Quenchcrack

Ralph is right. You do not need a horn to make the bend. Make the reverse bend and close the loop, flip it over, and put the end with the loop over the anvil edge, lighly tap it down, push if forward slightly, another light tap down, etc., and the end will start to curve over. At some point you may want to flip it over and tap from the underside/end to complete the curve. No jig, no horn. However, I use the jig just cuz I am lazy.... :oops:

That dude standing next to the farrier bears a strong resemblance to one of my former bosses......at least from this angle.........Cute kid, though :oops:

I met Jim Wilson at Bill Epps Hammer-in several years ago in Dallas. Jim was not a big man physically but occupied a large space. He never seemed to stop smiling. Yep, a special kind of man. He and I emailed many times and he was always encouraging, always wanting to help. I would only offer my prayers for his family and close friends. We shall all miss this man. Be at peace, friend.

Ralph, you know prayer works. I know prayer works. God knows prayer works. We will pray for you.

Yep, Prayer works. Thank you, Lord.

That knot is exactly how my small intestine would look after I tried to forge one..... :oops:

Being only a hobby hammer, I never really gave my shop a name. I have contemplated names, though, and kinda settled on "Singing Anvil Forge". The ringing of the anvil is music to my ears and a blessing to my heart. I can forget about all my troubles and focus on what I enjoy doing. I become Herr Gassermaster, Lord of the Ring........ing. :P

Ditto the comments about the size. SIZE IS IMPORTANT! The anvil weight dictates how big of a hammer you can use. Your hammer should not be more that 2%-3% of the weight of the anvil. A six pound anvil would limit you to using a 2 ounce hammer. Also, I have yet to see one of those tiny anvils that really were cast steel; most are cast iron and useless as an anvil. Pretty nice doorstop, though. :roll:

As a kid, I used to play with my dad's gasoline blow torch to heat nails and pound them into small blades and other tortured shapes. I was always doing somthing with metal and fire. I melted a lot of his solder to cast small shapes in clay molds I made. I started college as a geology major but soon became totally facinated with real metallurgy. I received my degree in Metallurgical Engineering. This means I had 3 years of basic engineering and two more years of specialized courses in metallurgy. I lived the next 30 years only dimly aware of my real interests in "manual metallurgy". About 4 years ago, I was reading a Woodcarving magazine (I am also a woodcarver) and found an article on making your own carving tools. It utilized the one-brick forge and a piece of RR track for an anvil. I made a set of small carving gouges from W1 tool steel and I have been totally hooked on blacksmithing ever since. :D

5160 is fairly simple to anneal as has been described. Slower cooling can be achieved by heating a heavy mass of steel along with the spring and putting them both into ashes. The extra heat of the larger mass will slow the cooling rate down in the spring. It really is not necessary to anneal prior to forging. I just cut of a turn of the spring, heat it, straighten it, and start pounding. Maintain a proper heat for the carbon content; high carbon steels do not like to be smacked when they are at a black heat. Normalize once or twice after forging if you plan to heat treat the object. :D

Straw, farmer type. Or maybe felt. Look at the Dixie Gun Works Catalog on line, they sell period hats and things. 8)

Here is a great resource site on steels: http://www.steelynx.net

Actually, Bessemer used compressed air. When large quantities of Oxygen became available, the Basic Oxygen Furnace was created. It is simlar to the Bessemer Converter but much faster and hotter. The rapid oxidation of the iron raises the temperature of the iron considerably. After blowing your heat, you must do something about all the dissolved oxygen you now have in your iron. You must add silicon or aluminum to combine with the oxygen and form little silicates and aluminates. This will give you a sound ingot. Failure to kill the steel will result in the oxygen eating up all of your alloys and an ingot full of holes.

Check out this site: http://www.davistownmuseum.org/TDMtool.htm A very nice, short history of metallurgy and lots of good stuff on ancient hand tools. Of course, these old tools look pretty modern to us old Geezers..... :D

Well, I built myself a shaving horse out of 2x6" pine. Lowes sells some of the worst lumber I have seen but it was all that was available in this one-horse town. I guess it is now a two-horse town if you count the one I just finished! I made a dumbhead design and made the bench long enough to mount a carving vise on the opposite end. I will build than next weekend. Rain for Easter Sunday in soggy Left Tennessee. Small puddle of water in the basement....it looked expensive. :cry:

I don't know why I do not stetch before forging. I always stretched before I played golf. Of course, I was a really lousy golfer and tha might explain it..... :oops: Almost done with my shaving horse. Not really happy with the legs but it is very stable............just ugly. :(

The Doctor told me to take 3 ibuprofins three times a day so I figured I would try it. I prolly actually took the 3 pills only about two times a day because I get busy and forget. Anyway, the elbow feels a lot better but I am going to give it another week off. And learn how to use Jr.s Heavy Hitter without doing more damage to myself than to the iron! On another issue, has anyone ever tape wrapped the hammer handle to form a bulge at the end of the handle? I have ground some handles to form a ball at the end so I worry less about the hammer flying out of my hand but I really don't want to mess up the handles on my favorites. I am thinking about friction tape which I could easily remove/replace. :?:

I've been told never to store them on a concrete floor. Put them up on wood blocks, maybe connected to a trickle charger. :roll:

A good friend of mine from the Longvew, TX area and I set up a demo at a Country Music festival. It was supposed to rain that day so we cobbled together a tent made from a 12x14 ft blue tarp from HF. We had it hung from four 2x2's so it sagged a bit in the center. On the first heat, my friend pulled out the red hot iron and held it up for the crowd to see.....and burned a hole in the tarp right over the anvil! :cry:

I posted the same question over on the woodcarvers message board and it seems the basic design for a shaving horse hasn't changed in hundreds of years. The ones I saw over there look just like the ones Jr. posted. Maybe some designs just shouldn't be messed with. I suppose I can angle the stick over my sholder or under my arm and peel it at an angle. Or, I can grab it with the old post vise and have at it like I always do! :lol:

Thanks, Jr. I may just try my hand at designing one just for walking sticks. I gotta figure out how to shave a stick about 6 feet long without it poking a hole in me! I've made three drawknives and now I need someplace to use them! :D

I know some of you are multi-disciplined so I need some directions from the woodworkers. Does anyone have a good set of plans for a shaving horse?

Woody, God bless you and your family. You have friends here who care about you.

I have one of those armbands and the Dr. recommended I use it when hammering. I have been doing flexor curls with a 5# weight in my truck on the way to work and taking 3 ibuprofins three times a day for the last month. I will definitely use better technique from now on, though. :oops:

Well, I went to the orthopedic surgeon yesterday and he said my elbow is on the mend. Been almost 3 months since I lit the forge because I used lousy hammer technique. I was forging out a spatula and was tapering the blade down thin on the edge. Now this was a BIG spatula and the blade was about 6" across and made from 1/8" mild steel. I was using one of irnsrgn's 3# diagonal peen hammers on it. Now a 3# hammer is just no good when you have a 2# arm! I was standing back too far and extending my arm too much. This put a lot of strain on the tendons and ligaments. The right way to do this would have been to stand closer and keep the elbow on my hammer arm tucked in close. Just a word of warning to newbies and weekend hammer jockies. :oops: