gote

You are so right Thomas. It is very annoying to find that US sites so oftenhide their location. It happens all the time. I want to purchase something and google for a possible supplier. If they are in the EU it is fine. No hasssle, cheap frights no duties. After carefully finding out the precise item I want, I find that they are in the US and I have to go searching again.

Stainless steel is a very large subject You have to read it up. Generally you should aim for steel with very little carbon since welding and presumably forging will form chromium carbides so some of the chromium that would form chromium oxides (which is what protects the steel) is gobbled up and you may get intergranular corrosion. 441 or 440s are probably the best for welded and forged applications.

I have no idea. It is an interesting thought. Considering the high melting point, pure silica sand would be fairly useless but glass - like Iron/steel - becomes soft before it becomes liquid. Silica is the same but the window of temperature, in which it can be formed, is smaller and higher. Technicus Joe made a point that Iron oxide has a lower melting point than Iron. Maybe something happens between the oxide and the sand. I have some very pure silica sand available. I will try it one of these days to see if it melts in the forge and how it adheres. I am not a good forge welder so I have always stuck to borax (Or C2H2 )

Sand is not a chemically well defined substance. It is the product of decomposited rock that later may have been sorted by moving in water or wind. This also applies to clay altough clay is formed from other types of rock. Silica sand, which is common in the eastern part of the US and is fairly pure silicondioxide, has a relatively high melting point - higher than iron in fact. However if mixed with soda, borax or certain other minerals, the melting point is lowered - this is what is done when glass making. Sands may have ower melting point because they are not pure silica. I would assume that some of the silica sand flux recipies can be considered to be glass-recipies based on the originally available local sand and may or may not work depending upon the sand available to the smith. Borax or (boron generally) has a tendency to form compounds with low melting point together with metal (and metalloid) oxides. This is why borax is a good flux. It will combine with the iron oxide to some kind of iron-boron-oxygen compound that has a relatively low melting point and will be squeezed out of the joint when forge welding.

Hydrogen molecules are very light and small so they tend to ventilate very quickly. A mixture of hydrogen and air(oxygen) is indeed very easily ignited and will detonate rather than burn so it creates a bang like a shot. The Swedish name for the mixture is 'knallgas' which translates into 'bang-gas' The amount generated from stripping zink plating is however very small and the amount of hydrogen in air is (due to the low density) small thus the energy released in the bang is small. Thus, even if it does ignite, it is very unlikely to cause any damage even if the sound may make someone believe you are firing a handgun. Any danger is more likely to be caused by the aerosols described above. Propane, acetylene and similar gases are much heavier at atmospheric pressureand and do not migrate as quickly and thus very much liklier to cause danger if ignited.

A high pH ash is not a problem since it will at least slow down rusting. It is low pH that is the problem. Ash from coal often contains Calciumoxide which does increases pH, Oxides of potassium and sodium which give the really high values are usuallv in small amounts.

Yes I do need water. When I can, I use stock long enough to hold in the hand rather than using tongs. It is so much easier. However after a few heats the part I hold starts becoming unpleasantly hot. I then dip my left hand with the "handle part" of the stock in the tub (whichis longish) to cool it. (no glove) I also cool all hot stuff when I have stopped beating it. For safety and sometimes I need to hold that end. Sometimes I pre-cool parts that do not need to be hot in a particular operation but are adjacent to parts that need to be - this to avoid extra scaling or in som cases burning. I mostly use mild steel in applications where there is little need for normalisation. Bladesmiths obviously cannot work this way.

Wood by itself does not get very hot since there is so much volatile matter (including residual moisture) that will suck up much of the heat generated. More air than what is needed to keep the fire going will also take heat away. The high temperature comes when the wood has turned into charcoal. Thomas' and Michael's advice is good. I agree on all points. Figure out how you are going to hit the stock when it is in the fire and then hit as fast as you can without missing. There are smiths that make a show of hitting a thin piece of steel so quickly and hard that it turns red and can lit a fire. I prefer an electric fan rather than a crank since it frees me when the stock is in the fire. It also allows me to keep one piece in the fire when a second is on the anvil. You must be able to regulate the flow. Rheostate, valve, dump valve ... .

A high pH (lye) actually prevents rusting. This is why we can use unprotected steel rods in concrete. However with time, carbon dioxide from the air penetrates into the outer parts of the concrete and lowers the pH so reinforcement close to the surface may rust. The high pH of (wood) ashes comes from the potassium in the wood. Since potassium and sodium in coal is part of minerals that will form clinker rather than release the alkali metals in a way that will increase pH. I think that it is unusual that coal ashes wll create very high pH. The sulfur indeed burns to dioxide later to form trioxide but this is hardly a problem in the forge since it disappears with the smoke. (It is a gas above ca -10°C) It can be a problem in the chimney if the temperature is so low that there is condensation since it will dissolve in water. I doubt that this can happen in a forge chimney but it is a problem in boiler smoke stacks if the boiler is too efficient. The rusting of clayed forges is more mundane. We all know that steel in soil will rust unless it is very dry. Moist clay in a forge is no different. Moist clay=rust. dry= no rust.

I think he means an object shaped Anvil

Helvetet är fullt med kallsmeder. Hell is full of smiths working too cold

We were using a piece of copper in my previous smithy - absolutely no problems. Maybe it took some more heat off than mild steel but we never made any experiments. I am now using a discarded aluminium frying pan I just cut off the edges. Works well.

At times also kitchens were spaced away from other buildings - by those who could afford it. Saunas also used to be spaced out. (So were privies.) Fire was a problem. Many Swedish towns were partly burnt down (and I mean big parts) in the nineteenth century. In my own town, the big fire started in a bakery. Fire hazard in those days was mosty coming from cracked chimneys or sparks igniting roofs from the outside. Today it usually is old faulty electrical installations. My own experience is of course very limited. I have been to eight Swedish smities. Seven of these were built in wood. Most of them had been in use over a hundred years. If fire hazard had been a serious problem they would have been built in other materials. I am talking abut solid wood.

I have always believed that the first amendment allowed US citisens to believe in any God and have freedom of expression - which would include making Tor's hammers. I have not had time to see the youtube clip but the fact is that we know very little about the old Nordic religion. The bulk of information comes from Chrisitan people writing more than two hundred years after that the old religion was abolished.

I suppose the method varies with the type of forge but in principle I start a small fire in something that is easy to ignite and when that is going well get coals in from the sides and finally on top and start with small blast. I am indoors nowadays so wind is no matter. I always start the fire first thing. I clean out the fire pot down to the tuyere and open the bottom valve. Then I build a small bonfire. First some wood shavings from hand planing crumpled to a ball two inches across. These I cover with small (1/8 to1/4") wooden sticks and set fire to the shavings usually using one of those propane burners chefs use since that reaches the bottom of the "bonfire" but a match works fine. As soon as the shavings are lit, I start raking coal in from the sides so that the small bonfire is burning in a "coal chimmney". That done, the fire is going well in the wood and I cover the bonfire entirely with coal, start the fan and close the valve to minimum blast. After that I get the stock and tools out to the work bench close to the forge and when that is done the fireball is lit but small. The whole process takes five minutes and always works. I did the same when being outoors and moderate wind was no problem since the fire, once started in the wood, is protected by the not yet burning coals.

It depends upon what you do and how you do it. Most older smities in my part of the world (including mine) are built from wood. I have been working a litte in one that had been going for some four hundred years and was in principle a log cabin. BUT we do not keep any wood shavings or saw dust or other easily ignited materal in the shop unless it is enclosed in some kind of box and we do NOT mix woodworking with metal working. Usually the smity is in a fair distance from other buildings. Solid wood does no ignite all that easily. The problem comes not with the wall material but with other combustible and easily ignitable stuff that should be kept OUT. When I stop working I do not rush out. I first rake out the fire then put all tools and other paraphernalia back to proper places. In the meantime the fire is cold and anything smouldering would be noticable by the smell. It has not happened yet.

My favourite hammer is a cheap 1 kg German Schlosser hammer made to DIN spec. I have not even had to round any edges and I do not think that I would work any better with another type. If I need more purchase I go to a 1.5 kg but that is tiring. Since I have been using it so much it is just an extension of my hand. I do not neet to think about how I hold it or how I hit. I just hit. On the other hand I have a Japanese kitchen knife, bought in a specialist shop in Asakusa. It is vastly superior to any of my French ones bought in a kitchen ware shop in Paris. The way that one cuts tricky meat and fish is soo much better.

In my part of the world, files always come with good handles (at least the last quarter century) and they have a hole in them so mine hang on nails. If I am turning a fancy handle for a gardening tool I have made, I make a cylindrical part when I am half through and screw on a piece of brass water pipe fitting so it is flush with the wood. They are then turned together. to make a smooth ransition. A gardening tool handle will get moist and dry again repeatedly over the years but the screw on ferule will not get loose as a clindrical one will. I am obviously not using a lathe for wood. Even a brass hexagon pipe fitting will work.

Make squares in brass and copper. Make them in a rough shape first then solder them together to a block using tin solder. File, or if you can machine, to square section. Separate the squares again. Assemble on a pre-tinned back and heat so solder tacks again. Take off solder on top by emery cloth and polish. If you use electric type solder you can heat on the kitchen range in an old pan and you can adjust any misalignement when in the pan..

I could not agree more. I did that and ended up at wrist height. Fortunately I had not yet made my permanent stump. It so happens that my anvil now is at half my own height.

This site is full of good advice how to get heat in a forge. However, I have not found as many answer to the question Why? as to how? The following is an attempt to answer some of the why? questions. It is my belief that if I understand 'why' it is easier to control 'How'. Why is it that I do not get a zillion degrees in the forge? The main answer is exhaust losses. We add air which is a mix of 1/5 oxygen and 4/5 of mostly nitrogen. This mix has room temperature. Leaving the burning zone is a mix of nitrogen and carbon dioxide that has the same temperature as the burning zone so it carries away a lot of the heat that is generated. Thus if I add more air than is necessary for a complete combustion, the extra air will remove more heat from the burning zone. I will get a cooler burning zone not a hotter if I increase the air flow. If there is a pile of coal above the burning zone as in Glenn's picture, the exhaust losses are not a complete loss since the heat is used to coke the coal. It is a mistake to believe that a large pile of fuel will consume more fuel than a small pile. If this happens we are using too much air. All oxygen is of course not instantly consumed. Close to the air inlet, there is more oxygen than is needed to burn the carbon (and thus also more nitrogen). This not only means that steel put there will oxidise (=scale) excessively; the extra air will cool the area, which is why the bottom of our forges does not melt. What will happen if we increase the air, (with moderation) is that the burning zone will increase in size but while that happens, the fire is really cooler. There are of course also other losses even if these usually are less important. There is conduction and there is radiation. At the temperature in a forge, the radiation heat loss can be considerable but if the fire is covered, as in Glenn's pic, that heat is contained by the surrounding coal and helps coking. I think we all have experienced the intense radiation when we rake the fire apart to close down. The heat in the burning zone is generated by volume. So twice the size of the zone generates eight times the heat. The heat loss by condution and radiation is on the surface of the zone so twice the zone gives four times the heat loss. Thus relative heat loss by conduction and radiation goes down by a factor of two if the burning zone size goes up by a factor of two. The heat is generated on the surface of the carbon. The surface per volume goes up by a factor of two when the mean size of the coal goes down by a factor of two. This is why it is difficult to get high heat if the fuel size is too large. Eventually the carbon pieces will of course burn off and become smaller and the temperature will go up. If the fuel is half the size, the heat per volume will go up by a factor of two provided that there is enough air. The amount needed for a fire ball of the same size will go up by a factor two also and the pressure needed to force the air through will increase. This means that bellows - including the Japanese - will be more independent upon the size of the fuel in the supply of air. Most blowers will have no problem, however. We cannot burn more carbon than the air supply allows. Thus the size of the fire ball depends upon the air supply. Usually we do not need a very big fire ball so if we supply more air than is needed for it and have a pile of coal above, the fire ball will increase in size and we burn fuel for the crows as we say in Sweden. It is possible to use fuels like wood in the forge but not immediately. The wood must first turn into charcoal. When we heat wood there is moisture that will be driven off and this consumes heat and lowers the temperature. Then when the temperature increases the complex molecules in the wood will desintegrate and form combustible gases. When these burn, we get flames and the heat from the flames is obviously not generated where we want it. This desintegration is also heat consuming and lowers the temperature. Thus we cannot get forging temperatures until the wood has turned into charcoal. It is the same with coal only that the amount of combustible gases is much smaller and coal cannot absorb so much water as there is in "dry" wood. S. Reynolds, If you have a relatively high air pressure and small tuyere opening, the clinker will not impede air flow. In my forge I occasionally have to fish out a doughnut of clinker but I never had it impede air flow.

If it is yours sell it to an antique dealer with a story on how rare and old it is. Asking price 100 US. If not I agree with Daswulf

Notownkid, OK, I understand. I am fortunate in that respect but when I started on my own anvil I believed in all advice to put it at knuckle height. That was enough to get me back pain. I now have it at wrist height and I am very happy with that.

I leave them to the squirrels alan so there be no nuts. Nor to move the anvil nor to let it stay. Notownkid. Excuse me for asking but why do you put your anvil in a way that hurts your back? I originally put the round horn to the left to avoid bending over. That the hardy sits to the left is just a bonus.

Yesssir!! This is why I am not sorry to eave the nuts to the squirrels.