basher

Thomas, do you have a book list somewhere?. I love looking through your posts to find the affordable books among the rare ones and my shelves sit a little heavier for it.

I want to make a ribbon burner using a venturi gas mixer from amal. These gas mixers are made for using with ribbon burners (of the comercial catering type I presume) and I saw a great example of a glass glory hole made using one..... unfortunately the glory hole owner was not over keen on letting me have a good close look at the burner head so I am left with a few questions regarding making up a burner head.. I would have bought a head off of the glass blower except for the fact it was scaled far too big for a smithing forge. The example I saw was a pepper pot arrangement and gave a very diffused hot QUIET flame! I have an assumption that I must match the surface area of the burner holes to the surface area of the incoming pipe , the gas mixer mates up to 1" pipe and my thoughts are that I should probably be looking for a surface area of burner holes that is greater than that.... any rules of thumb would be appreciated. All the best Owen

I tried the around ear ones in america, they were great but a bit risky to have exposed full time in a workshop (for the cost of them). I have been using sony noise cancelling ones and they were good . the bose in ear ones seem amazing so far (completly wash out a hair dryer up close) into the workshop today to try them out against the grinder . spotify and sound cancelling headphones change grinding from a task into a road trip.....

I got a pair of Bose sound cancelling headphones to wear when I grind....... Ah the sweet sound of silence.

second hand blowers on ebay all the time for 20 to 40 quid. I have picked up a couple of bouncy castle blowers for a tenner. side channel blowers are amazing quiet and supremely powerful , if you can find one cheap.

Hi James, yes... one and the same... I have 3 of these blades to do in Jan / feb and possably a couple more for myself. so a bit more to show and tell when they are done.

have you tried 3m cubitron? the best I have used so far (by a long way). I would love to try the norton (fairly certain they are not available in the UK) I adhere to the use them as if they are free motto.

Chris Topp is quite expensive. KG smith is a lot cheaper and will deliver uk wide.... it may be that the Topp fuel is better quality though.

I am glad you can still get satanite as the similar products we have here are full of grog (not much good for hamon). I have a limited supply and will now hunt out some more. I use satanite along with anti scaling compound I first do a thin wash on the whole blade and let it dry. then mix up the satanite with a little water to a nice smooth paste (with a hand whisk or powered blender) .the paste has the consistency of between ketchup and toothpaste. I apply with coffee stirrers and toothpicks , putting a tooth pic into water to pick up a drop and then dragging satanite from the back of the blade along with the drop of water to form ashi lines. I cook the whole blade + clay at 70C in an oven. How the hamon follows the clay (or not) depends upon :- steel type, blade geometry, clay thickness, quench medium be it water , water then oil or fast oil. steel temp at quench and soak time as well as normalising . multiple normalisations can reduce the hardenability of medium hardening steels to make them suitable for hamon. you have to really chose one suitable steel and blade geometry and try it again and again to get any understanding of how the clay affects the hardening of the blade. have fun and post pictures.

That is just wonderful. great job, is it reminiscent of some kind of boat shape? do you have a link to the original piece?

better in this case is :- Cheaper in the uk coke is £450 a tonne( int north coal is much cheaper I have seen £250 a tonne), charcoal £750 to £1200 a tonne. If you are a hobbiest then you can make it but at a blacksmiths rate I would dread to think what charcoal would cost. Much less hassle to use (coke and coal form easy to remove clinker as opposed to all the ash from charcoal so no shovelling out the fire after a few hours burn. hotter (in the real situation of a modern forge).........I know you can smelt with charcoal etc. I know its theoretically hotter, but you end up having to run such a big charcoal fire to equal a small coke or tiny coal fire its a little ridiculous if there are other options. I find charcoal smokier than coke not as bad as coal. I use around a tonne of coke a year....... around 650kg charcoal (for smelting and lighting the coke fire) and around 1500 to 2000 kg of propane............... If I did not smelt I would not use much charcoal. just a bit to light the forge and cook steak. The vast majority of modern western smiths use fossil fuel other than charcoal for these good reasons.............and probably others too. At a pinch charcoal will certainly do the job.

cheers..... I often burn handles in hot, or at temper temp. when burning in hot I will normally remove some of the char to aid with gluing. my normal practice is to temper the tang (up to sub critical) in the process bleeding the temper into the beginning of the blade. burning in is a usefull process but is dependant greatly upon using a wood suited to it.

It is often worth mentioning that often people are buying into "YOU" !!!!!

Thank you all for the kind words. I have been lucky enough to be involved in quite a few television programs and whilst they can be fun it is incredibly rare that they really see the beauty in the craft. I did managed to have a peek behind one of the slow mo cameras one time and was blown away by how good flames were (in this case just slowed down to 1/3 speed). the camera technology has only just become affordable. ......and even gnarly hairy blacksmiths can look ok in black and white!!! I have some other footage that we took at the same time that will be out there soon.

I often forge with coke and charcoal mixed together as I find it has a slightly less oxidising effect. on its own charcoal is so incredibly expensive and consumed so fast, it is however quite nice to forge in when you get used to it.

Dear all. Here is a youtube link to a short film that I got my brother to make for me. it shows the forging of a kitchen knife...

I buy them by the hundred they are cheap as chips.....

I just finished a great weekend with 8 students. 8 students 3 days 16 axes... Half punched and drifted in en9 (1050) and half bow tie folded and forge welded. It was an incredibly satisfying class. The axes. the class

good job. I have a few pieces of Japanese Tamahagane that I will be incorporating into a sword for my father before april next year.........

"20 plus years, and I still have a lot to learn." from Steve Sells..... I resemble that remark....... 20 years full time from next June and as much is ahead as behind me (I hope!!)

hi, is the original tamahagane of Japanese origin or material that you smelted yourself? either way the blade has good hada.

I was taught a great mantra by Mike Blue..... As we forge the steel ......the steel forges us. It's certainly true. We are human and flighty and do well......or not. The steel does not give a monkies about that..... Forge it......forge it.....again........and again........and again......and again and again. Once you have cocked it up enough it really does not matter when it goes wrong again. So you can accept your latest effort as just that...your latest effort ...or not. In the end you have to make a compromise.... We all do.

you can look at it two ways. either you use kite marked light fittings that are running through your steel frame..... or you have to get your particular design kite marked , i looked into it around 10 years ago and it was around £2500 per design from a consultant. different height of object = different design. or a third way is to get the clients electrician to wire it up, and have that in writing.

I would imagine it has something to do with the action of setting material back up into the bar...

Theo, I tend to weld with what I would call a slight reducing atmosphere with flames out of the door. I brought the forge up to welding heat and choked the air flow down a little so that it is more reducing and just welded as normal. A reducing flame is colder than a neutral flame so in my set up you may have to play with how reducing you go so as to maintain the heat. It is unnerving welding without flux as a visual reference but it defiantly works. I cant really make give any advice after one go but I think I will be trying it more..