welder19

High grade bolts just don't forge well, not sure why but that is usually what happens to them, they can take one or two low heats but that is about it. At least in my experiences. welder19

That's the way my luck usually runs too, and if you would have stayed there would have been collectors there and they would have run the price up to $500 or so. welder19

lol Thats funny! :) welder19

I normally paint the bottom and up 1"-2" from the bottom on the sides with tar and then put a couple inches of stone down for it to sit on, the stone keeps it from sitting in moist dirt or water at all as well as helps keep bugs from living under it. The top and sides get coated in CWF or Thompson's or whatever kind of weather sealant I have at the time, when the stump is thoughorly dry (a year or two old with the bark off) I take and let it sit in a pan filled with the sealant (inside) and keep filling the pan as the stump draws it in, once a day or so as it sits in the pan I tkae a brush and coat the sides, think of it as baseting a turkey, then I just give it a good heavy coat of sealer every couple years, mine is outside but under a roof if yours sits fully outside then you may want to coat with sealer once a year. I have one stump that is over 10 years old and looks just as good as it did when I fist did it 10 yrs ago. My Dad has an anvil on a stump that has been sitting on concrete floors (inside) since the 60's, from the body shop, and has never had any coatings and shows no sign of rot and is still solid as it always was. Concrete and blocks do have moisture in them but are still way better than sitting on the ground. All of the stumps I have are oak, hardwoods are the best choices for anvil stumps. welder19

There are tons of anvils around PA, just get the word out that your looking for an anvil and be paitient, before you know it you will be coming accross more than you might think. The more people you tell the better your chances are of getting one, at some point someone will say "you know I think my grandmom has one in her barn, let me ask her if she wants to sell it" or something similar to that, like I said PA is loaded with them, it's just a matter of locating one. In the mean time use whatever you have, there are some anvils that were nothing more than a square steel block, whatever gets the metal in the shape you want qualify's as an anvil. welder19

Are you fluxing before or after you heat? The way you worded it above it sounds like your fluxing after you bring the metal out of the fire, you should put the flux on & then bring it to welding temp. welder19

That's pretty cool, I like it! welder19

You really can't melt and cast steel in a backyard foundry, you can do cast iron and put a steel plate on top, just want to use a piece of tool steel for the face. How ever unless you plan on making a small anvil your going to need a cupola or a really big crucible furnace to be able to melt the amount of cast iron needed for a decent size anvil. welder19

I also use a spliting wedge, I have a couple different sizes that I use, I have one that is 4" wide that works really good when doing long pieces, it is easier when done whith two people. welder19

Muriatic acid is only $5-$7 dollars per gal, alot of times it is sold in 4 gal cases which is probably what you saw at $25-$30. Most places will sell it by the gal though, hardware stores and pool supply stores will any way, I'ev seen it for as much as $10 a gal but have never personally paid over $6. I have never used it to remove zinc but it is a lot more potent than vinegar so I would imagine it would work a lot faster. I use to use it to clean seawater heat exchangers and if it is clean acid it would only take at most 10-15 min to clean and that is if it was really bad, but as the acid gets older and more used it gets weeker and takes longer to clean. welder19

You would be sickened if you knew how many have been scraped, espeacially in the past few years, here alone at one little back woods junkyard we have gotten 10 brought in for scrap in the past 4 years and have picked up 5 at the local auction at an average of $20ea. There are also thousands of them sitting around in old barns and workshops, it used to be that every farm around had atleast one if not more. The scrap yard in Trenton where we sell most of our heavy iron has had dozens in the last few years and thats just the ones they caught, there are still some that they don't see that slip through or the ones that are spotted but by someone who doesn't care enough to grab them. They save up a couple pallets of them and then send them off to some atique dealer who gives them a bulk price for them, probably only a few cents per lb. They are around you just have to know where to look, but I am sure there are some areas that just don't have many of them. Most time it's not a matter of finding them as it is finding them for a decent price. welder19

looks pretty good for your first knife! Using unknown scrap though, it may not hold an edge depending on what it was, if it was mild steel then it will not be too much good for holding an edge. Next time use a piece of automotive leaf spring, that way it will be a usable knife, unless you have the money then you can just buy good knife stock. Keep up the good work. welder19

I havn't tried it yet but I have yet to hear any negative on it from those who have used it, other than the price but if you take into consideration how far it goes/how long it lasts, then the price isn't that bad, the small can $8 1.5oz (27ml) will cover 30sq ft and the large can $16 4.0oz (92ml) will cover 100sq ft, of coarse that will vary some with the type of finish and how it's applied. welder19

Welcome aboard! Would love to some pix of your some of your work. welder19

Interesting looking, would love to see a video of it opperating if you can but if not it will be nice to hear how it works. welder19

I made a screen/guard to put around my wood stove when my daughter was a baby, to keep her from getting burnt, the screen I ysed in that I got from my local steel yard but it wasn't stainless, it was steel and I painted it with high temp flat black paint. welder19

Animal heads are hard (atleast for me), so I think it looks really good for a first try, heck, I'ev tried several times and still have some that don't look that good. welder19

That is exceptionaly good for your first forging! Very nice! welder19

For that price I can't beleive no one has bid on it. Yes I'm being sarcastic. welder19

There arn't too many blacksmith's left in this area, when I was a kid Batsto Village was a fully functioning historic village, revolutionary time period, with a opperating blacksmith shop and I used to go over there and just whatch the blacksmith for hours on end. Most kids want to be firemen, police, pilot, atronaut, etc. when they grow up...I wanted to be a blacksmith. It's a shame, Batsto went from a fully functioning historic village to almost a ghost town just because the state didn't feel it was worth the money, if our history and culture isn't worth spending money on then what is? Now they just spend enough money there to keep it from deteriorating away to nothing. If you spent any time here then you know where Batsto is, I live about 10 min away from there, next time your gonna be down this way send me an email or a pm and maybe we can meet up, it's always nice to find someone to talk blacksmithing with in person. welder19

My first fire pot was made from a steal car wheel/rim and worked fine, there is nothing wrong with using a brake drum. Given where you live you may want to think about a gas forge, just for the smoke and smell but if your stuck on a solid fuel forge I would suggest charcoal and since your not likely going to make your own then buy lump hardwood charcoal not the briquett's. welder19

I have had them but I couldn't tell you when my last was. I thought they were only good for 5 yrs, maybe they changed the formula. welder19

Your right about the higher priced/quality one's, the one I have was $1500, we compared it with the cheap one's in the $100-$500 range and the accuracy and even consistency was clearly not there in the cheaper one's. One thing to keep in mind with infared temp measuring is that they do not read accuratly if the surface is reflective. welder19

Shop gremlin's!! They just love to collect all the little things that fly, fall, shoot or just somehow propel just out of sight or reach even just for a split second or sometimes if it is something really enticeing they will just wait for you to set it down and turn your back for just a second and then they snatch it up, things like pencils, soap stone's, ruler's, tape measure's, screw's, nut's, washers and one of their favorites...cotter pins. welder19

There were some incidents where that was happening, it was not just an isolated occurance either, it was happening in more than just one area, they were robbing people of their money and/or their item's they were selling. I learned a long time ago, you never know who you can trust, so don't trust anyone, if you assume everyone is up to no good then your alot less likely to get taken. welder19