teenylittlemetalguy

Maybe a better question is why are we all trying? :wacko:

A trip to Frosty's is always fun. And a great place to learn.

looks like it was fun. made for splitting mini kindling I am guessing?

Our prayers are with you and your whole family

I have not used this process with a salt water solution, but I have used it successfully with ferric chloride. Print (in negative) what you want in a printer that uses toner (no inkjet). tape it toner side down and gently apply a very small amount of acetone. It loosens the toner that then sticks to the metal once the acetone dries. after drying gently peel off the paper and etch.

KYBOY,dumb question time for you. In the first picture you are using a homemade vice on top of the anvil to hold the axe head. I have seen these used before but do not know what they are called. do you know?

thanks for doing this for us. your description is very clear. Can't wait for the next installment!

I am in Anchorage, please do join us at the Alaska blacksmithing group on Yahoo, We have quite a few members and it would be worth posting a message for one. we meet quarterly and actually just had Brian Brazeal up teaching a class. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AKblacksmiths/ London pattern anvils are very versatile tools, but there were literally centuries worth of metalwork done with out them. master works of creative genius were wrought using any number of different styles and materials. PM me if you have any questions or if there is anything I can help with.

A rocket stove is for cooking meals on, temps shouldn't get to high for perlite/clay mix. not like you will be forging in a food oven. Best thing to do is just try. lots of local materials available for woodstove range fires. Try some local clay, it;'s typically free or cheap. and often locals used what they had on hand, even if they had to repair rebuild often as it was cheap.

Difficult what to say what I like the most, the handles are clean and tight an just make you want to grab one and start swinging. And the blade is,,,well,,, metal, which we all love here. And a good job of metalwork at that. Guess I have to say they complement each other perfectly!

The finish on the base is very nice. with a little tweaking maybe it could be a wine bottle holder?

Ciladog- yeah, that would be a bit of a trip. Actually I will be in Maine in October for a wedding. Or we have to talk you into coming up for a fishing trip. Seriously, I will be on the lookout for any info on this you post. I have made Cable damascus, and have made a little bit of saw chain material, but it didn't turn out looking anything like this base material. Again, great job!

Very impressive. fantastic work. Wish I could discuss the process with you over a beer someday.

sign me up! That would be a neat thing to see up and running again.

that is very nice! I especially like the bottom curve from blade to handle.

I saw an article on the initial discovery as well, it appears to be a 10 second heat treatment that suprised material researchers. Only 10 seconds is why the required energy is so low for the effect. I am assuming the details are proprietary,But they did say it was accomplished with heat, we may never know exactly how its done (hopefully it will leak out). I am fairly sure that forging after treatment would ruin the effect and it would have to go through the process again. Looks like it will be a boon for auto makers and the like. I have heard it is a 7% increase in strength, which means that a drastic amount of weight can be cut.

Thanks, I will give that a try. It's a shame there isn't some sneaky trick to working it. I love the color and the durability of Monel.

You do good work! very clean lines. The flower(dogwood, I think?) second from the left has amazing petals.

Sorry you don't like it. I can see why the customer is happy though, your hard work and skill is obvious. I like it a lot. The dark scale is odd, but to each his own I guess.

Nice job on your project. I bet you are glad you had a power hammer, I have tried moving Monel by hand, I get exhausted thinking about it now. I got it white hot and used a 6 lb hammer and all my strength and barely moved it. Maybe I just need a striker... Any tips for someone doing it by hand?

Some things just gel. Good luck!

Awesome news! Congratulations! That will get the ball started for you. Now comes the fun part- one little project at a time learning every step of the way. Just like the rest of us. Be sure to show us forge pix when you get it going and lots of project pix as well!

Secrets Of The Forge. By Antonello Rizzo ISBN 978-88-903359-1-4 228 pages Despite what the title suggests I really didn’t find any “secrets” , But then I didn’t expect any when I purchased it either. I suspect the name was just a bold attempt to catch attention. maybe a bit of celebration in bravado. This book was written in 2008 and is half Italian and half being the English language translation, with both appearing in separate columns on the same pages,which is distracting. From what I can tell the translator is either very good or has some knowledge of metal work as the descriptions are clear and to the point. No guessing as to what was going on as other translated texts sometimes struggle with. The book is over size and is loaded with clear color pictures and lives up to the step be step instructions they promise. The book starts out with instructions for some very simple skills that an intermediate or advanced smith will find a waste of space. but well done for a beginners prospective. The different design motifs for gates and railings are enjoyable to see, as is the rose from a piece 1”x 5/32” flat bar stock. There is also a nice article on a simple lock, but the highlight for me was the extremely artistic duck in flight, again with step by step instructions. It is very interesting in that these Italian metal smiths are obviously dealing with different standards than we are put under in the US and British markets. They are obviously allowed to be more artistic in the finished product. Almost to the point of being “folk art” on what for us would be serious commercial items. Now for the big problem, the elephant in the room so to speak.. the price. If this was a $50.00 book, I would say it was well worth it and should be on your shelf. At the asking price of over $100.00 US dollars I would have to suggest finding a library or borrowing a copy as your best way to see this book.

Early American Wrought Iron - three volumes in one Albert H Sonn 0-9707664-6-7 733 pages This is a reference work documenting early American wrought iron items. If the title was interesting enough for you click on this review then you probably need this book. The emphasis here is historical documentation. It contains no descriptions of construction, no examination of processes involved, but it has page after page of handmade items, some dating back to the late 1500’s. All items shown as nicely hand drawn sketches (no photos). The sketches are more generalized than detailed, so the section on locks for example is a bit frustrating for anyone with plans to duplicate a 17th century padlock.But it may be a good place to start forming a plan, with a follow up to a museum that has what you want to copy. on the other hand there loads of simpler items that would be very easy to copy. most items have general dimensions in the descriptions. The Beauty of this book is the sheer volume of items one can peruse. From Andirons to Wafer irons there is more to see in this book than most any museum could hold. And many of significant historical value. Handles, latches an hinges being exhaustively covered in the first two volumes. My favorite is the third volume covering railings, gates, weather-vanes and household items. In my opinion the author was likely getting tired by the time he got here, so the depth of items covered is shallow compared to the handles, but overall an amazing amount of work went into these volumes. Now about price, original copies of the single volumes can get outrageously high. The one I got was the three volumes in one book and in my opinion is reasonably priced for the material covered. Also be careful as there is a little flimsy booklet by the same tittle out there that is much cheaper. Just be sure the author is correct before ordering anything.

Thomas, good idea, that is a good book. Ryan I am sure the rebar was the problem, not you.Sometime you get a decent batch, but usually it is junk. i use it as handles on akward items instead of tongs by just arc welding it on. The guy that is making blades with commercial charcoal is in for a suprise when he uses yours. Some say commercial isn't even good enough for cooking steaks with...8-) I saw you posted a request for help with forge design, I am sure you got good tips. Where you lived 100 years ago there where blacksmiths and they used what was at hand, people that are not on an extreme budget forget that sometimes because they can buy what they want. Washington state is famous for clay, which may work for lining your new forge you are designing. one of the clays is Kaolin, high temp stuff. http://www.clays.org/journal/archive/volume%207/7-1-285.pdf maybe you can find some and give it a try.