ThomasPowers

Almost all blister steel was made from wrought iron; mild steel didn't come along until the commercialization of the Bessemer process after the American Civil War. For a period take on it "Steelmaking Before Bessemer , vI Blister Steel" goes into quite a lot of detail. At Quad-State a couple of years ago Ric Furrer took his starter material, cut into strips and put it into a sealed Case full of case hardening material and then heated it in a gas forge to quite a high temp for several hours---blistered my piece of wrought tucking in it very nicely. He wasn't using a case hardening powder but rater a granular material used in industry. Thomas

What about making a flat grid and then using counter sunk screws to suck the table down to the grid? Thomas

Walk along the RR tracks *carefully* and see if you can find some coke mixed into the ballast. Crush it fairly fine and put a layer in the bottom of your forge. Play with the choke on your burner till you get some "dragon's breath" out the front of the forge---don't have a choke---build one! Thomas

Lets see 1/4" letters would be about 3.5 " long---a pretty long stamp and you would need a lot of force to do it all at once. You could get a bunch of small leter stamps and make a holder to hold them all together but you will need something like a flypress to get a clean impression. The cheapest fastest way is to *buy* a professionally made stamp, take less time to make the money doing odd jobs and buying it than to spend the time trying to cut a complicated stamp with no background in the craft. Thomas

Note: damascus (really pattern welded) doesn't need to have a "mild part", you can use two high carbon alloys. You just need to use two that will provide good contrast when etched. Makes for much better knives otherwise the "low carbon part" will lower the total carbon content of the blade. (To get around this you either put lots more High-C stuff in the mix than low-C or make the High-C as high as possible---I save the *old*--before nicholson--- black diamond files for this as they were 1.2% C and so hold the total C up better than something like 5160 at half that carbon content.) You can make blister steel out of wrought iron too if you want to use it and keep the C up! Thomas

There wqs a site posted somewhere recently that used the solid ones to make guillotine fullers from. You just use the straight section and the "flat" provides a better place to hammer on when using it. They had both plain and pipe fullers made from them. I never pick them up cause i had *no* ideas on how to use them. Now I have to go get a couple... Thomas

Packing occurs before heat treat where all the dislocations it causes can renucleate smaller crystals. Work hardening occurs after the last time up to dislocation climb temperatures and hardens the piece by preventing deformation by introducing dislocations in the crystaline structure. Halfway right QC? Been a long time since Dr Ruoff tried to pound that stuff into me... Thomas

I'll just say that this would be a good project for a propane forge rather than a coal forge as you run less risk overheating or underheating as more of it will be up to heat when working. Thomas

look into laser and maser wave guide work and you may find out that the tolerances *were* loose! Not everything works "to the thickness of a worn shilling" tolerance. Thomas

The SWABA meeting was a great time---all the hit-n-miss engines pharting around the SWABA demo trailer, shade, grass and nice folks---I got a fabb'd anvil stand in iron in the hat so it was a good day for me! Thomas

Don't forget the SWABA meeting about 1 hour down the hill on Saturday! I've been hit up to do a demo---lets see if the toe will take it---may have to build a "steel toe" for the walking brace... Thomas

"This is the boneyard outside Sid Suedemiers Little Giant shop in Nebraska City, Ne, some of the hammers are for sale some aren't. To contact them about a rebuilt or used hammer, lgiant@alltel.net" Since a lot of folks seemed to have missed the caption.... Thomas

Railroad spikes are not high carbon steel and so do not need prior annealing before working them---the HC is in contrast to the older spikes that were very low in carbon, the HC ones are at the lower end of being medium carbon. Why superquench is suggested to try to get just a bit more hardness out of a borderline alloy. Thomas

I've seen several tilt hammers in germany that were water mill driven. Though Lauf an den Pignitz replaced the old swanz hammers with a luft hammer and runs that off the water wheel. Thomas

I have a kindling hatchet I forged from a rasp. It was a High C one so I just foled it over and forged welded it and drifted the handle hole to fit a hammer handle---cheaper than a hatchet handle around these parts. Quenched the cutting edge in vegetable oil and drew to straw from the eye (so the eye is fully drawn and only the cutting edge is left straw. Works a treat. Thomas

Just like some folks enjoy going to a gun range and shooting stuff; some folks enjoy taking a *sharp* sword out and cutting stuff. Think of it like taking a set of golf clubs to a driving range---a chance to get some exercise and "sharpen" your technique and compete against yourself. Thomas

Well a lot of the quality depends on the heat treat and the exact alloy used. More info please. Thomas

Don't forget the 160+ projects shown in the iforge area over at anvilfire.com. Be especially sure that you show the kids the safety ones. Thomas

Hmm I could do one out of sword shaped cocktail toothpics and the armour from a small plastic miniature...might go well on the wall at work... Thomas

I haven't seen any problems with Diesel here in NM. BTW your class should bracket the SWABA meeting in Albuquerque. It's being held on Oct 22 in conjunction with another group. If he has any interest in old engines tell him to come on down! "Annual Get Together" of antique tractors, engines and cars. The October meeting will be held at Don Sayers residence in the Albuquerque south valley. SWABA will again participate in this event. SWABA will have an iron in the hat drawing. We will not have a pot luck for lunch, The ladies of this group always cook and sell lunches at the meeting. Be ready to buy lunch. NO beer or wine, please! This will be interesting and a family outing. Hours are 8am to 4 pm. Don's address is 6716 Isleta SW 87105. Don's phone # is 550-877-8094, his e-mail is donsayers1@aol.com Thomas

Bent poker with flattened end---make yours as pretty as you can cause if you do demo's folks will see it front and center. My ashdump lever has a dragons head on it too for the same reason. Another thing I find useful is an Al "grain scoop", as my travel coal is in a rubermaid round trashcan with a tight fitting lid and the scoup takes out about a pint with each go to fill the forge. Thomas

Bet it was a goodly while before you sat down too! Thomas

Dan; if you are not in a country with socialized medicine I would save that money for the first time you need to get a finger re-attached or other not-uncommon shop incident. (After the first time you have to pay to get metal removed from the eye wearing all your safety equipment seems like a *GREAT* idea and so comfortable and cheap!) A powerhammer is a necessity if you plan to support yourself but the exact type that would be best depends on what you end up making. My suggestion is to start making stuff and taking a cut right off the top for the powerhammer while looking for a really good deal. Hopefully your own fund will be close when you run into the deal of the century---and remember buying it is only the starting cost! As for classes think about getting welding certs; a lot of smiths seem to cover their base expenses by doing odd-job welding. If you are in the USA ook into SBA classes *NOW*! (small business administration) Thomas

Did you look through the courses at the ABS school in Southern AR? Thomas

We have a table in my living room that my sister drew on with a ball point pen nearly 50 years ago... Thomas