basher

Time to waste If you do facebook join "iron smelters of the world" group there sometimes there are smelts happening every day. Lee Sauder has a great essaying method for simply ascertaining the quantaties of iron in an ore in small quantities look him up , loads of great info on his website. I thought Ric Furrer was selling ore , at least he was at one time. Smelting with ore you have found yourself is a wonderful thing to do but using a known ore makes life a lot simpler. I have had great luck smelting magnatite, using a commercial grade ore and over twenty smelts with it before going out and hunting my local ore which is siderite. There is nothing like making iron or steel from ore you have dug out of the ground , its quite a thing to do.

I can not post without quoting? anyhow..... I have always seen "traditional" as an in context word, I am following this modern tradition or that ancient tradition. According to the oxford english dictionary:- following or belonging to the customs or ways of behaving that have continued in a group of people or society for a longtime without changing: so in that sense we are all following a modern tradition, alive and kicking and growing not dying. Could it be that a fifth generation Welder (which is more than possible) is indeed more traditional that a blacksmith who considers his work traditional but has made his tradition up. like a new age religion pulling on bits of this and bits of that, from the flotsam of the tide of history? before anyone takes offence that would be how I would view myself, Taking a 7th century craft and sucking at its long dead bones to try and imbue some of its marrow into my 20th and 21st century tradition. In that sense my craft is a resurrected craft risen from the dead after 1300 years......so really a Zombi craft, dead but somehow still walking after all these years in the ground. To the question is what you do traditional? I would answer "Aaaaaargh" or however a zombi would pronounce the word.

and Plunge cuts, or plunge lines are not obligatory, most of the blades from most times , from most cultures don't have them. Some swords some spanish knives and some sheffield knives and a whole load of modern American knives do though. plunge cuts are a case of practice makes perfect. better practices on scrap.

That is a totally awesome first sword. Great Job.

I would be very interested to see how you are working out the angles and tapers of the top die. I have Just hand ground a top die for my 90 lb spring hammer to use as a blade forging hammer. very slightly crowned center with tapers both sides It is a suck it and see work in progress. There is enough hammer ajustment to re flatten the die If I am way out . so far so good though.

The forge-in is held at Bushfire forge on the london - kent border.......UK

It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce the 2016 Bushfire Forge 'Forge - In'. It will be held on the 6th, 7th and 8th of May 2016. There will be 3 days of demonstrations, lectures and forging with frolics in the evening. Demonstrations and Lectures by:- Jesus Hernandez USA Lee Sauder USA Dr Fabrice Cognot France Josh Burrell UK Rod Hughes UK Will Catchaside UK Paul Mortimer UK There will also be a smelt and chances to have a go at forging and using the school facilities. I now have 5 hammers running and may well have a 6th on the go by then. These are friendly international events. They are a great way to meet some of the worlds best Bladesmiths and tap into a wealth of information that you would be hard pushed to find elsewhere on the planet ! Forge-In price : £130 (this includes attendance to the 3 day forge-in and food on the Saturday night. Accommodation and your daily food is not included but there is a limited amount of crash space. For details about accommodation please contact us on the email below. I run the forge in on a non profit basis and all the money you pay (and then some) goes to the costs of running the event.)

I think the 15 minutes forging can save a hours grinding in now just as redundant as the "compressing grain" myth. unless you have a very big or very fast power hammer or a very underpowered grinder , or are working from weird big stock. Damascus steel is the exception and you have to forge your own stock..... Yay. for a simple blade ,from flat stock I could certainly rough grind it a lot quicker than forge it . But forging is more fun! .....grinding ain't too bad when you get quick and good (it can be proper satisfying)

clay thickness will depend on your steel type, hardening temp, quenchant type, quenchant temp , normalising regime, blade thickness and angle of grind..... Its a suck it and see kind of deal.

It is not necessary for there to be any liquid state between the pieces of metal in a forge weld, in the majority of cases in my work the forge weld is without doubt a solid phaze weld. I weld at 1250 to 1350CC the material I weld (carbon steel) is not molten until around 1450 and up. It is very hard to argue that there is no liquid phaze in the traditional British no flux weld as the surface of the material is either slightly molten or burning (molten and heavily oxidising), However most if not all of the molten material is ejected around the shop when you hammer weld so the core weld is really still solid material to solid material. The sparking outside of the material is really there to allow the surface oxide to be gotten rid of. My 3 legged stool for welding is Temperature and pressure and Time with the caveat that the welding occurs in the absence of oxygen or at least surface oxide. The Tylecote book is a good one , a shame its so expensive. I have bought multiple copies when I found it cheap and keep them as Smith- gifts. Great Post Joel.

I am lucky enough to be friends with a few abs journyman and master smiths and quite a few smiths of equal talent who are not members. Horses for courses. I must say the the ABS master smiths have been as helpful , human and inventive as the other smiths (whom I would consider masters as well). I attended 5 weeks of ABS classes in the summer of 95 and it was a solid foundation to base my bladesmithing on, I believe I learned as much in 5 weeks as I had in the previous year at blacksmithing college, so I am grateful for that. The ABS are a force in bladesmithing and there is no denying that they have done well for their corner , that is their job. I am not a member , their way of knife-making does not really match mine, I am very happy in my own skin. however they are just a bunch of people doing a good job of promoting their craft. so good on them.

Its almost certainly not wootz, and much more likely old ore crushing balls. There are a lot of these going around sold as antique wootz.

I really like that axe, it is superbly understated and I love the forge marks. All the ebst Owen

I have a lot of hammers, and make them and love them. Truth be told though I like some of the 50p boot fair hammers as much as the ones i have made myself and the rare old ones I have.... I have had quite a few cast hammers chip on me , but then also quite a few drop forged ones also . and I have cast hammers that have done good work for 20 years. it depends upon the individual manufacturer their steel and HT.

Here is a great Vid of this Years ore to knife class, Two smelts, one a siderite magnetite smelt to make iron and then building a furnace and running a magnetite smelt to make steel and then forging a knife from the results. thanks To Drew Henson for filming it and putting it together. It was a great week and I had fun with the class , and we made some cool knives from rock! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjqPMkfAwoM&feature=youtu.be

the steel is under tension, however when anything is forges off centre there can be a lot of wracking that is quite capable of very large forces in other directions. if you want to punch with stripper dies then its under compression. it is a neat idea size wise but I would not be comfortable with that little metal...if it were mine.

what are you building the press to do? that will flex like nobody s business. and with a 3 Hp motor you are going to be pushed for speed at that pressure if the pump is single estage.is the pump 2 stage or one. no reason not to build a tiny press though its a good idea.

Well its in and running. Paint is RED not PINK! Here is the broken out slide side and our fix , forged and welded up mild steel corset , I added 40mm extra to the bottom of the die sides to take lateral force from off centre forging, we added a lot of metal I think its enough. no welding to the original casting. It all seems to slide well , i have not used it in anger yet...

great project Daniel, I would not pre destine the number of folds I have found its often more than 12 but can be less, you will lose carbon the more you fold.. I use the same construction and material choices for a lot of the bloomery blades I make. The Japanese method of cutting across the bar for one fold and then lengthwise for one makes a reral difference in axposing all of the billet to the air and allowing the crus to come out. What are you going to quench in? I look forward to seeing what you make.

are you insuring your tools and stock? E and B charged me for every class I teach separately £30 to £70 a class. Basic IW cover is around the £100 mark.

Its 550lb...

I have finaly fitted some general forging dies for the blacksmiths knives I make. A rounded edge flat tool , a fuller and a very slight concave raised tool, I will add a hardy and bending fingers.

My experience is much like joel, I saved over £700 a year changing to ian wallace from eastlake and beachel.

I dont do any site work, they have always been up front about not offering instillation cover, I always figured that I would take out eastlake and beachel cover if I got an instillation job that was worth the effort. As it stands I just don't do that work anymore.

Here is my latest anvil. A toolmakers anvil of some kind. Not sure of the weight , it should be here next week. I am making up some tooling today for another anvil similar to this that i now have as my workshop anvil.