MLMartin

There are many strong opinions for and against combination dies. In my observation more professional forge shops use flat dies. And some of the best power hammer operators prefer flat dies. It seems like the combination dies are aimed at hobbyist. Just my opinion Personally I think it would be best to have two hammers one with flat dies and one with drawing. The flat dies can be used to draw material very fast. The most important part of the power hammer is the person using it. I would highly recommend some form of training on running this tool.

I have combination flat / drawing dies. I do not like them and would much prefer flat dies only. I will probably replace with flat dies then grind the combination dies to full drawing dies. With the combination dies I never seem to be hitting the metal in the center of the die. It feels like it helps to cause the hammer head to tilt side to side. Just my opinion I am glad to see another slappy mechanical hammer saved from the scrap pile

This is a daring project! I have forge brazed female threads into a box. But never male threads onto a rod. The best of luck to you

Keep reading this site. There are many old post dealing with this. I can not remember the exact numbers but I believe your 12 inch chimney needs to be 2 foot higher than any part of the roof with in 10 feet. If the ridge line is 30 feet from your chimney I do not believe you need to be higher than that. Where I am my metal chimney pipe came in 5 foot sections. I used 3 or them 10 foot inside and 5 foot outside. My ridge line is 16 feet away and probably the same high as my chimney. Mine works fine. I would never consider using a natural draw chimney less than 12 inch round. If your chimney pipe comes in short sections around 5 foot try putting up a section and try it out. If it is not drawing smoke well just put on another 5 foot section and try it again.

I would not change the blade. Still a fine looking knife and will probably work nicely for years. I really am not trying to be disparaging. I am always happy to see people working for nicer items on this site. I very much want to see the knowledge of this site go higher and higher. A rail road spike blade is fine to play with on a first forging attempt but we have probably seen a few hundred on here. I am just sharing the little information I know in hopes that it improves someone's forging tomorrow. I have been given good critiicysem here and it has made me a better smith Aging a personal Item is not hard if you are only going for the looks of it being used for a short time. Like the person bought it a few years ago. Just finish the item as if it was brand new, then start cutting acidic things with it, leave it outside a week or so. A good brown rust will start quickly. Personally I think the item would be best sold brand new. The knife will discolor from actual use quickly if the person does no matinanc. I love to see all the hand tools around Colonial Williamsburg. Most of them range from new to 25 years old. For the most part they are cared for, but they still show a lively patina from real use daily. For this knife I think the tube rivet and the un-filed surface is what seems off for me. A as forged item left to rust and a filed bright item left to rust look very different. Sell your knife and make some money! But next time some one asks for a colonial English knife you will know a little more about them.

I would guess the fist photo is the only original blade. It very much looks like it was scrubbed bright at one time. All the others have clearly been acid etched. While etching can produce a very attractive surface I do not believe it was a common used practice for knives of this time period. I'm not trying to be rude. I am just trying to push accuracy for historical reproductions

Do you happen to have a photo of the knife you replicated? I would be very interested to see it. I have never seen a tube rivet in a blade of this time and place. Also I have never seen a blade that was not filed or ground bright. I am not saying it could not have happened but it would be a rare blade to be left as forged. It would be fun to see a historical blade left ruff

Just shim under the anvil. Should not be much trouble to loosen the large anvil bolts and hammer steel or wood wedges under the low end. I do not recommend that you grind on the hammer. Remember that some one used that hammer just fine for years how it sits now.

Some smaller bellows like this were used to drive tiny dentist drills. Should work fine for a small forge. Make sure to have a short air run and to avoide any tight right angles

I have the polar bear forge grinder in a box. I bought good quality wheels and motor. I run around 5000 feet per minet if I remember right. Pretty much as fast as the belts can handle. I buy 36 grit belts and take off metal as fast as possible. It would be nice to have variable speed. But it was a extra 500 for that. I use this tool every day in the shop. I will ruff cut angles of forged parts with a angle grinder and true them up at belt grinder. Also very nice for cleaning up items that were torch cut or plasma cut buy hand. I dress tools frequently to. I spent a little over 1000$ for it. I am pleased with the tool. I think this tool needs to be set up with some type of dust removal system

Cutting hardened steel is going to be exspencive no matter what you use. There's no free lunch. Carbide and tungsten tip tools can cut hard steel up to the point of hardness of the tip itself. The harder the steel and the faster the cut is made the faster the tool will break down. Abrasive saws are in the 3800s RPMs and work well. Carbide and tungsten saws can be run at high RPMs but they will heat up and have a short life. If you use a low RPM saw ( 50 RPM ) that has a 1 HP motor or bigger and has a liquid cooling system your cut price will be much cheaper

How do people feel about the Venturi style? I have head a lot about ribbon burners and would be happy to buy one from pine ridge. But even there smallest one is pretty large at a cubic foot heating volume. I am looking at half that

Sounds like you need a carbide or tungsten tipped blade, low RPM and liquid cooled system

Use a magnet and Check wether the box is in fact bronze or if it's iron that has brass/bronze melted and coated all over the outside. Brass or bronze will not attract the magnet. Iron coated in brass bronze will attract the magnet. I think you have a iron composite screw box that is brazed together. Further more I think the box was longer and the back half has been removed . If you look at this thread you will see a complete screw box.

The tenon mount is a older style of mount bracket. Often the tenon mount vise would be attached to a bench that had a corasponding notch cut into the work top. Having the back jaw beam set into a tight slot in a heavy wood table would provide extra support to the vise. This support helped to prevent rotational stress from snapping the tenon off. The box is odd looking. It is the shape of a modern cast iron box. But it also looks like it's rolled sheet iron construction. Will you lightly clean screw box and photograph it alone? Also be sure to look inside the box to see if there is brass traces. Often when a box was made of mutable parts the whole unit would be brazed together

How do you like that saw in the background? Almost looks like a huge hacksaw!

It is always nice to see home made hammers. But it is disappointing to see the number of them that have the stroke bottom out on mechanical spring hammers. The hammer head should really have some space between the die and material being worked while the hammer is at rest and the head hanging at its lowest point on the concentric. It is mostly the impact of the head on the material that causes deformation in the material. The spring being compressed by the concentric bottoming out in the rotation does almost nothing for work. It does however put unnesicary strain on the hammer and shorten the working life of the tool

1926 self contained is modern

If you have the money a self contained modern air hammer is the best out there. Wonderful control, very hard hitting. Something like a Turkish Israeli or German hammer would be best

Wonderful work. Older personal items are always decorated in a fun manner.

Try a different tire piece or maybe some other wrought iron. Some of the old tire wrought iron is full of sulfur and welds very badly. Maybe you could split the wrought open on the end and close it on the short tang of the steel cable like people often weld hi carbon onto a ax edge. Then your wrought on the outside would get hotter than the steel inside and the piece would be one unit in the forge. Good luck

Looks like a great grinder. But the roll in saw in the background is a bit more appealing to me!

Colonial Williamsburg has the best demonstration smith shop I have ever seen. And it is also a great running shop! I would try and avoide a full wall removed for viewing. Wind can cause smoke to swirl around and coal smoke in the face of a visitor will drive them away very fast. I think a door around 8 foot wide would be a much better option. There are many photos of the Williamsburg shop on the internet. Also one of the best things Williamsburg does is to always keep 2 people in the shop at the same time. One person can forge and the other talks to the public. It is pretty ridiculous to try and really make something and chat with the public at the same time.

Yes a Roll In saw is just the best. Certainly a good buy for a professional full time metalworking shop. I am waiting to be able to afford one for my shop one day. I just do not have the 2000-4000$ to spend on one at the moment.

If you are working in a very small hobby shop you might consider a hand held bandsaw. Milwaukee Tool makes a great one. Much quieter than cutting with a angle grinder. Also no sparks. I have one and I also bought a little table that it quickly bolts on to use it like a tiny vertical saw. A handy thing for cutting small sheet metal iteams