forgemaster

Dont you guys get sore standing on one leg all day, it suprises me that you have your foot control set so high. We always try to adjust our foot controls so that with the hammer running at full stick, the pedal is flat on the floor that way you have both legs taking equal weight, and you are more stable. The best setup I have seen or used was at tech here in Newcastle (when it had a blacksmith shop) in that the 3 cwt massey had the pedal set into a trough in the floor so you were standing on both legs using the ball of your foot to drive the hammer, (no there were no accidents with people stepping on it by accident).

Newcastle City Council still has a blacksmiths shop, but not for much longer. The last blacksmith retired a year 2 ago, and all the forging work was being done by boilermakers. Only last week they removed and scrapped the 3cwt massey hammer, I rang to see what was happening to the hammer, as I knew they had OHS compliance problems with it. Only to be told Yeh we sent it to the scrappys on a truck yesterday, I rang the scrap yard immediately but it had already been sent to the steelworks and melted down. We now do any forging work that they needed the hammer for, mainly only road spikes (spikes used in concrete formwork). So sad that such a beautiful little hammer that they bought new, and had done so little work, was scrapped on the say so of a office waller. Lake Maquarie City council also had a smith until about 10 years ago, The Hunter District Water Board also had a really nice shop until about 13 years ago, they still have their last blacksmith, he is now one of the executives on "the board" of the Water board! Phil

Back when we used to set truck springs on the anvil, we used to get a fuller and forge it to an edge to make a wide hot sett, that we used when scarfing the ends of the leafs before rolling the spring eye. They used to last for ages and that was cutting through spring steel flat up to 1" thick by 5" wide hot. So yes you could use a fuller as a hot sett by forging (or grinding) it to a sharp edge. Cheers Phil

Short answer, mild steel for a general forging hammer, no. Will mushroom over fairly quickly. Cheers Phil

We are talking about an anvil here not a Porshe, anvils are fairly robust and hard to damage, especially with paint stripper.

Hey Dale Hand hammering is over rated anyway, why use a hand hammer when you can use a power hammer. Can you at least hoist a beer to your mouth yet. Hi Richard we will have to wait till next year then, will be good to see you again. Talking to Moonie the other day, if we get much more rain we will all have to pack swimming togs, moonie has a water view from the front of his 7 cwt, and thats not even looking outside of the door. I reckon that Grant will just turn up unannounced, just to give us a suprise. Grant are you listening to me? Cheers Phil

Not if I got there 1st, Dale!

So what happens with the Scots and their sword dance, does it now become a wooden stick dance or some such? Also what happens with the scotty carrying a dirk in his sock? Maybe they could just carry a teaspoon in their sock now. A blunt teaspoon at that! Phil

Yep I'm with Mr Sarver on this one.

Weird looking manip, I normally check Ebay for this sort of thing, but I somehow missed this, bit over my price range at the moment, especially when I would have to ship it to Aus. Thanks for posting it though. Phil

A while ago I posted some photos of some of our forging and stamping tools. A few of the blokes n sheilas asked if I could elaborate on their manufacture. Well,last night while I was sorting through some Tech notes stuff to send to Moony I found these, to make german pin dies, and making spring swages. These are they. I tried to find the post that I originally posted in but no luck. I have more of these exercises, containing hooks, sledge hammers, shackles, crankshafts, etc, if I can get the internet to work a bit better (keeps dropping out when posting this sort of stuff, this is my 3rd attempt) I'll scan more and post them. Cheers Phil

Metric size would be 16 x 50 to be standard, 15mm is not a standard metric size. Phil

Yeh Andrew, he does'nt want to have to get out and help push your old jalopy up the hills, nor be overtaken by a bullock team and dray going down the other side. Phil I should be diesel turbo uted by then.

Hey Tom As soon as I saw the footage I knew why everyone was having problems, you were all driving on the wrong side of the road, no wonder you all had to go slow. Seriously, that was a lot of water moving there. It was interesting that they were still letting traffic through, in Oz the coppers just shut the road these days and everyone just has to sit there, trucks, semi's and road trains included, till the cops figure its safe, which can run to days.

Cool, I'm in. I'll pencil it into the calendar on the fridge at home this arvo, just so as the dragon don't make any other plans for me. Phil

When I first started work for myself, one of the first jobs I got was sharpening jack hammer moils, done heaps of them when I was working for a boss. Now about half of mine were coming out a brittle as glass, snapping like carrots, what I figured out was, the quench tub was on the western side of the shop, in front of a window, in the morning the sun was not coming through this window and I was judging the incandesant heat correctly to quench. In the arvo the sun was coming straight through that window so I was quenching my moils about 150 degC hotter than the morning, even though to my eye the colours were the same. I put a blind over the window, and my breakages stopped. Moral, you have to have constistancy of light to use sight as a means of judging heat. Now if we are forging temperature critical metals we will test the temp by use of an optical pyrometer, or we will set up the furnace with a thermocouple and a digital readout. Cheers Phil

We used to be called Richmond Vale Steam Forge, but that got confused with Richmond Vale Railway Museum, which is near here. Or we were called Richmond Vale Steam and Forge, plus it ties us down to a locality. I remembered seeing a movie when I was at Tech called Forgemaster In Steel. So we changed from a propietorship, became a Company and the name became Forgemasters (Aust) Pty Ltd, one day I was going to have a shelf company or post office box registered in some other countries so as I could maybe add Kurri Kurri, Manchester, Cologne, and Pittsburg to the end of the name for a bit of a stir. Phil

Just bumping this up to the front again, and to ask Dale and the Moon Man if it will be on again this year. I'm keen for it. Maybe we need to look at a date soon, if it is to run again. Maybe we could all kick the tin this year to assist glen with what it costs, re food etc. My thoughts. Phil

"Yeh stay away from women, thats my motto. I can't though, thats my problem." (with thanks to Ralph the pianist, from the Muppet Movie). Seriously, go to college, study some kind of small business course, you'll need to know marketing, accounting, planning, OHS etc etc. No matter what you end up making I've found that you need some constant regular no brainer kind of job coming through the shop which pays the bills that alway arrive each month regardless, for us it has been brake shoe keys, and scaling bar tips. 1000s of them. But they pays them bills. The other main attributes to success in any business is dedication, stubbornness, and resiliance. When you get knocked down get back up again, over and over and over again.

Hi Andy I have covered quenching and tempering springs before in the forum, just search for "greasy stick" and go to about the 7th page in, you'll find a post, "I think I need a new heat treater" it will be in there. I also posted some other stuff re spring heat treatment back further, but you will need to search for it. The post was some one wanting to make a leaf spring for a vintage car. If you have any other questions you can PM me direct. Yes I have made leaf springs before,(started my apprenticeship in a shop that only had 2 forge fires and we were making Ford Louiville main leaves, as well as a lot of other truck springs, on a daily basis) Phil

Another use for vinegar while in the shop, putting it on ya fish and chips at lunch time. Phil

Hey Cheers John and the young takker, (Darren). Actually there was Moony Me Damo Starlo Charlie, Phil Cleary all there that weekend that were card carrying time served metal bashers. How is the anvil going, has Darren used it for anything special yet? How old did you say Darren was, we'll keep him in mind as apprentice material. Phil

I had a clause in my lease that said I had to provide a working demo on Sundays, he provided his own furnace, gas, and material, so it worked out OK. He got to use my hammer I got to stay home on sunday and have a sleep in.

Stupid me. Left out a not, A forge is not suitable for the addition of O2

Or is it blacksmithing without boarders. Sort of like when the family goes away for a holiday, but I still gotta go to work. Oh wait that can't happen as I'm obviously not one of the 2 last blacksmiths left in Aus, like theres this guy and there is one other , who is it going to be? Phil