Ric Furrer

By far the best looking coating....shows off the hammer work. wire brush on an angle grinder, heat with torch (large rosebud), apply 50-50 wax/boiled linseed oil with rag (I like to melt it in a double boiler and dip a rag into it), wipe off excess with rag the wipe rag becomes the application rag in no time. You want the oil to smoke a bit when applied.....not flame. Be aware of NOT becoming Johnny Storm. If you have a bright freshly ground area or electric weld you will need to heat till a good amount of scale forms and then wire brush or it will not match in color. I have done railings and interior work with this. The only issues I have had is in bathrooms..with the hot shower and all. I tell the clients to apply paste wax every six months but they never do....no rust issues in a decade in a normal home. If they leave the windows open and live on the coast your milage may very. With outside work or stuff I simply do not wish to deal with I send it out to be blasted and powder coat painted. Ric

Steve, There were two knife makers with the last names Davidson and Harley...they always planned to make a set of knives togehter and put their marks on them.....assuming nothing could be done by the motorcycle folk. I wonder if that wold have been met with a letter. As to FJORD...I am surprised your own vehicle does not have that on it already....or would that look odd? I am in Green Bay Packer country here and was thinking about a mosaic damascus knife with a "G"..... Ric

Matt, Apparently you just add "&" and its OK: http://www.amazon.com/QUINT-iGAGING-BRIGHT-MAGNETIC-WORKBENCH/dp/B004ODSLUA/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1325470592&sr=1-1 Trademarks are interesting things...logos,sounds, odors...the unconventional trademarks...I find very confusing. As to "confusion in the markeplace".....well there is similar and there is theft. I have an orange-ish Elmo I bough at Walmart (where I no longer shop)...horribly made and wrong in shape and color...yet has the "proper" tag. I would bet it was a knockoff. Ric

I have never seen a piece of that material. It was used to quickly and economically produce slag containing iron from the economic Bessemer process rather than the small batch puddling technology. So what you have is a use of the best (dollars/time/scale of output) steel making process of the time being used as feed stock to produce the material that it was eclipsing...not a common thing in the history of metalworking. I suggest looking around Pittsburgh or Ambridge: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19300302&id=Yr8aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=B0sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2291,3877537 maybe the historical society there has information? http://www.bchistory.org/beavercounty/BeaverCountyTopical/Industry/AMByersCo/AMByersMSP84.html If you locate any I would like to buy a sample as well to have here on file. OR go here and have a physical look of the place where they used to make it: 2301 Duss Avenue, Ambridge, PA the google photo is of 2008 and there were still cars out front....most likely they have nothing left of any of the tooling let alone the product, but you never know....I guess it depends how badly your friend wants the material. If you wish to have a modern run done I would be interested in the job. I'd have to build a small bessemer converter first and then do the Aston process to that material. It would be costly, but possible. Ric

Dan Maragni has a patent (I think it is timed out by now as it was from the 1980's) in which he has legal rights to the ladder pattern of pattern-welded steel. There are many things that are patented which should not be, but there are many hundreds of patents issued every day...and once you get past the signatures that due diligence has been done by the patent applicant (lawyers and searches and such) it most always gets granted. This means that they then have the right to sue if they believe the patent is infringed upon...it does not mean that they will win or that the patent will survive the first court case. As to what the Timascus patent is...it is a "method patent" same as Al Pendray/Dr. John Verhoeven's patent on wootz crucible steel. They have a method of production which is novel enough to allow them to have the right to sue those who do the same with the intent to profit by the same method of production. One can not patent wootz crucible steel now patterned titanium as there is prior art in both, but one can patent a method of production. I respect both patents and have come up with another novel way of making the same...as my method is different it does not fall under the patent. Of course if they wish to challenge my process they need to sue and even than there are ways for a judgment to be rendered without the other side learning my methods. So no gain there for them. At any rate...as Phil said...many folk have jobs just looking at patents and gleaning what information they can and either using that info or patenting new stuff related to them. The concept of a patent is to get exclusivity to a thing or to license that thing.....to make money before all the other folk come along and do the same or similar thing. also..keep in mind Colt went broke defending his patent to the revolver.....and they still made revolvers. If it makes any difference I went out of my way to find other ways to do what I do...took years. If you have it in mind to make a thing you can work out a way to do so. I am sure Randy will come up with his own way. as to the Hofi Hammer...sounds like an issue over contracts and not patents or copyright. As to the name..if one wished to be a jerk one could incorporate under the business name "hoffi" and make hammers with that mark with no issue I would think. I seem to recall a tool I have from harbor freight marked "Chicago" and another marked "Philadelphia". I would not be surprised if there are cities in China named after american cities and stamped "made in xxxxxx" In the days of Sheffield steel some Solingen, Germany cutlers would have a shop in England and stamp all the work "made in Sheffield" .....till the guild in Sheffield passed laws that 80% of the work needed to be done in that city to use the stamp. I believe the US has similar paws and I see many tools now say "assembled in USA" rather than "made". At any rate I think I have gone off the track, right down the hill and across the river from Randy's question and I apologize. Ric

Randy, I have another method for making titanium laminate"TI-LAM"....however there are several ways to skin this cat. Since I have no patent... I protect my method by not telling anyone.....seems simpler that way. Ric

Very nice John.....some day.....and in that British Green as well. How many of those fit into a cargo container? That was the yellow one you bought via Ebay years ago? Ric

Induction coil around a ceramic pot...or the whole lot in a forge to 1700F You can wrap the exterior with some thin inswool like paper-mache for added support. I would think the slow constant exceleration of the slig would be a good way to laungh the mess. Or just drop it off a cliff into water...all down hill with no issues....not all lakes have flat land around them. I'm not convinced there would be anything worth watching unless the water volume and thermal mass of the molten liquid were within a certain "sweet spot". A bullet mold of aluminum into a water glass is nothing but a hissing bubble bath. You need the steam to launch the yet liquid metal....to much water and the metal sinks and quenches with some steam bubbles...like making poured lead shot. Ric

Very clean shop. Ric

The best way to do this will depend on how many you need to make....if it is production then make a machine or buy an existing machine for upsetting. If you only need a dozen then coal forge or induction, leave them twice as long as needed for weight, stand on a layout table and drop them onto an anvil on the floor...1/4 turn per strike to keep it even and go till you get tired. I upset a run of 1x2 bar that way and it took a day for 20 of them. Ric

Forging stakes can suck up 1,000 ton easy depending upon how to make the dies. It is never as simple as making a cavity the shape you want. I remember when I got my 36 ton unit running and was to forge 1 1/2" round....thought it would make short work, but instead it took seven heats and three die changes to get the job done. My 3B nazel can do the same job in one heat and 42 blows...so about 14 seconds. Ric

I would move it and then get it running. Ric

Glad I was not the only one Thomas....I did learn that after the tenth weld it settles down a bit...in retrospect that was most likely due to the fact that there was no more cast iron present in the billet. I'll be getting back into cast iron next year...but I am not sure my insurance company would like the Chinese approach to the Fourth of July..... Ric

If I don't yell at the other drivers how will they learn how to drive? Point take RSmith and Marksnagel...I'll be nice and not list why I stopped looking for metalwork information on the bikerbuild programs and then why I stopped watching them at all. I'd watch a show about Grant telling the camera at one moment why he is doing this operation and then the next about why they need to get the xxxx out of the shop cause they were in the way and asking the wrong questions OR any smith from Tom Joyce to Nol Putnum to Tom Ryan talk about the design needs of the client and how they will make tooling and forge the work to meet those needs. OR an elderly smith retired and sitting around simply talking about what was and will never be again...with some Ken Burns film style working the photos and sound track. BUT what often makes it on TV is a version of People's court mixed with Jerry Springer and some adverts to fill in the time between...featuring a smith that is not a smith with as much depth in the trade as a puddle doing work that is not purposeful. Ric

I have been rather disappointed by how blacksmithing has been represented on TV....I assume this bike thing will be no exception. I was recently involved with a filming that should be out some time on 2012....it is a compromise of what gets filmed and how it is edited...neither of which is really up to the smith. HOWEVER the smithing we usually wish to see is far more common on youtube (and hammer-ins) than anywhere else. I like the part where James sent three silver pencils to Hoffi in the above article....telling I think. If money was no object then I wonder what was.....envelope size? Ric

No I had not Thomas....wonder how I throw my hat in the ring for that one.... Can you send me the mailing off list? I lost my subscription when I transferred email addresses. Ric

Do keep in mind that poor heat treatment or blade profile can negate those lovely colored charts. I am surprised at the toughness rating in that chart..usually the 1% carbon steels do not out-perform the .6-.7 carbon steels in toughness...such as the Sandvik ones listed. As to alloy solubility.....easy enough to test....do 5,10,15 and 20 minutes soaks on several bars and see what you get. Do keep in mind that poor heat treatment or blade profile can negate those lovely colored charts. Ric

about five years from "discovery" to the move to the sheffield area to "full" production. Another five years before it was generally accepted and used more widely and by then others had stolen the process. More or less. As to getting out what you put in...it is not quite that simple, but in the case of Huntsman crucible steel he wanted to remove the waste (iron oxide and silicon slag) and melting did that. Over the years he had a repeatable process of several different grades of steel ingots and such....but to be sure there was still variation. I have acquired a few old samples and will be looking for more...have the same for blister and shear steels....not enough to draw many conclusions other than the quality varied. Words like homogeneous really do not tell the whole story when sections of ingots and bars are viewed under the microscope...perhaps a better term is slag free. Even carbon levels varied by 0.1 within a given ingot from top to bottom and interior to exterior..and alloy elements can be drastically different from one place in an ingot to another depending. As to the original question BackShop: It CAN be done, but the odds of getting a good ingot the first time out and then forging that ingot into bars is not great. Unless you have more success than I have over the past 20 years. Better to simply forge-weld the bits and be done. If you kept track of what bit was what you can create some very interesting composites blades. Ric

They work well....do put the glass on the bottom...I did not and after several years it is a bit harder to move. I had a local cabinet maker do two..note the double rods not the single which Dano has in the blueprint. They work well, but Dano has another design with double inlet/outlet ports that seems to work better, though not traditional. Mine are here second from last photo: http://www.doorcountyforgeworks.com/From_Dirt_to_Dagger_Video.html Ric

I think that if it is not a boar it is not a hunt, but I am not sure I would poke any of them with a stick. youtube has some horrible stories..some self induced, some not. A gun is looking pretty good...distance seems to be the key...or at least.... not grabbing it by the ears.... Ric

Looks a bit like this one I had.... Ric

Look into L6 or even 4340 if you are very concerned about toughness. No need to a very hard edge here..45 rockwell will poke just as good as 58 rockwell....how hard is flesh anyway? From what Larry Harley has said about his hog hunts (he has used knife and spear in the past..and has a wonderful story about why spears have a large cross piece on them) http://www.lonesomepineknives.com/HawgHunts.asp He suggest not using the "singer sewing machine" approach to cutting the pig, what you need is blood loss leading to unconsciousness due to a drop in blood pressure...so a stick and turn and hold...not pokey pokey. A wide blade.... over 2.5" ....preferred over a 1.5". Same with spears..W..I..D..E...4" is not out of the realm of possibility. Have a look at African spears....thin and wide. Oh.....And have a good sidearm at the ready as well as a pack of dogs holding the critter down. I made a buffalo spear for a guy from 1086 and apparently it worked well from horseback. Ric

Chris, Do you know of a small mechanical or air hammer for sale in NZ? I have a friend there casually looking for one. Ric

I think that is a fast punch press used for making, among other things, the brass snap closure on the front of your jeans. Ric

Seems to be a three part dvd by Chapman: http://www.piehtoolco.com/contents/en-us/d1371.html I have not seen them. Ric