NateDJ

I have made knives, a spring for my leg vice, anything that needs stock about that thickness. They usually are about as high in carbon as a spring needs to be as they need to be able to take a hit and not shatter while holding an edge as long as possible.

LOL couldn't have said it better, what with it being made of "PigIron"

To do the cutting I finally had to go buy a real torch, had no trouble after that. But that is all covered in my other anvil thread. ;)

I preheated the whole thing, then used a 1/4" 7018 stick. It rings kinda like a gong but that is because I welded it to a stand that causes it to ring... or more correctly clang. Better than the splat sound it made before the new face :)

So far they are holding up fine, this anvil has been relegated to the kids so it doesn't get as much use as my other one does, but it perhaps sees more "abuse" which I am not sure the original face would have ever stood for. The original face could be dented by dropping a hammer on it from 1' or so and just in a day or so of use it was already showing some serous sway/potholes/etc. the new face fixed that and has not had any more trouble since except for the nose which I did not cover.

Still a very nice looking knife!

Makes a great BBQ grill/smoker as well. I used one as a side draft hood for my forge.

Awesome, Great job.

In my experience Corn will burn very fast compared to coal, It will burn very hot though. It sparks just like or a bit more than charcoal so watch out for that the best part is that it sticks together even better than coal. I can make a 5 Gal bucket of coal last ~8 hours easily but it will take the entire bucket of corn in about 1 - 1.5 hours. If you had a way to use the corn gasses you could do more with less t would think. I have had no time to look into building a biogasser yet though.

You could also build a ground forge using fire brick a good electric blower and long enough pipe with holes drilled along to build a long fire and supply air to it. Then use a barrel of oil to drop the spring into, you will have to keep the spring moving so need to hang it by something you can move around. Once it is cooled you will have to find a way to reheat the entire thing to the exact temperature you need so the spring will gain it's proper tension (temper) This is something that can be done in a fire brick forge but you need a way to measure and maintain exact temp and you need to know exactly what temp your steel needs to be tempered to and for how long.
Where there is a will there is a way!
Do you have a safe way to test the spring after you are finished? I would not wish to risk my life to a spring which was not tested but that is of course up to you.

Basically the problem you will have is the heat treating part. You will have to evenly heat and oil quench the entire piece at the same time. The heat treat specifics are ones that are dependent on the type of steel and your desired temper of the steel.
As Steve said, you will do well to find a decent sword maker who should have the proper equipment and a far better understanding of heat treating steal to desired temper than I.

Some day I would like to see this one,
Creusot steam hammer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Take a look at my 460# Anvil in the gallery, was made from forklift forks. They work great!

I am actually looking for a welder that small, I have a very good Marquet that i can crank down to about 75A but it still burns through the very thin stuff before I can get the stick moved off in time. Thought about trying to build one using a UPS power supply transformer... it puts out about 25V... no idea what the amperage is though.

you can also try filling the tube with sand before twisting.

I finally decided to drill a hole in mine and insert a square tube and weld it up. seems to work so far. I would suggest a larger than a 1/2" square however ...

I will be making a draw knife for this purpose, so-far though I have cut rough to size with a saw, then used a band saw to get it a bit closer to the shape then grind away with a belt sander. If you just wanted round you could use a wood lathe t get real close to what you wanted but I am making some that are for axes and tomahawks and are going to have a bit of ''style'' (I hope)

I went yesterday to Central Hardwoods here in OKC and bought a 10'x10''x2'' piece of pecan / hickory to make my own. This is raw lumber but if I make 3 good handles from it it will have payed for it's self.

How can you check to be sure? I have NO luck spark testing.

With out the flare the burner will not function properly. The flare allows the fuel to burn just at the end of the burner and not inside the burner. This allows the heat to be created where you need it as well as allowing for a more complete burn of the gas. The flare creates a low pressure point which draws the air fuel mixture down the pipe. It will be critical to your air supply.

Nate, would you elaborate on how you implement waste oil in your forging?

Very simple actually, I have a 8'' pipe that is the forge / fire container and a 2'' pipe running in to it from the bottom side, it is coming in at an angle so it will create a vortex when under pressure. in this pipe I have a smaller 1'' thick walled pipe, 1'' OD x 1/2'' ID that extends just inside the burner. The 2'' pipe takes the air from a blower ( use electric not hand cranked! ) and the 1'' takes a stream of liquid fuel. The stream of fuel must be more like a steady drip and you need to really preheat the firepot / burner to get oil going good. If you have the fuel / air mixture correct and the pot burning hot enough it will cease to smoke (as bad) and will create some serous fire and heat. Motor oil seems to burn even hotter than diesel but don't try gasoline unless you have a death wish or want a fire extending about 15'-20' out of the top of your forge. Also your forge needs to be pointer with the burner up or you will have SEROUS dragon breath! This type of setup is meant to be used only in a rural area and out of doors or the police / fire departments will be involved

Do a Google search for WMO furnaces for more info and perhaps take the time to build in some castable refractory / etc. I use this forge to melt stuff like lawn mower motors into usable ingots of aluminum.

10+ years ago I was put to welding some AL dry bulk semi trailers that had cracks in them. They gave me a mig with no gas and fluxcore wire which seemed to do the trick just fine. The welds were still holding 2 years later when I moved on. These trailers are the big 4 pod trailers used to hall dry powders and to load and unload using vacuum and pressure. the walls were about 1/4'' thick. IANWbT (I am not a welder by trade) so your mileage may vary.

I have always been told that lawnmower blades are 5160 steel. They do make very good knives!

Ninja Style: if your steal starts sparking you are getting it way too hot and will lose a lot of steal that way. As Frosty said though each time you remove it from the fire you are going to lose some to scale. It will help if you keep the piece in the more reducing (less oxygenated) portion of the fire but it will take longer to heat up. The closer to the air source the more scale you will form as a general rule.

Coal
Coke
Charcoal (Excellent fuel to start a coal/coke fire!)
Wood (If nothing else is available)
Corn (If nothing else is available)
Waste Motor Oil (When I can get it)
Waste Vegetable Oil (When I can get it)
Propane

LOL about anything flammable!

Grinder's workin... The 1/2 hp motor i'm using doesnt have quite enough power for me but it'll do for a while. I can handle grinding a little slower while i'm learning and keeping my eye out for a better motor.

I have a bench grinder that has a 3/4 hp motor which puts out I estimate about 1/8th hp and at first I hated it real bad until I started blacksmithing. Now it is my wire wheel machine and I don't have trouble with it hurting me. If I press something into it a bit to hard it will stop the motor instead of grabbing it and sticking it into me. May take a bit longer to wheal something but it is a lot safer to use than my new 3/4 hp HFT grinder that runs very well with a wire wheel.