TMIB

Beautiful work. Was the whole thing made as one piece, or was the pipe bowl attached separately? If one piece, did you just forge weld the barrel into a solid piece from the pipe bowl back to the blade? I just came into possession of several old black powder rifle barrels and would like to try my hand at making some pipe axes. I'm undecided at this point whether to just use the barrels for the pipe bowls or to try and forge them out into full axes. --TMIB

Pipe smoker and enthusiast here. Cigars occasionally, but it's pretty rare. I forged up a colonial style pipe lighter a while back and keep it hanging on the front of the forge for use. --TMIB

You could always find a local camp or scout troop and offer to teach. --TMIB

Yep, the fly rod is a backpacking rod, so it breaks down and fits in a hard case. My second fly rod doesn't go as small, so it's in a piece of schedule 40 PVC. The scouts start out making s-hooks out of 1/4" square; a ribbon taper is put on each end, then they are curled into a small flat scroll. (like the rattails you'd see if these were round stock) Next the ends are bent over the anvil horn (and if needed, trued up in a jig). Then a decorative twist is put in the middle and they are wire brushed & waxed/oiled. The second project they make is a center puch out of 5160. They form the punch, then we oil quench and run the temper colors to about a purple at the tip. Their third project is something with a rivetted joint; a dutch oven trivet, candle holder, sconce, lantern hanger, pot rack, tongs, etc. I let them choose, but give them suggestions based on their demonstrated ability and time remaining. All in all it was a fantastic experience for me, and I know the scouts had a great time as well. --TMIB

Hmm. this got moved, I thought the blacksmithing forum was apppropriate- apologies if I was incorrect.

Yep, lots of trial and error (and scrap wood) but we produced enough charcoal each week to run classes without having to go out and buy coal. We started with a bit of coal (plus the gas forge) but used charcoal most of the time. --TMIB

I just spent 5 weeks teaching blacksmithing at Hahobas Boy Scout Camp in Washington State, thuoght you all might want to see some of the pictures we took: Hahobas 2009 - a set on Flickr

I've used PB, Kroil, liquid wrench as well. My non-scientific testing has shown me that the acetone/ATF mixture that I posted above works better than any of them. The tests I linked to above were orginally run by Machinist's Workshop magazine. I don't know how well the rusty parts were setup of course, so their tests may have been very skewed. One example from personal use: I bought a sandstone grinding wheel from a junkyard. It looked like it had sat out in the rain/sun for countless years. Someone had previously had a metal frame around it that was bolted together. Rust was caked over everything. I hit it with the acetone/atf mix and then let it sit for half an hour or so. When I went to pull it apart, the nuts spun off the bolts using a box wrench, just as though I had just put them on.

Equal parts acetone and Dextron/Mercon automatic transmission fluid (ATF). Stir thoroughly then apply with a brush or spray bottle and allow to sit. Works better than any commercial product I've ever tried. Here's some data to support that: Tech Tips: Grassroots Motorsports Magazine "So you deal with a lot of rusty nuts? Go down to the hardware store and buy some acetone, a quart of Dexron Mercon and a refillable spray bottle. In the spray bottle mix the ATF and acetone in a 1:1 mixture. Spray away and get your nuts loose! Independent testing of penetrating oils using a single steel bar with 1/2”x20 nuts torqued to 50 ft/lbs and treated with a 10% salt water solution that was allowed to rust. Listed are the chemicals and required removal torque. -None ………………… 516 pounds -WD-40 ……………… 238 pounds -PB Blaster …………. 214 pounds -Liquid Wrench ….. 127 pounds -Kano Kroil ………… 106 pounds -ATF-Acetone mix….53 pounds "

Oh it definitely is. I've had folks ask me why I'd spend all my vaction time volunteering at Scout Camp. I get to spend over a month smithing every day, with the time in between spent camping, fishing, shooting black powder, and most of all Scouting! Why wouldn't I want to spend my vaction this way? The metalworking merit badge is really a great one for scouts. It's exciting to see the wonder and amazement when they learn how malleable steel is. --TMIB

I figure this is a way I can give back a bit of what I got from Scouts. I'm an Eagle Scout myself, as are my two brothers. I'm not the best smith in the world (like I said, I still consider myself a novice), but I teach pretty well, and I am good at working with kids. --TMIB

Thanks Frosty, sorry about not giving a locale; for all the times I've seen this reminder posted here, you'd think I'd have remembered. I've updated my profile. I'm in Lakewood, WA. (about 45 minutes South of Seattle).

I've been a member of IForgeIron.com for a year now, I guess I should start posting! About me: At the time of this post, I'm 36 years old, and have been working as a software tester for several years. Smithing is not a profession for me; and though I've been tempted several times to make it into a side business, I've not done so for two major reasons: 1) I still consider myself to be very much a novice. 2) I like being able to treat the craft as a hobby that I indulge in without having to force myself to meet schedules, etc. I ran my own business once, a motorcycle service/repair business. (I'm a certified motorcycle mechanic). It was very rewarding, but really changed the way I look at motorcycles, and it ended up eating up all my time. It was a success, but extremely hard work keeping on top of all the incoming work orders, making sure customers had their vehicles serviced in a timely manner, etc. I don't recall why I originally started smithing; I'd learned to weld and do some basic metal shaping, and decided that smithing looked really interesting. I have a number of friends that are into medieval recreation, and I enjoy black powder muzzleloader shooting, so this seemed like a natural hobby to compliment those. I started out with a homemade coal forge (made from a large truck flywheel with half a truck wheel rim welded to it, on a tripod). I used a small electric squirrel cage blower and some cheap (non-smithing) coal to heat metal. My first anvil was a cheapo cast Harbor Frieght piece of junk. After a short while I "upgraded" my forge to a homebuilt naturally aspirated propane forge. It's been through a couple of revisions since then, but I get a good heat out of it; I checked it with the pyrometer a couple weeks ago and it was at 2450 Farenheit. I spent a couple years forging just very casually; about once a month or so, I'd pull everything out and bang on steel. I'm a voracious reader though, and got tons of "book learning" by reading smithing books, and online forums such as Anvilfire.com. Not much hands-on time though. Last year, I decided to get a little more serious about this and I took a weekend "beginners" workshop from Jerry Culberson at Old Cedar Forge. It was fantastic. Jerry and his helpers (Tri Ficker and Dean Mook) were great about helping me correct errors in my forging habits and I learned a lot in a short time. (I've got pictures of the weekend workshop here: Blacksmithing Workshop; Old Cedar Forge - a set on Flickr) After the workshop, I spend every weekend at home, forging away, working on small projects (primarily more tools) and trying to improve my technique. I volunteered to teach the Metalworking Merit Badge to my son's Boy Scout Troop. We set up a weekend workshop geared to teaching the basics to the boys, and they had a great time. Here's photos of that event: Boy Scout Troop 53 Blacksmithing - a set on Flickr That went so well, when the time came for the scouts to go to summer camp for the week, I contacted the camp and arranged to bring my equipment up with me; for that week, I taught metalsmithing to boys from around the district that were attending summer camp: Camping and Blacksmithing at Hahobas Scout Camp 2008 - a set on Flickr I bought a house in September of last year, so my smithing habits were curtailed until I could get everything moved, unpacked and settled in the new house. I've got everything back up and running now though, and even got the opportunity to make a few things on consignment for a friend. But the big event will be this summer. I've got enough vacation time saved up from work to be able to take all of July and the first week of August off. I volunteered to use my vacation time to teach smithing at Hahobas Boy Scout camp for all 5 weeks of scout camp. (Troops come up and stay for a week, but there are 5 groups of troops coming trhough over the course of the summer.) Needless to say the camp director and program director were very happy about this, and we are working to setup a good blacksmithing program. Volunteers have already built a large shelter with a metal roof to use for the smithing area. I've got a large coal forge and a bunch of good smithing coal, plus my little homemade coal forge, and of course "Trogdor" (my mighty propane forge) to use this summer. I'm tempted to find a way to haul my treadle hammer up to camp, but that's probably overkill. I will be bringing my two whetstones though. Anyway, that's my smithing background in a rather large nutshell. I'll leave this with a picture of my hammer, anvil, treadle hammer and forge: Hammer: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2084/2540944384_e893502536.jpg Anvil: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2245/2375686243_6bbb8cd0a1.jpg Treadle Hammer: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3170/2834277103_c5756f1225.jpg Forge: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3247/2758984080_7607cbee1c.jpg