bipolarandy

Hey oak, can you tell me more about the Seax in the hat. What are the rules? when is the dead line? can anybody enter? thanx -andrei

Blacksmith58, i think the idea of that film is great. My only gripe with it, is that its not true.

Chaos----If you happen to see 'The grinder girl' aka Kiva Kahl at Burning man, Get some pictures of her, like, Lots of pictures of her,,, if you did that , i would be forever in your debt. -Andrei

Jr, whats wrong with the fiberglass handles? I'v never used one, just wondering. -Andrei

Sandpile: what was wrong with tar's post, i thought it was very concise and well researched. Sam: even if you did manage to do this, 1, where would you get diamond dust? 2, how would you sharpen the blade? another piece of steel with diamond's in it? -Andrei

Im getting about 5 to 6 good hours with a 20# with my gasser, thats at 5 psi. With propane cost going up and up, im making a more efficient forge soon, i cant afford the 20$ gas bill every time i want to forge. -Andrei

WARNING!!!!!! Pre 1983 U.S pennys are made of a 95% copper body over a zinc core. Post 1983 U.S. pennys are a 97%!! zinc body under a copper shell. Please be careful when chousing your pennys, before attempting this project. -Andrei

Here is a small Deba knife I forged today, its made outta a piece of high carbon steel rod my friend gave me. Its about 10" long and 1/4" thick. Here it is next to another Deba I made recently. -Andrei

I use a wooden saw frame with horse shoes nailed to the top, This way you can hold tongs, hammers, or any other tool that can hang, You can hang the hammers in the front for quick access, and tongs along the back for convenience. These are easy and cheap to make. -Andrei

Im interested in knowing if Bamboo wood, would make a good knife handle. Does anybody use this wood for handles? I'd like to use it for the stick tang knifes i'v been making, and I dont know if it will hold up for long. Thanks -Andrei

Julian, i think the man wants a cannon, not a potato gun. I dont see any reason why you Couldn't cast a small brass cannon. It certainly would be strong enough to handle a golf ball. As long as you used Black powder, and not modern smokeless powder! The first ever cannons and hand held guns were cast out of brass or bronze. Now as far as the actual casting part goes, here are some links that may help http://inaba.nims.go.jp/movie/CAST/cast.html http://www.emainc.com/radnor/found.htm -Andrei

WOW, Stephan, thats Fantastic. How long did it take you to make that? And, how long have you been making blades? -Andrei

Thats very nice SF. What did you use to sand/grind the blade?

A few years ago, my blacksmithing group did a anvil repair meeting. Everybody took in their beat up anvils we spent the hole day fixing them. Now I dont quite remember all the details of what they did, but I know they first put all the anvils into this small furness they made, it was just a bunch of fire bricks piled around the anvils with a couple of weed burner torches stuck inside. And once they got hot( i cant remember how hot they got them, probably about 250c). The anvils were then welded with MIG and ARC welders using A2 air hardening for the filler steel. Then they were finished with angle grinders. It all didn't look that hard. There were about 12 guys working, and we fixed probably about 10 anvils. -Andrei

Here ya go Nolano, This is whatca do with a post vise. There's a big, thick plate for the bottom, that you can stand on. That way it wont move around when you use it. The post is set into a short piece of pipe thats welded to the plate. And a long piece of tubing is welded behind that. Then a another plate is welded to the top of the tube for the vise to be bolted on to. Hope that helps -Andrei

AIW, bruce is right when he said you'll only see white heat with wrought iron. I just tried forge welding some scraps of WI to a plate of mild steel, and I literally had to burn the mild steel before the WI was at welding temp. And when it was ready to weld, it was definitely white, not yellow.