matt87

I have heard that coal dust, sawdust and clay are added to briquettes too.

New blacksmithing gear is available in the UK, but be prepared to cry at the prices. Hang around car boot sales, scrap yards etc. and start improvising... blacksmiths can improvise just about anything they want. I've noticed that on eBay UK you can often find anvils going for about

Every so often I amble over to the Wiki and do my best to add a new article or improve an existing one. It's a useful resource IMO, or at least it will be when there are more articles and there is more depth.

Very interesting indeed Sam! Those bellows are just as described in Harries & Heer. Anvil looks like a partially buried length of rail track. A week to make a spear? Wow. I expect that's from bloom to trading for 2 goats. Captive market too; nice work if you can get it! :D

As promised, a pic of my ghetto forge. The air draught is provided by the blue and black air pump in the foreground (designed for inflating infalteables I think) and elbow grease. The lagest stock I've used in it s far is 1"x1/4" mild (as in this photo) and it can get it to yellow if you're patient. The bowl cost

14" length of British railway rail; weight c.32lb. 'Mounted' (plonked) in a bucket of sand and constantly moving.

Matt, do you have somewhere you can set up your own equipment? You don't need a lot of money, space or equipment to get started. A garage, back garden etc. will do. I use a very crude setup at the moment and am teaching myself the basics. Lessons are great, but I like to learn on my own too. I find it's useful to take what I learn -- be it at an actual lesson, from a book, from the internet -- and try, apply, and practise it.

Nicely done Timekiller. I love thinking outside the box... which is somethign we have to/should do as blacksmiths! My charcoal forge is a 9" stainless steel bowl with a hole punched in the side for the tuyere (was once part of a shopping trolley). Lined with ashes and such, it works just fine for me! Kinda like a ground forge but above ground. Will get some pictures tomorrow when I have it lit.

Hehe Matt, small world; I attended one of those a few weeks ago John's a great guy!

Of course you are mate, you're British! Hope you heal up soon.

Champ, Deluxe, Bassman... I'm not fussy, they's all got their place, like a Centurion, Titan and a Gladiator! They seem to sound good no matter what guitar you put through them.

Euurgh not a Marshall... one of the '50s Fender tweed amps surely :D

Some smiths use clean sand. Others use sand daubers' nests and I've heard of some smiths using charcoal ash. English smiths traditionally didn't use flux; they pretty much relied on having a clean fire and not producing (or brushing off) the scale from the joint. Common laundry borax is boraxdecahydrate which means it has 10 water molecules per every one of borax. This means when you apply it it will whizz around for a while. You can buy anhydrous borax (farrier suppliers I think, and ceramic suppliers). You can also heat a tray of hydrous borax in the oven for a couple hours to make partially anhydrous borax, or heat a tray to melting point in the forge to produce anhydrous borax.

make 2, sell one? ;)

We used to have a 'science' program over gere called Brainiac. They filled a swimming pool with custard (from powder) to demonstrate its non-Newtonian characeristics. Think the powder is corn flower, vanillin and yellow.

Drop forging involves a power hammer. A plate called a progressive die is attached to the anvil face and the head face. This is somewhat like a mould, but instead of molten metal being poured into it, red-hot metal is placed on top of the bottom die and the hammer slams down, forging the metal into the cavities in both of the plates. Bang, one blow, one axe head. Repeat ad nauseum, all axe heads are identical (barring die wear). It's not blacksmithing of course, so it's evil ;)

I'm thinking of making some nutcrackers as per the BP for me mum...

JohnB showed me a good one: sunflower oil. Wire brush the piece and gently heat to 'touch hot'. Apply a good but not excessive layer of oil with a rag, paper towel etx. You want enough to give a good coat but you don't want it dripping. Heat the piece again and watch out for a flare. The hotter the piece the darker the finish. Suppose you could probably use veggie oil, corn oil, peanut oil etc., but haven't tried it yet.

Very true. I suppose that since 'by hammer and hand, all trades do stand' 'most all village people visited the villagesmithy on a regular basis (please no jokes about policemen, builders etc. ).

Ecart, could you fix it with epoxy putty or similar?

Outdoors in the small concrete cube that is my back yard. Can get bloody cold when its raining and you're waiting for the iron to heat...

Surely you mean navy rum? As much as you can afford, mate!