navasky

Does anyone have any recommendations on where to get a custom touch mark that won't break the bank? I'm looking for something that can be used for both hot and cold stamping. I see a lot of cheap ones on Esty but they look like walls of the design go straight down instead of being angled like a normal metal stamp which makes me question their durability.

Do a google search for "sayber osg"

4130 or 4140 are good guesses for sawblades with cemented teeth or abrasive grit.

Diamond doesn't work well on steel, cbn is what you would want if you decide to go ahead with it.

Those came out great. How did you do the rib?

Looks pretty close to 9260. I like to use them for tomahawks.

On 6/30/2018 at 12:43 PM, Frosty said:

Text we just read has been removed

Pretty, and according to wikipedia bronze is harder than wrought iron, so the rebound should be good too.

On 6/10/2018 at 3:32 PM, Hans Richter said:

Cast two new 6lbs ‘Fun’ anvils from brass and bronze (out of material stock now).

Ever thought about trying to cast one of those bronze anvils over a steel faceplate? It's something I've always wondered about, and a 6 pound one would make a nice little jewler's anvil. 

The machine shop at work was getting rid of this. 130 lb Vulcan with a perfect face except for a couple of spots where some idiot torched it. I remember back in 2012 when I was desperately searching for my first anvil, I never would have thought that people would be giving them away to me for free just a few years later.

I made a handle from bamboo flooring once, it's held up fine so far but isn't the most beautiful wood and I ended up finding some small voids in the material. Some day I'd like to actually split and laminate some bamboo by hand.

I found the source of the chart with a reverse image search, http://www.aikiweb.com/weapons/goedkoop1.html. It looks like he's hitting the wood with directly with another piece of wood, which is not exactly analogous to the type of stress it would see when used as a tool handle.

I've achieved a good blued mirror finish with "slow" rust bluing. I use Mark Lee express blue but my understanding is that most of those instant plum browns followed by boiling will give you the same effect.

On 9/16/2016 at 9:24 PM, VaughnT said:

With a chunk that large, I'd be really curious about the cost to have a local shop water-jet it into a swage block.  One of our members here did similarly just because it made it super easy for him to use the thing to make bottle openers.

I actually looked into that but the costs were waaay too high for me.

On 9/16/2016 at 9:24 PM, VaughnT said:

I wouldn't want that long tapered radius since it doesn't really add anything to the functionality and the taper can bungle things up real quick just like it does on a london-pattern anvil's horn.  Better, in my view, to have known radii like you do with bottom tools so you know exactly what you're getting and can swap out as needed depending on what you're doing.

Interesting perspective. I hadn't thought of that.

That looks fantastic. I've been wanting to make a vise from forklift tines forever. Just out of curiosity have you thought of putting the screw on the outside a la the vertical vise? It would save having to drill those 2 big holes and you would be able to grip longer pieces.

20 hours ago, Frosty said:

You'll use it on edge a lot more than laying flat. Outside of a layout table or small assembly table laying flat isn't a lot of use, it's too springy to effectively hammer on.

Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah I'm only planning to use it flat when I have a striker, which is rarely, or when I'm drifting something.

17 hours ago, natenaaron said:

Pardon my ignorance but how will you radius the edge like that with it laying in the stand.  Brazeal's is up on edge.  That is an awesome stand. I'm confused though.

Thanks for the kind words. The stand is made to hold the plate either horizontally or vertically. See the pieces or angle iron extending down in the middle? Those form a channel to hold it vertically.

2 hours ago, Ridgewayforge said:

The downside might be that it would be harder to locate a specific radius.

I thought of that but an anvils horn is the same way and it's never bothered me. As for the 2 butcher type dies, they could go on a different side of the square but I'm not sure I'd actually use them.

On 9/12/2016 at 4:45 AM, Lionel h said:

Man , that's nice , put in some shapes and you will be making all sort of things .

Thanks. Does anyone see any disadvantages to putting one long taper on the top like this:

As opposed to individual dies with a hard transition between them like this one by Brian Brazeal?

I got this 2" x 20" x 20" block a while ago and just finished up a stand for it tonight. Made from scrap wood and old bed frame angle iron. The next step is to put some different radiuses into one of the edges so I can stand it up and use it as a die anvil. Eventually I'd like to make a few different sized holes through the face for drifting and some shapes in the other edges too. I guess I need to invest in an angle grinder now...

Thanks for the info Foundryman, I appreciate it. It sounds like the harder the metal the more treble you end up with.

Don't know if it would wear the strings faster, but if your requirements are for something thin and springy why not use steel? You could even electroplate it with copper to get the look.

Looks good, I like that petal texturing.

17 hours ago, Foundryman said:

I work in a bell foundry and bell metal (bronze), at least by our specification is around 80% copper, 20% tin and would be very difficult to forge I would imagine. We buy it in ingot form. It's a very brittle alloy compared to what most of the world would expect from bronze but the hardness means it resonates so much better than lower tin alloys.

Cool job! My understanding is that bell bronze can be hot forged and also cold forged to some extent but needs to be annealed frequently. Just out of curiosity do you have any experience with the acoustic properties of other metals? I know that cymbals are usually made from bell bronze but can also be brass and sometimes even nickel silver. I wonder what the differences in the sound are between the different metals and what physically is making them sound the way they do.

17 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

There is a video on Youtube showing these being made, and they cast the material then shaped it on a homebuilt wood type lathe. 

I've seen that one but there are others of them forging the bowl from a thick round ingot. There's a lot of contradictory information out there but I believe the cast ones are brass and the forged ones are bell bronze and considered superior. This page has some info if you're interested.

I got to play with some singing bowls the other day and liked them so much that I decided to make my own. This one is copper but next time I'd like to try with bell brass or some kind of bronze (anyone know where to get get bell bronze sheet?) It ended up sounding a little different than the professionally made ones but it does indeed sing and is pretty fun to use. I'll try and get a video clip of it in action up soon.