Gundog48

Brass isn't great for forging, but copper is! Brass brushing, as suggested, would be good, or you could clean up the steel and fire-colour it by tempering it then lacquering. Copper is great to work with, and has a lovely finish after a clean with a wire wheel. I'd planish it once you're done both for aesthetics and to work harden it so it won't bend under the weight!

I stand corrected, although it'll depend on what kind of forge you have, you'll still want to keep the handle and cloth plenty away from the main blast and think about what you're going to grip with the tongs. The trick will be to cool it at the neck, not the handle as suggested, because the rubber will insulate the heat and melt the glue and rubber from the inside even if the outside is wrapped.

You're not going to be able to do that without melting the handle, I'm not sure how it's attached, perhaps you could remove and reattach it? Either that or turn what metal there is into a tang, but this wouldn't be very strong. I forged a ball pein into a crude bearded axe a while back. I'm a beginner too, but perhaps you can get something from it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ15D_D7X4U

I'm not sure if these fellas would consider it overcompensation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvs5pqf-DMA

Thanks for the advice everyone! That work is beautiful Sask, I've got a lot of good competition! I have had a look at mocume gane quite a while ago, I was originally lost with the way it was laminated, it was in some kind of container if I remember right. I'll give it another read now and I'll likely understand it better! As for books, I'll to what I always do- I'll download ones that seem relevant and buy the ones I want to keep. I've always found this the best way to find good books and is a prime example of how the evils of 'piracy' often lead to increased sales. If I wasn't able to download software and books for free, I probably wouldn't have bought 75% of the stuff I have! Do you have a title for that Mocume book Chinobi? Good point about the welding rods, never considered that! I've seen sheet nickel for sale, but always thought it should be thicker, I guess for stuff like that I could weld sheet steel to sheet nickel? How is nickel when it comes to welding and working?

Hi, I'm wondering if you could point me in the direction of any information regarding decorative pattern welding. I've had a good search but have been unable to find anything. Obviously there's plenty of info on pattern welding for blades and such, usually 15N20 and a high carbon steel. Obviously this is not ideal for decorative work, and 15N20 is quite difficult to come by for me, so I'd rather use something else. I've heard of people welding pure nickel and mild steel, but nothing really concrete. I'd like to get an idea on what materials are good for pattern weldingm what they look like and how they are to work with. I'll gladly take pictures of any billets I make and we could perhaps get a visual guide going? I'm looking to make things like belt buckles, ring and other jewelry and would like to know the effect of different materials and acids on the finished product without a lot of expensive trial and error! Any resources you can provide would be most appreciated! Thanks, Jake

After my initial foray into forging jewelry, I decided I'd like to give it another shot, but this time I managed to get my hands on some copper. This was my first experience forging copper and it was quite enjoyable, although a little frustrating when you're getting the feel for how brittle it becomes when work hardening! I was working with a very strange stock size, about 6mm x 3mm, I'm going to try to find some 1/4" round to work with in future. I forged a copper ring and a pendant, the steel ring up top was my first attempt at forging jewelry and my most successful! Credit to Alec Steele for giving me the idea for the ring!

From what I understand, mobile forges were non-standardised until the around the American Civil War. People used to do whatever was necessary so there was a lot of variation until the design was later refined and standardised. The book I've linked a book that has a lot of information on British 1840s mobile forges which were for modified gun carriages as you described. There are some great drawings in there and a lot of information on what equipment would have been carried. If you scroll through the plates on page 216, you'll find 3 detailed drawings of a British forge cart and lots of information about it on page 219. I'd imagine that you could take the basic design principles and de-evolve them to get quite close to what a Revolutionary mobile forge would look like. It's an interesting book, it'll tell you all about maintaining a siege and dealing with elephants! http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HLOXvhmYeNIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Thanks Frosty, I've got it! Should be an interesting project to do! It's going to be a large hay-sized fork. Perhaps I should make a torch to go with it in case of an angry mob?

Thanks! Not sure what you mean by welding a loop? This is what I understand of how it's done, am I on the right tracks?

Stick at it! When she talks to you, be nice about it, perhaps overly-nice. It's easy to me angry at someone who is willing to argue back, but less so when that person is being nice. Simply explain that you've taken every measure you can to reduce the noise and that it is completely safe. If she still complains tell her that you're being respectful and that you're working within reasonable hours. The trick is to find a polite way of saying that it's none of her business and there's nothing she can do about it. You could tell her that you're being respectful in not looking over her fence at what she's doing, and you'd appreciate it if she would do the same. Okay, perhaps that's not very respectful, but you get the idea! A note on safety, remember not to wear gloves on your hammer hand- a flying hammer isn't great for public relations!

I'd like to forge a large, two-pronged fork and was wondering what techniques you'r recommend. The standard method seems to be to split a larger piece of steel and socket it at the base. This may be a little impractical for one with large prongs like this so I was wondering if there are any techniques out there for making forks?

I had the same problem with pitting on my first sword, one of those things you learn to control the more you do it. I suggest you try forging daggers as opposed to normal knives. They are very similar to swords and you'll be able to work on that taper which becomes very difficult to centre as the blades get longer. You can even fuller them and get practice on the almost identical fittings. Then you can just get longer and longer until you're making swords!

Don't set your expectations too high or you'll probably be disappointed! Like many smiths my age, I had a keen interest in medieval weaponary. I went charging in wanting to make nothing else, you've done a lot more than I had at that point so you may have more luck. Anyway, after the first few months of forging I had nothing really to show for it. I wasn't expecting to make anything particularly good either, but stuck at it and learned more and more with each time I tried and every week I could go back to my books and I'd understand something more after having actually tried it. I've now made a few decent blades, but have primarily moved to decorative work as I hate grinding! You've got a lot of the skills which I lacked when I tried, so you may be able to produce a decent blade! Definitely try knives first if you haven't already and be sure to read The Complete Bladesmith- that book is my bible! Basically, there's no harm in trying and learning in the process, as long as you don't set your expectations too high and put yourself off trying again!

You may want to try posting over in the UK Blacksmith's Guild subforum, I managed to arrange mine there! If not, just call around some local smiths, I'm sure they'd be happy to have some free assistance, especially as you have experience!

Not far off! I was lucky with estimating the length and I formed it around a rod roughly the same size as my finger. Once finished it was still a little loose so I used a hide hammer and a stump to make the final adjustments... with my finger in it!

Thanks, I really enjoyed doing these! I'll look into getting some smaller stock for the rings, took me some time to forge it down from 5/8" rod. Simple design is all I can do right now, I have very little experience! I've given the ring a coat of lacquer to hopefully prevent rusting. I'll may consider doing them out of stainless if I do more. The candle holder got a red oxide primer and a coat of black.

This the the first decorative work I've really done. I jumped straight into forging blades but at the weekend I decided it would be fun to have a shot at some decorative stuff. I really enjoyed it! There's a lot less finishing and 'messing around' afterwards so you can spend a lot more time on the forge rather than grinding. What do you think?

I've just paid a pretty penny for something similar for brewing mead, may want to try your hand at it yourself. Barely takes an hour to brew, but it'll want about 6 months to ferment properly, it's good fun!

Triple post, a new record! Posted from my mobile and it kept returning an error!

DP.

It's probably been said, but I used to have the same problem. Make sure the piece is quite low so you can apply loads of pressure and drill at a low speed. You can use oil to lubricate and keep the bit cool.

Could you tell me about that hammer please, it looks fantastic! I quite like the shape of Vulcans, thin heeled anvils look nice, but I'd be more confident in one that's a bit shorter and thicker, it also tends to make better use of it's weight. I've heard of problems with the face coming off though, and it gets annoying when they question the logic of every forging operation you make :P

Rochester is a town near me in England, it has quite a history so this axe could have been for a number of things if it came from there. Or it could be another Rochester somewhere in the world, or Rochester could be a surname or just a name of a forge. Not exactly helpful I know!

Thanks! I've tried welding bits but haven't had much luck. I'd say that it'd be easier to weld than slit, drift, split and weld, especially if you don't have the right tools like me! Also saves a lot of heavy forging. I think you can get a better finish doing it that way though, but it's easier and quicker for me as a beginner to do it like this!