irnsrgn

FWIW dept, the wood wedge spreads the handle in the eye in only one direction SIDEWAYS, the steel wedge spreads the handle LENGTHWAYS of the eye if driven in 90 or 45 degrees to the wood wedge. The factory steel wedges are flattened in a die if you look at one close so that it has ridges that help prevent the wedge from retracting (sliding out) if making your own wedges try lightly putting in small cuts with a chisel crossways of the wedge to get rid of the smooth surface. The round wedges the factories use now usually come loose and fall out quickly, faulty engineering, but easier to make and easier to install with the hydraulic equipment the use to put them in. Also a handle should never slip in to the eye, it should be at least a 16th of an inch larger than the eye, and driven in by starting the end in the eye and then held in the off hand head down while rapping it on the other end with a hammer, when the rapping drives the handle thru your hand and feels solid its in proper. As quenchcrack mentioned I leave at least a quarter inch of handle sticking out and when the wedges are driven in, the wood expands and forms something akin to a rivet head. It doesn't help keep the handle from shrinking in the eye, but it will keep it from flying off if it becomes loose. (read projectile) damaging a family member or onlooker. The proper way to oil a hammer handle eye is to put the hammer head down in a container with about a quarter inch of oil in the bottom and let the wood in the eye draw the oil up thru the eye. Personally I sweat a lot including my palms and a slick handle requires me to hold on to the handle to tight to maintain my place of gripping the handle which will cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I personally use the coarse side of a 4 in 1 hand rasp to lightly rough up my hammer handles for a sure grip. I never get blisters which is another hazard of gripping the handle too tight. I use handles from a small company that pays strict attention to grain orientation in the handle, but they do coat them with some kind of varnish which I usually use my pocket knife on and scrap the finish off as it makes the handle slick. I also thin the neck behind the head down which gives the handle more spring and has a tendency to lessen the shock of the actual blow when the head strikes something solid. Traditionally in the Smith Shops of old the only auxiliary anvil tool in which the handle was put in tight was the HOT SET or HOT CUT, every thing else had a loose handle that stuck out quite aways past the end of the tool, as these were tools most often struck with a sledge by a striker or strikers and were often in close proximity to exceptionally hot pieces, the handle of choice was usually an old buggy or light wagon spoke as it was suseptible to breakage from a missdirected hit or from burning from the radiated heat. An added advantage to a loose handle in these tools was the ability to not transfer any extreme shock or vibrations to the holders (usually the head smith's) hand. I smithed for 55+ years with no blisters other than when using a strange hammer, and no sign of Carpal Tunnel. When you are actually using a hammer at the anvil your grip should be such that someone could grab the hammer and pull it from your grip if they so desired. end of long winded unsolicited reply, sorry.

I apologize Larry. I misread the post and my criticizime was uncalled for. I know how you feel believe it or not. I lost my son at age 17 in 1987 and I essentially have never gotten over it. He always wanted a tall flagpole in the front yard as he was a very patriotic boy, he was killed while on a Civil Air Patrol Training Mission, and within a week there was a tall flag pole in the front yard, and after checking up on the subject, I fly his Funeral Flag on every Holiday and important military day in history. There is also a memorial FLag pole at his school that the wife and I donated in his name. Again I APOLOGIZE for my post. Respectfully Jr. Strasil

I needed a similar piece many years ago and instead of broaching or farming it out, I bored a hole big enough to allow a piece of 3/8 square keystock to just slip into the hole and used a piece of shaft a bit bigger than I needed and heated the short shaft up, inserted a piece of 3/8 keystock in the hot piece and using a swage of the proper size, swaged the inside hole square and then finished it by filing for a slip fit and then squared the ends in the lathe then turned the OD to size between centers in the lathe. FWIW

Broaches for deep holes are very long and tapered compared to a normal keyway broach and they are usually pulled thru, Be very careful as when pushing any deviation from square will break the hard brittle broaches. I broached with a hyd press for the larger sizes and used an 8 ton Arbor press for the smaller sizes. After shattering several broaches, I learned to push aways (about an inch), then let the pressure off to correct any side deflection. I never broke another broach doing that. Just remember you are going to need at least 4 times the force it takes to broach a keyseat as you will be cuttinng on 4 sides instead of just 1. The dark thread cutting oil, Buttercut or tap magic should work for the lubricant.

My friend Marlan Downey of Dallas, Tx., a member of the smithing group there, sent me a 2009 Calender with pictures taken by his wife Marea. Marea is an English girl and they have a house along the coast of England and Marlin has a small Smithy there as well as at Dallas. The Cover picture title is, "Christmas Lights, Mousehole, Cornwall, England and I thought some would like to see it.

Also, no offense intended, but its on the small side, most any flower will hide it, The Cross should be the focal point of the Memorial garden, It should draw the eye of the onlooker to it immediately, chest or waist high would be much better. Think of it as the CENTER PIECE of the garden. Make it stand out. remember you asked.

Ok, but the top is bare, should be the same as the ends on the cross piece, just doesn't "sing" as some say.

Forged Weld, LOL, its best to heat in a forge so you have residual temp on each side or the it may crack in the weld or at one side or another, as with a torch you have a more localized heat.

My First demo shop set up in a Hilton Inn Ballroom for the 100th National Blacksmiths and Welders convention around 89 or 90.

Its a factory made forge I am pretty sure, may have been a military item that comes apart and stores in the base to conserves space in a truck or trailer welding or smithing body.

It gas welds and arc welds just like mild steel. I used 7018 to weld it with the arc mostly, lots of old horse drawn machinery was made from it and a lot of the machinery was converted and modified to fit the 3 point hitch on little ford tractors in the early years. In those early years, we used almost exclusively 6013 electrode and we never had a problem with it, and I have gas welded hundreds of chain links in old WI chains that were pulled in two using modern high powered tractors.

Dr. Jim Hirousolous (sp) did it once, it was enough for him. I personally have stellited (hard faced) literally hundreds of plow lay edges using Oxy/Acet torch to apply it. It grinds similar but a bit harder than carbide lathe tools and it shows very dull red small sparks similar to Cast Iron and Stainless. You should probably pass on it, and if you happen to drop it, you may have several pieces to pick up.

The Albany Museum Blacksmith shop has one of those and its a nice running hammer, still running on a line shaft. The clutch is an idler pulley that tightens the belt to make it work. They are nice hammers similar in construction to an old "Boss Power Hammer". It will work fine for a small smithing shop. To mount it the Albany Museum Shop they put down some RR ties cut to length and bolte thru, on a gravel bed and anchored it to the ties, Albany Shop has a dirt floor. http://www.littlegianthammer.com/oldads2.html

Everyone who achieves success in a great venture, solved each problem as they came to it. They helped themselves. And they were helped through powers known and unknown to them at the time they set out on their voyage. They kept going regardless of the obstacles they met. -- Clement Stone

Wilfred Brimley, the old guy in Cocoon was a practicing smith. My Grandfather, my father, 2 Uncles, myself, a cousin, 2 of my SIL's, my grandson, and my late son.

Old Mild Steel was 1003, the new mild steel mostly comes from Mini Mills (remelt) which uses scrap iron containing everything you can imagine. working with the new mild steel square and round for forging, if you hot cut a piece off the end and then stick the rest in the slack tub so someone doesn't get burned by accident, it usually won't cut cold with a hacksaw or bandsaw. Unless you are ordering and using Papered iron and steel, the product from Mini Mills can be almost anything. Quality has gone down the drain since the last real steel mills producing product from iron ore have been shut down by the EPA, OSHA, high fuel costs and the Greenies. So called Cold Rolled which is actually Cold Drawn thru dies should have close to the actual specified Carbon Content of .18% or close to it. Cold Rolled squares and Hex bars are actually Cold Hammered from Round, then drawn thru dies to get the exact size, My source being I actually toured a plant that makes cold rolled and wire rope. I was amazed that the lubricant used for Cold Drawing was actually a dry granular soap. I have also had the privelige of touring a mini mill in Norfolk Nebraska and witnessed the hot rolling of structural shapes from continueous cast billets on one rolling line and reheated billets on the second neighboring rolling line. Its amazing to see a 4 by 6 billet at a yellow heat go thru the various rolls and exit the other end as 1/2 inch round doing about 60 plus miles per hour.

Buy Power Mask Powered Respirator, Power Mask Positive Pressure Dust Mask, This is what I used in the shop when doing any heavy or prolonged welding, also for grinding, sanding and wire wheeling. http://www.airgas.com/browse/product.aspx?Msg=RecID&recIds=320862&WT.svl=320862

I am mostly self taught on the job with lots of reading from trade magazines in the past. I did go to "A" school in the Navy Seabees, but what I actually did in the welding part of school was to help teach my fellow students and fabricate some projects for the school and some of the instructors. LOL I look at the future of welding and its already happening that a lot of the Mfg compaines want certified welders. All certification means is that you passed a test under ideal conditions and passed. I was never certified but did a lot of welding that was supposed to be done by certified welders, but their work couldn't live up to the piece of paper that said they could do it. The one thing to remember is you will never know it all, and when you think you do, you are on the downhill slide to oblivion. My goal thru my years as a Blacksmith, Weldor and Machinist was to do each and every job to the best of my ability and to try and perform each job better than the last one. Getting paid to do a job you enjoy is a goal the majority of people never end up achieving.

Good answer Chris, I welded for a living for 55+ years and I was still learning when I was forced to quit my shop, but I still do the occassional welding job that others refuse to do or say that it can't be done. Respectfully Irnsrgn

Technical Bookstore Online: Welding scroll down aways, cost is $12

an old hand corn sheller works goof for removing the hulls Glenn, and a local nut farmer uses an old commercial potato peeler, he says to put the dehulled walnuts in water and I think he said the no good ones float and can be skimmed and tossed. He also uses an old golf ball sweeper retriever thing to pick them up of the ground under the trees, pulls it with his riding lawn mower.

Check local farm supply stores that carry those pellet stoves and such, they have the 1 inch fire bricks in boxes of 6 or 8 very reasonable.

My Wife Cookie is back in the hospital with breathing problems again. Mostly up and down weather related stuff and the aging process. My middle daughter in Texas is recovering from surgery, and is trying to survive her husbands cooking. She can't drive for awhile yet, so the rest of the people in town can relax for awhile. LOL My oldest daughters husband Sam, is in ICU in an Indiana Hospital from complications of the nasty type B flue. They let him out of the hospital Friday and Saturday he and wife went shopping and he collapsed in the store, no breathing, no pulse, CPR was administered and he was taken to local small town hospital. They could not define the cause and so he was stabilized and got a ride back to Indianapolis Hospital that discharged him. He is stabilized some but has a very high fever and they will test him unmercilly either today or tomorrow morning. Daughter is at his bedside awaiting any results or findings, Dr. says she is not a candidate for catching the flue as her immune system is working overtime because she is PG. Thanks again, Jr.

Eagle, my undieing gratitude to your father and all the other fathers, mothers, children, grandchildren serving our country and us. I salute them all and hold them dear to my heart. May God watch their 6's. Jr. Strasil, ex SeaBee and a disabled Vet. (Nam Era)

bigfoot has some good advice, old old files are usually 105 points (1.05% carbon), while more modern files are 95 points. If you really want to make some chisels out of old files, work to desired shape, then heat till the metal is nonmagnetic 1460 degrees, a magnet hanging from a dowel will not attract to the hot metal, quickly wire brush any scale and quench in used vegetable oil ( use caution and full arm and face protection) as the oil will flash (burn), clean off the oil residue and put in a kitchen oven at 400 degrees for at least 45 minutes and then remove and quench in water to temper. Have you tried a 5 or 10 degree micro bevel on the very end (cutting edge) of your current chisels? I'm a galoot or neanderthal hobby wood worker (hand tooler).