thingmaker3

Now that just ain't so. Every blacksmith I know takes a bath at least once a week whether they need it or not!

Can you expound a bit on this, Mr P? You've piqued my curiosity. Were these big tanks you cut open & unrolled?

Now you're a rocket scientist too? Do you have a liscense for those class C areal fireworks of yours? Re read. Nobody except you said leaf springs don't flex. What I said is that spring steel won't flex any differently than mild steel. The modulus of elasticity varies by less than 2% for any composition or heat treatment of steel. Look it up. Educate us, if you please. What is the difference in composition between "carbon steel" and "leaf spring?" Are 5160 and 4140 devoid of carbon? Are they something other than steel?

No, sir. You do not. No such thing exists. No, sir, it does not. Then why did flintlocks replace matchlocks? Pleas abandon this dangerous folly. Grow up safely. Learn to gunsmith in due time and proper sequence, if you wish. But abandon this dangerous folly of youth.

Elm. If you can't get that, use hickory or ash. If you can't get either, try a dense maple. You want a strong stringy springy wood.

Like many smiths, I find fascination in the history of human ingenuity. I've read a lot about early bellows and the speculation of how they may have come about. Plenty of material from the bronze age bladders to Theophilus Presbyter's pig-skins to the famous double-lungers. But I find very little on centrifugal blowers. Based on written opinion of late 19th century smiths (who swore never to return to bellows after using a blower) I'd guess they are Edwardian at the earliest. Does anyone know for sure? Are they a German gadget? A French find? An English innovation? Where do blowers come from?

Debarking is needed. Bacteria, as well as any insects, will get into the under-bark if the bark is not taken off. Then the wood will be loose inside the outer bark.

For only fifty bucks or so, you can have someone run them through an emission spectrometer and get a reasonably accurate composition list. Then you'll know what that particular chunk is. How many chunks in that pile? As for the big flat pieces - have you considered torch-cutting them into manageable sized bars?

Bill P (and anyone else who needs a low-tech personal air conditioner) Take a bit of cloth and make a tube 2" dia by a yard long. (Or have someone with sewing skills do so.) Sew the tube closed about a foot from one end. Put in some "hydrophillic grains" and sew the other end closed a foot from end. Soak in cool water. The hydrophillic grains suck up the water & make a cloth-sausage looking thing. Now tie the thing around your neck like a bandanna, with the "sausage" at the back of the neck. Evaporation keeps one cool for a couple hours. My wife made me two of them, and I swap them out. She got the idea from some she bought at a local art market.

Where has Uri Hofi posted in this thread? :huh:

Umm.... he said he never wedges his handles. Nice goat, by the way. ;)

"Cheating" requires "rules." The rules were (and are) to meet customer specs with maximum return on investment. They were no less profit-motivated in Ye Colonial Days than we are today. There were screw cutting machines being made and sold at least as early as 1739. The question then is whether it was money ahead for the individual American Colonial shop to make their own or order out.

The lower the carbon content, the higher the melting temperature, and the higher temperature at which one may weld. Scale melts a bit above 2500F, within the welding temperature for wrought iron and low-carbon steel http://www.tempil.com/PDF/Basic_Guide.pdf So if the mystery mild steel on the old side of the pond is lower in carbon than the mystery mild steel on the new side of the pond... It is a tightrope, but it CAN be done with mild steel. I've seen it done myself. I've also ruined a few pieces of mild steel trying, and darned near almost got it once. The fire MUST be neutral or reducing. Minimize the O2 to minimize both scale formation and combustion of the steel. I've done it with electrolytic-process iron. Piece O cake & sheer joy, but pricey stuff.

One thing I'm a little fuzzy on... If the finished product is a round taper, then why is the twist a problem?

This is just a guess, but I'd say they're made from some kind of steel. Sometimes when stuff is free, you get what you pay for. Sometimes you get a better deal than that. If you got a BUNCH of it, you can experiment with heat treatment and still have enough to make tools out of.

Book says: preheat to 800F prior to welding. Post-heat at 1400F for six hours.

What follows is speculation, so salt as needed. Material being forged follows the path of least resistance. When forging square from round or octagonal from square, those resistances are symmetrical. When forging second side of hexagon from round-with-flat-sides-at-sixty-degree-angle, I don't think those resistances would be symmetrical. Have you considered using a hex-shaped swage for the first step?

Especially bad to emulate the lack of eye protection!

...could be 6150, or could be 6118... ...probably not an H-series steel, though...

Absolutely definately positively sure it's plating. No question. Can tell just by looking, since the chrome-vanadium steels don't shine up like that without rusting over time. Chrome plating shines up like that without rusting over time. Maybe there's good knife steel under the chrome. Maybe not. Knives and wrenches sort of have different mechanical requirements.

"Experiment" is all art is, really. The big-name pro artists experiment all the time. Keep at it!

Also an antique tool place in Lafeyette on Hwy 47. Great for top tools. Anvils are over-priced there, though.

There was a .pdf flyer listing prices. I can try to find it again if you like. Woa! Calculus!! I'm outa here!!!

If I were stranded on a dessert island with nothing but 1/8" thick stock, a file, and a cold chisel, I'd start by cutting hexegons. I'd also wish for a clamp so I could file more than one at a time.

I ran across the following durnig a completely unralated search: http://www.deform.com/ Looks like $800 for the "economy" version & $2K or $2.5K for the bells & whistles.