petere76

Fellow Smiths, The a Scotish Lion, Bristol Maine, was destroyed by fire. Proprietor, Mr. Andrew Leck, was unharmed. However, the shop and its contents were reported to have been lost in the fire. If you know Andrew please send him your best. Peter

Local connections work good for business names. It could utilize the town or region, body of water, mountain range etc. if it's got a tourist draw, the name sells itself. Good luck. Peter

I picked up a 4.5 lb rounding hammer and I've been teaching myself the Brian Brazel method. It does move some metal and you get a lot of distance out of each heat. I was inspired with the one heat tong blank demo. The efficiency is amazing. I have a smaller ferriers rounding hammer I us to do transitions. The heavy hammers take some getting used to, you have to work with a plan. It's a say to get further along than you want to. Lighter hammers are somewhat more forgiving. The men I learned from were all New Englanders and they work with the steady rapid rhythm similar to Peter Ross or Derick Glasier. Both techniques produce beautiful work they just arrive there differently. Like most of our brethren I have a collection of hammers around the anvil base. I usually tell folks, hammers and anvils, you can never have enough. Happy forging. Peter

Hang tough, you can get this. Watch Mark Aspery do his version of box tongs. Both he and Brian use similar basics, isolate and rough in a mass, form the mass into the specific part, pay attention to the boss thickness and dimension. The repative motion will give you muscle memory and your eye will get used to seeing the right form. I have a pile of scrap rebar in the shop. I don't use it for anything I care about....because it's a non specific (junk) steel. Get some decent mild steel stock .75 round or 1 in square and start making tong bits. You will wind up with a pile of them, but you will know how to do it. I used this same technique to teach myself forge welding. I made 1/2 welded chain till I got it right. Everything in time my friend. Good luck.

Rough shape, sand to finish, soak head in antifreeze, linseed oil and turpentine. If you don't use your tools for a while just wipe down the handles with the turn linseed oil mix. Easy maintenance.

Suggest you pay attention to properly forming the bolster. You can isolate on the anvils edge. Then you have to refine it. Use a cross pein and set the edge on the anvil so you define the shape of the bolster. You are looking for a good 1 in x 1in area at 1/2 your parent stock thickness. Also the offset for the reign should be set so that the reign side is above the center of the bolster. Terriers, make great tongs and they use the buck to forge in a curved offset, it's very strong and looks classy. For the basics, reference Mark Aspery on box tong forging. He shows good dimensions and the process to get there. Brian Brazil does a great one Heat tong demonstration. He makes it look too easy. Good luck and happy forging, don't worry you will get better, the more you make.

Old school chains were end welded because it makes the chain stronger under load. When loaded, the ends tend to elongate and that gives the chain some give under load. Modern chain is welded on the straight side. The weld is under full tensile loading, no room to give a little. I'm. Always amazed at the size chains they used to forge weld. The welds on those chains are almost impossible to see. Back in the day, they did some impressive work. I can weld up 1/2 in chain but you can see the line we're the weld is.

Great score. Congratulations. It has the Mose hole forge look, the layered construction and the handling holes. The feet are clearly of manufacturing style typical to that time. Has the NJ anvil guy chimed in. He has a good handle on all things anvil. Enjoy.

You got a good deal. The far left is a masons hammer. Some are cast and they have a round handle hole. Second from left is a pin driver (set tool). 3rd from left is possibly a tin bangers stake. 4th from left, creaser for sheet metal work (set tool).

In regard antiques, appearance isn't always the reality. I would be guided by the adage, buyer beware. The fireplace tools may not be Mr. Yellins work but they certainly are good looking. Peter

Suggest using heat treated grade 8 anchor bolts. As an alternative solution, if you have access to steel plate, try mounting on a 1inch a foot over your hammer base dimensions. Use .75 in studs and weld the studs to the plate using a 6011 root pass, back grind and finish with 7018. I set up a Clay Spencer 50 lb hammer on a steel plate and it works fine. The advantage is that it doesn't fracture the floor. You may experience some cracking of the floor because the base isn't isolated from the rest of the floor (pour). Unless your floor is exceptionally thick, the constant shock will eventually crack the floor where the studs (penetrate). Big hammers have independent foundations for this reason. Another item to look at is noise. You can defeat the noise by cutting horse stall pads, rubber matting (tractor supply) to fit under the steel plate. Works great. Good luck with your install. Peter

Excellent. Great work. Thank you. Peter

Frosty, Sorry to get this news. You and Deb are in our thoughts and prayers. Peter

Mild steel works fine because you are working hot iron. Closed spring dies, like harder steel or at least some case hardening. I noticed the closed dies for forming ball ends seem to wear out the fastest. I'm using these tools on a 50 lb tire hammer. Peter

Nice work, outstanding piece. How does your lower side die integrate, is it a bolt on? I thought of a quick change arrangement but I need to see it set up. I have a Clay Spencer and I use it a lot. The tooling is mostly clamp on and lift height between the dies becomes the governing factor. Peter

S, i got a pile of tie rods once and they had threaded ends. I tried to forge out the threaded ends. The threads set up points of fracture in the forged out sections, I ended up cutting off the threaded ends. If you put a lot of man hours and shop costs into making the stock serviceable, no sense in going to all that effort and having the end product fail. Peter

Maine still allows free range scavenging. However, the yuppies and condo hipsters in Portland have succeeded in closing down one of the older yards in the city. These guys only want condos and low income welfare housing, real businesses get forced out. You need to develop a working relationship with the guys at your local dump or transfer station so you can pick the pile. Also a good source is truck and heavy equipment repair places. They have excellent scrap piles. Happy hunting. Peter

Well, if it's a addiction you can get classified as disabled, go on disability and get driven to your support group. All on the tax payer dime. If you want to go cold turkey, I'll send you my address and you can send me all your gear. This has been rumored to be the best method of withdrawl because it reinforces your desire to quit by making you free yourself from the entrapmen of the shop. Take the cure, one hammer at a time and have a happy recovery. Peter

On tongs, to get the fit snug but not binding, rivet using a bolster till tight. Don't kill it just get it tight. Next heat up the joint till the joint moves. Quench the joint while vigorously working the tongs, open closed. Do this in the water till cool. Option two on tongs. Use a piece of paper between the joint. Rivet with a bolster till tight. submerge the tongs in water cold and work until the paper disintegrates. This works well on small scroll pliars made of of spring stock. You don't run the risk of cracking the tongs at the joint. You can also tighten things up when the get loose from service by using a bolster and upsetting cold. Not too hard just enought to tighten things up. Good luck. Peter

Marine machine tool instructor to new midshipman cadets, "Gentlemen, be careful in what you do because....nothing hurts worse than pain." From Master Sargent Robert Darnell. USMC air craft machinest.

Ethan, Drill and then drift. It will cut down on the time and the heat you will need. Good luck with your project. Peter

B4u, although tempted, I'll skip the ideological discussion. Used leaf springs are an unknown quanity. They are fitted for the purpose that they serve. You want to modify the product. Straightening in the simplest way would involve, annealing and manipulating the spring to your desired dimensions. Things to keep in mind include fatigue fractures from service. Bolt hole penetrations and the formed ends. All these can and will cause failure in the end product. Springs are cheap and plentiful but you run the risk of investing time and having the product fail. Heat treating can be hit or miss if you don't know exactly what the make up of the material is. Thus you have another procedural step that can lead to a product failure. The good news is that if you want to practice forging knives, leaf springs are a good source of material to practice your skills with. You should be prepared for the suprise disappointment that accompanies using scrap product. In the PI and Thailand I have seen street side smiths pound out machetes and bola knives and they all have a scrap pile of failures. Even the guys that use scrap springs know it's hit or miss. Good luck Peter

Short stock scraps, store on their sides. Drip pans ( cut short). No frills BBK (hinge top). Truck repair, fill with sand and place plates across the top (USN USMC repair depot). Parts cleaners, field kitchen sinks, cleaning stations, cut in half and add hot water. Latrine burn barrels (add DFM and burn while occasionally storing as required ) . Solar hot water heaters, paint black, leave in sun and connect with plastic pipe, add drums as required for volume. Long term storage, add parts and fill with oil or preservative, note requires a sealable lid. There is a lot of square footage in sheet steel in a drum. Cut up the drum and use the sheet stock for whatever project you are undertaking ( shinnies, siding doublets etc) . The possibilities are endless and generally after the drums are empty they go to scrap , more trouble to handle than they are worth. In the 3rd world they do all sorts of inventive things with empty drums. Peter

Momatt, Nice job on both the gouge and the handle. A real class act, your boss will be pleased. Peter

Chance, The quick and easy method is to go to tractor supply or the local farmers union and get a hoe handle. They are straight, dry and bullet proof. You can go into the woods and shop too but the wood needs to be dried and it has to free of knots and nodes as the shaft will break at these locations. In a survival scenario that's what we would all do but as long as the lights are on get a manufactured handle and repourpse it. The project sounds great, please show us the finished product when you can. Peter