HWooldridge

With regard to the "innocent sweet old widow" theme, I had the opposite happen twice. An elderly acquaintance passed away and left a big gun collection - about 45 pieces. His wife asked me to appraise it with the offer of one gun as payment. I did some research, gave her the prices and tagged the gun I wanted, which was not one of the gems in the collection. I told her to let me know when they would do the auction and I'd come by a day early. Word got out and a man came in and negotiated for everything. When I heard nothing after a few months, I called and found out what happened. There was no offer for compensation or apology, just an "Oh, I forgot but I really want to thank you for helping me out". The same scenario happened with a blacksmith shop; the daughter called on behalf of the widow and asked me to do an appraisal. He had a 50 lb LG hammer, a nice older lathe, two anvils, probably ten vises, an acorn table and a bunch of hand tools. I did the appraisal and marked one of the vises for myself. The exact thing then repeated; they put the word out, a guy came in and bought every stick of furniture. I drove by a month later after returning from a business trip and the shop was already bulldozed and everything gone. When I called to ask what happened to my vise, all I got was a lot of stuttering. In both of these instances, the men I knew would not have done this but the wives just wanted to maximize the assets and get the cash. I was approached in both of these cases so I was not out cruising for opportunities and have resolved never to do this kind of charity work again unless I can take an item for payment while I'm onsite.

It will warm up quickly when doing struck work on the anvil with a striker as the heat transfers pretty fast and there is also some kinetic energy involved. In the winter, I'll often heat a 1x2x4 piece of scrap I keep just for that purpose in the gas forge and put it on the anvil a couple of times. Warms it up nicely in preparation for forge welding plus removes any condensation.

I've had my 250 lb too hot to lean against or touch for longer than a moment but I have never had it "sizzling". Cooling yours with water will not hurt anything.

All kinds - where do I start... Many years ago, when I first got addicted...uh, I mean...interested in this craft, I put an ad in several local papers that simply stated "Want to buy - blacksmith's tools". I got all sorts of calls but the one that I remember was a guy who had an old coal forge with no blower. This thing was handmade and very crude, with a rotten pipe for a tuyere and an old wooden box. I couldn't tell what it was like over the phone but had a pretty clear understanding after I went and looked at it. It didn't interest me but I went ahead and asked - his response was, "Well, I'd either like $1800 cash or I'll trade for a nice flatbed trailer". Needless to say, I smiled and shook his hand, then left. This was not something I passed up but I traded a model 92 Winchester saddle carbine for my big 250 lb PW anvil in 1984. Cowboy action shooting has since driven the price of that rifle up to about $1000-$1500 now but I've made a lot more money with the anvil than what the carbine would have brought. That wasn't a bad trade but I'd still like to have the Winchester back. I got suckered pretty badly on a car deal when I was 18 - but you learn from those mistakes and go forward - experience is the best teacher. I am much more cautious in my later years.

One big trouble is gasoline contamination. You would not want to quench and have a fire that would be extremely difficult to extinguish. I'm sure many people have employed used motor oil with success but it's probably not the best choice.

Yes, it makes no appreciable difference. Brine will quench faster than water, but should only be used in those applications where you need that. With nothing added to the mix, water is water.

Older pennies would be fine. Some of the rarer ones are worth a nickel or so...

If spark tested on a grinding wheel, you'll see very few sparks and they will be orange. Take a small piece and work the tip dead cold - mild steel may crack but WI will unravel.

I've never had a finger broken but I've had plenty of busted veins in my hands from being stung by a misplaced tool so I'm sensitive to anything that will kick back when struck. I have a 100lb hammer and almost all of my freehand tooling has 1/4" round handles. I also can bend them into almost endless variations to get the tool where I need it. The Zimbabwe idea sounds quite workable and would not require welding. You could have it come out at right angles and bend it behind the tool if necessary.

If you win it, it would be worth the freight to ship across the country. Heck, I'd buy $20-$30 worth of tickets if I thought I had a chance.

50% down, balance on delivery. Knock on wood, I have never been stiffed so far.

You might want to consider drawing the handle out very long and thin. This allows you to eliminate the wooden handle and keeps the tool from stinging you when struck. My hack is a piece of H13. I drilled a hole on one end before it was heat treated and welded on a piece of 1/4" round material as a handle. The weld breaks every year or two - I weld it back and keep using the hack. The 1/4" does not sting my hand.

You could make decorative washers. Cut off discs and then punch/drill/chisel a design, drill center hole (to allow fastening), maybe finish by dishing in a swage so they are convex. Heck, for the price of copper, you could sell it and buy a nice anvil...;-)

You can also drill the end with a small ball mill or drill bit, then heat and flatten into an oval.

I have memories as a youngster in the 1960's of my uncle having a small forge on the farm. He had one of those anvil/vise combos mounted on a stump and I always played with the vise when no one was around - pinched my fingers once or twice but that's how I learned what not to do. Fast forward to my college years - I met a guy at work who had been a farrier in high school. He got me interested and gave me a turning hammer then we both went to a Hammerfest - I think it was the first one in Texas, held in 1982. I was bitten at that point and started collecting tools, built a shop, etc. My grandfather was still alive then and had been a smith in the 1920's - he used to come into the shop and either watch or piddle around a bit. I have a few simple items he made but his stamina was about gone. He couldn't hammer very long without getting tired but was a bank of wisdom, mainly about fire control and forge welding. However, he was very rigid about certain things, like tongs HAD to have 7/16 round reins and stuff like that. I actually had to go buy some cold rolled 7/16, just so he would have some stock for tong reins. At any rate, I've been hooked ever since I first hit a piece of hot iron...

I had a little incident this week I'd like to pass on as a safety story about wire wheels. Thursday night, I was power brushing some work with a 4-1/2" right angle grinder and a knotted wire wheel. The wheel was old and starting to shed strands. I always wear face and eye protection but let everything else take what comes. I kept getting stung in the belly and chest but the flying wires never penetrated my skin. I finished about 9:30, went into the house to wash up and went to bed. Next morning, I got up, showered, got dressed like every other day of the world and went to work. About lunchtime, I looked down and noticed a red spot on my left arm that had a small spot of dried blood. Felt like something was there but it did not hurt. By the time my wife and I got home Friday night, there was a hard red knot on my arm so I knew something was wrong. Out came the pointed tweezers and after a little digging, I removed a piece of wire that was just under 1-1/2" long! The worst part was that it had angled inward and driven down between the arm bones. I was lucky it didn't hit a tendon or blood vessel and that the tip was within reach or I would have been in the emergency room having surgery. IMHO, the wire wheel is the most dangerous tool in the shop and needs to be treated with the utmost care. I also went out into the shop today and tossed that wheel in the trash so I wouldn't be tempted to get just one more pass out of it.

I once had a 300 amp engine driven Linde MIG that would burn you through a single shirt. It used .055 wire and was designed for pipeline welding so you could really turn up the juice. The first time I used it, I wore a white T-shirt under a denim work shirt that I neglected to button up the front. At the end of the day, I had a nice lobster stripe from neck to belt. I have a very bad habit of not wearing long sleeves and will often weld ony with gloves and helmet so I always have nut brown forearms with lighter hands and shoulders (farmer's tan). Not a good idea since skin cancer runs in the family and I already live somewhere where the sun shines 300 days a year.

I'm certainly not doubting you guys who have done it - but how did they get enough material to make all those wagon tires and bridge trestles and boiler plates, etc. produced over the last couple of centuries? Heck, just think of all the wrought iron anvils, which has to be in the thousands of tons of material (and I might add a good source for a modern knifemaker if it's in bad shape for forging). You could still get wrought in many sizes after WW2 into the 1950's and I can't imagine it wasn't being produced on a commercial scale (although steel would still be cheaper) or, is the stuff I'm thinking of more in the line of what was called "Swedish Charcoal Iron" or whatever it was named? Refined pure iron but not really "wrought" with all the impurities. Just curious...H

I am fortunate (maybe) to have two. The little green 10x36 Sheldon is a workhorse and has served me faithfully for 20 years - I can run it in my sleep. It started life serving on a Navy ship and was built in 1946. My cousin purchased it from government surplus in the 1960's and I bought it from him in 1987. I recently got the 15x48 Clausing for next to nothing from my place of work but the gear box was crunched. The spindle and everything else is fine but an idiot crashed it under power feed twice and once while threading (yes, he was fired) so the QC box is a basket case. I have been busy with blacksmithing for the past 9 months so have not gotten a chance to do anything with it but will make an attempt now that it's starting to cool off. The parts are available but for the price, I can make them during my spare time and be way ahead. It is a real beast for hogging material but will hold tenths while finish turning manually so is worth spending some time on.

Jymm, I'm not trying to be a smart@#$ and only asking out of curiousity but have you gotten any quotes on other materials and/or methods? 1. Cast 4140 and surface flame hardened might work. The base material is surely cheaper than H13, which is typically a vacuum melt tool steel. I expect H13 is at least $4 a pound from the mill and then you have to remelt in an inert atmosphere. We purchase a lot of heat treated items where I work and vacuum processing is quite a bit more expensive than carburizing or typical quench/temper. 2. Might also be able to CNC flame cut them from H13 or other standard plate instead of the casting scenario. The torch will need a C axis to rotate for the curved areas but it should be cheaper. Your pattern could be translated into CAD if you don't have it already. 3. Another option might be resistance welding a spring steel plate to mild steel and duplicating the old wrought anvils. It would be fairly cheap to flame cut A36 and weld a plate on top then heat treat. This would take a big resistance welder but they are out there. One of the nice things about these alternate methods is that you aren't held hostage by a specific process and I'd bet a beer that cooperative fab shops are easier to find these days than casting houses.

I always run sch 40 black iron but more because I'm afraid I'll hit a piece of PVC by accident while working and bust it. Grey PVC does lose its plasticizers but it takes a while (of course, you probably don't want to be around when it lets go). Copper is great but black pipe is cheap and easy. I use Ingersol-Rand's synthetic compressor oil. It's a bit pricey but the little bit I use and the infrequency of the changes makes the oil cost neglible.

In 2004, I restored a smithy for the local historical preservation society and then demo'ed there one day with several other smiths. Most of the equipment we put in came from an old shop that was founded in 1910 and closed in the 1970's. At the end of the first day, a lady who looked to be in her 50's came up and watched for a very long time. I finally looked up and saw she was misty-eyed but not wanting to put her on the spot, I ignored the tears and struck up a conversation. Turns out the founding smith was her grandfather and since he had lived well into his 90's, she had often been able to sit in his shop as a child and watch him work. We were forging on his anvil, and using his forge and vise. Makes you a little more careful how you treat things. I made a poker and gave it to her - she gave me a hug and a heartfelt 'thank you'.

I wasn't criticizing - I realize these pictures are intended to show everyone's forge setup. I just wanted to add a tip to those who might not know since a newbie might look at this thread and think skimping on the coal is the right way.

Ergoman, I never knew what he kept under the hood - but you never know...:-0 (No, the old feller had heart trouble, was about 5'0" and weighed around 100 lbs or so near the end of his life. However, he had been a high school shop teacher for much of his career and knew how to command order from people.)

I have to comment on something I keep seeing in these pictures - mainly for the new folks. I can't speak to charcoal and this doesn't work as well with coke, but a coal forge does best with a lot of fuel in the box. Although it may seem counterintuitive, piling a lot of coal up and around the fire will actually insulate it and use less fuel. In addition, it takes much less maintenance to add fresh fuel and makes the fire deep enough to weld effectively. I have some lump coal from the Midwest and some slack coal (mostly fines) from Oklahoma that I use in my forge. I fill a 5 gallon bucket with the fines and wet it with about 2-3 quarts of water. After the fire gets going with a little coke from the previous session, I pack the wet coal around the fire so it will begin coking. On the outside of the wet stuff, I rake up whatever is dry and laying in the hearth. The mound at the firepot is at least 5-6 inches above the hearth so it is a nice deep fire. As the fire burns down, I pack it in from the sides with a poker. Most people work on bars of some sort so this method creates a trough in the fire. I have seen newbies who tear down and practically destroy the fire with every heat or two trying to manage the heat, but effective fire control is more about regular and minimal maintenance to keep that hot glowing center, which will provide an efficient heat on the metal.