Nick

Just called up Alro, they don't have any, nor does the local machine shop. Going to call Southern Tool Steel if they don't email soon.

I haven't been able to find a specialist spring shop anywhere near me, but I'll call around some of the places that do suspension work. They might be able to point me in the right direction, too, if the machine shop doesn't have anything.

Great stuff, Owen! We've got our hearts set on steel prods, but I'll be taking care to forge them and heat treat them correctly, then we'll test them and put a safety strap along the back before binding them to the tillers. I'm less nervous about this than making gun barrels, which is something I'm still working up to, but the prods will be 'proofed' as well. The bows Tod built with your prods are inspiring.

I've been looking for 5160, ideally .5"x1.5", but most of the places that sell it (especially knife-making suppliers) only have it in .25". Admiral might have it but I don't want to buy a whole stick. I'm waiting for a quote from Southern Tool Steel (don't know if they require a minimum) and a local steelyard, and I still need to call a couple local machine shops. But on the off chance none of them pan out, any recommendations for where to get 5160? I really want new stock, I don't want to risk fatigued metal in old car springs and such.

Just because, really. Energy loss in the prod and short drawlength makes the power work out the same as a heavy longbow. A draw weight of over half a ton sounds better, though.

My brother and I are actually about to start a couple crossbows. He's a woodworker and I'll do the metalwork (he's also a liscenced archery instructor). A couple mid-sized ones for us, a smaller one for my wife maybe, and if things are going well then a heavy one with a crannequin and he wants a 1200# monster with a windlass. One step at a time, though. I'm planning on forging the prods from new 5160, instead of from spring tooth harrow tines like I had originally planned, and put a safety strap on them. Having a lot of fun researching, but I want to get on and do it!

Not yet, but I haven't been able to work in the forge enough the last couple weeks. I'm going to keep working at it, though.

Yes, it's worth getting. Even if you don't focus on the particular items outlined in the book it's worth it for the descriptions of techniques and processes.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try building the fire up and making an oven. I've done something similar when forge brazing, since I need easy access, but with a steel plate on top. I think a charred log would work better. Won't be able to get into the forge until next week, though, so it'll have to wait until then. I'll also bust up the bigger chunks before putting them in. The charcoal is certainly cleaner in that there's no slag, but does that mountain of ash factor in?

Bottom blast with a hand crank blower, it's a Centaur Forge coal firepot and hasn't been altered for charcoal (using charcoal has been by necessity, but I want to go back to coal as soon as I can find an easier way to get it). Trying to keep the piece away from the direct air blast, above the middle of the firepot, and have the fuel piled a few inches over the pot. The charcoal is very uneven in size, but on average about chestnut size. I can forge fine, and the charcoal is lasting longer than it did when I started using it, but I may not be shaping it right for welding.

When I was using coal I had gotten pretty good with forge welding. It was never my strongest suit but I had a lot of success, especially with small pieces. Now that I've been using charcoal, though, I can't get a good weld. I've had ok welds, but that's not good enough and none of them have been clean around the edges. There are several projects I want to do that I'm sure I could have done in coal, but until I figure out this issue with charcoal I'm stymied. I scarf the ends, clean the surfaces, and try to clean out the ash in the firepot as best as I can, flux, bring up to welding heat, baisically all the things I would normally do, but there's always a seam visible, and I can't get the very ends to weld in and the welds are weak. I may have started doing something wrong, but is there something about the charcoal fire that changes how I need to do the weld compared to a coal fire? The only thing I can think of is that ash is getting in the corners and seams and preventing the edges from blending. I'm stuck on a lot of things until I figure it out, which is quite frustrating!

I've had the same firepot for years and it's never even gotten a dull red glow (I check every now and then).

That's just worn paint, not fire scale. Looks like it'll need a new spring on the ratchet mechanism, but other than that it seems in good shape.

That is neat! It's a beading hammer, patented by George E. Morris: http://www.google.com/patents/US1162871

Thanks :) It's a great book, and can be got pretty cheap used. There are dozens of projects that have been added to my list since I got it. Jim, it is threaded through a hole. The hole is drifted to be a little bigger than the round stock, otherwise it'll bind up in use. The lower jaw is folded over and pushed down to the bottom of the round stock, and the upper jaw is flattened and widened with a small cross peen, then cleaned up and bent. Then the upper arm/lower jaw can be raised back up and into shape. The two are forged close to the same size, but then filed for an exact match. Thank you for volunteering to be the first test subject ;)

Here's a combination tool, a flint striker and ember tongs, aka pipe tongs or smoker's companion used to pick up an ember from the fire to light your pipe. This one is forged from a single piece of steel, from a coil spring I've been using for smaller or narrower fire steels. It is based on an 18th century original pictured in Decorative Antique Ironwork, though not a direct copy. The original had some fine file work on the upper handle and the jaws, but I left it mostly plain. It's a bit longer and taller than the original, and the jaws are shorter, so the next one I'll work on getting those dimensions closer. I made the thumb pad flat and wide, next time it'll be round. I filed the whole surface, though not to a fine polish, and wire brushed at the end. The biggest challenge was shaping and bending the upper jaw after the lower jaw had been bent around and the stock pushed through the hole, but it worked out fine.

That's the full beard freestyle. Usually beards and 'taches are separate categories. The ember tongs are smaller versions of big pipe tongs, used to pick up a coal to light a pipe. I posted a set I made a while back that had a box joint and tamper on the handle. If all goes well, this set will be one piece, acting a bit like tweezers but with one arm left hard for striking. I'll post it when it's done.

Thanks :) Doesn't open bottles, but I may have to give that a shot sometime. Right now I'm working on a striker/ember tong combo. I would be in the running in the freestyle category in a beard and moustache competition!

Made this today, based on a picture in Decorative Antique Ironwork by Henry R. D'Allemagne. It's very small, only 1 1/2"x1 1/8", forged from a coil spring. There's no scale in the book, so I had to guess at the size based on its relationship to other images on the page, but I think I'm fairly close to the original size. The small striking area is a little trickier than with bigger strikers, but the compact design is nice and those curls and the space below give plenty of grip.

Brooch/striker combos were known in the Middle Ages, perhaps earlier. I think some were dug up from medieval Novgorod. They would have hinged tweezers, too, where the pin was one handle: (image via eBay,

There are several of this type, with animals and with other designs, in Decorative Antique Ironwork by D'Allemange. Dover has a reprint of it, it's a good resource.

Thanks. Yes, Mr. Ameling's work was some of my earliest inspiration when I started blacksmithing.

I like it, good idea!

All my spring harrow tines were salvaged from abandoned farm equipment within 50' of my workshop (it's on a former potato farm). There was a spike harrow, too, that I took the spikes from.

A friend of mine only uses garage springs for fire steels. They are good for longer or narrower strikers, like some of the above, but for the ones that require a larger central mass I prefer flat stock. The tines are about 1.5" wide and .25" thick, for most strikers I cut off a .5"-.75" piece. It's fairly short work to flatten it and draw out the arms on the horn. I can put a tutorial together sometime for a couple of the types. Yeah, I get that a lot ;) The Iron Moustache. But the designs are historical, copied from specs supplied by the client. Like Thomas Powers said, some of these designs lasted for centuries. One tip I'd suggest for actually using flint and steel is to make charcloth from thick terry towel. It lasts longer and burns hotter in the tinder than thinner cotton.