son_of_bluegrass

Aluminum would likely melt. The canning lids I'm familiar with would burn through in short order. Steel or cast iron would work. Drilling holes if something like a piece of 16 gauge sheet metal would work better (heavier gauge would be better). Uncoated cast iron grate would work.

I've used electrolysis to remove rust for small items in a mason jar with salt water (just put some table salt in the water) and a nine volt battery. ron

The shop in haysville isn't a business. At one time it was the local blacksmith business but there isn't much call for blacksmiths today. When the building was taken out by a tornado some years ago, the city (by this time this building and a couple others were owned by the city as a "historical park") wanted to just convert the whole area to a park but the insurance was for rebuilding only meaning if they didn't rebuilt they would not have gotten the insurance. So the building was rebuilt as a "recreation" of the original shop. There is some sort of agreement with the city and club allowing the club to use the shop as a blacksmith shop. All of this boils down to the shop is only open when something is going on. Monday evenings (I think starting at 6, might be 7) the shop is open, it is also open for meetings that happen there and for some other events throughout the year. The may meeting corresponds with the BAM conference so the meeting then is usually not much as a number of the members travel to that. June is frequently at a member's shop in haysville. July varies. August is always at Goessel Threshing days (Gossel, KS). For this time of year, the best option, if you can't get ahold of someone through the website to find out where the next meeting will be, is to show up on monday evening. There will be at least one board member there. Sometimes, a member or two will demo at the Great Plains Renaissance Festival. This is the third weekend in April. I'll be there with a renaissance fencing group (The Blackhearts, if you're interested) but not likely blacksmithing. And there are a couple of other folks I know will be there for something who are members of the blacksmithing club.

One of the things about the wichita group is that unless you are a dues paying member you haven't got a clue what is going on or where. They do some sort of conference or bring someone in for a demo in the spring (saltfork puts something on in the fall). There is an open shop on monday evenings for paying members (a couple dollars for fuel usage is asked). Sometimes classes of one form or another. A couple years ago there was a gas forge build. Bulk purchase of coal that is available for sale to members. Since saltfork has regional meetings around the state, the wichita group tends to concentrate on the wichita area. A number of the wichita members are also members of saltfork and I know a few members of saltfork that are members of the wichita group. Like I said, I'm no longer a member so I can't give details of what is going on in the group these days.

There is a group in the Wichita area (they have a shop in Haysville, meetings are the first saturday of the month. But not always at the Haysville shop.), the Central States Metal Artisans. These days you have to email and ask where the next meeting is if you aren't already a member. They have a website at http://gpba.abana-chapter.com/ . I'm no longer a member or I'd just tell you where the next few meetings are. ron

If you want darker, there is also applying oil while the steel is hot (black heat for 300 to 500 F is enough, no need to get to scaling temps). This also works with wax. Different oils and waxes give slightly different hues as does how heavy it is applied and the temp. I've read of people mixing graphite (or powdered charcoal) in with waxes and oils to darken them before applying that as a finish. Or you could heat it to black heat then when cool apply oil or lacquer or whatever finish. Many ways to skin this cat. ron

I don't know if this exists anywhere or not. Even if it does it may not prove all that useful as pictures don't always show a finish how it appears in person (or under different lighting conditions). I suggest you decide on a couple of finishes that you want to try (and is locally available to you) and test small amounts to see what you like. ron

You'll ultimately have to find what works for you. I see people recommending a smaller handle, I find I grip small handles harder than big handles. You also may be trying to swing a bigger hammer than you should at this point. You probably are trying to hit too hard and with the thought of really whaling on the steel you tend to grip hard and swing hard - that isn't a good way to hit hard. Relax and work on swinging straight and true without gripping the hammer tight and the rest will follow. ron

Having spent some time in Europe (when I was in the army), I'd strongly suggest lots of pictures of the iron work there. It will make you want to start saving your pennies to go there yourself.

If you have hot spots you can use a muffle pipe. If you get a lot of pitting I'd guess you either have too much oxygen or too hot a fire. (or both) ron

I suggest you start by going here, http://www.abana.org/affiliates/affiliate_list.shtml , to see if there is an affiliated club close to you that you could attend a meeting or two. The local to me group has an open forge one night a week for a couple dollars to pay for fuel usage for members. If there is something similar close to you that could work for a start. Aside from that, get creative. The basics of a forge is a hole in the ground that holds fire with an air source to up the temperature. The basics of an anvil is something that can withstand the heat and pounding (before iron became cheap enough, large rocks were used). Add some way to hold the steel and some form of hammer. From there the only thing missing is desire. My first forge was and old weber grill lined with ashes that has a hole in the side for a piece of pipe to supply air. I was lucky and given a blower but I know a guy that still uses an old hair dryer for his air source after many years. ron

The rust converters I've use have been based on phosphoric acid, they work by converting the iron oxide to iron phosphate (at least that is my understanding). The iron phosphate then inhibits further rust. For them to work, there needs to be rust. Which means if you have clean bare metal you need to get it to rust before it will work. And unless you can get the rust to happen evenly, don't expect the finish to be even. Naval jelly is a common rust converter (sometimes called rust remover), there are others, I've use a rattle can for applications with lots of nooks and crannies that would be difficult to get to otherwise. There are different concentrations requiring different levels of protective gear and different procedures and clean up recommendations. Anything off the shelf should work, read the labels and decide what you want to try. So far as heating until you get dark oxides, have you ever heated a piece of clean steel and watched it change colors? Starting at a light yellow and progressing to blue then turning dark? That is what I'm saying here, it is a way to achieve a dark appearance. For this method you heat the metal until the color is what you want. Since the oxides tend to be a thin surface layer, it is easily marred. Thus the recommendation to add a protective finish. As for the wax/oil mixes, these take some practice to get consistent. I've done these a couple of ways depending on the heat source handy. It can be done by heating the metal and carefully applying the wax or oil. The wax or oil should smoke but not burn. Or the wax or oil can be applied cold then the item is heated until it smokes. The exact color you get depends on the wax or oil used, the heat applied, how long it's held at temperature and whims of whatever gods happen to be in the area. For a something with a short learning curve and few mistakes, a rattle can of paint formulated to take the heat is easy. Stove paint, bar-b-que grill paint, I believe there are automotive paints are generally readily available. ron

Maybe. There are many finishes that give a dark color to metal. Some need to be applied while the metal is hot, others not. One solution is a high temp paint. Beeswax, other waxes, oils and mixes involving these are generally applied to hot metal and color can vary depending on the specific wax/oil and the temperature applied. Alternatively, they can be applied cold and then heated. The temperatures required to achieve a darkening are in the range of 300 to 500 F. There there are various cold and hot blueing solutions. Or you could heat until the oxide colors turn dark (for black you're looking at the range of 650 to 800 F) and apply a protective finish over that. Or you could let it rust and apply rust converter, that usually achieves a dark finish. Now what questions do you have? ron

I would question the recommendation of cobalt blue. They block a lot of visible light while letting in a fair amount of IR. By blocking so much visible light, your eye will open more to be able to see and that extra IR will pass right through. I'd stick with a welder shade 2 or 3 or higher (from the second link, the Uves Infra-dura 2.0, 3.0 or 5.0). ron

On ear muffs, if you break the seal (i.e. wearing glasses) you reduce the effectiveness of the hearing protection. Since I wear glasses all the time, I prefer the foam in the ear plugs. You may want to consider a full face shield instead of (or in addition to) safety glasses. Glasses will protect the eyes, face shield will protect more. There is a thread on safety glasses that covers different shades and what they protect from, rather than type that much here I'm going to say read it. For about $50 US I bought a side of leather from Tandy (the only leather store in town) and made my own apron, cross the back instead of hanging off the neck and going from just under the neck (as high as I found comfortable to below my knees (looking online the cheapest I saw for similar was around $80 US). I don't wear gloves. The last pair of shoes I had were steel toed, this time money was an issue and my current pair aren't. But they are leather work boots that go over the ankle and under pants legs (the idea being to keep hot stuff from falling inside the shoe). Definitely read the safety thread here. The short answer really is to protect what you want to keep. You've taken the first step to keep all your parts by asking, now you need to follow through. ron

Depends on how close and how hot they'll get. Unless you're in some far flung corner of the globe, bolts are cheap.

One thing I don't recall seeing mentions is edge thickness. (I may have missed it.) Before heat treating the edge should be at a minimum 20 thousandths (0.020) inch. Thicker is safer, that is just the thinnest edge thickness I've not had problems with during heat treat. If you don't have equipment to measure that then about the thickness of a dime. ron

Somebody is going to pipe up and say that milk doesn't work. Way back when I was in college, taking an advanced chemistry class, the question of zinc poisoning came up. The method (as I recall) of the poisoning is the zinc interfering with the normal action of calcium in the body (nearly the same size and both with a positive charge, but calcium is +2, zinc is +1). The idea behind recommending milk is to increase the calcium to drive the zinc out. I don't know if it actually works or not but it seems to me having sufficient reserves of calcium before exposure is probably better than trying to build up calcium reserves after. ron

In my experience (includes what I've read), old files tend to be very similar to 1095, W-1 or W2. 1095 and W-1 heat treat the same, W-2 need a bit more soak at temperature. First normalize. Heat to non-magnetic then a bit more. Quench in warm oil. Temper to suit the intended purpose. If you are familiar with decalescence (sp?) you can use that to determine when to quench instead of a magnet. You can start tempering at 325 for dedicated slicers (it leave the steel almost full hard but prone to breaking if dropped on a hard surface). There is always the possibility the file was case hardened which means you're getting practice with your hammering. ron

I didn't intend to mislead anyone. Smaller pieces do tend to be more stable by the nature of there not being enough change in the seasonal shrinking/swelling to put enough stress on the piece to crack it. Larger pieces generally split to the pith, smaller ones may not. I regularly use pieces I've air dried myself for everything from knife handles to boxes to small tables. If you know how to design for the wood movement it isn't a problem, for knife handles this means not relying on just glue to hold it on. Sealing the end grain when air drying serves to slow the moisture leaving the wood which allows it to adjust to the stress of drying better. Commercial kilns may seal the end grain, I've bought kilned lumber that the ends were sealed. Whether that was because they weren't able to kiln it right away or for some other reason I don't know. ron

Wood exposed to air (whither air or kiln dried) will reach equilibrium with the humidity. You may never reach 8% (some people claim 10 or 12% is the lowest you'll reach air drying, but if it's dry enough you can get lower). Even if you do, when the humidity goes up the moisture content of the wood will go up as well. This is why wood shrinks and swells with the changing seasons. (And why a lot of people only use stabilized wood for scales.) If the location you dry the wood is too warm or has too much air movement, it is prone to splitting. You can minimize this by sealing the end grain. I like PVA carpenter's glue for this, it is just about the only thing I use yellow glue for anymore. Others swear by commercial concoctions (I believe one is called anchor seal) or paint. Also slow drying will minimize cracks and splits. I give pieces several months to dry unless the wood is porous enough to dry faster, hickory isn't that porous. In any case, leave the pieces long. You should split the pieces through the pith if you aren't cutting them down to scales now. If you are cutting to scales, leave them oversized. I prefer to de-bark before starting to dry wood since a lot of the bugs that attack the wood enjoy the bark and wood just under the bark and removing this reduces what will start eating your wood. Good luck. ron

Are you looking for ways to texture while maintaining square? Or are you looking for suggestions for a texture?

Kiln drying to 6% does not stabilize the wood, it is the heat associated with most kiln operations that changes the wood. And all wood will stabilize to a moisture content dependent on humidity levels, that is why hammer heads tend to loosen in winter when it is generally drier. Which oak, some oak tends to be splintery and crack prone, not good for a handle. Other oaks are ok. Do you have pictures of the failure? It would help with the diagnosis. I've seen hammers with eyes that were woefully undersized for the weight and tended to break handles. And as was mentioned, any sharpness at the juncture makes breakage more likely. Also quarter sawn is ofter better than flat sawn and end-grain orientation matters. ron

I don't know that I'd trust the first ones you've linked to. It says they are shade 3 but not welders shade 3. The shade (as I understand it) is how dark it is not what it protects against. The hazard is looking into the fire. If you want to look up "black body radiation" (not a perfect correlation) you'll see what kind of radiation is emitted at what temps. The fire itself is likely between 3 and 4000 degrees F, welding heat is under 2300 degrees F. Higher temps equate to more radiation emitted and there is more UV at higher temps. ron

I believe the Olympic and sport fencing outside of the U.S. (FIE standards) require maraged blades. I don't know about others. ron