matt87

What size of wood do you have stored? If it's over a couple inches you can probably split it to get to the dry core.

If you want to make an anvil devil, start with an old triangular file...

Main drawback is that it requires a constant air flow (bellows monkey or electric blower a good idea, if not essential). Also you can't make a cave fire like with bituminous coal.

$4,575 would buy you a lot of tools, coal and stock...

I enjoy the book, especially the thrifty 'scrounge-and-make-do' attitude, though I must say I was a little disappointed. Perhaps I was expecting a book with more emphasis on forging than grinding and sawing. It is of course a product of its time and some of the practices are... best avoided for safety's sake. There is no discussion of welding beyond 'it's cheating'. Furthermore although the three titles are now contained in one handy volume, I find it awkward to have to search for something in three different indeces and then find a lot of duplicated information. Just some minor niggles I suppose, it's a good book overall!

Those particular blueprinta and many others are currently offline due to a technical issue. Glenn and the other staff assure us that a solution is being sought, and that the blueprints in question are safe.

If you drive it all the way through the iron and it drops free, it's a drift. Else, it's a punch. IIRC the specs call for a maximum of 0.3% carbon and 0.2% copper. Not tool steel, mild steel. It's not what a lot of knowledgeable people would consider a good choice for a blade since it won't hold a very good edge. However it is slightly better than the copper-alloys used for a long time before steel became widespread. If you really want I suppose you could lay in a bit of high-carbon steel, though mild steel is certainly adequate for 'wall hangers'.

It will work just fine so long as you don't hammer the material when it's cold. Theoretically yes, in practice not any appreciable amount. You're better of using that fuel for smithing! :)

You'll get a much better anvil by mounting the rail vertically.

There's been a few discussions on these before. A search for "chip forge" (quotation marks are important) brought up at least two relevant threads on the first page of results. Make sure to let us know how you get on Pete, and welcome to the forum!

Steel used to be very expensive. Furthermore it was only discovered how to cast steel directly into a useable tool in (I think) the 20th Century; before that 'cast' steel was poured into ingots then forged to shape. So far as I know, no-one produces cast-iron anvils with steel faces (commercially).

I understand there's a few at Ironbridge... I'd love to see that shingling hammer going in person!

This may echo UnicornForge a little... I've not yet got around to forging wrought, but the received wisdom is to work it as hot as you can; it's not steel so it burns at a higher temperature -- white is typically mentioned.

Whenever I orient my anvil with the horn to the left I end up with a horn to my right as well! I must have some sort of Mobius anvil... I avoid much of the 'hardy issue' by putting it in my vice.

I like it! Any chance of a blueprint? ;)

Coke is an odd fuel; it seems reluctant to burn and indeed makes for a fairly good insulator but when it does it is very good. It doesn't need 'topping up' with charcoal so long as you don't let it go out. Where did you buy the coke from YISS? Was it in bags? There's only a few 'brands' available in the UK so I'm sure someone on here has some experience.

No suggestions here as to HT, but could you please post pictures? Cheers!

Welcome to the forum YISS. It'd probably be wort your while adding your location to your profile, you never know when theree is a smith just round the corner able to help! The smithing coke we get in the UK is known as breeze and yes it does take a fair amount of heat to get going. Firelighters do not, in my experience, get hot enough on their own, though they work fine for lighting the next stage of the fire ready: a good wood or charcoal fire. Once there's a good solid fire going I then work the coke in from the edges of the fire, being very careful not to choke it. Takes a few minutes from striking the match to putting steel in the fire.

Jerry, Deb, my thoughts are with you both in this difficult time. Here's to a swift and total recovery.

Okay I get you now. The property you're describing is commonly known as 'hot hardness' and is common in steels with significant amounts of carbon and other alloying elements. As is commonly said, lower-spec, garden-variety rebar is typically made to a performance (rather than material) spec from remelted scrap and so often contains a lot of whatever 'stuff' happened to be in the scrap hopper. It can be a useful property if it's worth the time/embuggerance factor to work with 'found' steels rather than 'known' ones.

If you take the rest of that 6x4 bar, dig a suitable hole and mount it end-on, you'll have a very efficient anvil...

Amazing pics Peyton, thanks for showing us!

Looks French to me too. I believe the word is 'enclume' if you would like to do some further research.

Eh? Are you saying that, if you were to put a piece of rebar into your forge next to a similar sized piece of A36 or 1045 or any other steel, the rebar would be considerably colder than the other piece?

I've lit charcoal and coke fires with several different methods and techniques and IMO nothing beats a decent wood fire to start with. I have been known to use all sorts of things to start the fire, even 3-in-1 oil soaked into cotton wool (works but smokey). Now I avoid accelerants -- I've never had an accident but the risk is there and frankly I can light a fire without them just fine. My favourite way (probably make our Scandinvian smiths happy) is birch bark and split, dry pine. I'm very careful with stacking the fire, adding fuel and air as needed (easy to get carried away and choke or blow out the fire) and can usually get a forging fire ready in under 15 minutes with one match (I forge outdoors in my native, damp habitat). I find that with (industrially burned) coke it's important to have a good bed of (wood) coals roaring before raking the coke into the edges of the fire gradually (it's a bit of a bugger to light and comes sopping wet). A handful of lump charcoal helps it get going.