ThomasPowers

Better the Fuzzy Wuzzies---"a first class fighing man" than to roll to your rifle on the afgan plains when the women come out! If you catch my "drift". Thomas

Some folks use mustard---which is really a way to apply vinegar in a semi random pattern. So dribble it on, let sit, clean and repeat till you get the mottled look you like. Try this with old wet tea leaves or wet oak sawdust as well for some different colours. Of course after you colour you wash clean and then wax or oil. Thomas

So not only do I get a powerhammer but a nice fur rug for the floor too? Thanks for the warning---of course I heard rumour that while I was cleaning out your place someone else would be cleaning out mine with the net result of a bunch of smithing stuff gradually travelling westward... GP's are one of the sheep dog breeds that are "designed" to stay with the flock and cause trouble for predators rather than small fast dogs designed to herd sheep. Llamas are being used a lot for this task nowdays. I used to live in OKC; but don't get over that way much my "ex" girlfriend lives there and 20+ years later my wife still doesn't think I should visit my friends there. Thomas

Sigh; now you tell me; there was a box of 1" bolts at the tech auction---about 200 pounds worth...probably went to the scrap dealer. I think that both Ellen and I were hoping that you would get *some* time off during deployment and could visit someplace close of more interest than the "border towns"... Thomas

I'll sleep in the barn if the horse isn't too picky! Thomas

Most folks say my humour is lame-inated. Could you make an adapter for your hardy hole to hold the 1" shank tooling? My 515# fisher has 1.5" hardy hole as does the trenton and the bridge anvil. Thomas

Jim---*patternwelded*---of course... Thomas pulling out his inflatable bunker...

If you peruse a map you will find that both Ellen and I reside in states that have a border that you might be sent to patrol my old card read "have forge; will travel"... Sounds like a road trip to me! Of course this would be more like migration era smithing...but I bet a dandy "Border Patrol" knife could come out of it. Anytime I'm on a business trip I get forge withdrawl. Thomas

I used a veneered plywood for a large double lunged bellows; I built it in around 1982 and used it---including leaving it outside over winter until I moved in 2004---I passed it on as it was getting a bit scruffy. Thomas

I was off camping and didn't see if there was any updates on the possibility of Dr Jim giving a course on advanced Pattern Welding in Nov in NV. As I was first on the list I figured I'd re-start the thread while waiting to see if it can be restored. Thomas

Just a quibble "heat treatable steel"---ALL steel is heat treatable; most of it won't harden but you can anneal, do stress relief, normalize and a bunch of other heat treatments other than hardening. Now for a scrounding location: check the local ornamental iron fab shop; we had one in OH that *encouraged* us to clean out the scrap bin---they had to pay to haul it off and we were *safe* *polite* and would snarf up several hundred pounds of sq and round stock on a regular basis. Also we sometimes got real WI from damaged fence sections thay had replaced with modern mild steel. Thomas

I'm waiting for them to win the sychronized swimming competition---I want to see him forge something for that! Thomas

How about L6 and WI for the twist section and then a file for the edge? Should get a very visible pattern and still a High C edge. Fionnbharr; It looks like a twist that had been hammered out flat rather than ground down to see the "stars". Thomas

One thing I've noticed is that those seem to be set up to do a butted hinge eye, most of the old hand forged ones I have seen are forge welded together. The end is not butted but is bent out parallel to the strap and tapered and welded to the strap. These hinges were made from WI which is pretty soft and they saw a lot of heavy use in large barn doors and things. What are you trying to do? Thomas

Another possibility: if you are heating the tennon to red and leaving the shaft "cold" you might get mass quenching and if using A36 there can be enough carbon in it to get brittle when quenched. Heating back into the main stock will help prevent this. Thomas

The jig I've seen is to weld a piece of round stock the diameter of the pintal to the end of a piece of strap stock so that they lay FLAT on one side as you want the barrel offset to one side. taper your stock thickness where it will be welded and bend it around the jig and true it up; Remove jig and weld the barrel closed---should be a tad undersized and then drill or drift to exact size. Thomas

At the Men's breakfast at Church yesterday one of the older fellows mentioned he had an anvil he wasn't using anymore---retired rancher most likely I'll see if he'll donate it to the Metal Arts program at the local University. (4 people were there including me) Talked with a fellow at the fleamarket who bought a place that had burned out---he has two anvils found buried in the dirt. Currently doesn't want to part with them. So in a town of 9000 people in 2 days not going out of my ordinary ways I've tracked down 3 anvils---besides the 3 ASO's at the farm implement auction today. Thomas

No typo king---typosaurus rex! Thomas

Biomass furnaces---you might be interested in "The Mastery and Uses of Fire in Antiquity" by Rehder (it includes plans for a "foolproof" bloomery in it) Peat has been used in blacksmith's forges. Thomas

Well it will lose a certain percent to scaling each time till it scales away to nothing but if the temp is not in the burning range then it won't burn. Thomas

So how many of you have used a deep well socket as a monkey tool to chean up a tennon shoulder? Thomas

Most any *old* industrial plant had a smithing shop as part of it. I've tracked down ones in Sugar refinerys, glass manufacturers, even a hospital---even got to talk to the guy who was their orthapedic blacksmith, he made all sorts of weird splints and things during WWII to help out folks who had severe injuries and needed "just the right size and shape" piece to hold them together while healing. (BTW the old OSU hospital is supposed to still have a 250 pound anvil in a sub basement from those days...) I went to an auction of a car repair place---ad said they had been in business in the same location since 1919, they had a complete smithing set up there buried in a corner, the anvil and swage block went high I bought the 200# post vise for $50... Picked up a Hay Buden anvil at a plumbing-HVAC company that was shutting down, they had moved to the "new" building in the 1940's and took along the forge and anvil... Asking is the way to find them cheap; my main shop anvil (500# Fisher) was found by talking with a fellow at the fleamarket---he was selling greasy car parts but his uncle had an anvil he wanted to sell for $350. One fellow had a hardy mixed in with some plumbing parts---I bought it and asked where the anvil was, later that day I picked up a mint 100# Vulcan that had been "too heavy to haul to the fleamarket" I bought it for $1 a pound and sold it for $1.50 a pound that same day---I'm not a big fan of Vulcans even with *SHARP* edges and an unused face. The next aspect is you need to have the money ready. Most great deals have a half life of hours if not minutes. Don't go hunting stuff if you can't buy it on the spot---you will just be unhappy when the deal goes to someone else! (and be able to move it if you buy it!) Thomas

They were not using it as a solar forge, they were using it to make power. I might be able to find the issue, back in the 1970's IIRC, but we still have 60 boxes of books still to be unpacked since our move and it might be in there. IIRC they made a collector from 1'x1' "mirror tiles" and had built a sun following circuit from a power window motor from a car and some pretty simple electronics. For a forge I would want something with another mirror at the primary focus to bounce the energy to a kaowool lined box with firebrick splits (you need both insulation and something to hold and give up heat to the metal). For greatest simplicity you could have a slot in the side for the beam to enter and then align it so that the beam would track from one end of the slot to the other meaning you would only have to adjust it's orientation every so often as the sun shifted---but the slot lets out heat too. For a better system you would need the primary reflector to track the sun and the secondary reflector to track the forge box. For a simple "proof of concept" I'm looking for an old wire mesh satelite dish that I can line with mirrors and see what I can get with that. Unfortunately, while we have lots of sun we also have high winds---sometimes up to 80mph in the spring and so most cheaply made solar collectors can't take the wind loads so I will have to have a storge place for it and right now I'd rather put the money into expanding the shop. Perhaps I could rig up a simple cylindrical collector to act as a combustion air preheat for my blown propane forge---I can make one of those wind proof---I have a bunch of scrapped O2 tanks... Thomas

It is NOT an "Arm and Hammer" anvil! It is a Vulcan anvil. They both use the same sort of trademark but the Vulcan is a cast iron anvil with a steel face and the arm and hammer projects from the surface. The Arm and Hammer anvil has a wrought iron body with a steel face and the arm and hammer is punched into the surface. Unfortunately the Arm and Hammer is a much nicer anvil than the Vulcan. Vulcans tend to have messed up faces as they were often purchased for schools and the faces tend to be a tad soft. If you plan to try welding on it besure you follow the pre & post heat instructions. The numbers do not refer to stones as this was an american brand. Put it on a bathroom scale and weigh it! I'd suggest cleaning the face with a sanding disk---don't try for mirror smooth you just need a fairly small smooth bit over the mass of the anvil to work on and work with it a while and then decide if the risk/pay-off is great enough to go with welding on it. Note this should be a fairly quiet anvil and so good if you have neighbors! I can look up the details in Anvils in America if you wish. My copy is at home though. Thomas

Aspirated just means that the jet of gas entrains the combustion air on it's own---no pumps, fans, powered etc---it's the *SIMPLEST* way to go. IIRC he was just using burners off of Ron Reils gas forge website. His insulation was topnotch though. Ask for Patrick over at Anvilfire and see what he remembers. Thomas