forgemaster

If it cracks again weld it up again, if you use a hot sett and it gets blunt, you grind it up again, dont you, well why not do the same on the other end.  All tools will mushroom with use, if they dont, they will chip and the spall will go flying and most often than not hit someone, I still have one or 2 pieces of spall(shrapnell) in my hand that I can feel now and again, the doc just said we'll leave it, it may come out sometime may not.

Just repair the heads before the spalls get too big and start to crack off, if it cracks again, weld it again, its not rocket surgery.

Phil

Dont cut the ends off, fire weld the spalls back into the head, dress it up, and then anneal it by gettting it up to a cherry red and burying it in sand/ashes/lime etc.  This was always a job for us a TAFE when I was a boy and we had finished our jobs for the day and were starting to muck around, we'd get "find something to do, or I'll send you guys back to your employers for the rest of the day, Mr Johnston, you can start by firewelding and reclaiming all the tool heads that need doing, seeing as you are fixated by playing around with that forgefire.  It'll be good firewelding practice for you too, and don't forget to anneal the ends when you have finished".  "Yes sir, no of course not sir".  (under my breath, "and three bags full too Honny")  Tony Honson was our teacher and a very fine blacksmith he was too.

Phil

That would be a drain coming off the bottom of the expansion loop, its the lowest point and any condensate will collect there, so you need to drain it from there.  Not really a good design of drain, its normally practice to have a water leg coming down off there with the drain on the bottom, otherwise the condensate tends to get blown past the take off point, and into the hammer.  In fact a better design would have had the loop going upwards, with a condensate leg in front of the loop.

I reckon I've seen this picky before, and I think it also appears in the "bull of the woods cartoon series" where they put the smallest person in the shop in the photo so as to make the piece of equipment look bigger.

Massey used to offer the option of a fabricated standard with all their steam hammers, it allowed a saving on import duty to some countries, along with a saving on shipping weight if I recall the wording of their broucher.

Phil

Don't give the secrets away Moon!!!!.  yes Ausfire leave the anvil out in the sun for a day to preheat, but you must also make sure that the moon is in the 4th quarter, and there is a witch hazel broom laying across the window frame to the south, neglect any of these, and the magic will not work.

Geee Moonie next you will be telling the unwashed masses how the handshake and the sign is made.  Moon, you have to protect the secrets!!!!!

HJP, you do not take coal to Newcastle!!!! not ever!!!!!! its just not the done thing.    It would be like taking pineapples to Qld,,,,,,,, its just not a done thing!

What I'm trying to figure out is why would a topic about where can coal be sourced from in Sydney get moved to the Brisbane Blacksmith section of the forum,  Oh I get it its because they (Brissy and Sydeney) are right next to each other, (approx 924Kms apart).  Tamworth group is closer to Sydney then Brissy,,,,,, just saying.

Hey knackers

Luckily for you the best blacksmith in Australia lives in Braidwood, his name is Mr Glen Moon, if I were you I would give him a ring and see if you can wrangle an invitiation to either Hammered or IronCorroborre, (corroborree is in Feb)

The moon has a website that you can get his details from search www.springandhammersmith.com.  (I won't give his phone No out on a public forum such as this)

All the best

Phil

9" angle grinder is your friend, just checker board to the depth you need then remove the checkers.

I know that at least with the pommy engines (marshall, Robey, McLaren etc) the stated horsepower of portable and traction engines was not comparable to the rated horsepower of today (ie brake horse power).  The horsepowers of those engines was an indicated or "nominal" horsepower given by a mathematical breakdown of boiler pressure and using calculations of piston dia and stroke etc etc.  It was meant as a means to compare different brands and makes and models. 

This sort of thing also becomes apparent when you compare steam locomotives to diesel/electric or electric loco's, a steam loco can sustain max drawbar pull all day without a problem so long as it has fuel and water, a diesel/electric or electric loco can only sustain max drawbar pull for, in the diesel's case about 5 minutes or less, as the electric traction motors will begin to overheat etc etc at max effort held too long, especially if they are only doing very slow revs. 

On the flip side the modern loco's are easier to control the power available than the steam loco which can at max pull go into a mad wheel slip, but that is not what we were looking at, we are looking at max drawbar pull.

All changed plans now, we're going to WA instead.  Ta for the replies though.

Phil

Before one of our better apprentices was indetured to us, he did some school work experience here, the careers advisor from his school (toffy private school too) had to come and acess his on the job work experience.  Her comment to him was, "why do you want to even come and work in a disgusting filthy hot smoky place like this when you could have a real job with your intellegence".  Must have fallen on deaf ears as William Maguire is now probably one of the better blacksmiths I have come across for a long time and he still comes and works for me. 

What chance does the trade/dirty hands world have when this sort of rubbish is sprouted by the people tasked with matching kids up with their chosen life path.  If a kid wants to make stuff, wants to build the things of the world, don't push him/her into some job/occupation/proffesion that they don't want.  Where would the world be if James Watt, or Brunel or any of the other great engineers of our time had been told, "oh no James you'd be better becoming a bean counter, it is cleaner and easier and you wont need to wear those dirty clothes that the nasty workmen wear.

Is it good beer or is it beer spelt xxxx.

Hey guys,

I'm going to be up at Tamworth way over Xmas, is there anything special going on smithing wise during this time, or am I just going to have to hang at the rello's, as per usual.

Phil

Yeh wacking those dies together with nothing in between them made me cringe, I couldn't watch the whole Vid, I had to turn it off. Biggest time for damage with doing that is when everything is cold and brittle, ie in the morning, and going by the fact the guy forging in Vid 2 was dressed for cold weather I'd guess those dies were probably dead cold. In the second vid, when the "forger" breaks the job off his holding bar, is when most old forgers would tell you, that is when you will get the scar from your upper lip, up towards your eye as the hammer hits the job and it flicks up into your face.

Moony probably had a pair of safetys on, just on the top of his head where he normally wears them!

You can get it hot quicker if you use a bigger hammer too.

If this was me making these and having to make a fair number of them, I would make a set of top and bottom swages to swage them to a round preform then flatten them to thickness.  If needed then I could also make a top and bottom pin guided tool (we call them german pin dies) and stamp the handle to thickness in the pin dies after making the preform in the top and bottom swages.

Depends on how many you need to make and if they will be a repeat job, and how long are you prepared to muck around with tools/dies etc to get the right sizes to begin with.

Phil

that shure is a right purty lookin little hammer there, Hans.

Stick it into a fire, furnace, etc get it as hot as you can, red is good, 4340 is a bit harder to cut anyway, I'd use (for us) a No.24 high speed Propane/LPG cutting tip at about 90 to 100psi of oxy, (a No.24 has a cutting oxy orifice that measures 2.4mm dia).   You will need to have fairly large and preferably fairly short hoses to get the required Oxy flow, the normal "kit cut/weld" size hoses really don't have enough capacity to handle the preheat and cutting oxy required for this sort of cut and if they are long well then you are really pushing the envelope.  When you cut it you will need to go real slow, real smooth, real steady.  If necessary you can weave your cut side to side (slowly) much the same as you weave when you are welding vertical up.  This type of cutting can be done fairly well, just takes experience, and like most things it helps if you have someone to watch do it, before you try it yourself.  If I was to do this sort of thing, I'd use a profile cutting or straight line cutting machine, they just take all the variables that a human with a cutting torch adds to the equation.  If I needed to cut this myself I'd use our 16" capacity semi auto hacksaw, but I figure you don't have one of them.

Hey guys in Brissy I have to come up and get this hammer I bought that's up at Dayboro, soon, is there anyone up that way that I can pop into and say G'day to while I'm there.

Hey Hans, I just know if their site doesn't get much traffic it ends up going to the bin down the bottom of the page for a while,,,,,,,, then gonski's, no more tamworth blacksmiths site.

Most of the smaller spikes were punched/sheared from strip and then had the heads donged a bit in a crude upsetting machine.  I have one in my office here somewhere, I'll try to find it, photo it and post it here.

Phil

When breaking in a new kid as a striker, I also place a small hammer on the ground with the handle standing up vertical, under the heel of the anvil, I ask them "do you know what that's for?,,,,,, when they give me that dumb look I tell them, "that's for you",,,,,,, another dumb look,,,,,,,,, "yeh you hurt me, I'm gunna hurt you".  Seems most of the kids get the right idea real quick.

Its only waiting for you to organise it Androo.

Coke is still available in Newcastle, place is called Pacific Carbon, young Mr William Maguire uses it with success.  Their No was and maybe still is 02 4928 4155.  They have a website www.pacificcarbon.com.au .They are on Kooragang Island.

Hey Burkey

Put your location in your profile so as we know where abouts you are in Aus.

I'm near Newcastle NSW.

Cheers Phil