HWooldridge

I don't know whether J Henry is a myth but there was a local smith hereabouts (he's dead now and I can't recall his name off the top of my head) who had a shop on the East side of San Antonio for many years. He sharpened those big 1-1/4 jackhammer bits that the city utility companies uses as paving breakers in air hammers. He did not have a power hammer but used only a 4 lb hand hammer, a coal forge with a 400 Champion blower and a 200 lb Haybudden. The city brought the bits in a dump truck so all he did from morning to night was repoint chisels - I'm sure he forged thousands upon thousands during his career. He got started doing them in the 50's when his regular blacksmithing work ran out and the City just kept using him until he retired. I seem to recall that he was up to charging $1 each and thought that was good money. Since most of them had a partial point, he could complete one in a single heat and would get the tip almost white in the forge (which was probably too hot for the steel but oh well). He let them all air cool in a pile on the floor then reheated just the tip of each one with a torch and quenched in old motor oil. The tips would hold up pretty well and come back mushroomed - very few broke.

To paraphrase Whitaker, he premade the collars using hardened dummy blocks after tapering the ends so they would lap nicely when closed. He would then reheat and bend them back open so the laps opened enough to allow the joined pieces to slip into the collar. A job might have hundreds of collars so most if not all were premade before assembly started. The pieces were positioned so they could be struck easily, the collar was reheated in the forge then moved quickly to the joint location, and the collar closed with a hammer. Like any other fastener (including welding), having multiple collars made for a tighter assembly since it can't rack as easily - although both Whitaker and other older texts I have read used a sag factor on gates because some amount of drop was inevitable. However, this would be neglible in a candelabra.

Yes, but they need to be properly constructed and installed. Francis Whitaker's "Blacksmith's Cookbook" has a very good chapter on collars. Suggest you read that and see if you have other questions.

The famed cutting ability of the Japanese blade is multi-faceted: A. Most of the traditional blades have a soft steel core jacketed by higher carbon steel. Any modern homogenous steel will not translate this feature in exactly the same way. B. The differential heat treatment as described by Dr. H above. C. The induced curve in the blade - part of which is a product of forging and part of which comes from the heat treating step. D. How it is wielded is the final part of the equation. An experienced swordsman is necessary to demonstrate the full capability of the weapon. The entire Japanese society was built on the culture of the blade so it took on a religious significance that was not witnessed elsewhere.

When I first started in this craft almost 25 years ago, I was visiting a smith who had already been in business for 10 or so years. We talked many times about blacksmithing in general, techniques, power hammers, etc. but the one thing that stuck with me is that he correctly stated that both of us "just liked to hit hot iron" (which is so true). Putting a piece of steel in a fire and making it into a form based solely on my will is why I keep stepping up to the anvil every day and will continue to do so until I am either dead or incapacitated. Working out of the fire is what makes a blacksmith - the rest is fabrication. The miscellaneous and modern techniques that orbit the basic skills are necessary in some shops and not so much in others. If it's necessary to keep body and soul together then by all means, do it - just don't misrepresent it to anyone.

I took a welding class over twenty years ago with about 30 students. Some of them knew nothing about welding. One guy picked up a helmet that had only the clear protector with no shade and the instructor did not notice it. They stick welded 3-4 hours and that poor b!@#$%d watched through a clear lens the entire time. When the instructor finally caught it at lunch break, his eyes were blistered and he could not see. They put him in the hospital for 4 days - his eyesight finally returned but afterwards, he decided welding was not something he wanted to continue learning about...

You might check out "The Craft of the Japanese Sword" by Yoshindo Yoshihara.

If it's your first one, don't worry about finding a big one. Nice work can be done on a 50 lb anvil because you can always tie it to a 500 lb block. In fact, you often seen small ones in fine shape because they were not abused. I knew of a nice 75 lb Peter Wright that belonged to a friend of mine who passed away last year, but I was not fast enough and one of his neighbors got it away from his widow (just to let it sit outside in a flower pot). The pritchel was only 3/8" and the hardy 3/4" - but with a perfect, unmarked face and horn. Therefore, I would try to get the best one I could find irregardless of the size. As said above, it's less about the tools and more about the smith's ability.

John, Thanks for the reply - that tells me that if I decide to build a side blast, it probably should be a water cooled model.

Tools often dictate technique. In a time when electric welding didn't exist, everything had to be forge welded (or riveted) - even very large items like ship's anchors. In some applications today, the forge weld can be as fast or faster than an electric or O/A gas weld but it's usually limited to the type of items we produce as smiths and not widely used in industry. I never fret about whether or not to forge weld unless the customer specifically asks for it. I often make up the traditional scarfs for a particular joint and tack them with the MIG - one dot to hold the pieces together. I do this because I work alone and don't want to mess around with "dropping the tongs". The finished product cannot be differentiated from one that was not tacked. Other times, I weld the pieces completely, grind the puddles, heat to bright yellow and hammer it out. Not one client has complained, "Why didn't you forge weld it?"

I also put some fire bricks inside the hood - 3 on each side but not blocking the opening. They heat up and help it draft.

I have a very similar one and put a 2" wide lip at the top of the arched opening. This tends to heat up quickly and help pull in the little ambient ribbons of smoke when the forge is cold or at idle.

The common rods should all blend with commercial mild steel (A36). For stick welding, I'd say 6010 or 6011 then grind out as much of the bead as possible. For some reason, MIG puddles using bare wire and shielding gas usually blend really weld but you need to do a little prep with anything that has a slag or flux cover after welding.

May not be posted herein but I wrote this one several years ago and it is free for public consumption: http://www.balconesforge.org/techarticles/sander.pdf BP0215 Belt Grinder

It has to reach equilibrium at any given time to give consistent results. We have production lathes in an uncontrolled shop environment and often leave them running at low idle overnight so the operator has a warm lathe in the morning. Warm is also a relative term so our machinists may follow this practice even if it's 100 in the shade. You want the bearings and the oil at a good ambient temp before you start cutting to close tolerances. For us, that means holding at least .0002 to .0005 from part to part in most applications - sometimes less.

I used to wear a pair when power hammering but do not follow that habit anymore. My anvils are tied down and don't ring so that is not a problem. I lost a large portion of my hearing in the shooting sports so blacksmithing comes in a distant second for me but I would recommend plugs or ear muffs for younger people who want to keep the auditory aids at bay a while longer.

Both styles have their advantages and disadvantages - just like gas v. solid fuel forges. Once set up and working, the side blast would be a great addition to a bottom blast as another tool. I have a spare anvil and was thinking about a second forging station on the other side of my shop but it simply has never been a priority since I work alone. However, a portable forge might be neat to build into a side blast. The Vaughans link was interesting because they show a type that does not appear to use water but is a heavy solid piece. Do any of you British chaps have experience with the non-watercooled models?

Great thread - after 25 years doing this, I still find more to learn about this craft...

John, Thank you for posting this info, it helps me a lot since I have only seen still photos of the UK side blasts. Do you typically use fire brick around the fuel to push the fire around? I have seen primitive American forges during local period re-enactments that used charcoal, which had a mound of dirt or a brick turned sideways in front of the blast. This directed the air stream in a perpendicular manner to the blast direction so the fire naturally became narrow and long - similar to a Japanese swordsmith's forge. I have also read that the side blast fell out of favor in America because the patent pot was lighter, cheaper, needed no water for cooling and used less fuel than a side blast because the fire naturally formed in the bowl but I figure it's still in use for good reason. Do you feel the side blast consumes an excessive amount of coal/coke or is it easily manageable? I'm asking all this because I have been toying with making one for a long time but I only want to make it once. I am also engaged to build a working, period-accurate forge for a restored smithy at a local historical park and was considering making that one a side blast instead of buying a firepot. Thanks in advance...Hollis

What are the dimensions, i.e. diameter of the back of the cone, ditto for the front, how long, what diameter for the blast pipe, how big is the water tank, etc?

Bruce Wilcock occasionally visits here and may be able to expand on your question as I believe he is in the Shetland islands. I traded emails with him a while back regarding side blasts because I was thinking about building one. He said water-cooled side blasts were quite common in the UK years ago but now, smiths often just use a piece of black or stainless pipe and let the end burn off since it is simple enough to replace when necessary. The old cast iron tuyere would eventually burn through and start leaking. It's pretty simple to weld a pipe inside a pipe to create a jacket if you wanted to try the design. I built one this way but never put it into a forge - I recall it was a piece of 3/4 pipe inside a 2" pipe - about 12" long, which was also capped on both ends. The 2" had two 1/2" pipe nipples - one at the back end and one a little farther forward to allow water circulation from a separate tank. The 3/4" went thru and out the back cap to the blower. However, after talking to Bruce, I figured I'd just use a piece of 1" stainless with an adapter on the rear end for air blast if I ever decided to build one.

I knew of a 500 LG that used to be in Corsicana near the tracks. They tore the shop down and left the hammer on the foundation, exposed to the elements. I saw it about 15-18 years ago and it had been outside since the '70's. Was locked up tighter than Dick's hatband - but I think it must have finally gone to the scrapper because I couldn't find anything the last time I went through there a few months back.

I almost always use a ring to hold tongs and many of my pairs have a ring permanently set in a loop on one rein. I started doing this years ago as a method of combating fatigue over several hours of forging. Not having to concentrate on gripping the work saves energy needed for hammering. Of course, it's important that the tongs fit the work properly but that applies even when holding with a normal grip. A loose grip around the whole tongs is useful under a power hammer or you can get stung - or worse, a finger broken if the work is not hit squarely.

You see the same stuff most anywhere you go - which is why OSHA remains in business. - Too many extension cords and hoses lying on the floor as a trip hazard - Exposed wire wheels - Too many plugs on one outlet (or extension cord) The list goes on...

I have tried FG handles and the hammer is too lively for me - has a tendency to kick back more than I like but give it a try and see what you think - nothing ventured, nothing gained.