ThomasPowers

I have a friend whose bookends are made from chunks of 3 & 4" plate with *very* *nasty* holes bored through them using shaped charges---he used to be a blaster for a research org... Bookends are just indications that you don't have enough books on your shelf! Thomas

My current shop is 20x30, all steel construction save for the concrete pad and a fiberglass panel for a skylight. No "where did that hot piece of steel go" worries I have a 10'x10' roll up door at either end for ventilation and a "man door" on the side. I plan to build a "forge porch" out front of it for the coal forges with only partial sidewalls. The propane forges are welcome in the "clean shop" part... I'm slowly involved in wiring my shop for 200 amp service with 110 and 220 plugs every 5' around the perimeter and a welder outlet near one of the roll up doors and a triphammer plug up on one of the trusses. Also 5 banks of 8' long fluorescent lighting individually controlled. Can you extend an eve and put your long steel storage outside under it? Is security an issue? Is there a habitat for humanity resale store near you? Where a lot of my electrical components were purchased... Thomas

Where's the "See Rock City" Decals? Wish I owned it; but I would just use it and it would show the wear... Thomas

Glen I have not seen *any* industrial shop that had a lot of "scrolls" and stuff on their storage. Plain utilitarian all the way! You ought to be able to find an appropriate grinder, a mandrel with a motor any you might even be able to find an old motor at that! If this is supposed to represent a real shop of the time you will want a hidden area for anachronisms---how about a radio from the 30's or 40's? Perhaps a broken one hiding a more modern sound system playing discs or tapes of songs from that period. Note that while smoking or chewing tobacco was *very* common most folks will forgive the lack for safety reasons... Thomas

If you are chiseling on hot metal it's a hot cut! Want a handle on it? grind a groove and wrap some 1/4" round stock around it and twist for the handle. Thomas

From abebooks.com: The Mastermyr Find:A Viking Age Tool Chest from Gotland Arwidsson, Greta Book Description: Awi. In 1936 a wooden tool chest was found in a field in Mastermyr in Gotland. It contained more than 200 objects including tools associated with carpentry and metalworking, raw materials, and finished objects (locks, keys, a frying pan, bronze cauldron, bells). This short report looks at the context of the find, includes a catalogue of objects, and discusses its chronology, ethnology and comparative material. 56p, 32 b/w pls (Larson Publishing 1999). 0965075516

Passivating is removing any free iron at the surface of a forged or welded stainless piece. Can be done as simply as soaking in a citric acid solution (sold in the backing/canning section of the supermarket) to as fancy as buying specific stuff made for it at the welding supply store. generally you don't even need to do that; but if you live in a climate that is rough on metal it will help. Thomas

Not a basket twist but rather incised down the middle of each flat deeply with a hot cut before twisting---am I right? Thomas

The Gies's are know for their "overview" books and as such they do have some lapses; but they do provide footnotes and a bibliography so you can dig into a specific area on your own if you want to double check. if you want a real laugh look at what Norman Cantor's "Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages" says about arms and armour---pretty much every old myth disproved in the last 80 years and you probably recognize N. C.'s name as a respected person in medieval studies...(just not in Arms and Armour) That Reminds Me "The Metallography of Early Ferrous Edge tools and Edged Weapons" BAR by R.F.Tylecote and Gilmour (good names in modern medieval metallurgy research.) "The Celtic Sword" Radomir Pleiner: in depth metallographic analyses of ferrous celtic blades. Pleiner is well known for his work on early ferrous metallurgy "The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England" H.R.Ellis Davidson; a bit dated (esp the section on patttern welding in the appendix) but a good example of researching things where there is not a lot of direct evidence. "The Mastery and Uses of Fire in Antiquity" Rehder, biomass fueled furnaces including bloomery furnaces (includes plans for building your own bloomery...) "Iron and Man in Prehistoric Sweden" edited by Clarke H Thomas

I'd suggest a fire extinguisher near each entrance and one near the forge. You may even find some in correct 1940's style if you are willing to have them inspected and re-charged---do not use the carbon tetrachloride ones though! Thomas

Living in a sparsely settled area I would just build a fire in the back yard and burn it off in the open air. Perhaps when I burn off the tumbleweeds... Thomas

"Sources for the History of the Science of Steel", C. S. Smith, starts in the 16th century with a couple of sources in translation. "Cathedral Forge and Waterwheel", Gies & Gies; picture of medieval forges, answers to questions like "When did they start using coal for blacksmithing?" etc (easy to read) "The Mastermyre Find" a norse metalworker's tool chest full of tools!!!!! "The Knight and the Blast Furnace" Alan Williams; Metallurgy of armour "A History of Western Technology" MIT Press, I don't recall the author offhand. This type of listing breaks down into two general catagories: the fairly rare pre 1601 works on metalworking and the more common books *about* pre 1601 metalworking Thomas

My favorite "coating" for outdoor stuff?---forge it out of stainless and passivate it and forget it! Thomas

VENTILATION! Just because the coke is not putting off smoke doesn't mean the fumes are non-toxic! Anytime you think that safety is too expensive, compare it to a day or two in a hospital; generally you will find that safety is dirt cheap even if you have to scrimp and save for it! One problem with "old" stuff is that it looks *old*; keep an eye out for repro tins so you have the right logo's but it looks like you just went out and bought it in the last 10 years or so. You may be able to find the correct clothing in thrift stores; look through old LIFE magazines for what they were wearing. I would think old ammo crates; or for a mine old wooden explosive boxes would be more common than roughsawn lumber for shelves ... Have a bunch of old rock drills or picks for re-pointing hanging around as that would probably have been your "bread and butter" work. Thomas

Apprentice Man I think you are referring to a treadle hammer not a triphammer and they hold the head *up* preferably fairly balanced so it's easy to accelerate the head down with your foot. Thomas

OK, Thanks! Thomas

One other trick: if you get some of the local cops/firemen interested in smithing you will have much less trouble if someone does call them down on you! I remember one time I was using my triphammer and had not kept track of the time till the cops showed up saying it was after 10 pm. i apologized profusely and *immediately* shut down and then spent half an hour discussing knifemaking with the cops till they got called out on something else. Thomas

Any updates on the possible course time/costs---my wife was asking me about it last night as if it was something we should be budgeting for... Worked a new fellow through his first welds on a billet last night, BSB (Band Saw Blade) & Strapping starting with 23 layers. Thomas

My grandfather has told me about making rings from old silver coinage using a spoon as the impact device while being in the service in WWII. Thomas

Re-work old stardrills and cold chisels found *cheap* at the fleamarket as a source of steel for tooling---remember when forging it that it should be treated like high carbon! Thomas

In my experience ebay is generally 3 to 10 times more expensive than checking out fleamarkets, junk stores, yardsales, or just talking to people. Talking to everyone is a real plus----Just this year an older member of my church gave me a swedish cast steel anvil (given on the the local college's metal arts facility), 5 sets of tongs, 80 pounds of welding rod and racks from Elk, Mule Deer, Whitetail, etc. He says that when he finds the forge he'll give me that as well. He just wanted to see the stuff get used. It's hard to evaluate the condition of tools on the net and many folk selling don't know squat about what they have---I've seen things listed as great condition that I woudn't even throw on the scrap pile... My last fleamarket find was a commercially made hot cut in good condition for $1. Thomas

One thing Glen; back when using dead low carbon wrought iron the typical method of cooling a piece was to toss it in the slack tub. With more modern alloys (A36) that will sometimes backfire on you as they may harden and so a typical way off cooling the finished piece is to place it on a non-flamable surface to air cool. So the modern slack tub may see a lot less heating than an old one did. At the class I gave yesterday we had a coffee can of water in the arch of the bridge anvil that was used to cool the drifts as several folks were making ballpeen hawks and it got hot! I told the students they could make rame in it if they liked---no takers. Thomas

From a smithing friend of mine: "You hold the cold end and hit the hot end---Get it *right* next time!" and from another "Anything will burn if you get it hot enough" Thomas

Flux works in several ways: one is to keep O2 away from the metal; another is to help liquify the scale that has formed. Wrought Iron was pretty well self fluxing from the metal silicates in it and from the higher temperature you worked it at. Traditionaly if you needed more flux you used clean quartz sand or even ground glass. IIRC Foxfire even mentioned the use of dirt dauber nests. Japanese swordmakers used rice straw ash and wood ash has been used by the "primal smiths" If you are working high alloy metals you often need a more aggressive flux to deal with the Ni and Cr oxides and pattern welders often add a bit of flourspar to their flux mix though the fumes are more toxic then. If you are really into how forge welding works "Solid Phase Welding of Metals" by Tylecote will scratch that itch.

I think the problem is that many of these old vise/anvils are sold to folks who are starting out with a very small tool budget at rather inflated prices as they are "antiques"; but they really are not good for heavy work and have eaten the tool budget. When you break the anvil you are SOL. A post vise and a chunk of scrapyard steel would be a better deal (at least in central OH we used to buy postvises for $20-$50 with the higher price for ones over 100# in weight). I've always wanted to build a traveler that looks like it was converted from an astrolabe.. Thomas