Damastang

240 volt singe phase 5hp motor at 3600 rpm, 5" bore 8" stroke 3000psi double acting cylinder, a 2 stage gear pump, probably 11/3 gpm or bigger. That's the guts of it anyway. Nothing is locked in , i am still learning a lot about hydraulics so any advice here would be appreciated. Still trying to work out if it is even possible in Australia first before I go looking into it any further. It's been on the back burner for a few years and now that my welding is well and truly up to scratch and I am in a workshop with all the good gear It is something I want to do. The press will be used for damascus but I only like to build things once so would rather go overkill then wish I had more squishing power. 25-30 tonnes is the aim with fast ram travel.                              

Sent you a PM forgemaster, check your inbox.

Cheers

Strange maybe the chat room didn't load properly as there was no one in there on my end? Hence why I popped in then back out. Certainly didn't see any messages.

Sorry Steve what do you mean?

Pretty much as the title says. I am looking at building one but can't seem to find the same or even similar parts to the ones you guys use over in the US. And when I do find something here the price is an absolute joke. $900-$1300 for a basic 5hp motor...... and that's just the start. Don't even get me started on the price of hydraulics haha. Anyway, anyone done it?

Cheers

Same weight as yours, bought from the same place I believe. There is also another smith near Malanda I know who uses the 95KG one and doesn't seem to have any dramas. I was considering buy one but I was lucky enough to score an old wrought body steel face anvil.

Cheers

Try contacting the Bowen Endeavor Foundation. I get all my coke from them, $16.50 for a 20KG bag. They can shift it from the Bowen branch to Townsville for pick up. It's very clean stuff as well, some say Bowen basin produces some of the best coal in the world.

A mate of mine has the same anvil, he has no problems with it. Where abouts in FNQ are you located if you don't mind me asking?

Cheers

Not sure about charcoal but in my coke forge you can see little tiny wispy sparks in the flames when the air is cut if the steel is at welding heat. It's pretty tricky to pick up on but once you can tell them apart from all the other sparks and embers from the fire it makes welding a lot easier.

Have a look on the front right hand side of the feet. I have an old English anvil and it has a small "H" stamped there. Yours might be a different letter or nothing at all but it is very easy to miss.

Hello all,

I am fairly new here have just recently completed my first "proper" pattern welded knife and it had me thinking how many layers were lost to forge scale? I started with 5 layers of leaf spring and saw blade and folded it 5 times to get 160 layers. The pattern is beautiful however there is definitely not 160 layers visible in the blade. I have noticed this with a lot of other pattern welded blades as well, people claiming to have 500-1000 layers yet it looks more like 200-300 layers? Is it just the norm to count layers based on the number of folds? Not having a dig, just curious :)

It's a bit worrying watching scale fly off the billet as your hammering away at it, knowing that each flake is probably a layer.

Cheers

Ryan

Great idea frosty, might do that instead for sharp edges and soft metals. It's not really affecting the function of the vise hence why I have not done anything about it already, just looks ugly lol.

Thanks for the advice.

Cheers

HI guys,

I was just wondering if post vice jaws are generally hardened? I have a vice I have been using for a while however one of the jaws has a bit of a sag on top. I have been planning to fill it with weld to build it back up but am a little concerned the jaws are hardened.

Cheers

I burn coke (no coal) and to light it, I just build a teepee of half inch or so thick hardwood kindling on top of 3 balls of news paper. Once the kindling is half burnt and settles into a nice bed of charred sticks on the bottom of the fire pot, I add a full blast of air and cover with a layer of coke and go from there. Hasn't failed yet.

Very nice knives 556mp, love the forged look. Certainly beats polishing them sometimes.

Ah ok, it looked more like an "L" to me, lol. Goes to show how much i know about it  :D. Maybe someone will recognize the shape or a feature on it. Would be really interesting to know a bit more, thanks for the input Jerome.

G'day all

I picked up my proper anvil a number of years ago and have been using it ever since but I am now curious what make it is and maybe how old it is? It has seen some use as it is slightly sagged towards the horn and the edges of the hardie hole are a bit warn but other than that its mint as far as I am concerned. I am in Australia if that helps with finding its origin.

G'day fellas, Ryan here from the Atherton Tablelands in far north QLD.

Been forging for about 4 years, mainly knife forging as I am also a bowhunter although I love the ornamental and tool making side of things as well. New to the forum side of smithing and keen to gain as much knowledge and inspiration as possible and see what others are getting up to.

Cheers and see you round :)