MOblacksmith0530

Talk to Phil (peacock). His bands are leather sewn to nylon. The nylon goes on the outside and acts as a spring so when the hammer it working it opens and has no drag. I can do single blows with my 50 using this brake system.

I am about an hour northwest of St Louis in Lincoln county and if you want to come out and see my shop you are wellcome. I will be home later this week and during the weekend. PM me if you are interested.

Kenny O

I would forge weld up a piece of the cable and water quench and see if it cracks that will give you some good info. I have made a lot of cable knives. I like at least 5/8 diameter so I don't have to fold it for more mass. If you fold it a lot of the time the pattern gets too fine for what I like, I have had some 3/4 cable that wouldn't harden much in oil but got hard in water so to me that makes it medium carbon at best.

Mad rabbit

If you have worked steel you have worked carbon steel. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon at the very minimum, it may have other alloying elements but it is still an alloy in its very basic form. We blacksmiths like low carbon for general forging because the carbon is so low it won't appreciably harden. Modern "mild" steel is A-36 which tends to have more carbon in it as well as other trash. They now look at the tensil strength when it comes from the mill and little else.4140 tends to be in the medium carbon range and if memory serves it has cromium and molybdenum as its main alloying elements besides carbon. It will have .4 percent carbon plus or minus .05 percent I think.

Here are some quick links on spark testing there are many

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_testing

http://www.scrapmetaljunkie.com/241/the-spark-test-and-spark-testing-metals-2

I sell forged russian or wrapped roses for 45. The roses from flat pattern steel for 30 due to the forging.and cost of the time to make the pieces from flat iron.

You need to start off by learning the basics, Some simple tools are possible with the very basics but not a lot. You need to learn to draw and taper, upset, bend, twist, punch, slit, drift, cut, Weld etc. A goo place to start is to make some simple s or c hooks. Draw the stock down to a nice even taper. Then bend it around the horn of an anvil or other device, twist it to make a c or s hook.

You can't do anything until you learn some basic blacksmith skills. For example you mentioned tongs. A pair of tongs will require drawing and tapering, bending punching, drifting, upsetting and possibly some twisting.

My suggestion is get a piece of metal hit and hit it with a hammer on your anvil and observe what it does. See what effect different typed of hits have and what they cause the metal to do.

My favorite is the is that fire real usually by an older person say 60's or 50's.  I give them the cat caught with the Canary feather look and say no it is one of those fireplace tinsel and fan things from the old fake fireplaces. Then I pull a hot piece of metal from the fire and forge it, they usually leave right after that. Although I did have one ask me how I got the metal hot then.

I had an issue with one of their hand hammers a few years back the replacement was perfect. I have not used one of their hammers for more than a few minutes. They seem to work fine but use a lot of air.

Spare tire hammer or treadle hammers both use dies like that. My spare tire hammer has a square  plate the die is welded to with 4 holes.

I have an un named air hammer I bought from Tom Clark it is like a 115lb version of your 33. I don't have any real issues in cold weather although it does not hit it's hardest until  it warms up. If mine is running hard for 8 or 10 hours it gets a little sticky and hits uneven. Glad to hear yours is loosening up. I would like to have one of those little 33's they are nice hammers.

I picked up a 4" leg vise. It is missing a spring, which I will make and the wedge for the retainer is missing I will also make this have done both many times. I want to square the jaws and hopefully without having to do like the last few and put the whole thing in the forge and square the arms. I haven't even looked at it very closely to see what is bent or crooked.

If any of you guys have a sure fire way to do the checkout and squaring I am open to new methods.

When I get it straightened up it will be available for some new smiths around here at cost.

Well the guy who is selling the Vulcan (second anvil) is a liar Vulcans don't ring they thud. They have a cast iron body with a "thin" tool steel face. The english pattern anvil would be worth between 2 and 2.50 a pound around here.

It still does happen once and awhile, no matter how carefully I'm going at it.... 

I swear at it a bit to make myself feel better and toss it into the reject pile and move on to the next one.  ;)

I do these in black oil finish too, but some people really like the colors.

So it is wrought iron just fold it back on itself reweld it to another lump and do it again. You might weld it a couple of times to be sure it stays clean but wrought welds so east it is almost a sin. I have done several axes out of wrought and sooner ot later I try for a little too mugh at lower temps and crack it just get it up to heat and hammer it back together. You are then refining it to make it better wrought iron.

Iron Dwarf

3/8 is a good size for tong rivets they have planty of strength.

Sucker rod it is usually in the medium carbon range and you can make a nice light pair with plenty of strength.

Interesting hammer, I see all that on the top of the helve and the way it jumps around when he is using it and can't help but think of Rube Goldberg. I am not an engineer so won't they and decipher why all that was designed onto it but I find it a little scary.

I was looking for a pic of the base for my 50, couldn't find one may have to take some more but basically it is 6 by 6 oak bolted with threaded rod and an extension on the treadle to bring it to the proper new height.

Had a pretty good fall got a nice miller 300 amp tig with a copper core for 500, got a large pile of 1/4 round hot rolled at the scrap yard for .20 a pound it was bent and twisted but very usable. And just scored a whole bunch of 1/4 square hot rolled. It is almost impossible to find anymore around her only cold rolled.

I have really enjoyed the various answers in this thread. It has been something I have struggled with in all the events I do as well as orders online or on the phone.

It has to have the appearance of hand forged. I make a little of everything and one of the things that has been the hardest for some of the people I have taught to get is it has to please the eye. That doesn't always mean please your eye. I make a fair amount of knives (they sell and I make a profit on them easily) I used to make them really nice and polish them to perfection. you could shave with the knife and see your reflection to shave as well in the finish. I could never get the money out of them at the shows (not knife shows). I had one laying in the case that was half finished and needed more grinding and polishing and the guy insisted that was the knife for him. I heat treated it and sold it. I then started to mix them up and sold about 70% rough finished to fine finished. With other work hooks, candle holders etc they want to see the hand forged pieces but it has to please the eye. proper proportion and flow of the piece. I look at some of the best work out there and it is eye catching and eye APPEALING. Eye catching ugly doesn't really sell.

The best suggestion I would make is does it "look" right. If it doesn't then fix it. I still find pieces I made years ago that I am ashamed of.

Forge welding is a basic skill that all blacksmiths must master in my opinion. Over the years it has gone from a frustrating on and off thing to a reliable method of work. I hate the idea now of splitting stock for a basket twist since it is so much easier to weld it. It sounds like you have had a lot of luck on a first time. (luck is 9 parts study and 1 part proper phase of the moon or whatever) by spending time studying and thinking about it you have short cut the learning curve ( i wasn't that smart) Forge welding is a great thing to teach. I have taught it numerous times and I believe it makes for a better student if they can come to grips with this they are more apt to take on more and learn more if they have confidence.

Well done

Just a note to those who are interested. BAM (Blacksmith Association of Missouri) Is holding their annual conference the first weekend of May in Sedalia MO. If you are interested you can see the flyer here

 

 

Or just go to www.bamsite.org and click on the conference links. Conference starts on Friday and ends at non on Sunday. Tailgaters galore and many demonstrations.

I had one set of 4140 dies break at the weld when I examined the failure there was poor penetration to the 1/2 inch plate, this was the cause not the heat treat. I gouged out the old bad welds and re-welded ane re-heat treated the dies and they were fine. Other sets that I made and welded myself with preheat prior to welding never failed. We made 30 hammers when mine was made and I only heard of one other set that failed. Not a disaster just a repair.

I call the ones that grip the material as it passes the joint "offset" tongs and all of those look quite serviceable. If you feel they aren't pretty enough then that is your call, but function first, then beauty in my opinion.

I have in the past found drawings for the Nazel steam hammers and they give a pretty good description. I just did a quick search and found nothing but they exist. If I find them again I will repost.

Yup it sure loos like some idiot milled the face and the top of the horn completely off. Pass on this one in my opinion.