RainsFire

plus, if your hammer work is good, you can do different things than can stock removal, or folk who rough forge and do most of the forming by grinding. Hammer finished spines on blades would be a big one, you have to hammer it down to the final dimension, and still keep it looking good sorry for the repost

hammer work is still insanely important, I've practiced it for 5 or so years, and can hammer a blade to final dimensions, while leaving it about as thick as a nickle, and only have to grind down the scale for the heat treatment proccess.

AHHHHH so local!! and im so broke :(

monster metal, you serious? I'll buy some from you

could also just kick a brick under the pedal quick fix

yeah, Ive heard 1070 for the clips.

Generally you want a post vice, because they transfer more of the force to the floor, instead of all being soaked by a machinist vice, where you can actually eventually break it :/ It'll will work for most things, and is a good investment, but a postvice is what has always been used for blacksmithing.

if you are selling it now, I would love to buy some from you or her. and I could certainly help you market it to knife makers. I know of a few sites where it would be immensly popular.

so to be clear, I could use my cutting torch with propane, and oxygen? I constantly run out of acetelyne.. and this would be excellent

I imagine there's actually a quite a market for hand forged wood worker rasps. might almost be worth the hours and hours of punching, and sharpening your chisels.

im building a hot tub for in my shop powered off recycled heat from my propane forge more to please my lady then anything.. but after a few hours of smithing, a soak with her will be awesome.

that would be great if I was unclear, the structure is pretty much already built, what would be most helpful would be advice on how to lay out the tools, in relation to each other, that kind of thing but great, I'll shoot your a private message thankyou

Hi, so, as the graduation finale for our highschool, it is required of us to do something called a senior project, where in we take from beginning to end a task that is closely wound with our interests. I of course chose blacksmithing, and metal forming so, for my project, we needed to make something tangible, so My mentor and I have converted a stall in our pole barn to be an enclosed, (ventilated) blacksmith, and general metal shop. its about 12x 40ft and will have all my existing equipment in it. I'm not new to blacksmithing, though I certainly have a way's to go. but anyway. As part of the project, I need someone to interview, it can be an online interview, all I need is a printout of our conversation, and I would be seriously in debt to any of the Knowledgeable members of this forum if they wouldn't mind helping me out. The project is due next Wednesday :/ What I would need advice on is the layout and placement of the elements to my shop. I have a 120lb Russian anvil, a 200lb metal table, a charcoal/coal forge, a propane forge, a post vice, and bins/racks for scrap material. so anyway, if anyone is interested in helping me out, I would really appreciate it. Thanks again, -Kenon Rain

I can shear through soft fire bricks, and pumice stone like none other magic.. got nothing to do with it, admittidly.. I can do that without a sword same as wet clay..

you can also do the simple steel method mentioned in the bloomeries and buttons sticky section.. its the top pinned link.. I'm actually about to go try that one myself..

what is a patch knife? looks good, but never heard that term before.

I think it would just become goop.. as soon as it reached an even temp, its really conductive.. or inconductive.. whichever means it disperses heat well

if your building it for a school.. just make it temporary, so you can kick it under an arc' fume hood.. flip it on, and use your propane, or nat forge.. you could use coal outside too..depending on where you live

cool, what is it?

when you say the weight of a hammer, are you really talking about the hammer portion? or the anvil?

not well.. it can be done, but it won't be nearly as intricate as a shallow hardening steel.. the 10xx (1084) steels are awesome for hamon.. as are w2 and a few others.

if they have carbide tips there generally not great knife steel, as far as carbon content go's.. if not, then there carbon steel.. I was going to cut a bunch up for a damascus billet here soon..

makes sense, thanks man I love that site.

I should have mentioned.. we have over 5k gallons of veggie oil stored up and have the means to purify it if neccessary..

So, I want to start doing damascus type work, and my current gas forge can't get hot enough. I'm guessing that a blown burner will be my best bet, as I can control more and get the most heat, but I was wondering if using veggie oil would actually work? I've heard it has plenty of btu's, but is it clean enough for a good weld? will I want a vertical forge design? and what's the benifit of that? anyway, what I'm wondering is, what are the most important things in building a forge specifically for welding, if you have a design that works please describe it thanks everyone.