ThomasPowers

Very Nice indeed! Especially sizing them more like the real ones rather than the fantasy/hollywood ones! Have you thought of curving the spikes to match the curve of a swing so they impact dead center? Most of the originals I found when researching war hammers had slightly curved backspikes.

If you don't have ventilation for a coal forge you don't have ventilation for a gasser!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a propane forge needs LOTS of ventilation; people think that just because the fumes are invisible they are harmless NO! CO is odorless and invisible and will kill you dead! I use my propane forge inside my shop---with two 10'x10' roll up doors on opposite sides of the shop fully open---unless the wind is so strong it's blowing tools off the anvil then I close one of them 1/2 way...

Re my WI find: actually it was such high grade stuff that a knifemaker didn't like it as it didn't have enough "character" he wanted the old cruddy wagon tyre stuff! I suggested he heat it up and twist it to get more character in the etch. Don't know if he tried that. BTW should I mention that the 100+' was *free*? They were getting ready to bulldoze down the 1880's adobe house that cistern was built for and they told me I could have the rod if I wanted it...

For knifemaking the A-36, for general smithing the Vulcan, for armouring the ASO.

Care to share with us what kind of work you hope to do in this shop? Hard to make suggestions if we don't know if you'll be doing knives or 20' railings! My comment would be to put a wall between your sawdust makers and your spark producers even if you have to put a pass through door in it to work long items!

Without engineering the entire system all I can say is "big enough". I have a bad tendency to over engineer stuff I build anyway---I once built a tent frame that on a bet we hung a porch swing on and had 500# of people sitting on it...

I have a friend who when much younger had a machine shop mill the face of his anvil nice and clean---and too thin to use! It only took about 6 hours using professional large scale welding equipment to build up the face by a professional weldor who is also a smith. Most hardfacing rods are too hard and that spider web cracking is fine for a wear surface on a dozer but not wanted for an anvil face. From your description you have not done any of this *BEFORE* asking for advice---*most* refreshing! If so read up on how Rob Gunter repairs anvils and keep the stoody for jobs that will profit from it!

Well in the extreme form, when it's sparkler-ing it's pretty much getting trashed for high carbon work and gets cut off and discarded. Decarb happens all the time even at low temps---if scale is forming it also can be decarbing depending on the exact set up. Since low carbon steel is SOFTER under the hammer than medium to high carbon steel I don't understand your comment as to forging the splitting maul head. It should be harder to forge because it does have a higher carbon content than mild steel not that it's decarburizing. Or were you referring to the more limited forging ranges for steels with more carbon in them? One beginning knifemaker's common mistakes is to take longer to forge a blade and so have a decarb layer that when they heat treat it and then try it with a file makes the blade look like it's soft when really the core may be quite hard and if they re-quench with a more aggressive quenchant may crack on them. All they had to do is to remove the decarb layer and continue making the knife.

Do you have any old barn beam or fence post wood around? I used to pick up some 50+ year old osage orange fence posts that made lovely handles---well seasoned too!

The problem being that some places the natural conditions are pretty lenient---I picked up 100+ feet of 1" dia wrought iron that had been used to hold together a cistern after the 1906 quake here in Socorro NM. It had been in place, outside, 100 years and was held together by threading the ends and using nuts over cross plates. I removed the 100 years outdoor nuts using my regular adjustable wrench, no oil, heat or witchcraft needed. Back in Ohio I'd probably have to torch them off after 50 years!

check out how they made an anvil for $25 at Marco Borromei - SCA/WMA Rapier Helms Weapons and More ObTruth---I'm the Thomas mentioned...

Nope it's *possession* of un-documented ivory, no crossing of state lines needed. One reason that the mammoth stuff is liked as it's easy to prove it predates the ban.

I've seen diving knives that were Be Bronze no magnetic signature in case you were working on a WWII mine...

Bingo---you've got it! Contradictions seem to be the *norm* when discussing complex issues like steel and dealing with all the time, temp, cycles, alloys, and desired outcomes. You think you've got it down pat and make a blanket statement and then someone will pop up with an outlier that compleatly goes against what you thought. (like wootz with it's high carbon content yet "softness", yet good cutting ability...) I remembered when I first started pattern welding and one of the folks I was learning was advising me to always forge close to welding heat so as to not shear the welds, another I was learning from told me to always forge at a low temp so as to not shear the welds. They both did exceptional work and had good results with *their* methods; but it bothered me until I stopped looking for *one* way that works and accepted that there may be a range of ways depending on the EXACT materials and processes being used.

Electrolytic derusting. if that fails---high explosives!

Yes, when the blade is hot place it spine down on the anvil and tap it back to straight. Do this often rather than waiting till it's very thin and then wanting to do a massive ammount of straightening! Note that using a chunk of wood as your hammer can help prevent hammer dings in your edge---old baseball bat or chunk of tree limb will work!

I was cutting some 1.5x3/8" thick stock yesterday and it sure was faster and easier hot cutting it than with an abrasive wheel---I cut it with the wheel to get it to size to fit in the forge and then did the rest of the cuts with a good hot cut driven by a 6# hammer---hot cut was wider than the piece so no repositioning needed. So about as many cuts both ways, hot cutting was quieter and less dusty too! Course this was just A-36.

I go with a low orange as seen in the ambient light of my shop---what your shop's light is like I have no idea!

I remember that Mr Rhoades (sp) of SOFA had a bunch of working hardy hole triphammers for sale one Quad-State. Cute and handy for folk with arm/shoulder/back troubles that didn't let them swing a hammer much but wanted to continue smithing.

Went to the scrap yard Saturday hoping to find some stuff I could use on a comission; didn't have any luck on that but did buy more than I sold. (sold off our Al cans). I got a 5' 1" rod where the last foot of it is 1/2" sq looks to have been forged and then forge welded in the rod section. I picked up a 20"x 4' piece of Stainless sheet for armour making, an all steel stool for the forge area, the male end joint of a windmill wooden sucker rod (for wood they make great pole weapon attachments what with the long straps down two sides); a 1' dia 3/8" thick piece of plate---very smooth cut! And a bunch of other usefull stuff. Had to go buy new steel for the comission, sure lowers the profit margin!

What country do you live in?

I once used a small vacuum cleaner I paid $3 for at the fleamarket as it didn't have the bag any more---just a round pipe spewing air! It was a universal motor so I could use a simple rheostat to control the speed (also from the fleamarket for US$1). I checked the brushes before buyingand they were great. Used it for several years on my billet welding forge.

I love such "damaged" anvils when you get a great face for forging on at a *Very* reasonable cost an you can always work around the missing part. I have one that's missing the heel I bought about 10 years ago for US$40 and use as a loaner anvil for my students.

Shape controls a lot of the way an anvil will sound with the American versions of the london pattern with long horns and heels being the worst in the LOUD catagory. Another is how it's made and what material; with cast steel being loudest and the Fisher process (steel face cast iron body) quietest. I've grown to love my massive fisher so quiet and polite, just a thwap thwap thwap and not *TING* *TING* *TING* like the HB, Trenton, A&H or PW in the shop

sash weights are usually the lowest grade pig iron out there and as such are not usually even wanted as cupola fodder preferring high grade cast iron such as old radiators that had to be fairly "precision cast" to be both thin and water/steam tight. The do make acceptable counterbalance weights if your projects go in that direction. They are not worth scrapping as cast iron has a very low rate indeed; but if you can find people restoring old houses that can use them far better to pass them on and get money or more usable stuff in exchange!