aerohydro

Here are a few photos of my setup. It's more efficient than just a drum with holes in it, but still takes a lot of fuel to char a full load of Blackbutt and Casuarina.The square tubing under the drum has holes for the volatile gases driven off the load of wood to pass out and burn. I think next time I do a batch I'll make a bit of an enclosure from bricks to insulate the whole thing a bit.

I really like the second one, it looks handy. The perfect shape and size for most of the things I actually use a knife for outside the kitchen. How long are these?

I managed to pick up a few nice items from the roadside during a bulk waste pickup. 1. Outdoor gas heater, quite good quality. All that's wrong with it is the piezo ignition is broken. Truly a horribly wasteful device, but lots of nice thin steel plate, copper gas tubing and a large piece of thin-wall stainless tube. Also a huge aluminium dish. 2. Good quality Australian made gas barbeque, with a roasting hood. The plate is missing and the piezo ignition is broken. I have no use for it but it will make a nice workbench. 3. Singer sewing machine, mostly cast iron, made in Great Britain. Sews well but stinks like burnt electrics. An excellent find but may need work. I also found a short section of heavy galvanised fencing and a few lengths of 3/4" water pipe. A mechanic friend also gave me this brake drum and flywheel a couple of days ago. I think my junk eye is becoming nicely tuned.

Thanks very much for all the responses. I'm well aware of the problems of mechanical damage to wheels having seen people do stupid things. I will most certainly test run the wheels extensively before I use them and wear appropriate PPE. I would not bother with this old stuff except that these wheels were in a stack of old and worn ones but appear completely unused. I'll post some pictures to the forum when I get the new machine set up. Thanks again for the help. The amount of knowledge and advice that comes from web forums like this never ceases to amaze me.

I've just aquired some old grinding wheels I want to put into service. I'm wondering if grinding wheels have ever contained asbestos or anything else particularly nasty. Any ideas? Thanks.

Thanks very much for all the compliments, I really didn't expect that. I forged it as close to shape as I could get it. The filing and abrading work was mostly to refine the finish and make the bevels more uniform. I annealed the blank in ashes, forged the shape, annealed again and then did the filing and polishing. I then heated the blade portion to above non-mgnetic temperature then quenched in oil. Inexperience gave me problems keeping temper colours even, but the edge was drawn to light straw with a purple spine. It took me a couple of tries to get the handle riveting sorted out. It weighs 166g/5.85oz and balances about on the first rivet, if that's any indication as to feel in the hand. The stump is probably a piece of Blackbutt, Eucalyptus Pilularis. I think there's something wrong with the colours in that photo. All in all, I was pretty surprised at how well it turned out. I'll most likely try making another knife pretty soon. Leon.

Here's my first attempt at a knife. The steel is from an unknown leaf spring, handle scales are tallowood. The rivets are mild steel with copper washers. I don't know much about knives, how would you describe this style? Any comments? Leon.

Here's my railway line contraption. It still needs a lot of grinding and perhaps hardfacing. I haven't tried forging on it yet. I felt rather clever building the base like that, it was quick and simple, but I have since discovered that it makes it impossible to move the anvil using a hand trolley.

Thanks, I'll get on to them and see what they get up to. Leon.

Hello all, I'm just getting into blacksmithing and am at the stage where I would benefit from being able to find some others interested in the craft in my area. Does anyone know of any groups in NSW? I ask here only because this is the only Australian group I have found online. Thanks, Leon.