matt87

Vaughan's sells them, and I understand they are good quality. Make sure you're sitting down when you look at the prices though. One of very few companies still making them.

Ian, Exter, UK is not in England? Or is Matt the exception that proves the rule...

I was given a long bow as a wedding present 24 years ago but haven't shot recently not even my wheellock or falconette (2" bore).

Very observant Mr Powers, but you seem to have underestimated one thing -- the English ability to be modest!

I've done a bit of archery before, mainly recurve and compound. I'd like to do more (and I've love to do some bowyery and fletching) but there is something of a historical animosity between the Uni Archery Club and the Rifle and Pistol Club. Seeing as I'm Armourer for the latter, I'm not too sure how I'd be welcomed.

Also, feel free to let me 'store' your bow or muzzle-loaders, just as with any smithing tools you may not have used recently! ;-)

As suspected, it is a byproduct of cracking: "[residue] from the distillation tower is heated to temperatures above 900 degrees Fahrenheit / 482 degrees Celsius until it cracks into heavy oil, gasoline and naphtha. When the process is done, a heavy, almost pure carbon residue is left (coke); the coke is cleaned from the cokers and sold."
HowStuffWorks "How Oil Refining Works"

Seems like a non-excessive amount of sulfur too.
oil coke - offers from oil coke manufacturers, suppliers, exporters, wholesalers & distributors

I'm looking at getting a half-way decent air blower. What are people's opinions on what sort of pressure and volume of air is needed? I have been able to find some references to pressures for coal forges but not much on charcoal, except that it needs 'less than coal'. How about coke?

I've had some sort of facial fuzz for a few years now. I've worn a full yet trimmed one for about 10 or 12 months now, but will probably let it bush out a little. I figure it goes well with the mad archaeologist/smith/outdoorsyperson image.

Welcome, Atticka.

Tim Lively's washtub forge design is designed for bladesmithing. I'm sure it's very good at that, but you might want to modify the design a little, that is if you are more interested in general smithing.

Of course, noone ever said you could only have one forge...

Don't forget to forge a potholder. You can cook your breakfast, brew coffee or tea while watching it!

Good luck, be sensible and play safe,
Matt (who would gladly swap his 12'x10' concrete yard for 13 acres of woodland)

A bloomery furnace (not forge) is generally chimney-shaped. Forced blast is provided near the base (with a few notable exceptions). The fuel is usually charcoal, which is added at regular intervals, as is whatever iron ore is used (magnetite, haematite, limonite etc.)

Blast is constantly adjusted to produce a strong reducing atmosphere within the furnace, i.e. one where there is free carbon and carbon monoxide (CO) but no free oxygen (O2) and as little carbon dioxide (CO2) as possible. Thus when the iron ore (some form of iron oxide) is heated in the furnace the oxygen chemically bonded to the iron reacts with the free carbon and CO to form CO and CO2, leaving excess iron. This gradually accumulates near the bottom of the furnace in the form of small globules and/or larger lumps of iron, which are removed at the end of the smelt. These lumps are blooms. Also near the bottom of the furnace arrives slag. This slag comes from the gangue in the ore (anything in the ore that is not a metal compound) and is mostly silicon dioxide (SiO2), which is glass. Depending on the design of the furnace, this may be tapped off at regular intervals during the smelt, constantly tapped, or simply accumulate in a bowl-like depression underneath the furnace. (Depending on the quality of the ore, there may be little or no slag produced.)

Blooms are irregular, spongey lumps of iron, with significant amounts of slag. To make it into a useful product, the blooms are consolidated by taking to a welding heat and welded together. They are then repeatedly folded and welded until they form a billet of iron. It is this repeated folding and welding that stretches the slag inclusions into stringers, which cause the characteristic woodgrain pattern of wrought iron. This refining process reduces the amount of slag present in the billet, the mass of the billet being reduced to typically one third to one half of the bloom's mass, the losses being in slag as ironscale. (Scale can be collected and fed back into the furnace.)

The more times the iron is refined, the better quality it generally is, though there are diminishing returns. Other factors may limit the quality, especially the presence of sulfur, which causes red shortness (the quality of crumbling when forged, like cast iron). Historically wrought iron was divided into several grades, the lowest being 'muckbar'. This was the grade used for consumables like wagon tires. It was also often used for anvil bodies due to its low cost. Muckbar is today sought after by certain bladesmiths for knife guards, as it shows a good woodgrain pattern after etching.

A series of physical tests existed for wrought iron in the days before analytical chemistry and other scientific testing. The Admiralty (British naval command) demanded the highest quality of iron and so would perform a series of tests to see how it could withstand abuse. "Best best" grade was expected to withstand being bent 180 degrees one way then reversed a few inches away, punched and drifted to its own diameter, nicked and bent (to show its grain pattern)... all cold! (They demanded this ductility from their iron as it was used to make chain-cables for many ships' uses, especially for anchor cables.)

You need a cupola furnace for cast iron. They are easy to build. Look on the Lindsay Books website for some great how to books on the subject. I would ask are you wanting to pour cast iron or make wrought iron from ore?

I believe that he is referring to bloomery iron, rather than cast iron. Massive difference; cupola are furnaces designed to remelt cast iron (usually pig iron and scrap) for further casting or processing (e.g. fineing).

Well I'm training to be an archaeologist and so have experience digging, analysing assemblages, analysing artefacts and pulling theories out of my backside :-D

I can shoot a rifle pretty straight, have the basic metalwork and woodwork skills under my belt, can ride a horse, cook fairly well, and used to build model planes to a good quality. My sewing is kinda like using a mint condition Peter Wright as a boat anchor; it'll bring tears to your eyes just thinking about it, but it'll work. I have a fair number of computer skills too, especially in building databases and in programming. Oh, and I can really put my foot in my mouth without effort.

Welcome, Joseph.

Have you checked if the cast anvil is cast iron or cast steel yet?

It's very difficult to cast steel, or even to melt it properly. It is though possible to cast bronze or copper swords (I have been lucky enough to watch it done using very simple tools).

It's a faster quench than water all other things being equal (quenchant temperature, amount etc.). It is too fast for some steels, just as water is too fast for some steels, or oil for others still. For some steels though it can be just the ticket, e.g. quenching mild steel fullers, or railroad-spike knives.

I reckon the difference in abundance is this: hot chisels are of course only any good for the hot iron trades. Cold chisels though are useful for mechanics, stonemasons, builders... heck, you can even find them in B&Q.

You might want to see if anyone will ship to the UK, and whether it's worth it if you buy several pairs. GS Tongs for instance will ship to the UK for US$39, or just over GB

I'm pretty sure that alloys with a high nickel content will not take blueing (either hor or cold bluing). I had a part for a guitar (used to be chromed) hot blued, and a very small crevass where I couldn't grind off the base nickel plate never took the bluing, and the nickel contrasted brightly.

I guess that's one of the reasons why nickel alloys are popular choices in pattern welding when the blades will be blued for corrosion resistance.

High chromium too I think(like stainless steel). Also applies to Parkerising. (This explains the characteristic look of the M1 rifle's muzzle; the Parkerising rubbed off the stainless gas tube almost immediately but not the plain carbon steel barrel.)

Using copper would braze the steel together, rather than weld.

That's not real charcoal, it's briquettes.

But of course, you can buy billets of pre-made pattern-welded steel from specialist websites. It's often named Damascus steel for slightly complex reasons.

just forge a taper the size of the nail that you want and drift out the hole.
i have used the tang on a file that was the right size as a drift.
these are probally not the correct way but they will work.

Mike Tanner

Surely punch rather than drift? Drifting would make a hole of uniform size (i.e. no taper).

M, cover it and store it outside if you need to. You seen how oil and gaseous fuels have been going up lately? A year or two's time and you'll be mighty pleased with a forge that you can run on charcoal you make from scrap timber methinks.

To be fair Cal, grinders can make a xxxx of a high-pitched racket. If your neighbour is right next door, I can sympathyse with him. The only power tools I own are a drill (not often used) and a couple electric blowers (probably to be replaced with a bellows soon).

inazuma, how about forging yonself a crane arm and keeping a pot of stew next to the forge? ;-)

Reduce blast for a minute or two, then hook it out and chuck it on the floor. It tends to pool into one lump, since it's not messed about by the blast.

Scale burns are bad, but much more easily avoided than charcoal flea burns. I remember one session using particularly bad charcoal left me with most of the backs of both hands covered in red and white welts and tiny blisters.

The quick-and-dirty: the carbon content of a piece of steel varies between 0.2% and 2.2% by weight. Above that it's cast iron, below that it's wrought/bloomery/puddled iron. Because even a small change in carbon content will drastically affect the properties of the steel, the carbon content is often expressed in points, one point being one hundredth of a percent, i.e. 1/10000. Thus a medium carbon steel might be 0.5% carbon by weight, AKA a 50-point steel.

A very noble cause sir! Were I wearing my hat, I'd doff it to you!

Never been to Jamaica, but I've jest got back from Sri Lanka, where I visited a smithing guild village (more on this later!). There were two local species of wood the smiths preferred to use, but when they couldn't get it (or when the forest rangers were looking) they had to use charcoal from the coconut tree. It works, but is not preferable. I think the general criteria for suitable wood are that there is a lot of it, it's fairly seasoned, and that it has a low wet/dry weight differential.

Don't forget to find out about the local scrap steel availability! Could be embarasing... ;-)