Nobody Special

Well, we've all banged to music on the anvils, or rang them for the fun of it.  I got sidetracked by the Google doodle this week and have been a little obsessed with making a mbira, the African instrument with the plucked metal keys.  When I start looking at traditional versions, it seems to be mostly cold forged, but with a lot of work and tweaking and it's got a cool sound.  I'll post pics if it doesn't come out a complete flop.  Y'all know any more forged instruments?  Apparently steel guitar is usually just a name.

The interviewer hints that it might be related to Noah's flood towards the beginning, and the interviewee says it specifically a little after 18 painful minutes in.  I think he's taking a few facts, and stretching his assumptions too far; it's not well supported.

He basically uses two supporting elements, a look at a coal bed in Kentucky and the more recent eruption of St Helens to say that there seems to be evidence that coal could originate from peat created by decaying bark from floating log masses, buried by sediment.  This doesn't seem too farfetched, and he supports it with talking about dives to look at precursors at the bottom of Spirit Lake, and about coal stratification at the one location that didn't seem consistent with a swamp.  No discussion of carbon dating, but a little bit of talk about tree rings.  He also tries to tie in petrification in anaerobic conditions, but he doesn't really connect it to evidence of coal formation.

But then he says that they are able to create a "coal-like substance" in a very short period in a laboratory by applying heat and pressue. Okay, he's using pyrolysis to reduce biomass to carbon...which is not the same thing as coal. He starts speculating about worldwide log jams explaining the world's coal formations, and explains that coal formation could occur in very short times under the right conditions.  Of course he's saying that.  If you're arguing that the world is less than 6500 years old, and coal was formed by the Great Flood, then how can you have coal formation that takes millions of years to form, the conventional model being that even lignite stems from the Tertiary Period ending two and a half million years ago? He says that the bark would then have been buried by silica and other minerals in sea beds.

He also, painfully talks about coal as an antiseptic process preventing decomposition, even as he mentions heat formed by layers of the bark being a crucial part of the heat needed for his supposed rapid coal. He compares it to heat generated by hay bales...and in both cases, that heat is generated by fermentation.  Fermentation is a necessary part of the process, it breaks down the lignite and cellulose among other things.

I don't disagree that Wikipedia can be problematic, but the same problems that prevail - misinformation, inequitable vetting, etc are prevalent in many other sources of information, news articles, blogs, books, and even honest to God paper encyclopedias.  At least on Wikipedia the disputes are generally recorded and the dispute open to the public-ish, if you go looking for it. It's not worse than a lot of others as a place to get started. There's a nice discussion on coalification put out by the Bureau of Mines in the late 70s. Found a copy on the CDC website of all places. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/UserFiles/works/pdfs/ri8317.pdf 

The wikiverse ain't perfect, but it's better than a random apologist for the Flood on Youtube. "Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig; es ist nicht einmal falsch!"

Chickens, house, kids...everything but the bills.

It can be dangerous though.  I'm still pretty sure that me getting bees for mead crafting contributed in the long run to my last divorce.  I could get my bees if she could get a few chickens, the next thing I know we're running a farm with a few hundred chickens, plus assorted goats, pigs, horses, turkeys, etc and she's leaving me for a horse farmer 50 years her senior. It wasn't craft exactly, but the creative impulse nonetheless.

Well, don't tell anyone, but I like to play with steel and knit, albeit not at the same time.

Seen ones on the front before, but it's an interesting choice.  Hey, I have a place where I can put the pritchell, and stuff will just fall out.  No. that's too easy.  I'm going to put it in the front, and cut out a channel. 

It's old enough to not have a step. Maybe it was added by a smith, not factory original? Not completely unheard of.

For ID, you might hit up technicus joe/ joey van der steeg.  He hangs out here occasionally, as well as the book of faces on the blacksmithing forums, and he kind of has a passion for german anvils.  

Aren't most commercial welding fluxes anhydrous borax and iron filings?  I use twenty mule a lot, sometimes it seems to seep from the weld long after the initial weld is done if it's not dried first.  Another traditional one I used with success was dirt dauber nests, although I imagine they work better in sandy areas...

When I was casting a lot, I tried ground shell (originally to provide calcium to chickens) and even charcoal, but I don't think they'd work so well in forging, never tried them.

I LOVE my 1816 Foster.  If you can find them, you can often get them for next to nothing because the forge weld breaks on the horn or heel.  Paid $75 for mine, and it has a ridiculously wide face.  Junkyard anvils are definitely a great alternative.

If you are truly interested in casting iron or steel, you want to look for a hobby group that does it specifically. Melting steel can be done in a forge in small amounts.  Ask anyone here that's burnt up a bar.  Casting steel or iron though, not something to do at home safely or well without a lot of expensive specialized equipment and knowledge.  Finding a group helps with the learning curve, and I'd recommend it for most casting anyways, including aluminum.  Casting injuries...hurt.

You also would probably want to build a furnace for casting.  Heat sources for casting tend to make poor forges, and vice versa.  Mr. Powers also tends to be a great source of knowledge regarding almost all esoteric metallurgy.  If he doesn't provide the info directly, he'll point you at a book and show you how to do an interlibrary loan.

The precious metals look to mainly be silver inlay.  It's tedious, but I wouldn't think the material would be expensive.  Labor on the other hand...What are the stones, garnets?

So...file a sword, geese eat filings, collect poo, roast poo, smelt poo, refine?

How the heck do you get that job?  And how the heck did they find this out originally? Even if you just randomly happened to notice that your goose was eating your filings...as geese are wont to do, of course, how did it ever occur to someone to save enough to smelt, then make a bloom?  Starving the geese I at least see, as if I were a goose, I'd turn up my nose at iron filings for breakfast too.  And if they had to recreate it, why a duck?  Why not go the full distance...aside from the fact that geese are mean? 

And I thought that the first person to try an oyster must have been desperate...what the heck was exactly wrong with Wayland?  What other crazy alchemical stuff did he try to figure this out?  Almost makes quenching in the urine of redheaded boys seem practically ordinary.

I was going to mention the exothermic properties, but someone already mentioned it.  I might also add that purchasing the stronger varieties of Hydrogen Peroxide will get the attention of three letter agencies, as it has certain umm...ilicit uses, which is as much as I will say on the matter.

A goat chariot? Like Odin's Wain?  For awhile I played around with friction folders from half horseshoes.  Very popular with horsey people.  Cut in half and forge the cut end to look rounded like the other. You have to grind or file down the insides before bending though, or they end up way too clunky.  Lot of fun, no wooden scales or such, so very little fit and finish.

Good evening,

In Missouri, typically around $3 to $4 a lb if in good shape.  I have enough anvils that I can afford to wait for the bargains to appear.  Hay Buddens seem to me to perform slightly better, (i.e. slightly more rebound and move the metal a tiny bit faster) but ring louder, and the PW anvils I've had/played on have done just fine.  Peter Wrights used to be one of the most common imported English anvils.  If as you say, it's ringing like a bell, you may want to fasten it down, wrap some chain around it, and maybe put a cow magnet under the heel.  A loose anvil makes my tinnitus ring like Quasimodo swinging around Notre Dame.

Out of curiosity, what are you attempting to make?  If this had been thinner sheet, I would have said use a wooden stump, but not at 3/8".

I've found that it works well on most rust, but it's not magic. Anything I can't get off in a full day of soaking or less, I hit with the wire brush or try another method.  Works pretty well with the addition of that.  Also, don't you just love that sulphurous smell that you get with iron and vinegar?  Heavier stuff you can also try molasses.  Get the cheap, industrial stuff from the Feed Store or some such.  I thought my leg was being pulled the first time I heard it.

For files, I like muriatic, but much shorter times, and you have to give a rinse after with some baking soda.

I'm with Marc, wire brush with a non-knotted brush, although I prefer to rub the side with baby powder or corn starch instead of chalk.  It fills any depressions rather than highlighting them, but it seems to work better to me.

Are you sure that's a weld plug?  Fairly common for some India Delta 10 Tango  to drop scrap in and get it wedged, or break something off in one.  They can get wedged in good, and even rust in place.  Sometimes you can knock whatever it is back out.  Be judicious, no point breaking a heel.

Evening, looks like a load of fun.  Was wondering though, most of the ones I've seen have had the handles mounted evenly, either center of the hammer, or towards the rear like a dogface.  Why did ya'll offset the handles one slightly in front of the other, and does it affect the use?  Feels like it would make it more difficult to swing in unison, but I haven't tried it.  Either way, you've made something cool. 

Also, almost every video or pick I've seen of these has been for forging large chain.  Aside from being huge and heavy, anyone know why this would work better  for that application?

And then I say that and find some just like on Google. Dang it.

Yah, would think they wouldn't have been made for hot work with those teeth, no idea what it's for.  The nail clinchers I had had one flat jaw with teeth and one that curved up in a "C".

Dang it, missed the post, but I may be down there again at some point.  We don't have anybody working the area.  If I do, I will absolutely throw a pm your way...BEFORE I travel.  Thank you, and sorry I missed it.

Waste good daikon radish on bluing?  I mean, I love metal, but waste potential Korean carrot and daikon?  Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope.

Anvils are expensive in the NW, but for that? I would strongly consider a new anvil first.  But while we're yaking, I'm on Whidbey Island, and was thinking of starting a " generally North of Seattle" blacksmithing group.  Would you be interested if I get any further?  Or if there's one I don't know about, I'd love to join.  I'm thinking everywhere from Everett to Lynden.  I know there's a couple of other smiths on the island, and there' got to be a mess of wannabes in Bellingham.

Hola, so you have a ridgidizer and a coating? Breathing friable kaowool sucks.  You also want a drain in your furnace so if you have crucible failure the metal goes out the bottom.  Always be prepared for crucible failure at any point in the process.

Cans are a lot more work than they're worth. Thin cross section so lots of surface area, meaning lots of slag from oxides. For aluminum, I liked to drag home car parts from the junkyard.  Busted transmissions have a loooooot of aluminum, although you have to break up large pieces first.  Some of my earliest castings started life as aluminum piston heads.

Small, fast, and cheap? I like icicle Christmas tree ornaments. Light square stock, put a point on both ends, twist, close one end into a pigtail or a loop.  You want them to be fairly light, so the stock should be fairly small. 

If you wanted to save time, I suppose you could twist a long piece, then cut, and put your points on after, but I've usually done them one at a time. The finish takes longer than the forging.  Look good brass brushed too.  Also, make sure the loop is centered so the icicles don't lean.