Rob Browne

If it will get your iron up to yellow with a dirty great clinker blocking your air flow why not try bringing the air in sideways (making a side draft) which is easy for a test with some black pipe. The clinker will sink below the tyuere for the test but make sure your pipe is buried in some ashes for the test or you will lose it quickly. Working your way around problems is a major pleasure of hobbies for me. After saying that, I can forge for half a day before I have to worry about clinkers with my coal. Cleaner coal would certainly be a good choice but if you have this stuff then work out how to use it would be my advice.

Mark, Have a look at this thread for some great ideas.

Now you are on your way we want to see the end product. Will it beat this one?

Apart from making the fire deeper and using less air its also a good idea to have a couple of fire bricks to limit the width of the fire. Unlike coal, a charcoal fire will spread and burn your fuel without an air blast which is just a waste of fuel. If you limit the shape of the fire to match your work you will preserve fuel.

Beautiful job on the restoration. Armoursmith is just a specialist blacksmith so you are one, sort of :)

Nice work Now, how did you do it?

Thanks Phil :)

What is the idea of the sodium fill in these valves?

If you are in a rural area then the tynes off a scarifier are really good steel. Plow disks are good but tend to be difficult to use because you have to rough cut the object out of them.

For the tempering I would polish the working end of the tool then heat the striking end in a low fire and watch the colours run. Initially I would allow it to run to blue then cool, it will take some practice to get the timing right so the colours don't keep running past your target. This will ensure the striking end is as soft as possible and the working end hard and tough. If this is too soft then re-harden then temper to purple and give it a go. You don't want the working end to be too hard because it will get brittle and not handle the impacts a punch must endure. Good luck, take it one step at a time and keep safe.

Forge and file would be my answer.

Sometimes, the best gift is time. And you used the time wisely :rolleyes:

Yep. Your commission is a warm, fuzzy feeling and now you can help yourself to one of your own beers See ya

G'day Firefighter and welcome to IFI. Give the search facility a nudge and put in brick forge. Lots of ideas will popup.

I keep getting tempted to take a day off and do the run to Canberra to have a look at one of these. For their size they are good value BUT only if they are of good quality and at $1000 the 200kg one looks tempting but $1k is a lot of loot. Fro that money I could pick up an O'Dwyer 90kg that I KNOW is good.

Nice for someone to finally make a comment about these anvils. I've been looking at them for a while, especially the 100 & 200kg ones.

Rearrange the legs so one is under the blower side. Before really using the blower pull it apart and give it a real good clean then you will know what you have.

Is your roof insulated? If not the radiant heat from that will really heat load your shed. Also, eves to the south and west will help keep the sun off your walls. Plant shrubs along the sunny sides to protect them further. Cheers

Lately we have had some really special work displayed in the gallery and this is another example of the quality people can produce. Simple, well designed and constructed always shows in the quality. You should be very proud of your work. Cheers

Even with his crook wing Dale beat me to it :)

I would still keep an eye out for a nice piece of rail road track. If its the heavy section and stood on end in a bucket of concrete you wuld have a brilliant anvil for making knives. Another short bit you can move around would be good for straightening longer pieces and for the curves it has. Never let a good bit of heavy metal go by, I even have an old waggon axle I use. Cheers

Rebar is variable and often made of re-melt/recycled steel. It is made to do a job and so long as it is good enough for that it is acceptable. Its basically a guess what you have metal. Now, as for breaking it in your hand how did you harden it? What heat did you take it to and what did you quench it in. How hot have you had it, if its heated too much you can burn the metal making it weak. Did it ever get to sparking temperature? If you answer some of these questions then some sort of considered answers will come your way. Cheers

Not much gear, not much time and possible storage problems. How about a hair dryer, bit of pipe and a hole in the ground for an earth forge. Sounds flippant I know but a lot of people use these for their every day forge. A search on the forum should give you lots of ideas for this type of forge but its essentially what I said. Dig a hole, run the pipe into the side of the hole with the end just exposed and hook up the hair dryer. The simplest type of side draft forge going. Good luck