Ralph

Curious. So do you have a seperate hammer you use with a cold chisel? After all the striking end of the chisel os cold. I personly only use one hammer for about 99% of my smithing. It is a 2 1/2 lber cross pien that I dressed the face and pein to have the same crown. Also made the pein's 'face' to be about 1/2 inch across mebbe more. Either way I usually only have to redress the faces once or twice a year. Year before lastr I had redress about 4 times but it was due to working until I was too tired and cut thru some stock and hit the hardy. I also know I do not have the hammer control I would like, but then again I have not had much chance to hammer in over a year so I know I will be very rusty once I start again, assuming the arm and side finally let me. It is fascinating to hear how so many smiths either learned or just do things. We are all different. nice thing about it is we can help others see it in a different manner. Ralph

Thursday noght I had my newest tumors zapped into oblivion, I hope. So far so good. On the down side, I spoke with my oncologist today and he is now of the opinion that there is not really any chemo that is going to be effective. As the most effective one allowed 3 new tumors to grow. So he is going to consult with another oncologist to see if there are any other treatments. All the possible have really bad side effects and poor quality of life issues. Dawn and I have more or less decied good quality if better than more time. We shall see how that plays out........ IN any case I sure hope that a Merry Christmas is had by all.

Excellent news. Glad tp hear this :D

Well hope this link helps. BTW if you do go tell him where you found out about his school. http://www.turleyforge.com/

I use TSP to clean/sterilize my beer making stuff and bottles.... 8)

Would not use anything that was chromed. Them heavy metal fumes will kill. It is what more or less killed Jim Wilson ( PawPaw ) Same goes for galvanized stuff.

I like boric acid. Pet safe and bug unsafe...... Least it keeps ants out of the house

Borax. AS for welding it together, remember weld temp for wrought is HIGHER than weld temp for mild steel. SO, with that said if you are going to pre-stack the pieces, I would suggest using wrought for the outer layers. Bring to a dull red and flux. Thenb bring to weld temp and lightly hit them with the hammer. Problem with welding is that most folks whack it too hard ........ Good luck and keep us informed....... Ralph 8)

Well I had a new MRI a few weeks ago. GOt the results on Friday the 2nd Dec. Have 3 new tumors. ALl in the central area, near the ventricle area of the Brain ( the 'hole' area in the center. ) And today I spoke with the Doc about what is next. Will be getting the same Rad treatment as the last 2 tumors. As soon as next week to perhaps the week after Christmas. As you may guess this is hotting Dawn much harder than I. SO if you could please Pray for her to have the strenght to cope with this. I thank you for this. Ralph 8)

Actually clinker is a form of LOW grade glass. SO it is mostly sand and ash AS for welding in a dirty fire you should see a fellow by the name of Mark ASpery ( Californina) do weld after weld all done with ease and then see him pull out a hugh pile of clinker.... He also is a non flux welder. At least with common steel and mild steels. Never have I seen him weld some of the exotic steel alloys Ralph

I used to make 'Rastapharin Rasp Asps..... they seemed to be popular 8)

I used old brass brazing rod. ALso I pien the heads, but I also slightly countersink the pin holes. Looks better to my eye.

Curious about not being able to weld in a 'dirty' fire. So far I have not had that problem. CLinker ash or waht ever, makeds no diffenece. Unless your air flow is so blocked that you do not get the heat up enough. If it is scarfed right and it is hot enough it should not matter about the fire. ( with the exception of having copper in the fire.....) Just my 2 cents worth Ralph 8)

Well the last MRI show 3 new tumors. So it is looking more like I will be getting the whole brain radiation. Do not know more as to when it will happen. Once I do I will let y'all know. Dawn could use the prayer and support from yall. this is hitting her rather hard. Understandably.

Jr, Glad to hear this. Hope she gets out of the woods soon. Ralph

Irn, boy you sure have had a year and that is for sure. While you were gone we voted and the resolution is no more of this type of stuff. OK? Y'all are for sure in our prayers. Hang tough as I firmly believe that the Good Lord will not give more than we can carry. Tho sometimes it do seem as if that measurement was cut very fine indeed. If you need something let us know. Ralph

Speaking of which I believe Woody had a nice BP about building a tire roller. Ralph

Actually if you go slightly undersized and form the ring it should spring back to almost 7 inches. Ralph

Have not needed a ring that big, but it seems if you had need of them, why not make a plate steel 'pegboard' and metal dowels to use as a jig. Or mebbe do as I would most likely do just eyeball it.

Gobbler, half and half is half acid to water. As to how much longer.... Well it is why you make a test piece first and experiment first. Changing the concentration will aftect how long as will the bath temperature. A lot of this smithing stuff is trial and error. We can often get you close to what you need or want but some experimentaion is required to fine tune it for your application. Ralph 8) Edit Always - slowly add the acid to the water with constant stirring, never the other way around.

Daniel, Basically you have just been told by one of the world class blade makers to ask for any specific areas you have problems. He also said that there is a dearth( correct word?) of knowlege in books and on line about this topic. If I may suggest have a look at www.atar.com. I know that Jim's books are quite helpfull. If I had more real interest in the tedious work required after forging I would make blades. I do have his ( JPH's) books. Just do not have the mental fortitude for the finish work....... And as JPH said ask. Ralph

Nolano, in addition to what mecho said it is possible that eh steel used was quenched too agressively. What I mean is what did you quench in? If water it may have been an oil quench type steel. Heat treating is oftentimes an experiment in progress. You may have to find out by trial and error. BTW what did the end that broke off look like? I mean teh grain structure? It is also possible that there was a micro crak in teh piece. Sometimes 'found' steel does this. After all it was originally discarded for a reason..... 8)

Jerry sorry to hear of the attack. But thank God that is was not worse. Prayers going out.

OH I do not know. Perhaps you are in a National Historical Site working in the public eye and you have a job issued to you involvig cutting a bolt off. Seein as how this place is supposed to look like 1845 a cutting torch is not correct nor is a bandsaw. Why is it the way of so many smiths to immediately spout off about how something can not be done? I am rather tired of it. A few years back I was talking of doing slumped glass and iron work. I was told by too many smiths that it could not be done woth out computer controlled heat treat cooling ovens. I disagreed as while living in Europe I saw too many pices that were over 500 years old that had precisly what I wanted. I am certain that they did not have the computer controlled ovens. So I went ahead and figured out how to do it. Remember being a smith is not about whipping out a torch. It is about figuring out how to do things that others can't. Moving hot metal is sometimes just a by-product of this mind set.. :x

Shop names...... Hmmm well about 10 years ago I decided I needed cards to hand out at events so I pondered a shop name and decided to go with "RED Iron Forge" Seeing as how my initials spell out RED it seemed appropriate as well as the fact the metal does not move until it is at least red. 8) Ralph