ThomasPowers

Fredly; mount it on the deck and get a short piece of 2"+ cable to tie to it with a frayed end---then you can talk about the gullywasher rain you had back in.... Thomas

Well if you are interested in going for knives the knife alloys do weld a bit differently than 1018: mainly that the higher the carbon content the lower the welding temp and alloys with a lot of Ni, Cr, etc will be harder to weld due to their oxides being harder to remove and so a more aggressive (and toxic) flux is suggested. It is generally easy to find scrap/free high C stuff to play with along with the mild stuff. I haven't found any cheap 1018 in a while, A36 is what you get most places you ask for mild steel---which is ain't! Thomas

How accurate is it to the period? Thomas

One thing I point out is that in earlier times a good pattern in you sword indicated that it was done by a top level smith who took a lot of time and so it was probably an indication of the quality of the piece as well as "purty". Thomas

my scrap WI experience: first the demolition contractor said I could bring my cutting torch on-site and subdivide the spoils as I wished---good as they had dropped the watertower by cutting a leg and go boom method. WI does not like cold bending in most grades! Next he said it would have to be moved off site and how many pieces did I want? "One" I repled and was told that was not possible. After arranging a place to have it dumped, not easy in a city, I got a pile of WI plate pieces that had been mangled and folded by the demolition claw---Not what I had contracted for *and* everytime they damaged it more they wanted more money---they couldn't understand that they were destroying the stuff I wanted. I guess for scrapping making it more managable is a plus. I held them to the original contract cost and we proceded to cut it along the crumple zones to get the largest unblemished pieces we could and crumpled WI does not O-A cut well, any cracking or seperation blows the top layer back at you! Still I got several tons of usable WI plate in 3/16 and 5/16" thickness. The next part of the saga involved the city telling me I had to get the plate out of my back yard so while I was off work with pneumonia I had to move all of it into the storage area I had just cleaned out in my shop in a move 1 piece go take a nap sort of way, largest piece was only 180# IIRC. Thomas

I bought an old lincoln tombstone that may be older than I am (turn 50 this year) Copper wound transformer! I did have a weldor friend try it out first and it will do most of my smithing welding needs, mainly toolmaking and the odd treadlehammer project or so. Now to get power to the shop so I can stop hauling it next to the house and running the cord into the stove plug... Thomas

Victor, if they do do a leftover pour of a good alloy then the anvil will be decent with some clean up work. If you can find the foundry and talk with them and get them to alert you when that happens....I'll keep my eyes/ears open... Thomas

Wim are you using coal or charcoal? If charcoal the ash builds up and needs to be removed. If coal, it tends to coke up a solid ring around the tuyere that needs to be pulled apart on a regular basis with the forge rake. This is assuming that the motor is not overheating and slowing down. Thomas

I heard that even as late as the late 50's some bridges in places like Florida were spec'd for wrought iron for corrosion reasons. My WI score was the tank of a water tower built in 1929, the frame was steel but the tank was WI. Thomas

I don't know about a factory; it just looks to me like they are from a small foundry that pours them out of what's left in the pot after their main runs---why I wonder about alloys used---may vary from run to run As to being from Mexico the density of their appearence at fleamarkets and junk stores and auctions increases the closer you get to the border. Folks at such places are usually pretty close with their sources but I will ask as I see them---will probably be a while though. I was wondering about some of the foundries right across from El Paso myself... BTW they are doing small swage blocks too! Thomas

As I reported over across the street, I think that this is a recent casting from Mexico as the mold line goes right through the face and horn. I don't know what alloy(s) they may be using but am interested in it's usability as they come by regularly at the local auction here in NM. Thomas

From "Formulas for Profit", Bennett, copyright 1939, 4th printing "To identify iron from steel" "Mix 5 drops nitric acid with 10 drops H2O", (remember acid into water *NEVER* water into acid),"File a clean spot and place a drop on it. If it is steel it will turn black immediatly. If it is wrought iron or malleable iron it will stay bright for a considerable length of time." Use at your own risk! Thomas

If it's a cast iron bodied anvil (vulcan or fisher) just use it till the ends fall off and continue using the center part. If it's a cast steel anvil gouge, preheat and weld is a good way to go---though if you put too much heat into it you may need to re-harden the face. If it's a steel faced wrought iron bodied anvil it will be harder to weld up due to the silicate stringers in the WI but you could try. If its a totally cast iron Anvil Shaped Object use it as a doorstop. Wire brush the side and see if you can find a trademark; if so we can probably tell you how it was made. Remember that hornless heelless anvils are very typical of anvils for most of the world---the japanese swordmaker's anvil has no horn or heel yet they are considered to do good work.... Thomas

Having once bought a house from the widow with two small kids of a phone co maintenance man who electocuted himself working on a problem in that house I would also agree that if you are not sure of what you are doing an expensive electrician will be the *CHEAPEST* way to go! Thomas

I'm planning to drive out from New Mexico for it. Hope to be there on Thursday! Thomas Powers

WD40 works great as a *cleaner* to get old grease/oil/dirt out and then you lube with a real lubricant. Thomas

What more could a bloke want, ta play with fire & hit things. ( Oh & drink BEER ) Chopper, that's why they invented the propane forge---you place your 5 gallon tank of propane in a washtub of water and turn up your forge for forge welding and it cools the beer you put in the tub to a nice drinkable temp on a hot day. Thomas

Weapon making is a very specific craft too. You basic "village" smith will not be able to craft a good sword---just as a run of the mill blacksmith today to explain blade harmonics and how they affect the usability of a sword... On armouring there are two heating aspects: heating a specific point to work hot and heating the entire piece to anneal or normalize before working on it cold. If you work a piece cold too long between heating you can get cracking. Thomas

Tar, I thought you had mentioned a much richer experience with maching than I had---my machine tools are a drillpress and a file. My father was EE/ham radio so no family background to fall back on. If I have got you confused with somebody else then I do apologize. Thomas

OK "medieval European" background: 1 The smith in medieval europe was VERY UNLIKELY to be involved with the mining and smelting of ore, iron/steel has been a trade good since the iron age---cf "currency bars". So have they have to buy/barter for the correct materials---and they need to know what they should use---the better stuff is harder to get/more expensive! 2: you're talking about nearly 1000 years from primitive bag bellows to water powered gang bellows so nicely shown in De Re Metallica (a great source of pictures for an "industrial" setting) 3: the smith working alone as a single person is about as accurate as a surgeon today being the only person in the opperating room doing major surgery. The smith will have strikers, bellows thralls, apprentices fetching charcoal, etc. 4: a "medieval" smith making a blade from start to finish was just not done either. He would forge/heat treat the blade (with the help of his staff) then send it to the grinders who would grind and polish it and then they would send it to the hilters who would make the fittings and put the guard/grip/pommel on it and then to the sheathmaking folks---*seperate* crafts, seperate medieval guilds, Note that it might also go to another different shop for embellishment/engraving/gilding, etc. (Note that the japanese swords are made in much the same way with a series of different skilled craftsmen working on a blade from start to finish) Now tidbits of "gamecraft" Do they get the right alloy? The better alloys are harder to work---higher carbon steels will burn or crack if worked outside of their temperature limit. Alloys require different quenching mediums, (use of a magnet to determing the curie point in heat treating would be a "master level secret"), the alloy needs to be quenched in the proper medium or catastrophic failure may occur. Do they draw temper after heat treating? Do you want to put in differential tempering for "better" blades? Do you really want to throw a curve in and have some wootz cakes available---takes very different forging and heat treat skills; but can make a superior blade! If I was trying to do it semi "right" I would have the sword forge set up and they have to place the blade in it and get the right part in the "hot spot" and then make sure they only work on the hot region---a misstrike on a cold region can result in starting over. (or as I say to my students "Hit it where it's hot; *not* where it's not!"; or how about the famous "you hold the cold end and hit the hot end and get it RIGHT next time") BTW you can build a one firebrick forge that fits into a coffee can and uses a small propane plumbing torch to provide heat---good only for small work but I have *NEVER* found somone who could not figure a way to get a forge to use if they *wanted* to. Though I had one student/friend who lost more dorm roomates that way---something about the scrap metal under the bed and the workbench where his desk used to be... Thomas

How many leads does the screw have? Can you post a picture somewhere? The "bolts to a table" sounds a bit strange as flypresses create tremendous forces as they bottom out and reverse and bolts sound like a point of failure. Thomas

I don't know about wolfram. I do know that carbon has a very fast diffusion rate in steel but most other elements do not---why we can get nice layers in PW steel. But what will dissolve what in general I don't know---save that molten Al will dissolve Cu to an amazing ammount! (friend likes to make "Al bronze") I remember the diamond dust from discussions with a MatSci prof I had in college *and* the many postings on various metalworking forums about not using diamond tools on steel . As to "following the rules" how about "doing your homework"? (ie find out what has been done before) That particular idea (diamond dust) has been done thousands of times and talked about even more. Repeating experiments with no changes is NOT doing anything new it's just wasting time you *could* be doing something new. Using the web to let other folks do your homework will work to a point; but you save other people a lot of hassle if you do some basic checking first. Google can be your friend though much of what you find is rather bogus. Thomas

Fionnbharr; you going to be at Quad-State? Thomas Powers SKA wilelm the smith

Take a look at gas savers for OA torches; unfortunately a lot of the heat transfer to the work in the forge is from the lining and so letting that cool off can make a big difference in how fast your cycle time is. Thomas

First of all Diamonds will be absorbed into hot steel as plain old carbon---look up why diamonds are not generally used for lathe tooling! So basically you get the same results spinkling a bit of graphite in betwixt welds. I had a friend who added graphite powder to his flux for just this reason...Tar if you know 1/10 as much as you claim you would know this! Ask at any good machinist forum. Also diamonds will burn---convert to other forms. They are *very* stable under the heat and pressure they form at but at STP they are only metastable. Thirdly I believe that you refer not to carbon crystals on the edge but metal carbides, a very different thing indeed and their presence greatly improves wear resistance on an edge. Historically it was a "selling point" type of claim; sure it was done but graphite would have worked as well. Thomas