SJS

Has anyone purchased a fire pot from Laurel since the new website came up? They used to list the fire pots on the old website, as one of their products for blacksmiths but the new website is all fancy and business oriented, and I wasn't ready to cough up the cash, was looking to see what they cost again to see when I might be able to afford one anytime soon.... I ALWAYS heard great revues of them, and would rather make a more permanent purchase...

Around here I know of one farrier who still uses a coal forge on his truck to shoe out of, and forty with gassers, and a bunch of guys whacking cold shoes:-) If you can find some old school farriers, and can get by their sometimes gruff, opinionated demeaner they could teach you something ;-) Me I am less old, less gruff, still pretty opinionated, not really meaner ;-) But I might be able to teach you something... ;-)

Bruce also mentioned in passing that the water cooled cast iron tuyere were sometimes fragile and would crack when positioning larger work. He said he used a stainless heavy walled pipe, and that it was durable and held up to the heat well. He also said he lined the bottom of the forge with a cut section of sod with the grass turned down and the dirt and roots making the floor of his forge??? I thought it was odd at the time, and was probably some distant tradition but didn't ask. I miss Bruce a great deal wish I would have bought some tools from him before I missed the chance...

I was offered a lovely big tray shop forge with troughs and a champion 400 blower for 350$ years ago, and I was too poor, cheap, and stupid to buy it up... Still regret not buying it, and still looking for one just like it, or two...

by "turning" do you mean bending jig? cause I looked at that and couldn't imagine a use for it on a lathe???

I think with a power hammer in mind, and love changes in cross section.. Jim 2B, 3B, 5B, 7B, Nazels and Masseys have such good control you can do little work on a 4B-5B, the only reason to want the 1B is to have a complete set... :-)

If you have a gasser with open end ports, you flip it on end and run the stock up and down through the gasser to get an even heat over the entire length. Did it with a few swords no big deal. Id start the bend the hard way across the 1.5" and work toward the easy way. Welding up a full form to work against, and a torch would make it easier, but you could do it free hand over the horn and match to chalk line and tweak the axil twist...

The regular Joann twist is supported in a swage or a v-block, and you fuller with a wand set on the diagonal and rotate the stock to forge in the twist. I imagine you should be able to open a twist on the diagonal with a narrow wedge cutter and open it up, then open things up progressively with wider cutters, you would probably have to make a bottom swage to support the work while you focused on stretching the center and sharpening the flutes... The other option I just thought of (that is probably more likely;-) would be to forge a tapered round, then divide it slightly with a spring fuller so it had a v forged in down the center of the round. Then pinch half of it into an edge which would cause the piece to begin to curl up, keep forging it out doing what ever convenience bends to be able to forge the edge all the way to the end. Then twist and pull and I think you might get that shape of cork screw... Just another thought... ;-)

The blacksmithing community as a whole is pretty friendly, especially to young people interested in the craft. How ever most of us subscribe to a strict policy of not doing homework for people coming onto the web. If you are diligent and persistent you can find links to how to websites that will explain how to make a basic induction heater that will allow you to forge some steel. Once you learn the terminology and have enough information to ask a limited question, as opposed to an open ended question, we can probably help. Try looking here as a starting point... http://www.rmcybernetics.com/projects/DIY_Devices/diy-induction-heater.htm

Clifton Ralph's Joann twist, do it under a power hammer in a die with a fuller biting diagonally across the die, but I think you can forge it...

Most people do use a water quenching medium carbon steel for making hammers, they are easier to work with and a bit more forgiving. You want the hammer hard enough that it doesn't deform under heavy use, and you don't have to keep redressing the face and the pein, but do you really want it as hard or harder than your anvil... Any one remember what Nathan Robertson, from Jackpine Forge uses for his hammers, and recommends in his hammer making classes? Some people like 4140 but there can be problems with oil quenching, and you sometimes have problems with quench cracking especially around the eye or if the pein is drawn thin with a sharp transition. Timothy said he used W1 for smaller hammers... On larger forging hammers I would tend to be afraid of the edges spalling unless you were careful to temper to a safe level, and maybe draw the edges more. Some of the old junkyard steel identifying charts used to list ball pein hammers as W1, since most of the production has switched to China I am not sure how reliable that is anymore. For awhile one of my favorite hammers was a 2# ball pein, but I hit hard and chipped the face at the edge, kinda like I said. Probably was W1, I have collapsed/chipped the edge of the face on a number of hammers over the years, but like I said I hit hard. Its generally the left side, or the heel, but I am right handed... The other problem I had with ball peins is the eye is always so small, and I would be whaling away on something and would hear a snick and the head would be sitting at an odd angle on the handle...

Funny proportion and front weighted hammers just look at some of the old English hammer catalogs, even Bruce Wilcock's catalog had a bunch of hammers where 2/3 of the weight was in front of the haft, with only a puny little pein hanging off the backside. My major professor in college was Vernard Foley and he had published several articles on how the American Axe was superior to the European felling axe, because the weight of the head was balanced by a pole on the backside, which put the instant center of rotation in the center of the handle, which resulted in less vibration and better control. There were several innovations that came out of our pioneer heritage and the tradition of American over engineering... "Look I want to buy one once and I want it to last forever, I don't know when I will be some where I might be able to buy another one..." Until some godless MBA came up with planned obsolescence....

One trick I like to use in making sockets is to get my fan drawn out slightly oversized for the diameter of shaft I am shooting for. Then I shape it up, and allow the socket to overlap just a bit, then take a right angle grinder with a slitting disc and clean up the line. You can also just butt the two edges together and run the grinder through to clean up the edges so they meet nicely. Then you can either leave the socket open, or weld it up with a welder. I have also used the angle grinder to bevel the sides of the slit to use it like a pencil sharpener to dress the angle of the shaft I was trying to fit the socket too... But Bigfootnapa is right the transition is what is really important, and if you have sufficient thickness in your socket and transition it should be more than adequate... If you want to fireweld the socket use wrought iron from an old wagon tire and steel the edge with a short section of the spring, but do a sandwich weld, not a lap weld. Lap welding wrought and spring makes for a nasty heat treat. Sandwiching the bit in the edge is easier to get a nice flat bit after the quench.

On black iron pipe that's threaded I go ahead and use a pipe cap, like when your making candle cups... Then when I am flaring the other end I can whack it with a wooden mallet;-) then neck it down and yah steam cannon firing off into any part of you is so not cool...

If your ground is ALWAYS wet I would be very tempted to use concrete tubes and set mounting brackets in the tops, I had an old machine shed at the old farm that was in sand and gravel but the water table was high and several rotted off below ground. Our new house is pole built construction and we went with www.permacolumn.com/ flat never gonna rot off. Had bunch of cedar fence posts rot off in the sand and gravel at the old farm too, not impressed with their rot resistance. In fact we do metal corner posts and steel line post for farm fence cause I don't like having to replace wood every 10-25 years... If you wanted to avoid things rotting off you could buy a www.klenepipe.com/ kit, or just do the same kind of thing your self with heavy walled structural tubing. You could weld flanges on or drill through holes and bolt wood on to screw into...‎

A lot of older tools were wrought iron, or very mild steel, both mushroom badly especially under heavy striking. You can grind it back, I suppose you could try to fill it with weld and grind it back. If you try to fill it back up, keep a close eye on the repair to be sure it isn't going to spall badly and hurt you, or someone else... Tools eventually wear out, make new one's

Jim you don't think outside the box, you just don't have a box at all :-) I love guys like you... Problems are just opportunities disguised as trouble.

Note on fullers in history... Kevin Cashen mentioned is his studies of early period pattern welded swords, the fuller from swords from the continent of Europe were mainly ground in, Insular ones from the British Isles often had the fuller forged in to conserve materials... Fullers on Japanese blades were scraped in. The problem with most people is that they prefer a fiction they like to a reality they don't... Truth is not malleable just because people don't know or care...

So did you see your brother for thanksgiving? and did the topic of these snazzy little induction forges happen to be broached at the table... Inquiring Minds want to know;-)

Hopefully dodge will be willing to do some comparison with his T-burner and blown burner and see which one burns longer? You would think that they should use fuel at the same rate. But I supose that a blown burner could use less, but I would think you might have to run it lean...interesting???

Most BUGs (broad unsubstantiated generalizations) are wrong... a well built NA burner, in a well built forge will leave steel in a puddle if thats what you want to do... you can SIZE a NA burner and forge to do 3"breaker points, or melt cast iron or crucible steel... You just have to size the components and provide enough fuel. Most problems are operator error, ignorance, and a profound lack of patience;-) if a blown burner works fine for you, thats fine. But its not fine to say only an amatuerish idiot uses NA burners. There are lots of perfectly good answers if you ask the right questions. Most of the time there is not one right and true and Holy way proscribed by GOD!!! Most of the time there are several good answers that will get the job done safely. My way isnt the right way, its just my way. Your way most likely was not given to you by divine revelation, so lets not be dogmstic. It works for you, you understand it, and you can teach others, that good. But Forsty and others understand NA burners, have an easy time building and tuning, and helping others build them. They work. There is no accounting for taste, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion...

NC makes a welding plate, which is just a half thickness hard fire brick, as a sacrificial plate to protect the floor from flux. Any inswool that is exposed inside the forge that comes in contact with the flux will vaporize, so don't be sloppy with the flux. When your in a coal forge extra flux just makes more clinker in the bottom, but it is hard on a gasser, especially if it isn't designed as a forge for welding. Bubble Alumina castable will be about the best flux resistant coating for a forge floor, Satinite, and ITC100 provide a bit of protection, but don't hold up very long. The newer NC forges are designed with a hard floor, which last better than the old style lining. BUT still use only enough to get the job done, cause it will leave a black pudding in the bottom of the forge and it will creep up whatever you lie in it. Some guys like to use kitty litter in the floor to grab some of that slag and flux, then you can clean out the floor and replace it to have a clean forge to work in... Hope that helps and others chime in with other ideas...

They were a more affordable investment for most small blacksmith shops. Bradleys, Beaudrys, Champions, and Fairbanks were industrial grade hammers and were a lot more cash. Self-contained and steam hammers were even more. LGs were available, affordable, and made a smith more profitable. Doesn't matter how nice a tool is if you can't afford it. If you cough up a lung and buy the best tool for the job, you get what you pay for... You then have to make it pay for itself. Most smiths could see buying a LG or a Kerrihard, but the bigger industrial hammers were out of reach. Especially in a time when most people were wisely DEBT averse... "the borrower is servant to the lender" and "neither a borrower nor a lender be..."

Hey Daniel did you and your brother get bored with this or just woefully busy? His design looks really elegant, and being able to switch from 110, to 220, and possibly 3 phase opens up all kinds of cool. Hope you guys can put something together to sell wiether its just a kit with plans, or a finished machine. Its summer and I barely have time to read iforgeiron, but I still check this thread periodically... Hope things calm down and you guys can pull this off the back burner and get cookin.

Clifton would also say your half a bubble off level, one of the Damascus guys was complaining to Clifton that he was forging diamonds instead of squares on his small air hammer, and Clifton said your half a bubble off of level and that if you were dead level to the die and square to the front edge you will spit it out straight. He is also found of saying "feed the baby" meaning let the edge of the die do the work, don't bite off more than you can chew with the hammer you have... Clifton normally advocates for the biggest flat dies you can put on your hammer, but for smaller air hammers smaller dies seem to be more efficient. I have 3x5 flat dies on my 75# Bull, and I really need the smaller dies for most work, otherwise it was just too slow to draw material out. Too big a bit for my baby, and too much die as a heat sink... And a bigger hammer is a really good answer too. A Nazel B4 or larger would be sufficient:-)