basher

I have some titles for some of the forge in demos and lectures....... less than 2 months away ! Lee Sauder Talk "bloomery smelting in Sudan" Demo :- forging the sword fuller (with hammer and anvil) Jesus Hernandez- USA Talk “Reverse engineering the Vehmaa sword pattern welding dilemma.” Demo :- Clay coating and differential hardening of a blade. Jeremy Hodgkinson – UK The iron industry in the Weald from the Iron Age to the Middle Ages Rod Hughes – UK Talk “Making Wax patterns for blade components and how to convert them into historic and modern lost wax moulds” Demo :- Bronze casting Paul Mortimer - UK Talk "Aspects of swords in England during the 5th to 7th centuries." Dr Fabrice Cognot -Vive la France Talk “The evolution of the axe as a weapon in medieval times”

Ah , the ol pirate-blacksmith crossover.......I never knew a smelt was a fish.....

Blacksmiths are very like pirates.......or so they like to think. I always feed a new smelt a little whisky when its lit, keeps the forge spirits happy (or tipsy)

A contact wheel especially a serrated one gives a very aggressive grind , so they are great for hogging, the curved surface opens up the grain and the serrations decrease your surface contact area on the belt so it cuts better. There is also no friction on the platter behind the belt. I do a lot of linear grinding on contact wheels to finish all my work, saves hours of hand finishing. She's works better with soft wheels. I know a few makers who do all,their grinding like this, grinding along the length of the blade on a wheel.

How tight is the ram guide plate? and are you manually lubricating it as it seems to be a part that will not get lube through the internal oiling system. I really needs to only be tight enough to stop the ram rotating and to stop the plate "knocking" ie lifting and dropping with the ram. at least thats my experience. I manually oil the flats before start up.

I am working on the trident end cap, a rolled socket to have at the foot of the trident, high layer damascus. Rolled and forge welded:-

I am not sure anyone would be able to afford my "I've done this before and know what it entails" price....I have enjoyed making it but it has been challenging.....

the timing belt acts as a more resistant concave backing , on this piece all the grind marks have to blend so all the faces of the trident are slightly convex.....the attachment is awesome, I have just bought a couple of grooved wheels off of US ebay to make the same thing for sharpening. you can hog and leave a convex edge , I highly recommend it. the forks are etched... Off to get wood tomorow...

I have been polishing for a couple of days.....hard hard work on the arms. 24 120 240 400 grit almost there... getting there though

I am working on a great project. One that is quite a honour. I do not generally make comissions any more but could not turn this one down... The SEAL insignia is an Eagle holding a trident and a flintlock in front of an anchor. I am Making a Trident for US Navy SQT (SEAL Qualification Training) Class 312. It will be a Graduation Gift to NSWBTC (Navy Special Warfare Basic Training Command). US Navy SEALs tradition to give a graduation gift upon completing training required to become SEALs. So I am making a pattern welded Trident, not a fishing trident but a hero piece, Neptune's trident suitable for use against (big)sea monsters . I have taken my inspiration from the sea, using heavily laddered wavy material and of course pattern weld............I wanted the piece to be reminiscent of harpoons and anchors and wieldable by a by a (very) strong SEAL but not a trident for a mere mortal....... as forged the head is 14lb...... I have found this to be a very challenging piece and I am now on version 3, which ironicaly was my original idea (thanks Mick Maxen for putting me back on the right path towards simplicity). I tried to split the forks from an 8 bar patternweld, but alas it was not to be. and I have a monstrous billet of not wavy enough patternweld that will make some lovely (big)seax....... anyhow here is where I am at the present, the handle is to be wavy ash with a damascus spacer and buttcap.....The prong are wavy random lap welded onto a 3 bar patternweld and the core is the same with 4 bar and forge welded socket. hard to tell size from the pic but its big..... the tips are cod mouthed and forge welded shut... Its a very blacksmithy piece and lots of lap welds , this is the weld between the socket and middle prong... I will up date as I finish the piece...

The auther of that bookDr Tobias Capwell is the curator of the Arms and armour at the wallace collection, in london. He knows his swords and daggers. He also Jousts and has a deeper interest in the manufacture of modern arms and armour than I have come across with other museum curators. A very fine fellow indeed. If you are ever in london the Wallace collection is a must see....

I dress an area of mine on one side as i do a lot of cold bending over the open jaws of a vice and they will dig in if left sharp and leave marks, same for supporting axe heads I have even welded on 40mm round bard to one end of one of my vices to support axe heads with Viking ears (langets) when drifting. I have smashed the forge welded steel Jaws off of two of my leg vices, Until then I thought them indestructible. They are not.....

May I introduce the latest piece from Me and Petr Fliorianek..... Petr is a Czech bladesmith and carver, I am lucky that we have done a lot of pieces together , he is a rare tallent. The blades are mine, all the rest is from the imagination and hand of Petr. in petr's words.... AS i am sure you know, the Trolls are coming down from hills and they are posing huge danger. Lots of cattle and even free folk are missing and we know they fell prey to vicious eottins. All this is calling for a travelling Trollslayers. The grim folk, equipped with strange knowledge and stranger weapons of trade. The fight with troll is different to killing wild beast but also to fight with human opponent. So the weapon needs to be huge, heavy, but with accute point. Some preffer huge spears, some strangely shaped axes, but the most revered use what they call KNIFE, a huge sax. The big one, used for slayin is 90 cm long with 59 cm long blade The blade is 5 bar . wrought at back, with 2 oposed twists made from wrought iron and a low layer 1095 wrought 15n20 mix , there is then a layer of 1050 wollf toothed with the edge 500 layers of the same 1095 wrought 15n20. part of the set is a mormal sized sax, used traditionaly for harvesting a token of victory, claw, ear or even a head of especialy formidable troll... Here they are together some close ups its clad mighty fine too.....leather antler bronze bone garnets..... a mighty truss for a very necessary job.. I hope you like it...

Up until now I have used an analog spool valve to run my press. I have however been very impressed by some of the cycling hydraulic presses I have seen, that run like a power hammer using a microswitch for top of up stroke and a microswitch for bottom bottom of down or a pressure switch whichever kicks in first. I love my press for punching but found it limiting for drawing out work, the limitation being my reaction time at top and bottom of stroke, which sucked into heat time and at the bottom of the stroke cooled the metal too quick. My thoughts were that with tooling set close and a cycling control system the press would really become the tool it always wanted to be. There was some impressive footage of a German press set up like this. I had this idea about 3 years ago and bought a solenoid valve block and some relays and a pressure switch and micro switches and a foot pedal.....anyhow life took over and 3 years passed..... I am back on this idea. At the time I had someone draw me up a circuit diagram. I think it makes sense again. what I want is :- Foot on pedal ram moves down, foot off of pedal ram lifts up until it hits top micro switch then stops. If I keep the pedal down ram moves down until it hits bottom micro switch or reaches pressure , it then cycles up until it hits top switch and then down again and the cycle repeats until the pedal is depressed. here is what I have :- any critique , ideas or suggestions would be most welcome.

I would make up a ring like that cold, either hitting between the open jaws of a leg vice or bending the same way. correct the rind against a drawn circle. minute adjustments are much easier cold. I would not use heat unless you have a handy former,

The optimal speed for my ceramic belts is supposed to be 10 to 15 Metres a second, I find that I prefer around 8 metres a second although I am experimenting with faster speeds. low end will depend upon what you are doing . 0 to 15 metres a second should cover most bases.

That is a nice looking little anvil you have made there. I find it strange that these striking anvils are so small, I can see that from a north American point of view buying a big anvil and low mounting it could be an unrealistic expense. In the Uk big anvils designed for striking come with double hardy holed anvils are plentiful (soho pattern comes to mind) and they are often 500lb and up, would you not be better off with a much, much bigger block. By my calculations that block only weighs just under 50lb, which for me would be too light as a normal anvil let alone one made for use with a sledge hammer. anyhow I am sure you will make the most of it and make some nice stuff with it.

I would advise using the best belts you can afford, and use them only when they are sharp. This can mean a quite steep belts per hour rate. My standard belt progression is 24 grit zirconium pre Ht and 36, 120 240 400 grit ceramic post Ht. I have been experimenting with leavers and other ways of applying body weight to the grinding as most of the modern belts we use are designed for a much higher material pressure and feed rate than we can realistically apply with hand pressure. I have found that my grinding rates have doubled and belts last about 3 times longer.

I would really like to see what this press can do, since seeing it I have met a couple of people who are looking for something like this and are not able to get a decent 3 phaze supply. It would be good to know if this would do what they want. do you know the tonnage and speed of travel and the lpm (or GPM) and max pressure of the pump unit ? I would be really interested in seeing a vid of it in action.

what is a buyers group?

Take it all with a pinch of salt.....big pinch. none of us have a real answer to the problem of being hurt by the forging we do......you can try and learn by peoples mistakes... ie try and not do what has hurt someone else. or you can try and follow an (unproved) way of forging that is being advocated by someone as being correct, and hope they are right. either way, what is being advocated will not be specific to you so you are going to have to find your own path amongst all of the information that is there. I would say that from my experience power tools are the answer.....but even then it is easy to over do it as you can get caught in the cycle of doing more, rather than less in an easier way. a loose grip seems universal as the right way to forge , the rest is anybody's guess.

I used a bit of Progen when I was at hereford in 94, never managed to find it since....I'll have to drop by in 2016 . I would love to have some to play with.

I would recommend that you take the time to go and find someone who has a good running kinyon and someone with a tire hammer and see what they are like in person. I visited 3 smiths with hydraulic presses before I built mine and it was worth the trip (to America from the Uk). If thats not possible then build the machine that you would be most comfortable making and using....Are you familiar with compressed air and its controls or with mechanical moving stuff? I have used both types of hammer and have been impressed by them, I would keep a look out for a ready made old hammer whilst you go about building a new hammer.

My siderite ore is 36% iron before roasting and nearer 50% after , the rock looses 30% of its weight as co2 when roasted. I would have had problems smelting when I first started. it as it produces a lot of slag that has to be dealt with. Smelting is going to cost you time and money and its pointless in this day and age. If you get a chance find someone locally who does it and help them out or take a class. Its much easier to work out what you are doing with a little experience to help you out. It is very satisfying though.......

I have roasted the siderite for most of the smelts I have done, helps to break down the rock and prevents the inevitable explosions from damaging the furnace. The last smelt i did was with heavily weathered siderite crusts (limonite I presume) and it was so small I did not roast it, It was my only complete failure so far in smelting, could be the roasting or the ore. I will roast it If I try that ore again. Siderite breaks down through limonite and quite a few iron oxide forms ,hematite ,magnamite and finally magnatite. I normally break the roasted rock in to small pieces from dust up to 1/2 inch . my local siderite has some sulphur in it n, the roasting does not get rid of it. I had some of the bloom analysed and there is not enough manganese in to to bind up the available sulphur, so there is some free iron sulphide in the bloom. This manifests its self by making the resultant iron orange short. Iron sulfide at the grain boundries melts at 1050C .This was initially incredibly frustrating as the bloomery iron would break and crumble at normal smithing temp...anyhow it forges wonderfully at snowball heat, and then again at red-black , just no where in-between.....its been an interesting ride.