Evan

that is a gorgeous blade

i went through almost this entire thread thinking you were speaking of metal tables being actually magnetic. I was very confused and intruiged, and the whole flipping the table upside-down thing makes a lot of sense now.
so yeah, anyone anywhere near reality lately?
i blame the schools.
whew

you gotta go snooping around tracks where there won't be trying eyes. just find some remote area of well used tracks, and often scrap pieces of track will be lying around, along with spikes. i got a peice from my uncle who worked for the RR, but i found another one on my own by snooping around the track areas.. gotta be careful though, i'm pretty sure its a federal offense.

thats a pretty xxxx unbelievable knife dude. you should be proud.

not a bad solution, thanks dale. vacuums certianly aren't in short supply.
wow i got plenty of options now heh
next trash vacuum i see i'm tearin it apart

thats pretty sick. i use a drawknife for woodworking all the time, i never woulda guessed they made a metalworking equivalent.

thats pretty sick. i who woulda guessed that the cop was a practicing blacksmith. if that happened to me in Long island i'd say thats some rediculous chances. i live right next to my town railroad so i go raiding spots all the time, never been caught.

mmmm. i drive a corolla that might a bit o fun. i could probably borrow my uncles pickup. i'm gonna keep my eye out. cant you sell heating coils to a scrap shop for money anyway? or am i thinking of something else...

Thats awesome!
I'm working on my first RR spike knife now, i just need to get my coal setup going cuz my gas forge ain't hot enough. if i could pump out something half that nice i would be psyched!
how'd you get the blade so level? i find myself putting to many hammer marks on what i work on.. and you shaped it so well, how did you keep everything so even?
Looks gorgeus bro.
Evan

i gotta say that's pretty xxxx cool

Hmm. a dryer fan eh? how hard is that to get out of an old dryer? i just don't want to be tearing up someones bulk trash in their front lawn to get at it.. Thanks Ian, and Archie.
That forge blower looks nice but i don't want to be buying something proper, looks like it might cost a bit, since i'm in the teeter toter stages i don't want to let too much money in this. but thats good for the future.
thanks again.
Evan

oh wow, that's pretty sick. that makes a lot of sense, i've seen one of those before, pretty tricky i'd say. i just didn't make the connection. thanks for the info.
peace
Evan

cool, sounds good. thanks for all the suggestions, i think for now until i find a more suitable replacement i'll just get a blow dryer with a speed setting, or get a speed router. thanks alot for the input, that was really the last variable for me to set this dealy up.
Thanks
Evan

Hey, i've decided to ditch my old oxiacetalyne gas setup because i can't efficiently heat up larger amounts of steel, so i have some natural lump coal and a brake drum i'm going to use, i just don't know what to do for a blower. how much volume of air would i need?
i live on long island so its not easy to find an old crank blower or blow motor. I mean, will something like a hair dryer work? i guess that seems like a pretty ghetto solution but i don't necessarily know what to use. maybe a shop vac or something?

any help would be appreciated. thanks.
Evan

Hm... i don't think i understand the qualifications of a pipe hawk. i've seen one before, with the same tube thing coming out of the back of the head.. i guess i'm curious as to its purpose or what seperates it if anyone doesn't mind divulging..

i was just thinking of something-- would it be feasible to make a small forge by just stacking firebricks into a box shape, making an opening for a torch burner? or would too much heat dissapate through the cracks? maybe you could make it and use fire cement to fill in the cracks..
what do you think?
gettin the gears turnin..

i'm sorry, what do you mean by spring shop?

k cool, the more info the better.

so if i understand you correctly mcraigl, you're saying that it isn't necessarily bad just becuase it is low carbon, its just not good for knife making, and varying degrees of carbon steel simply have different uses, all quality issues aside.

thanks for all the resources people..

i always hear people saying they are easy to find, but the only way i could think to get them was by going to an autowrecker shop at which point they're definitely not free.

huh. nifty. there's a tool for everything i suppose.

sounds good, thank you. i'm sure i'll find plenty of things to make out of it. i got some rr spikes i found that i'm going to use for knives anyway.
:>
thanks again johnny. knowledge is power, heh.

yeah what is that third hammer's practical usage? it looks like the wierdest thing ever, heh
good job though, maybe i'll try that with some old hammers

I went to ace hardware today to check out some hammers, and while they were complete xxxx, i also noticed that they sell steel.
cold pressed and hot pressed, or something like that, just bars of sheet steel, in various sizes, not very thick but wide, some angle iron, and rod steel.

they call it 'weldable steel' and have no real other information on it.
am i to assume it is low-carbon steel, or just not very high quality in general?
i bought a 1/8"x1"x3' bar and a 3/8"x3' rod, i figure ill just xxxx around with it, make some tongs or something.

anyways, i wanted to know if you guys knew anything about this steel, or if any commercial steel from hardware stores is any good, or if its all just xxxx
thanks again for all your help,
Evan

now that i've got all i need for a coal forge setup, i just need some sort of blower.
anyone wanna fire off some cheap/easy ideas for a blower and some tubing to channel it?
thanks
Evan

point taken.