arkie

Brian makes it look so easy...so smoooose. I gotta practice MORE!!! BTW, Brian...what weight is the rounding hammer you're using? if you don't mind my asking.

Fine looking hammer! Put it to good use. :) For your handle, use straight grained hickory or ash. You'll be looking at your work, not the handle (I hope).

Welcome to IFI. Great resource and fellowship here. We have one blacksmith organization "sorta" centered in the Harrison, AR, area not too far from you. Members are scattered in NW Ark, S. Mo., E. Okla. Last meeting was in Springdale and next meeting in April is in Gentry, AR near Siloam Springs north of you at the Tired Iron Show at the fairgrounds. We meet second Saturday each month. New members and visitors are welcome. The BOA indeed does demos at Harrison on occasion for some festivals and at the Rusty Wheels antique tractor show Caius mentioned. Check out the "Blacksmith Organization of Arkansas" on facebook for more info. There is another organization, as Eddie Mullins eluded to, down in Jonesboro with a sizable membership.

If you want to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, you have to start out with a silk pig.............. :rolleyes:

Welcome to the group. You'll find a wealth of information and help here. As for your hot cut hardie, if you can find a mason's chisel at a yard sale or junk tool shop you can grind down the handle to fit your hardie hole and some have a 1" handle which will fit a 1" hole just fine with some tweeking. You can sharpen and/or dress the cutting edge straight or curved as you wish.

Dust some flour on the sides and feet and gently brush it off. You can usually bring out details that way.

I certainly won't argue the "ugly" part! :-) :-)

Grymm, See if there are any blacksmith clubs or organizations near you. Often times some members may collect or find anvils for resale. That's how I found my Hay Budden.

Height is whatever is comfortable for you. Mine is about waist high, maybe a few inches lower (but then I'm kinda short...). Forge height for a person 5' 5" is one thing, that height for a guy 6' 5'' is another.

You might be thinking of Ken's Custom Iron. http://www.kensiron.com/store.html Those are still a "twist" type of making one. Best though, is to keep working on making your own. Sounds like you have plenty of time to practice. You won't learn much about smithing by buying and not working your own iron. "Practice makes perfect" (or nearly so). Good luck :)

The problem with hydrogen sulfide and sucker rods (or any tubular material for that matter) is that HS will make steel brittle. In many oil or gas wells, drill string, tubing, sucker rods and just about anything else tubular exposed to sour gas i.e., hydrogen sulfide, have broken off in the borehole due to HS embrittlement, requiring expensive fishing jobs to recover the broken pieces. Drill collars, for example that may be 8" in O.D. with a 3" or 4" I.D would break like spaghetti. Special alloy steels are required in HS environments. You will not suffer any ill effects working with sucker rod that has been around HS. Being a gas, it has long since evaporated. The only problem might be that it may break unexpectedly.

Here is a link to a typical sucker rod. http://www.weatherford.com/Products/Production/SuckerRods/APINormalizedSuckerRods/

Only the H B is in pounds, not both anvils. Both are excellent anvils. Put them to use!

UPDATE on annealing my touchmark: As Stephen Olivo, Thomas Powers (and others I may have missed) have suggested, I put some additional heat in my ash bed to lengthen the cooling-off period to anneal my touchmark. I heated two pieces of axle, each about 1 1/2" diam. x 5-6" long to yellow heat, then brought my touchmark to non-magnetic and quickly thrust all three together in a large bed of ashes to lengthen the cooling time and anneal it. Result: the two large hot pieces did the trick! Pulled out the touchmark the next day and I could score it easily with a file, so the slower cooling definitely helped the annealing process. Thanks to all who suggested adding some hot iron to the ash bed to help anneal the touchmark.

The Hay Budden is 107 pounds. They were stamped with the weight in pounds, not hundred weights.

One thing that strikes me as unique...all most everything we buy these days is "Made in China". I have yet to run across a truly blacksmith-made object that was made in China. Keep the art of blacksmithing alive; it may be the only thing left not Made in China...

To preface, I've never repaired cast iron, but it's my understanding that with cast iron welding, you need to grind out a crack, drill holes at the ends to prevent further splitting, preheat, weld with nickle rod (or similar), weld and then keep hot for a few hours for slow cooling to prevent the weld from cracking. This procedure is pretty common on thinner cast iron like engine blocks and manifolds, so it follows that pre- and post heat would be needed for the anvil as well. Any anvil repair experts on the forum?

In summation.....the guy has the $$ to buy a ready made GAS forge; apparently does NOT want to build a forge, gas or solid fuel; so I guess his next step is to figure out how to use it when he gets it. No need trying to convince him otherwise; it's his show. Then, the questions will be pouring in.

I ran across this fascinating video of hand made files...actually wood rasps I think...from France. I can't believe someone could spend years, probably, hand cutting the file faces as shown in the video...amazing. Gotta be some kind of boring.

Awesome work! Question...to bend the pieces that go through holes in the corner as well as the ones on the center ring, did you heat with a torch and bend or hold the corners and ring in the forge fire to heat and bend? Can't believe it only took 10-12 hours. Fantastic that all the pieces measured out to be the right length, etc. Great talent you have.

Propane prices have doubled, even tripled in some areas. Your price seems extraordinarily high, but then the propane folks probably are charging more for small fillups. Prices I have seen have ranged from around $3 to as high as $5.50 per gal. Also, if Washington is not near a hub for propane distribution, you will pay more. Arkansas and Missouri have initiated emergency provisions to hopefully prevent price gouging in extreme weather situations...(good luck on THAT!!)

I've read the posts in this thread and it appears that you want to do the "quick and dirty" approach by not building anything to get started, but just want to "turn and burn" as Jody, the welder says. I see no fault in wanting to buy something ready to use; different strokes for different folks; and if that's what it takes to get you started working with metal, then so be it. Lots of folks get impatient when they want to start a new venture, and wonder why they can't just "do it". Get your ready-made forge; learn to use it; most of all, take some instructions from some experienced smiths nearby such as the Balcones group, learn to ask questions and most of all....watch and listen. Use the resources on IFI to the fullest. The one thing that you will NOT be able to short cut and avoid spending some time doing is.....practice. You will have to spend HOURS working with the hammer and anvil, working metal and making lots of mistakes...learning from those mistakes. I hope with your determination to get started and enthusiasm you express, that you will take the time to be patient and learn. Crawl...walk...run. Good luck!

Beautiful hammers!! :)

I have a brake drum forge with a fan and blast gate. For a long break like lunch (if I can pull myself away that long...) I just pile up some coal, turn off the fan, and open the gate all the way. There is just a trickle of air pulled in by convection that leaves a slightly glowing fire but doesn't burn up hardly any coal.

If you are using 2" or 3" piping, I would stick with a blast gate (air gate) or speed control. A 1" fitting may not give you the air volume you might need for lots of heat or large pieces.