johnnie

Brian Brazeal has made some huge horse heads out of large diameter bar like yours.
They look stunning. Just an idea!

Hi guys,

I have very kindly been given a double barrelled 12 bore damasus shotgun.

The age is aprox 150 years old and I want to restore it.

What is the best way of cleaning the damascus without etching to too much?

There is very delicate engraving around the trigger guard etc and would hate to
damage it.

Don't think the photos are very good but hope you can get an idea of what I've got.

Thanks for any advice in advance,

Johnnie.

Some sort of locking pin I think. You can see where it has been captivated and the small section thats been weathered. If I am right its gotta be of a quality grade steel.
I could be wrong, sometimes its easy to be wrong just ask my wife!

Great idea, thanks for sharing. Will be making one the same very soon.

Thats a good looking hammer Harris, I recently had a 2.5lb rounding hammer forged for me out of 1085
Its the best hammer I've forged with. Like you I love hitting with the rounding side.

Tubbe I am loving this thread.
As others have said your tooling is superb!
Its proved an interesting read and its pushed me (and hopefully others) into forging their own BIGGER tools.
A big thank you to you Tubbe, Brian and everyone else who have posted their knowledge on here.
John.

You might find that the very tip of the drill is tungsten, I mean literally the first millimetre.
The rest of it will be of a high carbon steel which with the correct heat treatment should be good enough for tooling. Punches etc.

Also practice using "play doh". It will move the same as the steel only a lot easier.
Taper an end of a 12 mm round and taper 50mm along the bar of doh and flatten it out on the anvil.
The steel your forging will do the same just with a lot more elbow grease.
This way will save you time and your scrap bin will be a lot lighter!!
Most of all enjoy your time, search this site and good luck.

Very nice, well done. What steel is it?

Sorry, brush on at black hot to get the best protection!
The light smoke will tell you if the piece is hot enough.

I prefer using an equal mix of beeswax, linseed oil and white spirit.

It will harden when it cools so keep in in a metal container near the forge so its molten and ready to use.

Brush on and buff off when the piece can be handled but not cold as it takes a lot more elbow grease to buffoff!!

Yes I agree, you twists are fab, clean and interesting to look at!!
Thanks Colleen

Yep I agree and thanks for the step by step process. Its good to see the technique. Fantastic!

Nice work, I like that the cross points are symmetrical!!

Just had one like that made for me by Alec Steele in the UK.
Its the best, I love the way the steel moves under my new hammer.

Hi again guys,
OK the anvil/ sow block is definatly the original as it slides into the main
body of the hammer. No way of turning it around.

The ram is bang on level and the dies are not running parallel to each other
although they are both individually spot on......it has to be the anvil.

I've removed the anvil bolts and with a 5mm x 50mm flat bar packed
underneath and behind the anvil where it meets the hammer casting.

Unfortunately I cannot remove the anvil now as I have resined 20mm
rag bolts into the concrete. Not good as I wanted to see exactly what the problem was.

I am now 2mm off level, I am using her tomorrow and really hope to
see an improvement.

Thank you all for your time to advise on whats best. I shall keep you posted.

A problem has arisen on my Beaudry's Peerless and kinda answered my previous problem

I have been making a new set of dies and with the originals removed I've noticed the ram isn't level with the top of the anvil.

There is a 7mm difference between left to right.

This is obviously why work pieces are getting twisted whilst forging and getting
pushed away from the dies The top of the anvil is off level. It is sat on a level
base of concrete on 18mm exterior grade ply.
My guess is the base is not a good cast.

I could level the anvil but it weighs 500kg and think the front which is the lowest side would cut into the ply.

I've no access to a milling machine to mill the dies.

Here are the photos with the problem.

Anyone with any solutions will recive a big kiss in the post!!! The only thing I can come up with is to shim the bottom die to level but is this a good idea??

My duckiesimage.jpg

Ha never thought of or seen duck before. They look fab!

How did you get such a vivid colour on them???

My wifey got me Mark Aspery's vol 3 Joinery book and the Toby Hickmans Power Hammer techniques dvd.

And a banging christmas dinner too.

Happy New Year to anyone reading this!

Go with fork lift tines. Its works for my 50kg Beaudrys. No heat treatment if you use a grinder.

Exactly. I'm afraid I used bridges as examples of stabilizing foundations with batter piles. the shock waves are severe because you're sitting on wet clay. Jello is indeed how it acts. This is laquifaction, vibration shakes the soil grains and water gets drawn in to fill the voids but it can't be driven out nearly as quickly so the soil grains are kept apart and can flow like a liquid. OR move in waves like a pond, etc.

 

Increasing the displacement of the foundation helps in two ways, first it's more massive so resists movement and secondly it displaces more soil so the vibration is diminished by acting over a larger surface area. In wet FS (frost susceptible) soils it IS hydraulics and behaves according to the same rules. PSI is = over all surfaces, so a ram of 2x the area moves with 2x the force but 1/2 the distance. (Yeah, I didn't specify a ram area, I can if anyone needs)

 

DSW: concrete vibrators work in sands and wet clayey or silty soils. They don't work worth spit in well compacted angular soils. They can however sometimes move a rock that stopped the penetration.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty is this sort of thing your profession????

You sure as s#it know everything to know about foundations..

Words used that I've never heard of, very interesting reading though, thanks

Thanks for all the help and ideas.

I have bought the Alligator lacing strip.

The down side is I had to buy a full box as the supplier wouldn't sell individual strips.

So if anyone in the world wants Alligator connectors no27 just ask!!! I have lots!!!

My shop sits on a 75 ft deep clay layer. I poured 4 yds of concrete with rebar for the foundation for a 100 lb LG. When working large pieces of 4140, that hammer would "rattle the china" in a cabinet, in the neighbor's house 1000ft away. The little old lady said that I didn't break anything and she didn't mind because it sounded like soft wind chimes. She liked me as a neighbor.

 

Now that lady has died, the old LG moved on and was replaced by a Large Big Blu hammer, set on the same foundation and again when forging tough stuff, it will cause the new neighbors dvd player to skip. I have done a number of favors for the folks across the road and I try to never run the hammer after dinner. So all is well. The moral of the story is sub soil is everything when it comes to hammers.

 

I was told, in order to solve this issue, I would have to dig all the way through the clay, to bedrock and build back up with the appropriate foundation. wot gonna happen

Thats what I thought, phew!

Thanks Brian, thats kinda reassuring.

Oh nooooo!!!! Not what I wanted to hear!!

The water table is 8meters below us but still mud is not good although it was thick clay by the time I'd finished digging. 

Will wait to see movement before digging out the slab.........

Thanks Frosty!!

Normally a hammer is used to secure these. The link below is to a lacing type that does not require special installation tools according to the web site. The most important part is to keep the lace square to the belt center line.

 

http://www.flexco.com/products/alligator_lacing.html

 

Try to find the manufacturer's installation instructions for what you have. You may have been sold something that requires a special installation tool/machine. If so then you should switch to a different type that does not require special tools.

Thanks Andrew,

I thought maybe some sort of crimping machine is needed to do the job properly. I have tried fixind the lugs individually but no joy there!!!

The copper staples just dont seem man enough to puncture the belt, urgh!!!