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I Forge Iron

bigfootnampa

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Everything posted by bigfootnampa

  1. Update. I had a great time at the BAM conference. I bought a new anvil from Jymm Hoffman. A thing of beauty that is solid cast H13 steel and about 110 pounds. I also bought a new propane forge from Bob Alexander. His beautiful Saint Bernard “Toby” was a really big hit with my son Lukas! I also bought a couple of hammers and a few tongs. The 1 3/4 pound rounding hammer from Nathan of Jack Pine Forge is a finely polished paragon of the hammer arts! I have ordered a “San Mai” blank of “Blue Paper Steel” to do some experimental forgings with! I found it on eBay! Apparently this steel is best used as a welded edge rather than as a monolithic forging. It must be a bit brittle for forming the main structure of tooling. I will follow up with results of my test forging experiences! I also have ordered some O1 and some D2. The O1 will be good for me... I think. The D2 looks like quite a challenge!
  2. I have not made garden tools for handicapped people, but my basic processes would be adaptable. I either make mine with tangs that are tapered square and heat seated or I flare the end of the tool shaft to make a socket. I generally don’t bother to weld my sockets as I’ve not found it needful. I have done some with a tang and ferrule as you are considering and any sort of tubing can be tapered to make the ferrules. Usually I find it simpler, faster and stronger to use a wire wrap or a cording wrap instead of a metal ferrule. Wrapped ferrules can be coated with epoxy or similar for easier cleaning and more durability. This leaf blade hoe is the most effective and efficient garden tool that I’ve ever made or used! It’s 27 inches overall with about a 4 inch blade. This one was made from a large piece of rebar, but 4140 would be a better material. I only garden in containers now and this tool does almost all weeding, planting and tilling chores with ease and grace. It’s very light and well balanced! It has a rustic beauty and feels like part of your arm in use! It can dig like a badger!
  3. As regards to your power grinding, you should get quality ceramic belts for your heavy stock removal steps. You’ll find that you can get lots more work done without overheating the stock and that the belts will vastly outlast aluminum oxide belts. You’ll still need patience when working thin edges and especially toward the points of blades. I keep a water dip handy but rarely use it. Start out with cool metal and use very light pressure when grinding thin areas. Grind several pieces at a session and you can have several cooling while you work on others. Remember that the belt heats too so don’t try to work too fast overall. Good ceramic belts only seem to be available in about 120 grits and coarser... so I use the aluminum oxide belts for the finer grinds. Just work slow and carefully as you get to the finer grinds... light pressure and short spates of work on each piece. BTW variable speed grinders are essential IMO and slower speeds are better for almost every step, but especially the finer finish grinds. If you are using a machine designed for woodwork... it is likely way too fast for doing good blade grinding!
  4. I have watched a highly skilled hammersmith who uses 1045 and regularly quenches his hammers in water... with no adverse results. He never just tossed them into the water though! He would dip them and then pull them out. Basically lowering the speed of his quench by his technique. Water tends to be a very uneven coolant when the work is not carefully agitated. This may have some bearing on your problems. Personally I prefer oil quench for most purposes including hammers. Severe cracking seems to suggest fairly serious stresses and maybe a combination of factors at work. I suggest slowing down your whole process and being attentive to each step.
  5. Thanks Frosty! I am leaving it with Jymm till Saturday evening so that people can look at it. Then I’ll have to make a stand and retrieve my coal forge from my Saint Louis smithy. I also intend to make a Hoffman style propane forge. So scale is a few weeks away yet. I’ve got at least one pre-order waiting! I’m looking forward to the demos today!
  6. 110 pound Jymm Hoffman anvil! Of 30 ordered to sell at this BAM conference... this was the ONLY one that didn’t get sold before the conference! Jymm is one of our demonstrators at this event. I came early to get in on the good deals. I got a nice hammer and this anvil from Jymm today! I am excited to put it to work! This is hardened to 52 Rockwell and cast of solid H-13 steel! Isn’t it a BEAUTY? It is Jymm’s design for an improved European anvil style. I think it is as fine as any anvil I’ve ever seen! I am thrilled to be it’s new owner! It takes about 30 weeks to get an order for these anvils cast and machined and shipped. Yes... I could be slipping back into smithing addiction. Pray for me! Odd scraps of metal are making my fingers tingle again!
  7. Black locust is a very strong and flexible wood... even fully air dried. You’ve done good so far! You could put a single coat of something like an oil finish, or even a wipe-on varnish (essentially a thin varnish). I would advise against putting on a thick rigid finish as it’s likely to blister, peel, craze, or do other bad stuff, as the staff dries and shrinks. Rot is unlikely. Personally, I’d likely use some “Tried and True” finish... which is beeswax and linseed oil in a food safe version. Any large cracks from shrinkage can be fixed with a carved and glued insert or a good flexible epoxy... with or without fillers or coloring.
  8. I like them! Nicely ground surfaces. I might suggest a bit more curve along the length of the heads on future models. It seems like these might drag a bit through the curve of most bowls.
  9. I once used the wood from a very large old black locust that had grown in my yard for firewood. It was a tree with a stump over four feet in diameter! All firewood should be seasoned. Green burning leads to creosote buildup in your chimney... which leads to roaring chimney fires... which leads to having the fire department in your attic all night on Christmas Eve... which I know because I was crawling around up there once myself! Besides which burning green wastes much of the potential heat value... it’s like quenching your fire with a spritzer. That tree produced about six or seven cords of wood and heated a large old house for major parts of three years through Idaho winters! It did burn much like coal! Big logs would burn red hot for hours with little smolder! It reminds me of how my coal forge burns when I have it really going! When I moved from Idaho I still had some of that locust that I sold to a good friend.
  10. I am currently in Branson... but my forge is still in my High Ridge location (just south of Saint Louis). I have some moving to do. I have a dealer that I trust in Japan... I’ll check with him about getting some of the steel. I thought that some of the bladesmith suppliers in country might have it. I used to do some teaching at the Woodcraft store in Saint Louis... but I know that they are not in the steel supply business. Finished tools is likely all they will offer. The tool that I like best is a hand forged gouge with a shallow curve that has been sharpened to a fingernail shape with an elongated edge on the left side (looking into the concave side of the gouge while holding the handle). I think it’s pretty old and it might even be handmade steel. I find it a remarkably handy tool and I think it will be great for spoon carving! My plane blades are mostly the blue paper steel though and they have superb edges... better than my Swiss carving tools.
  11. Thanks for the info Steve and SLAG! I plan to be at the BAM conference in May. I’ll ask some of the vendors and Smith’s there and see if maybe I can get some while I am there. I am not in any hurry... just thinking ahead. I’ve picked up some older Japanese tools lately and I love them! Some of the edges will literally shave hair with astonishing ease!
  12. I have been thinking about all of the blades and edged tools that I own. All of mine have serviceable edges. There is one type of steel that stands out as a consistent high performer though. It’s the “blue paper steel” that many of my Japanese tools are made of! I assume that many of you here are familiar with this steel. I would like to get some for my tool and knife forging. Do any of you know about a source that I might contact? I’m also interested in any tips that you might have for working or heat treating this type of steel. I just admire the fine edges that it will take and how well they hold up as I work with them.
  13. I would advise you to begin with forging a head and fitting a wooden handle. The all steel type will be a significantly more advanced piece of work. I also think you’ll prefer the wooden handle anyway... I know I would! I do have both types BTW. Using breaker bits for material is an excellent idea! They are often mostly 1070 to 1090 steels but often have custom alloy content that improves their abrasion and shock resistance. Another good source, when you can find it in large enough sizes, is old star drills. 1090 is better than medium carbon steels like 4140 but you have to temper it appropriately.
  14. It’s machined like a fine shotgun... a Purdy perhaps. It would pair well with such!
  15. Many of the mower blades that I have spark like pretty high carbon steel! I even have some brand new ones that spark test like pretty high carbon metals. I’d not hesitate to use them for utilitarian cutting tools. Clearly mine are different from what you have though. My new “Oregon” blades have really nice spark showers!
  16. The sparks look good, but... you need to compare with a known steel sample. It could be an old axle or some such thing.
  17. Thomas; Look up 2” roughing gouge on google. You’ll see near duplicates of that tool. I don’t turn anymore but I used to own a couple almost exactly like it. They are very useful for turning square to round or rough smoothing log or branch stock.
  18. The fact that it says cast steel would seem to make it pretty old. Others here will know more on that topic. I can speak to the shape. It appears to be a roughing gouge for wood turning. While there’s a chance that it could be useful for timber framing or bowl carving... I’d bet on it being intended as a turning tool. Similar ones are being made today... but they don’t use cast steel anymore.
  19. The vinegar treatment is not just to remove rust. It will actually sharpen the file teeth as it undercuts the tooth edges! I usually soak them for a day or two and use a nylon brush to clear gunk and bubbles two or three times during the process. I rinse them in a baking soda solution afterward and then clear water and dry very quickly with heat (not enough heat to affect the temper). I follow the drying IMMEDIATELY with WD 40 spray... to inhibit rust. Most dull or semi-dull files will cut like brand new ones after this treatment!
  20. That is a raising hammer. It’s typical use is to make bowl or cup shapes in copper, steel or silver. That’s an unusually large one. Those tongs are light duty fire tongs. People used to use them to get a coal from the fire to light their pipes with.
  21. You might want to get some persimmon wood. It is related to ebony and usually has dark heartwood and IME interesting figure. I’ve never seen it commercially available but local tree trimmers occasionally run into some. I personally love pecan wood! It’s in the hickory family and truly tough with beautiful colors and figures!
  22. Pferd files are excellent! They are currently one of the largest manufacturers... so... widely available. Grobet (Swiss) files are superb, though costly! Grobet does have many specialty styles available. For standard types of files I find the Pferd brand is difficult to match up to... especially if your budget is not very overfunded! if you’re not committed to all new files. You can often get good bargains at flea markets and antique shops. I’ve acquired many from such sources that were nearly as good as new after a day or two soaking in vinegar!
  23. If it were my project, I’d probably use an old rotary mower blade for material. Most of mine (mostly from high end commercial mowers) are about 1095 or 1080... something like that. At 1/4” thick they’d be pretty heavy! I’d probably thin them to no more than 1/8”... by forging.
  24. Hmm... much to consider in Latticino’s post! I find most of it in complete disagreement with my own experiences though. Let’s start with slack belt work. I vastly prefer slightly convex grinds to other types! I control the degree of convexity with pretty good precision by adjusting the pressure which I apply. My viewpoint is... “why grind a secondary or micro bevel, when I can do it all at once and have a smootherblade that slices more effectively?”. I do have a 10” contact wheel which is always available if I move off the slack belt area. I use this for heavy removal work but move to my slack belt for refining edges. BTW I usually use a bit more acute angle for my edges which allows the slightly convex bevels to present just the optimal angle right at the cutting edges! Now as to my buffer. I use my buffer as an integral part of my sharpening sequence. I remove the wire edges with my buffer and also polish the edges just enough... just enough to make them sharper and longer lasting than any other type of edge finish that I have tried! The one exception is to polish the edges with polishing stones to a mirrored surface. This takes days or even weeks... but the results are stunning! My buffed edges are very nearly as good with mere minutes invested! Because of the lower number of cutting edges, I find that for blade grinding, any grits beyond about 50 or 60 grit will actually slow my work significantly. If you do lots of grinding on annealed stock or mild steels you’ll find more use for coarser grits. All the work that coarser grits would do for me... I achieve by forging! I am really confident of this advice and use it regularly myself. If you disagree, well do it your own way... but here is gold if you want to pick it up! Joy of the forge to all of you! I’d buy a round if we were close enough!
  25. I have often experienced poor results from partial quenches. IMO you’d be better off doing a full quench and then drawing temper differentially. You might also consider a few normalizing cycles to address grain growth BEFORE heat treating. For beginners, grain growth is a common problem. They tend to heat too much and move the metal too slowly... a good recipe for excess grain growth. I agree with all the advice above re oil quenching too... it is my standard method. Water quenching can work well in certain situations... IMO it is best used by experienced smiths.
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