dablacksmith

well ide say as far as fuel goes coal or coke are going to be better than misquite chips . coke takes a fairly constant air supply to keep it going . what that means is if you are useing a hand crank forge or bellows (i do) then you cant stop pumping for more than a few minutes without risking haveing the fire go out! it is virtually smokeless after initial fireup tho and produces more heat per pound than coal.there are better and worse grades of bolth coal and coke and most places will give you a information on their coal like btu output ash content sulfur ect... that is a good way to compare two different brands of coal.as far as burn time it varys a lot from good to low quality! ive had coal that a bag would be used up in a day ! and the coke ime useing currently lasts about a week of forgeing .that is 5 day week 5-6 hrs a day... cirn walnut shells ect are fine for heating a house but probably not a good fuel for forgeing ... coal coke charcoal propane natural gas electricity are the comon fuels used to heat steel to forgeing temprature.as far as firepots go ive use all kinds and really havnt noticed a big difference on longevity between useing coal or coke... shouldnt make much difference one way or another the main difference i see is coal can coke up and form an "oven" to keep in the heat .. that is handy sometimes but ive gotten used to coke and dont miss the smoke!! good luck!

Don you might try some of the places selling w1 or o1 its real close to what 1095 is and seems to come in a wider variety of sizes ...as far as that goes just about any of the simpler aloys will work for strikers (5160 ,1084 ect). can you show a picture of your strikers ? i injoy seeing a bunch of different types and have made quite a few. good luck!

ok i might be the only one but i dont like to modern weld on a knife because you use filler material that is not high carbon so it creates a weak spot. if it is far enuf from the place where a bolster or gaurd goes it might be ok but ... why chance it?

you arnt going to find any hi carbon ath the regular hardware stores . you can try industrial supply stores like granger msc ect .. or steel supplyires like Admiral Steel - Knife & Sword Blade Steels or others.. or look for local specialty steel supplyiers ... you will need to learn how to treat your steel (normalize harden and temper) . i think it would be a good idea to find a knife maker or blacksmith in your area for some hands on teaching as it is hard to learn some of this stuff from the written word. good luck!

find a place that has a shear and see if they can shear it... if its anealed stock that should be possable with the right shear .. 1.5 inch isnt a bad size for knifes tho .. what tools do you have ? do you have power hammer ? what are you going to make with it ? how critical is the 3/4 measurement? you could cut with torch or plasma .... if it was my steel ide just forge it out as needed under hammer..... good luck!

if you cand find a copy of "pounding out the profits " it would help a bunch! a lot of the dezign work has been done in the past.that book is a gold mine of ideas ! good luck!

ok there is a difference between a forge flue /vent and a chimney . A chimney is usually much hotter on a stove or furnace . i can usually touch the pipe on my hood for a few seconds without getting hurt ... so temp isnt that high . i would go with the 12 inch and if draft is a problem get a flue fan .. it is hard to get to much of a flue in my opinion... it also depends on how tall you chimney is going to go generally the taller the better draw ..good luck and keep us informed!

Well idesided i needed more lighting in my shop and i didnt have a chandelier hanning so ... I made one ! I havnt put any tipe of a finish on it yet and am thinking of sand blasting it then putting some type of rust finish on it..its not that fancy but still took some time to make . The ball on the bottom is 2 half spheres I forged on my flypress . also includeding a picture of my display area in the shop...

well here is a picture of it all setup and running ... had to make a plate for across the front as the cast iron welds didnt hold .... o well it looks good still and works good so..

here are some pictures from my shop at museum.. the chappel is fro a movie set used in various b movies and most famus for elvises movie Charo...

I have to agree about wd-40 it isnt meant for a lubrication... ive seen guns that used it and its hardened up made a big mess ... took scrapeing out with a screwdriver and wire brush carb cleaner wouldnt loosen it up much !

maybee try coke? it burns nice ... will go out easyer than coal or charcoal but verry little smoke other than initial startup.. its what i use in my shop at the museum....

harde ta forge wood... kinda crumbles ... but it does burn .. charcoal works . georga is a lot closer ta good coal country than arizona tho...

probably not wrought iron but old steel can have some of the same problems ...can you forge weld? might fold it and forge weld it .. or grab a new piece of steel and start over ..

ime a firm believer in a mechanical hold with epoxy to keep the handle from wiggleing.. i also dont use the fast cure epoxys (i worked at a hoby shop for years and saw many things come apart useing 5 minute epoxy) ive got a friend that likes acuraglass for handle glue ... it is a long lasting resin product used to bed rifle barrels for accuracy.i use ether slow cure epoxy or jb weld ... as far as time to make knife it varys wildly.. and its a real tough way to make a liveing ...

iive used a natural gas forge ... worked fine if you can get the pressure bumped up for a forge ide use it .. alot cheaper to run . if you use propane get a BIG tank and have a truck fill it rather than smaller bottles and takeing them in. for a forced air forge there isnt much difference heat wise ... unless your planning on doing a lot of forge welding. good luck!

usually use 30 wt or atf or marvel mystery oil all will work .. think of what was available turn of the century (1900s) if your real cold ide use atf . have fun

is it really takeing you 5 hours of forgeing to get a blade?? if it is then ya decarburizeing is a problem... are you uncoiling a coil spring and forgeing it into a bowie ? or sword? try something easyer like starting with a leaf spring cut it close then forge it to shape .. shouldnt take more than 45 minutes to forge to rough shape...dont go any thinner than 1/16th thick max . normalize (heat to where a magnet wont atract to the steel then let cool slowly) you might do that a few times if you have a lot of grain growth. harden and temper should work fine.

usually when you burn steel it gets crumbly where it was burnt... if sparks fly when you hit it its probably partly burnt ... in bad situations where its severe it will fall apart in chunks ... you can usually see this on the edges as the steel will look kinda like its been eroded away and might have visable cracks ... you usually have to trim it away to get to good metal.if you have a lot of scrap laying around you might try intentionally burning a piece .... it happens to everyone eventually tho not as often in gas forges as they usually dont get that hot without setting um for that (when forge welding). if you see a picture where a smith is hammering on a piece and sparks are flying everywhere that piece is overheated and burnt. it is usually done for the picture on purpose. if your woried about it just cut the section that is suspect off and forge out the rest... good luck

#6 i suggest the more you forge the better you get .. take classes then go home and try to make what you made in class.. spend at least 4 hrs a week forgeing... 4 hrs a week is better than 20 hrs once a month.#7 I dont think there is a best way... everyone is different where do you want to end up? I am still learning and growing ...#8 as you find or can afford to.. or as you make it! I am getting to where i prefer the tools i make over store bought... some stuff will show up as friends and family learn about what you are blacksmithing...I end up with stuff all the time ... find out what stuff costs so you will know a good deal when it comes along and dont be afraid to buy extras if the price is right. You can use um for tradeing stock with other smiths.

ha ya i remember my first forge ... I was just out of highschool and only had bealers art of blacksmithing for reference ... I took a 55 gallon drum and cut it in half leinghtways (i was gona make swords) lined it with firebrick .. put a grate across the bottom and pumped aor thru where the bung hole was ... it heated up nice ... melted the grate and left me witha asmall fire right where the air entered!!! I ended up buying a riviters forge a little later.. that was 25+ years ago i dont remember what i made with it tho but it was fun!

i would use traditional handles as they are easyer to change! they are tapered like a adz so when he breaks the handle playing handles its easy to replace. I would find out what source he is useing for replacement handles and make it to fit (there are several sources and slightly different shapes) round handles would be not as nice for use even if it was tapered like adz . when throwing the teardrop shape keeps the tommahawk aiming the right direction without thinking about it.as far as a handle like a hammer i wouldnt ... much harder to change and a hammer handle isnt as nice for throwing or even chopping..just my 2 cents worth

if you are into any type of reinacting or are into outdoors make tent pegs! they are a great way to learn drawing to a point . try to make the point as short as possable (good excersize) and they sell! after the first 1000 or so you will get good at them! ive heard a lot of excuses of why i cant work (i dont have ----- so ime not forgeing )remember a forge is just a heat source and an anvil is something hard to pound on. somewhere somebody started with 2 rocks.. one as a anvil and one as a hammer!and keep in mind that it takes a lot of forgeing to get good... have fun

ya they arnt really meant to use on real steel... only supposed to use 1/8 x 1/2 or some such ...

from paul thornes demo at last conference he uses rustoleum crystal clear coat... said he tried various things but it was the best he found...