HWooldridge

Was the metal plated or painted? Both can burn off in odd colors.

Coke can make a blue flame but I'm wondering if your coal has a high sulfur content to begin with. I don't think it would leave a residue but you never know.

And with regard to being hard to forge, it may be high carbon material and you just need to get it hotter.

From a utilitarian perspective, they provide a useful function.  I made a small one as an exercise and gave it to my oldest son, who is a groundskeeper for a local family with large land holdings.  With no instruction or prompting from me, he naturally tied a string through the handle loop and hung it around his neck to use daily for clipping plants and general cutting purposes.  The loop knife seems to be one of the first "tactical" designs developed many moons ago...no matter the initial land of origin.

Shrinkage can be a factor in fitting forged pieces together.  If you care about the math, the coefficient of thermal expansion for steel is .0000063 in/in per degree F.  Assume ambient temp of 75 degrees F then heating to 2000 degrees - size change is about .145" - so the 1/8" per foot rule is VERY close and sufficient for most any shop application.

Thermal expansion is a big deal on railroad tracks and suspension bridges - but can also affect a garden gate pattern if the scrolls are measured hot.

Good hog sticker!

A powerhammer truly opens the doors of creativity. You definitely need one. My grandma needed one, she just never knew it.

Lots of good suggestions here.  I built several story boards for a local history conservation museum which were intended to be permanently mounted and easily visible rain or shine.  I used some rough cut mesquite boards and mounted those to the wall after fastening the various pieces using stainless steel wire (I predrilled the board and twisted the wire in the back so the pigtail didn't show).

All of the iron work had multiple coats of clear polyurethane applied for protection from the elements.  I also gave the museum the electronic file of the written synopsis for each exhibit so they could print and laminate new descriptions when the old ones got ragged.  I put these up over ten years ago and they look pretty good aside from a few rusty spots where the urethane eventually failed.

"Early American Wrought Iron" by Sonn has a picture of a betty lamp on plate 314.  That book is also a great resource for anyone making iron hardware.

Nice work!.  I used to make a similar pattern (along with fork and spoon) for craft shows but I would sandblast then wire brush to provide some shine.  Your file work is excellent.

- Mild steel works fine in most applications and can be quenched when red hot.  I once made a nice pair of 4140 tongs that someone else was using at a demo - the tongs heated up to red and lasted a couple of heats before snapping off right at the hinge.  My fault for bringing them to a demo and not explaining to the user...

- I like "bolt" tongs i.e., the type that have a bowed jaw shaped like a "C" that bite in a relatively small area.  I also like v-shaped jaws because they hold both round and square.

- Use a bolt and nut the first time.  Riveting can wait.

They make plastic tubes with a gasket between the halves that work pretty well at keeping them dry - but the 60XX series rods don't need special attention so long as they aren't left out in the rain. I live in Central Texas and it gets plenty humid here but I can keep 6011 rods in an open tin in my non-insulated shop and they still work fine. Your other rods will work better if kept dry (especially the 7018) but your oven should be fairly efficient at insulating from humidity if it's not opened frequently.

Here's a story on the flip side of this subject:

Probably 25 years ago - maybe longer, I got a call from a nice older lady who said she had some blacksmith stuff that belonged to her late husband which she wanted to part with. I asked what it was but she didn't really know - so I took a chance on the 180 mile round trip to see what she had. Turned out to be a very clean 55 lb Peter Wright, a couple of vises, a cotton scale, a big bucket of rivets and about 500 lbs of coal, which was stored in old nail barrels. I asked her what she wanted for all of it and she replied that getting everything out of her garage was her only wish. I told her that it had value and I wouldn't feel right taking it for nothing, so she said $20 was plenty. I tried to give her more but she was adamant.

So it can work either way with regard to perceived value...

Some years ago, I saw an ad for a blacksmith's forge so I called the guy and asked for description and pictures.  Turns out it was an old homemade wooden frame with a pipe stuck in the middle for the tuyere and some concrete set around it - no blower or other equipment.  I didn't really want it but inquired about the price anyway.  The seller hemmed and hawed around and finally said he wanted to trade for a tandem axle trailer or some such thing.  I told him I didn't have a trailer to trade but what value was he looking for?  His response was that it should be worth around $1800.  I wished him best of luck and hung up.

I also saw a 50lb LG in an old shop that was essentially destroyed, lots of parts cannibalized, frame and sow broken, etc. - didn't run and was really worth nothing more than scrap.  The old smith had died but the shop was in disuse for about 20 years prior to his passing and the whole place had rotted away.  The heirs wanted $5000 for all of the shop contents and were betting that the 150lb anvil (also beat to heck) and the power hammer were the prizes so they would not consider selling anything separately.  I paid my respects and went on my way - the ad kept showing up for several months so it appeared they were not willing to negotiate.  The place finally got bulldozed so I do not know if the tools went to the scrapyard or were ever sold.

A little water on the anvil face can make a loud pop if a piece of hot metal is laid over it and struck.  Sometimes a forge weld will also pop a bit.

I also enjoy your posts.  I started my working career in a small company that did all sorts of fire alarm, CCTV and electronic security installations - some of which were pretty large projects.  I was initially hired for direct sales at the tender age of 23 but we were pretty busy and I had previous experience in construction so they put me into the field for about a year to help finish jobs.  I eventually went back into the office and started doing takeoffs and estimates from plans.  The other two estimators had never done field work so they often made mistakes on how much labor to put into a quote.  The company owner was often overly optimistic when he quoted work and would lowball jobs so we tried to keep him out in the field making face-to-face sales calls (something he was good at doing).  I worked there for 4 years and about a year or so after I left the company, he quoted a large fire alarm project that eventually put his company in bankruptcy.  More proof that poor estimates can result in bad contracts and cause a slow painful death under some circumstances.

Here's a brief story from my time there that illustrates how easily you can get caught.  We received an RFQ from Kelly AFB in San Antonio (now privatized), which was to install one fire alarm siren in a loud area of their huge machine shop.  The drawing was a not-to-scale schematic and the specification only listed the device, the type of wire required and the fact that the conduit had to be rigid and not EMT.  I took a trip out to look the job over and saw that the conduit run was almost 1000 feet through a very busy shop with lots of twists and turns; I quoted the job around $8000 (this was back in the early 1980's).  When the bids were opened, two other companies were right around my price but a fourth bidder had come in at $3000.  I forgot about it and went on to other things but I received a phone call a couple weeks later from the guy who had landed the job because he had to buy a specific Edwards siren and we were the local distributor.  We started talking about it and he admitted he had not looked at the site ahead of time, had not priced the device (which was a special configuration that was more expensive than other typical brands) and had simply thrown a number at it based on the RFQ.  To make matters worse, the Contracting Officer called him after the bids were opened and asked whether his bid was valid - so he got an opportunity to cancel his bid - but he stuck with the numbers.  I had priced all of the hardware at almost $4000 so this poor soul would have been better off paying the fee to break the contract rather than moving forward with it.  I went back to the hangar sometime later on another job and saw the device was installed but never found out who actually did it.

Successful business has many facets and correct estimating is only one of them but it is a very important step.

I always use rings on the reins. My hand strength is normal but several years of production forging convinced me to use the "blacksmith's vice grips" method.

Smooth reins and cleanly forged tongs are still a good idea - nice work.

Only thing turning at idle is the flywheel.  You might try oiling the clutch blocks if you have not already done so.  Only other thing I can think of is the bearing upon which the flywheel spins is worn and/or dry.

I'd try carbide.  EDM hole popper would work too but you'd have to find somebody who owns one.

Passivation is designed to neutralize free iron on stainless steels.  Not sure what alloy you are considering but as an example, you could forge 304 then passivate in citric acid in the shop.  Alternatively, you could send out the work to someone who does that type of process using citric or nitric acid.

I have an older Synchrowave 250 built in the early '90's with both TIG and stick setups - I wouldn't trade it for any newer machine and it's a great rig for anything I can throw at it. DSW's comments on aluminum are spot on about current draw so make sure you buy enough size - similar to the problem of people being disappointed trying for spray-arc with an undersized MIG.

I laid a punch on the anvil one day after finishing a hole then absent-mindedly let the hammer free-fall onto the face...which hit the tip of the punch...which flipped up and smacked me right in the face.  One end of the punch busted my cheek and the other end cut my forehead.

Cause and effect can be a real xxxxx - but I don't store punches on the anvil anymore.  :P

I've gotten used phone or power poles by asking for them after a crew pulls them out of the ground. The poles are rarely in bad shape but age out and get replaced periodically. It's usually one of those "right place, right time" deals but they are out there.

Craigslist is another good source - lots of good stuff if you are willing to do some searching.

The screw pitch is too slow to be of much use in forging.

Your forging skills are clearly evident regardless of design.

It could be used as a handheld hide scraper...just a thought.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with the concept if the tool works for your needs in the shop.

OK, while we're talking about pet peeves, not necessarily directly related to blacksmithing I hope you will allow a slight digression.
As an admin on a grammar/spelling website, I am astounded that there is so much confusion over the simplest pair of words: it's and its.
I will try to relate my examples to blacksmithing comments frequently heard on this site:
The steel has lost its heat. (Not it's)
A PW anvil. Its ring is very loud. (Not it's)
A dangerous hammer. Its handle is too loose. (Not it's)

It's can only mean it is (or occasionally it has) and cannot be used as a possessive. You don't put an apostrophe in yours, ours, hers, theirs etc. It's not rocket science, but I have come across teachers (and I was an English teacher for 40 years) who still can't understand the poor old apostrophe.
It's a shame its correct use has fallen by the wayside.
So there's another pet peeve.
Now, back to blacksmithing ...

Good luck with the grammar lesson, Ausfire.  One of my two BS majors in college was English but I have abandoned correcting anything on the 'net (or in the business world).  While good writing skills are no clear indication of innate intelligence, the use of standard grammar is the skeleton which the flesh of comprehension hangs upon.  I have heard it said that the written word is simultaneously the best and worst method of communication.  Without it, we would not have the Bible or Shakespeare, but humans spoke to each other before they wrote the first vowel so our facial expressions convey a great deal during a face-to-face conversation and it is much easier to misunderstand or take offense to an otherwise innocent remark when it is written rather than spoken.  This is obvious from the frequent flaming comments written in threads where no such confrontation would commonly occur in person without bloodshed following closely behind.

Unfortunately, texts and tweets will likely doom all written language to a series of abbreviations and acronyms.  I agree with your observations but we are fighting a losing battle when entire paragraphs can be reduced to a few symbols.

End of related rant, back to blacksmithing...