MattBower

I tried something similar for welding a steel bit into a tomahawk, and I had a very hard time with it. However, folks who've done it tell me that the key is to move fast. The burrs (more like little spikes) are small, and will heat up quickly. You need to make the mechanical connection before that happens. There's a vid on YouTube of a Japanese hammer maker welding a steel face onto a WI body. For all the world it looks like his flux acts as a kind of high temperature glue and holds the face on, unassisted by any mechanical aid, until the weld. I'd really love to know how he did that -- and what's in his flux!

I can't see the vids from behind this firewall. I'll look later. The MIG welding means someone has been MIG welding on the face, which isn't a great sign. It means the face may have been tempered back some, or worse. I consider handling holes a positive sign. They mean someone was welding and/or heat treating the anvil, which means it probably isn't cast iron. It could have suffered all sorts of indignities in the intervening years, but it probably wasn't total junk when it came out of the factory.

One thing I'd add here is that surface rust can indeed be a big problem in forge welding. A good flux may dissolve the rust -- or it may not get it all. This has resulted in many, many weld imperfections over the years. Most serious pattern welders that I know of -- at least the ones who don't weld in a can -- grind their mating surfaces clean between welds, then flux them in order to (1) protect from oxidation and (2) remove any small amount of oxidation that may take place despite the flux. When you're welding in a can you have an even bigger problem, because in that case you don't use any flux. So there's nothing to dissolve the rust. If you're very lucky, the carbon source that you add to the can -- WD 40, for example -- might reduce some rust back to iron. But you'd be fooling to count on it. For the most part, people who weld in cans seem to start with very clean, rust-free surfaces.

Are you sure it's really a welded on steel plate? Some of the cast iron ASOs are cast so that the face protrudes slightly from the body at the joint between the two, to make it look as if they're separate pieces. Very sneaky. Almost fraudulent, really. If there's really a welded on plate, it'll be made of steel (never heard of anyone welding anything else onto the face of an anvil), and the anvil is very likely of decent to excellent quality -- unless it's been damaged.

If you don't have an adequate blower to make a blown burner, make a naturally aspirated burner. The one Phil linked to (and uses) receives good reviews around here.

If you have an adequate blower, by all means make a blown burner. (You don't need it to move a whole lot of air by volume, but it needs to be able to handle a little back pressure.) As long as you have a decent blower, blown burners are simple to build and relatively easy to tune. But in that case you don't need to be looking at Reil burners, Olivers, T-Rexes, etc. Those all operate on a totally different principle. Look at these: http://www.cashenblades.com/info/gas_forges.html http://www.dfoggknives.com/forge.htm

Posted before but always good: wet ingot mold. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=93a_1251647793

Listen to Phil. He's steering you right. With that said, making a burner really isn't hard. If you have the capacity to build the forge you described, you can probably build a simple propane burner. Nothing wrong with buying if you like, but don't do it because you assume building one would be an impossible task. It isn't.

Well, on Google Books, at the top right corner of the book window you'll see a downward-pointing arrow next to the letters "PDF." Click that to get started. On archive.org there's a window off to the left called "View the book" that gives you about a half-dozen different formats. Just click PDF or B&W PDF, let it download, and save it. And by the way, all the books on that list do appear to be out of copyright. I give the guy that much credit, at least: he doesn't seem to be a pirate.

Once a blade leaves your hands, you have no control over what happens to it. What happens when the guy who buys it from the guy who bought it from the guy who bought if from you tries to use it, and discovers he bought a piece of non-functional mild steel? It may not be your fault, but how are you going to feel about that? How's it going to affect your reputation that a piece with your name or mark on it is effectively useless?

What sort of forge do you have? When you say "spiral flow torch head" I think of something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Bernzomatic-19199-019199-Hose-Torch/dp/B0006V6NKY If that's what you're using, step one is to make or buy a real propane burner, and put it in a real forge. Search this site for "burner design" and "propane forge" to get lots of ideas.

Yep.

By the way, drilling a hole through the inside end of the crack might prevent it from running any further.

The point -- or at least part of it -- of the lining is to help prevent uneven heating. Uneven heating causes uneven expansion, and that can cause cracking. So would lining it have prevented this? Quite possibly. Sorry, but it does say "CLAY BEFORE USING." Some people get away without doing it -- but apparently you're not one of them. As to whether it's fixable, maybe. I've never tried one. Cast iron can be a real pain. If it were me, I'd probably try brazing it. Even if you can't fix it, solid fuel forges are easy to make, and you have a nice blower. B)

This fellow showed up on two other sites I frequent. On one he used what may be his real name, Scott Hawkins, and was open about the fact that he's the guy who's actually selling the DVDs. On another he used the handle UniqueBlades, and, just like he's doing here, he pretended to be just a helpful blacksmith who happened to run across the DVD with all this valuable information, and just had to share it with other smiths. At least he did that until a few of us questioned him on it, at which point he didn't even bother denying that he's the seller. When I suggested that folks could likely find all these books for free on the 'Net -- not that I have any problem with folks paying for convenience, if they prefer to do that -- he asserted that absolutely was NOT possible, and all but dared me to provide links to free sources. So I did -- to all of them. He hasn't made an appearance on that site since then. But as long as I have all those links, might as well share them with my friends at IFI as well. 1. http://books.google.com/books?id=C4HiWUQBPkEC&lpg=PP1&dq=blacksmith%20shop%20practice&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 2. http://books.google.com/books?id=Vz5DAAAAIAAJ&dq=the%20value%20of%20science%20in%20the%20smithy%20and%20forge&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false 3. http://books.google.com/books?id=KTpEAAAAYAAJ&dq=farm%20blacksmithing&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 4. http://books.google.com/books?id=zKpCAAAAIAAJ&dq=forgecraft&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 5. http://books.google.com/books?id=4CZLAAAAMAAJ&dq=electric%20welding&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 6. http://books.google.com/books?id=7MQXAAAAIAAJ&dq=forge%20work&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 7. http://books.google.com/books?id=HDMKAAAAIAAJ&dq=forge%20practice%20elementary&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 8. http://ia600406.us.archive.org/4/items/cu31924003588534/cu31924003588534.pdf 9. http://books.google.com/books?id=CLpAAAAAIAAJ&dq=united%20states%20navy%20drop%20forging&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 10. http://ia600406.us.archive.org/4/items/cu31924003588534/cu31924003588534.pdf 11. http://books.google.com/books?id=ueUKAQAAIAAJ&ots=dQoTLjOJuV&dq=Practical%20Guide%20to%20Iron%20and%20Steel%20Works%20Analyses&pg=PA77#v=onepage&q&f=false 12. http://books.google.com/books?id=VZIXtwLqdTkC&ots=dgxgRoYcEF&dq=Steel%20Working%20and%20Tool%20Dressing&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 13. http://books.google.com/books?id=cYZAAAAAIAAJ&ots=6auZmmj6hC&dq=Hardening%2C%20Tempering%2C%20Annealing%20and%20Forging%20of%20Steel&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 14. http://www.archive.org/details/mechaniciantreat00knigrich 15. http://books.google.com/books?id=uEXiAAAAMAAJ&dq=Elementary%20Forge%20Practice&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 16. http://books.google.com/books?id=RRvcAAAAMAAJ&ots=EmQ3OMN-bj&dq=Standard%20Blacksmithing%2C%20Horseshoeing%20and%20Wagon%20Making&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 17. http://www.archive.org/details/americanblacksmi00holm 18. http://books.google.com/books?id=noNIAAAAMAAJ&ots=e96KfDUxG9&dq=Notes%20for%20Forge%20Shop%20Practice&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 19. http://books.google.com/books?id=rSlDAAAAIAAJ&ots=qvFhwog61R&dq=Drop%20Forging%2C%20Die%20Sinking%20and%20Machine%20Forming%20of%20Steel&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 20. http://books.google.com/books?id=XohAAAAAIAAJ&ots=fOKzXy4rxC&dq=The%20Case-Hardening%20of%20Steel%20-%20An%20Illustrated%20Exposition%20of%20the%20Changes%20in%20Structure%20and%20Properties%20Induced%20in%20Mild%20Steels%20by%20Cementation%20and%20Allied%20Processes&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 21. http://books.google.com/books?id=cV4PAQAAIAAJ&ots=l0MbCYL3YO&dq=Bolt%2C%20Nut%20and%20Rivet%20Forging&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 22. http://books.google.com/books?id=fpNBAAAAIAAJ&ots=HnGzqLYBsc&dq=Forges%20and%20Furnaces%20in%20the%20Province%20of%20Pennsylvania&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 23. http://www.archive.org/details/practicalblacksm01richuoft 24. http://www.archive.org/details/practicalblacks04richgoog 25. http://www.archive.org/details/practicalblacksm03richuoft 26. http://www.archive.org/details/practicalblacksm04richuoft 27. http://books.google.com/books?id=CRNIAAAAIAAJ&ots=WtuSuMwqee&dq=Forge-Practice%20and%20Heat%20Treatment%20of%20Steel&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 28. http://www.archive.org/details/forgingoperation00scra 29. http://www.archive.org/details/machineforging00hamirich 30. http://books.google.com/books?id=VVsPAQAAIAAJ&dq=Drop%20Forging&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 31. http://books.google.com/books?id=RWkUAQAAMAAJ&ots=_Ve5S1fxTn&dq=Machine%20Blacksmithing&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false 32. http://www.archive.org/details/completeguidetob00lung 33. http://books.google.com/books?id=QRxWAAAAMAAJ&dq=Machine%20Molding%20-%20Foundry%20Appliances%2C%20Malleable%20Casting%2C%20Brass%20Founding&pg=RA6-PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false 34. http://books.google.com/books?id=ij5DAAAAIAAJ&dq=Modern%20Blacksmithing&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false "Bonus": http://books.google.com/books?id=Z7sUfySkUO0C&ots=JNEyEmnCeK&dq=The%20Working%20of%20Steel%2C%20Annealing%2C%20Heat%20Treating%2C%20and%20Hardening%20of%20Carbon%20and%20Alloy%20Steel&pg=PP3#v=onepage&q&f=false Scott, remember when Lawren told you that some of us frequent other boards? This is what he was talking about.

Because lower quality, less expensive stuff does have its place. Without trying to open too big a can of worms, I'll bet most of us here cannot honestly say that we drive the highest quality car on the market. Maybe the highest that we can afford, but not the best that can be had on the market, period. We balance quality against a host of other competing concerns -- cost being just one of them -- every day, in every purchase we make. There's nothing wrong with that.

$300 is actually $2.54/lb. It's 118 pounds, not 100. It's a WI bodied, steel faced anvil with a pretty smooth face, from what I can see. No obvious sway, no really nasty dings, the hardy and pritchel holes look to be in pretty good shape, even the edges don't look like there's anything wrong with them that a little time with a flap disk couldn't fix. The horn looks pretty good, too. It's not a steal, but for $2.54 a pound it doesn't look like a ripoff, either.

Seems like once every few months around here we drag this dead horse back out and beat it some more. :)

I can't give you any advice from personal experience, but you can search for schools by major, here: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/csearch/index.html?affiliateId=rdr&bannerId=csearch I found 21 that award four-year metallurgical technology or metallurgical engineering degrees. That doesn't account for the ones Patrick described, where the degree is materials science or materials engineering. When you add those the number explodes, though I don't know whether they all offer as much metallurgy as you'd like.

This is a fascinating discussion, but since you originally were looking for a reference, Jake, take a look at this site. They're in Rhode Island. Click around on their photos and see if it looks like they might be up to what you envision. http://www.maleylaser.com/ I don't have any first-hand experience with these guys. Your description of what you want reminded me of stuff I've seen on the site of a similar place around where I live, so I started looking for a place like that in RI. Anyway, just a thought.

Sounds like you've resolved your original question, so I just want to say how cool I think it is that you're doing this. What a great opportunity for those kids. One of my great regrets is not discovering smithing until I was about 35. Imagine how much better I might be now if I'd been at it an extra 20 years! ;)

That's the one. Nothing magical about it. Heat the peroxide to near boiling (just makes it work that much faster) and add salt until it doesn't want to dissolve anymore. Then dip, card, dip, card, ad nauseum, and boil. It just takes patience. I've tried spraying on the peroxide and salt solution, but I think immersion works better. Some people say to add vinegar. I've found it to be counterproductive. Another method of doing the same thing, but building up the rust much faster, is to apply cold gun bluing to the steel, then apply -- dip, wipe, or spray on -- chlorine bleach. It'll rust like mad before your very eyes. (Play with it to see what works best for you, as far as keeping it submerged, removing it from the bleach, wiping it on, etc.) I learned about using bleach and cold blue to cause rust from guys who use it to give a really aggressive etch/patina to age steel, but it occurred to me that you could also card the rust and continue the process, then boil to convert to black oxide. And sure enough, it works. (I like to change the water a couple times to be sure all the chlorine is gone.) That should serve as a word of warning: it'd be easy for this to get out of hand. It is shockingly aggressive. (See here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/632510-Bluing-and-Bleach?p=6652243#post6652243) This tends to give a fairly thick, kind of rough oxide layer. I consider it kind of crude compared to peroxide and salt, but it works and it's fast. I don't know what it'd do to silver, brass or copper, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was pretty harsh.

I sized my hammer eye drift to match one specific type of commercial handle. I wanted to make the handles easy to replace. But I have made a few handles. I favor white ash and hickory as handle woods, and farrier's rasps and carbide burrs for roughing.

Most of the acids folks use for that purpose will react with things like copper and silver, so proceed with caution. (I normally use salt and hydrogen peroxide for rust bluing, but peroxide is hard on silver, too.) As for how to do it, you just described it! It's not complicated. It just takes patience. Distilled water and very thorough degreasing are also good ideas.

I doubt there's a way to do this cold without some risk of snapping the tip off, but doing it hot would raise other problems. (I assume you don't want to ruin the heat treat, and even if you didn't care about that you'd want to remove the temper colors, which would probably wreck the patina.) So, how badly do you want the kink fixed? If I had to do it, I'd probably try a three point straightening jig in a vise or press (like this: http://www.arscives....htening-jig.jpg), padded with thick leather. But don't come cryin' to me if you can't get it to look right, or you break the thing! I'd probably be inclined to leave it as-is. Soldiers abuse their equipment. It adds character. Besides, how do you know it didn't get bent in use against the enemy?