Quenchcrack

Wonder if he is a wire-haired terrier?

We can't grow hops in the south. Not sure why but we have something else: Kudzu! You don't need a hanger, string or anything. It will grow right up a tree, a truck or a house. It grows up to a foot per day. It can cover an entire forest in a few years. For God' sake, somebody find a use for this stuff!!!!!

Drako11, my old Champion forge was a solid red/brown rust color when I got it. I used a wire wheel to knock all the loose stuff off then wiped it down with a moist rag. I let it dry. I then painted it with boiled linseed oil. When it dried, it had a beautiful plum brown finish that is fairly well protected from further rust. Your anvil earned it's patina; let it keep it.

The weather in Houston from October to June is beautiful. Golf year round, no coats to drag around. Cool, Dry. However, summer is payback time. Yes, my grass has been green for 2 months and my flowers are up and blooming. The A/C has been running for 2 months too. I went out in the gar....er,.. shop and fired up the dragon box today. Worked about an hour and had to quit. No breeze inside and no fun either.

I coated my new DB 2 Burner BS forge with ITC 100 before I used it. Not sure if it helps but I had some left over from the rehab job on my Whisper Baby. 6 psi seems plenty of heat to forge with but I have yet to try a weld. Too hot to forge in Houston today.

This just in: it is officially too danged hot to hammer in Houston!

You can weld at 6 psi? How long does it take the forge to heat up to reach welding heat? I have run the forge at 15 psi and it really roars but it does not need to run anywhere near that pressure just to forge. Do you protect the hearth with SS or anything?

Looks more like a boat anchor to me.

I play the guitar (acoustic) and that looks very appealing to me even though I am a pretty stodgy old curmudgeon.

Looper, I am not sure I really need the extra valve. I can run the forge at 5-10 psi and get the iron to forging heat quickly without draining the bottle. I may try to make a gasser forge weld this week, though, and will see how much pressure it takes to easily reach welding heat. I have to be honest about it; the idea of running that forge at 25 psi gives me the willies.

Spoken like a true Eskimoe Pie!

Frosty, a worthy question. I really don't know. I am a native of Colorado and that seems to absolve me of any latent Yankeeness. Nobody has fired a shot at me. Yet. There is an element of truth in my nonesense, however. There was a bloomery furnce in Hughes Springs (NE Texas near Lone Star) that was reputed to have been used to make iron for the Confederacy. It was captured by the Northern Forces and possibly used to make canon balls. Maybe it is fanciful legend, maybe not. The grounds upon which the furnace was originally built was flooded in the late 50's and the furnace moved to the gates of Lone Star Steel. I investigated the furnace when I worked there and found the people who moved the stones also moved the last crust of slag left in the furnace. I liberated a small chunk of that slag. Might have been the last of the Yankee iron.

OK, first there are no antique anvils in Texas. None, Nada, Zero, Zip, Bupkus. Nobody is owning up to having cornered the market so I figure they all got melted down for canon balls during the war. I just made up the part about shooting Yankees with them. We don't shoot Yankees anymore. At lease most of us don't (Grin)

Leaving the furnace door open at hardening temperatures can be hard on the refractories if they are the hard brick type. Thermal shock can cause them to crack and spall. Should be no problem if you have the ceramic wool type. I have used heavy sections of steel to act as a heat sink to bring down the furnace temperature with less thermal shock. After you remove the blade, turn the temp down, put it a few big blocks of steel and they will draw the heat out pretty quickly but without damage to the brick.

Don't come to Texas looking for a used anvil. They were all melted down during the Civil war and shot back at the Yankees!

Casting is a process not a material. Cast Steel makes a fine anvil (Kolshwa, Old World, Euroanvils). Cast Gray Iron does not (Harbor Freight). Cast Ductile iron makes a fine anvil if it is hardened (TFS). Malleable iron has over 2% carbon and will harden just fine but it is not as good as Ductile iron because it is not as tough (None). Hay Budden, Peter Wright, etc are usually forged from Wrought Iron (no carbon, dead soft) with a steel plate welded to the face (High Carbon, hardened). Peddinhause, Reflinghaus, etc are forged from high carbon steel, the sections are welded together, and the anvil face hardened. These make fine anvils but are the most expensive of the bunch. If you need a square edge, make a 1/2" thick plate with a square tube or solid shank welded to it to fit in the hardy hole. Make it wide enough to cover the face of the anvil and use the edges when needed.

Mark, how come when I go looking for a rivet forge, everyone has toaster ovens for sale? Nice score.

Doug, It is an interesting concept but I think there are so many ways to do things as a smith, it would be difficult to vote for the "best" one. It would be like voting for the best piece of art in a museum. All a matter of taste and experience.

The transformation of austenite to martensite STARTS at about 700F and may not be completed until the part is taken well below 0F. The untransformed austenite (called retained austenite) can transform later after the part has been finished, causing distortion and possibly cracking. If you quench a high carbon steel to room temperature, you will probably have retained austenite. Double tempering will cause the retained austenite to transform to martensite (or other structures) in the first temper and then it will temper the new martensite with the second temper. Some people quench to room temperature, lightly temper, freeze to -300F, warm up and re-temper. This is beneficial to alloys like D2 but not particularly valuable for plain carbon steels. Some folks call this Cryogenic Tempering but it is actually a part of the quench, not the temper.

Mark, some folks use a snap draw to prevent cracking between quenching and tempering. If you can find an old toaster over, set it for 200F or so and keep the part in there while your furnace comes down to tempering temperature. You might have to make a very slight adjustment in your final tempering temp but it will not hurt the part. You can leave it in the toaster oven and go directly to the temper furnace when it hits the right temp.

First the grader blade sword: You just cut a groove in it? With what? If the sword is harder than anything except diamonds, what else could cut it with? Did you swipe mama's wedding ring? Tunsten Sword: As JPH said pure tungsten is not particularly hard. Tungsten Carbide is extremely hard and extremely brittle. No toughness in this material and it really cannot be forged. It must be sintered to shape from powdered metal dust. The problem with making up a WHOPPING big fib just to get attention on the internet is that you are usually caught in your own ignorance and shown to be either childish or just foolish. I suggest we create a new posting catagory: "Humor" and put these sword posts there.

To quote Mr. Spock: Facinating!

What did the smiths use for contrast a thousand years ago? Just plain iron layered with higher carbon steel?

I am not speaking with any depth of knowlege here so feel free to correct me. I believe pattern welding is a fairly recent creation. It was an attempt to discover how real Damascus was made. Aside from the occasional (and probably accidental) patterns in some very old blades, I don't think you will see much of anything that looks like todays pattern welded steel in a truely antique tool.

This is my light anvil stand for doing demos and going to club meetings. It is made from a few 2x8's and some 3/8" plywood. I put two sheets of plywood on top to support the anvil. It is hollow and very light but it supports the anvil just fine. I used a couple of half-moon cutouts to hold the anvil in place; no chains or bolts. Anvil is a 100# TFS Blacksmith.