Latticino

Thanks guys, very helpful, as usual.

Tried to make something similar for my wife. Had issues with losing the inner definition of the twist when forming into a bracelet shape (I just used my anvil horn). Can you share your wrist mandrel design? Thanks.

Depends on what you are planning on making with it. As others said, if you don't need high carbon to harden for tools or knives or the like, you should probably try to use low carbon steel (10 series is good – say, 1030 or below; A36 in a pinch). If you do need high carbon steel 1070, 1080, 1084, and 5160 are all pretty forgiving. You can usually source 5160 from automotive spring shops (their cutoffs for replacement springs) for free or a box of doughnuts.

Thomas, agreed, as usual. I just couldn't imagine anyone using ceramic tiles for handle material. It is hard, brittle and difficult to shape without diamond tools and/or wet belt sanders, not to mention drill holes in and rivet. Most knife makers don't have those tools, and I can't imagine why you would want to go with ceramic tile handles when so many better materials are around. Of course that doesn't explain why I keep dreaming about getting out my glass equipment and heading down to Corning to blow some handle blanks... Think twisted, fluted glass handles. Totally impractical.

Cool legs, and congrats on the successful heat treat. What size is the anvil and how did you accomplish your quench? Just curious why you didn't bore a hardy and pritchel hole in it before hardening. Most of the striking anvils I've seen, including the one I've been working on for myself, have them. Also, it looks like you have welded multiple layers of 1/4" thick steel plate together around the perimeter. If this is the case I'd be interested in how it holds up to heavy striking without full penetration welds.

Be cautious. Some of the older floor tiling has significant asbestos content. I've been on a number of construction sites where the tile flooring had to be abated before construction could start. I would be especially careful of any flooring with a "chalky" residue. If nothing else a good quality respirator when processing, and encapsulation thereafter. Personally I'd just not use it, but YMMV.

Lovely, clean work. Ladder pattern is really nice, particularly in the clip, and I really like the raised head rivets and framed handle. I'm sure your friend will be thrilled. I certainly would be.

Heat transfer in a solid fuel forge environment is primarily by means of radiation. The white/yellow/orange... coals (of whatever source fuel) send their heat to the stock by radiating the energy over to the metal. Therefore if you have your stock surrounded by the glowing coals it will get hotter faster. Even if the fuel at the top of the arch isn't radiating in the glowing range, it is still radiating heat, and the taller heap of fuel also has an added effect of providing some insulation for the hot zone of the fire, which conserves on fuel use (the back side of the fuel arch). For coal fires one of the more optimum configurations is a "beehive" arch with an opening in the side for your stock to get heated in. Properly used it can also help with reducing scaling, by both limiting the amount of air needed and keeping your stock out of the oxidizing zone of the fire. I have not forged much with charcoal, but understand that it burns quicker (heat content of the material per unit volume) and sends up more ash. Typically slightly different forge configurations are optimized for charcoal over coal (as well as for anthracite coal vs. bituminous).

Nice looking forge so far. Pretty long though. Hope you have a power hammer, friendly striker, or are built-like-bull

If the furnace is rated for sufficient output I suppose you could flirt with keeping the entire gas train intact and just changing the burner outlet to one that is compatible with your forge. That could leave you with the entire safety assembly intact (though a standard Basso style pilot flame monitor won't work well for a forge). Might want to be clear on why the furnace was replaced in the first place though. I would certainly salvage the manual gas isolation valve, at least. Good luck.

Sounds like a great class. I'm ready to go back to school!

I'm going to put this very simply, as it appears we are not getting through to you: The most important safety equipment you will need is to have someone who already knows how to cast steel on hand to walk you through the process a couple of times if you are really planning on trying it. Thermal suits, Kevlar gloves, type 3 face shields, powered respirators are only tools to help that may not be effective in keeping you safe if you don't know how to cast steel. Most of us don't cast steel. The industrial process is well setup to provide superior materials at attractive pricing, and there is no reasonable way to compete on an individual scale, unless you are attempting to make inferior steels to show off the beauty of the impurities. That is a valid avenue, but Thomas's suggestion for making "scrap-mascus" or melting down existing scrap steel into a puck, which can then be forged, is a safer and more likely to be successful path (it also doesn't need a crucible and can be done on a blown air-charcoal fire...). Swords are not just big knives, they are vastly more difficult to design, forge, grind, heat treat and fit out correctly. If you haven't made more than a couple of semi-OK knives you may not be ready to make a sword. Please read the stickies and posts on the forum regarding this, I don't have time or energy to repeat them. While I think your goal of being a self sufficient weapon maker is laudable, it is also highly impractical and is unlikely to result in any kind of positive cash flow in the immediate future. I recommend getting a job doing something else to support your new passion. Adding making your own steel to the mix will most likely result in additional frustration. Imagine after working for a couple of weeks to forge and grind out your billet to find that you had a hidden inclusion that ruins the project. This happens pretty regularly to experienced folks who are only doing pattern welding or using blister steel for making smaller objects. The larger the project, the more chance you will have of a catastrophic failure. It is very unlikely that the mystery steel you will produce from scrap materials will be better quality than that coming from a mill. In any event it will not be a known quantity so a period of testing will be needed to develop an optimum heat treatment process to get close to the performance you will get from known steels. Of course this may not be important to you if you are only looking to make a wall hangar. It is also very unlikely that pouring out your steel into a form will result in any kind of efficiency in making weapons. The steel you make from scrap or raw materials will most likely need consolidation to bring it to the homogeneity that will be required for sword forging. That process will negate and advantage to pouring the material into a mold.

If you want to be safe, and your learning abilities are as described, I strongly suggest you take a formal class (preferably at an accredited school with insurance and an OSHA compliant shop). There is simply too much information to convey about safely making weapons like swords from bulk material to learn from videos and Q&A sessions on a forum. Hands on instruction will let you learn the subtleties, hopefully introduce you to shop requirements and practices, and give you an idea of just how much you need to learn just to take the first steps towards your goal. It will almost definitely be less expensive in the long run as well, as you will avoid costly mistakes in equipment selection, purchase and setup. Don't get me wrong. I've met quite a few fantastic young blade and sword smiths. It is possible, but hardly an easy path. Most of the ones I know have had direct, in person, formal training of some sort.

Very funny. As I recall you literally wrote the book on modern sword and knife forging and have just finished a lengthy series of stunning Japanese style blades.

Drop a 3/4" diameter ball bearing from approximately a foot above the anvil surface and measure the height it bounces back to (anything above 75% is good to great, anything below 50% is poor IMHO). What you pay for anvils is localized, as regards demand. A no brainer for me would be anything below $1/lb., but each to his own. If good rebound all over the face I would consider paying up to $2/lb., but I already have an anvil. If the seller is looking at e-bay pricing they may think it is made of precious metal. Prices there are quite inflated.

Suggest a hinged counterweighted ash dump instead of a pipe cap. Depending on what you are burning, that will make your life a lot easier IMHO.

Kast-o-lite is an insulating refractory that would be better for making doors out of. Check the thermal transmission value. I don't remember, but I believe that last time I checked it transmits almost 4 times as much heat as an equivalent thickness of refractory blanket. Not as big a deal for the doors as there you are mostly trying to contain the IR, but I would still plan on at least 2" thickness of casting. Of course, you are planning on making a rather small forge, so should be careful regarding adding too much thermal mass. I've never personally used it for a forge floor, so can't recommend specifically, but it certainly will be better than just the blanket insulation.. Mizzou and Greencast are "hard" refractories (like hard brick) that would do better for flooring reinforcement IMHO. For that a thin casting will work well (1/2 - 3/4"). You should also consider casting some hard refractory opposite your burner port, if that isn't the floor already. Good luck and remember to post pictures when you get it up and running.

For a limited use forge I would recommend a light casting of either 1/2" thick Mizzou or a high alumina refractory like Greencast 97 if you can't source either high alumina kiln shelves or high alumina split hard firebrick.

Sell it to someone and see what they will pay for it. Not to be facetious, but anvil value varies widely dependent on where you live and what the local demand is for blacksmithing tools (or "collectable antiques", unfortunately). There are more rare anvils, and condition matters as well, not to mention how quickly you want to turn it over. If in decent condition list it for under $1 a pound and it will fly out of your hands. You may have to wait a bit if listed for $3 a pond or more, unless it is something special. Some areas are paying up to $5 a pound, but that is typically for a more rare size or type in excellent condition. Don't be fooled by pricing on e-bay.

Not sure where you got the "not much learning" from. I took James's Viking axe class as well, admittedly at a different location, and learned quite a bit about axe forging as well as some good group forging procedures. Perhaps you were just too advanced a smith for the class, but I found Jim to be quite expert and very willing to share his techniques.

Not to drift the subject all that much (fascinating video, BTW, thanks for sharing), but did anyone notice where his hammer hand thumb was placed? Guess some professional smiths do set it on top, at least for detail work.

Steve, I'm pretty sure you already know that is incorrect. Many anvils are marked in English hundredweight, but hardly all of them. I've personally seen some marked in pound weight as well as kilograms.

Why not square it up with a cape chisel and a bunch of filing? That way you will not only keep the budget aspect of the tool, you can say you made it yourself. The difficulty with hardening anvils is their mass. It is not just heating the whole thing up to the correct temperature for quenching, but having enough cold fluid to harden it quickly enough (think rivers, waterfalls and fire hydrants - though I did see a YouTube of someone quenching an anvil in a kiddie swimming pool...). Of course then you have to temper it. From a short search it appears that rail may be in the 1080 family, so heat treatment shouldn't be that hard, but the capability to get it up to temperature and safely handle it at 1450 deg. F is not as easy. Please be safe. The real issue as far as efficiency goes is that you have limited anvil mass directly under where you will be working. This means to forge any sizable stock you will be working a whole lot harder to move the metal than you would otherwise. I suggest you take the longest of the remaining of your other free chunks and stand it vertically from a massive stand if possible. Clean up the top end of that and use it for your basic forging. Then you can use this anvil for straightening, bends, hardy work (once you get the hole finished) as well as finishing up things like bottle openers. The time you put into setting this up will likely serve you better than hardening, but I haven't tried to harden rail to date, so take that for what it is worth. Good Luck

Had an interesting foray into looking at Rumford's chimney designs. It appears that he made two basic enhancements to design of the current fireplaces of the time: Changing the inlet of the chimney to be closer to the fire and smaller to induce higher local flue velocity to aid in capture of fumes Adding mass to the fireplace to the fireplace and brining it forward of the rear wall to provide more efficient radiant heating for the room. While I agree the "necking down" profile of the hood initially mirrors some of his design, and appreciate being introduced to it for general knowledge, I'm not sure how it specifically applies to the double enlargement indicated. I also doubt the improved induced draft of the OP hood featured based on this double expansion, though it is hard to argue with experimental success. As regards increase in capture velocity, the proximity to the forge fire and relative small opening size of the standard side draft hood would appear to function well for that. I don't see where a double expansion chamber improves that, but I could certainly be missing something. In my experience, rapid expansions in exhaust ducting results in turbulence, which can lead to friction and lowered velocity. Of course the ~10' high, large diameter, stack in the design features will both reduce the stack friction and lead to a very effective chimney effect exhaust. I would expect that a similarly sized hood opening, placed in the same proximity to the fire with a smooth transition to the stack would actually suck more air. I still think that the baffle design is more optimized to prevent hot ash and small bits of burning material from being sucked up the stack and pushed out the top by this very effective chimney effect. Essentially I agree that it is a very good design, just not necessarily with the reason cited.

I am curious about the hood design used for the sidedraft hoods on the new Green coal forge stations. Is the "z-bend" baffle at the back setup to minimize the fly ash going up the stack? It seems like the angled slope at the bottom and baffle section directly above would work well for that.