basher

anvils are tools .I see no problem in welding tabs onto one to make it do its job better .you are after all going to be smacking it with a big hammer ! and as you mention it drilling 1/4 holes into the feet and then coach bolting through those would work well too . or like I said earlier forged brackets would work fine.

luckily the Uk market is not so silly. more anvils less smiths I guess. there has been a rash of Americans buying up everything but not recently. when I started a good 2 1/2 anvil cost £100 ish and now you can get a good one for £200 to 250 often much cheaper . not so rediculous over 16 years. and considering the cost of new anvils............. Ebay is about watching and waiting ...and waiting...and waiting ,,,and waiting. sit by the side of the river for long enough and the heads of all your enemies will come floating past.......

thanks for your replies . I managed to rig my 6 inch piston up to a milling machine power pack I have .the power pack is a bit of an unknown .I am assuming it is a single stage it has an overload bypass valve connected to the pump . its 5.5hp and 18 litres a minute ( 4 US gallon) measured at 12cc a revolution... this gives me about 1/2 inch per second travel on my 6 inch ram . when I put a pressure gauge inline and bottom the ram the system builds up pressure to 1500 psi this takes at least 2 seconds I think I could up the pressure by tweaking the pump bypass valve. how can I speed this "lag " up . my assumption is that a pump of twice the throughput would come up to pressure twice as fast ? I am not going to use this pump however I think it has highlighted the problem I am asking about .

weld it, bolt it, chain it. it really makes no difference as long as it is firm..... and does its job. I have never chained an anvil but have welded a couple to their bases and nailed and screwed a few . the welding holds best in my experience . but a forged to shape and bolted bracket would work well too . use dissimilar rods or pure nickel for best results and peine to stress relieve. anvils are tools and need to be used, a weld is not a permanent alteration if you have an angle grinder to reverse it .

are you serious? Hand forged metalwork is not cheap . if you want to sell it aim for the people with the money. good work deserves to be paid . all the best owen PS I may have a mis understood view of trailer parks being british.

that article by Kevin is great . my advice would be ........ Do whatever feels like it would be more fun! the journey is as important as the result. you will have to harden and temper either way..... make sure you post your results. all the best Owen

yup ...... if that is what they do they get good results , I have a few of there axes. however in "my world" I like repeatability and that means temperature control and fixed time intervals .I get what you mean about the knife geeks attitude to it all ....however after 16 years at it the geek is stronger every day!! there are more than just one model for good practice , But, if you want good results using "old" ways, then you need experience to back up the subtle nuances of those good old ways. its all good use full (usable) information.

The Killij is a beautiful and complex blade . certainly among my favourite as far as aesthetics is concerned . Despite their shape and angularity they manage to maintain grace . I have never seen deadliest warrior ,but from all I have heard from it, just helps to spread the disinformation about swords that is so prevalent . The killij is certainly a lot more Killijy than the Katana , however I would also suggest that the Katana is much much more Katanary than the Killij . Apples and pears..........

I would advise heating the edge and quenching in oil or heating the whole thing and quenching in oil . I would temper in a kitchen oven at 220 to 250 degc . or do the tempering as a seperate opperation . the using residual heat in the un quenched blade to temper is a no no as far as I am concerned as it does not really allow for enough time for martensite to fully form at the edge before you temper.martensite formation is not instant and if you do not allow the blade to fully cool the transformation will happen after the residual heat temper and you could have untempered brittle steel at the edge.

there is often distal taper . one example I have measured goes from 5.5mm at the hilt to 3.8 before the tip thins. They do however vary and in some cases the blade distal tapers and then re thickens towards the point of percussion. In my experience swords differ quite a bit from one to another within one type or period . you will be hard pressed to find any really good info on sword dimensions in books , at least ones that are good enough to make a sword from. its a case of getting to see originals in most cases and that means being polite and professional with museum curators .

I am looking for between 20 and 40 tonnes. and have 4" and 6" bore rams .working out the final tonnage for a given pump is not a problem. the thing I cant work out is how fast this is reached when changing from low to high pressure or in a single stage unit how fast pressure will build when the ram becomes under load. thanks Owen

Dear all , I am about to start making a forging press and have a few questions about pressure transfer and how long pumps and systems take to build up pressure . I have looked in the Batson book and on the pages of this forum and am left with a few questions . I already have a working press .A mills 200tonne and it is a powerful tool but slow .It runs at just under 1/2 inch per second and slower return. It is a one way cylinder with spring return . I can happily use it to squash stuff and for a single forging action it is great. However its slow nature means that all the heat is drawn from the steel in that one operation . I want to make a faster H frame press, however almost all the info I have seen on duel stage pumps seems to high lite to me how slow they are in the second stage high pressure phaze . It seems all well and good having fast approach and retreat but what is a good forging speed for a press in the high pressure stage ? another question I have is , when pressure builds up,how long does that take, by that I mean when the pump switches to high pressure from low how many seconds (or less )before the high pressure side of the system is at full pressure ? now my assumptions around that are that length of hose and hose material must have an effect on this? my large press is a piston pump and seems to not really slow down when it engages hot steel , the motor just strains . I want to make a press for punching and precision hot stamping and hot cutting as well as squaring damascus billets and to add context I already have power hammers, so do not need to duplicate that role . I have accumulated various pumps /power packs rams lever valves and hose over the years and am ready to finally put something together in the new year . so in summery :- How fast does a press need to be during its high pressure stage in order to work for hot forging operations . How long does perssure build up take in duel stage pumps when they switch over . are there any ways to minimise this? would running a single stage pump and larger motor have advantages over duel stage ? Do piston pumps have advantages over gear pumps? thanks in antisipation . Owen

Id be game however my normal heat treatment cycle takes upwards of 4 hours..... 3 normalisations ,quench and double 1 hour temper temper .this is however only around 10 min hands on time.

I don't think so the sword is sold so I cant check .

what material are you trying to weld ? the techniques for welding wrought iron , mild steel and carbon steel all differ slightly . I would advise finding someone to show you as forge welding is one of those things that is much easier to learn from example and hbard to describe .

I would second the fast quenching oil . I changed from a slower oil to a Uk available fast oil and am getting much better through hardness with this mix of steels .In slow oil blades would edge harden but not through harden , this makes for tough blades but they have a tendency towards bending especially longer blades......... also back up heating the oil to 70C as this will speed up the quench a little . I use this steel mix for swords (or the Uk equivilent 15n20 and cs70) and like it a lot. All the best owen

I saw this lovely oliver at the tool museum in Troyes , they also had some great footage of scythe forging as well as an amazing array of anvils and hammers . its quite a place , located in the champaign region of France. It was blocked from its full movement but the small movement allowed felt very fast and free , I think it would have been a great tool.

The sikaflex is a great Tip. I have used it for marine applications and its tough as old boots ,and quite an amazing product . I shall certainly give it a try for this aplication .

Ebay ... they are dirt cheap at the moment . dealers will be 4 or 5 times the cost . what size are you looking for , and for what purpose ?

I only just saw this Thread . I would consider 1095 and w2 to both be shallow hardening , the ones I use have around 0.4% manganese . If oil quenched (in regular speed oil) they will harden a small way up a blade section (a few mm depending on section) . I have some of Don Hansons w2 and it has around 0.2 % manganese . All these steels make good hamon in water , water/ oil or very fast oil . the other steels you mention I would consider to be deep hardening , however you can get good hamon from them , they just have to be treated right . I have used the Uk equivalent ,en9 (1050) , en42 (1075) and with enough thermo cycling (which reduces hardenability),heavy clay and the right oil speed you can get lovely hamon , they tend to be less elaborate than the w2 1095 hamon . People get hamon from O1 and en45 too . Playing with hamon takes time experimentation and persistence at least if you want predictability . there are a lot of variables , manganese being just one .......... Quench medium , quenchant temp , temp of steel , quench interuption, number and type of normalisations , blade section , clay type , clay thickness, clay pattern, color of the moon and which side you are dressing on can all have an effect . It can be a persuit all of its own .

I happily forge blades on good and not so good anvils and find both completly usable. I always like a 2" sharp cornered bit and a 2" clean radius bit . but as has been mentioned before you can make a hardy tool for that . as long as the anvil is not transferring unwanted marks onto your work ir does not have to be perfect .

I have 2 sets og these to restore so all of this is interesting . they really are huge things weighing in at near 200lb . the double bellows are a great piece of folk design . mine have 3 boards and extra rib spacers between them . gonna need a lot of leather to cover them back up .

I'll try on the calendar , and edit my tag etc . and yes tis me ...... I fancied a pseudonym for a change only to be greeted with "hello Owen" on my first post !!!!!

there you go . glad I asked . All the best Owen

I just tried PMing Glenn.....but a not came up saying he was not recieving messages . If no one objects I will put a post up about my classes tomorow . All the best Owen