gote

Postscript. Trollkors were invented by a Swedish blacksmith some twenty years ago. She has in vain tried to claim copyright to it.

That is possible but I do not sell anything. I make more money on other pursuits so I only make things for fun, family and a few gifts. I would not give a gift that would make someone look like a nazi in the eyes of stupid people. Otherwise I would certainly have made a few for my grandchildrem. By the way, a quick way to make one is to start with a screw with hexagon head. Flatten it and there you are.

Thomas, I would not make 10000 turnip twaddlers since I am an amateur blacksmith making things for fun, family use and a few presents. Besides, I have never felt any need to change my present setup. I started out placing forge, bench and anvil on the ground and moved them around until it was the best position for me. Then I built the shop around it and it works well - for me that is. YMMV. I have not timed it but if there is need for speed, I guess I can bring the time down to about one second to move the stock from the fire to the anvil and I can grip the hammer at the same time. Boorntoolate, I think I do as you. If I use tongs, I grip with my right hand and change to my left before moving the stock from the fire. However, I estimate that in 95% of the things I made I managed too keep the stock so long until the last moment that I did not use any tongs. For short pieces I would prefer, if possible, to do it the Japanese way and weld on a handle.

I am afraid that I am too feeble to move a 250 pound anvil to a new place for everything I do. The stump is not that light either. And the squirrels take all my nuts. One of the advantages with a sizeable anvil is hat I do not need to stretch for the hammer There is space for the hammer and the stock and in the case I want to grab the hammer first I put it on the bench that is adjacent to the forge on the right side.

take a look at the thread Flashing around the chimney below This is cheap, simple and works.

I am right handed. I use an electric blower. Always stock in my left; hammer in my right. Forge to my right, anvil to my left and fairly close to the forge. I have a quarter turn to turn between them. North Swedish anvil. Round horn to my right. Square horn and hardy hole to the left. (So there is little risk to hit the hardy with the hand)

Or make the bottle opener the other way - as a lifting hook. There is always enough material to do that and there is no splitting that can go wrong.

The original ones usually had shorter handles. I have been thinking of making some but decided against it. We have a Nazi-scare in this part of the world and unfortunately people will associate them with nazis instead of our glorious pagan past. A shame really.

Ammonium chloride or spirits of salt tends to give unpleasant gasses so it is not very popular today. If the electric solder does not work as it is, I would use the zink/hydrochloric acid flux. It is adviceadble to use zink in excess so the acid is consumed. That keeps the corrosion down. This flux is nothing but chloride of zink in water.

I am not familiar with your kind of torch but the flame of torches can be oxidizing neutral or reducing. If it is oxidizing it may be difficult to solder. If there is no requirement on strength it is easy to use tin based solder. You do not need a soldering iron. A kitchen range is quite OK. Use an old frying pan preferably of aluminium, since tin does not stick to it. Lay your ring flat and heat until the solder becomes fluid. Soldered joints need to be thin. It is best to file the end with a slant so the surfaces are larger than the wire sross section. The ends in your pic looks as they are rounded. That will not work well with solder. I have not done this myself but my first attempt to do it would be to make sure the ends mate. pull a thin file (or sand paper) between them to make sure they are clean, lay them in the frying pan and hold the end of self fluxing eletronic solder wire to he joint. After a short while the solder will run into the joint and the ring can be lifted out to cool down.

I second Frosty. Just a further thought: Real flux, such as borax, works not only by keeping oxygen out. It also combines with the iron oxides i.e. scales into compounds that are fluid at high temperatures. Maybe it is possible to flux and scrape the boron-Iron-oxygen compound out when still hot.

Drop it on your feet and you will find out

Chlorinated compounds used to remove oil from metals, such as automotive brake cleaners, are converted to phosgene by the UV rays of arc welding.

Sorry. My mistake I did not read properly and believed it was the usual problem metric/imperial

Depending upon your anvil there might be a certain risk to pop off the heel if you are forcing too heavy stock through a thin heel. A tube is safer.

A good explanation SmoothBore thank you. I will try to remember collecting pieces of pipe.

Sweden started using the Bessemer process very early (1865) so making cast steel anvils has been a natural. I assume most Scandinavian steel producer have been making anvils.

It is not that easy to find an anvil here Frosty but those that we find, are usually of that type. It is popular among blacksmiths. The three closest shops here use them exclusively. This shape seems to be more silent than the London pattern, there is a substantial amout of steel under the holes and the "sweet spot" stretches nearly all the way between the horns. They are also very easy to move since a rope will go down one hole and up the other. Any hoist will keep them level when lifted. Yes Kjell, mine weighs in at 110 kg. nearly 250 pounds.

Why do you not recalculate from imperial to metric??

Please go on. I will most probably never be nvolved with flat belt driven machinery but it is highly interesting to read about it.

Well yours is obviously a Norrlandsstäd i.e. North Swedish type. Where are you by the way? Norge? No I do not know who made mine It could be Söderfors or Kohlswa or Bofors or or. Ther has been several Swedish (and I assume Norwegian) steel foundries that made anvils in the past 150 years.

Which area?????????

I stack bricks around the forge when I need more depth but my table is a little larger so I have more space. The bricks allow me to take one out when heating longish pieces.

My favourite tool sits at the end of my right forearm