civilwarblacksmith

That is a wonderful gift. I am sure she will enjoy it for a lifetime.

Beautiful pair of knives. Great work.

Beautiful knives. Where did you get the ivory. I'm always looking for different handle material?

One other thing that works most time when you have stubborn scale that won't brush off. If your work is still at a low orange, quickly dip into your slack tub and quench and pull it out. The scale being thinner will cool and pop up allowing you to brush it off.

I just changed out the hold downs on my anvils at the homestead. I used the standard spring type that you stuck into the pritchel hole. It didn't leave much room on the anvil face to forge. I now use a chain, smallish single link type, that is held into the stump with a staple. It is then layed over the anvil and part at the heel of the anvil and uses a large hook, that is hooked into a chain link, that i can put my foot into in order to apply pressure to hold the part in place. This leaves plenty of room in order forge the part and keeps the part in place really well.

Another place is BlacksmithBolt . They a wide variety of period fasteners for blacksmiths.

Really looks nice, Rich. Beautiful work. What did you use for the finish on the handle?

By looking at the picture the top once unmounted will sit on the ground without damage to the tueyre. Also the bottom which when connected to the top is used as the ash dump container, will fit over the top part. The blower and mount will fit inside. This will make a great demo forge. As has been said above make sure you check for rust. If it is thin metal, make sure you line it with clay or refactory cement. Run the blower to make sure it turns easily.

Now that is just plain cool, Git-R-Done

A power hammer, an Ellis gas forge, and belt grinder. That would be my top 3.

It looks really nice. I would offer one recomendation though. Glue some leather onto where the hat rests, in order to give the hat protection from the metal.

Makes for a nice blackpowder patch knife.

Try re-brushing the sides, really good. Up the pressure alittle and reweld. Might clean up the problem.

The last one I did I flattened the handle and put handle scales on.

By the way, these are really neat. How heavy are they for the tree?

Kind of like Pawnee1's caged marbles but you can heat these back up to put a finish on it.

Got another question before I try these. What type of finish did you put on it since the marble is already inside? Thanks

Beautiful knife Rich

What size marble are you using. A regular playing marble or the shooter.

fort............

A member of my guild by the name of Dick Smith demo'ed a bell using schedule 80 pipe. He fullered one end down to almost closed (leaving about an 1"- 1 1/2" at the top) but not all the way closed in order to put clanger in later. Using a hardy tool made from a small pick, he then would then get the pipe up to a high yellow and pein it on the pick. The reason for the pick is that they are stocky but you can fit the pipe on to them easily. He would cotinue this until he got the shape he wanted. When the bell shape was finished, he would fashion the clanger and what ever he was going to hang or hold the bell with. leave the rod being used for the hanger long and put a hook on the end to hold the clanger. Attach clanger and close hook on the hanger. Heat top of the bell and run the hanger rod through and close the top of the bell around the hanger. Heat the end of the hanger into a loop. Clean and add a finish.

It doesn't hurt to very lightly sand and add a light coat of linseed oil either.

With using Muratic acid, you should be able to neutralize with Windex or anything with ammonia.

They kind of look like bits from an air powered masonary drill.

I make strikers from coil spring and when finished quench in oil. Make sure the front striking area is smooth. I also make strikers from old files. These I quench in water. I don't have a problem with them breaking as there really is no stress on them. I also use 2 different type of stone. 1 is flint and the other is quartzite, which to me throws a better spark.