nonjic

Thanks for the positives everyone! Dr Jim,. of course theres another one or 3 on the drawing board ! this stuff is addictive your books have been a big help in this (very steep) learning curve, gotta try a 'hairpin' on the next edge wrap ! The pattern is pretty well on the p!ss over most of the blade, it will stand me well to remember in the future that a bar of steel at 1200 c is quite a bit longer than its cold counterpart I was trying to match it up to Gotta think hilt and handle now, but the forge is calling.....

Ill be patternwelding them next (although this one from last year never got finished, think Ive lost it now, which is a shame as it was wrought iron twisted with W2, san mai 'd over a piece of sheffield file

:P sorry Ian! the ancestors definatly had it down with the bladesmithing though !

Kinda fun making this, just a play around with a few new techniques! I carved the antler with a dremmel, the end 'caps' are a couple of scraps of desert ironwood, and the blade was forged from an old bearing race. Im getting into the whole anglo-saxon / viking thing at the moment so expect to see a few more pieces from me in the future

Blade finished

Flypresses in the UK regularly go for less than £100 ($150) on ebay, you can pick them up at industrial auctions for £20 ($30) very often. Doubt you could make a solid hammer frame, guides and tup for that!

Ive allways thought it would work brilliantly ! If you could get a flypress on a cast iron stand, and then a 3' ish section of 4"dia to use as an anvil you would be well on the way (turned down to poke through the hole in the flypress base, and welded to a plate to stop it punching through your floor) All the air stuff is well beyond me. Never really been in my best interests to develop the idea though :lol:

yup, you can forge on it! (and forge weld 2 6mm bars together if your quick )

Hi John, Im working through the feasability of selling these in the UK, David has got the 3phase unit, and ive got a single phase for evaluation purposes at the moment. They are going to get a bit of a workout for a couple of weeks, then off to my electrician for a strip down and study on CE complience. A bit of work to go yet, but im hoping to be able to say if its a yeah or neigh in about a month. We are also working with the carbon trust, and if I can get CE complience on the units there is a very good chance of an interest free loan over 3 years from them (the fuel cost savings will go a long way to repaying the loan in a busy shop )

Ahhh, blacksmiths, gotta love em! probably the single biggest move forward in efficency for the small metalworking shop since the mig welder and ya'lls working out how to cook supper on it Ive just got the smaller, single phase induction heater. It really is a magic box that has got my head spinning with ideas how I can improve my (mostly patternwelded) work. As soon as I get some time to have a proper play ill post up details.

Its amazing how little kit I need to patternweld David ! Say £3000 ish in the baby anyang 15kg, a home made gas forge, a belt grinder (from industrial auction, maybee got £300 in it with the VFD), angle grinder and lots of thin chopping discs, and a solidly mounted vice. , very cheap, very old stick welder& one of those hand held welding visors. Anvil (ebay £100) , couple of pairs of tongs I actually use, and a re-handled £2 hammer. course theres all the ususal PPE, and steel etc, but there is allways going to be that! Sure, theres lots of other kit surrounding my little forging corner but it doesnt get used :P

Like others have said how much to charge is often just a case of how much you can get away with, without looking like you are robbing them. 50 fold damascus knife is a funny one. I can make a 50 layer billet of flawless damascus, from scratch in 2 or 3 hours. A lot of that time would be chopping up the steel before I start the forge welding. ie, Stack 10 pieces of 15n20 & 1080. stick weld together on the ends & weld on a handle. one good heat in the gasser and a welding pass under a small power hammer (anyang 15kg). Then a 5 min soak at full welding heat, then draw out into a long flat bar (one or two heats). Chop into 5 pieces (4 cuts on chopsaw, ie leave the exisitng handle welded onto one piece), tack weld back together with stick and forgeweld, soak, and drawout. If I was in a mood to work I could do it in less than half that time. The point im making is if you are making 50 layer damascus by hand it could take you 2 or 3 days to make the basic billet. The hand forged patterwelding will probably have more flaws in it aswell. You could finish the knife with files and sandpaper, I could do it on a belt grinder in 1/5 of the time, and so on. OK, so ive probably got £4k+ in my setup, but there will be a compromise with the tools somewhere that lets you work efficently and ulitmatly charge a reasonable price. (or work very fast, charge the same price and make a killing)

I know lots of guys (and gals) that make their full time living from the anvil (well, very often the mig, with some anvil thrown in). The recuring theme is that they can make a living doing what they love by having low overheads. Many have low overheads because they made their money elsewhere. Many have low overheads because they rent small workshops, often on a farm, where business rates arent charged by (our UK) government. (its the farms maintenance shop). I dont know many that have made enough money at the anvil from a standing start to buy a a house, land and a workshop. Its not for me to say how to live your life, but there would be some mileage in putting away any spare cash you earn for the next few years, gaining experience in work and travel, and worry about a cast iron business plan and settling down in a decade or so!

drinking cider and watching telly in my underpants???? :lol:

first thing ive made ive sold ! ok, to be pedantic, the first 'arty crafty' thing ive made ive sold :P

Thanks for the nice words ! Jeff, Im a bit time poor (well, time starved) at the moment so dont want to commit to making any more hobby stuff, Ill drop you a PM next time I get some nice steel made though, guessing 2011 at this rate very flattered, thanks for asking!

Thought you might like to see this, its my 3rd try at a lined ring, the steel is from a bar of mosaic damascus, 15n20 & 1080. The liner is 925 sterling silver. Its my first commisioned piece, and the first thing ive ever made Ive sold ! much harder working to an exact size All feedback appreciated

The scale does get under the block eventually. If you are using a fabreeka style pad they gaul up from the scale, and can collapse (eventually). Ive been told, and can fully believe that when you are using the hammer hard the foundation mat (or timbers) can warm up, which doesnt help with the scale ingress. Water getting around the foundation mat can also cause problems as it gets jubbled (dont know any technical words for hydraulic ??tramping??) around and breaks down the mat. Ric, Ill email you the document 'excluding scale from an anvil installation' but since your block is in the ground already its not much help to you As has been mentioned above you can just pour pitch tar around it, makes the block an 'illigitimate child' to remove in the future though (think welly boot stuck in mud) You should have a set of closly fitted timber wedges between the baseplate of the hammer, and the anvil protrusion to lock it up solid. The massey reccomended way, and I agree from my own experience is to make sure there are no gaps between the anvil and baseplate with nice tightly fitted wedges, then cut them all off flush, and put an angle iron cap over it .

ohhhh, my specialised subject for 10 It can be a little tricky to work out the handlever positions in the notches as it is a 'floating quadrant'. The handlever should be in its highest position, with the stop swung out over the top of the footlever for low pressure hold up. I find a piece of rubber matting over the bottom pallet can make 'finding the settings' a lot less stressfull If there is excessive air leakage around the stuffing box this will lead to light hammering when moving the handlever down from neutral (ie it will not 'pick up' from rest, just tap tap tap a bit, then it might lift clear a little before starting to hammer as it comes into work) A healthy hammer will 'pick up' to top of stroke in low pressure hold up in 7 or 8 'pumps' If its not 'blowing' and still wont lift after checking all the handlever positions I would pull the valve out and check for broken or sticking valve plates as a starter. There is also an easy check that the valve is in the right position...... take the 'bell cover' off the top (4 bolts, 2 mins), and move the handlever down into the full work position (fully pressed down). The valve should come flush with the top of the valve tube. Sometimes the top of the valve tube is stamped + 1/8 or minus 1/16" or whatever. thats the valve position in full work (hammer switched off when you do this check, obviously ) The valves are much much more complicated than this one check, but its a good place to start! edit, if the hammer is left running for a long time in either high pressure hold up, or clamp, over a period of time it is possible that the excessive heat build up could 'coke' the oil on the valve, causing the valve plates to stick. not a big job to pull the valve and de-coke it.

From my readings (ok, only looking at the internet) there is not a shortage of mechanical hammers in the states,. Im sure you could find another one from a friendly vendor. If someone is that bad on the phone just asking about it imagine trying to arrange rigging etc. Now, just to continue with the off topic a little bit.... If you have a machine that requires a 3ph motor, and you fit a 6hp (assuming same duty cycle motors etc), will the 6 hp , working at 50% of its capacity draw the same ammount of electric through the meter (the bit we all worry about $ ) as the 3hp running at 100% work??

To the best of my knowledge self contained hammers only use a 6 or 8 pole motor to save the gear reduction, which, as has been mentioned is costly in money, space and maintenance. Ive seen some old plans for mill steam engines and they have stated x 'good' horsepower manufacturers may have been economical with the truth a couple of hundred years ago !

Sorry to raise the HP issue If the original manual says 2HP thats good enough for me!

Theres lots to be said for doing it right, but also a heck of a lot to be said for just bodging the thing together and getting it running soon as. The first dozen or two hours of use will soon tell you where the time and money needs to be spent (If at all!) Please post some vids up when its licking hot metal, its such a lovely looking little thing I need to see it work! (It might be worth wrapping leather round the springs to contain them if they let go) I recently got an anvil that must be over 300 years old, I think it actually looked suprised when I set a 3" thick damascus billet on it! , I had no real intention of using it but stepped past my 500lb anvil without thinking and used the antique! these old tools shine when put to use :D

It just sounds low to me..... 2 horseys is still 2 horseys, put a racehorse on a treadmill and it can pull a cart same as a clydesdale, its still 1 horse power :)

I know 'mechanicals' are pretty efficent machines, but 2hp sounds very low to me for a 125lb machine... I think my hoover is 1500w :blink: