bigfootnampa

There ARE several types of shortcuts for heat treating though. One that I have personally liked and had success with is to heat to past critical and oil quench and then to flame off the oil in the forge. I will redip in the quenching oil and flame off several times (about 5x) and after a final quench I air cool. This has the advantage of being very fast and allows the tempering to follow the quenching almost immediately. I do NOT think this method is as accurate or reliable as oven or kiln tempering but it is very quick and helps to prevent cracking and warpage (because the temper takes place before the metal cools from the quenching) and it has worked quite acceptably for me.

Straw temper is much harder than purple... so these should be reasonably suited to their tasks. Purple tends to be a bit harder than I usually temper my hammers (light blue). I've not much experience with 4340 but regularly use 4140 and find it usually works well as forged. As regards tooling for power hammering though, I would tend to want it more carefully heat treated. I have found that "as forged" tools will sometimes have slightly uneven hardness which also means slightly unpredictable hardness and both these things seem somewhat dangerous in tooling which sees the extreme stresses of power hammer usage. I wouldn't be afraid of it for hand tooling but for power hammer use I would take the time to be more careful and safer. Just my personal judgement.

So a new question for you Brian... do you use 1045 for some of these top tools? I know that you like it for hammers... just wondering if it works okay for unhardened top tools also, as I have a decent supply of it and can get more reasonably easily. After working a little monel and some D2 my power hammer says it really likes 1045 too!

Richard; You really must dissassemble and blow that scale out after a couple days of hard use!! ;)

Brian has such accuracy with his hammers that he tends to use them as top tools and strikes with his swing... that's what he is trying to say. He is NOT using them as traditional top tools struck with another hammer. Looking at his work it should be obvious that the man has outstanding if not astonishing hammer control! Even my own hammer accuracy amazes me and it's nowhere NEAR Brian's level. People have some incredible physical potentials! The AVERAGE human being has stunning hand/eye control... I would suggest that Brian is pretty far from average! At least as applicable to smithing skills.

Passivation chemically removes scale from the surface, which can otherwise rust. If you polish your utensils (the only way to get a real shiny surface) I don't think that you'll need to worry about passivation... the polishing should take care of that for you.

It would be a nice fit for light period demos... it has the unmistakable look of great age!

Less than a dollar per pound if it rebounds decently I'd say you got a real deal! I just paid $3 per pound for a Peter Wright and felt like I made a good deal! Fisher anvils are noted for their relative quietness and considered good quality.

A friend of mine built a house that had to have sprinklers in it and the one that was over his living room flooded his house in the summer with a few inches of water. Twice. There was not enough attic ventilation and the heat in the houses attic set of the sprinklers. I think the first time was a 140F head and he replaced it with a 165F head. I think that was as high a temp that could be bought. It is now plugged with a pipe plug. I suggest you get on a ladder and read the temperature rating on the head in question and if you are worried change it to a higher temp if possible. Do not do this without your landlord. The sprinkler systems I am familiar with are filled with water not air, When the head melts and opens you want water to put out the fire not air to fan the flames. You could also put a remote thermometer up near it and watch the readings as you run the forge on a hot day. Thats my opinion now.
Rob

Your slot needn't be a tight fit if you are using epoxy to bed the tang. He has a tutorial on the site but I would handle that blade with a two piece handle and carve out the slot. The blade looks nice! I recently bought a filet knife and it was very poorly tapered and ground... I ended up redoing the rough grind on up and wished that I had just made my own blade from scratch. This one seems much better! I've done quite a few 2 piece handles and with all good results.

You are right and they are wrong... it is a pretty generic photo though, they probably intended no harm... I'd ask them to remove it.

Vulcan is not a very good brand. That anvil has pretty rough edges. I wouldn't use it myself and it is overpriced IMO. My advice is to look some more.

These folks have 2'x 8' 1074 spring steel coils (annealed) available in .032" thickness.
A & C Metals

Well... She looks REAL attractive to me! I could use her here!

Who needs lunch? This can be the new/old hammer diet!

I too think it is a pry bar NOT a chisel. The old pry bars seem pretty good material for chisels and punches though... usually better than 4140. I have made knives and wood chisels from them too and those usually serve well also. Try it! You'll probably like it!

One thing that I will guess that you are doing is to hit the rivet too hard when peening. Good rivet technique is MANY light hits done quite to VERY fast. Do you have the rivet headed on one side before setting it? If not you should. Then you need to have a bolster beneath the tongs that allows space for the previously formed rivet head. Accuracy is also very important, especially for the first few strikes any tilting or other than directly vertical strikes will be likely to get a bend started and basically this is small scale upsetting at first... bends are disastrous. The heavy blows that Grant uses serve to upset the rivet IN the hole making for a tight fit. Many light hits then upset the end of the rivet to form the head... heavier blows overtighten the rivet forcing you to loosen it at heat and will often bend the head over to the side. The principle is the same as in any forging, heavy blows carry their effect deeper into the steel... lighter blows have shallower effects... hotter steel moves easier and so the strength of the blows must be adjusted accordingly. As Grant mostly cold rivets he will use heavier blows than a guy who is hot riveting would. Speed is much less important for cold riveting too.

These torches are NOT TOYS either! When I was a firefighter I was called to the scene of an explosion caused by a guy trying to light his fireplace with one. He apparently turned the valve in the wrong direction and emptied the tank into his living room... when he next tried to light the torch the explosion lifted his ceiling a foot and burned off his bangs and eyebrows!!! He was kinda stunned and deafened too. His neighbor described him walking out with his arms held out and a zombie like stare just like Wile E. Coyote in the old roadrunner toons! He just had one of the small quart sized bottles too. We had a farmer that hooked up his own propane to his furnace (and this was a 400 gallon bulk tank) and didn't realize that he needed a regulator on the line. Fortunately his basement was quite small and he just blew a 10 foot diameter hole through his floor and roof... knocked the chimney over onto the babies crib, but the baby wasn't in it at the time. Minor injuries and a few thousand dollars damage to the house (flames were ten feet above the roof as we arrived). I know lots of us on here LIKE to do it ourselves and most are capable too... BUT ONE bad mistake can cost a hell of a lot.

They won't tolerate much breeze and you cannot tip the cylinder unless it's nearly empty... this means VERY LIMITED uses only. For slightly more you can get one with a short hose that works very well. With the hose you can keep the cylinder upright and still direct the flame as you need to. It still won't tolerate much breeze. I've done a LOT with these torches and for just slightly more you can get a trigger light model and if you run MAPP gas in it you can do a lot more yet. The hose is essential though unless you are pretty well using it as a bench tool where it can always be in the upright position.

Very nice! I like the coatrack best myself. The wood is lovely though IMO it would benefit from some distressing and antiquing. As it ages it will turn MUCH darker and richer in color... you will like it more and more!

As far as your earlier question about mower blades... they do vary and I would test before using them for a tomahawk... but most of the blades that I have gathered are good steel and will harden and hold edges very well. I have read that 1090 is commonly used by mfrs and that seems right from my experience. I have heard that some will not harden but have not personally encountered any. The riding mowers use thicker blades and generally those are better stock for most uses. Some are about 3/8" thick and I like those best. If I were to make a folded hawk with no bit I think I'd try to leave one piece short of the edge so that I didn't end up with my edge right on the weld. Old files are similar steel and I have seen nice hawks made from them also.

For slit and drifted hawks you might keep an eye out for some of the heavy pry bars with square sections (I sometimes get them from antique or flea markets). The steel in them makes good hammers and chisels and should be good for hawks also. Junk axles are often 4140 which is good hawk steel too. Hammers are often 1040 or 1050 so that is the kind of steel you likely have in your hammer conversion hawks.

I do quite understand the desire to be able to sharpen with a file. I make some sickles with hooked ends and do not quench them at all (use 1035-1050 steel and as I thin the blade out it air and anvil hardens just a little... enough). I have also managed to lose my grip a couple of times... why I thought up the strap lanyard system. I do think that heavily used items like this benefit from less hardening and more sharpening. That strategy also minimizes damage from chipping and makes it possible to peen out some damage preserving the life of the blade and keeping the edge maintenance minimized.

gives me leg ache working this lenghth for the length of time of this first heat (with my treadle arrangement).

Perhaps it would help to fit a wooden pedal to the treadle bar? It could be removable when not needed. Might lower your leg position and give you a more comfortable surface to press against.

Kinda wondering if a lighter faster hammer might be the thing for this scale of taper; I kinda like long elegant tapers with organic work

Could be, my Anyang is a 20 pound (about 10kg). I think the same speed as yours though. A lovely tool!! When I saw the 20 pound Anyang demoed at the BAM conference in April of 2009 Bill Moffet tried it out (I think it may have been his first try with such a tool) and forged a 1" rod with a 12" heat into a 36" taper with very fine tip and a few decorative bulbs in a single heat! I thought he could've kept going for a bit as he still had some red heat! That was where I suddenly developed a yearning for this tool... and that moment was pivotal. Bill is a skilled smith I just don't think he has much experience with power hammers... He won the hand-forging contest at the BAM conference this last April.

There are some good youtube videos of arrowhead forging that will help you. No need to weld or braze just forge the socket to a triangle shape and then roll it with an open slit. It is very helpful to have a cone mandrel to smooth and round the socket taper and for such a small item as an arrowhead it would be quite easy to just forge one yourself... you could even turn one by chucking a rod in a drill and spinning it against a sander or grinder. You won't need a hardy cone (although it might be nice)... a common technique is to use a short rod with tapered end as a holder while finishing the socket against the anvil.

Well you are working some pretty fine sections there (on the small ends anyway). Your Anyang is powerful enough to handle around 2 1/2" to 3" stock...?? if you stomp on that taper where it's only 1/4" diameter it will be about the thickness of tin foil in one hit!!??!! Be thankful that you have a nice machine that can be used in such a delicate way. Personally I use my hand hammer quite a bit when I do smaller tapers (like nails or drive hooks), just cause I have an Anyang doesn't mean I have to use it for everything.

That said when I do very long tapers (which I do often, though maybe not as long as these) I tend to point my small end and then spin the rod as I hammer sort of extruding the taper from the parent stock with just a little hand hammering to knock off high or rough spots left to do (I will try to get most of this at the end of heats and may finish cold). I rough taper square for a short length and then octagonalize it and spin smoothing and blending the taper... then to the anvil and hand hammer for straightening and more fine finishing. Now back to the fire... my forge is coal and shorter heats are common and easy and I make more of them than you do. Trying to work too much length can be bad as the grain growth devil raises his head and too much hot metal hanging off the dies can lead to lots of stress problems when combined with the jarring from the hammer. I do try to work fast as this is good for my metal grain wise and the Anyang preserves the heat by warming the metal from the hammer action (this is another reason for shorter heats... if I try to work a longer length I lose some of the hammer heat effect and often actually get LESS work done).

Well practice is the real answer and you will get more skillful as you do more similar tapers but maybe some of this will help you think about subtle ways to improve your techniques. Still I gotta say when you do an 1100m taper in three heats... not TOO bad (I think maybe you meant 1100mm... still not so bad)!