Ohio Rusty

I enjoy telling folks about how fires were started originally not using matches or bic lighters. I love making fire steels. I'll forge a simple firesteel then using that steel and flint, make a fire from charcloth and tinder. People love that !! Fire is part of our basic human instinct so it really relates to what people like. Ohio Rusty ><>

Last week on Wednesday when it was 70 degrees, it was a nice day to be in the shop. I normally make things for the re-enactor community, so I forged a few fun things, hooks, a turn screw and a couple of firesteels. It was nice to get limbered up in front of the anvil. Tomorrow, Wednesday, it will be 70 degrees again. Looking forward to another good shop day !! Ohio Rusty ><>

I am looking for some of the hard kaowool high heat board - 1/4 inch thickness - to put in the bottom of my gas forge.. I only need a piece 14 inches long by 4 inches wide. It can be a little shorter ... like 13 inches. Does any one on the list have some cutoff's of this kind of forge board that would be willing to sell and part with ?? Email me at two_knives@yahoo.com if you have any. Thanks in advance. Ohio Rusty S.E. Ohio

Fortunately ... 5160 steel doesn't bloat up and get maggots like dead cows. I do get fresh road kill deer occasionally. So would I eat a dead deer that got hit by a car along side of the road and given to me by the sheriff ?? HECK YES !!!..... I eat alot of wild game all year long. So ... based on comments from Thomas and other listmembers here about the dangers of mystery metal .... I don't advocate anyone on the list picking up any free steel, free shovels, free crow bars, free tools and free hammers, free wheelweights or any other useful objects they see laying along the road. They may be faulty and might hurt you if you use them due to stress cracks or fractures. As for me ... It's my personal preference to use mystery metal, not any one else's on the list. I'm sorry for trying to share some good ideas with other folks here ...... Probably best if I keep my mouth shut on here anyway ...

Another great use for My Harbor Freight hand held grinder with the cut off wheel. Whack off about 1/2 or 3/4 inch from the break into good steel, and you are good to go with the other 99% of the 5160 steel stock for what ever you want to make ..... Scavenge everything ...... The current bolt thread ?? I pick up those huge bolts all the time along the highway ..... No sense in letting them go to waste rotting along the highway ......... Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

I see you have a nice little brass or copper hammer in the bunch. That copper hammer makes an excellent hammer for cutting hot metal on your cutting hardy in the hole. The soft copper face won't damage the edge of your cutting hardy. Any good sharp edge will work for a cutting hardy. My cutting hardy is a log splitting wedge I lock into the vise. It all works ..... Keep an eye out at flea markets and garage sales for some good files you can get cheaply. You might even come across a few more hammer heads !! Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

I often find pieces of leaf springs and coil spring pieces from cars and trucks along the berm. I usually stop and get them the next day after making a mental note where they were. They are a good source of FREE 5160 steel. Here is a pic of a couple of springs I found this week along I-270. Nothing remarkable looking in the first photo. But the other two photo's show the one with the curl on the end is really thick !!! The common leaf spring shown is 3/8's thick. The thick one I found yesterday is a hair over 3/4's thickness !!! I've never seen a leaf spring this thick. I'm not sure what I'll do with that one. It would take a power hammer to move it. I may cut it in thinner 1/4 inch slices and try to make usable items from those. I need a bumper sticker on my car that says 'This car stops for spring steel! Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

The all metal wagon wheels with the steel spokes are steel. I have one similiar. The larger wheel rim all by itself that went around a wooden wagon wheel is most likely hand forged wrought iron. I see a wood wheel with no rim. The metal bands around the outsde of the hub are also wrought iron in my experience. The wood rim should have a metal hub inside the axel rotated on. That hub is normally just cast iron, same stuff your cast iron skillets are made of. Not really usable for forging. Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

I came across an interesting and useful article of de-cluttering our stuff. I call it decrapifying ........ We all do it and we all have an immense amount of 'stuff' that we 'might use someday'. When I read this article ...I thought the author was using me as the example and talking about me. I thought some folks might find this an interesting read and for others, not so much. I definitely need to be better about decluttering as I know I have a lifetime of stuff ..... some which will not get used. Last year in front of my trade blanket thre at Quad state, I had a big 'free' pile of iron things I accumulated. It was all gone that day. My personal Quadstate Freecycle Program !! Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge http://www.rootsimple.com/2015/02/de-cluttering-for-diyers-homesteaders-artists-preppers-etc/#more-18000

Cut one half way thru, bend it at the fold and see if it looks stringy like wrought iron. If so .... you have some great iron to work with. You are luck to have a lot of them. They are quite expensive now as people are selling them as yard decorations on Craigslist for $100+ ..... Are you selling any of the rim pieces if they are true wrought ?? Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

I've not had one of the cutting wheels disintegrate. As you cut, they get smaller and the sand sized pieces from the cutting disk fly along with the sparks from the metal. I seem to always have grit in my hair ..... I don't wear a hat as that gets in the way of the band that goes arounf my head from the face shield. I concur with BillyO on the goggles. I have the plain, clear wrap around eye protection glasses I wear under the face shield. Ohio Rusty ><>

I bought one of the hand held grinders from Harbor freight that use the 4 and 1/2 inch wheels. I also bought some 10 packs of the thin metal cutting disks. I have cut both thick metal (it was either 1095 or D2 a half inch thick), truck springs, leaf springs, etc. using my hand held cutter. You can lock your piece into a vice and the metal scribed so you can follow the line you want to cut. It is real easy to cut the leaf spring either width ways or long ways if you wanted a longer piece for a knife. I have done both. I always wear leather gloves , a thick cotton apron and one of the Harbor Freight cover your face face masks when I am cutting metal due to the pieces that fly around and the sparks. I also wear eye protection under the face shield as pieces can get under the shield. I think I paid $9.99 for the hand held grinder, $5.99 for the cutting disks and $1.99 for the face shield. The gloves were probably 2 bucks. I have cut everything from spring steel to wrought iron with this set up and it works well for me. You don't need a $500.00 cut off saw to cut metal pieces to forge. Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

Are there any Forts, stations, historical villages or historical outposts somewhere near you ?? Penna. was chock full of historical places starting in the early 1700's, all thru the revolutionary war and beyond. All of those places mentioned could have a blacksmith shop where you can volunteer if you talk with the site manager. Most sites are happy to have volunteers. Then you can pound away every weekend. Most places have a shop manager that can also help teach you what you need to know. Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

Nice work !!! Those hooks will last the new owner forever. Railroad spikes are still good steel for lots and lots of projects. Railroad spikes are an alloy that is tough and will take abuse without breaking. All sorts of good items can be made from them ..... Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

Does he brush them with a bronze brush when hot ?? Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

I have tried to forge some of the older flatware that I have come across and it either melted or crumbled in the forge. In looking at the flatware, it appears it was made of like a white brass then given a silver type of plating. On the old butter knives with the round end blades, the blades are steel, but the fat handles are again this white brass. Most flatware I see is stainless. If you can find any that is real silver, you can probably bend it without forging it. Plain steel/iron flatware isn't common, probably because it rusted easily. I have a few of the three tine and 4 tine forks with the bone or wood handles and those were carbon steel as they rust unless you keep them clean and coated with something like mineral oil (which is food safe). Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

That would also look nice with a copper collar ..... Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

I do that all the time!!. I just finished 20 small wall/beam hooks. They were forged to shape then wire brushed down to clean metal. The wax is a combination of beeswax, boiled linseed oil and japan dryer. The wax was melted by the heat of the forge to liquid, then each hook was well heated (no color) and dunked into the liquid wax. It would smoke for a moment. They were then pulled out and laid aside until cool. The heated hooks absorbs the wax coating into the pores on the surface making them fairly rust resistant. The heated hooks also keeps your beeswax liquid. It's quick, fast and easy to coat metal pieces with melted wax leaving them with a nice finish. If you want a nice food safe finish, make a mix of beeswax and mineral oil. I use mineral oil on metal flatware to prevent rust and woodware for eating. Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

I was just reading about a historical way to make an polled axehead yesterday. They first forge welded on the steel facing material on the softer iron right in the middle where the back of the axe head/poll would be. Then they formed the axe around a mandrel, spread the end open for the steel edge bit. Forge welded in a steel bit for the blade and hammered out the blade to shape. The poll was then formed from the earlier forge weld of the steel on the back, and lastly the eye was dressed again on the mandrel if it was out of shape. Since you have already have formed the poll, Maybe cut a piece of farriers rasp the about size of the poll or a tad bigger. Grind the top side smooth and leave the teeth on the rasp underside and forge weld it onto the poll. The teeth will bury into the poll helping to hold it in place. Then it's just a matter or tweaking, finishing, etc. Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

Garage sales and flea markets you can get bargains. I have picked up different size ball peen hammers from 25 cents to 50 cents, most without handles. You really need a decent post vice. There is a glut of them on the market and many are affordable. Bench vices will work for some things, but they aren't heavy duty. Some of the hardy tools I have acquired don't fit my anvil hardy hole. But ANY SIZE hardy tool will lock up in your post vice. My hot cut cutoff tool is a broken wedge for splitting logs I got for free. It locks up beautifully in the post vise and is good steel. I made a couple of lead hammers for cutting hot metal. I used small juice cans, cut a hole in the side, dumped out the contents, inserted a handle in the hole and poured in molten lead. When cool, I peeled away the tin can from the outside. The lead hammers were free to make. The lead heads were just free melted wheel weight lead. During election season I get the sign wire from the signs along the road after voting is over. That thick sign wire makes great hooks and lots of other project metal where you need 1/8th or 3/16th inch round stock. The wires were free. Think outside the box a bit and you will acquire what you need. Ohio Rusty The Ohio Frontier Forge

My search of this book was originally on pen knives and penny knives of the 18th and 19th century. I want to make some of those little folders. Sheffield knives have been around for hundreds of years. In perusing the book, there is so much different way-back-when how-to blacksmithing information on knives, files, saws, sickles and scythes and everything else that has an edge, I found the old information of the different areas of smithing of knives, files and other things very interesting. I like the learning of new-old things. The Hammers and chisels they used to make these files are so much different that what we use today. As a side note ... do you know the average teeth per file that a file maker would cut into a file was 88 teeth per minute. One young file cutter boy was recorded as making 212 file tooth cuts in one minute !!! That is fast work with a hammer and chisel. (not to mention really good eyesight) I also discovered there were alot of women that were file cutters and had small backyard shops attached to their houses. They could watch the children and make files earning some extra money for the household. Women were paid less than men and were paid by the gross (144 files in a gross). As an example, for one gross (144) of four inch long files, they were paid 4 shilling and six pence. That is probably only a couple dollars in todays money. Alot of hot work for little pay !! Ohio Rusty The Ohio Frontier Forge

I've used equal portions of beeswax and boiled linseed oil as a protectant. I have also used black shoe polish. It is just a wax also. Ohio Rusty ><>

The information is from: The Illustrated Guide to Sheffield and the Surrounding District, Comprising Accounts of the Early History and Progress of the Town ...: And of the Suburban Scenery and Places of Interest ... (Google eBook), page 262 is where this information about the brewers grounds came from.

I have been reading about how files were made in the early to mid 1800's, forged on an anvil and all the teeth cut by hand. (before machine made). There is an interesting sentence that says the file is dipped in thick brewers grounds before being heated. I find that intriguing. What were 'brewers grounds'? In England, they brewed alot of ale and beer. Could this be the left over residue of hops and other ingredients from beer making ?? Why wouldn't this brewers grounds coating burn off when the files were put in the fire ?? Anyone care to share what they might know or speculate about this anti-scale process ?? Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge

Now you have me interested in the ball bearing work. I looked around and found the ones I had stored away. I have about a dozen that are 7/8's and one that is one inch. One of my next forging evenings I'll use a 7/8's bearing and hammer on it to see what it becomes. Seems it would only make a small patch or neck knife after forging and stock removal to get a clean face on the blade. It might make a cute little knife in a small antler handle ...... BTW ... those ball bearings you have you could make decent money on them. Ebay is loaded with your size ball bearings for making a 'monkey fist' defensive tool. Winter in Alasksa seems you would have lots of time on your hands to learn the paracord knotting for these monkey fist whackers .... Ohio Rusty ><> The Ohio Frontier Forge