anvil

Lol, works for me.

I can't help you with your 2D/3D solution but it's pretty simple to lay out with chalk an a bit of geometry on my table.

Well, boys and girls, in for a dollar, in for a dime. And yes, there's a bit of a brag here. I've followed this thread and all I can say is I hope the work roll you have chosen as your source of money is worth it for the quality of life it represents. The few times I've worked out of my blacksmithing world, I've dealt with all the, well, stuff, you have listed above. Labor hating management for being worthless and management having no respect for the labor force. And everybody one way or another xxxxxxx xxx xxx. I just turned 73 and daily thank my "lucky stars" that I identified all the above long ago and chose to just say no! You couldn't pay me enough to spend 8 hours a day in that kind of work environment. I chose a work roll that i have a passion for even to the day. This is called desire. It is an equal partner in the creation of the quality of life that is created by my definition and lives in harmony with with all the other parts, my homelife, my entertainment, most of my friends. I've had successes and major crashes, but survived them all. This is called determination. I've never wavered in my pursuit of this whole. That's called dedication. And best of all? It certainly doesn't take $100/ hour to achieve it. As a farrier I was blessed to spend my "work" dealing with one of the most beautiful creatures on this green earth,,, and come home to the smell of fresh baked bread, my loving wife and a squirmy little girl demanding a story. As a working traditional blacksmith, I spent my day being fascinated and challenged in the metamorphosis of this cold, hard, immovable substance called iron to something warm, flowing and soft to the touch. And i when I smelled the smell of fresh baked bread at the end of my day, I knew it was time to head up the hill to be with my lady and that lil girl. Sure beats the alternative.

I agree with Thomas on this. To say it a bit differently is, the airflow that happens when you are not there is important. The more rotations the better. And these free rotations happen at a descending rate. Thus your iron will not burn and relatively maintains it's forging heat. This is the key to having multiple irons in the fire and not burning or having to add heat to get to forging temp after being at the anvil.. With my old bellows, and to be clear I'm running on old memories here, I used a rope and pullys attached to the bottom leaf. So when I pulled down the bottom leaf rose. When I let go of the rope, gravity pulled the bottom leaf down. I think throwing a hammer on the top is a good idea, but I used old horse shoes on the bottom of the rope to control the rate the bottom leaf fell. I set this rate of fall to ~ equal the time it took for a forging heat at the anvil by adding or removing horse shoes. Working a piece of 1" square took fewer horseshoes than a piece of half square. And that's the joy of a bellows even over a hand crank, or so my memory tells me. And that's the reason I'm thinking of a bellows in my new shop.

3/4" square stock, mild steel. 3/4" round works well too

Your dimensions are good. Actually, a 4" depth works well. I would add a clinker ball to the bottom. It's pretty necessary for directing your air flow and dumping ash without having to break down your fire. Check out Centaur Forge for clinker balls and handles.

Sounds like you have a good grasp of fire management. The routine doesn't change, it just gets more habit. I don't make a "coke cave", I just make sure I have ~2" of coke on top. Your fire pot depth is fine. ~4" of coke underneath your work is sufficient. " I usually have quite a mound of coal/coke, with a hole in the top to allow it to breathe". Always keep your coal and coke separate. Green coal makes smoke and is considered what makes a "dirty" fire.

1:Make the cupping tool out of mild steel. It needs to be bigger than the stock for your hammer and not very tall. No fuller needed. Just leave it square or round and an inch or so tall. 2: take your hammer stock and for ease of working, long enough to hand hold it, no tongs. Round the end appropriately. 3: heat the cupping tool blank to a good yellow or even a sweating heat 4: put the hot blank on your anvil, use a ~ 4 # hammer and sink the hammer stock into the blank. Done. You can still use the rounded hammer stock for a hammer. After you heat and shape the end, just normalize the end before driving it into the blank If you don't have a "handling" length, hold it with tongs.

I just saw this thread. I believe modern railroad rail is thermite welded.

I wet all my coal. The water is used to control my fire size from long and narrow to as broad as my fire pot will allow.. It keeps hot gases going where I want, and aids in the coking process. Lol, I've used coal from good ole back east pochantus to Carbondale and all the rest of the western coals. If I'm burning coke, I don't use water. I control my fire size much differently when using coke.

Steve, nearly all of the spec sheets list normalizing before anneal for most steels. This is for the reason given by Buzzkill. It's also why Cashen lists the same steps I list in all of his examples on his website. Because you normalize at a slightly higher temp than annealing, grain growth is not affected by anneal. And I consider annealing to be a much needed step in the heat treat process. As I've said many times,,, you just can't lose by following the specs for the steel you are using. So, again,,, follow the specs, you are in good company,,, supported by Cashen. I say nearly all because there are so many kinds of steels. I will say this step sequence works for all common steels used by knifemakers today. I have never seen annealing not listed in the spec sheets. There are a few steels that the specs say do not normalize, and there are only a few steels that the specs list normalize more than once.

I tend to follow the specs of the steel. Most follow what your Russian and Japanese Smith's do. 1: forge 2: normalize 3: anneal 4: harden 5: temper 6: cold work( final filing etc)

I have two dozen vice grips in my shop. They are all the "c" shaped tongs. I couldn't be without them. But I've never used any as tongs. I think doing a drop the tongs weld would be no fun. Also locking them and unlocking them on my work would be a killer for time. I can think of many situations where they just wouldn't be practable, and only a few where they would be doable.

Set your anvil into your wood stand. Do it deep enough to put an inch or so of sand in the cutout and have about half or so of the base inset. It makes it easy to level and helps to deaden the ring.

Ok, I'm not much for starting threads, but will do. Shops coming to conclusion and then the "big" sort thru slides, negatives, and pics.

Lol, even tho I'd read this post before, my first thought was someone made a spring for their post vice, and it was too short! Guess I've still got spring fever...

Thanks for the tip. My first(and only) bellies were made from a 4'x8' sheet of plywood. I suspect the second chamber means you can make them smaller and get the same air flow. I'll follow your advice on minimum size.

Good point, Steve and George.

Like Steve said. Burnt Here's a safety tip. If you get a burn, put your hand immediately in your water bucket. Another safety tip. Always test a piece of black iron with the back of your hand before picking it up. The back of your hand is far more heat sensitive than the front. This will save most burns,and a quick quench will deal with the rest.

Good first attempt! It only gets better

Here's basic fire control. You need ~4" of coke underneath your work and ~2" of coke on top. This will create what's called a neutral to reducing fire. This means the 4" below has consumed the oxygen before it reaches your work. The 2" on top does the same from oxygen coming in from the top.You need to maintain this. Keep your "green coal around the perimeter and keep it wet. The green coal will make more coke and your type of coal should make a good coke ring around your fire pot. When you notice that hole above your clinker ball you have what's called a hollow fire. Take your poker, which you should have already made, and gently break up your coke ring and fill the hollow space and make sure to maintain the 2" topside as well. At first you will prolly do this and get a mix of coke and green coal in the hollow. The green coal will make smoke. It will also create a "dirty" fire. With practice you will learn to keep the green coal out of your fire. You only want coke around your work. So it's important to work towards getting no green coal into your actual fire, keeping 4" below your work, and 2" above and the hollow gone. Have fun.

If it is a farm scrap pile and it's pretty old, I bet you have an old wagon tire and probably an old buggy spring. They forge weld together very well and make a great contrast. The tire will most likely be wrought iron and the buggy spring a high carbon steel. I made my first knife out of this and did 700 some layers. It made a beautiful pattern and a serviceable knife. It's a great way to start.

I wouldn't even worry about it.

To make matching tapers, the first thing you need to do is figure out how much parent material it takes to make the 1-1/4" taper with a 1/4" ending.. There is a math approach,,,, but,,, here's the mechanical hands on guaranteed no math deal. Well almost. So do a test piece. Start with a length long enough to hand hold. Say 2' for sugars and grins. Make a chalk mark 1-1/4" from the heel of your anvil forwards down the side. My chalk mark is usually an arrow pointing up. Now you are going to have to guess the amount of parent stock you think you will need. You will need less than 1-1/4". Come back say 1" and make a center punch mark on your parent stock,,, the piece you are forging. Forge a steep taper on the end of the bar down to your 1/4" square. Now finish your taper back to your center punch mark. DON'T forge the end smaller! Now check your length from the heel to your chalk mark. Too long? You need less than 1". Too short? You need more than 1". Just right? Now you know how much half square it takes to make your taper. And you will know how much time it takes to forge that taper as well in case you want to figure out job time. Now make a small center punch mark on all 150 pieces at whatever length your test piece tells you and repeat the above 150 times. That is: 1) Forge a short taper down to 1/4" square, 2) Forge back to your center punch mark without messing up your 1/4" end. 3) Double check your length against your chalk mark. Done. The deal is, a known mass/length of parent stock forged to a known end cross section will always be the same length taper. And you shouldn't have to touch it with a grinder.

Navy '67-'71. AQ. Two Westpac cruises. Loaded bombs first cruise and shop supervisor/flight deck troubleshooter my second. Spent 6 weeks in Danang and NKP, Thailand during the Laos invasion.