Quenchcrack

The young man shows real talent! I'd be proud of work like that!

Rich, are you sure you are not part machine? Every knife you make looks perfect. Really nice!

With all due repect to all parties in this dog fight, enough is enough. I go to a variety of forums and the topics I have learned to avoid are the ones that begin "I'm going to buy a new widget, which one is the best?". And then the food fight starts. Look, I own a DB forge. It is a nice unit and I have no intention of buying another brand. I am sure the Chile forge is a nice unit. Both brands are meeting the needs of their customers. I rather think either one will do more than the average smith knows how to use. As far as politics go, if you want to express a different opinion, you can start your own website. Can we move on, guys?

Many years ago I went to visit a company in NW Texas that made gun barrels. Not rifle barrels, gun barrels. For artillary pieces, large navel vessels, tanks, etc. They made their own steel: 4330 Vanadium modified, vacuum degassed, electroslag refined. Each barrel forged, heat treated and machined in that plant. You never think that guns that big will shoot through the rifling in so few rounds. Every time the army ordered a tank, they had to order hundreds of gun barrels to serve the expected life of the tank. Your tax dollars at work.

Very nice, Rich.

You did those not feeling too good, eh? Wish I felt as bad as you do; maybe my knives would come out that good. Nice work.

440 SS is a high carbon cutlery grade of stainless steel. Should make a decent sword but it depends on what you intend to do with it.

BP 0020 covers spark testing. Your blade material does NOT look like a high carbon steel to me.

It is becoming more difficult to generalize about Chinese products. Many are very high quality, many are junk. Most of the time, the products made in China for a Western Company is acceptable quality. Chinese made for a Chinese company is a often a crapshoot. Some Harbor Freight stuff is good, some is not. I would not automatically call Rhino Anvils junk until I saw them. The Russian Anvils were OK but hardly what you call a quality product. Philip, we are waiting for your analysis of these anvils!

I have been told that most of the tavern puzzles on the market have been patented and cannot be reproduced for sale. I suppose you could make them for your own amusement. I don't do tavern puzzles without my hammer handy......

I think you are austenitizing it too low or for too short of a time. Increase the austenitizing temperature to 1550F-1575F and hold it for at least 1/2 hour. Your forging probably grew some whopping big grains and large carbides so normalize it a couple of times too. Don't forget to grind the decarb off before you check for hardness, too. If that doesn't work, yep, mild steel.

These people walk among us. And they are allowed to reproduce!

Yeah. It came out ok. Shoot, it came out superb!

Start by forging the rod to a point before you flatten it. To fix the one you show in the picture, file it or grind it to the point you want.

Avadon, you touch on a subject that applies to a lot of budding smithing businesses. I have seen many talented smiths post really crappy photos of their work. I cannot imagine the photos representing the smiths work generating much business. HIGH RES, PROPER LIGHT, ONE COLOR BACKGROUND, USE A TRIPOD!!!!!

You probably have to find another one just like it and use the parts to fix the first one. Or make the part yourself.

Try this site: STEELYNX It has links to about 7500 sites related to steel. Gotta be one in there that will keep you busy.

Certainly a loss to our community and the world. Our prayers are with the family.

No wonder I couldn't find a good used anvil! You can go to "HECK" for hoarding anvils!!!!

Welcome, Ruckus! Always glad to have a "friendly" new guy on the site!

I agree with blksmth; Scotchbrite wheels move the metal without removing it like normal abrasives. They come in 6" wheels to mount on your grinder and in different grits for non-ferrous and ferrous metals. You would prolly have to google for a local distributor but a welding supply shop might have them.

I was working with an absolute beginner at our club meeting today. He had never hit hot iron before. We used EZ Weld and he stuck his first forge weld. Of course, he was a bit better coordinated with his hammer than a lot of beginners but I believe in EZ Weld. The only down side to it is the rough surface it leaves around the weld, but this can be brushed or filed away.

When I worked in a CI foundry, we referred to the worst of the worst castings as "sash weights and sewer lids". And the sewer lids were the better of the two.

Kburd, I have the same forge and it is nicely made. You won't need more that 10 psi to heat it up and about 5 psi to maintain it. It's a real heater.

Philip, do you have a source for HAND CRANKED blowers? We can get electric blowers here but they are a bit cumbersom when taken to a demo site. There are apparently no sources for reasonably priced hand cranked blowers in the US.