Jon Smith

I was working on one last night but I gave it up and grabbed a piece of spring steel instead. Just too much trouble to work with as it tended to just bounce off my anvil rather than actually move, even after full annealing. But as said I was using a blade from six years ago, and one from back in the day might be better

It can be done, provided that there is some actual steel left under the rust and its not just powder that falls apart at the first touch. And a campfire, while not ideal, will work on a windy day or with a bellows. Just make sure you stick the piece in the middle of the coals under the fire, not in the actual flame; otherwise all you'll get is black heat--useless for forging but still enough to cook you.

I like the bedliner idea. Would be good for the knives a friend carries on the shrimp boats. I was thinking micarta but this is better

Ok now I get it

Yeah electrocution tends to be very unhealthy... I just finished a blade last night and I think I'll give this a shot

Now this looks remarkably familiar...haha Bears a marked resemblance to my first piece. Be proud

Sounds dangerous. I like it. Think I have an old charger lying around too... I assume you used a laptop charger bc it has a DC transformer?

If it were anyone but you, I wouldn't believe the ros on the head was done by hand. I'm impressed. Beautiful inlay work as well

There's a way to produce a hamon without clay?

That is one gorgeous piece of steel, no matter how it was made. Be proud of it

Guessing that's an etched makers mark? Mind telling me how you did it?

I'm probably wrong but that almost looks more like ash to me.

Guessing the threads are cut with a die?

Of course Martin's Gendry Baratheon is awesome And for the record, and I may be wrong here so don't crucify me, but I'm pretty sure Gandalf wields glamdring in LOTR and it does glow. Orcrist, unfortunately, is buried with thorin oakenshield so we can't know both for sure until the hobbit comes out soon

Awesome Bowie. And dont criticize your early work too much; definitely puts some of mine to shame

I would be proud to test this little beauty out for you for a trial period of the next twenty years or so...lol. Gorgeous piece, to be sure.

Curious, what's a penny scroll?

I've been teaching myself blacksmithing, as there are very few mentors to be had around here, and I built my own forge. I don't have a recent picture, post mods, so please bare with me. I built the forge out of firebrick (in the absence of durablanket) with an iron frame. It's a simple setup with with four bricks in a square with the frame acting as a clamp, with two more bricks acting as adjustable doors. The burner is a Reil style venturi burner. I was having trouble using the burner correctly, as it was a pain in the *** to keep enough air flowing through the fire box, even with both door-bricks removed, so I added a blower, with the pipe running straight into the bell reducer on the burner. I can now close the forge, but I'm still only able to get the work up to around a bright orange heat. I'd love to be able to forge weld, so is there any way to get it up to welding heat? I only use smallish stock (the most I've done is 3/4", and that was just a twist), so I don't think that's the problem....

Oh my Lord.... Yep, I'm officially impressed. Must...fight urge....to go light....forge.... Nope, I fail. Sore shoulder, here I come

Muriatic acid works wonders. Stronger than vinegar so it's a faster reaction; you might wanna watch that. It'll take the zinc off of galvanized anything really in a matter of seconds.

Amazing work as always jeremy. If I didn't see this was tubing, I wouldn't believe it

Very nicely done! I may have to try this one day....

Alright I've been looking into building a lightweight tire hammer (somewhere around a 25 lb ram) and the one thing I can't get my hands on is the specs for spring. When in doubt, ask the experts, right? What kind of spring usually goes into the DuPont linkage?