HWooldridge

Ed hit all the handle points square on the dot. My hammers also have a slight swell at the end of the handle so my hand catches it naturally as it slides back and forth in the normal movement.

This is definitely an individual thing and very worthy of close study by each smith since the hammer is our primary 'weapon'. A friend of mine and I both work together at a lot of festivals and re-enactments. He never raises the hammer head higher than his shoulder and uses a 2.5 hammer for all work. When forging, I typically raise the hammer over my head and bring it down hard. When working small stuff, (under 3/8"), I usually use a 1.5 hammer but 3/4" and down gets the 2.5 hammer. That way, I can more or less swing with the same speed. I can almost always get more from a heat than my buddy but he does have a bad elbow so I cut him some slack. :wink: I subscribe to the lighter, faster school rather than slow and heavy but that's only my opinion.

When I first started, I ran ads asking for blacksmith tools in the classified ads of all the local small town papers around San Antonio. Bear in mind this was around '83 and the antique craze was not in full swing but I got a lot of phone calls. I found a few treasures and also went on wild goose chases. One of those was a guy who had an old home made wooden forge with no blower and a factory firepot. The forge was shot and the pot had a small hole in it but he was asking $1800 or to trade for a tandem axle trailer. I still remember it because it was so outrageous. On the other hand, an elderly lady called and said she had some tools that her late husband had owned. I showed up and it was a bunch of hand tools (including tongs), a small anvil and about 700 lbs of coal in old nail barrels. It was in her way so she asked me to haul it off. I was finally able to convince her to take $20 since I couldn't see taking it for nothing. On another trip, a fellow sold me a leg vise, a large cast iron forge with pot and like-new hand blower on a tripod for $50. However, he would not even discuss selling the anvil - because it had belonged to grandpa - just like the other stuff. Like Strine said, put the word out and you'll be surprised what you may find.

No, that is .85% of carbon - less than 1%. Cast iron is only about 4% as I recall, so it doesn't take much to drastically change the steel characteristics. The mower blades would likely make excellent wood chisels, gouges, draw knives, etc. However, the shape is not good for punches and welding together into a billet is a lot of work. Unwound coil springs make good punches or chisels. The first two tools I made when I started over twenty years ago were a cold chisel and a center punch. They have been used thousands of times to mark or cut steel and will outlive me many times over.

A lot of it depends on whether you are fatigued by using it. It will take some getting used to since it's a new motion to hit an anvil but some large guys use small hammers and vice versa. Part of it is build and part is technique plus it also depends what you are typically forging. 1/4" material can be forged quite well with a 1 lb hammer - 3/4" is probably best worked with a 3 lb. I started with a 2-1/2 lb cross peen when I was 24, went up to a 3, then went up to a 4 (which was too much) so I dropped back to a 3 for many years. I'm 46 now and back to a 2-1/2 lb so it's gone full cycle. I can still swing a 6 lb in one hand for a while but for most work, I think a fast snappy blow with a lighter hammer is better than a slower, heavier hit.

No, they should have some carbon. You can spark test and get some idea of basic content.

Strine, I agree - people don't do stupid stuff because they figure out the right way to do something and then do the opposite on purpose. I went to a welding class years ago and one student watched a whole day of demonstrating without a lens. The instructor didn't check the hoods before issuing them and the student just didn't know any better - he thought the hoods were just to protect the head and face. He spent two days in the hospital nursing his eyes. I have four sons, all grown now, but they watched me rebuild engines, work in the shop, on the lathe, drive a tractor, etc. since they were very young. They picked up "common sense" by watching and doing on their own. Experience builds on itself because similar projects come along and your brain says "I can figure this out" and then you do - thereby building more experience. This goes on until we pass on. I'm glad you didn't flatten his nose - although the "experience" might have been good for him... :wink:

It's amazing what you can do with a little ingenuity. Alex Weygers, in "The Modern Blacksmith" shows a coffee can hanging in a tree with a 12' long, 5" diameter stack attached for natural draft. He punched a few holes in the can and loaded it with charcoal through the front hole. With this, he was able to attain sufficient forging heat to make wood carving tools and chisels. Archie, if you can find a copy of this book, you may want to get it. Weygers lived in a lot of primitive places and made do with very little but he was a gifted artist in both wood and metal.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/30/army.farrier/index.html Army's 'Old Guard' blacksmith forges 3 decades of service ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- Monday is Pete Cote's final Memorial Day as the chief civilian blacksmith for Army horses used at Arlington National Cemetery. Edit: Text added below the URL

Finn, You covered it all. I personally like riveting (especially blind rivets) and I try to work them into a design even if I use the MIG somewhere else on the job. It definitely separates the work from the typical glue gun job since most people don't even know what a solid rivet is, so they think it's cool when they see one.

Phil, G'head and post your name - we all know who ye be...anon-smith in a pig's eye. :mrgreen:

Whitaker talked about one he had seen years ago where the pickets had been drilled with cross holes alternating the width of the top rail, then pinned with tapered dowels. For example, pickets 1, 3, 5, etc., were drilled at 30" from the bottom end, while numbers 2, 4, 6 and so on were drilled at 29-1/2". Dowels are driven in the even numbered pickets, a 1/2" rail that had been punched with square holes is dropped on all pickets, then dowels are driven into the odd numbered pickets, locking the rail into place. Neat, simple and stays tight. Hope this makes sense. PS - It's perfectly fine to use a MIG welder if that is the look you and the customer can accept.

I assume you mean J or S hooks. Weld a short piece of 1" or 1-1/4" pipe to a small plate and tack a pin (the width of your planned stock) away from it. Catch the stock against the pin and wrap around the pipe until you get a "J". Turn the stock around and bend the opposite way for an S hook.

A, He's in 'stralia - see his nom de plume... :?: You need: some type of blower or bellows, something to hold the fire (can be firebricks), something to beat on. The whole forge can be out of wood so you don't need to be able to weld (if'n you can't drive nails, then you shouldn't try blacksmithing :wink:). A piece of pipe to conduct the air and you are set to at least build a fire. If you can't find BS coal, then look for natural charcoal - briquettes work to a point but aren't really suitable for serious work. Glenn's 55 forge is good but you may have to think about screwing or bolting pieces that would normally be welded. Good luck and let us know how you progress.

Pull the fire apart with a poker and use a SMALL amount of water to put out the coke. Too much water can blow up in your face (as steam) and break things - especially cast firepots. I saw this happen once at a workshop with some novice smiths and it was catastrophic. Fortunately, no one was hurt but it was scary and shattered a brand new firepot. I plan ahead and take a few minutes to shut down. I do the initial breakdown, use a little water then start cleaning up the shop. Come back a while later and use a little more water. The second time is usually enough to put the flames out, even if the forge is still warm. Keep the coke for the next fire and let the rest of it cool until you can fish out whatever clinker is there.

Here is another paradox about burning coal. You burn less fuel but more efficiently by putting more coal in and around the fire. The excess actually insulates the coke ring and can be watered for coke production and to concentrate the fire. Beginners often put a little bit of fuel in the pot and are amazed how fast it burns away to nothing. Pile the coal deeply, water the edges and you will have a good neutral fire - suitable for welding and forging.

I use a split-leg leather farrier's apron. I wear shorts a lot because of the heat down here so the apron protects the front of my legs while allowing circulation.

I've seen a multitude of twisting machines. The fancy ones are CNC driven and can be programmed but the basic concept is to lock one end, drive the other at low speed/high torque with a clutch to stop the motion in an instant. The old shop I restored in New Braunfels had one from made with a model T transmission and a flat belt for power. It was used for both twisting and threading so the head stock was set on ways to allow the work to slide at it was threaded. A friend of mine built one with the head stock and a 4-jaw chuck from an old wood lathe. The bed was an 8x10 wood beam that would allow about 8 feet of twist between centers. It ran too fast so he built a speed reduction with belts and pulleys that made the final yield about 10 rpm. With a 3/4hp 1725 motor, it would twist 1 inch square hot and 5/8 cold. The clutch was simple - he just engaged one of the belts by hand with an idler, then let it slip when the twist was completed.

I recall that he does use lead additive and starts them by hand but sounds like might be better if you can talk to him directly - he travels a lot but I'll try to get ahold of him. There is also a stationary engine site on the web - try this: http://www.ytmag.com/

What do you want to know? One of my neighbors has about 50 of them laying around in various stages of disrepair. He has 15 or so that run - he goes to antique tractor pulls and such to demonstrate their function.

Here is a related tip on fishtail scroll ends. Flatten the end slightly to about 2/3 the original size and pull the corners out at a 45 to the bar with a cross peen die or your hand hammer - so the piece looks like it has "cat ears". At this juncture, the ears will be pointed and longer than the center of the fishtail. Switch to the flat hammer face and strike the center of the bar near the edge. This will push out and finish the center plus force the ears wider so a nice fan tail is forged with sharp tips. I can do a 3/8 square bar in one heat with a hand hammer to give a good start to this type of scroll. If you don't do this first step, the ends will be more rounded and lobe shaped - which is fine if that is the look you want but the old classic fishtails are straight across with sharp tips. This does it without grinding or filing.

Bruce, The heat stays relatively contained to the area of the pot. I built a forge for a local historic society entirely out of wood but I set a piece of 1/8 plate over the portion of the wood closest to the pot, which cannot be seen with coal scattered over the hearth. The pot was a round 12 inch Centaur so I made the plate about 18" square and left a hole in the wood that was covered by the plate but still several inches away from the pot so the wood wouldn't char. We have used this forge many times all day long with no ill effects - the bulk of the heat stays localized. You don't need brick or any other type of liner. However, many of the patent factory forges came with the lips of the pot an inch or so above the hearth so some folks lined this with sand or mortar but anything that traps moisture will greatly speed up the rust-through problem often seen on these forges. Hollis

I bought a bunch of old Anvil's Ring magazines and as many books as I could find. When I started, the only books I could find were the ones by Bealer and MT Richardson. I also went to every meeting and workshop I could afford to attend.

Coal is very versatile and has been the standard for a long time. You can do anything with a coal forge but some types of work will not fit in a gas forge - something to consider depending on what you plan to make. I agree completely with acquiring an O/A torch and I would get a MIG before a stick or other type only because I think it's easier to learn. I taught welding basics to all four of my sons and the MIG was the easiest to master. Only one boy wanted to go on to other stuff so I taught him stick. He's in college now and finds the skill comes in handy quite often. The nice thing is that TIG and stick use the same type of power supply so that's a plus for the small shop and TIG will weld anything.

I only make holders for votives and the little fat round scent candles so yes, I am talking about the drip pan - not a taper holder. I drill a 1/16 hole and then enlarge to either 1/8 or 3/16, depending on the final application. I have never cared to use long tapers so I don't make holders to fit unless it's a custom request and I can't talk them out of it.