MattBower

By the way, Robb Gunter has an account here, although he has only written one post so far. Why not contact him and ask him? http://www.iforgeiron.com/user/13299-robb-gunter/

At first I thought the same thing. The text is a little ambiguous. It could mean, "once the repair area is built up sufficiently to be finished in no more than three passes, use Stoody 1105." Since they they go on to tell you how to make thicker repairs, that makes sense to me. Or they could mean, "only use 1105 if the entire repair can be made with no more than three passes." It just isn't entirely clear. But when you read their instructions for repairing cast iron and cast steel anvils, it's clear that at least in those cases they're saying to put 1105 over 2110. That tends to color my reading of the slightly more ambiguous part. If you look at Stoody's literature on the 2110, they consider it a build-up electrode. They say the 1105 is "designed for wear resistance in metal-to-metal applications." So broadly speaking, it makes some sense to me to put 1105 over 2110. But you're right that some of the details don't entirely seem to fit.

Poll response: no, don't grind it. That anvil looks considerably better than my J. Wilkinson, and I've never so much as taken a wire wheel to that. (Maybe I will, eventually.) What makes you think you need to grind on it when you've never even worked on it!?

I saw the pic of your propane forge with the kaolin liner in the gallery, Eric. That was quite a beast!

You can't harden from much below 1500 degrees, which to my eyes is a nice orange. So I'm starting to think there's something else going on here.

Now that's what I call some esoteric smithin' knowledge! I'd love to hear how that question came up the first time.

Well, a set of skin or bag bellows is about as simple as you can get, and they do work. http://boingboing.net/2009/09/04/kenyan-blacksmiths-m.html It's as simple as it looks. The bottoms of the bags are connected to the tuyere (air tube for the fire). You simply open the tops of the bags during the up stroke, and close them during the down stroke.

Well, if you buffed out the pattern, either you buffed too aggressively or you didn't etch deep enough. I normally follow the etch by hand-rubbing with 1500-2000 grit paper. It helps to pull the steel out of the acid occasionally and give it a scrub with a soft brush; it'll etch faster that way.

That's the right stuff. When you polished it after etching, what did you use?

Casting D2 wouldn't exactly be for the novice, either! I'm not sure I even understand what the point would be.

I was given a bunch of demolition hammer (basically a jackhammer) bits by a guy who deals in and repairs the hammers. He swore the manufacturer's rep told him they were S-5. I sent a piece off for analysis. 1045. (I didn't mind. They were free.) Be very skeptical of any claim that this or that scrap item is always or usually made from this or that steel. The real world is a lot more complicated than that. :)

Yeah, but those aren't steel. They're mainly cobalt and chromium, with a bunch of other alloying elements. Iron is a small fraction of the composition. Not even close to a project for a first-timer.

If you're trying to make a Bronze Age knife, casting would be a good way to go about it. A steel blade, not so much. Search the archives here -- or the Net generally -- for tutorials on pattern welding. That'll answer your question about "damascus." (The scare quotes aren't intended to be insulting; I just don't like to use the term Damascus for pattern welding, because I have an idea what real Damascus steel was -- and it wasn't pattern welded. I understand that you probably don't know the difference. That's OK.)

I don't have a PH, because I have no place to put one. But there are tons of pics in the archives here, and all over the 'Net. If I had the space, and no neighbors close enough to worry about, I'd probably build a helve with a tire drive, very much like the one Sam is working on. Not because it's necessarily the ideal PH design, but because I think it's comfortably within my skill set and scrounging ability.

To tell you the truth, I use both at various times. It kind of depends on the situation; e.g., how fast I'm talking at the time.

I'm happy to be able to provide so much amusement for y'all. :P

Solid fuel forges are -- or at least can be -- dead simple. Just be aware that hard bricks conduct heat pretty well, so be sure there's plenty of material in there to protect the wood. What fuel are you planning to use? Are you thinking of side blast or bottom blast? Are you planning to build this inside or outside?

Drill holes in....wha? I'm with Ken!

I realize the lead is a problem, but I know a guy with a large lathe. If he's to be believed, the bed is around twenty feet. (I haven't seen the thing, yet.) I thought I might at least ask him about whether it could handle something like this, but it seemed like being able to use buttress threads might make it a slightly simpler, more attractive project. I was thinking of casting the nut in bronze. Yeah, whimsical.

Have you tried any of these places: http://maps.google.com/maps?near=Chattanooga,+TN&geocode=CU_7a16QFlklFf7AFgIdEEfq-imF54OKQGBgiDGqKIeJHyZxJA&q=coal&f=l&gl=us&sll=35.04563,-85.30968&sspn=0.466583,0.877533&ie=UTF8&z=9 ? Zoom in a little more and I think you'll find a few others as well.

Every now and then someone floats the idea of building a fly press. The problem always seems to come back to making an appropriate lead screw and nut at a reasonable cost. As I understand it, part of the problem is that square threads are difficult and expensive to cut. (I believe another problem is that most lathes can't produce a sufficiently aggressive lead, but leave that aside for a moment.) What about buttress threads? Could they work? They're supposed to be considerably easier to produce, and the really serious load on a fly press lead screw is in one axial direction -- which is where buttress threads are supposed to shine, right? I realize the the force is typically only supposed to be applied in one direction, and it would take some force in the wrong direction (for a buttress thread) to lift the weight of the ram, screw, fly, etc. But would it be enough to cause a real problem?

Would it improve the economics any to have the base cast?

I'm not a great hawk expert, but I do second what Thomas says about the bull pins. You can really lay into a bull pin with a sledge, and the better surface finish (compared to ductile) seems to help things along. Drifting to about 90% with the bull pin and finishing with a commercial drift -- used mainly as a mandrel -- to refine the eye shape seems to work pretty well.

You don't need adhesive. Drill the hole a little undersized (straight through the center of the ball, and out the other side) and drive that sucker on there with a mallet. It's not going anywhere anytime soon. I find them pretty decent handles, and far better than the bare tangs that I was mostly using before I got hold of a bunch of old golf balls. (Not a good idea, I know. I'm just telling it like it was, not recommending others follow my bad example.) Hot filing does tend to draw the temper of the file or rasp, but then it doesn't need to be as hard when the steel you're working is hot and soft. Still, you don't use your good files for this. You set aside some worn-out rasps or coarse files just for hot filing.

According to the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America (ABANA) website, the Prairie Blacksmiths Association is your state ABANA affiliate. Get in touch with them.