SReynolds

Yours looks like the original. I replaced mine with a 1/4" steel plate. I use it as is. No clay. There isn't any need for it. It is called the Champion 145 w/Eureka Blower

No or very very little smoke when you light a fire off with the coke. What would you do with the coke from the previous fire? Throw it out?

You have a forge fire for x number of hours, ain't 'cha supposed to be making the coke then?

So I got a copy of Mr. Postman's book. I was searching for the Black Jack brand but nothing came to light. I also looked in the index but no such thing. I recalled someone on this site that Hay Budden made them. I thought that odd and dismissed it but thought it's worth a try. Reading about the Brooklyn NY manufacturer, I did come across a list  of brands made by HB, and there it was. Not much to say other than it says Keen Cutter Black Jack. I have no idea what that is in reference to but my anvil says Black Jack. The hardware store was in St Lewis and it has a name I cannot recall at the moment..........

That was about it. Went on to say these hardware stores decided to market the HB brand and not their own as the anvils were that good. Except for Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Wards.  They have really big heads and wanted to market their own name.

The three manufacturing styles of HB was a new read for me with the original, heavy top and then the all steel top half. I didn't know that. I know mine is a welded 1/4 steel plate so book says about 1900 era.

Darn right it catches fire! In a BIG WAY too. Holy cow! ! ! !

We- are- on- fire!

You know....you just gotta laugh. I mean about information. It's just dumb. For real.

The Homesteaders Blacksmith book ( me thinks it called Blacksmithing for the Homesteader??)  does CLEARLY state to apply bees wax at a RED HEAT.

You have ALL been doing it WRONG!!!! Now get back out there and RE-heat that project to a nice reddish glow and apply it correctly. darn-it!

A student of mine recently purchased a Fisher. It is cast iron with high carbon face. Somewhere I have an add for them from an old magazine but thus far cannot locate it. Are they all cast iron/high carbon face?

Number one. If you are a mod...............on this site....can you please let folks know where the topic/thread went to? Reading about forge welding tricks and tips under Blacksmithing but this topic is moved.............

No rhyme here.

Number two. Sand; it say in book that sand is used for higher carbon steels. soooo.........what gives? Sand wasn't used to weld wrought. nothing is used from books I have, as it simply doesn't require a flux. sooo..........back to sand. If you use sand top flux high(er) carbon steel ......and it melts at a higher temp.......how is it used to weld high(er) carbon steel? (cuz it welds at a lower temp/must be welded at a lower temp) 

that don't add up.

Found a bag of 100% silica. It says so on the bag........So I heated a section of 1/8 by 1" wide with the Oxy Acetylene torch. Not the forge. I simply wanted to see what it looks like when sprinkled on hot (bright orange) But it didn't do anything. Unlike Borax, which melts even at red heat.I was looking for it to melt and run a bit.

So.....the smithing book says clean sand. Doesn't say what for sand or how clean. Free from rat droppings I assume? Looks clean to me as it is intended for sand blasting. Very fine sand,,,,cream colored with a few black specks (maybe dark brown?) Books says to mix one part Borax to two parts clean sand. This is for high carbon steel but I wanted to try with low carbon steel 1018. Books say iron and low carbon steel won't require any flux. Which I often times weld w/o a flux.

So will it melt and form a glass inside the forge fire? How about a mix of 50-50? Forget about it and just use the Borax I suppose?

I have the Homesteaders Blacksmithing book and it simply mentions sand. No borax. Just the sand. Not what for sand. Just says "sand"

It does something....else. That is sure. It don't break up any clinker to my knowledge. I should take a pic of my ash dump pan. It is pea sized and smaller ground clinker and a small bit of coke.

Involved with; Guitar. Banjo. Antique tractors. Diesel pickups. Guns. Ammo. Bicycling.  Steam locomotives. Ohio canals history.  Civil war. Thoroughbred Horse racing. WWII Aircraft

College degree in heavy equipment repair. Automotive repair.  Welding.

Instructor of blacksmithing for Ohio Historical society/connection and operating a school bus garage.....for the local school district. 

That is what it is. I have never used one that seems to work. I have never seen a new one. What I see is what you have. The clinker breaker swings side to side under the slots. The weighted handle keeps it centered. Problem: the clinker breaker is 1/4-1/2 inch UNDER the slots.  What does that do for clearing the holes? 

The one I use time to time must be cleared out with a fire poker. 

So looking at the Canedy Otto brand this weekend.  It has a ball with a slotted hole. It rotates side to side. So what on earth clears ckinker from the slot? Rotating it side to side? ? ? ? ?

So the one I built is similar to centour forge.  A ball.  Rotated inside a slot. It chews up everything in its path and spits it out the ash dump. Only one that makes sense.

Yes  10-4 Roger that three weld thing.

Done mentioned that.

You're killing me here

2 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Idle Vise, Idle Vise, Bless my workshop forever!

Oh.....Jeezzzzz.

I honestly never accounted for the endless Julie Andrews innuendos. My bad.

Plan accordingly I guess............

On 4/22/2016 at 6:05 AM, Alan Evans said:

We have so many rules and regulations with which we must conform that we certainly do not need to impose any arbitrary conditions on ourselves.

"Because I have always done it that way"

"Because ....(insert name of favourite guru...) demonstrated making a turnip twaddler (nice universal object Thomas!) with it set that way, I must keep the faith and never deviate".

It is your anvil and hammer and hearth and your project... do whatever you feel is right, and find most comfortable on the day.

Alan

I have worked with a smith who informed me "a jig has no place in a real smith's shop". "A real smith makes all items on the anvil w/o cheating" (aka employing a jig)

I thought I had a real fire and a real anvil along with a real hammer, but apparently the fence posts I make are imaginary as I have employed a jig. I guess they **could** be used to support an imaginary chain, around an imaginary fire to-which hangs an imaginary copper kettle, holding within imaginary apple butter............ 

12 hours ago, JHCC said:

My holding tool is standing unused.

It's an idle vise.

 

The hills are truly alive!

I work very little with high carbon as it can be tricky to weld. Easier to weld low carbon to high carbon. But also, I will add, if you follow T Joe's method (looking for the steel to just begin to spark (burn) you can weld all sorts of low carbon. I mean, you can literally try to NOT weld it and it will. Do it with a can of Mt Dew soda in one hand. It just WANTS to weld. I mean two separate pieces. Not that folding stuff where you have got one piece. But two. Real real easy. But you gotta have that extra oxygen thing going. Now...if you leave it in there after it begins to spark a bit it WILL burn apart, obviously.

I just grab up scrap steel I have (1018) and fuse it together. No trick at all. 

yes. Sorry. 

EDELWEISS

...one of them Austrian mechanical holder things????

Right-o 

But the blower mounts onto the forge.  Right there on the left corner.  But either way it gets air. 

Well. Yea. That makes sense. You have a gas forge or maybe electric blower but I was taught making horse shoes with horn to my left and that is how I do it but almost everything else I use an anvil with horn to the right.

With the bellows lever on my left I  have to remember to back away from forge to turn left, to the right handed anvil ,otherwise the lever plants itself onto my forehead. I usually rotate right, to the left handed anvil.

I like a left hand set-up. Left hand position anvil (horn to my right) and left hand crank blower (crank on my right) 

I suppose there are advantages to either method but I was wondering if any others are right handed and prefer the lefty set-up?

Namely;  I don't swap tongs(hands) when I rotate towards the anvil. And my hardie cutter isn't near my hammer hand.

I never understood the blower placement description in the Canedy Otto catalog ; right handed Smith's the blower is set up with such and such a pipe (standard) but left handed blower pipe (and tuyere) are furnished as special equipment. 

Why did smiths want the blower (and bellows) on the left if they were right handed? To exercise that arm?

I found one like that this weekend at the blacksmith store. If I look in the catalog I can say the model name.

I didn't want to know the asking price. 

275.00

I traded the dealer an old junk 400 Champion gear case  He knocked off 100.00 It was servicable but sounds like rocks tumbling around.

It looks dark in the pictures but its maroon red. I have seen a few others that color.

Oh .....wait. .....

"this is not the blower I have been looking for"

"I need to send it to you for disposal"