Bentiron1946

Years ago I pulled a mold off of a nice 6 flange iron mace and made ten silicone bronze castings of it for this arms collector/seller for his better clients as Christmas gifts. I saw no evidence of brazing on this mace at all, it was either fullered and the flanges drawn out or it was forge welded. Hard to tell as it was quite pitted from the rust. You could see where steel had been added to the edges of the flanges though as it had finer and more pits and the wrought iron body had the typical grain structure of wrought iron. At the time I thought I was really taking the guy for a lot of money at $75 a head for the finished castings with a nice green/brown patina on them. He said his clients were in awe of them.

Nice work on the hooks pictured! I see in your avitar that it looks like you have a Husky pup, I have six pure bred husky and one mixed with a Queensland Heeler. I'm sure glad that they old enough to not be eating the stuffing out of the furniture anymore. Nice to have you here. B)

Jimmy, Sorry to hear about your loss. I'll be praying for your family and you in the coming weeks, it ain't ever easy to loose someone but it's easier when they go with God. Peace and blessings on you all, Jerry

Yeah, those fork thingys are wonders ain't they? :P

With all the diseases that skeeters carry now it would be a good idea NOT to leave a slack tub with water in it period! I know there has been water shortages all over the country but who in their right mind wants to endanger their family, neighbors and friends over some skeeter infested water setting in their forge? When in doubt dump it out every couple of days to stop the cycle of them laying eggs and them hatching out. There is no justification in chancing letting them reach maturity to go around spreading disease. :o

If I disremember correctly when my bought his class ring eight years ago the salesman told me that the ring was if they could put a karat stamp on it would be around 5K or so. Anything below 10K can't be stamped as gold in the USA but I think in the UK you can go as low a 9K, that's a lot of copper and a few other metals to gold ratio. We could have ordered a higher karat gold ring, platinum, silver, white gold or one other metal that I forget right now. Just as well we didn't spend a lot of money, he lost it a month after graduation. We even paid extra for a synthetic emerald instead of green glass. It was a nice gesture of his mother to spring for the ring though.

If you are in an area where it is near impossible to acquire wrought iron give eBay a try, there are usually a couple of guys that sell it there in short lengths for the blade smith or jewelry artist. One problem with though and that is it is not cheap. You can also buy already made up billets so you can just grind you own knife.

I think, if I disremeber my botany, that ash and hickory are kind of in the same general family of trees. I have made hammer handles out of some of the trimming of mulberry, Chinaberry, carob, black locust, well I have tried just about anything that folk cut off their trees and lay by the curb for trash pick up. One thing that has been mentioned already is pallets and there is pecan and hickory in there along with oak and those three work well too.

I watched the film on the Dogon smiths and the explanation was that once the fire starts drawing and the hotter it gets the more air is drawn into the furnace through the tuyeres . It isn't dependent on how much ambient wind is blowing on any given day or not but on how hot the internal fire is in the furnace. It is like a side draft chimney on a forge, as the chimney gets hot the better it will draft. As the heat increases in the bloomery more air is more through the tuyeres and at a higher velocity as this happens it increases the temperature, it is a compounding effect of heat and increased oxygen introduce to the furnace.

Kim, Loss is always had to endure but God is always able to fill the void with His peace. Sometimes it is hard for us to let it happen but it will if we open our mind to Him. Good of you to let the rattler free. Look forward to seeing the fence. God's peace on you.

OK, let's what the different melting temperatures are for the two metals, first off lead is around 600+F and aluminum is twice that some 1,200+F. This shows you how much hotter your fire has got to be to change the state of the aluminum from a solid to a liquid. You don't say what your using for a crucible but I'm going to assume that it's a section of pipe with a cap screwed on tight, not the best crucible but still serviceable for aluminum. You can melt aluminum with a wood fire but you need to add a draft to it to get it to burn hot enough to melt the metal. I have accomplished it with a fire with a deep bed of coals and the crucible well embedded in them, this isn't for a large pour but a modest one you understand. A hole in the ground is a more traditional way of melting metal and the use of wood too, this is one of the reasons that the great forests disappeared, folks melting and smelting metals. Yeah, and common brick just ain't the best brick to use, it holds too much moisture. You should heat it real slow to drive off the moisture first and then line it with clay to protect it from the fire or just dirt from the yard as long as it has a low amount of organic material in it.

Nice work on the stands and nice looking anvils!

This looks much better than taking a grinder to the surface to get the rust off that's for sure.

I had a hard enough time lifting my 300# Fisher when I was a young man, now I have a hard time with a gallon of milk, take care of your back. Once it's gone, dang it hurts like crazy and affects everything you do down to your finger tips and the tips of your toes and most everything in between too. Use a hoist or get someone to help you, no use saying, "Well man up Buttercup!", that a load of you know what if it takes your back out.

You cleaned it best with the wire brush, otherwise leave it alone and just do some hot forging on it. You got a great deal on that anvil. I have a 300# Fisher and really enjoyed working on it.

Nice looking sharp pointy things for sure, great looking work :P

When I was working in a couple of gun shops we had some big taps like this but I can't remember what if ever I used them for, they were just there in the rack behind the lathe in one of the shops.

or lightening bolts, do whatever suits you heart best. Mine are, or were a mixed lot, my wrought iron bodies were rust patina and my Fisher was and exNavy so it was battleship gray that is slowly coming off due to rust developing under the paint.

Put an air cylinder on it and make an air hammer out of it, a modified Kinyon style hammer. That would be a good heavy frame for it.

I was thinking the same thing about a lottery ticket after I got a very nice silversmith hammer for a $1 but all that happened was I lost a dollar for the next estate sale. That looks like it wasn't use much, guess cause it was hidden in the ivy for so long. Nice score for sure when it free. :P

If I buy another hammer I be chasing a hammer like you do RGraff on difference I just may catch one since I'm old and slow, funny man you are. :D

Nice blade you made there! well done B)

Look what I found! http://persimmonforge.com/pages/pedalhammervd.html Watch the video!

Thomas of course is correct in that there are a lot of other items that can be used instead of an old industrial swage block that is getting to be in the stratosphere price wise and not only that as the population of smiths increase they are going to be rarer in proportion to the number folk wanting one. I visited one shop where the smith did almost all his sinking for bowls, ladles and such into a stump and it was evident that when one became a little too burned he just started on another. I'm finding that in working with copper a shallow depression cut into the end of large branch works well for sinking as well a metal one would and is a lot cheaper. I have found that for copper green wood works well but for hot iron perhaps well seasoned wood is better. I think a visit to a well stocked salvage yard could yield a good many items to use in lieu of a swage block at somewhat of a lower cost.

When I was actively forging I loved my block for punching holes, dang, it was sure handy for up sizing holes. I also liked using the half round swages to form bells, so handy for that. No, I didn't use it every day but when you needed it you really needed it and not much of anything else would get the job done, all that mass was great to work over, it stayed put just like an anvil with lots of useful holes in it. Wonderful when you're there in the shop by yourself.