Nobody Special

Well, hi from the other end of the state. I believe Griley's located in Jacksonville, not too far from ya.

Love it! Makes me want to go find a corncob pipe and "a solid log of pure rock maple." Somewhere though, an OSHA rep is watching this and having a heart attack. :D

I did actually - for cutting the lids on mine and the kids this year. :D

Forge, as in not cast? Started playing with a few small pieces this year, nothing so big as scrollwork. (on a coal forge) It takes a bit of practice to forge hot without melting or cracking, and depends on alloy. A few times I was even successful.....ish. :rolleyes: You could anneal and forge cold, it goes a lot further than you'd think before you have to do it again. Watch it though, melts really easy, sometimes right under that apparantly solid oxide layer. (Think - squish! ow ow ow ow!!!!) Also moves ridiculously fast compared to a lot of steel, especially when hot.

Lovely anvil, and a good price. Just needs some love and to be put to use. Nice finds. :)

Ah, Herefordshire? Say hi to TechnicusJoe then. And welcome to IFI. :)

Okay, I know it's on the anvil, and usually I'm against stock removal projects, but in this case........just felt right. :D Happy Halloween, ya'll. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37775-jack-o-lantern/

Calling wife right now to record this! Thanks, frosty!

http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/refractories.html I've used this recipe and variations on it with some success. Think mine has been type 1 and 2 portland. It was whatever was available at the big box store at the time.

Down towards Atlanta, anvils seem to be running around 2-3 bucks a lb. Sounds like a fair deal to me, but maybe like the guy said you can get him to throw in a couple of extras? If he's already got hardy tools for that one, that would be nice. (of course, as a long running member of da army, not the biggest fan of the AR-15, so I may be biased......) You should definitely consider joining a blacksmithing group. The one up at the Choo-choo forge is cool, and near to ya. If you decide to go South instead of North though, come see us in the Alex Bealer group.

Building and contractor supply places carry fireclay sometimes. It varies regionally, but you can also sometimes get bentonite from feed stores (sometimes you have to order it). It's often used to line stock ponds and seal cracks in them.

If I remember correctly, Patton also was famous for promoting the use of a straight edged saber. Some units do buy everyone tactical tomahawks, or even include them in a vehicle's PII list, (I've seen it twice) but it's usually a unit purchase, not armywide, just like a battalion may buy everybody the Oakley eye pro or some such. As far as guns go, no personal weapons. One unit I was with, they actually caught some people trying to take stuff along like the upper receivers from their own AR-15. On the other hand, lots of people had big honking knives/Bowies etc.......which mostly hung on their vest unless needed to open MREs. Some of the Army guy's I've known have been a little crazy about collecting weapons of all kinds (or God help us, even Cosplay with them), swords, polearms, etc. Weapons are often used as part of a going away present for officers or higher enlisted- seen knives, axes, kukris, tomahawks, etc. In the unit I'm in now, I've been approached twice once to make a spearhead (unit motto is "forging the spear" and once a knife as going away plaque wallhangers. Also Steve, I cite you the well known case of Robert Smith vs Marie Laveau, 1852, setting precedence over whether inflicting grevious harm to the undead constitutes property damage against the houngan....... :P

Maybe ya could take a engineers hammer and draw out both sides like making a ball pein tomahawk? I think polearms often have a strip welded on below the eyes to attach to the shaft for protection on da cutting end and/or more attachment points.

Several times - Hot wheels from my kids. They also turn up on the stairs, on my bed, in my guitar, in the toilet, (and the pipes for that matter), washing machine.....sigh....... Occaisionally egg shells. (wife has bad habit of setting incubator trays on top of my barrel before pitching the old eggs)

Music, good chair, heat or a/c.

Cast iron's bad news. That's a genuine ASO, or anvil shaped object. Other item's? A real anvil for preference. Going cheaper, A large block of decent steel from the scrapyard, at scrap prices. A piece of railroad track, less great, but works. A big rock if nothing else. Look around the forums, lots of good ideas. Something to use as a flat table's good. Horn is useful, but not required.

Also, I'll bite. there's not really any military posts up in that part of Va, are there? Are you Guard?

Ditto everything mr powers said. Especially the zinc toxicity and visiting the backyardmetalcasting site/find someone experienced. They've got bits and pieces that will help ya a lot. I'd recommend starting with a coffee can furnace, or making the same design a little larger. I also highly reccomend that you start with a smaller melt and something that melts easier, and at a lower temperature, a lot of people start with aluminum.When you get ready to move up to copper alloys, silicon bronze is relatively cheap, and makes a very nice casting. Charcoal, especially lump charcoal with a blower is a lot more bang for your buck and less complicated than propane while you're beginning. hmmmm, what else. Green sand casting is a good way to start. Splurge on good crucibles. Don't muck about with homemade refractory ones. They'll only break your heart and burn your legs and feet. Steel/cast iron ones can fail too if not very closely monitored or if they oxidize enough. Be extremely careful, read all safety precautions and heed them, and have fun!

Made the occaisonal gourd banjo and used them as string stops on bridge end. Mushed a few of the copper ones for jewelry/earrings. Knew someone who was flattening them and using them for decorative scale maille.

Mine uses a rotor disc set into a lawnmower. There's a slight depression in the middle, but I also used homemade refractory to add to the bowl shape and deepen it into a wide funnel. (Actually, it started narrower, and slight slagging of the edges of the refractory and clinker getting stuck to it led to me widening it.) Lawnmower acts as a table, works well enough for me....probably re-en-ga-neer something better one of these days. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36990-cam00122/

The aluminum items are hard to see because they're not in the pics. :) Sorry. Didn't take any pics, but I didn't burn them up at least. Just kinda knocked some ingots into bar shape for fun.

Maybe bad chemistry, but I think (LONG time since chemistry and haven't played with plaster) gypsum, aka calcium hydroxide (plaster) heated enough turns to calcium carbonate, (like in cement) then calcium oxide (quicklime) which is both caustic, and tends to ignite spontaneously when exposed to water. Also remember that if you do anything with plaster of paris, it releases a lot of heat as it sets and you can get burned. You hear news stories occaisionally of it happening when someone tries to make a casting of someones hands or a homemade cast for a broken bone. If you want to go cheap on refractory, why not clay, or clay and sand, or fireclay and sand, or the cheapy refractory recipe on backyardmetalcasters, or firebrick, or furnace cement, or a dirt hole in da ground.............

I love this site. Ya'll just wrote a huge chunk of my new winter reading list. I've heard of some of these, and even read one or two......but now I have to have a go at the rest. And yes, the de res metallica is online for free, I downloaded it to my kindle last year.