but people assume that sincve they are an "anvil" they can be used for heavy work and that's how the cast iron crumbles...

Note that 95+% of armour making is done COLD these days no forge needed! "folding" was a method of refining real wrought iron to make the inclusions smaller. If you are using modern steels then folding and forge welding will generally make the steel WEAKER---especially if you are not good at it with years of practice. So folding modern steel would be like putting oats in your car's fuel---it was once done for horses to make them faster and stronger but has not the same effect nowdays.

Why not ILL books at your local library? I can Inter Library Loan expensive and hard to find books at my small town New Mexico public library that has *squat* on blacksmithing. Shoot I was able to get "The Metallography of Early Ferrous Edge Tools and Edged Weapons" through ILL and I havn't been able to *buy* a copy---had it as a standing book search on Amazon for 3 years! As an internet source you might look up the website for Darrell (you can dig out his homepage from here) Hammered Out Bits: L'Anse aux Meadows Smelt - Working Area Ancient carburisation of iron to steel: a comment A Gallery of Early Blacksmithing Also do a google search on Bloomery and discard everything to do with flowers. As a student of the history of metalworking technologies I would mark you down harshly if I didn't see mention of Egyptian metalworking (there is a Shire book on egyptian metalworking and tools) Perhaps mention of iron vs bronze in the Oddessy Divers Arts written in 1120 A.D. by Theophilus Pirotechnia by Biringuccio and of course De Re Metallica --- a great source of pictures for a report on metals! also "Cathedral Forge and Waterwheel" Gies and Gies, is an easily read book on medieval invention and technology. Hie thee to a library and ask about ILL! NOW! (if you have waited to the last instant, then you get to do without)

The ASM Handbooks will go into massive details on what's in each alloy including allowable tramp elements. Their heat treating handbook will go into detail on how they should be heat treated. They are large massive and very expensive *new*. For most of my work the old ones are just fine and MUCH MUCH cheaper! Machinerys Handbook has a shorter description explaining the number code and may be easier to find.

Talk with James Hrisoulas; as I recall he's done them before.

The local "ornamental iron" fab shop used to have to pay to have their scrap bin hauled to the scrapyard. They were quite happy for me to stop by every once in a while, drop off a hand forged trinket at the office and go out and sort and clean up their scrap bin and load anything I could use in my truck. Always wore PPE, never interfered with them getting work out the door and literally took out a ton of stuff including sheetmetal and even some real wrought iron when they were replacing an old fence that had by customized by an auto...

Tinning and the burnt feathers are both mentioned by Theophilus as finishes for iron in the book "Divers Arts" he wrote around 1120 A.D....

Variation on Mike's pipe idea---weld a heavy grid of vertical strap across the bottom and have it supported above the floor and drive the chunks through the grid---use a bucket to catch. There are some nice catwalk sections already made up that would be suitable for this use...

coining was what came to my mind too. The flypress also has the fast pressure spike as the ram bottoms out and reverses that helps "squiret" the metal into the hollows of the die. Most hydraulics have a slow steady pressure ramp that doesn't act the same.

What type of "fake" damask. The stuff that is etched in as a pattern in a mono-steel will read to the fingernail just like etched pattern welded material. The stuff painted on a monosteel likewise. I haven't run into faked wootz----yet Best way I have found is to follow the patterns as they cross the back of the blade and see if they make sense in a pattern welded way.

DJH; thanks for the laugh Thomas the WI hoarder!

Another way is if you need sq stock hammer it out of round and if you need round stock hammer it out of square. One good method of avoiding folks who buy high level reproductions with intent to defraud is to clearly stamp the date on a part that is not seen---like the wood side of a strap hinge. One method of accelerating decay is burying under a manure pile for a time (dependent on location, ammount to be decayed, etc...)

Spelter is brass used for brazing. I'd go with a brazing flux from your local welding supply shop. This is rather a tricky project for a first go at a new to you process!

stepping down a level to account for DM's location which very well may not use the designations we use in the USA (on the other hand how many american smiths know what EN55 is?) Hammer heads are usually made from a medium carbon steel. One common source is car axles. Ptree who used to work in a factory that made axles posted this on them "industry standard was 1045H below 1 3/8" stock and 1541H for axles above that size, for trucks" Note that you may want to practice heat treating this material before tring it on a piece you have a lot of work in.

Are they both Vulcans? Remember that Vulcans have a cast iron body and so any welding that goes through the face into the body will need to be done using cast iron techniques (Ni for example) before you can overlay it with regular face welding material. Preheat and post heat mandatory! Usually we advise not to repair but use it and learn to love the "built-in face swage"

Well little giant hammers were in the lowest tier of hammers. They are so prevelent cause they were cheap and the company offered time payments. Logs of good industrial hammers out there! Pounding out the profits is the place to look!

Where do the scrap yards get their scrap? If you can get it from the *source* it's much cheaper as you can pay the buy price rather than the sell price. You want auto parts go to an old family run garage and ask---many times you can get them *free*!

Basics of forging: Something to heat it---forge; Something to hit it on---anvil; Something to hold it with---tongs. Next step up would be a postvise. With these you can make anvil tools like a hardy bending forks, scrolling jigs, etc.

Looks like a decent anvil, perhaps a PW. Too high a price for me though.

Note too that a meat hook is probably not a very high performance part! Smoothness and sterilizablity were probably the driving requirements.

Go out in the yard with a shovel. Dig a shallow hole in the dirt. Run a piece of black pipe down to the bottom of the hole. Fill with chunk charcoal and light. Push air through the pipe with a hair blowdrier of exit port on a vacuum cleaner. Voila a forge! Glad I could help!

Solder, heat shrink, epoxy, peg, rivets, screw and riveting the tang over the end of the pommel are ways that have been used. Have you read "The Complete Bladesmith", Hrisoulas, yet? If not ILL it at the local public library and *READ IT* then come back and ask more detailed questions. (But you probably won't need to! One of the few blademaking books out there that includes sword info!)

Can you share with us why it needs to be about 300#?

Be very carefull of the dust when working with tropical hardwoods like rosewood as you can be come sensitized to it. Also when gluing many of the tropical hardwoods you ned to wipe down the surfaces with acetone to remove the natural oils that can prevent the glue from sticking well. Since traditionally sword handles were covered by leather, twisted wire, etc they generally are not made from fancy woods AND NEVER MADE SLICK to cause problems when your hand gets sweaty, rained on or bloody!

Looks like a Mousehole Anvil