DuEulear

Industrial salvage stores are a source i went looking for one and bought a pallet of 6 24” round stones for less than 50$

When in doubt get the paternity test ! never have intimate relations on fathers day or mothers-day unless you want the outcome the gods are jokers after all

That might be something different. But it sure looks mighty nice !!

Wow good tip on the camphor i never heard that one before

my guess is the spacific temper requirements for maraging are defined somewhere in usfa or international fencing ruelbooks you can check with leon paul or other manufactures as to the actual process.

You know you are a blacksmith when your only worry about the pandemic is “do i have enough coal to make it for two weeks? “

I am gonna go see if i caint kill old smog so i can afford to purchase one with his tresuer beautiful

The principle is ok but the fulcrum should be in the middle and rigged so you lift the lever to do work at the other end. A small man can push many times his own weight against the earth to generate more force than a fat guy sitting. Now the question becomes what do you build it out of that is both rigid enough and light enough that you do not loose a great deal of force to the frame flexing. Or to lifting the mass of tge lever. By the time you solve all the inherant issues and design problems i bet you could have smithed up enough hooks hammers and blacksmith keychains to simply buy a press. Which will be cheaper than the machiene you are now building. Just my 2 cents susan

Heat can be relitive you can skip the torch and just throw it in the temper oven at 350 for a cycle or two oil after

I pay . 30 cents or less if I purchase from scrap bin as i pay scrap price then. I would say price will vary depending on shape and condition we sell 4140 as hot roalled anealed decarb free anealed, pre heattreated hot roll and decarb free all have a diffrent price per lb between 3 and 10 a pound thin bar costs more than thick per pound because making it costs tge same in tooling and time enjoy

I second the notion that large chunks of homgeneous steel is not difficult in the modern day i needed a show anvil for a viking themed fair there where no rules but i wanted to be a touch more authentic i grabbed a scrap end of 8” square bar of prehardened 4140 ended up with a 115 lb block without trying very hard spent 3 hrs putting a 1” hardy hole in and love the result ps if you are anywhere near me i can keep an eye open for you

I would argue that black- smith means a smith that works in the black meaning iron and steel. A Modern welder welding steel is still working in steel. Is this a forging operation? The answer is unequivocally no. Neither are fileing, grinding, polishing, coloring and waxing of metals but if you are executing these processes on steel or iron then they are part of blacksmithing. All be it modern blacksmithing. Susan

Only a guess but it is possible the tape you are using is slightly acidic and reacted with part of tge steel etching a particular alloy element and none of the others? I know nothing of that alloy but is the only idea i can think of susan

Well my “crayon is 1.5” hex about 6 “ long lol the lampblack and charcoal dust are pretty close to graphite moly is cheap and easy to buy on amazon so is pretty simple in the days of the interweb

I have seen that texture in my own work after not brushing off scale during forging from the anvil or the part. Pickel in vinigar when done but be lazy and forget it in there for a week it will increase the pitting. Then finish after a wash and base neutralize with bakingsoda susan