jmccarth

I think I'm going to send out the 420ss and try the rest on my own in my forge. My home forge is a large coal forge with a vulcan fire pot It shouldn't be a problem bringing the steel up to temp. Does anyone have experience juging temp to a close tolerance in a coal forge. My plan is to use heat crayons for heat and temper. The sow block is O1 and the Flat dies I built are 4140 any sugestions on temper heat?

I just saw an aprox 500lb+ Arm and hammer go for $2500.00. 40" long excelent condition except for the grime and rust it looked unused. I probably would have bought it if I had the cash to spend. About the same price as a new quality anvil.

I've bben to quite a few auctions in the Chicago area recently and have seen old beet up stuff go for huge dollars. A 140lb Chicago something or another anvil well worn rough edges brought $325.00. I found the back bidder and quickly sold the 150lbs trenton I had in the back of my truck to him no questions asked. At the same auction a 200lb Mouse hole brought almost $500. Sway backed as they get and a 180lb swage block around $400. I didn't get any of the actual prices each time I walked away when the bidding went through the roof in complete disbelief. I left the same auction with a 50ton dake air over hydraulic press for $480. Works perfectly. Only one other person was interested. I paid $300 for my 150lb 1-1-15 Peter Wright, Flat top crisp corners. At the time I thought that was a little steep, I guess I was wrong.

Dodge thanks, I'm really happy with how they came out. I'm almost finnished with my hammer, 75lb head including the dies. I am leaning twards just hardening the dies. The Sow block is made of O-1. It should hold up with the mass of the anvil and the tight fit of the dies I can't picture much impact force. The Anvil is 300+ lbs of 6" rnd CRS with a 2" base and 2" butress suports and a 7" rnd crs cap. With all that mass the die block should tranfer the force. Does anyone know if the die holder of production hammers are hardend?

The steel is what I had laying around. Not free but already paid for. The $100 is for each type of steel at the heat treat facility. Its the best price I could find. Induction would be $120 per set up 3 set ups. I'll bite the bullet on the $300 before I go and re-make these. I have a manual machine and it took a while to cut that dovetail.

Hi guys I've been lurking in the backround for a while and have really enjoyed the forum. I have recently come across a small problem I was hoping some one here could help me with. I am building a Kinyon style hammer and have machined a dove tailed sow block and some variouse dies to fit it. I wasn't thinking when I picked the steel and went with three different types of tol steel because thats what I had on hand. I forgot that hardening is by material type. So thats $100 per type of steel to treat. Taking away all the savings from using the steel I had on hand. My question is has anyone here had success heat treatin heavy ish pieces in a forge. I'm considering doing so myself. I just don't want to gaff the job and catch a piece of supersonic O-1 in the kisser. The materials I used are 420SS 4140 and O-1 All are taken from 2 x 2 and larger stock and in the 5-7lb realm. I'll atach some picks. I've been thinking about just leaving them unhardened, any thoughts, I relly do want them to stand up for a good long time.