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gote

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Everything posted by gote

  1. Dave, You obviously are one of the guys who are too lazy to look for things
  2. I have found that if the air pressure is above a certain level, there is no risk of clinker (or anything) blocking the hole but the holes must be much smaller than the those usually shown in IFI threads amd the fan running continuously.
  3. That is why they are rare. All scrapped the first few years. Yupp! priceless = free.
  4. You are of course very right David. When I finally decided to have my own smithy I started in the open and moved the anvil, forge, bench etc until they were in the places where I could work best and then I built the smithy around the created workspace. Now as Frosty points out many smiths would want a different arrangement because they make other things and use other techniques but it still boils down to that one should make sure that the workspace is efficient. I use a tree stump (because I have trees and wood working tools) I do not tie down the anvil because it is nearly 250 pounds and I do not do things that would make it rock. It merely stands in a routed recess to prevent it from walking. I made sure, however, that the anvil and the stump are supported at the rim of the footprint (but not in the middle) because that makes them stable and dampens the ring. I have the work bench adjacent to the (coal) forge because that allows me to support long stock when in the fire and I put the tools I think I will need on the bench - which I try to keep free at all times. The layout which I have shown in the thread 'show me your shop' gives me less than a full step moving between forge, anvil and post vise. Tools not in use, are on the wall two-three steps away. Thus I have no tool rack on the stand and I do not need to fish a hammer out by gripping the head. The hammer I intend to use, will lie on the anvil with the handle to the right and alternative hammers will lie on the workbench handle towards me. I use tongs very little but if I think I need one, it will also lie on the workbench (or the side of the forge if too hot). There is plenty of time to arrange any tools when the stock is in the fire. I am a hobby smith but that does not mean that efficiency is unimportant. I have also other things to do and besides: Blacksmith work always looks better if it was possible to make it quickly with few heats. PS I would feel uncomfortable with a three leggeed stand (probably unwarranted) Provided that it IS supported all around the rim, a cirular support is the one that is most stable in all directions for a given foot print area.
  5. Got one of these but use it as it is (once in a month or less) and a two ton chain hoist that i use even less. Somewhere I have a two man saw for felling trees that I never have used. A chain saw is so much better and it needs servicing anyway. I also have some rather oldfasioned wood working tools that I occasionally ise but they have litte to do with blacksmithing.
  6. Island forger. A "table" around the fire pot is very useful even if you think your pot is deep enough. You can stack ordinary clay brick on it if you need an even deeper fire and it is very useful to support the cool end of the stock.
  7. The German language has two different s the second one called 'sharp s' (Scharfes S goggle!)and indicates that the preceding wovel is long. and alternates with double s depending upon which wowel or diftong that preceded it.
  8. Plaster of paris is not the best material (nor is standard portland cement) since it is sets by absorbing water into a crystal structure. The water is loosely bound and the structure easily overheats and will then crumble. Sudden strong heat my cause spalling and miniexplosions but that will normally be contained by the coal/charcoal in a forge situation. Clay (does not need to be high quality) is actually better but should be mixed with sufficient amounts of sand to keep the shrinkage (read cracking) down when drying.
  9. Where are you mate? Please edit your profile I may be living in the neifgborhood. And welcome to IFI. You will find very good advice but always search first. Google "Iforgeiron myproblem" and you will get it. Some of the currmudgeons do not like getting the same question every week. Because of the dutch elm disease there is any amount of elm available for handles around. I have more than a platoon of handle makers could use up in a week.
  10. My tools are the larval stage of scrap. They go and hide somewhere to form a chrysalis and when that bursts they have turned to scrap. In my opinion it is very important to assign a place for every item. This hammer goes to this place and that goes to that ALWAYS!! Confusion my place is the result of stuff that does not have an assigned place. Those items are always in the way or rather always in the wrong place. What you do use for storage is of secondary importance. I keep chisels on magnetic kichen knife hangers and stock in an old fireworks bow - you know the one with cardboard tubes. Things with holes like files go onto nails in the wall and so on and so forth..
  11. You can get the smoke out through any side wall without a stack if you do it my way. iforgeiron.com/topic/41796-flashing-around-the-chimney/ It works quite well and gives you a lot of freedom in the design.
  12. The traditional basic grinding tool used to be a wheel of sandstone running in water. They started out with a diameter around 2' but after long use came down to 8". If the grind became convex or concave, depended upon how the tool was held to the stone and the choice depended upon the use. Scythes were often ground concave. Knives that were subject to strong forces were ground convex. Flat grind was NOT used. You find the same in Japan. My Japanese kitchen knife (which I bought in a fairly famous specialist shop in Tokyo) has a concave grind but a katana has a convex. I find that younger people talk about "scandi" also in Sweden. This is an Anglicism. The word seems to have been imported with the internet. One has to make a distinction between the basic forming of the edge by grinding and the (re-)sharpening of the edge in daily use. In reality sharpening takes place in the shop or in the wood or anywhere and it is an advantage to be able to have a sharpening stone nearby or in the pocket if out of doors. In real use, the knife was not sharpened in an elaborate rig or machine in a workshop. One holds the knife or scythe in one hand and the stone in the other. The concave grind gives a correct angle and little effort (=little removal of metal). The disadvantage with the convex grind is that the surface does not give a good support for the correct angle when sharpening. A flat grind and a concave does, The concave has the advantage that very little material is removed every time. Sooner or later the concave surface is "sharpened away" and then it is time to use the rotating stone wheel again. A flat grind is easily turned into a convex when sharpening. If you slip just a little, you have lost the edge and you have to work yourself back and that is a PITA when you are out in the woods. Besides even if the surface is kept flat it is easy to accidentally change the angle since it it is tempting to put more pressure close to the edge. I might have a different view on this subject since I use knives. I do not make them. I grind my wood working tools on a Tormex (which is popular with professional wood workers) and which has a rotating wheel running in water. I sharpen knives with a lightweight diamond tool. Carpenters chisels and plane blades I sharpen on a Japanese ceramic stone but the concave grind is useful also there.
  13. Interesting for a scandinavian to learn about Scandinavian knives. I grind mine with a sligth hollowness in the ground part. This makes it easier to sharpen it since there is less material to remove. Those I buy also have this grind and they serve me well. This hollowness has a radius of about 4 inches and is of course very different from the cut throat razor style of grind.
  14. I think you should abstain from making public statements about other persons qualifications. It is not only common courtesy. It is also so humiliating to find that one has misunderstood the language.
  15. When wrought iron rusts, the different layers rust differently fast so the layered structure may show up on the surface. It can be quite visible even without x-ray sight. They are also far from microscopic. I have the same impression as Wroughton.
  16. I think you should read that up in the anvils section. I believed that to be correct and it was a back killer. I ended up at wrist height and my back is now OK.
  17. It al depends upon what it looks like but I used a single 4mm plate with a hole in. The flange of the pot supported by the plate and the plate supported by the framewor. In your case the masonry. It is very nice to have a good flat surface arouns the pot.
  18. I believe it can not. (on its own) Unlike borax/boric acid it does not dissolve oxides and unlike silica sand it does not form a kind of glaze that keeps oxygen out. However in complicated mixes it might react with silica and form a glassy substance that might work. Unfortunately some of the old recipies for flux relied on "sand" and that could be anything really so what worked in one place did not in another because the "sand" was all different..
  19. Monorail. I am full of envy but I manage to stick the arm of my excavator through the doors and lift heavy equipment.
  20. It is hardly practical for a hobby blacksmith but there are ways to harden the surface. Used sometimes for crankshafts. Google "case hardening Iforgeiron".
  21. I am as appaled by the fact that he admitted this thinking to a relatively casual visitor. Are you sure the MD was an engineer and not a beancounter. Owners tend to believe that beancounters make more profit (and they may - initially that is )They tend to speak loudly about the knowledge and skills of their R&D staff and then go home and fire them. I once designed a plant with a 250 m3/day output The foreman made a test in secret and made 360m3. He told me but I had to promise not to tell the owner. The pay was on hourly basis and the foreman did not want to have 380m3 on his back.
  22. A junk ASO is probably better than a rock (somthing that has been used) but I concur to what has been said by others about stability and a good lump of real steel. Your best tong sits on your left hand (unless you are left handed). Start using long stock that you can hold with your hand. Get a longish water bucket and dip your hand with the cooler end of the stock if heat is creeping up along the bar. Do NOT use a glove. Cut your finished object from the stock as the last operation. When you are more proficient, use this method when making your first tongs.
  23. This is not helping Kyle today, (Kyle your location please) it is merely a comment. I am using a Swedish cavalry field forge. They have a kind of valve in the bottom of the fire pot like a mushroom in a hole. A previous owner replaced the treadle with an electric motor that runs far to fast so the pressure from the fan is high. This means that I have the valve more or less closed at all times except when starting the kindle (which I do with the fan off). The good thing with this is that I never get slag in the inlet. The air pressure keeps the opening free. The slag forms a doughnut that can be fished out of the fire. I cannot translate my inlet restrictions to hole diameter since it is an oval slit with slightly varying width. Nor have I measured the air pressure.
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