basher

thats a nice hammer...I have found that it is much easier to weld wrought iron to steel in a gas forge than in a coke or coal forge, it's something I do quite regularly welding at steel temp. As an aside My first forging hammer was made like this and I eventually beat the face off of it. there was a curved nail holding the steel onto the wrought body and it must have been used to hold the pieces together during welding. I put it somewhere "safe" about 20 years ago so I wouldn't lose it.......maybe I'll find it one day.

I used to wonder what they are for but over the years I have found mine quite usefull. Mine has a dish in it and I have in the past made 1000"s of candle sconses, I use the V and large half round swages for sorge welding sword tips into . and closing bird mouth welsa. The other half rounds are great for supporting round stock that needs forge welding or cleaning up. I have modified the edges of some of the half round swages to use for turning the swaged handles of little blacksmiths knives I make. I have mine mounted high it makes it much easier to work.

I have gad good results grinding surfaces clean at 36 grit then applying wd40 and immediately welding around the billet (MIG). then soaking at welding head and heavy forging under press and power hammer , the important thing is to increase the weld surface area a lot at least double it. i forge strait to finished knife thickness as thick billets will tend to crack the core. Ive also used argon and oil and weld is easier.

This is not a practice I have ever seen a profesional smith working with carbon steel do? or heard of one doing in the modern world...I have come across it in old machenery manuals but assume it is redundant apart from very specific instances (complex crosssectional changes come to mind.)

really goods to see especialy the pedal stop. I really dont like the progression of clamp then light blow - heavy blow on these hammers and thats a simple solution. I also like the oil trap nice work. I will be bringing my 1/2 hundredweight back into the shop this year and may well make those changes.

I built mine from a hydraulic reduction box for elevating a naval gun not sure on torque but more than Ric"s as I remember emailing him (na na na na) ! previous incarnations were a lift reduction box and an altered pipe threader (hand twisting) which would easily do 2" square carbon steel hot ,easy work out that is.. they don't have to be that big and motors are not ott if you have enough reduction. but need to have a stiff frame or your machine becomes a pretzel.

I asked Salem Straub...Who does some amazing patternwelding. In modern terms, it was coined by Rodrigo Sfreddo, who has used it extensively in his work. It’s basically a stack of fine layers/thick layers/fine layers, then twisted... as seen in some migration era pattern welding (and perhaps a specific Merovingian sword that Rodrigo saw?) it’s quite striking.

so its definatly possible to melt copper with propane. I have cast a copper Tueiron plate for my smelting furnace with a blown burner (7 or 8 lb of scrap sheet copper)...one thing that may effect a ventury burner is the small gap between the crucible and firnace wall. this will creat a lot of back pressure. I would scale everything down smaller crucible less copper . pop a bit of charcoal in the crucible to help reduce the copper oxide if you get molten copper then add some more charcoal as oxidisation is a problem with copper melting. one thing to keep in mind is that the temp needed to actually get metals liquid is quite a bit above thier theoretical melting temp.

I wonder who came up with the name?

there is absolutly no problem in tempering in oil or low temp salts from a technical POV. there is no reason that oil would over temper a blade at a gvien temperature and one of the reasons to use oil or salts is that they do circulate thus regulating the temperature. I have done over a hundred swords this way. you will need a thermocouple of some kind though. If somthing is going wrong I would look at your overall HT. also check for decarb that can lead to soft outsides on the blade causing a file to bite into the skin and a blade to take a set rather than springing back a little post HT grinding can remedy this. the currents causing warpage in tempering ??? never heard of that but sword blades do move whenever heated or cooled. A word of warning though. hot oil or salts are potentialy dangerous and I have had a couple of tubes of 250C oil boil up out of the tube because of moisture in emulsified oil on a blade and cool oil on a blade going into hot oil....I no longer use this technique for that reason. so be carefull and do your research.

Back to the origional post...what is"Merovingian pattern" is it a modern American thing? I have seen the term come up a few times but cant place it exactly it looks like a variation of stacked multybar swists certainly not historical or Merovingian in any way as far as I can tell. what defines Merovingian pattern in its modern context?

Well I would say go for it! but the truth of the matter is that if it is rite for you you will have no choice.... so there you go. I feel incredibly lucky to have found Job that gives me so much satisfaction...so many people do not get that chance. Is blacksmithing rite for you ...I don't know . but I would recommend trying it. see if you can make it work...or if it works for you. I have had a 25 year long relationship with my craft (23 years as a pro) and its been the making of me...ups and downs for sure and hard work most of the time . but interesting always .. anyhow Im off out to the forge to teach a knifemaking class...have a good day!

welcome to the craft , lots to learn and do. have fun!

If it is a well controlled hammer then yes but it may well not be as efficient as a smaller faster hitting hammer.....I use my 110lb air hammers a lot more than my 225lb one they are better scaled for the work I do.

Thanks for that Tim. It looks like you are running your burner rich (at least mine would be with that choke setting) ... So there is definitely a difference in sound...hard to tell what that means in real world. I will go out and take a reading of my burners to get an idea of what 6 or 7 db really means. I am going to experiment with bigger burners and multiple ones turned down as well and but a 1 1/4 and a 1 1/2 burner (I have a 2"!) . My quest is for a quieter forge, I teach with 4 gas forges running and find that I am starting to lose my voice over a few days! I run my burners at between 14 and 28psi (one and two bar). I do wonder if somthing as simple as a metal box around the burner port would make a big diference...

Tinkertim , is the burner quieter than a standard burner arrangement with the Amal?

Id be very interested in what you do, do you have the short choke amal mixer for use in ribon burners? I think its designed for fish fry type burner rings but should work for this aplication. I bought the mixer years ago but have never made the burner...

will need more info lots of things that can go wrong, If you have a power hammer why are you doing this by hand? have a look at the YOUTUBE vids by brent bailey. great info there.

these anvils are harder than most anvils (because hard material is being hit upon them, to an extent work hardening them.) check for little surface cracks or little round chips on the face I have come acrosss theese a few times. I really like these anvils fto forge on.

well, I have come across a couple of similar old tim smiths in the UK. Armoured in their self sycophantic certainty. I am not surprised that they exist in other places as well. There is wisdom in a lot of the old ways but often it is buried amid a pile of dung or festers with its later incarnations.

Id be really interested in anyones experiences and pitfalls with these kits. I am luckily sorted for power hammers but ever since I saw Kens hammers I have fancied making one of these as a project. they seem so controleable.

What a great find. the hole on the top of the anvil could be for mounting small anvil stakes that would have a rod on the bottom of them that goes into the hole. to loosen them you could tap from below. or the hole could be used for punching through material. the slot would allow the divot (displaced disk of punched material) to be knocked through the work piece. its quite possible that the bottom hole is for a stake of some kind to mount the block into wood. I would not be at all surprised if the anvil had some kind of horn on it at some point, it looks to me like the original outline is corroded and this is eaten away..

not all leaf springs are hardenable, some of the stack may well be mild steel. if it was a single spring its most likly to be a carbon steel. canola does slow down over time/ use as it oxidises so needs to be refreshed every now and then mine lasts a year or so.

expect to pay quite a lot more than £2 a kg for decent carbon steel, most of the stuff I get is in the £3 to £7 range smaller pieces will cost more per Kg .

Pnone them up, andy at furnival is great to use. just remember steel is bought in nominal lengths , 5m 7m or in sheets etc so dont expect to but little bits. you can but smaller bits from ebay Uk.