David Einhorn

When I drive from Gettysburg, PA to Fayetteville, PA it only takes me about 30 minutes on PA Route 30. I measured the distance at 19 miles. I highly recommend that you try to get to the monthly blacksmith meeting this coming Sunday 9am, lunch around noon and meeting at 1pm, at the Carroll County Farm Museum carrollcountyfarmmuseum.org in Westminster Maryland, where the Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland (BGCM), membership in the hundreds, will be having its monthly meeting at the blacksmithing school there. The school has eight coal forges, and the school's equipment, including knife-making grinders, are available for use on days of meetings and on open forge nights by people that join and sign the release form. Beginner classes are frequently held, you just have to check the schedule BGCM Classes and sign up for the class of interest. According to the website there are still five openings for the July 25-26 beginner class! Classes are also held periodically on knife making and pattern welding (Damascus). I am a member of both PABA and BGCM and the latter is closer to where you live. I see no need to move to a different part of the country just to learn bladesmithing. I have no doubt that you will be invited to the shops of multiple knifemakers, in the BGCM guild, to assist you to learn the craft. If you come to the meeting you will meet at least one female smith, see knives, meet knife makers, and likely meet at least one person who is working their way through the American Bladesmith Society's program :D

My humble advice is not to mention sword making if you want to be taken seriously. *Lots and lots* of people approach smiths saying that they want to make swords. In our experience individuals that announce that they want to make swords don't seem to have the dedication to spend the time developing their blacksmithing skills. First spend some time with basic forging skills, then spend a bunch of years mastering knife making. Then only if you really have developed your skills will you make a decision whether sword making is for you. Also, if you want information, you will need to add your location to your profile. We can not advise if we don't know where you are. If you mention sword making you are not likely to get laughed at, just ignored. You can find a discussion on apprenticeships and some comments on at: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/apprenticeship-12592/ You can find information how to make a museum quality sword as your first project: S0001 Making Magical Swords | Stories 000-100

You can read a review of the roller mill and plans at: Norman A. Larson Norm Larson Books [email protected] 5426 E. Hwy 246 Lompoc, CA 93436 1-805-735-2095 Hugh McDonald 150 Williams Rd. Gooseberry Hill 6076 Western Australia Price: 25.00$ US $ 2.50 S&H

Thank you for the feedback. I will contact the Welding Supply Store and get an estimate.

If I remember correctly a demonstrator about 20 years ago recommended saving the scale that came off onto the anvil while forging. He used a bucket full of scale for annealing.

A set of Victor Gauges appears to have damaged diaphragms. No I didn't do it, I know enough to back off the pressure against the diaphragms when not in use. Is this a repair I can do myself or do I need to take it to the local welding supply place to have them repaired or reconditioned? To answer the obvious comments before they are made: 1. No I did not do the damage. 2. No you can not relieve me of the burden by taking them off my hands.

True the question being in the knife section would hopefully guide the individuals answering a question towards blade steel oriented answers. But is it not also true that we should not assume that a person answering his questions either on the forum or at a guild meeting: 1) is answering it from the knife blade oriented oriented thinking or experience 2) noticed when they pressed the button for "New Posts" that the question was under the category of knives My posting was simply to possibly raise awareness communication is a tricky less than perfect thing, and that sometimes one could *gosh* get non-bladesmithing answers to a bladesmithing question.

Answers also depend on whether one is doing general smithing using mostly mild steel and assorted mystery metals, or whether the person is doing critical temperature applications such as knife making with known tool steels. Those such as myself that tend to fall more into the mild steel and mystery metal category may give answers that apply to the applications we work with, unless the question includes the information that the application parameters include critical temperature control with tool steels. Mainly this results from our using, almost exclusively, iron and steel that is water hardening, and from the lack of need for critical temperatures in tools that are going to be used for hand punches and the like. One does not put a lot of heat treating into a punch that is going to be repeatedly sunk into orange-hot metal. Since a knife will not be plunged repeatedly into orange hot metal, it will more likely retain its heat treatment. The punch is either quenched in water after each use, and/or re-treated after it looses its functionality. Thus to the general smith, normalizing tends to mean heating something up and placing it under the forge to air cool since most applications are low carbon steel, water hardening steel or iron (if you have access to iron). If you mention that you want to normalize a thin length of high carbon tool steel, then the answer more likely will suggest a bucket of vermiculite. Depends on the applications that the smith normally works on. You might even get a different answer if the smith is spending that day making pattern welded blades; depends what is foremost in his/her mind. I have to switch mental gears to talk about the critical applications. Different gears, different level of critical treatment, different answers. :D

Stand is 2" by 6" lumber. The layer of wood that the anvil sits on has an extra 2X6 to make that layer solid. The top layer has the 2x6s cutout for anvil to sit in. Mousehole anvil is a bit less than 100 pounds. The stand is light, very portable and very stable. A piece of steel is anchored to the side for tong rack. I have two anvils set up like this, with the other anvil for guest smiths.

Smithingman has very good points. If you are young and want to become a world class smith, then: 1. Go to college and get a degree in design, preferably at a college that has metalworking and blacksmith equipment. 2. Develop skills to journeyman level: [ABANA] Journeyman Program 3. Travel to Europe and work in a bunch of shops there. or 1. Take courses. 2. Work very hard at learning.

The other question that we likely will not be able to answer would be, "How do I make a museum quality sword, as my first blacksmithing project?" Unless laughter is considered an answer. Give a man tools and he will blacksmith until he reaches the limit of his ability; teach him to make tools and he will smith for a lifetime.

The names reflect the *intention* of what you are trying to do to the steel, for example: 1. Normalize - reduce or eliminate the stress caused in the steel by forging. 2. Anneal - soften as much as possible. 3. Harden - to make the steel hard 4. Temper - to bring the level of hardness to a less brittle state, so that the tool is less likely to crack or brake. You would likely normalize a tool to reduce the stress in it. If you used the annealing process, yes you would reduce the stress in the tool, but it would take longer. This obviously is an oversimplification. I expect that someone will point you to a web page with all the explanations on molecular structure.

If you have access to a floor mandrel the simplest method would be: 1) Cut the number of lengths of iron to the same length 2) Roughly forge the each length into a circle on the anvil. 3) Weld ends together 4) Heat up each ring one at a time and drop over the top of the mandrel. 5) Wherever you see light between the iron and the mandrel, tap with a hammer. alternate step 5: if you don't have a floor mandrel, then true up each ring on the horn of an anvil.

Very likely that the gentleman is not contacting you back because it was sold. At least that is what seems to have happened when people on Craigslist would not contact me back, their list of items when reposted would not show the item in question.

My advise is to consider making individual tools instead of trying to duplicate one big block, as that would likely be easier to make, use and you would be able to add forms as needed. Start by accumulating a selection of different diameters of pipe about 2 or 3 inches long. My preference is to weld short length of angle iron to the bottom of the tools I make so that I can use the tooling in any vise, but some people prefer to weld stubs to the bottom so that they can use the tooling in their anvils. These lengths of pipe when mounted to your angle iron or stubs will allow you to sink metal into them for some of the operations where you would otherwise have used the swage block. I also weld some studs vertically to sections of angle iron. When placed in the vise with the pipe sections that were previously welded to angle iron, you now also have a selection of bending jigs that are adjustable for different thicknesses of iron bars. To simulate the V notches in a swage block, weld some short lengths of heavy angle iron vertically to your mounting method of choice (again I used angle iron). Now get some short lengths of round rod, up to 2.5" or more in diameter. Weld these to stubs or angle iron. You now have bottom swages. Now use those swages to form curved lengths of iron. Flip them over and weld to your stubs or angle iron. You now have the round forms found on the sides of swage blocks. You can add additional sizes as needed. Now forge a horse shoe shape in some 5/8" or 3/4" round stock. Weld this to a flat plate and that plate to your stubs or angle iron. You now have a form for making fire shovels. Swage blocks don't always have a notch or form that a smith needs, and swage blocks are not very portable for demonstrating. I make separate tooling mounted on short lengths of angle iron both for those forms not available in my blocks, and also so that I can use tooling when traveling to a demonstration. The tooling then can be used in whatever vise is available wherever I am demonstrating. My portable 100 pound anvil for demonstrating has a different size hardy hole than my over 350 pound shop anvil, so mounting the tooling on angle iron saves me from making more than one set of tooling. I find my swage blocks and floor mandrels indispensable. However even having swage blocks I still find the need to make additional forms as a task requires, or to have some portable forms for demonstrating away from the shop to the public. I find the need for forms especially useful when making chisels, and other tools. Give a man tools and he will smith for a couple of years until he reaches the limit of his abilities and quits; teach a man to make tools and he will smith for a lifetime.

What Doug said is extremely important. Proper fire management will keep smoke to a minimum. Putting the green coal at the outside of your fire and gradually working the coal towards the center is the key. By the time it reaches the center of the fire the volatiles have cooked off resulting in very little smoke! I am concerned that proper coal fire management in a forge is becoming a lost art.

I use mine fairly frequently. A number of responses to this question may be found at: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f22/floor-mandrels-swage-blocks-833/

To paste the information on the forum: 1. Display the craigslist ad on your computer screen. 2. Place the pointer using the mouse on the address bar showing the URL 3. Right click using the mouse on the address and choose the COPY function from the drop-down box. 4. Go to IForgeIron and start typing your response. 5. Right click on the line below your typed response. 6. Select PASTE from the drop-down box. Anvil for sale

At the risk of being told that I am an idiot....... I have had good results welding cast iron with nickle welding rod (labeled for cast iron) from the farm store. Recently I welded a broken cast iron fry pan, and also welded some 1/2" nuts to a cast iron fireback. Of course I did it the "wrong" way by not pre-heating. So far none of my welds, over the years, have broken or cracked. The cracks on your pan appear to be closed. In your position, I would figure that I had nothing to loose so I would weld a few 1" beads along the bottom, relieving each one with some hammer taps, and see what happens. If you are concerned about how it would turn out, find a professional welder in your area. Many years ago, a professional welder in the local blacksmith guild welded a cast iron floor-mandrel to a steel plate to serve as a base, charged me nothing, and all the welds have held perfectly for over 22 years../.. and I almost forgot to say, he did not preheat anything either.

Which of the two methods worked better or faster for you?

A little easier and possibly safer than cutting plugs with a hole saw might be to start with a length of round rod of the appropriate diameter. Drill two holes in the end of the rod, with the rod mounted safely in a drill-press vise, for the button holes. Then cut off some slices of the rod to create your buttons. Place the buttons, one at a time, in your bowl swage or on top of a piece of lumber and smack with a ballpean hammer to dome the buttons, finish sand the edges and add any desired decorations. Personally, I prefer mother-of-pearl buttons on my pants because they don't tend to heat up when standing near a fire, especially in the area of the pant's fly. :D

Three good books to consider, in my humble opinion, would be: Tool Making for Woodworkers (Paperback) by Ray Larsen (Author) # Paperback: 160 pages # Publisher: Fox Chapel Publishing (October 1, 1997) # Language: English # ISBN-10: 0964399989 # ISBN-13: 978-0964399983 # Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.5 inches # Shipping Weight: 1 pounds The Making of Tools (Paperback) by Alexander G. Weygers (Author) # Paperback # Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold (November 1973) # ISBN-10: 0671609246 # ISBN-13: 978-0671609245 Making and Modifying Machines (Fine Woodworking On) (Paperback) by Fine Woodworking Editors (Editor) # Paperback: 112 pages # Publisher: Taunton (April 1, 1986) # Language: English # ISBN-10: 0918804434 # ISBN-13: 978-0918804433

Thank you for your contribution to our freedom. Do you have access to the tools in the ship's machine shop? Do you have the facilities and access to heat tool steel to a forging or welding temperature? It might help people to have an understanding of what equipment, conditions, and access to various types of steel you are working under. Wherever you are.:D

I think that some of the posts have been a bit harsh. If that anvil is the best he can find in his area for what he can afford I would say to go for it. He can make a hardy tool for when he wants a sharp edge by welding a stub to a block of steel. It is an older anvil that would fit into his demonstrations for the 19th century. And I have seen a lot of anvils in much worse condition. He can continue to use this anvil for a portable demonstration anvil after he later upgrades his shop anvil when he can afford a larger and more pristine anvil. The surface looks usable, especially if one is used to working around the worn spots on an anvil. Personally if given the choice between using that anvil, along with a few home made hardy tools, and the choice of using a length of railroad track, I would choose to use the worn anvil. Not everyone can afford or has access to pristine anvils.

For flux you could go to the grocery store and purchase a box of 20 Mule Team Borax powder in the laundry section of the store.