Nick

When I was learning forge welding we used Anti-borax, and the toxicity was one of the reasons I now use plain ol' 20 Mule Team.

I wear shooting glasses, which I find stay on and provide better coverage than regular safety glasses.

I've got two. A 2# Truper crosspeen, which is a really good hammer despite being cheap. I used it for my primary forging hammer from the time I first started smithing until recently, and I still use it as my primary hot raising hammer and some forging work. The other one is a 2# crosspeen forged by William Collier, a smith in the Lower Peninsula, Michigan. It's a great hammer, I'll get a picture of it next time I'm in the forge.

You could secure it in a vise and use a wire cup brush on an angle grinder. Then you wouldn't have to worry about it getting ripped out of your hands.

Thanks all. Went into the forge today and tried it again. After a couple failures, I finally got it, and now have 4 good brazed joints. Which means my clock project is back on track, I was kind of stuck as long as I couldn't get the spokes attached to the crown wheel. Instead of trying to touch the brazing stick to it, I cut pieces off and laid them on the joints. That worked much better.

I understand the basics of brazing, I have brazing rod, and I have pieces I want to braze. But I've never been able to make it work, either in the forge or with a torch. Basically what happens is it acts like a failed solder joint where it melts but just beads up and doesn't flow, or it flares up and spatters. So does anyone have any advice on this? As I understand it, it's possible to do this in the forge, and if I can I'd rather do it that way. Thanks Nick

Thanks for the replies, and the photos. I'm certianly thinking about layout, but I'm thinking about construction, too. As for ease of redoing the layout, the forge can't move without moving the chimney, so that's pretty much set in (pardon the pun) stone once it's installed. By time I actually build it I'll probably have a pretty good idea what I want. And there's not much danger of my ever getting a power hammer I respect and admire what they can do, but I don't have any desire to use one. I've been thinking about hanging stuff off the walls. In my current shop I have nothing hanging, it's all on shelves or two large chuck boxes. I've got some cabinets I plan to hang, though. Either I'll sheath them on the inside, or figure out some sort of furring strip type getup. The time issue, as far as time from start to finish, will be a while. I'll probably set up a temporary shed to work in, or perhaps just work out in the open with my portable setup and move stuff under cover when not in use. As far as stone laying instead of smithing, I'd rather be smithing, but once it's done it's done, and will be worth the labor, I think. It may take a year or more, but remember this is going to be, I hope, my shop for much of the rest of my life at that point. IForge is set until 2016, maybe by that time I'll have something to show :)

Found this on eBay. Two handle holes? eBay: HUGE LOT VINTAGE BLACKSMITH HAMMER HEADS ANVIL TOOLS (item 110099517912 end time Mar-11-07 21:09:56 PDT)

I've been thinking about what kind of shop I'd like to build when my wife and I are done with school and settle down somewhere. My current shop is in an old rough hewn timber barn with sheet metal roofing. It's a nice building, though it's got its drawbacks, most noticeably the wind and snow that comes through the cracks in the walls. I've been thinking about what my ideal shop would be. I've been drawn towards stone, partly through my interest in medieval architecture and also because I come from a family of stonemasons, though my dad's generation doesn't have any professional masons. Does anyone have any experience with or knowledge of stone blacksmith shops and their characteristics? Do they tend to sweat a lot, have problems with expansion and contraction, or any other thing I should be aware of? I should mention that this will be a real, laid stone building. I refuse to stone veneer on principle. It's fine as a decorative treatment, but it's not what I want. Of course, this is all just planning ahead, but it's better to plan ahead than wing it with this sort of thing. Nick

I'm a little suprised. I know a lot of people use coal and gas, but I expected there to be more coke burners.

Very nice! My forge is similar, but smaller and not near as nice looking.

This is the drive wheel for the clock I'm working on. It's going to be a Gothic chamber clock, this wheel is only 6.5" in diameter. Before I cut the teeth, I need to decide something about the connection between the wheel and the spokes. I riveted on the spokes with rivets that were a bit bigger than was probably best. Of course, that only occurred to me after I riveted them on. But, it's not a huge mistake. They hold very tight, and they aren't in danger of tearing out. The thing that really bothers me is that the rivet heads cracked like I've never seen (and I've hammered a lot of rivets-over 170 on one project alone!) I thought I might heat it and forge weld the spokes to the wheel, then grind the rivet heads off. It would look a bit cleaner, certainly, but the thing I'm worried about is it might make it difficult to straighten the wheel if it gets bent out of alignment. So what would y'all reccommend? Should I weld the puppy up, or just leave well enough alone?

The crack can and probably does go further than you can see. I'd chalk it up to experience and try again. It's a pain, but it's part of the proccess, too.

Those are some hard-used edges, but it looks like it's still got life in it.

So I was forging the other day, when a piece of coke in the forge EXPLODED and... Okay, not really. I did this intentionally to an old pair of safety glasses that were to scratched up to be useable. I'm going to hang them up in a visible place in my shop. Always wear your eyes!

50% of my coal is anthracite. I keep it seperated from my good coal, and use it for warming my anvil in the winter, large sheet metal work like raising a helm since I don't need a beehive, that sort of thing. Sometimes it stays lit, sometimes it's a bugger to keep going. And it always goes out twice or more as fast as my good bituminous coal.

I admit I'm a bit confused by throwing coal away. Are you taking out and discarding still burning pieces of the fire? The coal burns and produces coke, which is good for a forge. The clinker looks like melted glass and pumice, sometimes gray, sometimes orange. It's hard and brittle, forms at the bottom of the firepot, and makes your life difficult. It sticks to things and clogs the tueyre.

I have some unidentified issues with my left ear canal, and as a result I won't wear plug type ear protection, so I wear my "ears". And I'll second on wearing your eyes. Friday in the forge I had a piece of steel that was about three inches long pop out of the vise and hit me right in the glasses. If I hadn't been wearing them I probably would have lost an eye It was an accident, but it could have been serious.

There's a lot of wrought on the bottom of the Upper Harbor in Marquette. A friend of mine is a rescue diver, and found a bunch while diving. Thanks for all the info. I think I'll endeavor to make the first hammers from more modern materials, but at some point in the future I want to make as close to 100% accurate reproductions as possible. I have an interest in making usable reproductions but also in period reproduction. I'd like to make a wrought iron greathelm some day as well, welding it up the back like the Pembridge helm. Cheers Nick

I've seen them labled as both, but I could be wrong. Scratches steel fine either way :)