ThomasPowers

IIRC these hammers used a slower motor (900rpm comes to mind) and so a 1725 motor would be considerably faster if you didn't change the pulleys or use a jack shaft to slow it down. Thomas

I have seen several folks using the container of sand method. All of them did not use a plate on top of the sand but placed the anvil directly on the sand. They did say that they would reposition the anvil after a considerable period of heavy use and also that they would sometimes use the sand to bed the anvil deeper if they wanted it a bit lower to use top tools on. Thomas

irnsrgn---does that second piece double as a bottle opener? Thomas

Wood ash has sometimes been used as a flux for forge welding; coal ash is a contaminent that helps prevent welding. Borax is the most common flux used for regular modern steels. One other common mistake is to use too much air making for an oxidizing fire. You want to bring the temp up slow and steady not a massive fireball effect. If the outside of the piece gets to welding temp while the inside is still "cold" then you can get a partial and very weak weld even if it looks ok... Make sure your fire is deep enough to use up all the O2 before it gets to your piece! Thomas

We're supposed to get some rain maybe tomorrow. Down at my parents they have had 100 days straight with no measurable precipitation. OTOH a sunny winter sure has cut down on heating costs in my passive solar home; it was in the 20's last night and we didn't even light a fire in the woodstove! Thomas

Well I only take the 100% cotton stuff home with me and it's only a 15 minure drive to the largest town in the county---about 10,000 people when school is in session, drops by about 1000 when it's out... We have a true old time thrift store---run by volunteers, filled by donations and at least once a month they have everything on sale for 10 cents a piece. It's worth my time and effort to check their dumpster rather than run the risk of annoying my wife---there's too much desert out this way just crying for a shallow grave to want to annoy the person that cooks the vittles! I have never seen a laundrymat that had a shop rag washer in it but have seen a lot of them with NO SHOP RAGS ALLOWED signs. Thomas

If you are thinking of bladesmithing then "The Complete Bladesmith" by James Hrisoulas is a must---but it's not a book to start with, it's much better if you already have a background in smithing and want to go on into bladesmithing. Thomas

I just go through the dumpster at the thrift store and pick up new clean rags on a regular basis, greasy rags go into the woodstove. Thomas

so have you checked out the book reviews over at anvilfire? What books do you have already? Thomas

Cost of the propane for my forge is about $1 an hour---cheaper than a movie and I always try to make one "sales item" each time I fire up to cover it. You're only 3 hours to a hammer-in---you lucky devil! Most of the smithing meetings around here are at least 2 hours and for a hammer-in---I haven't heard of one that was less than a day's drive so far. I went 1500 miles to go to the SOFA Quad-State last year; do that a couple of times and you've paid for a power hammer... Nice saw---watch your fingers! I have a friend who's wife won't let him have a table saw, he's chopped off both index fingers---about 14 years apart and they did re-attach them... Thomas

That's funny I have never seen an aspirated burner that you could tune as rich as a blown burner---I can choke it down to zero air--actually turn off the blower and still run the forge. Thomas

"Common charcoal has a heating value of 9700 Btu per pound while solid wood charcoal has a heating value of about 13000 Btu per pound." (Oak Ridge National Labs press release) So since we don't want to use briquettes it looks like "real" charcoal is equivalent to Poco! Of course a pound of charcoal takes up a lot more space than a pound of coal... Thomas

And to "finess" the grind a bit so it looks more even when you check it from the blade side. Thomas

That first hawk is made from a rasp too if I don't miss my mark! You run into any brands of rasps that are case hardened and so not suitable for blade work? Most of mine are old ones and I've not run into any cased ones; but I'm burning through my pile and need to start rustling up some new ones and would like to avoind the cased ones if possible. Thomas

Burn Ban? two words: Propane Forge We're past being dry as dust here in NM but had a wet spring and so a lot of *very* dry grass and brush. The propane forge in the shop with the garage doors open doesn't lift an eyebrow from the local fire folk. With all those short pipe pieces you could go into production making bending jigs and selling them at a hammerin. Thomas

IIRC you used to be able to get good smithing coal from a depot in Brazil IN. I've seen it sold at the IBA hammer-in in Tipton IN and of course SOFA sells good coal by the 50# container in Troy OH. Coal is a bit trickier to learn to use but it can be very handy too for localized heating situations. Also a coal forge can generally handle very large pieces since the top is open unlike the contained propane forge. Currently I have 3 gas forges and 2 coal ones each one is best for certain situations. Thomas

Weedburners often provide a very oxidizing atmosphere and so will create a lot more scale (and decarb if working knife steels) You will notice that even the home built burners generally come with some method of control the ammount of air that gets sucked in to the burner. But yea it will work. Thomas

I thought back and tried to figure out what film I had seen the most times averaged over 20 years to avoid sudden fads and I came up with "Lion in Winter" I still try to see it at least once a year. Thomas

Ahh your RR laws come from a kindler gentler period then. The ones in the US date back to the RR "Robber Barons" and early labour unrest like the Molly McGuires and are draconian though usually not enforced. The RR Police have powers that the local police forces would be forbidden by the US constitution... Unfortunately due to the possibility of terrorism the RR are being much more heavily patrolled and even folks just train spotting have been hasseled so be carefull out there! Thomas

Plant shaggy fir trees *now* to create a natural sound deadening barrier. The part about finding nodes (quiet places) to put the hammer sounds right on---but you need to do it with the hammer so you get the nodes for it's primary frequencies. Can you extend the roof and stack hay around the outside---both insulation and sound deadening... Thomas

HW: I laid out a scale on my cutting saddle with a line in the middle and then laid out by 1/8ths from that center line---makes it a lot easier to notch billets evenly for folding... Capt'n Atli uses an old electric iron to heat the anvil before use in cold weather. Thomas

When I want to do a through cut I do the last blows with the hammer head to the side of the hardy insted of it coming down on top of the hardy. Thomas

For bandsaw blades and steel strapping I like using vinegar and salt---a supersaturated solution and heated. Does not do much topo but has a very bright shiny etch compared to using ferric chloride. I have also used a tannic acid solution to give blue/purple-blacks on a pattern welded blade. Thomas

Nice knife---but were they using 5160 in 1940 army vehicles? I would have thought they were using a straight carbon steel. 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