eseemann

Thanks for the info I think I will try it from on piece first.

Rick,
 
 
I cannot find words to think about how uncomfortable, messy and dangerous working on a self-coating/non-stick anvil would be. I can see that setting your work on a 1/10 of a mm of scale would be like graphite packing lubricant so that when you give the steel a good hit the steel is more likely to skid off in a random direction than not. Not to mention that you can never really clean it off, it sounds like the yellow pine pollen in Florida.
 
Yup, I do see a magnetic anvil, no matter how neat it sounds, is a bad thing.

I have always loved the look of a broad axe head and I wonder if I could use mild steel for the body and forge weld in 1080 or 5160 for the blade? I could also use some of the plough steel for the cutting blade.

Thanks

I know this may be an ignorant question but why would a magnetized anvil be a bad thing?

Dink, I am at a loss, it looks like a few things but not like any one I can find, good luck with it.

That is going to be cool if it works!  Good luck.

Thanks Dan, first I need to concur the spoon!   

Dan,

Where did you get your wheels?

Amazon has O-1 starting at $11.00 for a 3/32" by 1/2" by 18" bar.

Good to know, I have stopped guessing about this stuff a while ago so I ask now. I was reading a post about hexavalent chrome problems from overheated stainless steel but since so many people use SS flares on the end of SA burners I am left to conclude this is not a problem. My best guess to why this is not a problem is the time it takes for a flare to burn up is long enough that a well vented shop will not build up enough free floating hexavalent chrome to be an issue.

I am betting on Dinkytoy's anvil weighing 42 KG.

Dinkytoy,

Can you read the letters on the anvil? I think it is H I B E U  abd the number 42 (inverted). Maybe you can put some paper (thin) over it and use some lump charcoal to trace the letters.

Thanks Dodge, that will make things a good bit simpler for me since there is a heck of a lot more options with galvanized than not around here. 

The guy in the video posts earlier in this thread used a 1080/15n20 combo. This is more of a medieval style of blade that were described as looking like small axes.

Thanks to DARPA now we can watch a blacksmith put his own razor to his own neck.

Steve, 

The curved edge is called a "smiling edge" or "swept edge". 

I am thinking tire iron as well. That begs the question of if someone were to use this as a weapon and pommel strike a person would that be getting hit with the bunt end of a knife or the working end of a tire iron?  

Rockstar, 

Thanks for reminding me about this guy, I have liked his videos but have not watched one in a while. What do you think of that post anvil, that is some mass right there,. 

I picked up a box of 2600 degree IFB from HWR in Birmingham Al. It looks like they own the AP Green name. 

The local guy that sold me the bricks and his boss both sat and chewed the fat about how stupid it is for great big companies to think they are too good to sell small orders, and college football since we are in Alabama after all. 

Dodge,

Are you using a galvanized "T"? I have been having a hard time finding the right size black iron "T" and I have been staying away from all things zinc coated for the forge. 

Zengineer,

Did you use any coating on the wool blanket? The reason I ask is the fiber breakdown/safety thing has always kept me from wanting to dive in to using ceramic wool. Cancer runs in my family and my dad died of lung cancer and having been smoke free since 2007 (GO ME!!!) I have been playing it safe. 

Ernest

That reminds me of the time Alton Brown used a cardboard box (2 of them) to make a cold smoker for salmon.

Nobody Special brings up an interesting historical point when he said "patina (green or blue stuff) can be toxic on copper". The English used a hide glue to secure the arrow head and fetching for their arrows. Hide glues are made from "protein colloid glues are formed through hydrolysis of the collagen from skins, bones, tendons, and other tissues, similar to gelatin." In simple terms the glue is a good food source to all manners of pests. The way they kept the vermin from eating the arrows was to mix copper acetate (green patina) in to the hide glue. The copper acetate was a product of hanging some copper plate and wine or vinegar. The kicker was that hide glue is water (and blood) soluble. When someone gets an arrow in them some of the hide glue may leach in to the wound from the head. If you have to pull the arrow though then you get a dose from the fetching glue. The French said the English were using poisoned arrows and the English could never understand why the French would say such things.  

When I watched Erin Brockovich with a veterinarian I know and they started talking about drinking water that was contaminated with hexavalent chromium she about jumped off the couch like she sat on a pin! The look on her face was horror and she then told us non-medical types this was very very bad.  

Frosty is right about the Zinc fumes and from what I hear fume fever is not always deadly but even a light case feels like the flu bug has some personal resentment against you.  Paw Paw Wilson was overcome by a fatal does of Zine fumes. Fun fact, Zinc Oxide is that white stuff people put on the nose to keep it from burning.   

To be honest Thomas I have not. My knee jerk reaction was that trying to bring anything up to at least 1700 degree F in a microwave sounded crazy. I have been told since this posting that people on backyard casting have done something like this and survived so maybe I am not so smart as I thought i was.