Bentiron1946

Thanks, maybe I don't need to build a helve hammer, just an oliver and have my son stomp on it:D

Looks like an old squeeze box. All it needs is some keys to play a tune.:D

In the past I have re-worked cheap hammers into speciality use hammers but it was after many years of hot metal working. I have made a few special use hammer out of axles and they are OK for short projects but I have never used them long term so I can't comment on the durability of them.

I'm glad you brought up the Spanish and Mexican smiths they had been working in New Mexico since the early to mid 1600's. It's not like they were bone idle. I think the the idea of a big sledge, 10 to 12#, for an anvil is a good one. You would definitely need a pack horse or a striker. I don't see how one man could carry all of the items necessary to do the job. Two hammers, a sledge, two pair of tongs, files. chisels, punches, bellows, spare iron. Lots of spare iron because on a trip like this you ain't going to find any junk laying around to work. You could make your own charcoal. Not easy.

Irnsrgn, Thanks for the link to the film. That helps a lot. That sure explained the function of an oliver a lot better then the article on nail making did. The word oliver means foot operated so a treadle hammer as shown in Old Sturbridge Village is not an oliver hammer but a mill powered hammer or trip hammer. Thanks again.

I was reading an article on nail making in England and they kept referring the an "oliver hammer". I did a Google search and it kept referring me back to the article I was reading. I found a partial photo of one from Google pictures and one engraving. Nowhere on Google was I Forge Iron mentioned. Today as I was perusing the Blueprint section and I found BP0186 Oliver, the Hammer. I want to know if anyone else has built one of these and how do you like it?

I like that steel bamboo but I bet the Chinese are already making it at a reduced price. If you look a you tube enough you will see guys doing all kinds of things in shorts and floppers.:o

Twenty pounds of hammer in each hand is a killer for sure. I worked up to a six in my youth and after not using a hammer much for several years I ended up with a nice 2.5 pound cross peen for most work and if I needed something heavier I use a #25 LG. I re-pointed a few picks for Mexican landscapers. The ground around here wears them down quick. I charged $5 on the LG

Oxy-propane set ups are popular for small work with jewelers. They seem to be OK for silver soldering rings and such but melting gold and silver for casting where you need a lot of heat in hurry nothing beats o/a. For work around the shop I use o/a for twists and curls using a rose bud or just stick it back in the forge that uses an atmospheric propane burner.

I have often thought of using my radial arm saw to cut steel but have always been a little cautious of doing it.

One of the big safety things I see in a lot of shops is steel storage. Even I do it and that's not good. I have stuff sticking out at head height and I have head banged, nearly poked out my eye and caught steel in the mouth. In my old shop I would stick Styrofoam blocks on the ends to slow down injury. Undersized electrical service is another big item too. I have seen under sized air mains in shops where they rely heavily on air driven equipment. They will run their compressor at a higher pressure to make up for the undersized main. They will also have the line sloped toward the air tool instead of back to the receiver and no auto drain on the tank.

My advice is to WEAR THEM! I have over 40% from not using them for shooting, woodworking, metalsmithing, rock n' roll and the Navy boiler room. Now I have a hard time understanding conversation even with the help of amplification. Nothing can replace lost hearing so wear plugs, muffs or whatever to limit the damage. Also watch out for the MP3 players as some play them so loud I thought about taking out stock in hearing aid companies to help pay for my nursing home care.:D

My neighbors horse had to wear a shoe something like that when her "coffin" bone rotated. She had to have a new shoe every three weeks for a year and a half until she healed. She couldn't be ridden only walked and had to spend her days in a stall except for two daily walks.

For sure you would never have to buy another nail to build a form. Maybe you could bundle them together and forge weld them as a layer in a vegetable chopper or make chainmaille out of them. When you post said crack problem I thought you tee shirt was to short or you jeans to low.

That is a nice set of tongs and the vise looks pretty nice. Glad they followed you home.:D

I've been looking at the helve hammer that is in the blueprint section here. It seems to have a small footprint and with the size of the dies it looks like it should have a good sized punch. I have been looking at the sheet metal web sites for drive ideas and found one that uses a wheel barrow tire for a drive instead of a belt which looks like a good idea except maybe use a small trailer tire instead. Lots of good ideas out there and in here too.

If I remember right there is a good toutorial in the blueprint section of this site. Lots of good stuff in there.

Nice knives. My son likes the cable letter opener the best and I like the blade fullering tool. That is some fancy control on the forge.

If your are like I am I have a hard time making Damascus steel so here is a solution to our problem: :: Damasteel AB :: Home . Be sure and view all of the site to see all of the wonderful things they are doing with their Damascus steel. I like the high powered rifle.

I did mostly bronze. I had three different furnaces, one each for bronze, aluminium and brass. These furnaces are fairly cheap to build and I never mix metals in crucibles or furnaces, some do but I don't as I don't want any contaminates from other metals. I think this furnace could do cast iron but I have never tried it. There are plans on the internet for cupolas. If I want to do a cast iron project I usually go to one of the college iron pours. I only have a small furnace now with a cast lining in a 5 gallon bucket which is good for now.

Back in the 70's I had acquaintance with a knife make that got blood from a small packing house to quench his blades. Was he full of bull in saying it was the best thing?

I have had to switch to gas because of "clean air" requirements in the winter. Here in Arizona we get inversions where it is warm at the surface of the ground and very cold a higher elevations so pollution is trapped at the surface. My neighbors have turned me in numerous times for polluting. Without a scrubber or afterburnner I don't think you can build that clean of a fire.

I have made my melting furnaces out of old gas fired water heater bodies for years. I use the the bottom of a 30 gallon heater and cut it off at a height of two fire bricks high with a sawzall using a metal cutting blade. Next cut off a four inch high section of the tank body. Now line the bottom of the tank with fire brick, just use regular fire bricks, nothing special. Now lay up the wall by splitting the fire bricks in half lengthwise and using a mortar of fire clay and sand set them in place. The top row will be about half a brick high. Make a plaster of fire clay and sand and make the lining level with top of water heater body and paint the inside of the furnace with it. Well I forgot one step, the hole for burner. I usually use a 1-1/2" set at an oblique angle to produce a swirling flame around the crucible. Set one half fire brick in the center of the bottom for the crucible to set on. Now to make the top I take fire brick and all of the scrap brick pieces I have left and crush them up to pea size pieces and make a thick mixture of them sand and fire clay. Make handles before pouring in the clay/sand/ fire brick mixture out of "U" bolts. Then I get a 1 lite soda bottle and fill it with water and set it in the middle of the 4" high ring of water heater body and put re-mesh wire around it to support the clay/sand/fire brick mixture. Cover the whole thing, both furnace and lid with plastic and let it dry out slowly, patch any cracks with a fire clay/sand mixture. For the first fire I usually build a wood fire and let it burn for a couple of hours to drive out and residual moisture. I would then bring it up to the first melt very slow. This fire brick furnace should last about 5 years with moderate use, that is about three or four melts a week.

I get large bags at Home Depot. They are for landscapers to amend the soil on a large scale. The same is true for perlite. What are you doing with it?

I have seen period photos of Army and Navy smiths and they never had anything that small. I'm not saying they couldn't have had a fifteen pounder it just doesn't seem very practical for any kind of work for a smith in the field except for a tinkerer. Maybe the Army had them too. It may have been manufactured during the period of the Civil War but that does not make it a Civil War item and that kind of money is NUTS!