double_edge2

ok....you can have it at my joint.....lol

( bohler uddeholm ) I paid in brisbane about $100 for a metre of 30.5 mm h13 (including some delivery) so about $10 au for 100 mm. it was $29 for the same in 4140. went down there and got some off cuts and it wasnt that much cheaper. they work it out in cubic for offcut aswell

i use a mix i saw on here or somewhere else the lard, auto trans fluid and wax, sets hard, transports well, and dont breathe in.....lol

there's a one liner there....lol

if you got youtube and a big bag full of pdf books, i dont think you will have much trouble at all. some books on one of my sites for you as well.. http://www.blacksmiths-australia.com/index_files/Page412.htm and if you want to make a bender and bits http://www.chopperhandbook.com/neatstuff/downloads.htm mostly, do it safely and have fun

lol....yeh, doesnt having some soap in the water annoy the %$#@ out of you,,,hot steel wont break the water skin...and wont cool the steel right.

i use mild steel, or, flattened to about 4mm and normalised, car coil spring for long spring fullers...no need to harden and temper....for me any way.

my 2 cents worth would be, forged at the wrong temp or allowed to get too hot for the alloy. ive had it with tortion bar alloys if i roll my smoke at the wrong time. all looks honkey dory till the finnishing or using, the flaw reveals itself. i love 1045 and 4140 for hammers and anvil tools. too hard a hammer is great for marking up everything when you miss, and chunks of steel in your arm....

like Grant sez.....as you can see though im a bit more high tech than Grant, you can see the digital temp cont furnace, the digitally controled cooling rate air quench, etc....lol..... works for me h13 punch die for the enerpac 35 ton portable, ...kid blew up the other one....lol

nicely setup, and the next step..... and the swedish accent....

as someone else said.......darwin and natural selection.....i know it sounds a bit hard nosed, but they should knock out half the legislation in place and just leave it to the natural selection thing. communities are too forgiving, and it costs communities too much to fix...

are you in usa or australia or??

lol....i even bought some swedish mead.... if there was a shop next door to moony's id go for a pack of smokes.....but they reckon theres no shops ...went to perth for lunch a while ago..

what they all said, plus happy birthday, and only Sydney?

i need the hardy backstop in and i hit with my right hand against the stop with hammers, and i taper on the horn, so the horn is usually on the right. a qualified blacksmith type bloke came to the club and said that the non qualified artist blacksmith types had the bick to the right and a "blacksmith",,, had it to the left, and turned it to the left. i teach the habit, never leave a hardy tool in either way. but with the horn to the right, there is less chance of this accident happening with a right handed person. the tool merely becomes a hinderance to be removed, rather than, a removing hinderance. I like the anvil horn to the right mostly, and do move it to suit a job.

im not much into harley's, but that is a beautifull show of craftmanship by all involved, congrats! and deserved. I couldnt end up with such a pristine result on my bought one even!

yep, good stuff. and make more.

anvil, to me, its a convenient lump of steel with a history of techniques able to support a handy legion of similar tools. i also use , a remode hardy stand and a block of steel for the same jobs. so apart from "just wanting one", if it cant be used to do its job or repared economically it would have to be replaced. i sell blocks of steel to people who dont have an "avil". they still are buying an anvil, just not the traditional shape. look at Grants and others fabricated anvils. function.

...and sorry, your tongs look good and strong. unless you are chasing an effect or a look/finnish, if they hold and last, who cares how you made them. i helped with a demo on the gold coast, where a guy had made in a similar way, a stainless set. looked good to me, did the job,....and i wanted them......lol. is it wrong to like what other make?.....lol. and i often tack instead of wire or hold for forge welding. make it very easy. i find stick welds are easy to do lots with in the forge.

end of a generation,,

thankyou, i saw this die,...how does it relate to strength in twisted tongs?

if you dont want to make them,, support the blacksmiths, buy from a blacksmith, and i would go a wolf jaw, or like said, v bit in a bolt tong shape maybe. anything in an all rounder, or, for what you mainly need to hold.

for me, i'll get a hofi hammer just to have one, eventually, and i might like and use it, but i like my hammers. i ran out of stock a while ago and a guy bought mine. i missed it. its a what you know, have, and are liking thing. ...and, new smiths like religion, if you get them young enough and show them your way, they will follow it and make it their way. if you only ever had hofi hammers, its all you will probably want, and you will pass it on to students that you cycle.

ive done a sample for this post, this is how they look after the twist and bed down. I try to be pretty neat with the jaw bit thingy on my twist tongs, that and enough stock,....and since only a quarter turn, and hot enough, i would have thought the tortion/stress on the amount would not weaken it by much. dont get me wrong i love normal (made from solid stock) if there is a normal, and for larger tongs i would go from solid stock...but my consistency is ....well...not the best, unless a jig is employed...lol. the twist tongs, and hammer down from notch, are the best for me for batches of consistency in general tongs.