Geoff Keyes

Matt, contact me via PM, and I can turn you onto a stash of heavy steel posts. There are also several in the local craigslist at about $3 a pound. It's a year out, but there is a big blacksmith swapmeet in June. As I said, PM me and we can talk. Geoff

Steel is (approximately) 0.28 lb per cubic in, or 425 lb per cubic ft. The dimensions you give are more or less the dimensions of my 200# Fisher. Given a bit more mass because of the squattier profile mid-200#'s sounds about right. I'd be surprised if it came in 300# or above. Just my .02, adjusted for inflation. Geoff

I bought this from craiglist, and when I finally got to checking it out this is what I found So when the folks told me it was working, and that it had only been used for one job, that was a lie. OTOH, for $100, I'm not out much. Does anyone here have any experience with this? How should I attack it? The gearbox bolts to the saw arm and the shaft goes through to mate with the lower blade wheel. The worm gear is driven directly from the motor via a step pulley. I know I can get parts for it (HF is still making the saw), but some help in how to take this apart would be nice. Thanks Geoff

The first of the Junkyard hammers was built on a straight 6 engine block. If you search Youtube for The Original Junkyard Hammer, you'll find a video of the build and the hammer in action. Geoff

Those pics are kinda hard to see. Can you get some brighter one, I'd like to see your work Geoff

Could you drill, tap, and bolt a patch plate over it? It may be that a skilled welder could weld it, and then you'd have to file it smooth again. Just some thoughts. Geoff

Dablacksmith is correct, 1040 is too low in carbon to make a good knife, in modern terms. I'm sure a smith in 1800 would have been thrilled. 1040 and 4140 make for good prybars, hammers and those kinds of tools. For a good basic knife steel, I like 1080/84. 1084 may not be easily available, but 1080 is. When you're forging, you are losing carbon to heat, even if you're careful as to your temps, by the time you get done with forging 1040, you're probably below the carbon content needed to get a hard edge. 1080 give you some room. On thing, don't water quench 1080, unless you like cracking blades. Oil quench, I like food grade mineral oil but lots of things will work, vegi oils, ATF, that sort of thing. Mineral oil has a high flash point and leaves very little residue. Geoff

It's clearly a wood stove. That said, since much of the hard fab is done, it would be a simple conversion to a gas forge. Coal forges are generally open topped, though I am not an expert on solid fuels. Geoff

I use a post anvil for nearly all of my work, I am primarily a bladesmith. I built a forging station that has my post anvil (5x6x26 4140), a tooling anvil (another 5x6x26 on it's side with a couple of receivers welded on). I realized that I needed a hardy hole for a few things, like a cutoff. So I included the swedge block for that. The whole thing sits on a piece of 1" x 3'x4' plate. With some effort or help, I can use the edge shapes on the block. As a hardy holder, I use it all the time, as a forming tool, just once in a while. I'd like to get those Salt Fork blocks, they'd be handy for making fittings and such. Geoff

So I guess we're done with this topic. huh? Geoff

Bottom of a welding forge

I wanted to say a couple of things. 1) You want to build the anvil out of a solid piece, no tube filled with concrete or lead. You need the rebound. OTOH, in my build I used two pieces, a 12" round with an 8" round bolted to it through welded ears. It works well enough that I've never changed it. 2) The tup can be built up out of pieces, many of the commercial hammers were built that way. Apparently, the accelerated mass acts like a solid, where the anvil loses engery to vibration. You might even be able to build the tup out of a tube filled with shot. 3) The size of the die has an effect on the work the hammer can do. Mine has small dies (for a 50# hammer) and so seems to hit harder. I used bronze wear strips in my guide, they don't show any wear after 14 years. Geoff

Short posts work, apparently

Why can't I post to this topic? Geoff

Trying to post a reply, but keep getting rejected

That is exactly what I'm saying. I saw a demo some years ago, and I cna't remember where or when, but they took a flat bar of mild 1/4 x 1.5 x 3ft and a HT and tempered bar of 10xx the same dimensions and clamped them to a table with about 2.5 ft of overhang. Weights were then attached to the ends. The curve and rebound of each was the same under the same weight, and each returned to straight when the weights were removed. Eventually, the weight on the mild steel bar exceeded the yield point of the steel, and it took a set and did not return to straight when the weight was removed, but it was a lot of weight. I would like some brain to explain to me the science, please. I don't have the tools to calculate what the spring package needs to be, or how it behave to tell you that it was under/over sprung. I suspect that withing broad limits it wold be hard to tell. If you can, biuld your hammer so that you can try out several different spring packages and see which one hits harder or has better control. This is the hammer in action, the "U" shaped package were small car springs which we had bent to shape, cold, in a 300 ton press. Geoff

Personally, I like mechanical hammers. They have a cool, steampunk vibe to them. I built a 50# mechanical from scratch using some design cues from a Champion hammer. I use it often in my shop, though the press has taken some of the work from it. It's been in service since 2000. There are tons of homebuilt designs out there, check out the Anvilfire homebuilt hammer page. It would be a challenging build, and you would end up with a very serviceable machine in the end. I built mine, with a fair amount of salvaged and found bits, for about $600. Since you have some time, this is another area to look at. You should also look for a copy of Pounding Out the Profits, it is a history of the mechanical forging hammer and has tons of pics and line drawings of hammers. There were something like 200 different companies building forging hammers in the US between 1850 and the 1920's. Geoff

I thought I posted here, but it seems to have gone, I'll try again. "Spring steel" is carbon steel with a springy heat treat, which you might describe as semi-hard. Most carbon steel, particularly cold rolled steel, is just that, semi-hard. So why not buy flat steel of the right type? 5160, 80crv2, 10xx can be had at knife makers supply houses. Admiral or the New Jersey steel baron come to mind. That way you save yourself the hassle of trying to find a plate to flatten them for you. Second, the spring rate of mild steel and carbon steel is the same (pretty much) for the same cross section, the difference is the yield point. Once a steel passes the yield point, it takes a "set". You might be able to build the spring with mild steel, maybe beef it up a couple of leaves to make up the difference. I built a power hammer some years back, based on a Champion with a DuPont toggle. The springs we had were not bent enough, so we adjusted them in a 300 ton press, cold. We broke a number of the short leaves, but we had plenty. We took the longest leaf and took a heat on the ends and rolled it around a wrist pin. We left them as forged, no HT at all. Those ends have not moved at all. The hammer has been in use since 2000 and has hundreds of hours on it. We didn't have a clue how much spring to use, so we made a WAG. It has worked just fine since the day it went into service. My point is, you may be over thinking your design. 19th century springs may not have been all that uniform, but lots of those hammers are still in use. Just my .02 Geoff

Ebay ( I searched for "ceramic fiber blanket") ebay link removed Seattle Ceramic Supply www.hightemptools.com

I drill them, either part way or all the way through. If there is a curve to deal with, drill in from both sides and file out the corner. You can also bend the tang to make it fit around the corner. Just don't drill out through the side :( :angry:. You don't need a really tight fit. The epoxy will soak into the marrow and give you a nice tight bond. The epoxy will also seal up the interior nicely. If you've got a piece with a nice outside surface, I try not to disturb that, so a buffed wax is what I use for the outside. I don't pin most of my handles, the epoxy is stronger than the handle in almost every case. Geoff

Is there some reason that you want to use a stump for your anvil? There are lots of other ways to mount this piece. You could build the base out of lumber. You could then use construction adhesive to hold it, or a couple of wedges (which is how mine is held in place). You could place it in a bucket of concrete, I know several people who have used that method. I got a piece of pipe big enough to fit around the post, welded that to a piece of plate for a foot, and put the post in the pipe. I cut some wedges from some scrap oak and hammered them in between the post and the pipe. That was 3 years ago, I'm still on the first set of wedges. Just my .02 Geoff

I use a square post anvil for just about all of my forging. It's set to hit me just above the wrist and I love the height. I put mine on a base (3/4" plate) and welded a tube to the base. The anvil sits in the tube and a couple of wooden wedges keep it from bouncing. That way, if you want to make changes, the anvil is not fixed to the base. Mine can be lifted out with a chain hoist. Nice find. If it were me, I wouldn't worry too much about HT'ing the steel, Even a mild steel post has a lot of rebound, just get a nice squared end on it and you should be ready to go. If you could shave 2 sides so that it looked like (__) this, that would be even better. Geoff

Not forging the bevel seems the simplest way to go. Forge a straight bar to your general shape (no curve) and as thin as you can. Form the curve and then take out all of the wrinkles. File or grind the edge about 50% to thickness and HT. File or grind to sharp. One thing to remember, sickles and scythes often, maybe always, are left pretty soft. This may have something to do with the amount of work it takes to file them down to sharp. Scythes were "traditionally" sharpened with a small hammer and an anvil (called a dinglestock in some parts of the world). Forging inside curve bevels is always a booger to do. Geoff

I don't see why not. Cardboard would work if you lined it properly. Geoff

Thank you very much, Dave. I hope that you got what you wanted out of the class, I certainly enjoyed the time we spent together. You are welcome anytime, even just to get a coffee refill :P. Just to spread the word a bit, I teach all phases of knife making in my shop. I prefer to teach 1 on 1, or at most 2 on 1. PM me if you have questions. Geoff