stevomiller

Never had shoulder surgery, but I’ve had a LOT of back surgeries and procedures. BillyO is giving sage advice, you need to be holistic (and realistic) in your care. General Dr, surgeons, orthos, and even PTs can all have one track minds and courses of actions they take. As he said, find s GOOD PT by trying multiples, they aren’t all the same. Work hard and show a true interest in getting better and they will put more effort into your treatment. Trust me from the patients side, I have literally accumulated years of PT service. Be careful with consistent long term NSAIDS, I gave myself an ulcer, last thing you need is not smith once your shoulder feels better but your gut has a hole in it and you don’t want to forge. Only take with food and a glass of water. Don’t just throw a max dose down with a cup of joe and run out of the house. Try one cortisone shot, or a course of oral steroids for a bit to knock the bulk of the inflammation downI. If CBDs (oral and topical) are legal in your state give them a try. I developed a bunch of inflammation around the bolts and rods in my back and it worked as good as steroids without the side effects, and I have many friends with as good of result. Wishing you health and success in your treatments, Steve

I was so rambling that part of what I wanted to convey might get lost.Take my third and fifth section and put it together, and it will kind of say “ what you got there should work nicely for bladesmithing” .

I can’t help identify it, sorry not my expertise. However on the rest of it these are my thoughts: The face is still crowned near the horn, that’s good and the way it came from the forge that made it. Most weren’t perfectly flat from side to side. This can actually help you move metal faster when hammered over this area. I’d very carefully clean the mushroomed edges so they didn’t get in the way of me forging next to the edge since you mentioned bladesmithing. I’d also carefully square the heal where it broke. Wire wheel the top face and horn, bolt it down tight and use it. Don’t grind or mill down the top faces surface or weld a plate on it unless you are a master welder and have a 1.5 to 2” thick medium carbon steel plate you full contact welded to the face, and at that were willing to send it out for professional heat treating post welding (unless you used a steel like H13 or S7). It would still be an odd duck though, as your heel would need to be short as it would be unsupported, although you get that hardy hole. BUT, then what? It’s somewhat like a salvage title on a really smashed car, twisted frame, you name it. You restore best you can, it’s never quite right for the money and effort, and no one will buy it from you paying the extra you put into it. Anyways, the portion you have left is right over the sweet spot for forging, all the mass is under your hammer blows. Yes a hardy hole would be very useful, but you can definitely get by without. Save your money while you use this one to learn, and make your next anvil (if you wish to) a more pristine example. My 2 cents, from a guy known to have possibly no sense (but sometimes some odd scents).

I’m going to be a stinker word police, but first you speak of a side blast forge and later of a furnace. We all know what you mean, but if we don’t stick to strict word usage we all get goofed up. Forge and furnace are somewhat similar, in the sense that a punch, a drift and a splitter are similar. But yet, all very different. The above is meant as good spirited ribbing and nudging in the right direction. Tightly woven canvas can be used, as well as oil cloth or vinyl covered material. However leather is less likely to be damaged by wayward sparks etc. Recently another smith posted about setting up even leather bellows in a way to shield it from danger. Personally I think I’d make an Asian style box bellows that is a double acting piston. For myself it would be easier to source materials, cheaper, and easier for ME to build with my tools and skill sets. A couple folks here use the manual air pumps used to inflate the home air mattresses and rubber rafts. One Could even make one from a 5 gallon plastic bucket I’d imagine, as a matter of fact I think I might try it and document it. If it works I will share it. Best, Steve

Pics straight down on the top, the bottom, an both sides. Throw some in with a yardstick or tape measure, or at least a soda can to give an idea of siz/scale. thanks and welcome aboard

Far all I don’t think that means it should turn 40rpm, just it can sustain 40rpm with good output. Note in the add it states that if you opt for 16” fan it can supply 2 forges, and my guess is LARGE forges at that. Their assuming you then will use a butterfly or diverted to REDUCE air flow from that point down. If I turned my Buffalo 200 or friends Champion non stop at 40rpm I’d burn a ton of coal and probably melt the unlined firepot. My two cents anyhow.

All great advice they have given, JABOD let’s you find the shape and size you want before putting money and effort into something permanent. One note on that blower, IT IS HUGE. 100cfm is more than enough and will need throttling. Not saying to not use what you have, just saying to be aware of what you are dealing with, variable speed or no. Have fun! Steve

If the edge is dented or flattened, I will first burnish the inside flat to try and move most of the displaced metal back where it belongs. I then do just as the gentlemen stated above. On the edge proper I often blacken just the edge bevel with a Sharpie marker so that I can see where I’m abrading.

Yep definitely a German pattern vise, but who knows where it was made. I always liked that pattern and the French pattern, seems like they’d be a better design, not that I ever had a deficiency in my English pattern vises (vices?). Ive seen many French pattern vises made in Germany, and all the American made leg vises I’ve seen copied the English pattern. I actually think it’s pretty interesting that the American anvil copied the London pattern so closely, and we copied their vises too. But we had so many Germans here that at one time there was discussion of Deutsch being our national language at not German. Either more business owners were English, or???? Anyways that’s a nice vise and great job on the work table

Lawrence, im no expert, but As Thomas said good chance of blister steel, which you probably know was the first step from wrought to shear steel. The more the carbon is homogenized throughought and the silicon driven out, you move through blister, shear, double shear, etc. Shear steel was considerably more expensive and generally only used if the lower cost blister steel wouldn’t do the job, just as plain wrought was used as opposed to blister if it could get the job done. I’d imagine small highly stressed springs such as used in clocks and gun actions would be shear steel, where as larger thicker springs that experienced less deflection could survive being made of less refined blister. Also, the wrought picked for any steel making would be of the highest grade the maker could afford to source. Anyways congrats on sourcing all this old iron and steel.

Ted, i like your stand design and your execution. Of course all of us have things we might find we’d do different, but that’s the nature of building things to suit our individual ideas or needs. An anvil in intimate contact and secured to a rigid heavy mass will work more efficiently, especially if the anvil itself is a smaller one. If this wasn’t the case, then removable dies in a power hammer are the anvil, and the mass of machine below it is meaningless. We all know that isn’t the case. True industrial power hammers have very large anvils, both to be more efficient and to protect the rest of the machine and the foundation

That’s a really interesting variant, I’d imagine it came from a true industrial shop, although I’ve been in some old large ranch shops that had overhead line shafts.

NC, did you get your $142 shipped anvil yet? Curious when you do if the quality will be the same level as mine and Jeremy’s. Another poster on the other board, who’s never forged before, recently got his, seems to be happy with it. They have their limitations as all light anvils do (especially ones that aren’t a block or post type), but they’re shaping up to be a nice starting point for new smiths doing light work that want an anvil NOW. The money saved by getting one of thes vs say an NC etc will buy a lot of tools or fuel for those smiths.

Marc1, Unfortunately no. Life has been very, hmm, interesting in the bad way last few months, and my gas forge is half built. I ditched the coal forge when we moved into this neighborhood, so I’m forgeless at the moment :-( I wish I had been forging lately, it would be a great distraction and outlet.

I’ve done what both Dragon and Biggun do, except using diesel fuel, either with or without acetone or mineral spirits. Never tried electrolysis but probably would work well.

Woof Woof! Anyways, Id really check that beast out closely, and personally I’d be hesitant to pay $150 for it. Looks to have been used hard for most it’s life (but not necessarily abused tho). The sweet spot is saddled and the tail is recurved down, besides the chunk of face that delaminated and broke off from the hardy hole to the heel. Maybe lots of sledge work done on it. However the edges are relatively intact, as if for most its life whomever used it knew what they were doing, or at least had good aim.

Man Irondragon, you done went and done good! That blower is in wonderful shape and you got it for a good price to boot! Congratulations!

CMS I think is correct, you probably have some leeway in what you use. Being how old it is I’m sure originally it wasn’t anything exotic, probably something like 1035-45 at most. Case hardened mild steel toggle pins would wear hard and not crack like a through hardened carbon or tool steel might. BTW your hammer is looking great, you have done a nice job restoring her. I really like the looks of the hammers that use leaf springs, they just seem more steam punkish ;-)

Irondragon that’s good to know, I never tried mild steel for the spring. Do you normalize, or quench or any sort of thermal treatment with mild? I do know that when I first used spring steel I did what I thought was a proper hardening and draw, but it still broke in use. My friend/mentor told me to just normalize it the next time, which I did, and it’s lasted. BTW that was using old Studebaker springs, i have no idea if they used 10 series or 5160 or what back in the 50”s

William, welcome aboard! Small world for us to get one of the actual foundry men in here :-).

Awesome, glad you got one, and at a good price too! For your spring, if you use old automotive spring steel, once you are done shaping and forging, just heat a little above nonmagnetic and allow to air cool. Works perfect, no need to harden and draw a temper for this application, and also much easier to do and not mess up. In that ad I’m not sure if the swage block was included or not, or even if you had the desire or need of one.

NCHammer, Really there is no right or wrong way to approach what you want to do - unless you wanted to buy another cast iron ASO at a true anvil price. If I was you, which I’m not, I’d do my best to envision what I really honestly thought id be making and working on for the next couple years. If it’s smaller artistic items, knives, and I just had to have a typical shaped single or double horn anvil NOW, with your budget, and I needed a known quality brand, then out of what you posted I’d prefer he NC Knifemaker, the heel is a little thicker, or the Cliff Carroll. Kanca has a forged steel double anvil in the same weight class that would be about $100 more shipped, it’s a known maker and sold thru smithing outlets. Again still lighter weight than most shop anvils but a material and shape I would prefer, but it’s pretty much a preference. As for the anvil you showed last, I have the same one bought off of EBay, I’m happy with it. It was worth $140shipped. Picture and info click HERE . It does NOT appear to a composite cast steel/cast iron, it is all steel. Another person on either this site or Bladesmithsforum has one, we’ve both posted about them. For what I paid it’s great for a light blacksmith pattern anvil. However, they’re made in China and sold by multiple non-smithing retailers. If you get a dud, you might be on your own and out your money. I didn’t mind gambling, again that’s ME and I have other bigger anvils already. One good thing if you did get one that wasn’t quite as hard as ideal, but was a decent casting you still have the horn and hardy hole to use. Consider if you need a horn for your work, or might a separate cone/bick etc work for what you imagine you will work on. And as TP mentions, if you landed a big hardened mold or die block cheap, it would be really tough to beat for bladesmithing. A block anvil is what Japanese swordmakersand cutlers did and do use. Check out the fellow that makes GS Tongs and tools, he does very nice work using block anvils and variations there of. Marc1 gives good advice about not necessarily using online sources to locate a used anvil, word of mouth and networking etc will more likely find you one that isn’t crazily priced.

NC, here’s something to think about. Every anvil shown, even the one called a Knife Maker, is designed specifically with feature to work horseshoes. Of course they work for just about anything else, but they are optimized for that use, and also portability since most shoers travel with their tools to the horse owners. They are made of cast and hardened ductile iron, which is good, but perhaps not as good as cast steel (a good ductile iron anvil properly cast and hardened is better than an improperly cast and hardened steel anvil.) If both are manufactured to equal relative quality steel is better. The sweet spot on those anvils (most efficient area to move metal) makes up perhaps 1/3 of the mass of those anvils, so about 25lbs. Thats about the same as a 4x4x5 block of steel. Folks have been gently guiding you away from spending your money on these towards much cheaper options so yo can get started. Until your skill is sufficient to make your own: Do you have multiple types of tongs already? A couple different sizes of chisels and punches? Some good files? Heavy duty wire brush for removing scale? A good vise? All of those items are almost a necessity, a “traditional” shaped anvil IS NOT. Not saying don’t buy one of the ones you’ve shown, but I am saying think of where you spend your money, and at what point in your smithing journey. Maybe Save up and get what you said you really wanted, a 100lbs or larger anvil, whether used or new.

Gav your drive wheel would “probably “be fine with a 1.5hp motor. Its a tough question on what to use since it’s a balancing act, and I haven’t actually used your machine. I’m guessing when working on wood, etc ,with lighter pressure , it does ok? Or is it that it doesn’t allow you to do any work at all? if the first, then try reducing your drive wheel circumference by about 30%, if the latter your probably just out of luck. BTW, what is the rpm rating of your motor, if you posted it I missed it sorry. 1200? 1500? 1800? 3600? Something else? Since your set up is direct drive your drive wheel size is much more important especially if your motor is smaller, because the available torque is much less.

A 3/4 hp is definitely on the low end. However, as I’m many know, there’s 3/4 hp motors and then there are 3/4 hp motors. Regardless of wattage/current/hp ratings (claims?) I’ve found many inexpensive tool’s motors to behave like they are perhaps 80% of what they claim or the motor plate lists. When scrounging motors (or especially if buying) for metal working tools I prefer TEFC to open drip proof or especially any open frame motor. Although open drip proof can run cooler you run the risk of abrasive and metallic dust getting inside and causing trouble, and non drip proof open frame motors can short out or get said dust into open or just shielded(not sealed) bearings. OP, what size drive wheel is that you are using? Temporarily you could drop the diameter on it so you won’t stall or bog it down quite so easy. Granted belt speed thus grinding speed is reduced, but you will be able to apply more pressure on your workpiece.