Backwoods Blacksmith

OLD OLD myth. Don't know where it started or when. Has been disproved many times. I think it may have been an excuse for not being able to make a weld. If you use virgin blood she has to be over 16. Hard to find. Not impossable, just hard.

Nice!!!! What material?

You could find and buy a 20lb sledge hammer head and use it. I don't think this would do the job for you. If you were stranded on a desert island and had no choice. Keep looking.

Beth, I really like the texture on your hangers, The nature look really comes through. Your trellises look great. I am trying to get away from the early american, colonial look and more of the plant, nature, curvey, twisty, leafy stuff. Hope to post pics soon. Great work.

I was able to get some 2 1/2 square 4140 to make the dies. I machined the minimum off to clean them up. I left most of the corner radius and left them flat as I will be making top tools instead of combo dies. I sent them out for heat treat. 50RC. Cost about $ 100.00 with shipping both ways. Just got done making a hack and a butcher from leaf spring. One piece with the handle drawn out. Am able to feather the air and knock the corners and round them up. I would not want to do this by hand The 3 in cylinder uses lots of air. Got the pressure turned down to 90 psi. Works great. I recommend the Clifton Ralph videos. Lots of good ideas. Back to work. Later

I removed the material from the hammer shaft. What I found was, the milling machine I used before was out of tram. I trued it up and just cleaned up all four sides. It was enough out of square to make a difference. I removed about .005 from each side. I ended up flat and square. I used 1/4 UMHW and had no room for shims. when it was mounted on the machine it was bearing hard on the four corners in a narrow band. Unmounted it realined, which is why I could move it. I now have .003 to .004 clearence checked with shim stock. Hot metal today. Time to make some tools.

I used a 25 ton log splitter that attached to my tractor. I convereted it to an electric driven pump, removed the wedge and fabed up a stout push block that I can change anvils on. I mostly use it for swadging grapes, tennons and texturing. For some things I like it better than the treadle or power hammer. I can change back to the wedge and still split wood, but since the moter is 220 volt I have to use my generator when in the field. [Don't have the tractor any longer]. I think to be effective, you need at least 20 tons and this means a very stout frame. I like the looks of the one made from heavy I beam using the center web for the upper and lower shelf..

Just closing the joint works pretty well. Use a thin cutoff wheel to cut your coils. If you use a wire cutter it will not leave a square end and will not close up tightly. Most mail used closed links. The better made was punched and rivited. You can make a punch to swadge both end flat at the same time and then punch the holes for the rivet. Use .030 wire for the rivet. You can get clothes hanger gauge wire in bulk roles and this works pretty well also. Good luck and have fun. My buddy Joe made a thigh length, long sleeve shirt with a choif. 45,000 links weight 40 lbs.

Got the hammer running today, finally. Had some air problems and evidently what I felt was plenty of clearence between the hammer shaft and the UMHW was not enough. The shuttle valve is pretty sensitive and does not like ANY back pressure. If you have to assist the shaft to move down with anything but gravity it is too tight. I am talking .002 to .003. I also cut the stroke down from 10 inchs to 8 inchs. I am using a 12 in stroke 3 inch cylinder and the shuttle valve is so quick you can't use all of the stroke. Maybe after it works for a while things will change. It hits pretty hard and tomorrow I will fire up and beat something hot. If I can figure out how to video I will post some resultes. I want to thank Paul Branch for his great book that my project is based on and Beaver Heat Treat for their advise and quick turn around.

Where in S. Oregon? I am in Oakland.

The 3 in cylinder is a definate improvment over the 2 1/2 if you have the air. I think the design was for small air compressors. I used no teflon tape and very little pipe dope on the fittings. Been there before. also am using check vvs on the two exaust ports and inlet. I think the air hose is just crimped enough at the cylinder to cause back pressure. I will be changing that today. Had to get new sensor hose fittings and won't have them till Monday. Mike, once again your head design may require a little more work and planning but the results tell the tale. If I ever wear out my current head/shaft I will end up with the duel shaft, bushing set up. I also went with a foot vv set up to open the exaust instead of a treadle and ball valve.

Thanks for the info. I have a single inlet. I make have a kinked upper cylinder hose causing the problem. It isn't really kinked but it it isn't round either. This may cause enough back pressure to trip the shuttle valve. No binding problems and the hammer will fall under its own weight. I have moved to trip vv up and down with no change in the limited travel. Something is causing the shuttle vv to move too soon. Will know more tomorrow. This will teach me to cut the hose shorter than it needs to be if this is the problem.

Just watched the #3 video. Having a relief in the front of the anvil is a neat feature, and not one that I would have thought of. I set my anvil shaft square and set the dies at 45. I am ready to go if I can get the air straighten out.

Mike, Nice job. I like the head modfication. I just got mine finished and put air to it. Did you have any trouble getting full stroke? I am only gettin about two in strokes. Goes up all the way, trips the limit vv, starts down and then quickly returns up. I have no idea. Plenty of air 100psi delievered to the machine in 3/4 pipe and then 1/2 pipe and hose per the book.

I sure like this. Nicely done.

When I was much younger I did some farrier work. Enough to know that at a dollar a shoe I could make better money as a machinist and would not have to put up with animal related issues. Anyone that makes a living shoeing horses as my admeration and I will send him all the shoeing work I can. But it does get old putting up with the Hollyweird misconseption. No spell check in the drop down box.

Well, I have to agree with the previous sentiments. I know that I have hammered tons of rebar into tent stakes. trivits, campfire tools etc. The same with horse shoes. I think I have horse shoe cowboys in every bank and real estate office between Katherens Landing and Yuma. At the time I was glad to get the free material. Now I am working on useing RR spikes as decore enhancements. I have two 5 gal buckets of them and will be glad to see the bottom. By the way. Is spell check avaliable in this venue? I can't seem to find it in the above tool bar.

Nice forge finish. pretty smooth. Well done.

Well the spelling discusion is intresting, but I have to agree that any activity that knocks your d**k into the dirt needs to be avoided. Having been banged up pretty good several times allows me make that observation. The armour is pretty neat and doesn't get as misformed as you would think. But give them time. Someone is really going to get hurt. And I don't think that OSHA gets involved in "sporting events".

Man. Great hammers. Now I am going to be so bummed pecking away with my home built 75.

Nice

Check out the price of a new fire pot, clinker breaker and tyrue from Centaur Forge and compair it to the condition of the one advertized. This should give you an idea of the value. The table and legs are frosting on the cake.

After cleaning the metal. [i use mineral spirits.] I take a dob of the GP and then dip a small artist brush in clean mineral spirits and mix real well until all is liquid. Then I brush it on. I find that this will get color into any crack or crevass. If using two colors I apply the dark first and then almost dry brush the transition. When dry I polish by hand with a dry flannel cloth. It can also be applied dry with a cloth or by finger tip.

At a minium. 3 times the cost of the material plus the cost of fuel.

I strongly suggest a coal forge. This way you can learn to control your heat in a forgable area. You can wear yourself out by heating too much area and trying to forge it all. Bladesmithing is about control. Don't heat more than you can beat. Now if your neighbors object than coal is out. If so build yourself a small gas forge and purchase a good burner. There are several examples of home built forges on this site. As you skills grow than your equipment can grow with it. It is not what you have but what you can do with it.