ThomasPowers

Experience is THE teacher in blacksmithing. I've taught a number of college students taking Metallurgy/MatSci and even though they may *know* what's going on as they heat and beat the steel they still can't get it to do what they want until their hands and eyes are trained! I've told a number of folks over the years that the fastest way to making good swords is to make knives *FIRST* as the cycle time on your mistakes is much less and so you can learn your lessons faster!

No dessert for Frosty!

Avadon, why not turn the system over and drill *downwards* ?

For keychain size I would probably try to forge out an unplated bolt using the head to make the faceted ball. There were hundreds of different styles in medieval times however the general take is that the heads were generally WAY smaller than hollywood shows them to be . I once was postulating making a flanged mace by folding wrought iron plate and forge welding the folds to make the flanges and then curving it and forge welding the overlap to make the socket.

I eat my peas with honey; I've done it all my life! It makes them sure taste funny; but keeps them on my knife! white corrosion on stainless? Sure it's not electoplated galvanized?

When I worked with a swordmaker we used to make a "false tang tool" to do the burning in so as to not mess with the heat threat of the blade any.

A light rapier can be easily moved out of the way too. Some attacks and guards profit from having some mass to the blade. But I would think that the late rapiers that were more point than edge would be the one type of sword that might possibly profit from Ti.

Quenching from red in water will: do nothing; or harden it and make it very brittle requiring tempering to make it tough; or shatter it: depending on alloy---it may be an oil hardening steel or even air hardening. Please review the BP on heat treating! The pre-drill heat and punch should work well for that size I might use a auto valve for the punch material (making sure it's not a sodium filled one first of course!)

Ebay! I think ebay is about the worst place to get info on blacksmithing equipment! When I run across someone who tells me "well that's what they bring on e-bay" I tell them to sell it on e-bay! That's almost certainly a Fisher and frankly in my opinion makes a better "in town" anvil than any other brand. Of course my main shop anvil is a 500# Fisher rather than then 400# Trenton...

In previous discussions on bladesmithing the consensus was that an apprentice should expect to do 10 hours of unsupervised work for every hour of 1 on 1 instruction. Most small shops don't have the room or the work for another person like that. I've met quite a few folks who can't believe that their unskilled labour is not just as valuable on a per hour basis as someone who is a master of the craft. They get upset when thay ask to apprentice and you ask how much they plan to pay you---this is especially bad in bladesmithing as "single authorship" can be a big component of the price---having their "help" can drop the price by 1/3 to 1/2 for a high end maker! Also when you let someone in your shop as an apprentice you are betting your shop, tools, house, car, savings, investments, etc that they don't do something stupid and get hurt. Now you can say you will have a wavier---but waviers have been proven time and time again in a court of law to be a pretty weak reed to lean upon. They can say they will *NEVER* sue over an injury and have their own insurance coverage. Well I read my policy and is states that if I get hurt I am REQUIRED to sue any other party to it or they do not have to pay for it. First time they get hit with a $50,000 medical bill (and that's not necessarily very high if you look at the cost of finger re-attachment) their tune may change! These are some of the reasons apprenticeships don't work very well these days.

I'd say mid 19th century; but it has been stored very poorly due to the corrosion present! It is wrought iron bodied for sure. Can you tell if the face is made up of several steel plates forge welded together or a single plate? Single plate is later...

Depends on the forge---I have a bottom blast "rail road forge" where the previous owner burnt a heavy duty rail road rail in two in it---do you work much larger than that? (he got a call, ran into the house to tell them he couldn't talk, he had steel in the forge, ran back out and it was laying in two pieces one on either side of the forge. I've seen bottom blast forges used to heat anvils for repair as well. OTOH I have seen a bottom blast forge made from a frying pan...

About 20 years ago I was reading "The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England" I noticed that tannins were mentioned as a posible method to make pattern welding visible on a blade---they referenced peat bogs as another possible source. Not having a bog or oak tree to sacrifice I boiled up some cheap black tea sludge and boiled a spearpoint in it. It came out looking "furry" and I thought this was a waste---then when I washed it under running water the "fur" slipped off leaving the blade showing the patterns in a sort of purple black. Iron tannates are also supposed to have a little rust preventive aspects too.

$300 for a 150# PW on the west coast? You are going to have to go out and beat the bushes for that! Good Luck and start talking with folks!

Electrolytic de-rusting is a cheap and easy method of cleaning things like that up and will clean the entire thing.

Very nice design and good execution too! I like that the blade has some curve to the edge---makes using it as an eating knife much easier than a straight on ending in an acute point. (voice of experience!)

No tapping doesn't decrease the ring it just makes it ring louder. Its done due to habbit, tradition, thinking, keeping a rhythm going while turning a piece or even to give a bit of zing on the upstroke every once in a while.

More likely a quill winder for a weaving shuttle than a weasel!

I had a copy of his video and thought it very good intro to the subject. I once took it to watch while doing an apherisis donation at the Red Cross Blood Bank and my phlembotomist was from Haiti and saw the video and started talking to me about how a blacksmith used to live just down the road from them in Haiti... Unfortunately my copy was on loan to another smith when his house burned down (arson!) and I have never had it replaced---he was out of work for a long time due to burns and with medical bills on top he was never able to replace it.

I was using my screw press yesterday to forge down some top swages so the eye section would fit in my anvil's 1.5" hardy hole. *Quiet*! Nice parallel sides and mine is "arm powered"

M look into making a "1 firebrick forge" using the soft firebrick and heated using a plain old propane torch like is used for plumbing. It would be ideal for such a project and you can have multiple pieces heating while you are working. I think you are right in that you would maybe want to do a bit of preshaping by forging and then use "set" to do the final shaping into the cone. Will you be doing these in wrought iron like the Romans or in modern mild steel?

Phillip in China posts over at anvilfire.com and can be contacted by e-mail. He should be able to clue you in on everything you want to know!

Please read the Ti fac over at swordforum.com to answer most of your questions. I have forged quite a bit of CP 1&2 Ti, been working with it about 10 years now. It's dead soft under the hammer, much softer than steel. I even forged a Ti knife for my "blacksmith eating set" along with a fork and spoon. Note that CP Ti is pretty soft, won't hold an edge; but is still a royal pain to grind! (I've cut CP Ti with a hand powered hacksaw before) The nice thing about it is it's dishwasher safe! The problem working it is that it's too soft at heat---superb hammer control is mandatory! It also absorbs gasses over time when hot becoming brittle when cold---so minimal time at temp is suggested---so a skilled fast forging is needed. I have mentioned the grinding aspects. Some of the Beta alloys can make you sick if you forge them. Since I tend to avoid the alloys I have never had any problems catching Ti on fire using charcoal, coal or propane forges. Basically a Ti sword makes a poorer sword than a plain high carbon steel ally sword so you can pay 100 times more and get a poorer sword! Every alloy has things it is good for and things it doesn't do as well as others. Unfortunately the HYPE in the media tries to make things like Ti seem like some super wonder metal and so people fall for thinking that it must be good for things it was never intended for. I have a 2"x3"x6' piece of Ti that I will probably get around to forging a part of it into a sword blade just to show people how a high carbon steel blade chops it up... Note that for nearly a thousand years the average weight of a using sword was about 2.2-2.5 pounds. Not much need for making it lighter and making it lighter tends to make it less effective too!

Unicorn; so when you buy 1/2" square stock you get stock that is 1/2" by 1"? How odd. I read 2 foot square as a square 2' on a side----just like 1/2" sq stock is 1/2" by 1/2" Makes better sense for a forge too.

What he said; just remember not to make the corner too sharp---bad stress concentrator if you do.