NateDJ

Most regular brick suppliers carry it as it is used to line fireplaces ACME brick is a nation wide company as well as several others. Here is a list from trainmason.com for Southern California brick suppliers: A S R Constructors Riverside CA 951-779-6580 Barajas Masonry Bermuda Dunes CA 760-345-3912 Ben Moran Masonry Escondido CA 619-390-9271 Bielski Window & Masonry Anaheim CA 800-243-5754 Bledsoe Masonry, Inc. Riverside CA 951-360-6140 Brandel Masonry Supplies Pomona CA 909-594-5715 Brickyard Pleasant Hill CA 925-906-0123 C D Construction Glendora CA 626-963-1348 Coolbaugh Masonry Orange CA 714-532-1652 Cornerstone Masonry Sun Valley CA 818-767-3300 Curtis Masonry Escondido CA D & D Laser Screed, Inc. Lake Elsinore CA 951-245-3595 Dancro Corp. Corona CA 951-270-0288 E. Rosen Construction Westlake Village CA 805-777-1686 E. Rosen Construction Inc. is a Paver and Retaining Wall Contractor serving Westlake Village California CA Earl Powers Construction Escondido CA 760-738-9777 Frank Smith Masonry S. El Monte CA Frazier Masonry Corporation Lancaster CA 661-942-1287 G B C Concrete & Masonry Construction Lake Elsinore CA 909-245-2355 GBC Concrete and Masonry Construction, Inc. Hank Blatnik & Associates Garden Grove CA 714-590-8625 Haxton Masonry, Inc. Yuma AZ 928-344-6174 Hoffmeister Masonry Riverside CA 951-686-9167 Hoss Construction Yorba Linda CA 714-524-3023 Isaac-Bodner Construction Co. Sherman Oaks CA 818-907-0491 J.R. Masonry, Inc. El Cajon CA 619-444-1824 Just Star Construction San Diego CA 858-505-0788 L.A. County Masonry Valencia CA 661-251-2681 Lloyd's Masonry Fallbrook CA 760-451-9755 Lyle Faber Masonry, Inc. Escondido CA 760-743-3620 Masonry Master Fullerton CA Masonry Tec Products Moreno Valley CA 951-653-5700 Tec-Connect System - Masonry Embeds Masonry Technology, Inc. Moreno Valley CA 951-653-5700 Tec-Connect System - Masonry Embeds Mays, Inc. San Jacinto CA 951-654-4121 Modern Masonry El Cajon CA 619-447-5438 www.modernmasonry.com Morillo Construction Pasadena CA 626-796-3800 Muller Commercial Masonry Sun Valley CA 818-767-7009 New Dimension Masonry, Inc. San Diego CA 619-276-5000 New Dimension Masonry - San Diego Masonry Contractor New Earth Construction Laguna Hills CA 949-859-4007 New Generation Masonry Fontana CA 909-355-5606 Nibbelink Masonry Lancaster CA 661-948-7859 NuWay Masonry, Inc. Riverside CA 951-681-9052 Pacific Masonry, Inc. Orange CA 714-282-0222 Homepage, Pacific Masonry, Inc. Persall Masonry Beaumont CA 951-845-4545 Pointe Construction, Inc. Santa Ana CA 714-973-1151 R.H. Hill Masonry Anaheim CA 714-516-9393 Ramirez Masonry Azusa CA 626-334-4320 Randy Bogs Masonry Menifee CA 951-301-0473 Rens Masonry Escondido CA 760-738-8827 Robert Stinchfield Inc. Riverside CA 951-779-6542 Ron Shoffeitt Masonry Temecula CA 909-926-1167 Select Build Riverside CA 951-787-0800 Skidmore Masonry, Inc. Camarillo CA 805-484-4881 Slagill Corporation El Cajon CA 619-442-9955 Snyder - Langston Irvine CA 949-225-3269 Snyder-Langston - Home Page SoCal Masonry Rancho Santa Margar CA 949-770-2940 Sol Construction Riverside CA 951-784-5209 Southern Counties Quality Masonry Santa Ana CA 714-554-6222 Steve Lynch Masonry, Inc. La Habra CA 562-697-7300 Sunset Masonry & Concrete Pacoima CA 818-983-2338 Tailored Masonry of California Santa Ana CA 714-556-2220 The Patterson Company Orange CA 714-282-7292 Thomas W. Kincaid Masonry, Inc. Port Hueneme CA 805-815-0495 True Champions Inc. San Diego CA 619-276-6999 Williams & Sons Masonry Lakeside CA 619-443-1751 Winegardner Masonry Yucaipa CA 909-795-9711

No Idea if it will help or not but I find I have to use a thinner handle on most of my hammers. The ones that come with them are usually too fat for my hand and will cause discomfort especially around the base of my thumb and index finger and across the lower portion of my hand. Try using a much smaller (tac) hammer for a little bit and see if the handle feels better, if so try trimming an old hammer/handle down to fit your hand better and see if that helps.

According to the guys at: Quick Service Steel Co Of Oklahama City, Inc 1948 Se 44th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73129-7920, United States Phone: (405) 672-4557 Structural steel is all A36 unless it is specified to be different by the engineers. He tells me that the cross ties they sell are all A36.

LOL ... Shock and Awe Was a tremendous bang and I was standing right next to it so instant soaking! :D

LOL ya well I was having "one of those moments" see... the side of the pipe said it could stand like 250psi or something like that LOL the kids sure thought it was funny.

I bought mine at ACME Brick here in OKC, OK and I think it was $1.50 per brick but they are larger than regular brick by almost 1'' on each side.

Take a look at the link posted originally in Vices by JosephPrivott. Hammers, music and scales At the very bottom of the page is a picture of what is supposed to be a c. 1285-c. 1360 smithe complete with power hammer. Note: I am not advocating the use of such by novice (such as myself) smiths, just thought this pic would lend a bit of reference. Thanks JosephPrivott for posting that link, it was very interesting.

Here is a peek at a project the 3 of us are working on. It is not finished yet by a long shot and only a few of the welds are cleaned up with nothing sandblasted or painted yet but the boys are hammering out most of the leaves and stems while I clean / finish them up and do the flowers. It is a good beginners project and they are enjoying making it come together. This gate will be used between the living room and dining room/kitchen of our house to keep the toddlers out of the kitchen while mom is cooking or cleaning. We are making sure there are no areas open large enough for them to get a body part stuck in and will be making sure no sharp edges are going to cut them if they try to climb over. (and they will I am sure of it) We may end up putting a Plexiglas ''window'' over the kids side of it to help if we don't feel it is safe. Hope to have it finished by the Saltfork conference so we can take it for ''show and tell'' The gate is setting on top of what will be my coal forge when I get the flue built. You can see a blower in the background that I have gust finished rebuilding, I bought it at the sulfur tractor show for 25$ but it was frozen solid and has taken several weeks to get it working.

Be very careful pressuring it up though, I built a water gun out of 3 4'' pipes all linked together and pressured it up to about 50# when it gave way at a joint and sent water all over my entire shop. Looked like it had rained in there for an hour and I only had 2-3 gallons of water in the thing. I am very glad it wasn't oil The PVC should hold the pressure just fine but be sure of your glue joints before using oil in it.

My boys are using one of these with a piece of forklift fork welded to the face of it. It works better than it did originally but the anvil was still way to light at ~60# so we welded it to a A shaped piece of I-Beam from a trailer house frame. This helped keep it from walking around while you hit it but the noise is Horrific! It is not much of a ring it is more of an ear piercing clang with lots of odd harmonics that just sounds like a train wreck with each hammer blow. I am looking into a better anvil for them! Long story short... don't weld your ASO to the stand LOL

Make sure you post pictures of your results ;)

LOL ... My anvil is a very rare one... in fact it is the only one I have ever made! ;)

O.O WOW... Thanks! I just returned home and seen / returned your PM. The boys are so excited the 10 YO went out side to "Jump around and yell a bit" his words I swear! To one and all: This forge will be used by and belong to my boys, and any friends they have over to learn to "do blacksmithing stuff" as well. We have 2 more boys who come over as often as they can already and show great interest, haven't had time to see if they are very serous yet but they seem to be. I will be granting them access to post on IForgeIron and will be glad to post pictures of them using the forge, my forge, any forge we come across. you may find I am a very proud dad As for as our current setup, we are sharing a firebrick forge with a naturally aspirated burner that we built. This (my current) forge will be passed on to the next young smith I run across as soon as I get my coal forge finished. It was going to the boys but to be perfectly honest it was obviously a forge built by a beginner. It will heat metal up hot enough to forge but nothing more. It has worked and will continue to work for learning on but the reason for me starting on a coal forge is so I can have more room and get enough heat to weld with. Gets a bit crowded with 3 people sharing the same 4'' square heating area This new forge will allow the boys to have their own forge that I will not have to worry about blowing up on them and will also allow them to have access to a coal forge for the times when it is more appropriate for the application. Now I only need to find them better hammers and anvils! Mike, again I really appreciate you doing this for them and I will have them on here as soon as their mom get's finished with them tonight, if she will let them stay up long enough Thank you! NateDJ, Ryan, and Dustin

On the forges that are made of wood lined with firebrick the air pipe comes in from the side just like a side blast except it sits between the firebrick and has holes drilled pointing up. if your side blast isn't working perhaps extend the pipe through your fire area and cap it off then add a layer of brick around it and drill holes point up. stand a few firebrick up on their sides to form a bit of a ''Pot'' around the fire to help keep it contained. Perhaps this would help a bit? The standing brick will get shoved around a bit as you move work in and around the fire but that just makes it easier to get to the fire and keep it where you want it. Just an idea that came to me as you were describing your problem.

I have ask this question before but haven't seen an answer yet. After a piece of metal reaches this level of degradation is it possible to recover it by holding at high heat for a long time allowing the grain to regrow thus allowing for a restart on the heat treating cycle? I am asking because I do not fully understand the processes involved and from what I read I gather many VERY different answers. Especially in the older heat treating manuals I read a lot of "If you ever get it over a dull red you will ruin the steel and it will never harden again" Then from places like this I read many different things which, when taken all together, makes my beard turn gray! :o

My steel supplier tells me most structural steel is a36 unless specifically specked for a particular purpose. As those are used for X reinforcement between the uprights it is likely they are A36. The amount of stress on them is not much and is all lateral stress instead of shear stress. Should be excellent forging steel if my informant is correct.

Would it help to normalize them one in a while? Should one anneal them then re quench them to make them less brittle?

Don't forget the ever useful pair of angle iron with a bar welded to it for use in the vice. The idea is to use a piece of angle iron the length of your vice width and about 1" on the sides. Weld a bar about 3'' long at about 1'' off center and even with the outside edge the angle iron. This will allow the top of the bar to stick up past the bend in the angle about 2". Copy this as close to the exact same thing as you can using your eyes (close enough measurements) for the 2nd piece. Place the 2 pieces in your vice offsetting the bars the distance you need in order to make your scroll. This makes a very handy adjustable scrolling jig.

I have 2 boys who are always waiting at the door for me to get home so we can go to the shop, they are 10 and 13 and are good kids. They are currently learning as I learn but seem to be dedicated so far. I am hoping to find them an anvil at the saltfork conference on the 18-19 but if not then we will be building a 2nd forklift fork anvil. It was inspirational to watch the 2 at the sulfur tractor show, the 10yo was trying to explain all the blacksmithing stuff to the kids who came up to the ropes while the other was steady pulling on the bellows or beating the snot outa some scrap. They both took turns making cowboy hats from quarters and dimes on a former setup by one of the other smiths. It is a real pleasure to see kids (mine or otherwise) doing something constructive with their free time besides sitting on the video games! I also really enjoy the time I get to spend with them and the inspiration I get from their VERY active imaginations! LOL they are convinced that if they can dream it up we can make it!

Bring it to the Saltfork conference on the 18th , also bring any anvils you want to part with for the betterment of 2 very young blacksmiths! :p

Will grade 8 bolts make decent punches or drifts? I can not find any information as to the carbon content or the steel type of these things but I am hoping to at least make a drift and a small shaping hammer from them. Any Ideas?

I'm thinking of making an ASO out of wood with some wooden hammers for my 3Yo boy so he can hit something that will not likely hurt him. may even help keep him from grabbing my hammer and running off with it if I give him one that looks like mine and he can actually swing.

Give us the auction #, perhaps someone can get a better idea of what it is.

I like the idea of the aligning tabs, I usually end up with my work half cooled down by the time I have the thing aligned to the center when I punch the shape for some flowers I do. Those are basically using the same type of setup and just cutting petals about 1/2''-3/4'' deep and about the same width, then bending them over after punching the center as deep as I can. I then drill a hole in the bottom and run my stem through and put it into the forge (or use a torch) and allow it to burn a little. This gives the pistol a bit of texture and shape more like a flower.

No idea about them but found the link while looking for these anvils, they look nice though. http://www.ratholeforge.com/