Jump to content
I Forge Iron

Colin Davies

Members
  • Posts

    32
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://www.daviescustommetal.com

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Kingston ON, Canada
  • Interests
    Combustion and heat transfer, prosthetics and human anatomy, power hammer design

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. I got to do a workshop with Elmer Roush not long ago, making locks. He mentioned historical finds showing copper brazing, as well as other braze metals (forget specifics) and forge welding. Whatever you do, don't lock it until the key is made. You might think these look easy to pick, but even the simpler style I made was a challenge to open without the key...
  2. Very true. Recently I saw a beautifully forged antique fire screen, some hundreds of forge welds in impossibly thin stock, a real work of art. Well, at some point it was damaged, and ended up with a god awful glob of cast iron mig welded on the top. Shameful.
  3. I'm 3 years in, and getting comfortable with "blacksmith". I haven't gotten around to mastering everything yet, but I'm confident enough in my abilities that I no longer feel the need to prove myself or stress about what I'm called. ...except that I have a helper who refers to us as master and apprentice. I suppose I am HIS master, but I'm sure not A master by any stretch of the imagination. I'm ok with it around the shop, but I don't think it's appropriate to use those terms at public demos until I really deserve the title.
  4. As someone who bought the Peddinghaus #12 and is very happy with it, if I had it to do over I'd go with Refflinghaus. The transition from face to horn is almost useless on the Peddinghaus (can almost use as a step, but corner mars work easily). Some of the Refflinghaus patterns have everything mine does but with the addition of a feathered horn transition that is actually useful. At the time I bought mine I was determined to get a forged anvil, but I realize now that the inferiority of cast steel was more a thing of the early 20th century. Forged is still stronger than cast and is preferred for many applications, but in modern anvils I don't think there's much to choose between them.
  5. My anvil is set about 4" higher than knuckle height. It's a big section of wide flange beam, so not trivial to adjust it. I keep putting off taking the torch to it, so I knocked together a little platform to stand on and make up the height. This has become very convenient, as I can adjust my anvil height at a moment's notice according to the work.
  6. I have one of these (don't own it; just hanging on to it for someone). I also saw one come up for sale locally a while back, so I was starting to think they might be an Ontario thing. I see you're also from these parts... a pattern emerges. Mine appears to be hardened cast steel. It strikes me as odd that the maker would obscure its own logo with the casting sprues/vents, so I wondered if someone might have used an old TFS anvil to make patterns for casting and not paid attention to the logo. It also seems strange that these would be sold with the horn flat, considering they seem like pretty good anvils otherwise. That's a lot of grinding for the end user.
  7. I find that just the basic blacksmith leaf is really good for developing the fundamentals. You get a very clear picture of progress/errors and it's quick to do. Controlling an upset, deep shouldering without cracking, square to round, short taper, directional spreading, edge bevels. I'm still very much in the process of refining my forging skills, and while I don't use a lot of these basic leaves in my designs, I do like to knock a few out now and then just to gauge my general progress.
  8. Here's my latest. I could use some help on ID, actually. The face is hard and there's no visible seam, so I'm thinking tool steel throughout. It has two square corners and two radiused, clearly forged like that on purpose. The mark appears to be PAS. I'm going to use this for preindustrial demos, even though I think it's likely a late 19th/early 20th century tool. One of these days I'll forge a proper Iron Age stake from wrought scrap...
  9. If you're willing to trade mobility for mass, you can somewhat make up for a lighter anvil by using a heavy stand. If the stand is massive and strong and you fasten the anvil really securely, they effectively become one big anvil. Look at power hammer bottom dies; similar idea. It's not going to help the horn and tail of say a narrow-waisted farrier's pattern much, though. If you plan heavy forging on the extremities, go for weight and a pattern like old German double horns, Nimba, etc.
  10. Looks like a stirling engine, maybe. Some kind of external combustion cycle, anyway, with air as the working fluid.
  11. Hi Daniel, Here's some info you didn't ask for, but that might help at some point: When you go to reassemble, you can use a square-sectioned leather shoelace to replace the gasket (assuming the old one is toast). Also, you've clearly got one gear in there that isn't cast iron or steel. In mine it was phenolic composite (bakelite-impregnated paper, basically) and was coming apart. It's hard to see if yours is the same. Anyway, if it is and it's damaged, you may be able to repair/strengthen it by soaking in an epoxy glue thinned with a solvent like acetone (helps the epoxy penetrate deeper into the gear). It requires some creative clamping, but is pretty straightforward otherwise. Use paste wax and wax paper as release agents to keep the glue off the shafts, etc. The one I fixed this way ended up losing a tooth in the end (too much wear before I got it, didn't mesh well, eventually just popped off), but apart from that it was absolutely rock hard and incredibly tough. Good luck, Colin
  12. Rice Lake is a terrible long drive for me, but seeing this I feel like a road trip may be in my future.
  13. I'm fairly new to this and, like you, still have to consciously focus on hammer control from time to time. The things that I've found helpful are: standing close to the anvil; keeping my back straight; raising the hammer good and high; and adjusting my grip before I start swinging (to prevent blisters, mainly). Whenever I tighten up on the hammer, it tends to be because I'm compensating for doing one of the above things wrong.
  14. As far as determining the weight goes, you can always use a cheap bathroom scale. Anvils tend to weigh in the same range as people.
  15. Loneforge, are you aware of John Little in NS, and Paul Fontaine in NB? I don't know if Paul offers lessons, but John is a top-notch instructor and taught part of the course in Haliburton when I was there. I realize neither of them might necessarily qualify as “nearby", but they are options to think about. In regards to the general topic, I've had one semester of instruction and now... I consider myself an apprentice under myself. It's an awkward position, but about the best I can hope for without extensive travel outside Canada. Luckily I've had some experience working with detonable gas mixes and such hazards in the past, but my knowledge of traditional blacksmithing techniques is sorely lacking. As soon as I'm financially and professionally established, I have a long list of courses and workshops I want to take advantage of. It's sometimes difficult to know exactly what to pursue, though, as blacksmithing in Canada exists in a complete regulatory vacuum.
×
×
  • Create New...