Spurrit

Hey, y'all, please give me a holler when you have something going on. I live in Augusta. Can't make the next meeting, as I'll be in Kearney for the next week. If anyone out there has some coal for sale, please give me a holler.

ive switched to all coke.... no more black snot! (or at least not as bad) also lasts a lot longer ...

Could you do a step by step on getting the coke going? I've got a coupla rivet forges, and finally got some coke(got the second forge with blower and a storage tub of coke for $25 from one of my horshoeing clients) Can't seem to get it very hot or keep the fire going. Considered hiring a neighborhood kid to run the crank, but......

SOme folks act like it's a crime to do things different than they would, Zig. My pickup's always got some kinda scrap I picked up in the back. And a buncha horseshoes.

one thing that 5/8 spring stock is good for is the tines on a "broad fork" Each tine is 6 to 8 in. long and there are 4 to 6 tines.Uses up lots of material and all they need is pointing and bending.There is no need to heat treat as the steel still is quite tough in an air cooled state.E.G. broadfork

I've forked a broad or two, but never needed anything like that.

So it looks like the consensus is that it'd be fine for smaller holes with the right bits. Does drilling a smaller hole and then a larger one on top of it not really work?

I "get" how desperately you want it to work. You can ask all the questions you want, and yes, if you do enough work, you can eventually punch through with a rock. Really, what you need to ask yourself is, do you want to make do with crap, or can you just hang on, watch Craigslist and yard sales, and save your pennies?

These internet forums create a ton of peer pressure. Everyone get to thinking they NEED all this crap. I bet 80% of the guys posting haven't lit a fire in a month! Same with firearms forums. When I'd meet some of those folks at the range, it was pretty obvious they spent a lot of time on theory, and very little on practice.
Not to say I'm some great smith or that I'm in the fire every day, (it's been friggin' COLD here, and I don't have a shop right now) but it's just kinda how things work, as I see it.
I STRONGLY recommend looking into a Shopsmith with a bandsaw attachment. Lotsa power, variable speeds, modular, and great bang for the hobbyist's buck. AND, since people are getting more and more useless, used ones are getting cheaper all the time! I got mine for $175, then went and test drove a truck to get it home, back when I had an Explorer. :rolleyes:

That whole page never says diamond on it. They would be pushing that if they were using it. So like the post above it Tungsten Carbide probably mounted in an Abrasion Resistant steel. Can't forge Tungsten Carbide and AR steel can be useful for tooling but the shape is not a real helpful one to start from. Places buy tungsten carbide scrap. I'd see about selling it and buying known good steel. However if you do find one with little wear see if it can be used as a drift, IIRC Hoffi uses drifts made from tungsten carbide tank penetraters...

A gunsmith friend of mine uses .50 cal AP bullets to make punches on his lathe because they're made of tungsten.

i wonder, is there a way to make a guotine without welding? that would be a really cool tool. thanks for the replies.

Forge weld it. And how did the guy I'm replying to get banned? You've gotta really look for something to be a jerk about with this group, I'd think. All good folks, from what I've seen.

I like to take a fresh clean handle, remove the varnish, get my hand dirty and use it all day. By the end of the day where I hold my hammer will show and the more worn dirty areas are where I will sand and shape, its almost triangular once I do this a few times and will fit my hand like a glove I have a fairly long hand so I prefer thicker handles. You might also find in doing this you want different shapes on different areas, as most people will change grip depending on where they are holding the hammer at the time.

Also after watching 50+ students go through horseshoeing school that the guys/galls that just accepted a smooth handle would get a blister or two and callus up quickly... The few that did vet wrap or tennis wrap handles would be ok till they had a long days work then they would re-blister every time! or on some occasions rip off a callus. With the wraps its not as easy to dry off the handle once it was saturated with sweat, but like most things this is all my observation and not fact lol

I HATE when that happens! I especially hate when the handles on my hoof knives develop that greasy sludge from my sweat! I've gone so far as to scrape them, wash them, scotch brite them..... nothing helps. Considering a coating.

As far as handle shape, I can pretty much guarantee that we can't all wear the same tight fitted leather gloves. Some of us have thick hands, some don't. The only thing that's definite is.... "It depends".

I have some wrist pins from a Cummins diesel available to me that I want to make hammers out of. Any idea what kinda metal they are?

What length do you guys make your hot work punches and chisels? I'm a horseshoer too, BTW, so if any of you have any dimensions or prints for shoeing tools, I'd appreciate them. I need to make a creaser and a city head punch.

Hock shop!

A lot of folks don't realise that a handyman jack is also a huge C clamp that can be used to winch you out.

I could be mistaken but I believe that to be a rebar cutter. Used to see ones like that on job sites when I worked construction (B.R.--before retirement).

That was my first thought.

John is right in suggesting a knotted wire brush for the grinder, a soak of vinegar and a wash off and grind will sort it out. They are tricky beast so start carefully, i did a foolish thing a few days ago and thought i would just tidy a fraction of leftover scale on a 180mm piece of 40x3mm steel freehand. I now have a very red and sore scab on my ribcage. Could have been much worse.

Could you dumb that down and explain it? Is that some kinda steel you can't hammer or something?

I love this place
This could easly turn into becomming I Forge Iron "Show and Tell"
I have a great friend who loves to build also.

By accident we developed what we called "Tool of the Month Club"
We tryed to out do each other by obtaining the most expensive tool, or the biggest , or (you just name it) tool each month!
As the months and years went buy, you can imagine the number of un-nessary tools we collected just to out do each other.

We always kept in mind That "He who dies with the most tools, dies with the most tools". The End!!!!
I have never seen a U-Haul Truck following a hearse.
Then your kids and wife will sell them in a yard sell for $0.10c on the dollar!
I have seen that happen with my friends whole blacksmith shop.!

I still have tools that earn their storage just by being different. I call them collectables, other people may call them junk!
If I was able to post photos I would! ~ I am not able to use the gallery at this time, I have tried!

This thread sounds promising in that we may see some interesting tools!

How's your health? :rolleyes:

Go to the farm supply and get that stuff that kills skeeter larvae in stock tanks.

Put an angled mirror up overhead like they do in demonstration kitchens. They can get a first person view from a safe distance.

I have a whisper deluxe and need an insulated door. Can I make it for less than the $50 NC Forge charges?

Also, is the liner in the forge Kaowool, or what? Where can I get more of that stuff? Can I build it back up, or does it have to be removed and replaced?