matt87

From my notes, carbon will take 7 hours to migrate 1mm (0.039") at 870 degrees c (1598f), or 5 hours at 970c (1742f). If you can weld, make the containers from steel; it's cheaper and won't melt within the expected temperature range. Here is a guide which will indicate roughly what steel looks like when hot: Special Steel Supplier

Just to be clear, don't ignite the charcoal inside the containers -- it's only there as an inexpensive and relatively pure carbon source! You want the containers almost air-tight, to exclude oxygen but to allow the gases to escape non-spectacularly.

As always, a simple and very clear lesson! I'm curious how you went from step 2 to step 3 of the heel tenon... I can't figure out a simple way to make it offset...

Welcome Xim! Be sure to check out the Wrought Iron Guild, located at Westpoint, Exeter. John Bellamy runs courses there and there's coke beans, stock and tools available to buy if you're looking.

I have been told (by John Bellamy) that transformer core iron is basically pure iron, the same as is marked to blacksmiths, e.g. here: Pure Iron - The Core Element It's softer/more ductile and easier to fire-weld than mild steel but John says it's a lot more thermally conductive than steel so you will need tongs on pieces you wouldn't if it were steel.

As a search of this forum would show you, lawn-mower blades can be made of almost any steel from a basic mild steel to an air-hardening tool steel. You will have to determine for yourself what they are made from -- spark-testing and/or quench-testing. All the usual caveats for 'scrap' steel apply, but I try not to pass up free steel! :D

Two things inspire me: innovation and working with as few tools/resources as possible. People like Hofi are certainly innovative (finding better ways to do things). However the minimal resources thing is what really gets me going -- the notion that you need a hammer, anvil, fire and stock and can make any tool or other object. Just like in a lot of my other interests, I greatly respect skill above using a lot of kit. The ancient smiths for instance, who would make pattern-welded swords of great beauty with a complete tool-kit that would fit into a shoulder-bag. Or the Sri Lankan smiths I've visited, who produce some amazing blades all day long with a bellows, mud hearth, very simple anvil, two hammers, one pair tongs, one hot-cut and one punch.

Bealer, for all his faults, lays out the methods with which he was familiar. Not a stick-welder in sight though!

You can drill-out a solid bar (common modern method and probably the most practical from a pragmatic point of view), use a tube (choose very carefully), weld and wrap a piece of iron in a spiral around a mandrel, weld a piece of steel length-ways around a mandrel, or fuller a groove in two bars (each making a barrel half) and weld together and forge to desired external profile around a mandrel. Note the welding here refers to fire/forge/blacksmith welding. Stick welding would require very careful weld prep and electrode selection. Bealer also recommends AGAINST welding-up mild steel barrels, though he was writing from a time when there was less experience of how to fire-weld mild steel.

Once the barrel blank is ready, carefully finish the bore to the desired diameter. This may require a large lathe with a steady-rest and a custom-built boring bar, depending upon he specifics of the barrel. If it's a smoothbore the diameter is obvious enough, for a rifled barrel bore it to the land bore. If it's a rifled barrel, you then need to cut the two or more grooves and that's a whole other can o' worms... for which you'll probably have to build your own rifling cutter. They aren't too complex, just slow. Then drill and tap for breech plug, proof (test) the barrel and stand well clear when you're doing it... the traditional muzzle-loader proof is a double powder charge and double shot charge. In the UK safety laws require two consecutive proof loads. After that (all going well), lap the barrel (if it's rifled), apply sights/bead (if wanted), finish barrels and mount. There's a reason why barrels are expensive.

Edited to add: all normal disclaimers apply! Don't shoot yer eye out or nothing! ;)

Ah but can you use a round piece of steel to make a square hole?

I'm not sure exactly what '3D design' involves, but I wonder if you could look at anvil design. It's one of the core smithing tools and although its principles of operation haven't changed over time consider how it has changed both in form and materials -- especially in the west over the past, say 300 years -- block/stake/single-horn/double-horn/triple-horn; wrought iron/cast iron/cast steel/wrought steel/steel-faced cast iron/steel-faced wrought iron/rock. Is this due to availability, typical work or a pure 'improvement' in design? How is the anvil likely to change in the near future? As the older ones wear out what will replace them? Steel foundries have become rarer over the past decades as it is, what happens when the world's rising population and finite fossil fuels cause energy prices to rise? Will inexpensive welding kit, machine-tools and power grinders cause a change in anvil design?

Similarly but in a slightly different vein perhaps you could look at the smithing hammer. It's also a core tool but involves a lot of ergonomics. Uri Hofi has done a lot of research on this, and I bet the HSE has a lot of information too. How have new technologies and materials changed hammers? Can you design a hammer that is 'better'? Can you investigate the factors which make a hammer 'good' for a particular use? Can you design a hammer that is 'good enough' for a certain range of smithing purposes? Can you evaluate a hammer that is commonly or traditionally used for a particular task and evaluate its efficiency and/or ergonomics scientifically?

You might also be able to consider tongs; we've been using basically the same design for well over a thousand years despite so many new designs (see the number of patents for instance). Have we stagnated or simply reached the crossing point between investment and utility? Can new technologies perhaps be applied to tongs -- electronic servos to change one set of tongs to grip any piece of iron perfectly?

Can forges be improved? How about a gas burner which drives its own blower by a directly linked impeller, like a turbojet -- the best of blown vs. Venturi burners. How about enclosed forges -- can we improve on solid-fuel forge efficiency by enclosing and insulating them? A feedback control for forges, where we set the temperature we want our workpiece and it's maintained at that temperature once it's reached -- no more frazzled workpieces! (The technology exists for 'proper' heat treating, can it be applied or adapted for forges?)

That's off the top of my head considering the essential smithing tools (plus tongs) and having the vaguest of ideas of what a '3D design' course involves. There was an interesting discussion a while back on special tools for disabled smiths -- can you design a tong replacement for a one-handed smith? How about a way for a paraplegic smith to move between forge, anvil and vice quickly and safely without an assistant? How about a way for a smith to control a power-hammer, hold the work and manipulate a top-tool without falling over if they don't have 'normal' mobility?

(Can you tell I wanted to be an engineer? )

might try alex bealers book the art of blacksmithing... it was the first book i had on blacksmithing and if i remember right it had a lot of info on history... of course there a TON of books on blacksmithing out there that might help...good luck!

Bealer's view of history is... suppositional in many places and downright wrong in others.

If you can find a copy, the book Iron for the Eagles by David Sims and Isabella Routledge (1994 I think) is very interesting, as it combines studies of extant artefacts, iconography, documental evidence and experiments by Sims to try and reconstruct a particular aspect of blacksmithing (i.e. iron production, manufacture and maintenance in/for the Roman Army). It's out of print unfortunately and changes hands for a small fortune but it's available through better-stocked libraries, especially academic ones. I'd like to see more of these sorts of books, not just on blacksmithing but on all aspects of ancient material culture.

I've found that there is little in the way of a proper book on the general history of blacksmithing. Sure there are a few web-pages (often un-referenced). There are chapters and asides in books on blacksmithing or archaeometallurgy or other subjects but these are often imprecise and authored by those not very familiar with both blacksmithing and historical and/or archaeological technique. Basically there is little middle-ground between the 'they used use charcoal and bellows but it's better to use coal and a blower' and 'a study on 9th-century seaxes from Wessex' or 'a series of smelting experiments using a replica late British iron-age furnace'. I think it's quite a gap, and something I'd like to fill or help to fill at some point.

It's been a positively balmy 10-12 degrees C here lately. Squirrels and owls are out of hibernation, snowdrops have been out for a while. Haven't seen any bats yet though. It snowed a few weeks back and of most of the country ground to a halt due to poor preparations.

Cutting steel is one of the fundamental blacksmithing operations. Luckily there are a lot of 'simple' ways to do it and all of these work 'well enough' for you to develop/discover the 'best' or 'most efficient/convenient' for your application.

Hacksaws can be had for as little as

Vaughan's has a magnificent range of tools, many of which are near impossible to find new in the UK otherwise. Their quality and convenience come at a price though. Ebay UK often has anvils and leg vices going for good amounts, but transport is often a key element to getting a good deal. Having said that I have got a couple of good deals form there even without transport; a near-perfect condition early 19th-century leg-vice for

Welcome Jaxx!

What sort of knives did your grandfather make, out of interest?

Steve is right Frosty. They do add powdered coal to the mix when making briquet's.They also add a bit of limestone to the mix. That is what the white powder residue is that you see as they begin to burn and what is left over after the charcoal has burnt out.

Terry

Strange, the lumpwood I use must have limestone in it too! :p

Any straight-pull versions available? My authoritarian government thinks it knows better than me and won't let me have semi-auto rifles except in .22 rimfire calibres. Purdy guns though... shame YOUR government thinks it knows better than YOU and won't allow registrations of new MGs! :D

Anvilfire has two articles on drill-press furniture, including workholding.

yeah that is a cool anvil, and here I found a 2' piece of railroad track that was exciting enough for me... wait until i find my first anvil!

You've already got a larger and more sophisticated anvil than was commonly used for several millenia of ironsmithing! ;)

Don't forget also the trades like farriery, bladesmithing/cutler, traditional gunsmithing where blacksmithing skills are still used. Rarely in history was a blacksmith truly a Jack-of-All-Trades, they tended to specialise; a 19th-century smith in New York City, Paris, London on Berlin might have shod horses but was unlikely to have built carriages from scratch, just as a carriage-maker would have been unlikely to make a rock drill. Even the backwoods smith in the Appalachians, who might have fixed a cart, forged an axe, shod a horse or built a gun on any given day bought-in flint (gun) locks.

Blacksmithing is a a skill-set, and many of those skills are still used in industry.

John, I've been trying to learn a little about working-out anvils' ages recently. From what I've seen this old warhorse is probably from the latter half of the 18th century -- what the Yanks would perhaps term 'revolutionary' or 'colonial'. Jymm Hoffman casts a similar pattern from modern steel, and another version minus the horn -- you can see it here: Colonial Pattern Anvil - Blacksmith Photo Gallery. I wonder how it compares with yours, size and weight wise?

Having a neighbor with better or more attractive stuff and no security is good for you, maybe best of all. After all, you don't have to be the toughest guy on the street, just tougher than someone else.

Just like surviving bear 'encounters'; you don't have to be able to outrun the bear, just the guy next to you! ;)

Hi Hicks.

How controllable is your blast? Charcoal needs less air volume at a lower pressure than coal or coke. You will also typically need a deeper bed of coals underneath the work -- 4 inches is a good point to start from.

How well seasoned is the wood you're starting with out of interest?

Oh and yes, you will probably use a fair amount of wood. Most of the UK was covered in ancient hardwood forest until less than 1,000 years ago, but the demand for wood for cooking and heating fires, building, shipbuilding and charcoal for metal working and smelting overtook the sustainable level, even when using an efficient coppicing system. Why do you think we started using coal? ;)

You could try searching for 'coking coal' with Google, I did so and found some information on the process. It's not something I've heard of being done 'at home' but I'd probably try some experiments starting with copying charcoal-making methods.

Aluminium is easy enough; it has a manageable melting point. Check out backyardmetalcasting.com for some good ideas. Mild steel like in a can is not so feasible; it melts at a much higher temperature and at that temperature oxidises with some gusto (sparklers) unless in a somewhat inert atmosphere.

Don't forget the various types of shear steel; these are by definition 'laminated'. The production of steel was, I think, restricted in the Colonies by the British Government (either not allowed, or the number of steelmaking furnaces capped) but these laws (and various others) were increasingly ignored, and then of course after the War of Independence (or is that Rebellion? ) they were moot.

As already mentioned, the welding-up of scrap was a common occurrence, probably since welding was discovered. Steel was expensive, and America full of wood (for charring) and coal. Pattern-welded gun barrels were typically made from soft iron rather than steel; black powder develops a somewhat softer pressure curve than modern nitro powders, and the shot or bullet was never jacketed, just soft lead -- what would be the point in using expensive, more difficult to work steel? (Nowadays you'll probably encounter 4140/EN19 at a minimum in a rifle barrel.)