metalmangeler

You could try rubbing wax on the file backwards and then soak in acid, I never tried it only heard that it works.

One thing that helps me not have to grip my hammer so much is I put some pine tar on the handle it only takes a drop. I do this when ever my handle feels a little slippery, of course you will have to retrain yourself about the hand/thumb grip.

Looks to me like Mats has at least 3, there is an air hammer in the tong demo. that he is brushing the scale off of the die.
As long as you are setting up to make a hammer might as well make several.

Hi IJohnson
Have you welded in a gas forge before? If not something to consider is that your forge does not need to bring steel to sparking to be at a welding heat.
Seems like a major bummer to have a brand new forge that is not doing what it should. If you have not welded in gas before try to get someone who has to give it a try. If you have lots of experince well this doesn't apply.

When in the shop working people regularly startle the day lights out of you because you never hear them come in.

My NC tool Co. Catalog lists your forge @ $495. Since you didn't pay shipping and didn't have to wait I think you came out good.

Rich metioned the refactory when I have a gas forge that seems cold the first thing I think about is the liner. If it is not right that is likely your problem. (If you have been coating the bottom with flux or it is just worn out.) If you are planning to do a lot of welding in there you may want to use something on the floor to protect it from your flux like kiln shelf or very thin fire brick. I of course am not much above sea level here though. Hope you find a simple solution.

I did my floor concrete most of the shop and the forging area is pit run with a small foundation under the air hammer. But I cann't find the floor any more so it may not matter what you do. :rolleyes:Stepping down to the forging area was probably to help keep the gravel there rather than on the cement.

While in the shop today I picked up my heat treating info. for H-13 the tempering curve for air hardened from 1850 F is at 52.5 Rockwell untill 780 then it gets harder untill 900 (R 54) it comes back down to R 52.5 at about 980 and hardness drops form there, 1040 is about R50 1100 is about R45 1150 R40 1170 R35
This information is form a graff produced by Latrobe that I got with a bunch of H-13 in 1990. I doubt that the material has changed in that time, so I would not temper at 1150 but if it gets to 1000 or something I probably wouldn't know the difference.
When I have paid for expensive tool steel in the past I try to get heat treament informaton from the seller. They should want us to succede as then we will want more of their steel so this is a win win situation.
I never tried the M-4, Mr. Hoffi why is it that you don't use it for your tools if it is the best?

Peyton the critical temp for H-13 is 1850 F I belive with out going out to the shop to look at my heat treating info. If air cooled from just nonmagnetic it will not be harder than your hammer. Make your tool slow cool as best you can, if back of tool is hard heat back of tool to nonmagnetic. let air cool then heat working end to 1850 (I can see starting to glow in my gas forge in lighted shop or use temp. stick) then let this end air cool. some tools you can do both at the same time, by bringing short tool working end up to heat the hammer end is up to a lower heat that works out well. It looks like you are in a picturer with Tom Clark I think what He does is make the tool bring to heat, bury in vermiculite with only the working tip exposed to air that way the tip cools faster and is hard and the hammer end cools slow enough to be softer.
Stretch you are right I under stated how high you can temper H-13 which only makes the point I was trying to say more true.

The best thing about H-13 is that the tempering tempetures get well into 900 F. so for punches and stuff that is likely to get hot it still works the second time. S-7 is similar but wont handle quite as much heat.

If you can not find a beekeeper near you who will sell wax at a good price you can buy it from the bee supply co. Mann Lake has deep brood foundation in their 2007 catalog for $140 for 25# this is after it has been made into foundaton which can easly be remelted for our purposes. A little less than $6.00 a pound. Direct from the keeper should be less. You might also try Dadant, Walter T. Kelley Co. or AI Root. These places sell in as small as 10 sheet increments. Which depending on the size of the foundaton would be about a pound. I also keep bees and have always kept all my wax which I mix 1:1 with parafin to finish iron work with but if someone started offering $15 for a # I might change my attitude.

If you put hot wax on cold iron it will act like dipping a candle the iron needs to be at least the melting temp of the wax a little less than 150 F.

I have been following this for a while. One of the big questions in my life is how to set my price. I don't like the formulas listed as they assume that my skill is stagnet if when I started forging gidgets I spent an hour to make a gidget, but now I can make 2 in the same time I don't think that they are now worth 1/2 as much. Also if I spend $10,000 on a power hammer that is an investment, and I should be makeing money on that not just producing more for less. Basicly what I do is try to make things that look like they took longer to make than they did, the people want to think they are paying me $5 an hour I want to think that they are paying me more. Then I try to find what the market will handle this seems to be a real guessing game. The problem is that a hot item at one craft show is not the same item at the next show, so if you change prices that may not be the reason that your hoofpicks are not selling at the flower show.

I have been useing propane forges in buildings for about 15 years. The comercial ones that I use all are pretty lean and have never shown CO on my detecters. I have two from Rex Price and if not tuned lean they will start putting out CO pretty quick, so pretty much what Thomas Powers said. My climate is different than his and I close my doors this time of year. I do keep a window part way open to replace O2. Also I have a hood over my main forge to vent the water.

I too would like to thank you for making this site available to all of us. I think that I am spending to much time here but am picking up to many nuggets to drop out. Mark

Hello Doc
Looks great. Far more beautiful than any repare I have done on my chiped anvils. I have used mig and build up rod before but didn't post as I know that this is not my field of skill. However they seem to be holding up quite well. I rarely work cold stock though.
Did you preheat the anvil? if so how hot?

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

My brother in law wants a gaff hook for halibut fishing. I also plan to make my daughter a claw hammer, the kids have liked tongs in the past even though I get really odd looks from grandparents and such. Tools are generally great if you know what the person is into. Try to make something nice enough that 20 yrs. from now they won't think that you were just trying to be cheap.

Drinking milk when exposed to zink fumes is supposed to help or at least that is what I have been told. I would think one nail especialy if you didn't notice that you were breathing yellow smoke would not be the issue. No doubt different people will react at different levels.

I do a number of craft shows, this is the best time of year to do them of course, sometimes we do quite well, also I do home shows if they allow dirrect sales (not all do) the State Fair can pan out also. I have never done the Ren. fairs but have heard they are good. the key is haveing a huge diversity of inventory and a lot of it. A lot of the times those shows that charge more are the ones that you want to be in if you have the stock to handle a large show. In the mean time you might want to do some of the smaller shows to find out about your market, what sells at one show is not nessisarily the hot item at the next. Anytime I do a show this time of year I try to have $10,000 worth of enventory on hand, you want to charge twice what you would be willing to sell wholesale for, as that is what a wholesale buyer would pay you and you are incuring those expences in marketing yourself.
I have tried the web site but so far it has not paid off I don't have your skills there so maybe it could. Customers at the shows like it as they can see some of the stuff or show it to their spouse. I just don't seem to get the new customer there.
This is a significant part of my income and it may not really be what you want to do as you can kill your hobbie and may never make what you do in your day job. On the other hand you could make more than you ever did.
Just some thoughts. Mark

Sometimes I have had to forgeweld barshoes in the rain to preheat the anvil I would put a 1/4 X2 flat bar in the forge (gas) then my shoe when my shoe is ready to weld put the flat stock on the anvil and weld on the flat stock which will be orange. My anvil never really did get heated up but the weld was made.

Most moden farriers anvils feature a horn that is more or less flat on the top rather than a cone or circular cross section, also they will have longer heels and horns so that you move the anvil around more when you hit it as you are working on that lever. That said I would expect that this anvil would last far longer than you do it would work but not as well as one made for what you want to do. It is cheaper to buy what you need (want) rather than buy something else first and then buy what you really want.
The reason that some farriers anvils are such a good buy is that that is what is in demand by those willing to pay new prices, there is not much demand here for light blacksmith anvils by those who will pay new prices therefore not much market competion. If there is not much demand maybe it is something you do not need.

I Engaged my memory and realize that my earlier post was totally inacurate I had an Enders anvil sorry. Someday maybe I'll invest in a brain.

I had one that I bought new in '82 it was an 80lb. farrier anvil it was pretty soft and at that time I missed my work often enough to mark it up a lot. I knew another guy who had one which was much better (harder). His was also larger. Rebound and hardness are pretty related.