blksmth

Looks good to me!

I think those 3M Scotch-brite pads are just what you are looking for. After the initial investment of buying the pad, and considering how well they work, the price isn't so bad.

3M make a great pad for polishing most anything. They are called Scotch-Brite surface conditioning disks. They come in course, medium, fine, and very fine. They are made in several sizes to fit angle grinders. I find the 7" size most useful. With them it is very easy to take out grinding marks, high spots, and put that final shiny polish on hammer heads, anvils, and other tools. These pads attach with a velcro like backing so they are easy to change. They are so much easier to use than different grits of sand paper on a belt grinder or by hand. Last I knew you could buy a pad and 3 grits of disks in a 7" kit for appro. $40. You buy them from machinery supply houses such as Enco or possibly your local tool supplier.

You probably already know this, but the real danger of using molten lead is that if there is any moisture in the hole or even if the rock is moist inside, the lead will explode out of the hole when the lead is being poured into the hole. My father had his eyesight barely saved as he was wearing glasses when some lead exploded out of a hole. He was installing a metal railing on a cement porch. I don't remember for sure, as I was just a little feller helping him, but I think the molten lead flew several feet into the air. Just thought this was worth mentioning.

A V block can be fabricated as simply as electric welding a heavy angle iron (with V up) onto something that fits the hardy hole or into the post vise. If it needs to be stronger, a couple of sides can be welded on to strengthen it. The sides would go from the top of each side of the V down to a plate under it. Of course you can make a V block by drive a square bar edge first into a block of metal. It helps to go from a small bar to a bigger bar gradually unless you have a power hammer that will drive the big bar in directly.

If they are not too thick, cut them out with a hot cut chisel. Otherwise the V Block as suggested should work.

You can see some at: Hasps-Forged-Iron

I seldom use an apron, but I have a drawer full of t-shirts with burn holes in the front from forge welding. I usually (but not always) use a bib leather apron when I use a wire brush on an angle grinder. I like an apron for that better than having all those little wires stuck in my belly.

Some comments on the 3 side draft forges I've used: The first one was of metal and of the Blacksmith Journal design. It's side draft opening was approx. 10" wide and I think about 10" high with a round top. The chimney was 8 pipe approx. 34' tall. The 2 problems with it were: the opening was right next to the rectangular fire pot and it was not handy to have coal piled on the chimney side of the fire pot. The other problem was that it didn't draw well and I had to have another fan in the wall to pull out the smoke that found its way into the shop. The 2nd side draft was of brick and designed so the opening to the chimney was as wide as the fire pot (14") but then tapered back to 11" wide before it went up the chimney (the taper was approx 5" deep). It had 12" flue tile 34' tall. It works very well. The 3rd forge was brick with the same opening to the chimney, but the chimney didn't have clay flu tile so the chimney inside dimensions were approx. 12" X 23" and the chimney was 16' tall. It sucked better than the one with the flue tile. I guess the moral to this story is that the bigger the chimney, the better it will draw. I also know a blacksmith that has a forge hood over his forge. The hood is approx. 5' square and is adjustable up and down. If he doesn't want smoke in his shop, he has to lower the hood to the point that it is uncomfortable to use. He doesn't use it much.

Why not make a side draft forge if you are going to the trouble to use clay flue liners? Then you wouldn't need a forge hood? Colonial Williamsburg uses side draft forges - no hood.

Old car/truck tire nut wrenches (tire irons) work good. Not sure what they are, but some type of medium carbon steel and typically 5/8 to 3/4 inch in diameter or possibly larger. They work for many anvil pritchel holes and some smaller hardy holes. Might be too small for your table. You can leave the nut holding end of the wrench attached as it makes for a larger holding surface and is kind of like a farriers tongs with the hollow. Usually they are cheap at pawn shops etc.

In addition to burning up the oxygen before it gets to your iron, there is another factor and it is very important when a smooth finish is desired. That is to put the iron in the fire as few times as possible. When forging, and when possible, start forging at one end and finish it before going on to the next part. Trying not to reheating the previous finished parts. Also finish forging each part at a lower temperature (low red to black). That is Peter Ross's secret. He never uses a wire brush or soaks in vinegar and his products are smooth and without scale. The problem is that to get good enough at forging for Peter's system to work, one has to become very proficient at making each item. That usually takes making several of the same item and improving each time. If you don't get proficient at making an item so that it can be made in a few heats, then you wire brush and soak overnight in vinegar.

Loken Forge in Omaha, NE uses house pressure natural gas in their forges (.5 water column) or something like that. They are full time blacksmiths doing high end ironwork. They run 2 or 3 of these blacksmith forges. They do all kinds of large 2" bar and smaller forging. They just run the natural gas from a 1/2" iron pipe. No restrictions of any type. The glass blowing shop in the same building uses the same natural gas and same pressure for their glass forges. I don't think they forge weld in them, but I'm not sure. Call them up if you would like more information. I run natural gas at 5 lb. pressure in a blown forge. It cost me approx. $200 to get the pressure pumped up here in the city. I can easily max out my pyrometer at 2500 degrees F. Next time I'll just use regular city pressure as I know it works.

When I attended one of the first Tom Clark/Uri Hofi instructional classes in Potosi, MO., Tom and Uri were making the Uri Hoffi hammer. They were all hand made, and of the ones I looked at, no two were exactly alike. Some were a little flatter, squatter, etc. It looks like both Uri and Tom mechanized the making of their forged hammer to some extent, but I would guess that when it comes to grinding the faces and drawing out the peen, it is still done by hand which allows for some variation. I was given a 2 3/4 lb. hammer for taking the class and purchased a 3 1/4 lb. hammer from them. At some point I ground a little flat on the peen of both hammers, but have since then reground both peens to an approx. 3/4 inch radius and that is where I'll leave them. I guess the point of this is that a blacksmith doesn't always have to keep the original grind on the faces.

That is a nice fire pot!!! I notice that this fire pot would be easier to clean out with a shovel than some. The sides of your fire pot have a nice slant with a smooth transition to the flat bottom (wide enough for a coal shovel). You can slide a shovel down one side and smoothly across the bottom to pick up the clinker and ash. No sharp corners or welds. Most purchased fire pots (Centaur Vulcan, Lawrence Industries, Sofa, etc.) are designed like yours so a shovel can be easily be used to clean out all the debris as needed. So many of the home made fire pots, that I see, taper down to the air inlet (no shovel width flat bottom), which make it more difficult to clean. This is certainly not a big deal, but an easy to clean fire pot is one of those joys of life.

Their are a lot of great forges shown. I particularly like M. Brothers forge as it is simple and I'm sure it works well. Simply a large diameter pipe with a cut out in the bottom. Doesn't get much simpler than that.

BMF, if you chimney is at least 2 feet above anything within 10 feet of the top of the chimney, you should be OK. If not, I'd find some more bricks. You could just try it as it is and see how it does. If OK with the wind blowing from all directions it probably is tall enough. The rain cap should not restrict the air blowing over the top of the chimney. If the opening in the chimney is 12 inches square, then put the bottom of the rain cap at least 12 inches above the chimney.

Reid, the biggest problem is slowing it down enough. I use to have a Sears 14" bandsaw. They made a geared speed reducer for it so it would run slow, much slower than I could ever get by just exchanging pulleys on the band saw. I don't know how slow the motor was slowed for sure, but I think 200 rpm. Don't know if Sears still sells them or not. I gave mine away, but wish I would have kept it. Mine did not have ball bearing guides, but those would be a good idea for metal cutting.

Napakettu, that is a good looking hammer and thanks for sharing with us particularly the Finish method of fixing the handle. Your English is good! Do you have to work at English? I notice the edges of your hammer face are more sharp than rounded. About the only blacksmith I know that likes sharp edges like that is Peter Ross one of the best USA blacksmiths. I use 2 hammers generally, one with edges similar to yours and one that has more rounded edges similar to Uri Hofi's hammers. Are those sharper edges common in Finland? Did your instructors's hammer have the sharper edges? Thanks for your helpl, Dick

Most purchased tongs are made of something like 1050, or 8640, or 8630. For power hammer use tongs are often made of 4140. I make most tongs of mild steel (1018 or A36), but have used about anything including hay rake tines and S1. I think a recent thread on this forum related to tongs made of titanium. Making tongs is great practice. Good luck.

Blk Maple Forge, you will get along fine with yours. I put up my pic's because this is a recurring thread and I finally got around to the pictures. I had a brick mason build mine, but in a couple of years I am going to try to build one myself and I'm not a mason. I am impressed to see that someone else is building one. I hope mine looks as good as yours. I did put a smoke shelf in mine, but I wouldn't do it again, as I don't think they are necessary for a forge unless the room it is in is air tight. Most blacksmiths shops have a window open or are not air tight.

Hardening ductile cast iron with about 4.5% carbon would probably be tricky. Don't think it would act like normal carbon steel. Others on this forum might have a different answer.

Attached are 2 pictures of my forge showing how the opening bricks taper back from 15" wide, next to the Centaur Forge Vulcan (rectangular) fire pot, to about 10 1/2" wide about 6" back from the fire pot. Again it allows coal to be piled on what I call both sides of the fire pot. Actually, coal can be piled on 3 or 4 sides of the fire pot. With a small opening it is not as handy to pile coal there. In the picture the coal is piled about 7" high, but it is not easy to tell by the picture. The bottom 2 bricks on each side of the opening are soft firebricks as that part of the opening is most likely to deteriorate. Firebricks are not necessary, though. The piece I am forging is resting on the face of the chimney for support. If I were to build another brick forge, I would make some of the front bricks stick out a little so it would be easy to rest a forging on without having it fall down, which I have to watch out for. I guess I could drill some holes and put a dowel in the hole to help hold the forging. I do not water the coal on the table, but do water it in the bucket. Some of the coal you see was just put on the table and is still wet and shiny.

Ductile Cast Iron is the material used in many anvils sold today. JHM, TFS, Clif Carrol, anvils and some others are made of ductile cast iron. Ductile Cast Iron can be made with various properties, depending on the composition of the steel and the hardening process used. It is a weaker material than cast steel from a toughness standpoint, but still seems to work pretty well for anvils. Typically hardness is a little on the soft side usually running between RC 43 and RC 52. Touch it with a file to see if it is much softer than the file (RC60 approx.) or about as hard as the file. I wouldn't put that big a radius on the anvil. A much smaller one should work. You might want a 1/8" radius on 4" for use in some forgings. That would be the diameter of a pencil (1/4") approx. Your piece of metal might work for a long time. You might continue to use it after you get your dream anvil.

That looks like a great forge!!!! Are you going up with it or put a pipe on top? This is not a major thing, but I would have made the opening of the chimney 14 to 15 " wide in front next to the firepot and tapered the bricks back to about a 10" wide opening maybe 6" back from the firepot. This would give more room to put a pile of coal on the chimney side of the firepot, while still having a small (10") opening which draws best. If you are going to work from the front (facing the forge) that shouldn't make any diference. Working facing the chimney opening you should be able to have a pile of coal on both sides of the firepot, but you will be limited to how long the iron can be in the forge. I like a coal forge fire to have coal piled on both sides of the firepot and a trench down the middle (where the coke is) for the iron being heated. That is just my opinion, but I don't think everyone does it that way. It was Peter Ross's way, though, and he's a pretty good blacksmith.