rthibeau

Good work, Valentin, glad we could help you. The round piece is a fullering swage or fuller. You made the clamp very heavy duty, should last you a long time. Do you have a photo of the results of the fish tail swage?

If you have a vise, use a piece of angle iron and bend the flat stock over the angle of the iron while being held in the vise. Judicious use of the hammer will get you a real nice 90 degree bend as crisp as you want. If no vise, use a bigger piece of angle iron over the side of the anvil to make up for any rounded edges of the anvil. Or, a 3rd way, use a piece of channel just big enough to fit over the face of the anvil snugly and bend on the edge of the channel. You can also use that channel as a cover for the anvil face to do chisel work to protect the anvil when the chisel cuts through.

Nice videos. I agree that some commentary accompanying the action would be nice. Oh, btw, you need a bigger hammer to do that pigtail thingy.....:D

I think Kelly Cupples prices are a little better than most. http://www.marksforge.com/steel_prices.htm

According to research on the internet, there are no components of steel that will leach out, burn out, gas off, or any other term I could think of at the time that would cause a health problem from normal blacksmith use. Applied coatings, such as paint, galvanizing, powder coatings, various chemicals, etc, are a very different matter and care should be taken when removing or applying these coatings. Using 4340 steel as an example (Element Weight % C 0.38-0.43 Mn 0.60-0.80 P 0.035 (max) S 0.04 (max) Si 0.15-0.30 Cr 0.70-0.90 Ni 1.65-2.00 Mo 0.20-0.30 ); the chromium, molydenum, nickel, etc, will not "come out of" the steel and therefore do not pose a health hazard as a component of the steel. Commercial steel suppliers can provide uncoated steel of various grades so one does not have to worry about using steel itself.

I didn't have to go far to thank a veteran for serving our country. My wife is in the US Army Reserves and she was deployed last year for Operation Iraqi Freedom. She also has two overseas tours to her credit from her active duty stint before transferring to the reserves. Next week is "Hug A Veteran Week", we each got an early start.....:)

It's a nicely done anvil for RR track, but it's only 14 pounds. Bolted to a good heavy and stable stand it would be useable for small stuff. If your knife making will be mostly stock removal operations, this would be a good starter....depending on selling price. $50-60 max IMHO

If you painted your tools and things, you wouldn't have to hunt for them so long.

I've forged gambrels and large S hooks to use in hanging up the deer and large campfire log tongs to move the campfire around. There's always the campfire cooking equipment commonly seen at rendevous'. I just finished a gambrel out of 7/8" sucker rod, but that was to hang beef cattle for butchering.

I mostly use a cross pein for general work, but depending on what I'm doing and how I have to shape the steel, I'll use a straight or diagonal pein. Average weight is 2 1/2 pounds although I prefer closer to 3 pounds for a hammer. I think I've solved that problem with the Quadra-Peen Hammer (pat pending) as I have a 3# LH diagonal, cross, straight, regular pein one that works pretty good to cover all the angles in one hammer.

4" adjustment range....I've had my big anvil on it for over a week now and have punched hammer eyes and done general forging.....it's stable and sturdy. Gotta get a lamp and hammer rack attached to the rear yet.;)