MattBower

I get it, Tim. I also find wing dividers oddly beautiful. That's a really nice set. Great work!

I completely agree with this. I will use junkyard/mystery steels -- or even new, known steels that I know I may not be able to heat treat ideally -- for tools for my own use. I don't mind it so much if those become "learning experiences" as long as it only affects me. (I'm a hobbyist, so I can afford those sorts of learning experiences. If I were smithing to make a living, I think I'd have a different attitude.) When making tools for others, I want to know exactly what the steel is, which is the first step in knowing whether I have the tools and the knowledge to heat treat it properly. My advice would be to buy some flat stock from someone like Aldo Bruno in the 1075-1084 range. It should do well for what you want. Steels in that range are pretty easy to heat treat properly and they have enough carbon to take a very good edge and hold it reasonably well. Anything with significantly more carbon, or with alloying elements, starts getting a little trickier to HT well. Anything with significantly less carbon starts to sacrifice the edge somewhat (but gains toughness by doing so).

Great work! Hard to believe you just started!

If you're going to research natural ore sources, I have found a wealth of information in Google Books. Some (many? all?) states publish or used to publish regular surveys of mineral resources in the state, which describe major mining activity. Sometimes that includes detailed locations of individual mines. Sometimes it's just a question of running down the history, then getting out on the ground and looking. (Don't forget to get permission from the appropriate people!) mindat.org can also be useful. Since I don't know squat about geology, I'm kind of stuck with the historical approach.

I know some folks have used taconite. Paging Ric Furrer . . . .

I'm no expert on this subject, but this has come up here before. Guys with experience -- and who actually use solid fuel forges regularly -- seem to recommend chimneys in the 10"-12" diameter range. Oh, and side draft seems to work much better than an overhead hood. If you're stuck with the hood it's probably even more important to go quite a bit bigger than what you have.

I hardly know what to say. When I saw the title of this thread, my first thought was that it was some sort of mistake or (no offense, Larry) sick joke. I didn't know Grant personally, as some of you did, but I certainly came to respect him through this forum and others. What a tremendous loss for the blacksmithing community. I'm sorry to say that I don't know anything about Grant's family situation, but I'll say a prayer for him and those who knew him..

It sounds like the end result of this process was plain old wrought iron. Wrought iron isn't terribly hard to come by. Is it really important to your friend that his material have been made by this exact process? I would think good quality wrought iron made by another process would be pretty much indistinguishable.

Two likely possibilities there: (1) Mag Industries hasn't noticed them yet; or (2) Mag hasn't figured out who (in a country that enforces intellectual property law -- China doesn't) to sue, yet.

Disregard.

Many happy returns, IFIers!

"As to the Hofi Hammer...sounds like an issue over contracts and not patents or copyright. As to the name..if one wished to be a jerk one could incorporate under the business name "hoffi" and make hammers with that mark with no issue I would think." Wouldn't count on that one, Ric. Not patent or copyright, no. Trademark. Confusion in the marketplace. Just like if you sold something that looked a little like, say, a Mag Lite, and you called it a Mag Light. You might get sued over that. I won't say how I know. :)

Did he patent it? If not, he has no special claim to the shape. But I'm sure he has a trademark right in the name. (I looked in the article section but the only article that obviously might apply, about the Habermann hammer, didn't say anything about this.) On second thought, the shape might constitute trade dress.

Yep, that's about the size of it.

Close enough. Very interesting.

You mentioned a regulator. Is it intended to run with an external regulator?

Oops, meant to add a couple links to that post. Google JTH7 torch.

No. A lean environment means there is less fuel than the available oxygen can combine with to burn. In other words after all the fuel has burned there is still free oxygen in the forge, which will oxidize any good other good candidates that it can find. Steel is a good candidate for oxidation. That's where scale comes from. A "rich" environment is rich in fuel -- all the oxygen is consumed, and there's still fuel left over. Synonyms for "lean" and "rich" are "oxidizing" and "reducing." Lean = oxidizing. Might help you remember.

I wouldn't run it long without the mortar, but that's not what's causing your problem. I suspect your problem is just that your torch doesn't put out enough heat for a forge that size. A typical, basic plumber's torch might put out 2,500 or 3,000 BTU/hour. The sorts of torches that a lot of folks use for these kinds of forges (like this, and this) put out more like 10,000+ BTU/hr, and most I've seen use two layers of Kaowool, which improves insulation and also cuts down the interior volume of the forge. So you can buy one of the larger propane torches (preferably with more insulation), add one or more small burners, or try a homebuilt burner.

The MIG tips I have messed with were close slip fits inside compression fittings designed for 1/4" tubing. It is possible to braze the MIG tip into the compression fitting nut, which avoids the need to tap anything. I've done that. Obviously there's a possibility of failure if the brazed joint gets too hot, but in this design I think you'd have to do something very wrong for that to ever happen. WIth that said, you're going to want to learn to use a tap sooner or later.

Common propane torches like plumbers' torches are designed to run on unregulated tank pressure, Ted. We're not talking about an oxy-propane cutting torch or the like. These are not torches with interchangeable orifices.

I figured it might do for a one-brick. ;)

Tell us about your forge. How big is it? How is it constructed, and with what materials? And what is "hot enough" to you? What did the interior look like after 5-10 minutes? Note that even relatively small forges like the coffee can designs generally use higher capacity torches like the JTH-7 (now replaced by something else, I believe). A standard plumber's torch probably won't put out enough heat.

Very carefully. The process is patented. It's all right here. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6857558.PN.&OS=PN/6857558&RS=PN/6857558 Tom Ferry talks about the dangers on his website.

I'm sure it can be, but . . . look at a tempering chart. It's still RC50 at 1000 degrees, probably thanks to the moly content. I expect it'd be a pain to deal with, doubly so once he realized that the end result wasn't worth it. If he wants to beat himself up making an axe, L6 would be a better choice. At least he'd get a good axe out of the deal. I wouldn't turn up my nose at free A10. I just wouldn't try to forge weld it into an axe.