gjohnsoniv

Hmm, the spoon might be possible.

16d. Got mine at the local big-box hardware store. Dont know about carbon content but they will harden. Had a guy tell me he had an old box that said they were 1095 but I cant confirm that. There was a guy on ebay selling some 20d nails from the old Wheeling Labelle plant. I bought a couple boxes of those and found them to have good edge holding when hardened/tempered in oil. However, I bought a box of really big (50d ?) nails from the same guy and could not get them to harden so maybe the larger ones are mild steel? Im not an expert but have played with the 16d and 20d ones quite a bit so let me know if you have any questions.

All the above, and if you do decide to demo a knife, you might want to try one of these:



Its a little patch knife made from a masonry nail. I've made several of these and they always go over well...bart

Ah, I see...then J and S hooks and/or nails are good for kids. I would stay away from edged weapons and such - keep it simple and as few heats as possible.

So this is a participation event? Same list of stuff, except the one-heat bits (take longer)

Phil

I understand about the viewing public but this is more of group of friends and their plus 1's and +2's, 3's, etc. It's also being setup as a weekend thing with camping involved so I'm not too concerned about the loss of attention.

go out there with a truck leaf spring and forge a bowie knife blank!

Excellent suggestions, keep them coming.

A couple of guys and I are doing a "primitive skills" get together in the coming month. We decided that blacksmithing would be an interesting topic for some of the younger kids/teens that are going to be there. We are also tossing around the idea of letting them do some basic work to demonstrate some of the fundamentals. So what would be a small and easy project that would demonstrate this? I was thinking some hooks, but that's about as far as I could think. Suggestions?

I would be more than happy to come by your shop if it won't interfere with anything that you are doing. Where exactly is Sunbright, Tn though?

Also this one is pretty old so I'm sure it was bound to happen sooner or later. I want to say 1890's was when it was made, but I haven't looked at it in a while so I can remember.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any around the Knoxville area. I have a really small one that I was thinking about resurfacing, but It would need a ton of other work. Someone knocked a good chunk off the hardy hole and a little off the horn.

I was planning on strapping it down on a wood base or welding up a stand and clamps.

I'm new to blacksmithing for the most part and I have been trying to start building up my shop. Would an NC Tools anvil be a decent start, or would I be better suited to find an old one and resurface it?

I was also thinking about using equipment keys and make a handle where you can change them out. What kind of tempering would need to be done? I have never gotten much instruction on tempering tools or blades.

Okay that's what I was thinking. I just thought well I have a bunch of those punches sitting around from my leather work so I wonder if they can be used other ways.

I'm fairly new to the whole blacksmithing work and was wondering if it would be possible to use the leather punches in metal. Not for cold stamping, but in hot stamping of eyes, letters, and such. I haven't thought this through any and was wondering if anyone here had tried it.