Ed Thomas

That looks stamped and cast, not forged. I can't imagine that it is Whitaker's work.

Stretch: That shop sure puts out some beautiful work. Thanks for sharing the link. There is some very inspiring stuff there and I congratulate you on being part of it.

Don: When I'm not trying to heat a piece of steel, I close the air supply off by shutting the gate, but leave the blower running. In my forge, the butterfly valve I made leaks JUST enough to trickle in some air around the edges and help keep the fire going at a slow perk. When I say I leave the blower running, I mean while I'm working with the forge. When I stop for a 4-hour lunch or to do layout or whatever, I bank the fire by pushing the fire together and piling coal around and over it, and turn the blower off. If you bank the fire, it will smolder and cook all day long and then some. No need to shove a piece of wood in it, as is sometimes advised. The gate allows you to control the air flow from zero to wide open and anything in between. When you put a piece in the fire, you open the gate just enough to provide the air supply you want for the type of heating you want. When it is ready to forge, you simply shut the gate and take the piece to the anvil. The nicest gates let you push the valve closed with a lever using your knee in case you are bringing two pieces out of the fire for welding, for instance. In my opinion, the gate is ESSENTIAL with an electric blower on a forge. Every time I work at a forge without a gate, it is an exercise in frustration.

Don A: You probably already know this, but too much blower is FAR better than not enough. The best way to set up the air supply is to have a good strong quiet blower that easily runs continuously. Then use an airgate of some sort to control the air between the blower and the forge. I have a butterfly gate in mine right now, but slide gates are probably more linear air flow and easier to make. Plus the slide gates usually don't leak as much. The aluminum slide gates sold for dust collection systems works okay.

Plain Old Bill: Do you mean the the blower that is currently listed as BP-50vs? I've used that in two separate shops and it is a nice blower. But I feel that the motor speed is too high on it. A 1725 rpm motor would be better for most single forge applications. In one shop, that Centaur blower is used to run two forges, which is probably about right. The old Buffalo and Champion paddle blowers are basically the same blower, but usually don't run as fast. By using a slower motor, it is quieter and seems a bit stronger air flow without quite the volume. As you say, the Centaur blower is very nice, though.

Ron: I have several flat metal tables I've made for welding and layout. But the handiest one when space was a factor uses a 3 foot diameter 1/2" plate. With only 3 legs, it is always steady regardless the floor surface. For a welding table, I prefer a small machinist vise rather than a leg vise because they rotate to hold the work. At one time, I had an open grate for cutting as part of the circle, but found it just as easy to clamp work to the side of the table and cut off the edge. Now the top is just a flat round plate I picked up from a scrapyard. I think it was a temporary tank or manhole cover because one side is diamond tread and had handles welded into it. My layout table is thicker, but for a small welding table, I think 1/2" thick is fine. If you make something you like and find after awhile that you want something different... well, just cut and weld till you like it again. There aren't any rules on homemade tables that I know of, though some common sense on height and rigidity probably should apply.

Don, keep your eye out for an old hand-crank or electric blower. All you need is the paddle fan and its housing. Look for Champion or Buffalo, but there are others. The paddle wheel fan usually takes a long 1/2" shaft, and a washing machine motor shaft fits perfectly. In various tailgates I wound up with several electric blowers, all of which had bad motors. The broken ones are fairly plentiful and cheap. So are washing machine motors. I forget the exact speed but it's probably 1200-1500 rpm... and nice and quiet. Sometimes I wash my clothes in the forge when I forget where I am and the fire is especially clean. You will still have to make a stand and fabricate or forge the parts to hold the motor and the housing, and to mount it so the fan blades are exactly right in the housing, but it's pretty easy. I've been using mine trouble free for several years, and I actually prefer it to the Centaur Forge blower for a single forge operation. When it dies, all I will have to do is go find another washing machine and steal the motor.

Don, I'm rough guessing about 1/8 hp or less at that amperage and voltage. That's not super strong, and the motor speed is a bit high for a forge blower, but I bet it would be an adequate blower for light casual use. Note that it is rated intermittent use, which wouldn't work for how I use a forge blower. I turn the blower on and leave it on, and control air with a gate. At that price, it beats the crap out of hair-dryers, vacuum cleaners, leaf-blowers, truck heaters, and gerbil cages that seem to be the recommendation of many beginners. I hardly ever notice Surplus Center offering a 3" outlet blower, which is a real plus. For serious forge work, you will probably want a stronger, bigger, slightly slower blower rated for continuous use, but that blower is not an especially expensive experiment. When the blower is too weak, you have to work hard to keep the air path open and the fire especially well-maintained. Even then, it can be frustrating trying to get anything substantial to forging heat, much less welding heat. Sorry if I'm preaching to the choir there. :)

I'm thinking any women on the core team will want somewhat different symbols escaping the fire.

It would be best if you could tell us a few things: 1) Where did you get the metal -- what did it used to be? MOST common iron alloys have some range of heat in which they can be forged and hot-worked. For instance, some alloys are a LOT of trouble to hand tool because they are designed to resist deformation at high heats. There is a very narrow band where such a metal is in a plastic state; it can fail spectacularly above that and be impossible to cut below that. To anneal such an alloy (M2 and M42 are examples) would require good heat-treating ovens and adherance to complex steps from their performance tables. Other alloys are much friendlier to blacksmiths. 2) What are you trying to make? Tooling, slitting, and cutting are all normal forging options. But you might have to make the tools first. We can't advise you on what tooling to make without an idea of the project. 3) Is there a way to forge the metal to the right shape? Your question sounds like machinist or fabricator thinking. That means stock removal and welding to shape. Forging manipulates the material while it is plastic. Sometimes that is not practical or even possible, but when forging IS an option, it is often actually the easiest option. Here are specific answers to your question, though I think we can help more if you answer the above questions for us. 1) Yes, you can can (and often should) carve when hot. 2) Yes, you can use an old file or farrier rasp on hot steel. 3) Yes, it will be ruined for normal filing, which is why you use an old one. 4) Yes, you can make tools out of a material and then on itself. It is done all the time. It works because the tool is hard compared to the heated piece which is plastic.

Christopher: I think you should mount it inside or a lot of the pots and pans will get rusty. That looks nicely done. I like your tooling and proportions. Here are some suggestions I have from my experimentation with wall-mounted potracks: 1) Instead of S-hooks, consider using hooks with right-angle bends at the top. That way, the hooks leverage against the rack more firmly and the pots and pans don't swing around as much. You can also do very interesting things with that part of the hook, including tooling designs so that they become an integral design element of the bar itself. 2) You might have done it, but try to line up the mounting holes so they wind up at 16" intervals. That way if the pot rack is mounted on drywall (fairly common) the hardware will screw into studs. Honestly, it looks like you already thought of this, which is very good. 3) Don't be afraid to really pronounce the split scrolls at the end. They look cleanly done, so maybe you can split and scroll another few inches to get them more attention. I note with satisfaction that you elegantly solved a common problem. If you didn't have that middle hanger, the bottom scrolls on the end would dig into the drywall (or panel) and over time do some damage as the pots and pans pulled down. Your hanger fixes that dilemma. Well done! Thank you for sharing this very nice work.

Mr Freek: You really can't go wrong buying the UMBA videos. The first one costs $7, and every one after that costs $5 within the same order. They are almost all 5 to 6 hours long. They are always filmed by volunteers and the camera work is not professional. But if you pay attention, you can learn a good bit fairly cheaply. I do not have the Bob Patrick video you asked about, but I have 18 other UMBA videos and don't regret buying any of them.

Richard: Making small punches is not so much difficult as it is a bit tedious. Consider making your own. I don't endorse anvilfire, but here is a link to how to make a touchmark or punch: link removed at the request of anvilfire

Yes there is flux on welding rods. It is largely the composition of that flux that gives the rod its characteristics. Here is a brief look at stick welding: Shielded metal arc welding - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia And the longer article on welding: Arc welding - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The various rod and welder manufacturers, such as Lincoln, Miller, and Hobart with their own information and discussion boards... Miller - Welding Equipment - MIG/TIG/Stick Welders & Plasma Cutting Lincoln Electric Hobart Welders: The Power to Change Your World

Ludo: A few thoughts: 1) If you only have an AC machine make sure the rods work with that. 6011 is good. It was developed for farm type maintenance... to get through debris and grease. Not easy to get a "pretty" weld, but does good penetration and is reliable in a wide range of humidity and neglect. As with Hollis, it is by far my most used rod. 2) If you aren't going to weld often, you might want to avoid the 7018 rods for awhile. They have to be kept dry and are best used when the box is opened unless you have a rod dehumidifier. 3) 7014 makes a "pretty" weld. Not great penetration, but very easy to strike and arc and lay a bead. Almost every blacksmith who has a welder (including me) will occasionally use it to stick things together to forge weld in the fire. It isn't necessary, but often makes life easier if you have complicated shapes that don't lay down next to each other very well. If you do that, try to keep the tack weld to the very minimum to hold the pieces in place JUST long enough to do your forge weld. After you tack them, it helps if you wirebrush the scale and weld flux and spatter off. I usually use an electric wirebrush to be sure. That way the first few hammer blows of your forge-welding will erase the weld entirely. If you keep the arc-weld to the bare minimum, you don't even have to think about blending it in. In other words, you aren't trying to get a head-start on the forge-weld; you are merely using the tack weld to hold the pieces together long enough to do the actual welding in fire. A torch weld often works even better for this sort of application.

Ron, even bagged pea coal here in Virginia is only somewhere around $5 for a 40 lb bag. I get it delivered loose and the last time it was about $175 a ton. So I'd say that your cost was a bit outrageous. Looking on the internet, I found these coal producers in Arkansas: Johnson Co. R & S Coal Company, P.O. Box 377, Scranton, AR 72863 Russ and Sons, Inc., P.O. Box 1609, Greenwood, AR 72936 Logan Co. R & S Coal Company, P.O. Box 377, Scranton, AR 72863 Sebastian Co. Comer Mining Company, Greenwood, AR 72936 Maybe you can contact them to see who buys it from them local to you, or maybe you can even go them and buy it. Usually, delivery requires a minimum order of several tons, though. My impression, glancing over the links, is that some Arkansas coal is metallurgical grade (the best), so you should be able to buy it there. If I find out anything else, I'll post it.

I heartily agree. A VERY respectable set of tongs, and unusually well done for the first pair. Thank you for sharing your work!.

You guys are lovin' this, aren't you? :D

I don't think this is much good for a beginner, actually, and I mildly disagree with most of your points. 1) The anvil height should be whatever it should be for you. The forge should be whatever height it turns out to be that is reasonable. Use an adjustable stand to hold things in the forge that are too long. Since the height of a piece is often not exactly horizontal, there isn't much point in using the anvil as a support. Set the anvil where it is convenient and at a comfortable height (I like mine about flat palm height). 2) What fire tools? I use a rake and a shovel. I can usually tell the difference between the two. Plus I usually hang them each in their own spot, which is far more important than what shape they have. 3) Okay, if you remember, put the hammer oriented to true north. Same way each time. 4) Standing with feet shoulder width apart at the anvil is awkward. Most smiths find the most comfortable stance for themselves, but often that is the outer foot forward as standing along the anvil. Your point of relaxed stance is good. 5) Okay to throw your hammer at the anvil. 6) Rhythm is overrated. Pay attention to the mechanics of hammering and let musicians tend to the rhythm. 7) Strongly disagree here... If you are determined to strike the first blow with authority every time, then you will chronically screw up your work. It is often very important to set your first blow and check its accuracy. That way you can make the minor adjustments to put it exactly where you wanted if you are off. If the tool bounces out of the hole or cut, then chances are your iron is not hot enough, you hit it wrong, or you are holding the tool poorly anyway. I have yet to see George Dixon look amateurish taking his gentle careful placement hits. 8) As said by others, pushing the metal in from the top will often break up a perfectly good fire. Sometimes it is the right way, but just as often I slide a piece into it. The shape of what you are forging determines what you have to do. Sometimes, on big things, you place the piece in the fire and push the fire around it. There are no hard and fast rules that I've seen yet. Learn fire management. 9) I agree here... think while you are heating and know what you are going to do as you bring it out. 10) Wirebrush in and out??? That's sounds a bit obsessive. Maybe good for dental care, but I don't worry too much about wire-brushing forged work until I'm nearly done, unless I'm working specifically on some piece that I want to avoid any scale imprinting. Even then, I'm not an in/out/brush/brush sort of guy. I brush as necessary as I go along. 11) Reducing the number of heats is overrated also. It is far more important to work at the right heat, and put it back in the fire to get it hot again than it is to worry about how many times that takes. As long as you don't burn the piece, the number of heats has no bearing on the final appearance. Almost always, the mangled, tortured look people associate with too many heats is caused by poor hammer control and improper heating. 12) Frustration is good. If you aren't frustrated occasionally, then you might be stagnating. 13) Zen is overrated. Everything is focus and CORRECT practice. If your hands are wandering around without direct control from your brain, then you should probably take a break. Some of this is said tongue in cheek, but I am quite serious in my opinion that this list is of little value to a beginner. They strike me as a few random thoughts that are taken out of context. IN context, that is... in a teaching setting, each one of these points MIGHT be made as part of a bigger point. But standing alone like this, I'm not too crazy about them.

Yes, concur with the round 1/2" plate with 1/2" holes. That is quick and works like a champ for longer than you'd expect. However, if you can cut slots instead, that is better because the holes clog up too easily. Two or three 1/2" slots about 1/2" apart. Doesn't have to be pretty because after a few fires it won't be anyway. One drawback is that clean-out is a bit harder.

Okay, Alan, I see the humor now.

Alan: I'm not sure what part struck you as hilarious. It is commonly accepted that open-die forging is a craft requiring manipulation by hand. The powered tools are an extension of his hands and skill just as a hammer and tongs. We don't say "Hammer-made" or "Tong-wielded" when we say hand-made iron items. I have yet to see anyone hold the hot steel in one hand and smash it with the other fist to be purely and literally hand-made. There isn't any more hype in this ad than in any of the USA stuff.

Oljoe: It is a tribute to the complexity of your first work that we can come up with so much advise. So please consider it a little bit of flattery if I rachet this up a notch and talk about design some more. I am going to disagree with Irnsgrn on scrolls and frames. In forged work, scrolls are an integral part of the structure and just as important to the functional integrity of architectural work as the straight frame pieces. In instances such as yours, they should be the triangulation elements that keep the frame rigid and prevent it from racking. Structural members developed ornamentally in all sorts of fanciful ways without ever relinquishing their function. Scrolls evolved from their functional roots. On the other hand, fabricators treat scrolls as icing and decorative tack on ornamentation, partly because welding has replaced a lot of the need for all those cross members. They are trying to mimic elegant forged work with glue. The only problem is... they LOOK like tacked on pasties when they are treated that way. If you think of them as organic structural elements, all of the sudden the design incorporates them in a MUCH more harmonious way. Again, thanks for offering this work for our study.

Oljoe: Thank you for sharing your work with us. Strine is braver than I am. Although I'm known for speaking my mind (polite for "he's an obnoxious fluxhead"), I worried that saying anything other than praise might scare you off. Since he already took care of that, I'll hope you read his and my comments and come right back for more abus... I mean help. My biggest suggestion is to find samples of REAL forged work. Really GOOD forged work. The Dona Melach books are pretty decent references as a start. Your sign hanger looks as though the majority of your sources for ironwork were fabricated. As I've said before, the fabricators try to copy forged work... not the other way around. Strine said it very well: Use thicker stock so the view from the side is more full. Fabricators can't make good scrolls. We can. One attribute of scrolling is continuous gentle curving... as though the steel is actually in motion or organic. Don't mix and match if you can help it. Having a mechanically joined frame with obviously welded guts sort of snags on the mental eye. There is nothing wrong with fabricating but it doesn't usually mix well visually with forged work. There is also no such thing as a part of a project that isn't seen. That was an ambitious first forged work and I don't blame you for using the welder for the part that is tough. But it really is possible to forge and mechanically join the letters in a variety of very pleasing ways. The bars on the circle could have had tenons that passed through the circle and were peined over. Every time one element of metal meets another is an opportunity to do something pleasing to the eye, and something harmonious to the piece. Every time you simply glue it in place is an apology. Again, thank you for sharing with us.

Nick, this is a common problem in any discipline, not just forging. It is caused by trying to hurry so you don't waste time. Slow down, concentrate, and don't worry about how much you are getting done. You are trying to learn a skill that requires practice just like any other. Would you expect to be able to play the violin by practicing 2 hours once a week? Of course you can, but you won't play on the stage of Carnegie Hall at that rate. Instead, you have to keep your projects within the bounds of skills you can develop on such a limited time budget. If you don't have the time to practice forge-welding, then use longer pieces of steel to make the tongs and draw the reins out instead. When I was starting out, I was so determined to make forge-welding a natural part of my skill set that I started every session in the shop by building a fire, forging two railroad spikes together by their heads, and making the welds disappear into one continuous 5/8" bar. In my opinion, you HAVE to practice. Forging is an acquired skill with no shortcuts.