Nobody Special

I've done a box of dirt (clay) rotor forge and lined the top of the wooden frame with metal cut from an old 55 drum. (In fact you can see it in my photo. Man I need to update that...) Works fine without burning up as long as you keep the firepot away from any wooden bracing. Charcoal is stupid easy to make. Retorts work, but I've had inconsistent results. This way works well for me. Get a 55 drum w lid. Knock some holes in the bottom. A pickaxe works nicely. Either dig a hole under it, or elevate it on rocks or something to allow air to get in to said holes. Build a fire in drum w seasoned hardwood, preferably smaller chunks. Fill er up, let settle a bit, add more wood til full. Put the lid on and prop it up about an inch or so with a "rock, or something." Wait for the smoke to change colors and become flammable. Usually about an hour or so. Shut the lid, and cut off air by filling in the hole beneath it, or taking it off the supports. Be extremely careful as the metal will be glowing hot. When you put the lid on, it will shoot flaming wood gas out of the holes in the bottom. Wait at least 24 hours before opening. If it flares up on opening, either drop the lid on it again to put out the flames, or hit it with the garden hose. Water won't hurt it. Break into usable chunks and safe uncharred bits for the next time. Only major disadvantage is it makes a lot of smoke initially. I like to do it in multiple drums, preferably at night.

Dogwood is choice, but I prefer rawhide myself. Find them at flea markets occaisionally. Nice bit is the head comes banded from the factory. Smokes and stinks a bit.

A non-knotted wire wheel takes more work, but it's less aggressive. Especially important if you don't want to buff away at marks on old wrought iron anvils. (albeit Fishers are cast) Linseed works well, can be tacky for awhile. Most oils work, and you may want to leave an oiled rag on the face if you're not using it too often. IMPORTANT. If you're not used to linseed, never leave a rag with the oil on it outside of a sealed metal container. They tend to catch fire spontaneously. Some people burn them intentionally after use to get rid of them. Patinas are easy to take off, hard to put back on. Your anvil, your call.

Ductile is a kind of cast iron. It has little spheres of graphite instead of flakes, which means it can take more of a beating or a little bending than cast iron, which usually breaks when hammered on. I haven't forged it, but I would think it would tend to fall apart like most cast iron. Of course, then there's the confusing advertisements that you get for them. "Drop forged cast iron" I guess they mean the jaws are forged, but kind of a contradiction in terms. Don't know why they just don't make the whole thing out of steel.

Never did feed corn as fuel. Messed about with crushed shell from chicken feed as flux in casting for a bit. Worked okay, kind of a pain crushing it to a powder.

Supreme Court has ruled that border areas, to include withing 100 miles of the border are subject to different search and seizure laws. They do exactly that on highways near the border, especially near Mexico, and checkpoints in Az were a huge pain when I lived there. And they absolutely can take your car apart.

You don't have to ask, it's available online. 99% Sodium Tetraborate....aka borax.

Gorgeous trenton. Looks like some previous owner had a bad habit of testing chisels and punches on her though.

What's not to love? Dirt floors are easy on the feet, Endgrain wood blocks look cool, are comfortable, and long lasting. Cement is smooth, comfortable and clean. I've mostly done dirt, as it was readily available and cheap. I'd stay away from varnishes, they usually burn easier than the wood they protect. If you have something like a smooth wooden floor, (very much not recommended as a fire hazard) you can get some, imperfect protection by putting sand down near areas you may drop hot steel, or clad them in metal. Without long exposure, most of the time dropped steel just kind of smolders or chars the floors, but don't take chances as burning down your forge softens the anvils, irritates your spouse, and makes for a generally bad day. Wood buildings, wood floors, and and wooden forges always have an element of risk to them. Inflammatory means tending to cause something to burn, and inflammable means the same thing as flammable. I know, it's confusing to me too. A note, if you plan on putting in a power hammer at some point, especially a large one, the flooring underneath will have to be specially prepared so as not to trash your foundation, flooring, etc and send vibrations to your house and all your neighbors. I've known people to mix in crushed rock and/or limestone, been wondering how Caliche would work. It's a clay found in central Texas that they use for foundations and roads and such. Like Frosty talks about, it compacts, but doesn't quite cement to itself. Very firm. Firm enough...well, if it were splitting wood, it would be splitting pecan that hadn't quite seasoned yet on a warm day, without a hydraulic splitter.

That poor baby... Lot of life left, but ouch. The edges and that horn...

It's far easier and cheaper to make mild steel instead. Processes to make wrought iron, such as iron bloomeries are very inefficient and more suited to small batches by comparison, so it's not profitable for business. Almost no one makes it today, especially in the States, except for hobbiests. Because of it's grain, it also works very differently than steel. One of the last common applications for it was use in marine environments, because it resists corrosion much better than mild steel. A number of smiths and knivemakers like to etch it and use it for decorative elements in knives like bolsters and such rather than make entire knives from it, since it is hard to get and doesn't harden.

Well, it looks nifty, be interesting to see it finished, know how it works. I dunno, the right kind of bronze is supposed to be roughly hard as mild steel if work hardened. Wouldn't apply to cast though, and I wouldn't try some of the other traditional hardeners like arsenic. Where'd ya get the tin? Solder? Old pewter knicknacks?

They're heaven cent.

I have heard the book techniques of midieval armor reprodruction is supposed to be good. Before you spend the cash though, I haven't picked it up yet, and am looking to pick it up on interlibrary loan, or a birthday present one day, whichever comes first. I played with maille a bit, started losing my mind a few bazillion rings in, so I didn't finish a shirt. Are you flattening both ends? The one in the pic looks like you're passing one rounded end through the flattened one. Definitely specialized or modified pliers for punching and riveting. I tried overlapping the ends a bit and flattening them with a jig that sort of resembled a piston in a chamber. Put rings in the bottom, hit the piston like a set tool, remove rings, repeat. A wedge rivet might be easier, and I would definitely consider larger rings, say around 1/2" or 5/16". At 1/4" you'll have a beautiful, fine weave that will take about a million years to complete. I read somewhere that it typically took 400 man hours to make and assemble a byrnie. I don't know, I didn't get that far, and I never finished the sweater I was knitting either.

We're making Kaiser jokes now? That'll get them going....on a roll.

German silver is nickel silver. It's about a little over half copper, and the other half zinc and nickel in equal parts if I remember right. It won't have any rust, although I've seen some that darkened. I'd use a regular commercial metal polish on them, and a darkening product specifically made for nickel silver. Regular bluing agents probably won't take, although one for nickel steel miiiiiiight. Getting one made for it would work for sure. They can be found out there with a little help from Google.

What JHCC said. Hard to weld, especially to itself. You're not alone, a lot of us tried it first. Also, just up to nonmagnetic may not be nearly hot enough. A lot depends on alloy, cleanliness, and pressure. Have you tried welding with something easier, like mild steel?

Ah, you guys yell at the TV too. The "forged" ring in Lord of the Rings comes to mind. Or complaining about anachronistic mishmashes of armor in Game of Thrones...mixed w fantasy armor...sigh. Not to mention cast Damasc....I mean Valerian steel. (Although I did stop it in the middle of the battle with the wildlings when John Snow ends up going over a beautiful double horn German anvil.) The most common one though is hearing it in the background of a western/historical/fantasy movie and shouting "Stop (explecitive deleted in the style of Nixon) hitting it cold!!!"

True, boss. In fact, my favorite pots and pans either have copper bottoms or a steel sandwich with a copper middle. But the issue with copper exposed to the food is a little more obscure to a beginner than "gasoline goes boom", so thought I'd bring it up. (Also, how many people in the U.S. mess that up every year?) We can't go poisoning the members or turning their hair red. Much like I live in the South, the land of "What the heck is a rhubarb?" and wouldn't know that the leaves are poisonous. (Can ya ferment the toxins out? Is it worth it? I heard it's uber tart.) "Poisonous" poke sallet with fatback, garlic and onions though....yum!!!

The topic seems to be going in a completely different direction, but you might take note that copper is not good for cookware, as the oxides tend to be poisonous and/or you get copper in your food from cooking acidic stuff. It won't kill you probably, but you won't be happy, and you'll be hanging out near the toilet a lot for awhile. Bronze, being a copper alloy should have the same problems. It's why copper cookware nowadays is usually lined with stainless steel. Classicly, it was lined with tin, which I suppose wouldn't be too hard to do. On the other hand, copper mixing bowls are GREAT for whipping egg whites. But you have to clean the dickens out of them immediately before every use.

I'm not entirely sure what you're calling a connecting rod. Most rail is welded, but jointed track will have a fishplate on it. Looks like a thin piece of rail and has a bunch of holes in the side that bolts go through to connect the tracks. It's around 1060ish I believe, but with a ridiculous amount of boron. The bolts themselves don't have a lot of carbon for the most part, they want them to give, not work harden and break. Or maybe you have one of the rods they use across the gauge to keep it from spreading? This may not hold true for areas near turnouts and switches, as they have to meet tougher standards.

The damage to the face and the way that it's shaped, especially the horn shouts cast iron. Lot of generic makers over the years, especially in Russia and China, and they tended to pop up cheap at hardware stores, feed stores and harbor freight. They'd get them from whomever was making them cheap at the moment. Might be ductile iron, which is not great, but better. You can use ductile iron without it breaking, still tends to be soft.

I can't tell diddly on the anchor. Doesn't feel like wrought, but I don't know. A soft iron maul though? Possibly for use as a wood maul, although I don't think I've seen one that squared before. There used to be a lot of ones over here made out of cast iron for driving stakes and fence posts and such.

I like the toaster oven too. Big ovens are prone to hot spots. Also, just to add to the fun, the oxide layer gets thicker the longer it's in there, so for longer or repeated tempering cycles, the color may not match exactly what you see on the guide.

Thrall was kind of a weird blend of slave, serf, and servant. They were owned, but had a lot of rights. On the other hand, it was no big deal to abuse or even kill one as long as you paid the blood price, which I forget the name for. They could be freed, but once freed, still didn't have the same rights as a freeman, or carl. A lot of them started as freemen that gambled their way into servitude. A lot of Vikings would bet anything they owned, including spouses and even themselves if they lost everything else. Love the long sockets too. I don't know that he used tooling to get the "third edge." There used to be a video of Thijs de Mannaker making a spear where he got a similar effect using the edge of the anvil to draw stock sideways and leave the middle ridge.