HWooldridge

Ed, Maybe you could do a little YouTube video or something similar so we can see some hammerin' - just a suggestion.

Hey Ed, What a nice hammer! You sure did a good job. I also like your drive setup - could you post a complete pic of that? Now the fun starts...you get to use this pretty lady.

Brownell's Gun supplies sells a product called #2 Polar Active Rust Preventive - or something like that - which is very good on guns so might work well on knives as well. It forms a film that is quite rust resistant.

There are lots of alternatives to gardening with no topsoil. One is to make raised beds with railroad ties or rocks, then go to the nursery and buy topsoil to fill the box. Can also use half-whiskey barrels, this works well if you need to move stuff around the yard. A friend of mine uses 55 gallon soap barrels cut in half - same principle as the liquor barrels. I have also seen a built-up bed that works pretty well if you have access to brush clippings. 2-3 inch diameter limb cuttings on the bottom, covered with smaller cuttings, covered with grass clippings, kitchen scraps and leaf debris, covered with top soil and finally, covered with black plastic sheet. Makes a mound about 18-24 tall at the peak. Cut "+" holes in the sheet and put plants in these locations. The hill eventually rots down to nothing but it takes a year or two. Low impact and allows you to keep the weeds out with the plastic. I love fresh veggies...

Has anyone here ever made their own "ring roller"? The ones I've seen on the 'net have a big handwheel and three rolls that are adjustable so different radii can be bent. This is all mounted to a piece of square tubing that is bolted to the floor. I'd like a set of plans if anyone knows where I can borrow or buy them.

Machinery's Handbook has the standard on rivet heads. A 3/8 shank buttonhead (round) has a .684 diameter head. I make my sets with a ball end mill. The struck top piece is a bar of tool steel chucked in the lathe and machined. Bottom sets are flat pieces of steel that I put in the vertical mill and treat the same way. In practice, the bottom block is put on the anvil (or other suitable support), the work laid on top with rivet in place, shank heated with a torch, initial upset done with a hammer and the final head finished with the top set. Without access to machine tools, you can easily grind a punch to the right radius and hot punch a blank to give the correct radius. It doesn't have to be exact for most work but looks better if you are using factory rivets and want to duplicate the head on the upset end.

Ed, Well, don't forget to post pics when you get it done - I can't wait to see your work. If I can ask one more question, what did you use for the brake pad?

I've been practicing this craft for almost 25 years and have never owned a swage block - primarily because I was never able to find one that was either affordable or in decent shape. As others have said, there are too many convenient forms laying around to work on that come from scrap sources. For example, section a piece of pipe lengthwise (any diameter you like), maybe 3 inches long. This is done about a third of the way across the diameter. In other words, split it long ways but not exactly in the middle and keep the "shallow" piece. Tack weld it to a piece of plate, interior surface up and then tack a piece of small angle iron to each side for support. Violin! - you have just made a swage block. Make another just like it and weld to a loop - now you have a complete swage pair to use under a power hammer. It won't hold up like solid but works fine in a pinch for a few pieces. I personally believe swage blocks were a luxury in many small shops. I have been in a few period smithies dating from the 19th century and have only seen one swage block. That was in a shop which had been quite large and probably employed 12-15 smiths at its height. It may be that many shops in my area primarily did agricultural and wagon work but the most common major tools seem to have been anvil, forge, vise and cone mandrel (not counting tongs and hand tools). Many old shops also had tire shrinkers but that is not something many current smiths will find useful. Back to the original question - there are still a few small foundries that will cast swage block patterns but the finishing is the hard part (Wally Yater could have testified to that when he was making his patterns). Cast iron is fairly soft but swage blocks are not used like anvils so that material or mild steel should work fine. Anything more exotic isn't really needed.

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Ron - that's great news, I think I speak for everyone by saying it's always satisfying to see someone succeed. BTW, you have some really high quality coal if that's all the clinker you get after a few hours. I get one as big as your hand after 3-4 hours but it's some old nasty stuff from Oklahoma.

We call them "spud" bars hereabouts. Usually as big as you can handle - point on one end and chisel on the other. I have made them 6-7 feet long - just depends on how stout the user is as a 20 lb bar will wear you out over a day's work. Have you thought about renting a portable compressor and a paving buster? You could probably get done pretty quickly and not kill yourself in the process.

Glenn, that's a really good breakdown - I hope everyone digests it. Part of it is what you get used to - I knew a farrier who could forge weld on a bright sunny day with no shade but those were the conditions he usually worked in so he got used to them. I have to have shade of some sort to judge colors - sunny, clear day under a tree or awning is fine but I can't work without some sort of roof.

You should be able to see into the fire without moving the work. The work ought to be laying more or less level with 3-4 inches of fuel under the piece and about the same on top. There are usually small crevices in the coke that allow you to watch the temp. I do not flux in the fire - some people do but I think it makes clinker worse and the flux usually sticks to the spoon to a some degree. I get the work to a dull red, pull out and apply flux, then go back in for the welding heat. Everyone's eyes are different but a welding heat is hard to look at - it's incandescent and bright yellow - almost white. "Orange" as you describe it is not hot enough. If you are sticking the part down into the fire, the piece is burning on the surface but is not really hot enough to weld properly. That's why you get a few to stick but the welds probably could be broken if you twisted them. This is cheating to the purists but I do a production forge welding job - 20 or more pieces at a time - and I worked on the process to get maximum output. I upset and scarf as normal, tack the two pieces with a MIG on one side, flux everything with Sure Weld, then clean the fire and go to welding. The Sure Weld cools down but forms a glass that protects the scarfs. I can get 4 welds and then the fire needs cleaning - the 5th one rarely sticks because of clinker blocking the air. This is very repeatable for me using my forge and fuel, your results may vary.

I forgeweld mild steel for ornamental purposes and do not get a lot of sparks. I see a few bursting sparks above the fire right before the work is removed - maybe one or two per second or thereabouts then I see a few when the work comes out of the fire. The flux is very liquid and can be slung off easily. The weld goes SPAT! when I hit it - if I don't hear that noise then it very likely won't stick. I use SureWeld for 90% of my work - although I also use EZ Weld when I can hammer all sides of the weld. I don't use straight borax because I have had trouble with it leaching out of crevices later.

Works great and it's really how you are supposed to utilize an electric blower. I have a factory Buffalo rig and the lowest setting on the factory pot is way too much blast without an air gate but it can be choked to a whisper with one in place. Any slide gate works - Centaur sells them if you simply want to buy one and 3 inch is a good size. I have also built them from scratch. It's important to be able to close it off completely and it also helps to make the fit a little sloppy so they'll still slide with the inevitable coal dust that falls down in the groove.

Like everything on TV, Mythbusters is aiming for drama. If the truth is a fortunate coincidence, then it may get presented but they really don't want anyone questioning the results since that casts a shadow on their authority. Many shows presented as fact on the History Channel are also mixed up with regard to already published literature. I really think the producers just google a subject and read a few pages - that seems to be the modern solution to a scholarly approach, which in the past meant real research using books and other printed material, checking sources and proving the validity of a claim.

Well said, Ed...the end product is what's important. BTW, how's the Beaudry coming along?

I have a lathe and a vertical mill in addition to my forging equipment and make income from the entire shop so they are tools as part of a whole. Like "Yesteryear", I work in a screw machine shop by day so have an exposure to it there, which helps me at home on some jobs. I'm quite sure the machine trade came from blacksmiths because they were the traditional authorities on metal working. Many inventors in the last two centuries were blacksmiths or the sons of 'smiths. Of course, you have to toss in those individuals who were gunsmiths, armorers, etc., but the trades are all related. It is now considered an insult to call a machinist by the name, "blacksmith", (theoretically because he doesn't understand precision measurement) but it's pretty hypocritical to do so since that's where the trade originated - I've had this conversation with several machinists and most just shake their heads.

This is one of the reasons a side blast tuyere sometimes is better than a bottom blast - you can place a fire brick in front of the pipe and force the air to divert both ways and eventually get a fire that can be 15-20 inches long. You could also try 4 fire bricks - two on each side, end to end. You build a fire in the trough and the bricks help keep it from spreading. In the absence of bricks, water is your best bet to get the fire to channel.

What fuel do you plan to use? Is good blacksmith coal available there or will you need to stick to some form of gas?

Some of the Asian smiths work in a pit with the anvil on the ground so could conceivably work a while and lean back against the edge of the hole. Of course, you have to get in and out of the pit. We had an old fellow in our group some years ago who had polio as a child and walked with those arm support crutches that go up to the elbow. He also had a small seat with a single leg that he carried so he could lean back and rest. He was standing on his two legs but the third one gave him something to brace against. I can still stand for long periods but typically sit on a stool at the power hammer or when doing bench work. As Brian said, a foot rest goes a long way to reducing fatigue.

That Whirlwind pot was designed for coke but will work with coal. Make sure the pot is filled with coke and the fire is not hollow. Pile up the coke about 4-5 inches above the upper surface of the pot. Make sure fresh coal is around the periphery. When the fire is a white lemon yellow, the blast can be turned back to keep that temp or something close to it.

I find it best to work from the sides of the fire. As it burns down, I pack fresh material in from each side and pile fresh coal on the outside. That way, it will coke slowly and be ready when it gets to the interior. This also allows a long bar to be laid in the "trough". In addition, I keep some coke to the side so I can cover up parts to be heated if the fire is a little hollow.

Household GOOP that you can get at Home Depot or Lowe's also works well and is the only "glue" I use on hammer heads aside from the normal wooden wedge. I seldom add metal wedges unless they get loose again but the GOOP works and holds up over a long period of time.

Torin, You are correct. Machinery's Handbook lists 52100 as a chromium furnace steel primarily used for bearings and race - not stainless. It may be more corrosion resistant than 1095 or something similar but it is not classified as a true "stainless".