SJS

I have a nasty puddle of scale in the bottom of my gasser, so do I chip it out and repaint with ITC100, or do I just throw kitty litter over top of it and forge on. The crude gets on the stock if it sits in the forge too long while I am working multiple pieces and the crude wicks up the stock... Last thing I want is more scale...

Jargon is important because it helps us communicate concepts, describe processes, and label tools. I call a concave tool a swage, and a convex tool a fuller, and I throw the term die around for several things. We use the same word for the tool as the process it is used in, like a swage. Then you get a guy who does hydraulics and we say "swage" and he looks for a tool to put the fitting on a rubber hose or metal tube... Lots of ambiguity built into our language... "When I nod my head, hit it!???"

I don't really want to know how bad the rebound is on my Peter Wright...

It is a good idea to lock the rivet to one side of the reins on a pair of tongs. If the rivet gets bent and it can float freely on both reins it is much more likely to bind, than if it is fixed to one side. Like someone else said use a chisel to score one side, if you have an old star chisel in you kit that works great. I like to use a snap/rivet header to back up a store bought rivet, and finish the peened side gives it a nice finished appearance. I also like pyramidal heads, and 5 clout heads... Just a little trickier to make your snap for those. If you have 3 or more hands you can use a small set hammer to get your pyramid or 5 clout...

I do a ton of shouldering in and general changes in cross section. As I get older and a little wiser, I don't just grab 7/8" high carbon square shaft to make serving spoons out of ( you notice it quenching on the anvil face and the sound changing very perceptibly, but you don't have to worry about it bending once its in its final shape...) Lilico's "Practical Blacksmithing Illustrated" had a big affect on me:-) I think in terms of volume, and isolating stock, and ... its a TON more fun with a power hammer or two... ;-) I try not to leave much of the stock for a project the original dimensions, but I am odd that way...

I've seen Peter Ross demo a couple of times but he was working on pieces where precision was more important than just moving metal. I used to work a lot of 3/4" and 1" square by hand, and seeing Brian squirt 2" square by hand had an overwhelming affect on me, that and him beating me in a forging contest:-) Brian, Hofi, and Tom Clark moved metal in a most impressive way, they may have chosen flamboyant projects that showed off their forging efficiency, and I'm just a goob who is easily impressed, I'm willing to entertain that is possible. I have never felt like the metal moved as much as it should under my hammer, always just a little disappointed that I didn't get more done in a heat, even when I was forging 1" by hand regularly... I have watched a lot of demonstrators over the years, I try to be humble enough to learn from who ever I can (don't always succeed, but I do try;-) but Brian Brazeal, Uri Hofi and Tom Clark impressed me. Peter Ross's demos where informative, but like a lot of cool blacksmithing projects it was slow to develop and I wandered off, my bad I'm sure... The demonstrators I enjoyed the most either showed off tremendous skill quickly, or engaged me with ideas, and tips that helped me build my mental tool box...

I like Brian, and he is flat out one of the best blacksmiths at hand forging I have ever seen. I also know from talking to him over the years that he is obsessed with forging, and he THINKS about it. I think he sees traditions as a useful starting place, but they should be tested to see if they are really valid, that it really is a superior system. He also is a bit of a divergent thinker, he questions a lot that people take for granted as a given. He also likes coming up with interesting ideas to help explain and demonstrate concepts. The squeezing between the "dies" concept, and the Brazeal brothers anvil concepts are useful ideas. The Tools to make tools curriculum is also pretty cool. I also like many of Uri Hofi's techniques and ideas. I know there are lots of people who idolize both men, and others who hate one or both of them. I try not to take other people's success personally;-) Take the useful bits, don't get hung up on the minor issues or the cult of personality. I try to incorporate good ideas where ever I find them. Its pretty cool when they are mine, but I am not offended if I learn something from someone I don't like... I am just thankful to have learned something. The better you get the harder it gets to get better, and finding nuggets of truth to add to your stash gets harder. There are lots of ways to say things, lots of metaphors people can use, some work really well for one person, and not at all for another, to each his own. You also have to be careful to not develop your own secret language, a unique concept can't just be used without introducing it properly. Brian's following on YouTube understand the concept because it was introduced in the why I use a rounding hammer video... I don't just use a rounding hammer like Brian does. I know my weaknesses and I have to be very conscious about how hard I hold onto the hammer when I set the face to a certain angle to get an effect. For me, it is much easier and safer to pick up a dedicated tool, a cross peen, or a straight peen to move the metal a particular way. Rather than strike with the edges of a rounding hammer like Brian does. I think it is really cool how (particularly) Brian and his students can move the steel that way, wish I had someone to teach me those tricks 30 years ago, but I made things up as I went along and found things that worked for me, and how my mind works. If I were learning blacksmithing now I would try diligently to learn all I could from Brian and Uri, they have some very efficient techniques that would be a great starting place. Since I have trained myself over the years I have only been able to incorporate some of their techniques in how I forge. I am far from a slavish devotee to either man, but I recognize good technique when I see it, and what Brian and Hofi do though different both move steel amazingly efficiently. The die concept has an odd flavor initially but if your are patient and see the value in it, you might find its an acquired taste... :-) Coming from a power hammer background the dies concept is easier for me maybe, fullering dies, etc...

I have hammers "fail" all the time... I shatter the edges on hard hammers, and put nasty dings in the face of softer hammers. I have only managed to completely destroy the eye on a copper hammer, that I remember... My criteria for buying hammers at flea markets, gargage sales and such is do i need it, can I make it into something cool, is it cheap enough? Or valuable enough I don't care how much it cost... I buy 2$> hammer heads to reforge. A forging hammer I really need to like the feel and the shape. I'm not as fugal as Thomas but I am on the cheap side of things most of the time;-)

I found a couple of 32oz ball peens that I was surprised to find felt really good in my hand. So I used to try to use these 2# Ball peens as my main forging hammers, but the handles are about two or three sizes too small.. I kept shattering the handles. Redrifting the eyes larger makes them MUCH more useful for actual forging;-) Reforging the Ball into a cross, or straight, or a diagonal peen is fun too;-) I either tune them up or I don't bother using them. There are a lot of hammers that I never use they just hang on the rack, waiting to be redressed, or reforged. Like I said before I am very picky about the feel of a hammer, and the shape of the face and the peen. There are a whole lot of hammers I don't like... :-)

I have dreamed of having all my children striking for me at a conference where I was demoing... Sadly my middle son is severely Autistic and wouldn't take to the loud noises and scale burns... My oldest and my baby girl might strike for me yet;-) One of my most cherished memories is of my wife striking for me, and my oldest son when he was 2 or 3 years old standing at the heel of the anvil with a 4oz French pattern hammer taping the anvil while we worked... We were forging a coronel lance point out of a stainless spring alloy. It took a lovely polish when done, but was BEASTLY to forge by hand;-)

Read a few good books... Look for book reviews here using the search function here... Read the forums like a boy with Asperger's reads the encyclopedia. or is that Wikipedia... Be passionate enough to do some research on your own. Some of us don't mind handing out the cookies from the bottom shelf, but the curmudgeons don't want to give cookies to bad boys and girls who don't do their homework. Avoid the dreaded open ended question, be specific, which means have enough knowledge already to ask the refining questions.

Make an air gate for the forge to throttle back the blower, so it doesn't eat fuel so fast. Self discipline! Retrain yourself. You FORGE, at forging temps (yellow-red). You can break corner, planish, and straighten at red and below. You will get more done at a good forging temp, using short hot heats. You also get faster reheats if it goes back in at red, and your not wasting as much fuel. Smaller stock looses heat fast, do what you can as quickly as you can, and get back in the fire. Hammer shapes. Some hammers move metal better than others. Some leave a smoother finish, and some make it hard to get back to a smooth finish... I have straight peens, diagonal peens, cross peens, ball peens, and rounding hammers. If you have a local group see if you can try someone else's hammers and see what you like. Some people have a favorite hammer, and others use just whatever is handy, and others use a lot of different hammers each very specifically (that's what I do;-) I like Hofi hammers, and Brazeal style rounding hammers, and straight and diagonal peens Welders do make things easier, but bolts work just fine. There are several do it yourself vice patterns that you can find if you search here or google that can be adapted so it can just be bolted together. I have been thinking about ways to build with drill and tap a smithing magician with simple chopped up angle iron, haven't gotten on paper yet let alone built in steel... And your right necessity is the mother of invention, sometimes meaning your too poor to buy the proper tool, so you have to build it yourself;-)

I don't like the step but if it has good rebound, 280# is pretty decent for 3$ a pound... I would rather have a Refflinghaus, or a Peddinghaus but they run 6-8$ a pound... Some people really like steps, I use mine some but would be just as happy with out one. If I had the money and needed a big shop anvil I would definitely go check it out. Doesn't hurt to look.

I use tong clips as often as I can get away with using them... If your tongs have balls forged on the end of the reins like the Tom Tongs that Tom Clark used to sell you need to use an open sided clip of some fashion. Tom used to forge them as a warm up exercise, and had them in a large number of sizes to suit different tongs, and different size stock. If you forge your reins out nice and thin then you can just use different sized chain links. You can use a cut off wheel to cut every other link so that they are open sided clips, and that will free up the closed links. It is a good idea to make a few, they are easy to loose, and you want to be able to grab and go... If you harvest a few links off of several different sizes of chain, it gives you obviously several different lengths of clip. I use tong clips to lock chisels and punches into a pair of tongs so I don't have to hold the tool over the hot metal, and holding on to the handle that the tongs provides doesn't bother my arthritis in my off hand as much as precisely holding the tool in my hand... Some people forge then end of one rein of a set of tongs to hold a ring, and have the tongs set for a certain thickness, so that the reins spring just enough to let you latch the ring over the other rein and lock the tongs on the stock... A good reason to use 1045, or 5160 for your tongs because you can forge them out lighter & thinner, and they will have some nice spring to them. Just don't quench them when they get hot, they will fail eventually. Its also a good idea to forge just a bit of a curl to the end of the reins of the tongs, especially if you use chain links as your clips, otherwise as you work the link can sometimes migrate off of the end of the tongs and go shooting off... I keep a little tub of tong clips on my forge tool table, so I always have one handy, problem is it always seems like I need to make a few more in the most common sizes, and then I often need an odd size or two;-)

The cut off with the table is nice for slotting the end of a piece, for making spurs, or double prong hooks... You can also use the cut off to shave the burr in the bottom of a hot cut slit. They are a little more dangerous, but very handy to have around... A full face shield and a leather apron and/or welding leathers would be a good idea. Sometimes the best tool for the job is pretty dangerous, don't take it for granted. One of my favorite lines when i am demoing is, "everything that a blacksmith does is, hot, smelly, dirty, dangerous, and takes a long time, at least all the interesting things;-). The portaband is way handy too;-)

I have heard that a dollar today buys .17 in 1979 dollars. And a 1920's 1 oz 20$ gold coin is worth 1200$. The currency has been drastically and intentionally devalued, which raises prices. The only reason commodity prices are down right now in the US is that the rest of the world is in worse shape than we are... That makes the dollar look stronger relative to other currencies, and since most things are valued in US Dollars on global markets we get a better deal. One of the benefits of having the worlds reserve currency;-) EBay has made the anvil market a global one, have you seen the European antique anvils being offered on eBay, and all the people looking on eBay... There is almost always someone with more money than sense who wants something more than I do it seems, and has the money to do it... Anvil were expensive, back in the day. Good tools were always an investment that stretched the resources of the craftsman. They were cheaper when it was a lost art. It is no longer a lost art... Looks like they are back to being expensive, and probably gonna stay that way. I hope to be able to buy a Refflinghaus, and or a Peddinghaus anvil but I am not holding my breath...

Keep the coal locked up, and make a cover for your forge. I have forged with tainted coal I can only assume that the cat urine smell was from the usual suspect and not just a foul batch of stoker coal... very unpleasant...

Most of us tend to be visual and kinetic learners. It is MUCH easier to have someone show you A correct way to do something, and then have you try it, then they explain again about a "minor" detail that you thought you understood and were doing, but really wasn't.... Spring steels don't like to weld to themselves, you can weld it to mild, or wrought, or even a file or O1, but getting a stupid lap/faggot weld to take is a bear;-) Several of the alloy steels don't weld very easily and are hot short to boot. Wrought welds pretty easily, cold rolled 1018 welds pretty easy... If you join the NWBA you also get access to the library and can get books and video to learn from even if you aren't a people person. You could start by checking out "How to forgeweld for those who have diligently tried and failed" I always tell people that there are no real shortcuts to learning blacksmithing, its just if you have a good guide, you get a lot further down the trail a lot faster, than if you are just wandering around on your own,,,

So what size jaws and what weight?

Howdy. Have you done a ball bearing rebound test on it yet? I would be really interested to see how she does with that. I have to admit I was very suspicious when I saw that they were made with ductile iron.

For the cookies left out on the lower shelf... A 1x42 is handy, but not the most efficient thing for a blacksmith/bladesmith. That being said, it was free, it works until you can buy, or build something better. But you will burn through the belts, and you are very limited in the types of belts available, mainly aluminum oxide belts which work better on wood than on metal. They still cut, but they wear out much more quickly than some of the fancier abrasive that are predominately available in 2x72. 24,36, and 40 grit are your course belts to start your rough grinding. A lot of guys start grinding with a 60 or 80 grit belt, and move up from there. A 1x42 generally doesn't have much bite and is easy to bog down. I would rough in with a right angle grinder, and try to use the 1x42 for "finish" grinding and a little sharpening of tools with 120, 220, 320, and 400. Buy a selection of belts and experiment. To get the most out of your belts, hot wire brush anything forged that you want to grind on, and then wire brush again cold, and when in doubt rough in with the right angle grinder. Scale is harder than AO if I remember correctly ;-)

Very Cool Josh. Glad to see you back. Elegant design, and 100% duty cycle what is not to like. I can wait... ;-) I even like the Nuclear theme. I wish I understood this better... All of it, but right now I am specifically thinking about the coils. It sounds like smaller diameter tubing is "good" in that it is easier to shape to smaller diameter coils. Do they heat better for some other reason, or just because you can make a better fitting coil? But they heat up more, and would require more coolant capacity in your system. So is there are real down side to heating efficiency to using larger diameter tubing for your coils, if you can get the coil shaped neatly to conform to the stock you are working? Since they are easier to keep cool, and less taxing on your coolant system... Especially if you got good at shaping the larger tubing.

Yep, its an odd caulking vice, the block in front for sharpening the caulks gives it away. Not one of the more versatile designs. But still very handy for a quick hold on things. Never seen anything like it, sorry.

I would suspect that the little bricks effect was how they cut the shear steel for the face. Kinda like a mosaic pattern Damascus. When you are making shear steel you stack a fat bundle of blistered/case hardened bars, and then weld them up into a solid mass. I would suspect that they sliced 1" thick slabs and used them to weld to the face. Fun stuff. Matei your anvil is LOVELY, just flatout lovely...

Its a Minecraft French anvil;-)