ThomasPowers

Don't forget that a lot more things were rivited together too and repair might involve chiselling off the rivet heads and replacement when done. However in Moxon's Mechanics Exercises; published 1703 he mentions that every smith should have a die plate for making bolts; small one by the engraving as would be suitable for repair work on guns.

Even on the "brick" I would have advised to stand it vertically rather than horizontally. Take a look at this one that was done for $25 total: Marco/Krieger Armory - Rapiers and Accessories Of coures I have to admit to being the Thomas mentioned that found the forklift run off a bluff and abandoned.

Well IAF what did your local welding supply company suggest when you asked them? I heartily concurr though that propane is a much better and economical (and safer) fuel to use over acetylene for rosebud use and you may also want to look into Oxy-Propane for cutting as it's cheaper and does a better job in many peoples opinion.

Here railroad sleepers (RR ties) are usually softwood totally impregnated with creosote and would make a really really bad material for blade handles. In other countries they often use naturally rot resistant hardwoods---the sort of things that make very nice handle materials. I have a colleague who has a coffee table made from Rhodesian RR sleepers that is quite lovely---if very heavy.

Lovely blade and handle very elegant---that must have been one of the first pieces ever made as Bakelite was developed in 1907–1909 by Belgian Dr. Leo Baekeland. Celluloid started in the 1850's and gutta percha in the 1840's. (Bat Masterson preferred gutta percha for the handles of his pistols...) Sorry; I was digging through my 30 year old Mat Sci text book this morning double checking the way iron/steel changes with temp (body centered cubic at low temps to face centered at high temps) and happened to run across the history of plastics blurb... Lovely colour; one of the nicest uses of the early "plastics" I have seen lately was taking celluloid cue balls and scrimshawing them into world globes.

My oil quench tank is the bottom section of a gas bottle. Nice depth with enough oil to quench but not so much as to bankrupt me and I can quench vertically!. I have a can that fits over the top to keep out pests and extinguish burning oil. I also have a steel block on a heavy wire that I can hook on the side for preheating the oil and made a wooden platform for the tank to sit in to keep it from being knocked over if things get exciting.

Basically what your hammer "sees" when it hits the anvil is the ammount of metal directly under the hammer. As constructed your anvil has very little metal directly under it and so will tend to be very loud and not as effective as one made from smaller but thicker metal. So use it while looking for something like a piece of fork lift tine---and mount that vertically so *all* the metal is under the "strike zone". Also investigate dampening the sound before your neighbors dig out the pitchforks and torches!

I got into blacksmithing because I couldn't afford Pattern welded blades back in the 1970's. Now I know it would have been far cheaper to sell plasma and mow lawns and buy the fanciest blade they were selling back then. But not nearly as fun...be careful what you get into...I've got to finish off my pattern welded pizza cutter for my wife before Father's day...

A blow dryer will generally put out way more air than you need to forge weld and as excess O2 will prevent welding.... Also you will not get much of a pattern welding the same material back on itself, you will do better to put something in between. Welding two worn out shoes into one good one was a standard US army Farrier's test; but it wasn't pattern welding---just forgewelding.

Copper loves to pick up O2 forming a ceramic that is nice and copper coloured but unusable and un pourable. Be sure to flux (borax can be used) and de-oxidize---stirring with a DRY DRY DRY charcoal rod can help. And yes pure copper has a pretty high melting temp---I'd suggest trading your copper scrap for a block at the recyclers rather than casting your own. I use my forge for melting metals to cast for knife fittings and it is more involved that a simple post can cover---just the safety part would cover several pages. I learned by taking an out of hours casting course through a University's Art Department. Failure is NOT AN OPTION when working with melted metals!

Tire irons generally are a medium carbon steel. Test the *STEEL* before making something from it. Saves a lot of work and heartache!

First of all is this a stationary set up; or will it go onb the road? How large of work/type of work do you plan to do? My take on it is thaere is not one forge that will do it all; I currently own 5, and use 3 of them on a regular basis and another for large work and am building another one as we speak optimized for billet welding.

Shoot; I've seen a period illustration of thimblemaking; now to figure out where. I'd suggest looking in Diderot's encyclopedia, followed the the renaissance hausbuchs and then to disapper into my wife's history of textile working library.

I saw Hershel at a SOFA Quad-State before; great smith and a good demonstrator. He did the knifemaking and kept the crowd even during the slow hand work pats. I still remember his story about a cousin of his from the part of the family where the tree don't fork and trimming the dog's tail...

and plate 21 item 70: sledge hammer, is 1862 grams or about 4 pounds. And these are the heaviest ones in his tool box! The next largest 1.596 kg is close to the weight of my largest smithing hammer I use on a regular basis.

I hope they rated your project high! Very interesting.

His parents were worried that I would try to lure him out of college and into knifemaking as a career. They shouldn't have worried. I told him numerous times how much better it was having a good job that can support your smithing addiction. He's now a metallurgist for an open die forging company and hangs around here sometimes...and the blackguard has a larger triphammer than I do now!

Why the borax inside the can? I'd think it would be just more junk to get in the weld. All the can welding I know of is done fluxless even the one where the fellow welded up lathe swarf. Just a little oxygen scavanger like WD40 added before heating for the original welding run.

Shoot back when I started smithing the internet didn't exist! There were dern few books on it too! Somehow I managed to find a book on it, (still have that one with smudged finger prints all over the pages from holding it with one hand while working the piece in the fire with the other. Weyger's "Modern Blacksmith" now in reprint as "The Complete Modern Blacksmith") Here in the USA we have what is called Inter Library Loan where small rural libraries can get copies of books from large city or even university libraries for their patrons. Costs me US$1 to get a copy of a rare or difficult to find book way out here in the boonies. (it's a 100 mile drive to my Dr...) *OR* you can admit to yourself you don't have the time to do this properly and go on to something else; no harm, no foul. Wasting other peoples' time will not get you friends in the smithing community. Time is all we are given in this world and so is the most valuable thing we have. I've taught over a hundred people their first lesson in smithing and have found that there are several catagorys of people that tell me they want to be a smith---there are the "Yes; but"s: These folks are all gung ho to smith; but there is a problem---Yes; But it's too expensive, I show them how to build a set up for under US$29, "Yes; But" they don't have the tools (hmmm it was made with a adjustable wrench and 1/4" drill and a screwdriver...). "Yes; But"; They can't get coal---I tell them that for the first 1000 years of the iron age coal wasn't used and you can make/buy charcoal almost anywhere, Yes; But they can't afford metal; so I show them where/how to get the metal for free, Yes But... I have learned to just start agreeing with them after the second "Yes; But" Then there are the others, example a poor student living in a dorm room. I showed him the basics of smithing it on the cheap and a month later he has a post vise in his dorm room and a work bench where his desk should be and 200 pounds of scrap under the bed and a self built gas forge chained out back of the dorm with the BBQ Grills... These folks are a joy to work with, it's like throwing gasoline on a fire---whoosh! Unfortunately they are a lot fewer in the population. Now Think; *which* type *you* want to be! We have no control over that; only you do!

The answer to your question is "yes". Some folks do it one way, some the other. If you are slow on the nick-clean-fold getting it fluxed early will help. If you are fast then fluxing after the fold will work. I weld up billets of bandsaw blade and flul wired up stacks only from the side for the first most difficult weld.

Not nearly as tall as my tales! That would have been one of the Boxer twins and not the rotweiler or the even larger white dog we just call Yeti. All of which feel free to leave landmines in my yard that are pretty much bigger than my 3 legged longhaired weinerdog mut?

Older welded up from pieces anvils would be more dangerous to use too, I own several old anvils where the welds have not stood the test of time just under regular blacksmithing use!

Sorry I finally remembered that my copy of the Mastermyr find is out on loan to one of my students. May take a bit longer to get back home. Polearms can get weird and have great names I've always liked the "Bohemian Ear Spoon" very descriptive....

As for cheap I can buy a bucket of hammers at the fleamarket for the price of buying a new one at Sears! Of course only 2 or 3 in that bucket will be craftsmen... For high priced hammers---I bought my french and sweedish crosspeins used at Quad-State.

Now as far as a piece you are working on...I nearly dropped a 5' section of utility pole from 10-15' up on the neighbor's dog last weekend. Might have learned it not to come in my yard when I'm working on the shop extension...