Grafvitnir

Mark Aspery posted this a few years ago and shows his arrangement for the flue on his sideblast forge and is placed in front of the water tank over the tue. I'm not sure if this may help you somehow... Rubén Blackmiths flue article.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jwUl3Z2-cc

In his book on japanese bladesmithing he says he prefers a charcoal forge although he also uses coal, coke or gas. This from Google books shows his arrangement: https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=aTTOlliEPo8C&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=murray+carter+charcoal+forge&source=bl&ots=EoriEFaPO7&sig=R9IKzV_RyDPbzpXRWLimEbj1KoI&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=murray carter charcoal forge&f=false I hope the link works correctly and that it may be of help Rubén

Hi Brian! I just watched that last night. Here it is

If you don't mind Brian :) I'm including two of your videos where you elaborate on this. On minute 18:00 of the tong forging video Brian cuts to center with an explanation. And the other one is an explanation of the same in clay Hope it helps. Rubén

Video of Brian Brazeal forging tongs Hope it helps... Rubén

There is a TV show here in México called "Aquí nos tocó vivir" that loosely translated it may be "Here is where luck or whatever choose us to live" meaning something like 'being here I have to make a living in any way I can'. About 6 years ago there was an episode called "La fragua y el yunque" (Forge and anvil) about one of the last smiths in México city. The anchor usually asks questions more about the life and history of the person interviewed that that of which he does for a living. This year is the 35 anniversary of the show and they uploaded 35 programs, one of which was this one. Unfortunately there's no translation but as I said, they don't talk much about the processes. This man was orphaned very young so they had to move from the state of Hidalgo to México city where his mother met a blacksmith and put him when he was 10 as an apprentice and that blacksmith was a very famous one for the stone cutting tools he made. The important part I think is to see him and his sons work in their improvised anvils, making tools. I don't know how long they are going to be online so I wanted to share this before it is gone. There´s also one on copper working and in the first seconds you can see one of the bellows they use very similar to the ones on "Southwestern Colonial Ironwork: The Spanish Blacksmithing Tradition from Texas to California" I hope you enjoy it. Rubén

I think this is the one: http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/10211-slitter-geometry/ Hope it helps :) Rubén

@Ridgewayforge You may also watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH980wjMyaM Rubén

Hahaha... I tried that first but besides striking like lightning... let's say they didn't strike with enough confidence. So I had to direct with the sledge...

Sorry, just got home from work. I first tried forging the head of the rail with my hand hammer and realized it would be hard but possible. Some friends were here Sunday morning so I asked one of them to hold it in my tongs while I struck with a 10lb sledge. It took 4-5 heats and an additional heat with my hand hammer for breaking in the corners. The picture shows the tongs I used (found them in something like a flea market) for forging that part. If I had a better anvil ;) with a square hardy hole I'll then proceed to upset the rest of the stem into a shoulder to try to avoid the wedging when using it. Then I forged the bick end to square, octagon, roundish and finish with hot rasping. That was made with my hand hammer, maybe 4 heats plus an additional one for rasping. I didn´t even touched the other side because I felt that side may get more use and wanted to think first what to do to it (just sand it or radius some corners and leave others sharp to use as the "new corners" tool Brian uses or whatever). On the other picture you can see the awful surface result from the rough flamecut. That's why this was like an experiment to see what was feasable, but maybe now is a keeper :) Thank you for your comments, again. Rubén

It is purely forged with a little hot rasping to finish it. (although I should had rasped it better than I did ;) )

My only anvil is a striking anvil like Brian Brazeal's and for a while I've been needing something like a horn for shaping various projects. I was walking through the place where I buy scrap when I saw a piece of rail that had been roughly flamecut freehand so I got it for free and used it to see the feasabilty of making a bickern out of a better piece of rail. I forged the rail part as a squarish taper to insert in the "hardy" semi-hole (it is still almost round) and then taper to round one of the sides of the "foot" of the rail (I don't know how to call that part). I don't know if it is better to leave it as forged or do some HT to it. Almost all my tools for hot work are left without HT. I just finished it so have not tried it yet. Maybe next weekend... :rolleyes: Thanks for watching and for your comments if any. Rubén

There's this video on youtube of a similiar idea but just the wheel with a treadle: Hope it helps Rubén

"may be inclined to verbally beat me like a dead mule harnessed to their overloaded wagon" He, he, he... I love the "Crime and Punishment" reference.