matt87

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

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?

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.)

WRT the original question, what are the steels used? That will give you a good answer in itself. Clue: high-tech high-alloy steels aren't ACW period-correct. No stainless for a start, and I think (but can't say for sure) no high-nickel steels. These are commonly used in modern pattern-welded blades to give a good contrast with a simpler steel, something like 1095. Period-correct Western steels were blister or its derivatives (shear, double-shear, triple-shear, crucible/cast). These are all fairly simple steels with carbon contents between, say, 0.7 and 1.5% by weight. Pattern-welding these probably won't give much contrast, even if etched; they're just too similar. Pattern-welded gun barrels are usually polished and 'browned' (controlled rusting) to show a pattern. They were typically made from low-carbon steel and iron. Think: bag of rusty nails, old chain and other scrap. Think about the backwoods mountain smiths with very little spare iron but lots of spare charcoal, time and skill. Their customers were the people that might wait for a shot backed up by a tree, so they could cut out the bullet and re-cast it. They wanted a serviceable gun to go shoot their dinner or the panther eating their livestock, and the cheaper the better. Consolidating 'useless' scrap was a lot cheaper than buying in (and shipping) new iron. Later pattern-welded barrels became an aesthetic art-form.

It's often said that using too heavy a hammer on too small an anvil can/will damage the anvil. I've also heard that this is a myth. What is the truth to this? I have a 55lb double-horned hammer-welded anvil with a c.1inch thick steel face, am I likely to damage it by forging with a 4lb hammer? How about having a striker use a sledge? I'm not in the habit of forging iron cold. Does the anvil being welded-up or sold cast or forged steel affect things?

Try looking for oliver hammers. They are a traditional replacement mainly for a helper/striker when using set tools, not a viable power hammer replacement.

If you need to cast some head to your local shooting range/popular shooting area. If it's a privately owned range ask permission of the management. Look for brass-coloured cases, some stuff can be mild steel or aluminium these days. Certainly observe the warnings posted above. (I had perhaps 100,000 .22LR cases I was going to cast into something useful just to get it out of the way, but when the scrap prices skyrocketed we sold it at nearly

It's probably some grade of HSS then. Spark test will confirm this, but you'll need a grinder. Contacting the manufacturer wkth model number might give you a more precise answer. HSS can provide a very good edge if the right grade is heat-treated correctly. The problem is that it often requires HT precision beyond blacksmithing levels of accuracy. Consider it was designed to be fairly hot-hard; see here: M2 High Speed Steel it's still at 64RC at a black heat -- no running the colours here! If you want something low-distortion, O1 is good and can get good and hard. It's also cheap and readily available in several sizes and sections.

From memory Harries and Heer (Basic Blacksmithing) consider it a plain medium-carbon steel. Sounds like you're gonna get sick of making hammers before you run out of rods!

What's special about the tines of a garden fork? Surely they're just like any other fork, though perhaps a little chunkier? A socket can be wrapped like on an arrow or spear, but bigger.

Well even with my limited knowledge of circular woodsaws, it could either be some grade of HSS or a steel of some description with carbide tips welded on. Or it could be something a little more 'out there', like L6. If you want any realistic chance of succeeding I think that IDing the steel is your first step.

Can't say I've ever made a razor, but my first question would be: what's that saw blade made from?

Welcome Dale! Go to the IFI front page, and choose the 'lessons in blacksmithing' option. Tkae a drink and a lunch, you'll be a while!

In this country they are often known as 'man-traps'; gamekeepers would place them about the lord's land and camouflage them with leaf litter etc.; a broken leg is difficult for a poacher to hide... (As an important social point here, a poacher in the UK was/is traditionally a person (usually a man) who would take game and fish from the local landowner's property without permission. Rabbits, eels and other species considered unimportant were sometimes overlooked, but animals with a cash value (pheasants, salmon etc.) were certainly not. Since the Enclosures Act centuries ago there is no such thing as true public land or common land in the UK, this was to maximise profit for landowners and had the unfortunate consequence that the vast majority of the UK's population had no other legal option than labouring for cash, then buying food with this cash.)

Mr Mears is certainly a dude... never trust a skinny outdoorsman!

Look for the videos at the Netherton works; they are on Youtubem and there are links on this forum to them (search). Amongst other things they show the manufacturing of a 7-ton single-arm anchor to Admiralty standards. If memory serves there are aboutb a dozen strikers working on that piece. I've heard of smiths taking over as strikers from apprentices on occasion -- don't forget that a master smith may have been forging for decades and have muscles to suit, whereas an apprentice could be under the age of 10... In addition it would be a way to train the apprentice in the tasks the leader performs. E.g.: Bruce Wilcock has extensive experience of using multiple srikers; he seems to have a hobby of forging anchors and anvils without a power hammer...

There is a blueprint on junkyard steels, along the same lines as Woody suggested. IT is important to point out that these are not a guarantee; it's an 'educated guess' based upon past testing of these items and some thought as to what the engineers who designed them required.

Are you looking for a punch (e.g. to impress your touchmark), or engraving tools? Both have been discussed already at some length.

Welcome Al. You can build the tue from scratch too, see here: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f11/english-water-cooled-forge-3643/