anvil

yes.

Good explanation. I too have a passion for forge welding. It does feel like magic and no matter how often I attempt a weld, the excitement and anticipation are as strong now as the first weld I ever made. When I think of solid state welding I see the extreme is max applied force and minimized heat. I've never seen this done and it must generate its own sense of magic. I would like to point out that when we forge weld, our material is not a liquid. If it were, it would puddle, as liquids do. The movement you see on the surface is not a liquid, or it would flow off when you tilt your piece. You best be knowing that when you pull your multi layered billet from your fire that the movement you see on the surface is the happening as well at the very center, or your weld will fail. And yet, it retains it's original rectangular crossection. It makes no difference whether you have a hundred layer billet or two pieces of half square ready for a drop the tongs weld. This state is called luquideous, neither solid nor liquid. It appears to be alive and moving, you know your temp is constant throughout and yet it's shape does not change. And there lies the magic, even tho we can technically describe this with no difficulty. I do believe this is on topic and, basher, I suspect in practice we are most likely pretty similar with our welds, hampered only by mere words.

Excellent vid! Thanks

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liquidus the important part. " relates compositions of the liquid phase to the solid phase in equilibrium with the liquid phase and that indicates temperatures above which only the liquid phase can exist." in other words, depending on your outlook on life, it's the state where it is neither solid or liquid,, or it is both solid and liquid. above this temp range it becomes liquid and below it is a solid. I learned this term at Turley Forge long ago. Ive discussed it many times with welding instructors as well. This is the first time it's ever been a discussion of definitions.Instead of argueing here, I suggest you fire off an email or text to Frank. I have no doubt he can clear this up far better than me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I've come to believe is "solid state welding". However It is not my area of great interest. "Solid state welding processes are those welding processes in which no external heat is applied" "the interface molecules of work pieces flows from high concentration region to low concentration region due to applied pressure." I just highlighted what I thought was specific to here. Read the whole article for a better understanding. Sorry, I don't mean to hijack this thread. Thus, I'm done.

to be more precise, I used the term liquidious, not liquid. I believe this is the correct term. It means neither liquid or solid. Basically it's the puddle you see when gas welding and it defines a piece of iron/steel when it is at forge welding temp throughout its crossection.

they make pretty good Christmas trees as well.

obviously any blow will remove flux etc, but the primary reason for light blows first is to set the weld. this means the two liquidious surfaces flow together. Too hard of a blow and they will bounce apart and not weld.

I'll add to this. I created my own form of apprentice/journeyman setup. I chose Smith's I wanted to learn from and offered to work for them on a per job basis as long as they supplied me a place to live. It worked out well.

it looks like a great little hammer for detail work like veining leaves and flowers. I agree, it's a powered treadle hammer. I'd prefer more power with the ability to regulate power by the amount of "foot" you used.

good to see you are in the home stretch

I have two daughters. Both spent their time loving playing in the flame. Alas neither became blacksmiths although my older daughter has gone on to be pretty involved in horses. She went shoeing with me too.

If you are forging outside or don't have a constant light in your forge, consider a "dark box". This is a wooden box, 5 gal bucket, or the like. Put your hot iron in this to be able to read your colors more accurately.

20 years ago or so a Colorado coal mine had a cave in. The owners rebuilt the mine completely and exceeded all guidelines. This included all equipment. Alas politics combined with other considerations, they closed the mine. So they cosmolined all equipment and flooded the mine. If they decide to reopen the mine, tomorrow or a hundred years from now, all that's needed is to pump out the water(fresh water) remove the cosmoline and go back to work. If it is in a flood, then just dry it off, grease where needed, and go to work.

All good advice and worth taking. However if you decide to go for the gusto and get a new, or old anvil, the horn is not hardened, so what you heard about NC anvils was not good advice. Also, unless you are really hard on your anvil, if you find you don't like this craft, with today's anvil market, you will prolly make money on the resale of your anvil.

Lol, the only bad fire I've ever had was caused by the sparks from my side grinder. I don't use it much but was building a bumper for my Willys Pu. I went to the hardware store for, sheesh,,, welding rod. When I got back I saw smoke coming from a corner of my shop and someone waving his hands and pointing madly. I ran to my well and began frantically s pumping my cute lil red handpump,,, got the picture? . Up comes the volunteer fire department. I'm 3 miles out of town, and they save my shop. The only real damage was 10 or so plastic bags of different sizes rivits (hundred count and up) all melted together. The fire chief was a local kid who had been to my shop with his school classes and boy scouts as he grew up. The real irony is they let a million dollar home go up in flames the week before. Just goes to show,,, who you demonstrate for is pretty important!

I can get a ton plus in the back of my old f250. It's heap'd in the middle and a tarp keeps it from flying out. I've stored it mostly in 55 gal drums. Then I got a trailer made from an old '65 Chevy. If you put it in drums, make sure you put lids on them. Water will freeze in the winter and getting it out is tough.

Honoring all on this day who served their country! Without your sacrifices, we just wouldn't Be.

As to your problem. I'm old fashioned. I always anneal as part of my heat treat procedure. I also use the mark one eyeball to judge colors. Make sure you have a constant light source. Forge Normalize Anneal Cold work Harden Temper.

There's an old saying. You can tell an experienced Smith from the rest because when that forge welding flux lands on your hand, the experienced Smith finishes the weld.

Now that beats all!

I too am better with a hammer than typing either on my phone computer. Between blacksmith fingers and that nefarious invention called spell check, I always spend too much time with digital whiteout. I swear, I double and triple check what I've typed, post it, reread it even then. Then comes a reply and I scan my OP and wonder just who wrote that!

I've heard that the problem with not being able to see hydrogen burn has recently been solved. All that's needed is the latest version of VR glasses. As we all know,,, anything and everything is avalable and real,,, thanks to V.R....

Excellent!

That puzzled me too. Lol,,,.

My bad. I don't usually use words like "can't". Better said, I've never done it that way. I did consider it once upon a time, but upsetting the centerline of 8 pieces 1/8"x1"x6" seemed to be a daunting task. Actually when thinking about it grinding does add some interesting positives as well as negatives. The negative is material loss. considering the loss during forge welding, this would have to be accounted for. However on welds after the first, grinding just may create interesting pattern development. Goes to show,, never say never. thanks for the heads up.