Gergely

Thank you VaughnT! You're right, keeping the balance was the most difficult to do. You think is it possible to make a scroll tool for tiny/tinier scrolls? I have a big one, maybe I could make somehow a small one copying the ratio. But how? Gergely

Hello All, I found this old rotary hammer concrete drill bit yesterday. I liked its shape so I picked it up figuring that it can be turned into something else: useful and/or nice. If anyone has an idea or experience with this kind of stuff, I'd be very thankful if they share it. The bit is about 500 mm long with 22 mm diameter. I suppose it's a Bosch SpeedX SDS shank concrete drill bit. I didn't find its main body's alloy quality, I guess it's not wrought iron :) . Thanks for the answers Gergely

The rod now looks like this: There is that whitish stuff, so I think it can really be the zinc. Is there galvanized material which is not only galvanized on the surface but through the very tissue of the metal? I just don't understand why the end of the rod looks so shiny. That made me think it is plain stainless steel. Thanks for your help. Greetings Gergely

Don Shears! Thank you so much: you posted top quality material. It's one thing that it is good and useful to read, but it solved right away a mystery about a hammerhead discussed here: In the Catalog it is said to be a knapping hammer (p. 10 KL144m). Thanks and greetings Gergely

No photos available, I'm sorry. I mean from that chewing gum like stuff. The rod itself could be pictured. I try to do it sometimes. It could be zinc. I have read about it a lot around here, and that's why I stopped working with it immediately. Although I did not see any fume or smoke or what so ever. This stuff just got spread on the anvil like a small quantity of silver/whitish toothpaste. Thak you JMC and Steve for the comments. Gergely

Hi Chuck! Congatulation on the gate and the railings. Very organic with the surrounding nature. And very original idea with those knot-like bendings on the vertical "rods" fixing them to the horizontal element. (Sorry I don't know the actual words.) Best wishes: Gergely

Hi Colleen! Thank you for sharing. Very inspiring as your other works are. Bests to you: Gergely

Hi Ausfire, Those are amazing sculptures, you really got the sight. Thanks for sharing and share more when you got more pics. Greetings Gergely

OK. I completely forgot to comment: Yes, you were right. This is pretty heavily hammered stuff. And very nice idea behind it. Cool it is... :)

Hi Travis and welcome! Enjoy your time around the forge and around here. There are very good readings here, and not so hard to find just let yourself wander. Let the iron glow bright! Gergely

Here they are: (Pictures are from ebay.) (How to get: double click on the ebay image, a new picture window pops up, right side is a list of small pics, click on one of them, bigger version shows up, right click on the new big picture, menu bar shows up, click to Save picture as and save the picture to your computer.) greetings Gergely

Hey Glenn and thank you, gonna try it - if I'm not in the forge still can learn something. And I'm sure he'll like it, too. Greetings

Dear Folks, Yesterday I tried to forge a piece of stainless steel - at least I thought it is that. It's a scrapyard piece rod, stainless looking, magnetic, not covered or painted surface. I put it to my coal forge and got it to bright red heat. When I started to hammer it on the anvil the rod left some molten chewing gum-like stuff which stuck on the anvil. I didn't like that so I cooled the rod and started something else. Does anybody know what this pasty stuff could be? Is this ok or dangerous? I haven't found any mentioning about this kind of thing in the stainless steel posts. Thanks and bests Gergely

Finally, after two weeks of pause got my 3 hours free. (It did not come free, but whatever... ;) ) Result: '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> this is not a gate hook but a short poker.

Hi All, Encouraged by the positive feedback received for my first project I share this one, too. Although negative critique is also welcomed. First I need to clear that this is not a gate hook :) but a short poker. The story behind it is that I took my son to his great-grandmother on Saturday and I noticed she uses a piece of bent wire as a poker for his little woodstove. I measured the device and as finally got my chance to sneak out to the shop for a short section, made this. The biggest challange was the scroll which is my first one ever. Had to redo three times :(. Today on my way to work I took the item to the old lady and she was really happy with it. Yippii.

Thank you for the solace. I really need the patience when I'm only an imaginery blacksmith. "Fortunately" I may loose my job in Juny... hehe. I'm very excited about having my son in the workshop. I hope he will want to join me there. He was only two, when came to the shop, got a little hammer in his hand and all of the sudden I just heared the anvil ringing. Promising... I made him a wooden hammer after that for indoor practice. Greetings Gergely (Thank you Iron Dwarf, if others can roughly understand what I mean by my words, I'm happy.)

Thanks for the info. By crowned I meant that the face of the hammer usually gets some grinding on the edges. This produces a bit rounded edge surface and thus you can better avoid hammermarks. Here is a picture which shows it well. The picture is from here: http://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?showtopic=16838 For bigger punches I use sway bars or halfshafts found on scrapyards. 30 mm dia is quite common. Just needs to hit it hard :) Tell us how did the hammer work after you tried it! Happy hammering! Gergely

Hi Elmarginalo and welcome! Happy hammering and let the iron glow bright! there is tons of data around here, including good books about blacksmithing, enjoy yourself digging through them, it is worth the effort. Greetings Gergely

I like this site because of these kind of topics: I have the same problems thinking I'm the only one being frustrated by them. Then while reading IFI, suddenly - like sunlight across the stormclouds - it enlightens me: I'm not alone with my problems. And this fact itself releases the stress quite a lot. We had a deal with my wife some months ago that I have my workshop time twice a week, each about 3-3,5 hours. If I recollect it right it happened only once. I do manage to have time spent by the forge sometimes but planning it in advance is an empty hope. I have a tutor blacksmith in the next village who I couldn't visit since August because of this system. I can't call him to ask is he going to work on the next day because I have no idea about next day. Of course there are the very basic obstacles in the way. Our 2,5 y old little rascal is either sick or gives a hardtime to his mother who carries our second baby. There is always infinite list of tasks around and outside the house. And when our coast is accidentally clear there are always various family members to pop up having nice plans or tasks for our freetime. But boohoo... I've got a perspective now, thanks to guys! I wish you to have all the time you want to spend with forging or all the patience to bear the absence of the glowing iron. Gergely (Sorry about the language, what I was trying to mean was beyond my english skills.)

Hi Davor, Nice use for a piece of junk steel. I just have a couple of questions: Have you tried to use it yet? Doesn't it leave hammer marks in the steel? I can't see in the pictures is it crowned or not. What diameter was the hole you drilled? And the final hole, is it about 2 cm in diameter? Thanks in advance for the answers. Greetings Gergely

Thank you, Eddie! That is an awesome video about Albert Craven, the 85 years old blade forger. Here is something else: Greetings Gergely

Well, I'm no anvil whiz at all, but that 2400 au$ seems to be a bit pricey. Although the anvil itself looks really nice. Let's see what the experts are going to say. Bests Gergely

Hi All, I'm sorry if the quoted site had misleading data. I like that site because it helps me to convert from one standard to another. (Ie. K1 of old Hungarian standard = AISI D3) The site also claims that: "Note - I'm not a knifemaker or a metallurgist, the information is for reference purposes only." http://www.zknives.com/knives/steels/steelchart.php Bests to all: Gergely

Hello Kenny O, Nice found with that 4340. http://www.zknives.com/knives/steels/steelchart.php?snm=4340 says: "low alloy tool steel, relatively high toughness, suitable for large knives" C: 0.38-0.43, Cr: 0.70-0.90, Mo: 0.20-0.30, Ni: 1.65-2.00, Mn 0.60-0.80, Si: 0.15-0.30 After reading about your luck, got the itch to dig a little bit myself. I played today against the odds: almost empty junkyard covered by 8" of snow. Still managed to find a pair of tongs, a good pick axe head, a round file with broken tang but not bad teeth and some sort of shelf or toolrack or what. (No pics, sorry.) It was real fun to deal with the increased challange. Best to everyone and happy digging! Gergely

Hi Tubbe, Congrats on the thread, I've just read it from the beginning. Very nice tools you have made. These last two have quite artistic look on them. Beautiful. How did you achieve that V-shaped cutting edge on the eye punch? Greetings Gergely