Ian

Welcome aboard Mark This is a site dedicated to helping folks who want to learn how to mash metal into somthing beautiful, useful, strange, whatever! A wise man said Knowledge must be shared or else it lies dead in the mind, so feel free to share yours, it's what this place was built for :)

Could be miles off the bat here because I can't tell just how big that anvil is physically. Anyway, the 17 1/2 could be Stones, which is an English stystem of weight still in use here today. A 'Stone' equals 14 pounds, so potentially that anvil could weigh 245lbs. From the look of the photos I wouldn't bet money on that though, just a thought

If you're going to cast the handles onto the knife blade then T-Gold raises a very good point about lost wax not being the ideal way to try this, burn out temps are very high and unless you can do it in an inert atmosphere (doubtful) you'll get scaling on your steel, this would present a problem as far as the metal bonding to the blade goes. Even if you drill the tang to help with keying you may still end up with a rattling handle after some use. Then you've got the problem of a hot piece of steel in a very delicate mold, where would your anchoring points be for the blade in the mould to keep it aligned, and to stop it rattling loose, especially if you were using centrifugal casting? That in itself makes me nervous as an idea. Vacuum or vacuum assisted would be the only safe way and to be honest I just think it would be way too problematic to waste time trying. I certainly think that sand casting is THE best way to attempt this, cope and drag seem to lend themselves to this idea much better, you can carve wooden patterns and experiment a little, as long as there are no undercuts in the pattern I think you've a lot of scope to play around with. I have done a fair bit of casting, including attempts to cast one metal onto another (Silver onto gold). The main problem is making sure the surface of the metal being cast onto has a suitable texture for the new material to key to properly (usually undercuts and such are used in jewellery) and ensuring it's as clean as you can get it. The suggestion of drilling holes into the tang seems to be a good one to my mind if your going to try sand casting, because your not making scale on the blade you can cast onto a clean surface. Heating the blade as much as you can without causing scaling 'may' help because the Aluminium will chill as it hits the blade and this might cause shrinkage porostiy and problems with getting a decent and complete cast. Also make sure you have nice thick risers so any shrinkage you get (and you will get some) can pull additional liquid from them and not from around your cast handles. Of course the problems of heat treating the blade and such are beyond my experience, I've done a lot more casting than I have blade making. I think Aluminium would work well for the handles but I'm not too sure about it's strength with regards to use in the cross guard. Brass or bronze might be a safer bet for that. This is an idea I wondered about myself a long time ago but never got round to trying. I'd love to know how it works out. As an aside... Most genuine sword furniture was made in three our four pieces. The cross guard was made first and secured (firstly by being a tight hammered fit to the shoulders of the blade and then by the edges of the tang opening on the top of the guard being peened to wedge the sides against the tang) then the pommel was made and secured (the best way was to hot peen the tang over the pommel at the base after the pommel has been hammered onto the tang tightly) and lastly the grip was placed onto the tang and fixed in place ( wooden slabs, glued, then wrapped with thin muslin type material soaked in glue, then cord binding with more glue, then the leather, formed wet and stitched in place). This is according to a conversation I had while visiting Peter Johnsson (pretty much the best Sword Smith in Sweden, and highly respected throughout europe) and watching him work. Have a look here http://www.albion-swords.com/swords/johnsson/swords-museum.htm ) I've handled the Svante Nilsson Sture sword Peter made and I can tell you he is genuinely passionate about making the 'real deal' and that sword was. :)

LOL, first thing I could grab that wouldn't bounce the flash back at the camera ;)

Hi folks, there's been a lot of discussion on forge welding and I posted that my first ever was just a simple billet, so here are two pictures of it for folks to look at. Nothing earth shattering, but it's just to show that if even complete novices like myself can do it then there's hope for anyone! enjoy

I really like those Doc Reminds me of being camped out by a lake in Sweden and being woken up the next morning by a strange "swiff,swiff,swiff,THUNK"!! sound. Got out the tent to discover a bunch of Swedish pensioners next door practicing their axe throwing skills with a HUGE ( to my eyes ) double headed throwing axe and managed to persuade then to let me have a go myself. One of the younger chaps had two little bearded axes he was throwing as well, which brings me to the relevancy. They were pierced too, in the shape of a star burst (8 pointed star). Any way I really liked them and those sort of reminded me of them, great work. :)

LOL! You'd have to hit that puck pretty quick Roger, otherwise you'll be digging in the snow to find it! Superb! I really like the way you forge stuff for current events too, very funny :)

Can you imagine 'The Doc' using anything else Thomas? :)

I agree with the above post, a clean fire helps a lot. Here in England a lot of older Smiths don't actually use any flux, just a very clean fire. A new fire is still burning off a lot of the impurities from the coal, and you can use this time to pile up coal around the fire to coke up a little for when you start to forge weld. A simple billet is what I started with but a folded over weld, like you'd find on the end of a fire poker is a good place to start. If you have access to a welder you can make a billet of several pieces stacked on top on each other and tack weld a bead on each end to hold then together and to put them onto a handle so your not faffing around with tong juggling. Make sure the metal is clean before you stack it. Make sure that you heat the metal evenly (turning it in the fire so each side is in the blast) and allow it to 'soak' for long enough that the metal is at the right heat all the way through. Everyone has their own ideas of the right time to try to weld, but if the metal is sparking then its burning, your looking for the point when the steel has a sheen to it like melted butter does on toast. Others will say as soon as you see the first spark, it's all relative. Time and experience are the best teachers here. I'd also recommend reading ANYTHING written by Dr Jim Hrisoulas as well. He's an acknowledged master of pattern welding and posts on this forum under the moniker of JPH. He doesn't tack weld his billets together but wraps them with wire to keep them together, I'm not that clever yet Someone told me the only way to get really good at forge welding is to try and do at least one everytime you light up the forge. Good advice. Let us know how you get on. p.s. A safety note: The fire and metal will potentially get VERY bright so staring into/at it for any length of time is not recommended. There are tinted glasses on the market, but I don't know the in's and out's of them.

That really shows the pattern nicely Dennis, sweet! I like this style of knife, like someone said, makes a good 'eating' knife and also good as a ladies knife for 'ye olde' time re enactments. Think Viking :)

....those darn beavers have been in my scrap pile again. These guys are getting pretty smart, last season I saw one of them wearing a hard hat on the banks of the creek. I'm gonna to have to see Joe Bob Thorton about using his....

My advice is simple, by all means try it but DON'T rely on it or expect major things. Been there done that, answered emails as to why a handmade sterling silver chain had a reserve of

Fantastic!!!!! That last shot nearly made me fall off my swivel chair laughing! Nice one Roger

I reckon you just nailed that one for him! Sterling work sir! Ian 8)

Hello Johan! Welcome to Iforgeiron, it's great to see the folks from Sweden coming to visit! I managed to meet a few of the members of Antracit in person not so long back and was introduced to your site by my friend Tom Sjunnesson. It's well worth the time to visit, is it still possible to translate the site to English? I know when I looked there was a link to do so, unfortunately we aren't anywhere near as good with Swedish as you guys are with English! :oops: It's great to have you aboard, hope you enjoy the site as much as I do. Ian 8)

Hi, I'm afraid I can't really help you much as far as the ins and outs of how and why Adze's are made the way they are but I can certainly point you in the direction of an expert. The gentleman you should try to speak to is called Jon Dahlmo, he's one of (if not the) best wood working toolsmiths in Norway and Scandinavia. He will certainly be able to tell you how to make the tool you want, he speaks fair English but his wife is fluent so write him an email. His website and email address are: [email protected] (email adress) http://www.dahlmo.no/ (web site) If you explain why your writing and tell him that 'Ian from England' said he was THE guy to talk to he might just help you out. hope this helps till others chip in. Ian

Glad to hear Dawn's out of surgery okay Ralph. Fingers crossed that everything works out for the pair of you, it's a tough road your on. One step at a time means your always going forward. Good wishes from over the pond. Ian

I've seen exactly that idea used, albeit with a splined socket in the floor as opposed to a square tube. The spline for the post came from a car drive shaft end and the socket from same vehicle. The builder (a Master Smith called Erik Gjendem ) said he used splines because on a peice of equipment like a pipe bender he needed to be able to set the tool at more than just 4 angles so he could maximise the space he had, also the splines held up better under stress. The hole in the floor was smaller and easier to cap with just a bit of plastic, no risk of tripping over it. just a thought.

I know a few of those, but here are a couple of simple ones: Do you know that you can always find an egg regardless of where you are? Try staring at the tip of your nose.......... Okay and the last one, this is an optical illusion, but good fun: put your right hand with fingers together on your nose and forehead, then look straight ahead (so your looking past the palm of your hand) Then, still looking straight ahead pass your left hand across your field of view, its better if you have your fingers together on your left hand too. Notice anything strange? Try using a ruler instead of your left hand....... :lol:

Doesn't stop me trying though does it T? :lol:

Now aren't those just the best 'Big Boys Toys' you've seen? 8) Very, very cool bits of kit! Now if Father Christmas is reading this......... :mrgreen:

Hej Karl! Money? :shock: tack sa meka mate! I don't even remember what that stuff is anymore! I'm doing what I'm doing on little to Zero budget. No sponsership, no wage, no clue, no prayer! Actually I started with under

Hi Roger It's Ian here, I'm really glad you decided to post! I told you your English was good didn't I 8) I was VERY lucky to have met Roger in his workshop at Karlskoga and be given a tour of the site. To see what those hammers can do in person is absolutely AMAZING. If you get a chance to look at Rogers website and video you MUST, I haven't seen anyone else at all that free forges steel in the sizes that Roger does. Roger is so skilled with those massive hammers that he can forge 2 inch (50mm) down to a quarter of an inch or less on a 500kg hammer (which is over 1000lbs!) without turning a hair. Just to make everyone jealous I had a go on one too If anyone else gets the chance to go and see his workshop in person and if your really lucky he might just show you how to get a piece of cold 25mm (1inch) square bar orange hot in less than a dozen hits. It was a real privelige to see him work. This is a man who really knows his stuff. Welcome to Iforgeiron Roger Ian

--miners welfare club. They always do a grand Pie and Peas of a Saturday afternoon in the Kellingley Club, and the bitters always champion too. Ice cold and creamy, just the thing to set a body up for a bit of----

Ralph, I'm genuinely sorry to hear your news, sometimes I think 'whoever' is in charge has a strange way of doing business. For what it's worth I hope that everything turns out the way that you want it to, for the best. Keep your head up my friend. Your never beat until you say so, even if you lose. Ian