larrynjr

I also ordered a dvd on how to MIG weld. I've never welded anything before, not even forge welding.

We just received our income tax refund and I've already spent part of mine at Northern Tools. Here is a list of most of what I've ordered.

Mig welder, welding helmet, gloves, locking c-clamps
hand held bandsaw, extra blades
bench grinder with 2" belt sander attachment, extra belts

with this equipment and the steel I can build my treadle hammer!

Including shipping this is just over $600.

Knives and short swords come to mind. Any thinnish tempered steel tool you might be lacking.

I was willing to buy another unit from them, but I could not find them again.

I still have some of the flyers for "The Mark" treadle hammer. They were / are asking $1500 delivery included for the treadle. $850 for the "power pack" air assembly, or $2200 for both, delivery included. It looks like a good solid product but in comparison I like the style that seems to predominate here on IFI. The Big Foot seems to be of this style. For myself, it coming in a kit form, I would expect to pay less then a fully finished, pre-assembled product.

Thanks for the recommendation Tophand, $650 is a bit more than I would prefer to spend, plus I'd have to have 220 brought into the shop.

Welcome to IFI, go to the top of the page and click the User CP and show us were you are from. From your post, I'm assuming Oklahoma. :D

What I'm wondering is how much?

excellent score JWB!

Welcome CLW, first thing we need to help effectively; is to know were you are in the world. One of our members may be living next door to you! Go to the top of the webpage and click on User CP and fill in info.

Next go here and read some of the basic of the site; Getting Started

Well... I whoud have 2 questions
1.How to give it an atique look
2.How mutch shoud i charge for it ?

Mostly in steel dust on the front of my shirt! I used the grinder and my chop saw to cut the front of the face off at the base of the first groove and also to cut a piece off the peen, I haven't tried to weigh those pieces yet, maybe 1/2 lb total though.

Ok, I got crazy with the angle grinder and have further modified my old 4 lb. hand sledge into a much more maneagable 2lb. hand hammer.

Once again the modified hammer was more zoomed in the picture than the originals.

"Newbiesmith" on the sword forum brought this to mind when he said he also is an IT guy in reply to my post.

I for one am into smithing strictly as a hobby and am the entire computer department of the school district I work for.

What do you do to put food on the table and a roof over your head?

Very sweet score Valentin!

I'm not sure on how to give it an antique finish, acid bath / vinegar maybe?

As for charging, I would certainly charge something, cost of materials plus a reasonable hourly rate. If there are other items you normally make that would be of an equivelent size / shape and you have a "normal" or know how long it takes to make that item I'd charge the shop rate for that.

When I worked computer / network support for other businesses and took longer to fix something then I thought it should take, I'd charge the number of hours it should have taken. Or if I had to do research to fix it and it was a general software issue (could or might happen at any type of business, not particular to theirs or their specialty software) I would charge a fair rate.
If you plan to never make another sword you might charge more for specialty work but if you think you'll do more swords in the future. Charge a reasonable amount that covers costs and normal forging time.

Congratulations on getting some hammer time! My neck / shoulder / arm is getting much better but I don't know when I'll be able to do my first forging of the year. Hopefully within a month's time.

post pix of your accidental welds! even as a mistake they sound kind of cool.

Welcome the IFI Bobby!

A very fine looking blade, Great work Valentin!

My regular hammer is the 2 lb. cross peen on the right, I haven't tried the one I modified yet. I'll probably do some more trimming before I try it anyhow, it still feels too heavy to use regularly.

I was over to the bus garage today and saw these sitting all alone and lonely so I asked what was going to be done with them and was told, thrown in the DUMPSTER! I asked for them and was gladly given them. They will also start saving lawnmower blades for me.

I'll use one for mounting my post vise and not sure yet for the other. They are at least 100 lbs. each.

Hard to say quality wise, it looks similar to one that was posted recently. I think that you'd pay at least as much getting it shipped to Hawaii as it weighs, if not more.

At this point it still feels heavier then I'd want to swing for any length of time. I think I'll have to cut some of the face off to drop any more weight. I might be able to grind some more from the slope of the peen too.

It is definitely front heavy, it is rounded at the eye and if you balance it there then let go of the handle it immediately rolls to the face side of the hammer.

Pault17, that looks really great. I'm concerned with cutting a chunk off the face itself to reduce weight. Will I need to reharden the new face?

I will probably spring for a postal scale or something along those lines at some point but I'm not overly worried about it at this point.

Thanks everyone for your comments, the only only scale I have is a bathroom scale and it doesn't seem to be very acurate at that weight so I still don't know how much I have actually removed. I'd like to get it down to at least 3lbs. but I need to come up with a better way to get the exact weight!

This has not been my regular hammer, my regular hammer is a 2lb. This is one that I occasionally use for upsetting.

The grooves were to to help lighten the face side so it's not too unevenly weighted. It's still front heavy and heavier I think then I'll want to use regularly, but I like the way it came out.

Not being able to actually do any hammering I decided to modify my 4lb. hand sledge into a slightly smaller cross peen hammer, using my 2 week old angle grinder.

Don't be fooled by the image, I was slightly more zoomed in on the modified hammer.