Jim Kehler

If you were a bit closer I'd be there in flash, I'm sure it must be perfect weather to be forging 6" in Atlanta.

Looks like you and the 750#er are going to have some fun, might want to think about an air curtain for when it's all up to temp.

You know we're waiting for some video B)

To look like the picture you would need a punch close to the size of the hole. If you use the method you describe you will either have more material around your hole than the pic or a lot more work bringing the piece back to size. Remember this is only one blacksmith's opinion.

Thanks Chuck, they were just under an hour apiece.

Thanks guys, I was happy that I could come up with a design that required no welding and grinding and the client was very happy with the end result. :D

Very nice!

The finished railing

I think the College in Olds, Alberta has a blacksmithing course.

I like to have the dies on my 50 at least an inch apart.

Welcome from a fellow Manitoban, if you are ever out my way (close to Steinbach) be sure to drop in.(you can PM me for a phone #)

Pretty good  for an ornamental shop but doesn't have a lot for an industrial shop like knowing how to set up an upset forging machine or about material calculations

The apprenticeship itself was good you had to work with every machine and different operation in the shop but  but the testing was only open book tests on booklets sent by the ARA Educational Bureau so you could either look up answers to specific questions or study the material and know the answers, either way you passed or rewrote it until you did.

I have been certified as a journeyman blacksmith by the American Railway Association along with the 20 plus blacksmiths in the shop I used to work at, that said some of them were excellent blacksmiths and others not so much. I suppose if the testing had been more rigorous not as many would have become journeyman but really it mostly just certified that you had done your time.

I guess you're not close enough to Moony or Forgemaster? They have hammers that can do that.

I agree, that said, when I was an industrial smith everything was one heat. If a piece required more it was another operation and I find myself thinking through a job that way especially when I'm pricing out a larger job.

A quick little vid of my shop

Thanks Frosty, I should add that there are 10 heats per piece right now and one more for a bend I need to put in.

Thanks Bruce, they're gong into a nice timberframe I think its gonna look good.

Just thought I'd show what I've been working on. These all started as 20" of 1/2" x 1 1/2" bar and are now 32 1/2" long.

I think that two blocks, one sliding, with holes slightly larger than 1/4" that line up when open would work better for you.

Cool, that should work.

That is the results from a Jominy end quench test which is done with water, that said, in practice a steel with as high hardenability as 4150 should be quenched in oil.

My book shows an end quench hardness of 58 to 64 HRC at a 1/4" . The 47 HRC shown in the google search is for a 4" round.

I too am interested in the possibilities of hydrogen or Brown's gas as fuel for forging but haven't been able to figure out how big a eletrolysis set-up one would need. I really don't see that (with proper handling) hydrogen would be any more dangerous than propane.