GustavDebels949

I've always known engine valves to be very, very heat resistant and hard to work with.

Very nice, i love the handmade look to it. How is it set in the ground?

Well Frosty, it's your call actually. I'd be willing to bet that you've been doing this for twice as long as I've been alive, or longer! I am plenty capable of making my own judgements, but I'm going to leave this one to somebody who knows what their doing, and has done this before. So on that note, you suggest your mix of clay and sand? I mixed up a coffee cup full of your suggestion right when I got the clay. It came out exactly as you said it should. When it hardened up it seemed kind of chalky and easy to break, is that normal?

So I picked up a bag of plain "fire clay" from the local masonry supply yard. On the bag it has a formula for fire clay mortar, would this mortar be more favorable than Frosty's 3 to 1 clay and sand mixture? The formula is... 2 parts Portland cement, 6-9 parts mortar sand, 1 part fire clay

Thank you again for your help, here is the next round of questions on the topic... -Will this clay work for what I'm doing? http://www.menards.com/main/heating-cooling/hvac-cleaners/high-heat-furnace-cement-furnace-and-stove-cement-heavy-body/p-1450165-c-8528.htm -Where do I apply the clay? All over the pan? Around the firepot? In the firepot? -How thick do I apply it?

I got my coal forge from a neighbor farm that was long sense non operational. I've use it a hand full of times the way it sits, burning only coal. The forge does have the word "CLAY" cast into it, but I have never thought much of it. My questions are.... -Should I have the forge lined with refractory clay of some type? -Am I safe to burn coke in this forge without clay? -Where can I get refractory clay/ how can I make it? Thank you!

Some fire pots, and forges for that matter, ar'nt built to use coke. Coke gets much hotter than coal and can burn up or crack a fire pot that's not built to use coke. If you're using a brake drum as a fire pot it doesn't really matter, as brake drums are easy to replace if they get burnt up, assuming your using some variation of a "break drum forge" to start out with.

Thank you all! And yes, I find many, many uses for that little case :)

Hilt and Hammer, it was all just stock removal. All of the curves fit a radius some ware on my little craftsman belt sander, and the edge was completely done by hand with a file. jmccustomknives, Nobody knows what kind of steel that is, not even the person who gets it for me :unsure:. I've been using http://www.hudson-metals.com/ to try and identify what it is, with little clear success. I think I've got the steel narrowed down to either an A something (A7, A6, A2, etc.) or that M42 your talking about. And I know what you mean about annealing it, its impossible. I tried everything under the sun to anneal it (trust me, I came up with some pretty creative things) and nothing worked. I ended up drilling the pin holes wile the handle tang was still red hot, and that worked quite well. As for using it, its going to be hard to make myself do, but I planned on it, after all, I made it as a knife, not a mantle ornament. Thanks for the input, its greatly appreciated! Now I feel that a dinner of pork chops and fried potatoes is in order tonight. B)

I finished this full tang, general purpose kitchen knife the other day. Its made of really, really big bandsaw blade (1/16'' thick by 2 3/4'' tall) so I'm guessing its A6 tool steel. Whatever it is it takes and holds an edge nicely. Its got a black walnut wooden handle with brass pins. This is my third knife, and the first one I'm not ashamed to show off. Any criticism or advice is greatly welcome!

Not too bad looking, did you lathe out the faces?

Well the other day I was at a good friends farm, and was picking through a pile of rough cut lumber (he has an old circular saw sawmill). I found a couple of 8' boards of something fairly hard and straight grained, out of curiosity I asked him what the boards where, to which he replied, "oh, they are just hickory, not good for much as far as I'm concerned." I came home with four nice hickory boards, about 7/8" thick by 6'' wide. I smoothed both faces with a handheld belt sander, and plan to rip half of the lumber into tool handles. So the million dollar question is, what size hammer handle do you find works best? Through trial and error, I've found that 7/8'' by 5/8'', rounded over a 1/4'' radius with a router feels best for me. Are there any general rules of thumb or things I should know before I dive into making mountains of hammer handles?

I've always been told that farrier rasps were case hardened A36 (mild steel) but I think it depends on what brand your using. Just try a small piece of what you have, worse case, you'll have to make snakes and gators instead of knives.

What is the rivet, copper? That would make one heck of a nice tie pin ;)

I have made a handful of them before, and never really done anything extra to them. I gave one to my girlfriend and she ended up just hanging it on her wall, pain and symple isn't so bad sometimes.

Well I pulled the trigger on making a railroad track anvil the other day. I went to the scrap yard the other day and found a 3' chunk of UNUSED railroad track and made it mine for the low, low price of $21.00. I've been trying to figure out what I'm going to do with it, I know I want to make a small anvil with a 3/4" hardie hole for general forging, but I'm thinking about making a smaller striking anvil, again with a 3/4" hardie hole, as well. Things I know... - The rail has not been used, so it's not work hardened. - I can mar and dent it quite easily with cold iron. - I spark tested it, it appeared to be high manganese. - A magnet is attracted to the steel. - It seems to file and grind easily. Things I don't know... - Will I need to harden the anvil when it's finished? - How hard is it to drill? (for the hardie hole) - Will the manganese steel work harden from forging on it? - I know a torch will cut the rail, but how do I get a good, clean, square cut on the rail head? - Is it weld able? I have little-to-no experience doing anything like this, so any advise would be appreciated! Thanks!