n3cron99

Thanks guys, as always y'all are awesome.

Yeah I could see if they were big pins or something like that. As to the flat they are dead flat. I think I am going to radius the edges and the one that has the chip I will make a flat on that edge. Stands? Just put in a stump or if I have some scrap angle make out out that?

I wonder if it would be worth the trouble to try and harden the face of one.

I like the idea of a flat one and one on its side. I don't think they are hardened at all, the rebound is only a tiny bit better than the 55# china cast iron anvil I have.

they are steel they have a very high pitched and short ring to them.

So I was at my local scrap yard when I found these, I think counterweights. I have 3 of them they are about 7" across and 5" tall. one has an edge that looks like it chipped off. They are 86#'s each and I would like to turn them into something I can bang on. But I am unsure how to best utilize these. should I just face them and stick them as is into a stump. should I try to weld 2 or 3 of them together. So come to you guys for some ideas. How would you use them.

Hey all I just want to start by saying this site is awesome,there is so much information here its unreal. I had started to get discouraged when I first jumped into this,but that was before I did quite a bit of reading here. One of the biggest things that helped me was the bit about how to correctly hold and swing a hammer. I'm a pretty stout dude but I was having a lot of trouble swinging the 4# hammer I have,it was really getting me down. Then I read how to do it right and could instantly tell the difference. Its not muscle memory yet but now when I work i can tell when I start to do it wrong because it becomes a 1000 times harder to do the work( also the anvil I have is a 55# cast steel with no rebound so good form is real important ). I plan on trying to attend the HABA meetings to get some real instruction but I work shift work so I am going to miss this months but maybe next month but until then this place is serving me well. A while back I acquired a hammer that i thought was really cool but not in great condition. With a little work it cleaned up real nice, it had some real deep nicks, some bad pitting and really soft ( the face was mushrooming ). And thanks to IFI I was able to harden,temper and put a handle on it. Now it is a real nice 2#ish hammer that even though i cant say i made it, I can say I brought back to life and I think that's awesome. I also made a, well I'm not sure what its called but the thing you use to move the fuel around as you work. Its ugly and it probably doesn't work as well as it could but I learned a lot while working on it and am proud of it as the very first thing I have made. well that's all I got, the wife and kid will be out of town this weekend so I'm hoping to get a pair of tongs made.

Awesome thanks guys, this plus finishing my first set of tongs will be my weekend project.

Hey all I came across this hammer and I really like it but there are a few questions I was hoping you could help me out with. Its really soft, in one of the pics you can see the edge of the face has started to roll from use, also there is a spot where i hit it with another hammer just to see how soft it was and it didnt take much to flatten that spot where it was startig to roll( planned on refacing it anyway I wasnt just beating on it) so my questions are (newbie so forgive the ignorance) : was this hammer made out of a mild steel on purpose, meaning there is no point in trying to harden it for use? is that somthing that is done, I mean I know thereare brass hammers and such but it looks like a standard straight pein. It looks like a production piece although any markings are long gone. my other question is if it is good to harden, dont have a torch to temper it with, is there another way to temper it with out having to use a torch? Thanks in advance - Max

Hello all I have just built my first forge and am finally getting to continue my venture into blacksmithing that started when I was about 11. When I was a kid my parents owned a candle shoppe and one day next to thier shop a blacksmith opend up. I was immediately fascinated by it and everyday would watch the blacksmith work and ask questions and generaly bug the guy to death as kids of that age tend to do. One day I guess he figued if i was going to be there he might as well put me to work, so he put me on the hand cranked blower and for the next month or so I be came his unofficial apprentice. I loved it, it was awesome and then I learned an important lesson,well two lessons really, one do not grab for iron if it falls out of the fire and two just because it is black does not mean it isnt hot! Lucky for me it didnt do any serious damage and I just had to hold on to some ice for about a day. But for my parents it was to much and they made me stop. Well flash forward 21 years, I'm all grown up( i use that phrase loosely) with a son of my own and figured i should stop talking about how one day im going to do some blacksmithing and just do it. So between youtube,the scrap yard, Lowes and a friends work shop I built a drum forge. Found an old 55 pound anvil in my grandfarthers barn and got to hammering. I know I have a lot to learn and a ways to go but every journey has to start somewhere. Thats why I'm here I love forums, I find there is really no better place to get information whatever you are doing. So ill be around asking alot of questions ( I will try and hit up the FAQ first if I can) and sharing my adventure with you guys. -Max P.S I'll see if I cant get a couple pics of my forge up,everyone like pics right.