Mithral

A splitting maul makes a decent cold-cut as well.

I often circle the anvil while working (it's mounted on a post with 3ft of clearance in all directions) but I guess my starting position is with the horn facing me.

S-hooks! S-hooks are a nice little starter project, I think.

Good variety of techniques involved that are fairly simple to learn, and useful to boot.

I was just looking at that indirect method in link 2, and that is really cool.. I think I'll try that this weekend..
Is there much of a market for good charcoal? I guess I had never really thought about it.

hahah, I just thought of something else.. If you read the 2nd charcoal link posted above by jimbob, it shows how you can use the "passed" gasses to heat the barrel. what if you pumped those back into the forge?

I can't think of any reason why bagged hardwood charcoal wouldn't work, they make it the same way you'd make hardwood charcoal at home, just on a massive scale.

I'll never know if the kaowool would have held it's arch in the ammo box forge, because I coated down the inside of that sucker with fireclay and ITC 100 on top of that.

I was quite disgusted by all the hype. The steel was smelted *just* right by someone with a lifetime of experience---and then needed tons of work to get it usable.

They impy that they were so advanced yet 300 years previous to when they said the japanese swords were started the northern europeans were smelting and making blades of multiple pieces of different carbon contents---"Metallography of Early Ferrous Edge Tools and Edged Weapons" Tylecote and Gilmour; has an example with 13 seperate pieces and 5 of those are pattern welded billets.

Connections had a program where a middle aged out of shape *untrained* academic took a medieval european sword and sliced a side of beef nearly in two---european battlefields are often described as being littered with severed limbs.

And finally this "supreme" sword with it's "flexibility" takes a set and cracks the edge in situations that other swords suffer no damage whatsoever. My idea of the epitome of swords is not one where a master swordsman who has trained longer than I have lived can destroy the blade by making a slight mistake in use. What happens in the hurly burly of battle when you are not one on one?

They sure are pretty though and the differential hardening is a neat trick; they are not the greatest swords that ever were in my opinion.

I much prefer National Geographic's Living Treasures of Japan---more sword smithing less hype---ask your library if they have it or can ILL it for you.

Hi there all!

I'm new to the forums, but I've been smithing sort of on and off for about a year now. This past spring my friend and I finished our gas forge and have retired the coal forge until we feel like builing a better one (We've been working in a washtub until fairly recently.)

A few things about me; I'm in Western NC, I'm a member of the SCA and I love smithing. I'm also into computer games and movies. I read a lot of Sci-Fi and Fantasy and I'm in the pre-engineering program at the community college here. In a year or so I'll be heading down to the Triangle area to finish up at NC State.

By the way, quick tip for anyone in need of a forge body for a gas forge.

Head on down to your local flea market or military surplus store and try to find an ammo can for 5.56mm rounds, the cans marked 800 rounds are perfect.

SWEET MITHRAL! Nice wrench and good find on those tanks!

I don't so much while hammering, the anvil is tied down really well and doesn't ring.

I wear plugs while grinding, etc. And if we had a power hammer, I'd certainly wear them for that.

I'm thinking about getting a set of muffs though, since there are days when plugs give me ear aches.

This followed me home from Smiley's Flea Market one day for $25
Keen Kutter; stamped

SOLID STEEL

PAT.JAN.14.96

MADE IN U.S.A.

4 empty steel Balloon Time helium tanks followed me home from work about a week ago as well.

I use a variation on Reil's design that a friend came up with, and it works quite nicely for us.

Unfortunately we can't seem to find reducing bells with the right shape anymore, but melting metal in a home foundry, backyard metalcasting, metal casting has a propane burner design that is naturally aspirated without a reducing bell. It's just a length of pipe with some holes for air intakes, and it looks an awful lot like a crude version of my blowtorch. I'm still waiting till I have the time and the inclination to try it out (I hate drilling in pipe without a drill press, it bugs the bajeebers out of me.)

Our jet was drilled with a #60 bit, but I've heard of people who don't like those little fiddly drill bits drilling a bigger hole and tapping it so they could put in welding tips (never tried it myself.)

Definitely use a regulator, preferrably with an emergency on/off valve. We've got a cheapo red regulator with a gauge on our burner, our hose is the standard stuff you can buy at the hardware store as replacement propane hose for BBQ grills.

Angle grinders will hang quite nicely on a strap of metal hung between two posts.