matt87

Okay perhaps a little out-of-the-box, but anyone ever considered doing a small-scale Bessemer conversion? Could be a fun way to turn 'unuseable' cast iron into true mild steel. I'm thinking clay crucible (cheap, easy to make) in the acid Bessemer method, with a modified air source from above, like the basic oxygen process; this makes construction easy.

Thoughts, ladies and gents? Issues? How does one identify low P cast iron? Am I mad for thinking this? Are you mad enough to try it? :D

4-1/2" jaws; c. 50lb; screw cut square on lathe;

Wow, cool! There was a discussion on Bushcraft UK recently about starting a fire this way... as a novelty only though!

Just to clarify something, you don't want to decarburize the file. The process is called annealing. This is a physical change, and easily reversible. Debarburizing is a chemical change and it takes quite a bit of effort to reverse (usually too much). Lots of knowledge (possibly more than you'd want ) on heat treating here BP0078 The Metallurgy of Heat Treating

I'm guessing you are trying to give it an edge-holding ability? Machetes are supposed to flex a moderate amount in use, due to the hard use and abuse they are put through. They're not supposed to be massively hard for the same reason. What are you wanting to cut with it? Long long blades like this are generally for cutting grasses, shorter ones for chopping, like a parang or, even smaller, a leuku.

I think most woodwork was done in the green in the old days... sharp tools (knives, chisels, axes etc.) go through green wood so much easier than seasoned. Also, a good knowledge of the advantages of different species of wood would have been standard; what's easier to carve, what to split etc. etc.

Expanding a little on economies of scale, consider the tooling-up costs. It might cost five times as much to tool-up to make a tractor as an anvil, but if you make 100 times as many tractors as anvils.

Plus don't forget that fewer new anvils are sold than tractors; each anvil needs a higher markup to pay wages.

That's not technically welding, it's brazing with copper. (Pennies are no longer made of copper.)

Also, what metal have you been trying to forge, where have you been putting it in the fire, how long have you left it to heat...

John, the history of Chinese metallurgy is significantly different from that of the West. Basically they came at iron opposite to how we did; by and large we had wrought iron until about AD1500 when cast iron gradually found uses (and ways of making it). In China they seem to have made cast iron exclusively until a similar point in history. (They did fine small amounts of iron for certain limited applications, but it weren't cheap.) I suspect that there is not so much of a tradition of forging iron over there as here. I also suspect that wrought iron objects were often traded in once it became available, but I don't really know much about this area of technology, time and space.

(And before the nitpickers start ( ;-) ) yes, cast iron was around in Europe before the mid 2nd millenium. It was though by-and-large considered a waste product of iron-smelting resulting from too high a concentration of charcoal to ore, too high a smelting temperature or both. There is also an exception to the exception in that it is possible [Japanese swordsmiths do something similar to this, and we think we have evidence of the Romans doing it] that cast iron was semi-deliberately created in order that blooms formed adjacent to cast iron had higher carbon contents, what was often called steely iron. The Romans even had a word, ferrum noricum which probably refers to steel make in Norica in this way; the naming strategy is a little like that of Damascus steel.

The videos I have seen of Chinese people forging blades etc. for export usually show what we might refer to as an expediant or improvised anvil, though it is as valid as yours, mine or Sam Yellin's. Large sledgehammer heads, chunks of this-n-that etc. I wouldn't be surprised if this is in fact the traditional Chinese anvil if you see what I mean. After all, the London-pattern anvil is quintessentially a British and American thing, and is younger in centuries than ironworking is in millenia.

electrical grade copper

Don't want to second-guess him, but wheel weights are an excellent way to keep your ammo bill down... ;)

And what is emitted -- aplha, beta or gamma?

There is a blueprint on making a Viking padlock.

Thomas, as for annoying the archeo types... I like your style,

In service to the Midrelm,

Dagnabbit! Actually, I'm pleased too; you'll be halping to make more paycheques for the likes of me in the future.

May I ask where they're powering angle-grinders from? Mains electricity would likely be conspicuous by its absence in a fan-hits-the-air scenario. Also, o/a rigs aren't very common outside of well-equipped metal shops, where there is also lots of metal.

Apologies if these comments aren't any use to you.

Looks like some good work there! I'd like to make a suggestion if I may: cut out a second 'window' opposite the first one, at the back. That will allow you to heat bars in the middle -- for drawing down tong reins, upsetting bars and many ther uses.

The blacksmithing/armouring in A Knight's Tale is hillarious (hillarious tosh, that is).

If I lived in the US I might consider buying that for curuisity's sake. My electric blower is a cobbled-together mess consisting:
- a small plastic centrifugal blower designed to be hand-cranked, for barbecues (

Yungsmith,

If you have transport (parent taxi!) and you are lucky, you can possibly find one on eBay near to you. There are usually a half dozen London-pattern anvils at any one time on eBay.co.uk. Quality and size varies considerably. Read up on what to look for when anvil shopping. You can check local car boot sales too, put ads in your local paper, newsagent window etc. if you live in an industrial or rural area. Talk with farmers, you never know what they have squirreled away. I would suggest looking in scrapyards, but most don't like persons of such a tender age wandering round .

Vaughan's anvils are apparently very good, never used them myself though. Get a Saturday job, and a Sunday one and an after school one though if you want to buy one. Their price list isn't on their website, but e-mail them and you will be sent a rather nice inkjet-printed one gratis.

Don't just think of anvils as London-pattern though. It's something to pound stuff on. I use a 32lb length of railway iron turned on end. It does the job. Don't forget that for a while at least you will ding your anvil face up every now and again -- no point in buying an expensive, high quality anvil to make the top look like the surface of the moon...

Welcome Yungsmith!

A lot of good advice has already been given, but here is something I think has been missed so far: you are still growing! Don't forget to make your stands etc. adjustable, modifiable or replaceable as you change. Also, not all of you will grow at the same time; your bones for instance may lengthen at different times to your tendons. I found that there were certain things I could do physically one week that I couldn't the week before -- or even vice versa! :shock:

But once again, welcome! In one way we are unlucky to be in this era of a reduced continuity of blacksmithing (the 'dark ages' of the mid 20th century for instance) but we also have great advantages not seen before in history; power tools cheap to buy and run that can do a day's labour in an hour; materials cheaper and higher quality then they have been at most other times in history; a wider range of creative projects we can do; greater number of ways of doing things from around the world.

Mummmm Laser beam googles.......

Well it looks like we're back to blacksmithing. No doubt you could throw a rheostat on those puppies and have a real good "spot welder"..........

not to mention one slick laser cutter!

Yeah I'm a geek.

You're not the only one :cool:

I think this discussion has got way off topic, and as much as I enjoy a lively debate and certainly have my own opinions on this topic (you can probably guess my stance judging from my previous posts) I think we should return this discussion to the original topic.

As I'm sure we're all aware scrap metal prices have risen significantly recently, and there are many reports of all sorts of 'street furniture' being stolen for sale to sracppies -- cast iron manhole covers, street signs, bus shelters and all sorts. It's already been mentioned but our shops are as much a target for thieves as any others, perhaps even more so. This topic is about how YOU safeguard your financial and emotional investment in materials, consumables, tools and work.

I think it falls under antique (replica) firearm .. at least it did when i worked at the gun shop .. but that can change and can vary from state to state . In fact theyres a case in front of the supreme court right now that might change everything .They are challengeing washington d.c. ban on pistol ownership saying its unconstitunial... should be interesting...

Yup, it's the case of D.C. vs. Heller. Heller is a 65-year-old armed security guard living in the Capitol Hill area of Washington D.C., who applied for a lisence for a pistol but was denied, then started taking it to law. The state court (I think; it's been a little while since I studied any US law) held in favour of Heller in that the D.C. pistol ban was/is unconstitutional. D.C. appealled to the Supreme Court. The anti-freedom crowd may have shot themselves in the foot here as a Federal Supreme Court decision could potentially affect bans and restrictions across the entire union.

The Supreme Court heard the oral arguments on the 18th of this month. Almost from the start the justices were of the opinion that the right described by the Second Amendment is an individual one; that old tripe about it being a collective right barely got a look-in.

The final decision will not be released for months yet, but it seems quite clear form the language of the justices and the questions that they asked that they will find in favour of Heller. As to how wide their ruling will be, the jury is out. It will likely though be that it will be as narrow as they can making it. There is the potential though that they will help to undo decades of damaging and useless laws. Just depends on how wide they make their ruling.

Back on topic, my smithy is part of my home, ergo 'standard' domestic security procedures apply (dial-a-prayer and locked doors).

I think he means Cabela's; an American sporting goods chain.

Thinking of the bear/man traps I've examined (not many), I seem to recall that the two jaws pivot on a base-plate. The trigger-plate fits into a notch in each jaw when they are 'cocked'; steping on the plate pushes it down, releasing the jaws.