395743

Is that the lower half of a piece of railroad track with a shaft welded on? Cool!

Sweet!

Are ALL of those clips medium carbon? (that is what they would be considered right?) I have a whole crap load of those and would love it if they are medium carbon! Please tell me they all are and not just special ones from turns in the railroad or something!

I have another rasp of a different brand... I'll try to figure out which brand it is maybe that is a good one.

(triple post)

(double post)

Okay,

I was thinking about buying a few more save edge rasps for about 5 bucks apiece but if they are just case hardened i guess they aren't any good.

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if anyone has ever made a Scottish dirk out of a Farrier file rasp?

I am considering doing it myself, but wanted to see if anyone else has tried it before. Maybe i could learn from there mistakes or something? 

By the way i'll be using a "save edge" brand rasp, is that a good tool steel one or not?

Thanks!

This sounds great! When are you going to start Welding 101? I know very little about welding (other than a few forge welds) But I am very eager to learn to weld Arc and/or MIG. I don't have a welder yet, but I plan on buying one soon. Looking forward to this, it sounds fantastic!

Wow that looked like a lot of work Larry! It looks rather impressive. Does it work good for you?

Wow! That sounds pretty good Thomas!

Has anyone ever made a homemade press?

If anyone has I would love to see pictures and hear how you built it!

That's awesome! Thank you SO much! Its exactly what I was looking for!

Merry Christmas to you too John!

I'm sorry I put up a link to the wrong picture. The picture I was trying to show had a piece of metal that had on one of the ends a design which had an anvil and initials or something on it. I'll see if I can get the right picture up.

This isn't the original picture that I was trying to show you but it will give you the same idea of what I am talking about.

http://www.mshaw.co.uk/HandStamps.htm

The very bottom picture on the linked page is the touchmark. well this one is a bit different than most but it would be made the same way right?

How do I make the very bottom of it? the words as it is in this picture. Do you guys just use files, or is there another way?

Does anyone know if there is a Blacksmith group in South West Pennsylvannia?

Thanks for the response! Are you Brian Brazeal, the guy who made those hornless anvils!?

It sounds like a great set up that you described, but I was actually thinking of a more simple touchmark design, maybe I'll try your set up in the future, but for the moment I think it would be best if I went with the basics.

I think that something like this would be fine.
Could you tell me how to make one like that? Specifically the "drawing" part of the touchmark, I think I can figure out the rest.

Does your canvas tarp come down to make sides or is it just a roof?

I'd love to see a picture of it! (I'm sure it doesn't look like much, but don't let that stop you)

Hi,

I would like to make a touchmark of my own. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just my initials or something.

Can anyone tell me how to make one?

If you could include details like the steel to make it from (tool steel I assume) and if it needs tempered or not that would be awesome.

Thanks in advance!

By the way, I'm trying not to spend more than $100 on this, my funds are limited at the moment.

I've been looking at horse trailers on craigslist and I found an old junker horse trailer for $600 near me. I was thinking that might meet my needs, but I don't know if I would end up having enough room to forge inside it...

As for the yurt, are you guys serius? aren't they made of flamable material? I guess I'll look into it if y'all think it is a good idea.

Thanks for the awesome advice, I'll definately look into the car port option too.

Hi,

I have been forging in my backyard under a tree for a while, several times in the rain even. It is not ideal by any means but I finally have my own set up, anvil, forge, etc. I have everything that is except for a smithy (shop).

First of all, I must tell you that I currently do not own the land that I am living on, which means that sometime I will have to move. I expect that will be within the next year or two.

So I need to build a smithy which can be set up, just like a permanent one, I can store my forge, anvil, etc. in and forge inside of it in any weather conditions night or day. But the smithy must also be able to be taken apart so that it can be moved in the bed of my pickup truck.

I have concluded that the best way to do this would be to make the four walls and roof out of completely seperate pieces, so that they could be easily bolted together and then taken apart when neccessary.

I was wondering if anyone else might have already built a smithy for a similar purpose (maybe reenactors or something?). If so I would be greatefull for any pictures, blueprints, measurements, etc. that you could give me.

Thanks!

I live in South-Central Pennsylvannia. Finding anvils in my area is NO PROBLEM, finding INEXPENSIVE anvils in my area is like finding a needle in a hay stack... I can come up with a hundred dollars for an anvil, maybe even two if there is a real good deal with the idea that I will make it all back by forging, but I can NOT give more than that, I simply can't afford it ); .

That's why I decided a while ago that a Brian Brazeal style anvil might suit me just fine, atleast untill I could get a good deal on a "real" anvil. I recently saw a 6"x6"x20" block of steel on craigslist for $50 I emailed the guy, no response, I emailed him again, still no response (he didn't give a phone number and wouldn't even show his real email address, just one of those ones that craigslist makes up). The listing was taken down a few days ago and now I have absolutely no way to contact him, which sucks (; .

Right now I'm looking for forklift tines or any other large chunk of metal to turn into a brazeal. Not having any luck other than the "Non-Responder". Not that that was lucky though! Any idea why I can't find a single forklift tine on Craigslist? should I search something other than "forklift tine" ?

Yes, it is leaking a good bit of oil, and when I crank it I can hear a definate sloshing sound :)) , but I suppose it doesn't hurt to flush the system once in a while, right? Did you say that you put a little oil in EVERY time you use your blower!?

I've been playing around with my new "toy" :) all afternoon and have determined that there is much more friction when I crank clockwise than when I crank counterclockwise. It is also a little bit more noisy going clockwise. Is that normal? Should it concern me or is it just a really common thing? I've used hand crank blowers before but I never payed such close attention :( .



Oh yeah,

"I'm not familiar with a Spiral gear blower though I'm not surprised they're out there."

Is a "spiral gear blower" any different than a "regular" gear blower!? (the Champion 400 for example). I thought they were the same... what would be different? something in the gearing I would assume...


Thank you SO MUCH for answering all of my dumb questions! :) I'm very grateful.

:(

I finaly got my forge blower that I won on ebay. All in all I gave $77 for it. It is a Champion Midway Spiral Gear Blower. Does anyone know anything about it? I can't find much of anything online... at first when I tried the blower it felt a little rough, but then I filled it up with motor oil and now she runs great, and puts out a heck of a lot of air! I would say it is probably comperable to a Champion 400, but I would have to try them side by side to see for sure. I've never owned a hand crank blower before so any kind of tips would be appriceated. also the gear box seems to sort of wobble a little back and forth if you grab onto it or anything and there is a piece of leather (watch band size) that is wedged between the gearbox and blower housing, is that normal/okay? is there a certain bolt or something that i should tighten to fix that? Well here are a couple of pics. (the auction actually)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261082483475?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649



The leather strip starts inside of one blue circle, goes between the gearbox and the blower housing and then ends in the other blue circle.