Stefflus

Let's put it this way, there has been a change in what's considered steel. In the old days, Iron would not harden and steel would. Sadly for beginners, some people still use this in their vocabulary. Most of what you can buy today is steel, whether it will harden -like tool steel, or not -like mild steel. Read up on "Bessemer Steel", which I believe took over the market ca. 1870. For something to be called Iron today, it will have to be chemically pure, and thus so soft it resembles lead. This and the price makes it uninteresting for most of our work. You can however get some wrought iron. This is often so low in carbon it kind of deserves it's iron name. The steels most smiths use today as a wrought iron substitute is 1018, 1020 and A36. For bloomery and hearth finery processes it is still customary to divide into iron and steel based on whether it will harden. Then there's cast iron, which "ironically" contains less iron than it's non alloyed contemporary irons and steels..

I'll be having a granite anvil when I'm settled down, so you're not alone in wanting one. What one has to remember about smiths of old is that many of them travelled from job to job. Maybe that's how the Mästermyr chest wound up in a ditch/bog? It would be acceptable to carry along a stake anvil, but for the heavy work one might just find a suitable boulder at site. I loathe the sound and feel of a stake anvil in a stump, so I'd like to try to mount it in a boulder, too. I'm keeping my eyes open for archaeologic examples of this being done, but so far I haven't seen it. -Have any of you seen something like this?

I've just accumulated enough scrap (of the less than 1" type, burned and mangled) to do my first hearth recycling, and it's something I'm going to do alot more of. Four pounds of charcoal, a fistful of sand and half an hour working the bellows produced a beautiful little 1.5lb nugget

Frank Turleys example is why I hot cut just about everything. Even when correctly used the disc can disintegrate because of a minor defect. When I'm forced to use an angle grinder to cut I make sure my face is well out of the path of rotation.

Can't begin to say how glad I am that I live in a country where people are responsible for their own actions. And I'm not confident a couple of flats will make you strong enough and your reflexes quick enough to keep an axe from glancing if you do something silly with a limb in the way. The pointy end of the typical oval handle is supposed to be an index for feeling where the edge is. I find them painful when doing precision work, so for those axes I rasp it round and put my index finger down the side of the head. Log cabin axes sometimes have severely bent handles, this would give better leverage to stop the axe glancing, but I'm not sure that's why it's there. Nice axe, is the "hammer" end ground or forged?

It doesn't seem we're agreeing just yet, so I want to dig some more. -Are the two other objects just like the one in the picture? Do they look like the same smith made them, and if not, are the spikes as crude and blunt as in this one?

I was thinking it looked like a tool to grab onto something slippery with. -Like when flensing a whale. Couldn't find it in any whaling videos though, they just used ordinary hooks, or it didn't show in frame. Also the stradling arms with the two hinge barrels look a bit flimsy, as if they're to be used upright. Maybe a fireplace tool would be the best bet, but for cooking? I wouldn't do that to my meat, and it looks to be a complicated answer to a simple problem if it indeed was intended for meat. Looks like they also should come with a chain, with that outside hook. PS. It's spikes are so massive I'm left with the impression that it's to hold something in the fire that you really don't care about. Like a bale of peat. Or blubber, but then again, why not just chuck it in a pot?

What on earth... -Have you spark tested it yet? The most promising lead yet might have come from EricJergensen and Frosty, it might be a low-medium carbon steel. -Also what forgemaster said.

patrick, so the problem with "burning" steel is really going to this semi-molten state which upon cooling results in a messy (and heterogenous?) structure? If yes, this answers a thought I've had: "How is this different from going from totally molten to solid, at some point it spends time at the same temperature anyways"

First, I'd like to mention that I've not read this english translation, only the original Norwegian edition. if "The Complete Bladesmith" by James Hrisoulas is mandatory for you english speaking lot, then this book by Håvard Bergland is ours. I'm told it's on the reading list of our smithing school at Hjerleid. The book covers most aspects of smithing. It begins with basics on firemanagement and tools, then goes through some tutorials of increasing difficulty. There are chapters on knives, axes and other woodworking tools. There's power hammer theory and tutorials, restoration work, hinges and fittings, locksmithing, wheelwright, and artist smithing. All richly illustrated with pictures and very good drawings over almost 400 pages (in the Norwegian edition). This book, along with the two swedish books by Norèn and Enander, is the sort of book that I can be found perusing through with a glass of wine, even though I've read them thoroughly several times. The only negative thing I have to say is that Håvard Bergland is a firm believer in edge packing. Please chime in if you've read the english translation.

I'm with ptree on this one, especially on the respirator subject. Even wood dust will kill you at some point. I asked about this when I worked at the FeCr mill, and although I do not completely trust the answer (and neither should you), the jist of it was that it took electrical arc temperatures to make the hexavalent oxide, or other special circumstances for other compounds. Catalysts, acids, organic chemistry etc. For the temperature range question, we were casting 100 tons of FeCr (70%) at 1600-1800C every 90 minutes with no active ventilation other than the one that took care of the tapping fumes. I wore a simple paper P3 mask, most others were smoking. This might be another matter with pure chrome, but I actually doubt it. As others have said, plating is more of a sandwich. -Isn't nickel often involved, and isn't that rather unhealthy in fume form?

I asked my teacher about this a year ago, I can't remember all details, but he said we'd have to make tin chloride first, to use as flux. No removal necessary, just clean it really well, degrease, flux, melt tin, and wipe with crumpled newspaper. I never got around to it though, and the pot in question followed the rental that I'm no longer occupying...

My guess about the firework (of the jumping sort) is that it gets worse with moisture, bark and improper charring. It reminds me of a crackling woodfire. I feed the fire much like you would a coal fire, pushing the dry, charred coals down and in from the sides. Also I pile on fresh charcoal if I know it's gonna be a few minutes before I crank the blower again. I haven't been using water to douse the fire since I've got a rather narrow hearth with tall firebricks on either side, but I plan to start dousing in my next forge. I'm hoping this won't lead to more crackling fireworks, as my theory is that the problem is the trapped water within, and freshly added water will have a just as hard time getting into these enclosures as the steam has getting out. At least within this timeframe.

Hei Elefanten :) What general area are you in?

Back when I was working at the mill, clothes that were easily torn off in a snap was mandatory. For the hands this meant leather mittens, and for the feet it meant unstrapped, loose boots. I'm still following the same general mindset, but last winter when doing some chisel work I was wearing a short glove on my tong hand when a little piece of charcoal erupted and got stuck, white hot, between the glove and the back of my hand. This resulted in an uglier crater burn than I've even gotten from the odd metal droplet that found it's way down into my clothes. So now the gloves are off, and the chisels are longer.

That style of knife really struck a chord with me, thanks for sharing!

Hub nut from a Ford, looks like it's made up of a bundle of washers that stretch apart to lock. I've also seen it welded on the outside, that could be replicated at home..

If it's a properly used P2 or P3 mask it should be fine for accidental exposure over a short amount of time, like your incident. (Just stating a time-frame here, disregarding that you might not have produced very much fumes.) Intentional exposure is a whole other ballgame in both personal equipment and facilities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respirator http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?mwsId=66666UF6EVsSyXTtmxMX5XMaEVtQEVs6EVs6EVs6E666666--&fn=Resp%20Protection.pdf

Do you fellas think that handle piece has been welded and the weld has failed, or is it made like that?

Gergely, Hot dip galvanized stuff is dipped after being cut to size as far as the situation allows it, so the end would be coated also. I'm not seeing the "shiny" bit in your pictures, and I'm generally not seing anything properly enough so as far as I know it could be an altogether different metal throughout, but first impression is that it's a hot dipped galvanized steel rod of the type they use to anchor down telephone poles etc.

I couldn't feel my left ring finger properly for two years after all the push-ups during my year as a conscript. Something about just that workout that put pressure on a nerve when my arm bulked up.

I was wondering if this couldn't be done with selective oxidation of a melt, so I did a google search. According to this PDF it can't, but they mention "Vacuum treatment" of the melt, what process is that? (page 11) http://www.metallurgie.rwth-aachen.de/data/publications/2333.pdf

What are you cold cutting, H13 isn't the hardest of steels? Edge angle?

I've skimmed through it before, but I just yesterday really finished reading it thoroughly. I find it's inspiring and covers many things, but as others mention he's rather bombastic about packing, and he doesn't communicate properly that he's guessing wildly about historical things like primitive forges, Wootz, and "charcoal iron".

Snow as-is is a little fluffy for quenching, but I like to make a local quench with a snowball..