Quenchcrack

$18.50 for 50Lb bag of Pa coal, shipped to Houston.

RMartin2, check into joining Houston Area Blacksmith Association. We have a chapter that meets at Armand Bayou once a month and a chapter that meets in Magnolia once a month. Go to WWW.Haba-iron.org, or look for us on Facebook. It's the best $20 you will spend.

For the carbon added through a surface application to have any effect, you must allow time for it to diffuse through the steel. Carbon will move through the steel at about .010" per hour at 1650F. As others have said, this is a pretty thin case at best and would likely be ground off if you did any grinding on the blade after hardening. RR spike knives are great projects and can yield an interesting knife but they are not generally good carry knives because they are heavy and do not hold a good edge. Buy some O1 or W1 and make a real knife.

March 5 and 6 will be celebrated at Texas Independence Days at the Washington on the Brazos State Historical Site. Several members of the Houston Area Blacksmith Association will be volunteering to demonstrate traditional smithing to the visitors. The park opens at 10:00 AM and closes at 4:30PM. This is a premier family event with many traditional crafts being presented. The Army of the Republic of Texas is usually there in full regalia and canons are part of the show. If you are anywhere near Washington Texas (near Brenham) please come out and enjoy a great day!

Welcome Robin! A good anvil may not look like an anvil. Mass is the deciding factor: more is better. You might weld the horn not but you can work around it for now.

Welcome, lulabeast! Those are the biggest sugar tongs I have ever seen!

Houston Area Blacksmith Association will open our Magnolia Smithy on the LAST Saturday of every month for open forging and for training in basic hand forging, metallurgy, heat treating, safety and other appropriate topics. To forge, you must be a HABA member and can join immediately at the meetings. The smithy is located in the Magnolia Depot facility at Buddy Riley Blvd. and 1774. The meetings open at 9:00 AM and usually end by 3:00 PM.

My prayers are with you! I had a spinal fusion on my lower back 7 years ago. The pain relief was amazing! Have faith, your life will be much better!

Well, some of you may remember me from many years ago. I contributed some of the Blueprints that were on the original site. I have been away for various reasons but now that I am retired, I am getting more active in blacksmithing again and will try to be a good neighbor. Before retirement, I worked as a metallurgical engineer and hope I can contribute a few things along the way. Best Regards, Quenchcrack

Regrettably, I learned of Junior's passing a few days too late to communicate with him directly. I'm sure my birthday card arrived too late. My heart-felt sympathies to his family and close friends. I have three hammers Junior made for me, one of which (a 1lb cross peen) he took from Baby Anvil to send to me. Sorry Baby Anvil, I know he planned to replace it. I still use those hammers frequently. Junior was a humble but truly remarkable man who forgot more about blacksmithing than most of us know. God bless you Junior, He likely has great plans for you!

Thanks, Patrick. I was about to break out my hip waders. Does steel stretch as much as credulity? ;-)

Untempered martensite has a maximum theoretical hardness of about Rc 65.

The variability within a 4140 steel from one heat to the next is sufficient to cause variations in hardness if the same procedure is used every time. Variations from the top of the ingot to the bottom can do the same. This is due to the natural segregation of the alloys during solidification. Heat treaters usually demand the mill test reports on steel when large tonnages are involved. They generally make subtle adjustments to their process based on the actual chemistry. Even then, not every piece will be the exact same hardness. When I hear that someone has a process that works, I say stick with it. You have the major variables under control and small variations, while having a predictable effect, are not affecting the performance of the product. That's what good engineering, and smithing is all about.

Retained austenite will transform to martensite duriIng the tempering process. That is why many steels require double tempering. If you temper BEFORE you cryo treat, you do not get full effect. Lightly temper, cryo, final temper.

Keep in mind the the phase diagram you probably used is a BINARY phase diagram. Iron and carbon are the only elements evaluated. Ternary metallic systems get a lot more complex and a real alloy is jus too complex to graph. The scientists created the phase diagram. As an engineer, you have to learned how to apply it.

I have a 167# Old World Anvil in the German Pattern. Used it for about 10 years with no problems, good rebound, no serious marks to the face. My only complaint is that I paid about $350 for mine and they are a LOT more than that now.

You may be hyper-extending your elbow. I was using a 3 Lb hammer to thin out some plate and was standing away from the anvil to get a big swing radius. I was thinking that would increase the force of the hammer on the metal. The real result was to pull my elbow ligaments to the point I got tennis elbow and a full YEAR of no smithing. Learn proper hammer techniques.

Tempering can occur at 200 F, stress relieving at about 750F. I would not worry about an anvil face below about 500F. Strike while the iron, and the anvil, is hot!

Gas from a burner burns at a specific rate or speed. If the gas pressure is too high, the un-burned gas blows past the flame front and it goes out. The forge needs to be above about 1400F (the auto ignition temperature of gas) to sustain high speed ignition. Turn down the pressure at the bottle regulator. I have a two burner forge from Diamondback and have no problems.

My sincere Condolences to his family. Grant was certainly one of a kind and a blessing to the Blacksmithing Community. Bob Nichols Quenchcrack

Actually, I kinda liked the first one but the second one is more acceptable. Welcome to the group. I used to live in CT, too. Wasn't born there but enjoyed living there.

Dick, I made a blunt nosed chisel out of an old RR spike. After I finish splitting the piece, I put it in my vise while it is hot and forge the crotch round. Touch up with a file.