scjohnson243

Well, I think Thomas cursed me, already made a few changes in it. :)  I guess I should have said Shop, V1.0 was complete. :)

All and all I still like it, its enough room for a few grinders on a bench and misc supplies... Still debating the forge inside or outside... /sigh...

Dcraven,

This weekend I went back to home depot and grabbed a few more sections of 6" as recommended here by judson - So what I ended up with is 12" pipe that is currently 6' high.  I took a grinder and "cutout" the 6" section of my hood and made it fit the 12" opening of the pipe (I'll take a few pictures this week when I get back to my forge) - I didn't have much time so I did a quick test, put it all together and lit a small fire in the forge and it seemed to start drafting pretty well!  If it does indeed work, I'll grab another few sheets of metal and fashion a hood like above, but keep it around a 12" opening instead of the old 6".  Ideally I'll end up mounting this inside my small shop, So my next test will get a 90 degree bend and put it out the wall of my shop and see if it still drafts with the big turn... If nothing else its an interesting project so far - a learning experience at least.

I'll keep this thread updated with a few more pics and a few experiments to see how it all works out and keep you informed.

Hey Chuck - I do remember it, and I dont remember any smoke!

I think The problem with my forge is there is not a large enough opening at the top of the hood that came with it.

It is only 6" and I notice when I hooked another few 6" sections to it, when the smoke would go it, it would almost instantly start to bellow out like it couldn't get up the tube fast enough - Most people on this thread talk about using 10" tube, so going to make another home depot trip and try a few sections of that, see if it makes a difference.

Fciron mentions this specifically below, so will let you know how the bigger pipes work!

I *LOVE* the inlays, I have been wanting to do something like that -- Beautiful knife... If anyone has any link on inlay tutorials for noobs, I would love to read them! :)

Again, great work.

Is that the hammer you grabbed from Old-N-Rusty and sprinted for you van with Saturday?!

:)

Thanks Rich :(

I was hoping it was just something simple.  Guess I should have known better.

I cant help with the restoration, but I would *LOVE* to see some pictures if you have them!

I have googled this for a few minutes and don't see a good answer...

I have been coughing the last few days since I have been forging (Coal forge),  Its a pretty consistent cough so I'm not sure if its got something to do with the smoke or not, but I do have a noticeable bit of smoke around while I'm forging -- I was at a gulf coast meeting this weekend (Local blacksmith meeting) and there is a big indoor forge/shop and when this forge was going full speed there was *NO* smoke in the building, it was as if there was something up there sucking the smoke up the chimney.  I have been using my forge outside, but If I could get a good draft going like that, I could bring it inside and forge even with the bad weather....

So, What causes the updraft that sucks the smoke through the chimney?  I have a hood over mine that looks a *LOT* like this one - I'm going to go to home depot on the way home and see if I can get 10-15' of chimney extension for inside of my shop and try to mount it....

All I have found is that its something to do with the pressure - Is there anything specifically I should know when it comes to forges, is it the same as a regular fireplace chimney?   As far as I read it just has to do with the height of the chimney that creates the pressure to pull up the smoke - (Seems way to simple to be correct)!

I thought about that also when I saw his outfit, I am always in long sleaves, pants, and gloves and somehow always manage to burn myself before its over... /shrug.

Thanks for all the helpful links!

Morning Smiths - I had a request by someone to make a fire grate to go in front of the fireplace... One of the things she loves is bamboo plants and asian style things...

My idea is to make a few bamboo leaves (already done) and I'm trying to figure out how to make a stick of bamboo, have been thinking of a small pipe heated and folded back on itself a few times for the bamboo sections... Has anyone tried this - or can offer any advice?

Also, I have been thinking with my leaves to get them really fancy I could take a drammel tool and cut the veins into them, and then inlay a little brass in them to make it look silver and gold, anyone who has ever done anything like this, I Would love advice. :)

Yeah, Chuck - I'll be there.. Looking forward to it

Very cool Rich, I love the look of the one on the far left!

Really like the star looking wall hanger!

After a long weekend with a headache because the place we ordered the supplies from (I'm lazy I had it all delivered) kept giving us the wrong sized wood, I have my shop 80% finished... Still need to work on the interior and mount my door, but other than that, I think its done.

Few posts down!

Just waiting on my door!

Very cool looking! great work

Really like the heart hooks!  Clean lines.

I'm also a beginner (just got my shop walled and tin roof on it this weekend!), and am in the same boat with tools. :)  Seems like what I'm always working on when I get time to sit at the forge for a while.

Thanks all, this answers quite a bit more than what I was using, I was using a sander, i guess.. I put on 50grit (The coarest(is that a word?)) belts I could find over at home depot and I can see it would finish m knife very well, but for any type of "Shaping" its just not cutting it. (heh heh)

Forging skills very much need work, and I'm doing the best I can on that, I have a meeting this weekend, and just got a class scheduled for a few weeks, so I hope that will help with some guidance also.  I have a few more belt grinders at home, some have 1" or 2" belts, I need to see what type I have, my father spends a lot of time at garage sales and he has been buying up all the ones he sees... They are probably not expensive nice ones, but maybe I lucked across a good one.

I love the handle finish - looks very good with the "dark" blade.

Thanks Rich - I just read it, it appears all you use are belt sanders? 

I assume you are much better at forging than I am, so your not having to grind away a lot of metal, like I do! :)

Thank you

So I have a 4" belt grinder I have inherited - I just tried it this evening with 50 "grit" paper on it to knock out some knicks of a knife blank I had forged earlier, and it takes FOREVER to grind away some metal - I can see using it for finishing the knife and cleaning it up, but to help "Shape" the blade what are you folks using?? It will be awesome for the wood on the handles, but I need to find something to help my bad forging :)

and advice would be lovely. :)

Thanks folks!

Thanks for the advice, I have been trying the TPAPPAPATAAAP method (Ok, maybe thats not it) that was posted on this website, I have told everyone, (Still am), posted on the sites, search the sites daily, spoken to people in my local blacksmith group and have only gotten a few leads. I have everything else so far (Vise, Forge, Steel, hammers, tongs, grinders, etc) I just need the anvil! I figured the day I bought it I will have 3 drop in my lap.

I'm going to keep looking, but starting to get impatient! :)

I'm currently using a piece of railroad track, it works, but would be nice to get an actual anvil. :)

Hi all would this be a decent anvil to get? Just starting so I'm not sure what's good or not...

Photo click here
 

SC,

 

i don't have a lot of experience, but I've been attending to the world of smithing for many years. if I may make a suggestion, get out that old blade, heat it up and flatten it.

 

Flatten it until it is as flat as a piece of paper, or nearly so. Then bend it ninety degrees somewhere in the first third. make that ninety as square and even as possible.

 

Now flip it over and put another ninety in it so it looks like a staircase.

 

When that's as perfect as you can get it, heat it up and flatten it again. Now try folding it ninety degrees the long way. Flatten again.

 

if the blade is an old worn out one, then the end will bee somewhat rounded. try to square it up.

 

All of these exercises will make you a better smith, and teach you the principles of moving metal.

 

And at least it will keep you occupied!

 

Regards,

Albert

Thanks Albert, Great advice.

The blade has a bunch of rust and "Stuff" on it, before I start hammering on it (or any chunk of metal for that matter) should I bring it to the grinder and knock off the "stuff" to clean it up?

Keeping myself occupied is great, I got the ABANA "Lessons" recently, so I'm going to start with them and start going down them one at a time to get the basic skills down.  Hopefully find an anvil before too much longer - The railroad metal I'm currently using is not "Flat" as I would like it on top, but I guess some time with a grinder could fix that, too.

Thanks again for the ideas!

Thanks for the input, sorry for the confusion - I wasn't looking to melt it (on purpose) I was looking to forge weld it all together in a thicker more uniform chunk - I have found out that doing it correctly is beyond my skills at this point so I put it back on the pile and just will let it sit till I get more experience.

I figured that welding it together would be one of the easier things to do, apparently its not as easy as I would have assumed.

Thank you all again! :)

Morning Guys...

So, a few weeks ago I made a homemade forge, filled it with charcoal and heated up a old lawnmower blade and just bent one end around then threw it in the trash, thinking it was just a peice of junk metal.

After some reading, I hear that it would be nice metal to make a knife or blade of sometype with....  So, I dug it back out of the trash and wanted to straighten it out a bit, and maybe make a nice billet (I think thats the term).  I want to make it a fairly uniform size and melt it all together for when I learn more and get ready to take on such a project.

My plan was to heat it up till it starts to "spark" and hammer it over on itself a few times, trying to come up with a uniform shape that will be a bit easier to work with later... Is that a fairly decent plan, or should I leave it like it is and put it in a pile of steel for "later".. Worse case I make it unusable, best case I have a nice piece of steel later for when i decide to try a knife of some sort.

Thanks!

(Sorry if this is the wrong forum, seemed like a "General" type of question!)