Crazy Ivan

Awesome! I'm glad you learned something AND got excited about forging your own. That 4130 you got will make a nice few hammers. I hope you took something away from my "oh shoot!" Moment when the balance was off on the hammer and saw how I addressed it. That is a difficult thing to learn IMO. Thank you! You should expect to see yours in the mail within a week or two.

I agree, but what I really need is $180 to send out for it lol. I am not able to make a decent stamp since my logo is a bit too tight for my hands to do well. Meticulous small work is not something I enjoy all that much lol.

Ohhh crud!!! I forgot to mention, NickOHH helped to strike on this one. Thanks Nick! You did well, especially for our 1st time working together. No bruises on my knuckles is more than I can credit some folks I've had strike for me lol. Thanks for the help bud!

Here is a freshly finished and shipped 2.5 lb cross pein hammer. I took inspiration for this one from an old B&O railroad straight pein I used to own. The handle is going to be a standard shape on all my future hammers. It has a great feel and balance. Forged from 4150 with a broad radius on the cross pein. What do y'all think?

Along with brushing the scale off, you may want to look into "wet forging". I'm no bladesmith but I have done it before and it blows the scale right off your work. Just my 2 cents.

I use heavy weight oil. Grease will trap scale and create an abrasive wearing your screw and screw box. Oil is much easier to clean out than grease. Some people use grease, some use oil. Your call.

Machinist dykem might be what you're looking for.

That's a pretty standard cost for a complete and working blower.

Looks like a Peter Wright as far as I can tell. Nice find

It's a Columbian (or at least the mounting bracket is). At $85 congrats, you are officially now a cetifiable thief!! Good grab.

What is the max thickness your machine is rated for and what size wire are you running? Assuming .035 solid wire with shielding gas at 26 volts you would be okay with one pass and a 1/4" weld. If not, preheat as mentioned and do 3 passes (a root and 2 cover passes) on a beveled and cleaned joint should be just fine. I don't know your experience as a weldor though so I'm not really sure what to suggest to YOU in particular.

Here's some more of what I got done today. I started a new coal forge build more suitable for working larger and longer stock (think gates and fences). The table is a 3/16" thick and roughly 5.5'X2.5' with some 3" X4" angle wrapping most of it. The legs are thin walled round tubing. It is 175 lbs of steel from a local scrap yard which cost me $50. I used $6 in cutting wheens and approx $5 in welding wire. This same forge can be built via drilling and bolting if you don't have access to a welder. I still need to fabricate the fire pot and twuyer. The hood was free salvage. Cost was $61 total. This was paid for from an order for a hammer and a pair of tongs I'll make later this week for $230. I put $50 into the pot for fuel and abrasives. This leaves my total loss/gain from this shop build at +$144. Side note, to the hammer winners I will get to forging them by the end of the week and pm you for your mailing addresses. Stay tuned.

I have heard of someone taking a truck transmission to use as a multiplier for a twisting set up. Food for thought.

Very nice work. I love seeing bronze rivets against blackened steel. I like the joinery too.

Both hammers are now spoken for.

One of the two hammers has been claimed. One more to go. The next person to message me gets a free (+shipping) hand forged hammer sent to them. I expect to be forging hammers within the next 7 days. Next DM gets it.

That is a large pipe vise indeed. Not in my current budget though, otherwise I would have it already. I do intend to go back however as this yard has a plethora of machine shop tools as well as lengths of known tool steels and various mild steel bar.

Today I got my orders for beeswax and a butcher block brush. I had an amazon gift card so that's where I got them. Even though it was no cost to me, I will add that cost to my tally. I spent $30 on them so my set up cost is currently -$20. Aside from that, I went to another scrapyard today and spent $16 on 16 lbs of some H13 plate. So now I am at $36 set up cost. Not too shabby. I am still pounding away on my previous scrap yard stock and made some hammer eye tongs out of the coil spring I had. They came out well and while not entirely satisfied with the result, they work flawlessly so that's the real goal here right? Anyways, here's some pictures of the tongs and a better picture I took of the hot cut hardy I made the other day. Tomorrow I will make a hammer eye punch and start making some stuck tools and soon do a production run on hammers. This will supplement my set up costs nicely provided they sell promptly. To keep things interesting, the first 2 people to message me will get a free (pay shipping) hand forged hammer forged from 4350. Anyways, here's the pics. Also, at the scrapyard today, me and JWS found a perfect blower for my new forge and a great flywheel for my fly press build (grin)

My Columbian was my favorite anvil I have ever used and I have used the majority of common English pattern anvils available in the U.S. the ring is extremely loud but a nice bed of silicon caulk deadens the ring to FISHER levels. That plus a sturdy stump for a stand and the anvil did most of the work for me with its impeccable rebound. Great anvils.

Very nice work, that looks store bought even! Well done!

I like to stay on the middle line of modern vs old methods. While I do love cut off saws and grinders, modern power hammers and electric welding, I often find myself taking preference to hack saws, hot cuts, files, strikers, traditional joinery and fire welding. I find it to be more medatative to do things will little to no electric tools. On the flip side, most customers (including myself)cannot afford the cost of building a project this way. So I do what I can where I can but still need to keep the cost of my time in mind when making something. I gotta say I love a good 2X72 belt grinder!

Very true on the uncoiling method. I'll remember that for next time. So I made more tools today from the same steel from the scrap yard. I made a Brazeal style hot cut hardy, a radius block with some nice flare on the base, some 1/4" flat bit tongs, 5/8" bolt head tongs, and some 1/2" duck bill tongs. The only picture that came out well was of the radius block, so here it is. I'll get better pictures of the rest later this week.

Here is a picture of what I was talking about. 1" X 1/2" box jaw tongs for working the RR clips (1060 ish steel) I got from the scrap yard and they will also hold the 5/8" coil springs I got reasonably well. They were made from the round stock purchased at the same time. I also made a center punch and a round punch from the coil spring. The spring fuller in the picture is 5/8" made from the coil spring. It was made to fuller a section on the order I got the other day. It has a base that sits in the hardy AND the pritchel hole for added stability in use. You may notice that it is "floating" at the spring. This adds durability and adjustabity ease with ease for future adjustments in throat size. Since the fuller stock is 5160 or similar (junkyard steels are fairly unpredictable) I decidided to braze it to its base insteal of welding to better suit its durability in use. Hopefully I will have a full day of tool making sometime this week and post more goodies for y'all.

I've had a slow start so far and haven't taken enough pictures to post what I have made so far but here's and update. I forged a pair of box jaw tongs, a 5/8" spring fuller, a Punch/drift, and a center punch so far. Yesterday I got an order for $60 for some coat hooks so I've spent time designing them as well as drawing up notes on how to recreate them exactly of future reference. Since I havent got enough money yet to buy new stock I have spent time drawing out the stock I do have in order to make what I need. Quick price tally is $40 spent +$60 made. I put $10 into the coal bin from that $60 so cash wise, I am +$10 from my $40 investment. I'm getting a late start to the day today but I need to make and ship that order and spend the rest of the day making more tools. Hopefully I will soon have some pictures to post of the progress. 2 days is not too bad for getting my investment back, but only getting ahead $10 is not great. This will even out over time when I can focus on something other than tool making and make some things to sell. I'll keep y'all updated.

Thanks for the tips! Sahds is where I went for the scrap pictured above. That place is awesome! I did not know about those flea markets yet though. I'm gonna have to check them out! I agree, there are anvils everywhere. Most just aren't London pattern lol. I'm planning on grabbing a hunk of A2 solid Sq and just using a block anvil for a while until what I sell in the shop pays for a 150-200 lb anvil for me. We will see how well/quickly that can pan out.