HWooldridge

I have one that is 4 feet tall with the tong slot up one side. It does not go to a point but ends about 4" in diameter with a square interior to hold a smaller cone - which I don't own. It been in the shop for about 15 years and I have NEVER used it - but as folks have said, it's probably the cat's meow when needed.

There is a national standard in the US but I do not know if it is observed internationally. If I were you, I'd talk to your local distributor for the gases and let them guide you on the torch for compatibility and support. The Victor clone is a good choice. A basic kit with 3 welding tips and a cutting attachment will do 95% of the work you are apt to try. Maybe get one larger tip for the cutting torch to allow you a cleaner cut on the rail track.

I always liked the fire and heating up a piece of steel then swatting it into a different shape. Although we barely had two thin dimes when I was a child, I was fortunate enough to take art lessons one summer about 40 years ago. I enjoyed pottery the best so blacksmithing is probably a hot, sweaty extension of that interest.

Thomas, We are discussing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin (i.e., we'll never know...) - but let me ask, why are the depressions so oddly shaped? Do you think a smith would have made them that way on purpose? Remember that work in years past was done as cleanly and precisely as possible - no one was interested in artificial texture, so it is very unlikely that those odd shapes would have been done with intent. In addition, we don't know what the little petal design looked like when new or when it was put into place. They may have made the tool and added the design a hundred years later.

Nope, I'm sticking with wear pattern. How many of us have seen tools in old blacksmith shops that were practically worn down to a feather? The smith spent time and money making the tool and then used the H^&* out of it - maybe several generations of smiths doing harness and wagon work. I have a rivet backing bar in mild steel made for 3/16 shank rivets with round factory head. It's from a piece of 1/2" square hot rolled using a round ball mill for the depression. After backing up the setting of perhaps, a thousand rivets, the sides of the half-round hemisphere have gone tri-lobular on me - a very odd shape IMHO. I think someone took a piece of WI and made several depressions with the equvalent of a ball end punch (back of a ball peen hammer?), then made the little rosettes with a second punch. I will concede that it may be a backup for brass rivets. It is doubtful there is an upper half because there is no channel for the bar stock. In other words, trying to employ it as a swage would not work because the stock would be severed - even if the upper half had a channel for that purpose.

I doubt it's steel - more likely wrought iron. I also agree with Irnsrgn that it's a support for riveting. The curvature may be a result from using it in something beside an anvil - maybe a vise, maybe a stump, maybe a swage block. The depressions are elongated from wear - note the one on the right is fairly round. Some head sizes may have been used more than others.

A teardrop is an oval that has been "pulled" on one side. Visualize a round, tapered punch and flattened to an oval. This can be done by hand or in a very large swage, i.e., a 1" punch can be put between 3" round swage halves (if they meet) and forged oval. At this point, the tapered oval is forged on one side so the the narrow side of the teardrop forms. The punch can start curving away from the hammer blows during this operation and has to be kept straight. You have now forged a tapered, teardrop punch.

Bruce's description is very accurate and concise. Have you ever seen the back of an old pocket watch? It is relatively flat but the edges are quite smooth from handling and the whole thing has a planished look. Your hammer face should look the same and if you're lucky, the face of the anvil will also match. The other comments with regard to working at various heats are also valid.

I agree with Mike that a hand blower is better with coal for welding. Even if you are quite skilled, an electric blower has to be watched like a hawk. The hand blower will bring the fire up to just the perfect color while letting the material soak a bit without burning. A centrifugal or paddle-type blower (or two-lung bellows) does a better job for all-around work than a motor driven squirrel cage. I don't want to move the whole shop for a one or two day demo but I'd rather have a decent sized forge than something which doesn't work properly.

I cut holes in a 55 gal drum and mounted a Centaur 12" round pot in the top end. I also cut out the bottom so the pot could dump, cut the resulting scrap piece in half then tacked each "half-moon" to right and left sides to help keep coal from falling out and help with cross winds. I carry a Tiger blower mounted on a tripod with a piece of 3" flex tubing to connect the pot to the air source. My anvil is a 100 lb Hay Budden that I clamp to a steel tripod mount, which also weighs about 100 lbs so the whole thing is pretty stable. I carry all my hand tools in two 5 gallon plastic buckets and precut all my steel stock so all I have to do is grab the right one and forge it. I use another 55 gal drum for a slack tub, which has a leg vise mounted to the side. Fill the barrel with water and you have plenty of weight to offset pulling on the vise or twisting. Dump the water, load up and leave. I usually do one or two demos a year and make about 15-20 things per hour - mostly hooks, pokers, candle holders, etc. The hard stuff is already built at the shop and out on the table for sale. I also sometimes preforge pieces and assemble the parts for the public - most people seldom notice you didn't actually forge it on the spot, especially if you heat it a bit and apply wax. More than you asked but I was in a typing mood.

I would want to know if there was a flammability issue before putting up too much of anything that might burn from a spark.

Plain water makes larger steam pockets, which is an insulator. It's also a reason why thin items warp in the quench - because some areas are cooling and others are being insulated so stresses develop. Agitation is the key - a falling column of water works well so if you had, for example, a six inch pipe coming out of a large cistern, you could get a piece quenched pretty quickly if you could dump the water on the item.

I sand blast off any scale, then reheat with a torch until it's blue. As the piece cools back down, I spray with unflavored Pam (which is mostly canola oil).

Robb Gunter's lye-based Super Quench formula yields similar results but is somewhat dangerous to use. I was quenching tools in a batch several years ago and wound up burning my lungs with the vapor. I now use his revised recipe which is basically salt, Dawn and water (although I can't remember the proportions off the top of my head). I was also told that brine forms a smaller steam pocket than plain water. One thing to remember is to balance the steel type with the proper quench. Plain water hardening steels will get hard as a banker's heart in a brine quench because the austenite is turned to martensite so quickly. In fact, garden variety A36 will often get in the Rockwell 40 range in brine. However, typical air hardening steels like S7 may be harmed by a rapid quench due to excessive stress.

I can echo that although I have not bought a kit, I have found them quite reputable on other transactions.

Something that works well on a Suffolk type or "bean" handle is to neck the material, leaving a blob on the end for the bean. The second process is to draw the bean sideways to the parent stock. The third action is to clamp the bean part in the vise, with the handle in a vertical orientation and right at the juncture of the handle stock. The cross peen is then used to strike just above the bean, which will curve the parent stock and make a very pleasing transition. The other side is then completed in the same way and the piece checked on a flat surface so the height is the same on both ends. (Almost sounds like a BP session - doesn't it)

You can make simple jigs from pins and flats to form around and it's important to ALWAYS measure - both in cutting the basic stock sizes and as you work. Here's an example: I make a simple poker design that has a loop handle and a working end that forms an upside down "J". I forge a small point on the handle end and curl it back, then quench the tip and wrap the hot stock about 3/4 around a 2" piece of shaft, leaving about an inch of space. Next, I tap the handle closed so I get a slight oval. The other end is pointed by hand and flattened under the power hammer, then wrapped around a 3/4" piece of shaft. I made 30 of these in 2005 and sold the last one a couple of weeks ago so had to make some more. The poker finishes at 28" and the new batch checked right at 28" - give or take 1/16. Even on things that I make more often, I always write down stock sizes, jigs and methods so I don't have to reinvent the wheel. I also mark jigs with a number so I'm not confused by a term like "one inch jig". I suggest you practice this on anything you plan to make more than once plus it's also a big help on similar projects. Another recommendation I have is to forge similar items at similar heat colors and number of heats. In other words, if you can forge a detail in two heats at a bright yellow, make all the rest in two heats at a bright yellow. Although I don't think many people care to count hammer blows, you will begin to find that a group of items similar in design will develop a "cycle time" that is consistent from piece to piece. It may sound like mass production but is really a path to consistency.

If you are going to forge them anyway, heat the nippers up to an orange and work them vigorously, which will loosen the rivet. Clamp one side of the nipper in a vist and use a thin chisel to cut apart the halves. You can also sometimes cut the head off against one half. After you are done forging the nippers to the desired shape, put the halves together and check the fit on the rivet - you may want to make adjustments before they are assembled. I use an OA torch to heat a rivet but you can also put the whole thing in the forge with the factory head uppermost so the rivet doesn't fall out. If I recall correctly, a round head requires 1-1/2d, so a 1/4" diameter rivet shank would need 3/8" sticking out the other side. This needs to be increased if the hole is sloppy as upsetting will make the material go into the hole and the head will be small. The proper way to do this is to put a rivet set on the anvil to support the factory head and hammer the other side down to form a rough dome shape then finish it off with a matching rivet set on the top side. Done properly, it will look balanced and very clean. Lacking the rivet sets, you can do what Woody said and put the factory rivet side against the anvil - but the head will have a flat spot.

American Longrifles - Home - a site dedicated to the study and building of the American longrifle and Welcome to Graybeard Outdoors

I think Ries Niemi can help you but don't know if he posts here - he does visit across the street at Sparky's site.

Interesting answers... My grandfather was both blacksmith and carpenter for most of his 90 years above the turf. He slicked his hammer handles about like a silk scarf but he also put a slight swell at the end of the handle so it would slip in his grip to that point and not go flying. He swore by all that was holy that any roughness on the handle would cause blisters if you worked at it all day long. Believe me when I tell you that he had hard callused hands but he didn't want any roughness on a handle - he also felt that "texture" could cause a stress riser and start a crack, which would lead to a broken handle. I learned that the hard way when I put some rasp marks on a new ax handle and promptly broke the handle while cutting brush (this happened shortly after he had told me not to do it). Based on his advice those many years ago, all of my handles are polished about like a gunstock but they also have a swell in the end. I don't have any trouble with hammers flying across the shop nor do I get blisters after a long day's work. I guess I am in the minority but it has always worked for me.

My old overhead hood was galvanized and lasted about ten years but was then damaged in an accident so I replaced it with a black iron side draft. However, the current chimney sections are original and now twenty years old (and galvanized). They have never rusted so apparently the galv is not burning away. I also figured that the same draft taking the smoke out would carry away any fumes. I do not get headaches or feel bad otherwise when working so I feel comfortable using it.

There are several ways to do this...the first hood I had was the traditional overhead one, a little above head height so I wasn't cracking my noggin every time I bent over the forge. It was 4 feet square and plumbed to a 12 inch square flue. Even though it was inside a shop, any little cross breeze (or the ventilation fan), caused smoke to go everywhere and soot up my lungs. One day, I hung a piece of scrap sheet metal from the left side of the forge (I am right handed so don't move that direction to the anvil). This extended across the full width of the hood and down to an inch or so of the forge. I discovered very quickly that this plate would get hot and suck almost all of the smoke up the chimney. My second permanent shop has a side draft - I believe there are plans for one on this site. It will snag 100% of the smoke once it gets warmed up. If you plan to continue using it as a portable rig, you can put two half moon pieces of metal on either side of the firepot (think about the top of a 55 gal drum - cut in half). These "wings" will block most mild breezes enough to keep the smoke from chasing you around all day long.

Ironman, I believe the commonly accepted timing for the immigrations would still put them in the Stone Age. In other words, people over the whole world were about equal in technology when the American Indians immigrated across the land bridge but they got lost with regard to technology enhancements. It's clear the Maya, Inca and Aztec societies were quite advanced in some ways but sadly lacking in others. The same basic thing happened with the aboriginal tribes of Australia - they somehow populated the country and then did not advance with time. We sometimes tend to forget that the Renaissance was a very important period in the development of European culture and technology. Prior to that, most folks in that part of the world lived in squalid, brutal conditions. I think it was called the Dark Ages...

There is a drawing of one of these in "Practical Blacksmithing" by MT Richardson but I have never seen one in my travels looking for this kind of stuff.