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I Forge Iron

Nobody Special

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  1. Nobody Special
    Silicon bronze is fairly safe for most casting/working, and is not hard to order online. A big thing to watch out for is zinc poisoning, which you can get from a lot brass or "bronze" alloys by breathing the fumes when they get hot. There's even what is sometimes called architectural bronze, which is often straight copper and zinc. Zinc poisoning feels very similar to an instant case of flu/pneumonia, and in severe cases can kill you. Not unheard of for people to get it even from welding or brazing. Best to use good ventiliation and take precautions when working with unknown alloys. When in doubt, better safe than sorry.
  2. Nobody Special
    One's from the 40s were pure Al, or around .5% Cu. Can't read the date on yours. Later one's don't know specific alloys, but some of the later ones were aluminum bronze alloy, and I noticed yours look yellow, although that may be the light. So readeth the coin collectors sites.
  3. Nobody Special
    So, ok, have to read up on metallurgical logistics in post-roman times, sundry-dark ages, northern Renaissance under the tsars, probably the Varangian guard, and find out if in Little Rock/Arkadelphia they've figured out how to order bar stock using this new-fangled television/typewriter device. And then see how it affected the making of maille. :D
  4. Nobody Special
    Roasting doesn't just drive out moisture, it changes the oxidation state. (or so I've read, only ever melted wee little amounts). Dropping hot ore in cold water makes it crack/and or easier to bust up in my experience. More brittle. They'll be more brittle than to begin anyways, even without the quenching. True of most rocks, stuff I ring the firepits where I burn leaves and make charcoal is Basalt and grabbo, with some iron inculusions, and it's all crumbly or cracked from the heat. May vary depending on the ore.
  5. Nobody Special
    Amazing. Beautiful
  6. Nobody Special
    IF it's ore, roast it a fire, drop in water, then bust it up. Invite a friend, bring beer. You'll need it, this is incredibly tedious. And you're going to need a LOT of lump charcoal. Lots of variations on furnaces. This site has some interesting info, but check around. http://iron.wlu.edu/ . The info's out there, on the process, but you have to adjust your searches to avoid WoW and Minecraft. Not all ore takes a magnet well. I've got about 120 lbs sitting around my garage in buckets, and if the moon's in the right house, and the wind's blowing right, it's magnetic, a little bit. If you think you've got a bloom, why not cut a little off and take a look at the inside?
  7. Nobody Special
    My favorite's the treadle lathe. Great illustrations, but my Latin just plain isn't up to it.
  8. Nobody Special
    Used a large glass bead, like a marble, color went away when it melted. Dunno what they used to color it. May have done better with a bit of green beer bottle glass. Was more in it too, but broke when I dunked it to crack the glass. Next one'll be better.
  9. Nobody Special
    http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36996-split-cross/ So, tried my first split cross. I won't tell ya how long it took, but I didn't win any time trials, especially after my blower failed in the middle. I was going to make a celtic cross for St. Patrick's day, and kinda got carried away. Started life as a railroad spike, some solenoid wire and a marble (yes there's hard to see glass in the middle.) Chain is left over links from working about with mail. What do ya think, too cheesy? :)
  10. Nobody Special

    Split cross

    Nobody Special posted a gallery image in Member Galleries

    Split cross
    First try at a split cross. Was going to make a celtic one, and kinda got carried away. There's glass in the middle, but hard to see in the shot. Started life as a railroad spike, a marble, and some solenoid wire. The chain was leftover links from mucking about with mail. I dunno, too cheesy?
  11. Nobody Special

    CAM00119

    Nobody Special commented on Nobody Special's gallery image in Member Galleries

    CAM00119
    Piece of angle iron, sparked for high carbon, but exact content unknown. 1/4" thick, 1.5 on each side, so about 3" flattened, and around 6 or 7 inches long.
  12. Nobody Special
    Two weeks? Even without a forge....get a map torch and get busy man!
  13. Nobody Special
    Well, it was. Finally gave in and stopped busting up cheap anthracite heating coal. Drove just left of the middle of nowhere, paid twice as much for bitumous, drove it home and fired it up. I think I'm in love. Very different animal. I hadn't played with it in yrs, and forgot how it clumps together. My normal fan setting was way, way too much air, and after I turned it down, I used less than half as much coal to get the same amount of work done. Much cooler fire, but it gave me way more control, and I could get it going strong just by moving the coke around, didn't really have to change the air speed. The only real down side was that my tuyere screen melted. I've been using a piece of stainless steel sawblade cut to shape and drilled with a bunch of 1/4" holes for over two years. I guess the lower air speeds allowed it to heat up more. Maybe I'll just put some rod through the pipe. Hmmmm. Anyway, I thought while I got used to the new stuff, I'd try to make something that would be hard to mess up. So, when I finished messing that up, I made this. Sorta Dubliners/Dropkick Murphys' St. Patricks Day theme. It's just an old triangle, goes jingle jangle, all along the banks of the Royal Canal. :) :) http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36992-bitumous-triangle/
  14. Nobody Special
    Bitumous triangle
    So, finally breaking up with anthacite and going to bitumous. Wanted to try the new stuff, and make something that would be hard to mess up. After I finished messing that up, I made this. It's just an old triangle, it goes jingle jangle, all along the banks of the Royal Canal.......
  15. Nobody Special
    Another file finished hammer I call this "the High Gothic"
    Dear lord, put a handle on it and hang it up. Too pretty to use!
  16. Nobody Special
    I'll definitely grab them next chance I get. Guess some depends on what you define as medieval. Post-Roman? Frankish? Charles Martel period? I would have thought of it as running later than the Norse invasions. Say, maybe til third crusade plus about 100 yrs? Besides, aside from switching to wedge rivets, I thought this stuff stayed pretty well in use with or without plate until they started going to brigandines and such with the advancements made in arquebusses. Could be wrong, I think I remember that more from research while looking to make an matchlock than reading on armor. Wanted to make a matchlock......rifled to fire minie balls as a joke. Gave it up as beyond my engineering skills after looking at how hard hand cutting the rifling would be. Think I'm going to start looking more up on logistics of medieval mining/metal trade.
  17. Nobody Special
    Probably not. But who would they be working for? Set up under a patron? Have a factorage? I would think if you went back to the Romans they'd have military artisans doing it, but not really sure about how the logistics worked later. Also don't really know, what was the medieval process for obtaining an order of ingots/billets/rod? Would have to be mine to nearby bloomery, maybe then milled with water powered drop hammers? Did they use factors to arrange sales? Started reading De res metallica about a million years ago, must be around here somewhere.......
  18. Nobody Special
    Thanks for the post, had to run last night. I know I'll be using this.
  19. Nobody Special
    It's better than mine, and mine gets me by. Wouldn't know about prices down yonder.
  20. Nobody Special
    Ended up at Georgia Farrier Supply in Jasper, Ga. Supposed to be 39 cents a lb, for metallurgical bitumous, which is a little high for the area, but not a lot, and I'm pretty sure I ended up with more weight than I was charged for. Nice folks. Found coal for as low as 15$ per 50# in Dalton, but would have cost me as much or more in gas. Oh, too that one post, the welding supply had it for 17, 16 if you buy a 1000 lbs, but even though the drive was only 10 miles further, the route would have added too much time round trip, and didn't have time today. May hit them next time if I'm headed that way for something. Kid's birthday tommorow, looking forward to trying this stuff out Friday. Looks great, and I don't have to bust it up for once.
  21. Nobody Special
    I like the square one, and probably could cobble something out of duct work. Might be a bit thin, but would be cheap. On the other hand, washers/dryers/wheelbarrows goes with the home tools/appliance theme. :)
  22. Nobody Special
    Calling them in the morning. Not that far in distance, but supposed to be about an hour and a half away. I can run pretty small material, I used a cutdown piece of stainless skillsaw blade for a grate with a bunch of 1/4" holes in them.
  23. Nobody Special
    Might have to rivet instead of weld, but I could probably do this. Not sure about shade though.
  24. Nobody Special
    Thank God I'd only have to make a bazillion rings and rivet them. Get to skip the really hard steps, mine iron, make bloom. Hammer bloom into ingots, forge weld to billet, draw out to rod. Draw rod to wire annealing about a bazillion times. Yeesh. Used to draw halfnium/zirc/nickel ti with modern machines at a metal plant in Huntsville and that was passing hard. My one experience with a guy trying to draw it from rod, nightmarish. I've heard, may be urban legend, that making wire then clipping and shaping to make individual nails used to be so bad that when people moved, they'd burn down buildings to get them back.
  25. Nobody Special
    Lovely, lovely. I'm insanely jealous. Heavier than I can swing for extended periods though. Last time I swung a 10# for long I was breaking up a concrete porch and had to stop every 15 minutes or so. 12# would kill me.
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