Nobody Special

Ft Nisqually's in Tacoma, right? A bit far, but not outrageously so. I know there's groups that meet some in the south Seattle area, and towards Olympia, but I was hoping to start something I didn't have to drive three hours to get to. Not that I wouldn't, but if there's already smiths in the area, and I don't have to dress 17th century to play...I know there's a lot of beginners interested too. I need to do a propane set up, there's tons of the coal in the area (they used to ship heating coal to Hawaii. What the heck do you need heating coal in Hawaii for?), but no active mining, best you can normally do is pay a fortune and drive a long ways, or maybe Tractor Supply type anthracite (blech) and I got tired of mucking around with charcoal. Most of the available wood is fir and at best alder, and you end up with really light charcoal and spend too much time tending to the fire. Got another tip of a "historic village" in the Eureka area, called the Blue Ox I may check out. Website looks like there's another blacksmith shop, but mostly it focuses on woodworking. Still kind of fun, but ain't smithing.

Hi all, On TDY in Eureka, CA through Monday or Tuesday, then Medford, Oregon, then time allowing around Eugene. Bored and looking to play. Anybody know any groups holding meetings I could visit over the weekend? Any ironwork worth going to see? Google is being vague, although I found a forge in Ferndale, Ca I might check out tommorow after I burn up the last of my work hours for the week. Thanks. For that matter, anybody want to start a group up around Whidbey Island, Mt Vernon, Bellingham, etc in north Washington? I know we've got smiths, I ran into a guy I saw on FIF at Safeway in Oak Harbor. All the groups I know of are in Seattle or further south.

Depends on a number of things, as I said, if you can post pics, easier to tell, some of the propane forge guys will be able to tell you faster than me. It's getting hot in the furnace, so I assume you have fire in the furnace. If it burns almost entirely out of the furnace, you can count on overpressure, and venturi issues. You'll get some flame out the top a lot of the time regardless, dunno, can't see your set up. The point of the venturi is that it allows the gasses to slow and mix as they exit they burner, if they don't, then the furnace acts as your venturi, which works poorly. Common easy fluxes include crushed shell, and charcoal. They make a chicken feed additive that adds calcium and is mostly crushed shells. I used to use borax too, but I like it better as forging flux. Silica sand and dirt dauber nests (yes really) work well for forging, but I have no idea what they would do in a crucible. I would think the sand at least would make weird inclusions. Aluminum needs either a lid and reducing atmosphere, or flux, or both, or you'll lose a bit. It oxides extremely easily.

Good evening, That's a considerable amount of aluminum. Not sure what you're using for a crucible, but general rule is preheat everything, furnace, mold, stock, etc before using. Cuts down on those nasty steam explosions. And yes, despite the stupid youtube videos, they absolutely do happen. Also, aluminum is kind of funny. With the pure stuff, sometimes the slag goes to the bottom and sticks to the crucible. And it eats some crucibles, much shorter life in a steel crucible for one. Not to mention you get inclusions from the iron scale. I usually used to use either crushed shell as flux, or charcoal, and charcoal was easier tell the truth...especially after I put some CaCl in a forge to see what would happen. Turns out a forge gets to limelight temps just fine. First time I ever got a welding burn forging. Reducing atmosphere and lids are nice for cutting down on slag too. I dunno, one to six ratio seems kind of high for slag, I never was able to recover a lot, but usually didn't end up with that much either. Are you fluxing? Flame - easiest is post video or at least pics. Sounds like you're having "dragon breath", but hard to say without seeing it. Could be burner set up, mix, too much pressure, or not running with a proper venturi. Important to adjust everything with the burners installed. With them out of the furnace, completely different back pressure. Venturi or too much pressure would be first guess. Might look up Sculpture Trails, in Indiana, not sure how close, and I know the Indianapolis Art Center has iron pours sometimes, might be able to point you towards other casters. Oh yes, and for ingots, angle iron troughs, or sand cast will be a lot less frustrating than muffin tins. Sand cast is what I prefer, but honestly, I switched to forging 10 years ago and have done very little casting since. Favorite now is to inlay pewter into a handle.

Yah, crucible block, or plinth. Refractory tends to be fairly brittle, use caution. Molten flux can eat firebrick. And you need to have a coating over your kaowool, or you will be breathing friable bits of kaowool with every breath, nasty, nasty, nasty silicosis. I second the seek experienced aid, unless you have a fair amount already. I learned casting the stup...hard way, and I would recommend to anyone as something not to do. Got the funny looking scars to prove it, and glad that's all I have. That's a very, very large home foundry. How are you set for burners? You might strongly consider lump charcoal, it's a lot faster, and a bit less frustrating, especially in something like a 33 gal foundry. I would strongly suggest considering playing with much smaller melts until you get some experience under your belt. One might know how to drive a car, but if they came in asking how to change tires, oil, or air filters, I might be suspicious, especially if the car would explode if you took a turn too fast. Casting is really really fun, until your crucible or your mold explodes in your face or you get zinc poisoning. It doesn't happen often, but once is enough to cause a really bad day. We see a lot of people come in asking construction questions after watching incredibly dangerous and foolish methods from youtube. Where ya at? Might be able to find someone experienced in your area for you, if ya like.

You don't Tyre easily? You can talk, but I bet a few laps make you see purple... Sorry, experimental pun, a bit L'evant garde.

Haven't played the game, looked at it, wasn't sure which version to play, and can't usually get my family to play chess even, although go has had mixed results. When my wife does badly, she tends to decide that I'm cheating, then get mad and throw the board. Life with a redhead. It's why we stick to board games in our house instead of curling. Oh, Thomas and Frosty, how you do babble-on...

Congratulations on her making Chief. Army/Navy game aside, always glad to work with squids and see them do well; after all, I married one.

Not to say that much tin didn't come from Brittain, but I know there was at least one major mine in Turkey they found that children worked heavily in. And they found some mines up near the Czech border in Germany. Heck, I'd be surprised if there weren't trade networks. It's something as old as human kind. Take when you can, trade when you can't.

You could take a Monet and cut it up for dishrags too if you owned it, but I would still consider it a darn shame. Milling that down like that is NOT a fix, and they didn't know what they were doing. Heck, it doesn't even look like they milled the bottom first so that it was level.

Half-faced blows, no? There's a video of Thijs Van de Manakker making a similar spearhead on youtube somewhere that shows the method.

A few of you out there (you know who you are) heard the term latest tablet technology and your first thought was about advances in cuneiform.

Hmmm...don't suppose there's a chance it's cast iron then. Cast iron crumbles when you try to forge it, and looks kind of burnt too. Watch out. Black metal will get ya. First rule when I teach in my shop is consider everything you see hot, heavy, or sharp. Test it first. Even a feather pillow. I still get burnt anyways. Oops. I stick to aloe for mine, never pop the blister. Probably have a slew of home remedies popping up in a minute.

The squatting is very comfortable once you get used to it. I saw it in different places while stationed overseas, and people would work from that position for hours on end. We had difficulty copying it at first, and tried to figure out why it was so common. We finally came to the somewhat scatalogical conclusion that it had much to do with the fact that you had to squat similarly on a daily basis over the slit toilets that were used in many places, so the requisite muscles and flexibility were already developed. It's easy to develop with practice.

As above, welcome to IFI. Sounds like your interested in three different fun hobbies. Sorry to say, mostly forges, furnaces and kilns don't work interchangeably. Each one really takes a different build. You can do small melts in a forge, but not nearly as easily as in a casting furnace, and kilns...kilns are special. Forging in a kiln or casting furnace is horribly difficult, and slow. It's not just about producing a lot of heat, it's about the way it's directed and controlled. I would also consider a different pipe for a tuyere, or at least taking off the hangers, and that muffler or catalytic converter. Good luck, lots of good forge builds on here. For casting, look at some of the sites dedicated to that. Stay away from the more popular youtube videos on casting, those guys are dangerous and don't know what they're doing.

Yah, that's burnt all day long. Sparking when ya pulled it out? Also, speaking of burnt, looks like med tape or ace bandage on your hand, forging injury?

Rail gets work hardened and brittle on top from trains passing over them. They grind them regularly to take out the chips, smooth any slight divots from flat spots or wheel slip, and to remove the hardened portions periodically. Starts a lot of fires too.

A good Trenton, in Ohio, in decent shape...assuming the rebound is good, maybe four to five a lb, a bit more than a lot of other brands. At 150 lbs, maybe $600 or $700 dollars. Trentons are good anvils and popular. Depends on the buyer. Wouldn't sell that one less than $450.

I'm with Bassett. Heat issues aside, even if you achieve a decent forge weld, an initial one may not have a lot of strength. Hitting it too hard after cooling some, ot cooling it off too fast, especially by quenching can cause the weld to come right back apart. Gentle firm blows, let it cool some, quick clean with a brush, more flux, and back to a welding heat one or two more times, with stronger hits each time. Makes a much more solid weld. Don't beat it like crazy til after the last one.

I've got a great dewalt. Been through to heck and back and just won't quit. One thing I've found to make a major difference in any brand of power tool, it makes a difference where you buy it. It won't usually change the design of the casing, or how you grip it, but some companies actually use lower grade components in the products they sell through the cheaper box stores. And before you bemoan the corruption of the tool companies, it's not entirely their fault. Some of the companies like walmart threaten to go to their competitors unless they cut prices to the point that they can't turn a profit making them at the same quality, and if they lose that much market share, then they go out of business. Right now, I'm using a cheap Chicago brand grinder from Harbor Freight. I don't remember if I paid the whole $11 dollars for it, or got it on sale for $9. My good grinders are down in a storage unit in Georgia, and I keep telling myself that I'll go pick up my tools any day now. It's clunky and ugly, but unlike most harbor freight grinders, it just keeps on going like the Energizer bunny.

Mine always drew pretty well through the drain hole. I wouldn't make a solid fuel furnace without one. Heck, my last propane one had one. If you have a crucible come apart and your metal doesn't drain out the bottom, then hot or cold, it suuuuuuuucks trying to scrape it out without damaging the refractory...with good crucibles and proper treatment, they don't come apart often, but you should always act as if it could. I used to make sure my furnace was elevated, and put dry sand underneath with a small well in it just in case.

Haven't been through this one. His $50 dollar knife shop was okay. I too would reccomend Steve's book.

Good evening, There's worse fluxes than charcoal out there, or you could cover the crucible. What's your furnace design? My last charcoal furnace burned through charcoal fast, but got to melting temps ridiculously fast. Are you using hardwood charcoals? At the least, avoid briquettes like the plague.

If you feel bold enough, you can also put it in a tote with the acetone/ATF and drive around with it in the bed of your truck. The vibration often helps with stuck parts.

I'll take rabbit stew, but you can keep the vinegar. Understand why they do it though, rabbit can be tough. It's really good in a gumbo.