Ian

Well said Thomas, but I'd add an extra lesson along the line to introduce them to the 'other' forging feuls available. After all knowing whats on offer and how each one works is the only way for any student to make an informed choice on what would ultimately be best to use themselves in their own forge.

If you don't like the prize maybe you could SELL it?

I've just begun to teach classes over the Pond in London, and regardless of age, sex or skill level of the people walking in through the door, there are a few basic exercises that will stand you in excellent stead. So here goes: 1) Take a piece of old steel (a horse shoe for example) and forge it down into a piece of stock sized steel, say flat bar or square bar. Pick a stock size thats a little less than your starting stock so you don't have 'too' much forging to do, after all it's a starting exercise. Care should be taken to ensure the stock is flat and free of hammer marks and that the chosen stock size is constant throughout the forged section. 2) Using 1/2 inch square bar measure 2 inches from the end and centre punch a mark. From that mark forge the bar down to a square point 3 inches long. Again care should be taken to ensure the faces are 90 degrees to each other and that the faces are smooth and hammer mark free. 3) Repeat above exercise forging a round point, hexagonal point, and diamond point. The transition lines should be sharp and crisp on the angled points, with all faces being the same size. After those are done we move on to making simple scrolls using those forged points, and from there onto other exercises designed to introduce the different skill sets involved in Smithing. Our basis for these exercises was a copy of the Apprentice Farriers course from Hereford University. After you've made the square, round, hexagonal, and diamond points (all 3" long remember) post back and i'll go through the next set of exercises in the book. Remember.... have fun :)

I'm sure others will step in with their own 2 cents but I think you might try building a bigger fire first before you start chopping things around. I've personaly worked in a bottom blown fire that was at least that deep if not deeper and all I has to do was make a bigger fire. More coke/charcoal/coal burned up of course but then feul consumption wasn't that much of an issue for me at the time. There was about 30 tonnes of coke outside to play with You might try filling in the firepot a little with firebrick to bring the 'bottom' of the pot higher up, or maybe try clay for the same effect. Make sure your clinker breaker still turns freely afterwards of course.

I'm genuinely sorry to hear of your loss Bob. Accept the comfort and love offered from your family and take it a day at a time mate. Bereavement is one of the worst parts of life but I've found in my own experience that the severity of grief is always directly related to the quality of the person who has gone. After all, if a person passes away without anyone being willing to shed a tear for them what does it say about them as a person? I've no doubt many will shed a tear for your Mum Bob, and that speaks loud enough.

I laughed my rollocks off watching this..... It's only the first fifteen seconds of the trailer. I'd like to know how many mistakes you guys spot. Honestly I creased up over it Rambo Is Back And Still Xxxxxx Off video APOLOGIES FOR "BAD" WORD IN LINK, NOT MY FAULT :(

You chaps need to see Glenn Moons video on youTube, he does exactly what your describing. I've watched him do it with my own eyes, and it's impressive I can hammer pretty well but the couple of times I've tried I've only managed a cherry red so far, I'm sure it's because I'm not getting an exact 90 degree rotate between blows.

I'd suggest looking closely at what you want from your furnace. For a one or two melt deal you can use those very lightweight building blocks that are made from ash. They can be carved using woodworking tools and will melt silver easily with a reil burner (I've done it myself) or I'd suggest using the light weight refractory bricks and (or) Kaowool in an old helium tank or such. The heavy refractory bricks absorb tremendous amounts of heat before throwing it back into the furnace, whereas the lightweight stuff tends to reflect the heat, much more efficiently. My final furnace for silver used a precast 'tube' of heavy refractory about 1/2 inch thick painted with ITC100 (an ceramic based paste/paint thats an excellent infra red reflector) that was surrounded by 4 inches of kaowool, inside an old helium tank. The lid was half filled with kaowool, then meshed and covered with heavy castable refractory. It got up to melting temps in 5 to 10 minutes and apart from where the reil burner went in and the flame came out the rest of the tank remained cool enough to touch even after a few hours of running.

Coke is an even better heat source than coal :D

Wood will work, but I'm not sure if you'd get it up to welding temperatures. I'm a sad enough to have used a decent sized camp fire to get steel up to a decent orange which means it'll move, but for the extra effort I reckon charcoal is better by a mile

and hope they don't fall FLAT!!!

Bone :)

Really quick and dirty T piece? Try finding some box section or round section of a suitable size that is ALREADY welded up in a T piece. Chances are it won't be open through the inside, but thats easy to fix. Cut into it from the back, (drill, saw, chew, whatever it takes) and remove the plug of metal. Put it to one side because you'll need it later. Now you can get to it, cut out the inside wall (hence opening up your airway). Grab the first plug you cut out and seal up the back again. Gaffer tape will do that job (I did say really quick and dirty right? ) Hey presto, you just need to sort out the ash dump (easy, don't need to weld anything to do that) and flare the pipe that sits in your brake drum in situ.

They say a picture says a thousand words so here's three to help.... The main thing to get a grasp of is shapes, nearly everything in smithing boils down to shapes. A hammer is after all, just a lump of suitable grade steel you make into a 'hammer' 'shape'. Practice helps with your understanding of how to make the 'shape' you want appear from the stock you start with. Take a close look at picture 2. You can see the offset on the tongs where the rivet will go, this is deliberate so that when they're riveted together the round tapered jaws will sit parallel to each other. All thats left to do with this pair is to draw down the reins. Hope this helps.

The little helve runs at about 160 to 180 BPM and managed to put a 2 inch long square taper onto a piece of 1 inch rebar in a single heat. The dies I made for the little Tyre Hammer were never meant to be changed out annd wont be. They're a permanent feature. :)

Hi Folks, after several of you (yes you know who you are Uncy) asked me about the hammers I've been building for Kevin Boys I've managed to get a few photo's edited to size. Here they are, including one of the Man Himself with the litttle Helve. Enjoy.... comments are welcome. The little helve took about three days to make. The Tyre hammer is taking a little longer...

Where I 'help out' we use coke and run bottom blast forges. Both work pretty well and we end up with the classic donut of clinker after the fires gone out. Chances are Mike the coke was a bit poor or the airblast hole was too small. We've run those forges all day without undue stress and have only had to clean out the fire once or twice during the day. Personally I'd go for bottom blast if you haven't got a water cooled tuyure to hand (or a nice Allday & Onions forge) as they're simple to make and they work. Go for a decent sized forge table with a raised lip to keep the coke from dropping off the edges as you rake stuff around and to help keep your stock from falling out. Say three feet by two feet, with a 1 inch lip. That way when you fill the table with coke your not having to poke the stock into the fire at an angle and the coke won't just roll off.

When you want a really low oxidising fire for forge welding make a thick mortar like paste from coal dust (fines) and water and paste around your firepot to a depth of at least 1 inch. Then build your fire within the bowl as normal. The coal fines will slowly burn over a few hours eating up loads of oxygen that would otherwise help scale up your work and make forge welding even harder.

My two peneth worth is to give yourself a set of exercises to do that will force you to focus on hammer control. For example, try turning half inch square into a hexagon bar, then a round bar, then a hexagon bar then a square bar, coming down a quarter of an inch in size each time. Also try striking with the hammer at every angle apart from square on (flat to the work) and look at what each blow does to the metal. When you know what each angle does you know much more clearly what you're doing wrong and will have a much easier time correcting the mistake. An Aussie mate of mine also suggested getting a board of wood and a dozen nails. When you can hammer all the nails in with the ball peen end only then your starting to develop decent hammer control. Just practice, practice, practice.....

Not got a picture handy but the cable damascus knife I made was etched in warm vinegar, you'll find it on the gallery..... Anyway that aside the smell of warm vinegar will make any smoker cough but it does work pretty well when you don't have anything else handy (such as when you're out in the middle of the outback )

Sounds like maybe your forge is running too oxygen rich, if your using Ron Reil style burners (venturi type) then try fitting a choke plate to the back of the bell housing of the venturi, that way you can close the choke and richen the atmosphere in the forge (without using more gas). You want a rich yellowish tip to your flame, not a bright sharp blue for an atmosphere thats not oxygen rich. Try that first, it's probably the easiest way to enable you to control the amount of oxygen you drag in with the gas.

It's true that to hand forge an identical pair of scrolls is not the easiest thing you can do (like say; breathing, for instance) but it has to be considered a worthy goal to try an achieve that level of consistency. I'd bet money that even the most expert Smith would make and use a jig if he had a large enough number to make for a job, and if he had LOADS to do he might well consider the advantage of buying a machine. The point to remember IMHO is that until you CAN make two identical scrolls your lacking the skills you really need in order to make a CHOICE about how you want to do the job.

Yes it is, but as you probably know Rod, mokume gane (to give it it's full title) is a process where 'layers' of copper and alternative metals such as silver, gold etc are stacked and then forge welded. It's not (in my experience at least) a case of putting two layers of copper together and forge welding them, which would have been the case with that bracelet. It's a case of getting the metal with the lowest 'wash' point to stick to the metal next to it on either side, which isn't normally two pieces of copper. I wasn't saying copper CAN'T be forge welded together, I leave that to more experienced Smiths, just that it's ruddy difficult and in the case of the bracelet an unessessary hardship.

Sam, nice to see someone from the right side of the Antlantic on board I'm further over on the right (England) but I can tell you that the best place to start digging will be ABANA (Artist Blacksmith Asociation of North America). They have a LOT of different chapters all over the states, so google them (or if anyone here has the Presidents details to hand would they post them for Sam?). I spent nearly two years travelling through Northern Europe and Australia working with some great Smiths, and as soon as I've got the money together I'm heading over to the States and Canada to do it all again. I wish you the VERY best of luck mate, you'll have a blast.

Me too Rod I don't think you'd have ended up with any alternative but a bit of solder to hold that style of bracelet together though, so don't feel bad about it. What was the alternative? Trying to forge weld copper..... good luck with that mate, LOL Has anyone on here ever done it?