son_of_bluegrass

Nowhere close to Wyoming- Sorry. But has he checked ABANA for a chapter close to him? ron

Having done a little farrier work (enough to know my knees dislike it enough that the money ain't worth it), I can tell you he was standing exactly where a horse instinctivly kicks when attacked from behind. If he had stood beside the ribcage it likely would have worked. ron

I can't say side blast makes for fewer sparks, but side blast works better for charcoal. A bottom blast will tend to blow the lit charcoal right out of the fire pot unless you have almost no blast which will leave the fire on the cool side for forging. Of course if you just run a pipe into the fire for the side blast the pipe will want to burn up. For my set-up, I find 4-6" fire depth works about right. That gives me a hot spot a little bigger than my fist (roughly a 5" sphere). If I was making a charcoal forge, I stick with castable refractory or fire brick (and I plan to as soon as I get some $$$). But before I finalized plans, I'd try different sizes, shapes, number and construction of blast pipes etc using ash or clay to decide what suited my purposes best. ron

This looks like a good post to sticky to the top. ron

Have you asked yourself what you would be willing to pay for that piece??? On the occasion I've sold something i try to balance that (I see all the flaws in my work) with a rough estimate of materials (usually 2X the easy figured materials such as steel and other physical parts) plus an hourly rate times what a reasonable compentant work would spend (takes out the learning curve). The hourly rate should not really be less than $12-15/hour. You think the next will take around 6 hours total if i read the post right so that is something between $70-90 in hourly rate A guess on materials of around $30 give a price of $100-120. Do you think it is worth that? Looking at it I might be willing to go a max of $150 so I don't think $120 is out of line. ron

I've seen some done that way. If I was to do that, I'd create the rough bevel with a hammer leaving it thicker than usual. Then file or grind the bevel being careful to remove the remains of the teeth on the bevel and do an edge quench or clay coat the remaining teeth so they stayed soft. And yes by soak, I mean to leave the file in the fire at temperature some time (for files it seemt to be at least 30 seconds maybe a full minute) before quenching. A full anneal will result in a softer and thus easier to rough file/grind than normalizing. You can normalize if you want. ron

I've made a couple, just playing around. First thing, I've yet to use a file that worked exactly like 1095 but they are close if you get a high carbon one not a case hardened one. (high carbon some other alloying elements). They tend to be cold short and will crack if worked below a bright red (estimate 1500 F). I anneal first and remove the teeth but have seen some with the teeth left intact for appearance and the folks who had them didn't report problems with cold shuts or cracking. YMMV As to the heat treat, I've found they require a bit longer soak (about 1 minute) than 1095 at about the same temperature (1450-1500 F). They also tend to be more wear resistant than 1095. ron

The last ones I prices were about $20 each. I said I can make them for less than that and have something totally unique. At $35 or 40 I could stand to make some for sale. ron

It is quite a bit more complex than a full tang fixed blade. Mostly it requires more care in fitting and time in general to make a folder. Look for a copy of "The complete book of pocket knife repair" if you're interested in making slipjoint folders. ron

Have you checked for local blacksmithing clubs in your area yet? If not find ABANA's site and see if they have a local chapter. You may be able to try several different styles of forge and decide what you like best. Personally I like charcoal best with coal second (for most opperations) and have tried propane but don't like it. It just doesn't suit me. ron ps there may be an oppurtonity to build a forge as part of the group.

Every set I've seen look about like that; some with handles, some (like these) without. If it is japanese style, what other styles are (were) out there? They are not for carving so much as putting a mark on wood as to show where to cut. ron

I'm being informed I ain't posting often enough so here is the only thing i've gotten finished in a while. A set a carpenter's marking knives for my own use from old file material. Since they are for my own use, I didn't spend too much time making them pretty, just functional. ron

It looks like you fire pit is around 3-4 inches deep. That is fine in and of itself but when you light your fire, mound the coal to 5-6 inches deep. I use a side blast forge with charcoal (and it looks like your design would work well with charcoal) and have burned coal in it. I would not add to the floor unless the bottom proves too thin. Without someplace for the ash/clinker to go it will build up in the bottom. If the air source is closer to the bottom that equates to more fire tending. It looks like your pipe might be running slightly up hill into the fire pit. You ideally want a slight down slope. That helps prevent any debris from falling/sliding into the pipe and reducing air flow. Is there some way to controll air flow? You'll want to vary that depending on what you're doing. That's all that comes to mind at the moment. Get some coal (bitumenous) or natural charcoal and fire it up. ron

If you don't water cool your pipe, it will burn off. The way I fixed this in my "forge-b-q" (converted from a grill) is to make the last couple of inches of "pipe" from brick. That means the pipe has a brick on either side and one on top to form the last bit of airway prior to the coals. 16 gauge is definatly too thin for the bottom unless you line the bottom. One my design I've found the blast pipe works best if it slopes downhill into the fire just a bit. Before I did this, the ash/clinker would clog the pipe something terrible (stopping about every hour to clean it out. You'll probably do a lot of tweeking to get optimal results and may want to make a trial forge with found material to learn the eccentricities of a side blast if you haven't played with one. ron

If your young or inexperienced at the desired job, stuff such as martial arts teaching can show dedication and the ability to be where you are suppose to be when your suppose to be there. If you have a fair bit of experience outside activities will probably not add much if anything to your resume, if you want to add it and there is room at the bottom without starting a page 2 it probably won't hurt. What others said is good advice, keep it simple, honest, use keywords for the field and don't get discouraged if it doesn't go anywhere. ron

Some sort of hold-down. Hammers: at least one sledge or hand-sledge in the 3-5 lb range something around 1/2 lb the following faces/piens in whatever combination in a weight comfortable to use for extended periods of time flat, crowned, ball, straight, cross (right and left diagonal can replace straight/cross) it never hurts to remind on safety equipment ron

Parts may or may not be available. Where are you? Someone here with more knowledge may be willing to take a look at it with you. If you just want to play around, you can build a forge for much less than that. Do you have pictures? ron

That looks good for #2. Keep at it and soon you'll be making presentation peices.

I found a dozen or so knives really helped developed hammer control when finishing by hand. The better my hammer work, the less filing I had to do. It also allows for the practice of heat treating. ron

You can use castable refractry or fire brick or any number of fireproof materials to line the forge and forgo the firebox.

I thought that was If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence you ever tried and if you can't do that blame someone else. ron

You are paying $100 for the hat and $600 for the name.

There are also choices over at astragal press. If you haven't looked into metallurgy maybe a basic metallurgy book? ron

I use a homemade side blast forge that in a past life way a Weber grill. I've used both coal and charcoal in it an both fuels work well. The biggest differences between coal and charcoal is coal smokes more at the start and coal requires more air. The other differences reported seem to be more differences in forge design than fuel. I've seen a few plans various places for side blast forges sometimes called "forge-b-ques".

Even if it is an ASO (anvil shaped object also called boat anchor - used to denote a poor quality "anvil") there could be $10 worth of scrap steel in it. BUY. ron