arkie

In the photo you can clearly make out most of the name Hay Budden Manufacturing and most of "Brooklyn", so I suppose that cinches it as being a Hay Budden.

It was 6 deg. this AM, 34 high temp today, still too cold for outside treating at my place. I still won't be able to forge outside until we get some rain to make the burn bans go away (I forge outside next to some woods). Probably not until this weekend or first of next week...WAHHHHH!!! Will be trying both ashes and vermiculite when I can get back to the forge.

Welcome. You ARE indeed fortunate to have a blacksmith to work with. So many have to rely on youtube, descriptions, etc. when getting started that they miss out on the "hands-on" experience. I recall that when I started making my first nails, I thought I had it down pat after watching some youtube videos. Well, I DIDN'T. It took me making two different nail headers and most of a couple of hours before I finally got it down to my satisfaction.

Heating tape? Maybe wrap it around the valve. Or...a pan heater like for automobile engines or adapt a fitting to use a block heater.

Francis, as you and others have suggested, I may try the vermiculite as well as ashes. Ashes are darned messy compared to the vermiculite :(

Welcome to the forum! You're gonna learn a lot here. Spend some quality time searching and browsing through all the info on the site and most of your beginning questions will be answered in depth. Good place to spend some COLD winter days with a cup of hot coffee or tea. :) X2 on Thomas' suggestion for a smaller brake drum. I built mine, as did many others, using a regular drum off a car and it works just fine.

You know, probably one of the greatest advantages of doing an in-depth search for information is that in the course of a search so many other interesting topics pop up and give one an even greater insight into blacksmithing and related topics. I sometimes end up going off in a tangent on something interesting I ran across and forget to follow up on my original search!!!! :wacko: As for anvil dates...I guess it's sorta like antiques...curiosity.

The knife was not too sharp...the board was too soft :rolleyes:

I think the biggest problem with "trolls", newbies and others asking questions that have been discussed MANY times over and over is simply.... LAZINESS!!!!! My take on it is that many of the offenders are too lazy to take the time to SEARCH this wonderful repository of information. Sure, it may take a few minutes, hours or even days to find the information they are asking for, but they need to consider how much time has gone into posting that information from the participants in the forum. I can guarantee that the time involved in accumulating that information is much greater than their search time. As an example, I felt bad about asking the age of my newly acquired Hay-Budden anvil from members who had paid hard earned $$ to buy the book, so I searched all the posts I could find relating to the subject and eventually "bracketed" the probable date for my serial number. Simple. Just search and ye shall find..... :)

I liked the advice of some of you to put a heater bar(s) in the ash along with the rod to keep the heat up. I fully agree that it probably cooled MUCH too fast. Rich, I checked the non-mag color with a magnet, then quickly put it back into the fire to bring it back up to that color before putting in the ash and will repeat that process when I use the heater bar(s) to retard cooling. It may be a couple of days or more before I can get back to forging. My forge is outside my shop surrounded by woods; we have a severe dry spell with high winds and burn bans all over the place at this time. No rain in the forecast for a few days. Not wanting to have a fire going in the forge with those conditions....frustrating!!

Yeah, I agree. I wish I knew what this particular steel is. I can always use an old punch, heat treat, dress the tip then engrave.

Stephen, If the next annealing doesn't work, using hot steel in the ashes, I am going to try a diamond burr. Ridgeway, Right now I only have the 3/8" diameter (straightened) springs and one large truck spring, about 3/4" diameter (straightened). Easier right now with the smaller one, might give the truck spring a try on the next go-round. I can always taper the business end of the touchmark to the size I need. Thanks again for the suggestions.

Chest hair + hot sparks = brush fire!!!! :o

Thomas, If the next reheat and re-anneal doesn't work, I'll certainly try the helper bar; thanks for the pointer. That should keep the temp up for a slow cooling period. The first time with ashes (very fine ashes at that) it seemed like the bar cooled in a matter of an hour or two, certainly not the longer time you indicated. Back to the "grind stone" as they say...

Maybe just use it for a striking anvil and try to find a better one for your regular blacksmithing work.

After straightening out the coil spring, I did give it a slow, soaking heat (about 10 min. since it was only 3/8" thick) just above critical temp (checked with magnet) then put it in ashes until cool to the touch (not warmed ashes). As for cutting off the tip, I did it quickly and in short steps...the tip never changed to any color like straw or blue...polishing with the flap disk was done in about 1 second bursts, not hot to the touch. Stephen, I think using water with the carbide burr would not be effective with a Dremel; it would immediately spin off any water from the contact area. Were you meaning use water with a diamond burr? Seems like it would spin off any water as well. I'll try going back and repeating annealing it by soaking above critical temp and using ashes and see if that improves it. Thanks for all the suggestions, guys.

The exterior of the spring steel was wire brushed from the forge to remove scale, an end was cut off flat with a 1/16" cut off wheel on an angle grinder, then the end polished gently with a flap disk. From what I have read and seen, spring steel from coil springs is commonly used to make touchmarks.

I was attempting to make a touchmark the other day. The material I used was from a coil spring that I straightened out. Diameter of the resulting rod was about 3/8". I heated it above critical temperature and cooled it in a bed of ashes to normalize it as much as possible and remove any hardening if any. Afterwards, a file would not scratch it and when I tried to carve my pattern in the end with a Dremel tool and tiny carbide burr, the burr would do nothing but skate across the surface. What would be the best way now to try to carve or engrave my touchmark in the end....diamond point burr or what???

chopper & Griley... I use a bathroom fan for my blower. Runs as off or on. For air control, I made a blast gate (air gate) by notching a 2" black pipe union and making a sliding sleeve with a hole in it to control the air volume. For most work it's only about 1/4 open, but for a lot of heat I leave it wide open. The blower is a cheepie; $15 at a big box store, rated at about 60CFM. Agreed, dimmers don't play well with bathroom blowers.

In the "old days" before air conditioning and such, homes in hot climates had a large exhaust fan in the ceiling which blew into the attic. They kept windows open to let the fan draw outside air in and create a breeze which in turn cooled as best it could. I have talked to folks who lived on the hot, humid Gulf Coast in pre-airconditioning days and had ceiling fans that exhausted into the attic and they actually said it was tolerable in summer...hard to believe, but those folks didn't lie.

Thomas Powers had some very good advice.... You might just be surprised...if you took your work as mentioned, with a peace offering of some kind, to a small welding shop near quitting time before they put their tools away and explained that you are an aspiring blacksmith with very limited resources, they most likely would accommodate you at no cost or very little cost. I for one, if I had a shop near you, would do it for no charge to give you a start with your setup and encourage you go further.

Chopper, nice looking forge! My forge is very similar to yours. Original sides were 1 1/2" angle iron and coal kept falling off. I made some side boards out of 1/8" x 3" flat stock. I cut and tack welded some vertical strips to the flat stock, opposing inside and out. I can slip the sides on and off over the 1/8" original sides as needed. I have not taken them off yet, but for long steel pieces they are easily removed. Also, I have added an ash dump...best thing since sliced bread.

You're on a roll...keep going and you'll be forging before you know it :) BTW, get a good stock of sucker rod when you can. Makes for great forging steel. You are fortunate to live where you are. Many places don't have sucker rod or even know what it is for that matter.

I'm kinda new to heat treating, but from what I've read it's best to not hold the piece in one place but to move it vertically a bit as well as swirling around to prevent a sudden demarcation line where the metal is quenched. Anyone else have a take on that?

Glenn, First, thanks for moving my post to the proper thread...I had not noticed the existing one. Back to my original question, why does coal have to be treated with any chemicals (toxic ones at that)? Crushing and sorting are mechanical, heat or other drying can dewater can't it? Not living in coal country, I am not familiar with coal processing. I only burn it :)