craig

A decent metal cutting blade should go through a leaf spring. Are you applying maybe too much force when cutting ? Make sure you allow the saw to cut it's way through, you won't speed it up any by trying to push it through...and if that's the case, could be just that you overheated the blade. Try a new blade, go easy on it and see if it works. Some type of cut-off wheel would be the quickest, either chop saw or angle grinder if you are just making a couple cuts across the width, you'll be done before you even get your forge lit to hot cut it...But if you're trying to split it down the center length-wise or something like that, you'll likely want to throw it in the fire and hot cut.

Those are awesome !!!

Yes, you still have to be careful...I've just found that my chimney does a pretty good job taking away the gasses with the blower on, but my forge doesn't seem to create enough draft when it's not running...and if there is smoke, some of it doesn't go up. Yeah, I think that was the problem I had before... just not getting the metal quite hot enough.

Thanks, but no,I hadn't even thought of draw filing, I'm sure it would have worked well...I've read about it but have never tried it.

Softwood charcoal usually burns faster than hadwood, but both burn fast...Are you just using dead trees ? I like to use lumber scraps as that stuff is fairly easy to come by and generally free. Also, easier to cut and handle as opposed to going out and cutting down trees...which would best best to let dry for a year or so.

I like it...no smoke.

Yeah, it's a pretty small hole, I suppose a square needle file would fit, but it would be slow...The punch worked well since you can use it from the other side afterwards to make the slight taper that holds the nail.

Thanks !! I wasn't expecting much as the bar I started with was heavily pitted with rust as you can see...I just went over it good with the wire wheel before heating to remove the loose stuff.

Well, straightening it out was trickier than I thought it would be, and drawing the tang took a fair bit of work...definitely tougher than mild steel ;)

I used a square tapered punch made from a spring.

Actaully I use home made charcoal, the wood I used when I did these was cedar 2x4's from a broken picnic table.

True, I just use the hole to hang it by...I have access to a lot of farm junk, so there's a lot of small, broken, only slightly useful bits of bar with holes in them I can use for punching without defacing my beautiful top-notch nail header ;)

Thanks !! But I should probably clarify...these are my 4th and 5th successful welds...not attempts Hehe...I've made a mess of a lot of perfectly good scrap metal, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

I've only recently started successfully forge welding, here are a couple of "lap welds" ?? Not sure what you'd call them. Just overlapping tapered ends. I will have to make another key ring from a less rusted piece next time... My main goal with these was just getting practice judging heat and making some welds. These are my 4th and 5th forge welds. Thanks for looking.

The blade is from a ball bearing race, handle is chokecherry branch, the other piece is small chunk of wrought iron strap from a wagon. Grinding is poor as I only have a little 6" bench grinder, but the knife works OK for a shop knife...Made it a couple months ago...I should've taken a picture of it right away before it got all dirty.

Made this out of a 9" x 1-1/4" x 1/4" Some type of high carbon agricultural steel...from spark testing I estimated around 60 or so pts. carbon. It was mainly for welding practice, as you can see it is not welded as far back as I wanted it to be. Next one will be done slightly different.

Here's a nail header I made out of a small flat bar I found in a field...and a couple nails I made to test it out.

Well, mainly just with the dustpan part of it I have a handle ready...but for the actual shovel, I was using a small bit of sheet metal...It got very wrinkled (which I was kind of expecting) and I just couldn't get the wrinkles out evenly afterwards. I believe the term is "shrinking" Although I have never done it before. How did you make yours ?

Very nice !! I recently tried a similar style of dustpan...it didn't turn out so good...