metalmangeler

is there a planned demo that anyone knows about for our meeting?

If you actually removed the work plate from an old anvil it will not work harden to a reasonable level, there is a reason they took the time to weld those plates there in the first place.  I would use it as it is now and see how it goes this should not have a negative effect. Another opption might be to see if you have addiquet plate left only it is soft you might take it to a heat treater, I doubt it is worth what they would charge to reheat treat though. I really think use it and keep an eye out for another anvil. :)

Get someone to help you learn to remove and replace dies, this should not be a big deal and having and using different dies is very helpfull if you are doing a variety of work.

Mudman looks like you are making great progress. you might want to have the lateral veins going away from the stem just do the oppesite side you are now and they will be that way.

You can also just use a taller box that fits over your bottom flat die and then use steel drops as shims to keep things from jumping around too much.  I think a better plan is to make or buy a dovetail with a couple screw holes then you can make short dies from old truck axle or other scrap and weld them to a short flat bar and bolt them on.  At one time Little Giant was selling these, the are not to hard to make so I expect you can do either.

It is just a box with a acme or all thread screw in one end to clamp it to the lower die. then the drop in or temp die has an L of steel welded on the end and you clamp it in place with the screw. Or the box end opposite the screw.

If you put some tines on the prongs of that fork it could double as a northern spear. :)

Like I mentioned the show was about normal for this show. I had 3 that were better than they had been any time recently. I will be doing one of the wholesale shows in Anc. in Jan. and then the home show in Fairbanks toward the end of March. Last year we did the womens show in Fairbanks in April, did not even make the booth fee, of course there was the cost of the drive and the hotel as well.

   Vince has been doing the fur roundy / Ididitarod  show the last couple years, I am not sure if that is his plan again or not. There are a couple shows this weekend but I did not think I would do that well at them so I am sitting them out, I know Vince will not be at them maybe Jim will be but I don't think he will be there either.

Have a good Christmas. I think they will like them.

Shiny was not what I was looking at. You might be able to get it all preped then etch then glue wood in with pins through the steel handle, these pins would also let you sand to finish w/o glue holding it in place.

I do not plan to do another show locally anytime soon. Both Vince and I were set up in the depot.

Finished my last show of the season. This was the colony Christmas show. Seemed about average. certainly better than when they are way down, but as I am trying to add to my inventory, and skill it still seems like things should go up. Some of our other shows were up this fall so overall I am happy.

I think I like this knife better than the others I remember of your work. Hopefully this means you are going in a good direction rather than just my poor taste.

one thought that might add perspective is that if you are working for wages for a corp. and on the time you are paid for you invent and patent an idea the patent would be owned by the Co. If you took their pay and patented your idea to keep for yourself, you would be stealing from them.

1 key to remember in making H13 tooling for your power hammer is that you want to make the struck end of tools softer than your top die. The critiacal temp for  H13 is 1850 f if I remember correctly. an air quench at just reaching nonmagnetic will not be really hard. A tempering heat of 900 will make your tool harder than a slightly cooler heat.

   All this means that if you can get the working end of your tool 1850 just as the struck end gets to nonmagnetic you can air quench and have a useable tool.  another plan would to be get the struck end to nonmagnetic after hardening the whole tool without getting the working end above 1000. Other wise some combonation that is similar should work. This all wants to happen after you have slow cooled the tool.

I will add my ignorance to the topic. I have not rebuilt a hammer before and that is not my inclination, I would rather forge than repair the hammers I have, but anyone who uses one much spends some time on repairs. With that disclaimer I think I would think about who is saying NOT to repair, these 2 guys actually have experince and knowledge. If you just want to rebuild it that is fine but sounds like might not be worth it, I had a friend who resurrected a large Chambersburg, after the whole experince he thought he would have been better off buying a 100# air hammer.

Great job forging that rifle. :) I did not resist. I think that knife should do just fine on a normal hunt.

I either cool them after each heat or if they need to be warm so as not to rob to much heat from the small stock I will use multiple pair of the same size.

you might want more fullers. I really like H13 especially for chisles and punches that I am going to get too hot. for the  other stuff it is to costly as there is not really any advantage if you do not plan to abuse the tools with heat.

I like 4140.

Dave you should be able to use your top flat die as your flatter thus giving you more room. The cupping tool should not need to be more than and inch deep if that. For working under a hammer to do these your punch does not need to even be as long as your stock is thick, drifts can also be very short especially if you use more than one to open up the hole. A short drift can then be held with tongs for forging the cheeks. 12 inches is  a lot of room for most projects. Now the idea of a heavier harder blow that I can really get behind I would think 60# might be to small for the stock you are using.

My thought on increasing perceived value is to make items that I can forge more quickly than most would think then they think they are paying me mininum wage while I think they are paying me well. To do this takes a number of years to find the methods and projects that I can turnout efficeintly. I have seen a number of blacksmith items for sale and from a perspective that the customer does not have I can see that a lot of time has been put into some items to sell these at a rate that you could make money at would take some real sales skills I seem to lack.

    An example of this method could be seen by looking at the tongs and spring swedges that Grant used to make, from watching a few of the vidios that he posted and thinking through the  process it was obvious that he did very well making these tools selling them to people who should have been profficent making them for themselves. The facts were that either the customer thought that it would not be worth their time to make them for themselves or they assumed that Grant had more time in the item than he was charging them for, I expect that many of his customers would have hessitated to buy if they thought that he might be making $200 per hour. They would have thought they were over paying, but it was still a great deal.

   Back to your project I would expect the scrolls might be the way to go, I would be thinking that putting a leaf on the end is going to make it look like more time than a taper though the reality is either is 1 heat. traditional or fabricated would be up to the customer but either should be accomplished with skill and effiecency, other wise you are just adding to your schooling. A way to make traditional more effiecent would to be finding the joint that works well for you then as much as possible standardize that joint in this project. This would be done by say making collared joints of the same size rather than needing to make 5 different sizes for 1 small railing.

I had thought about this a couple years ago, the idea being that a reducing fire would not produce scale and should weld w/o flux, the other thought that stopped any experimenting with this idea was that my shop is pretty tight and much of my knife work is in the winter and  carbon monoxide is not so good. As an aside does the kerosine in place of flux increase carbon in the billet?

I would use matching top and bottom tools (fullers with large radius) a striker might help, or a guillotine tool. Personally I would use fullering dies on a power hammer but that is not nessisary.

check out Brian Brazeal's vidieo on tong making. I would expect you will need multiple tongs for either knife blades or ax heads so plan accordingly.