Blacksmith Jim

There was a small swage block there when I was there this weekend. I took a second look at it There were also a lot of anvils. All JHM I think.. Anyway, if those end up at 40% off, there might be some real good deals for brand new anvils.. If I get back up there again, I think I'll snag a flatter. I haven't burned any of the Elkhorn yet, but it looks nice.

Yea, I was sad I had only just gone to it. I knew it was there and had driven by it several times, but hadn't set aside the time to go. Mr. Turkington sure was an interesting fellow. And at 80, I don't blame him for retiring. Although he looked like he was still relatively full of xxxx and vinegar He said that he had more stuff to keep up with then time, and wanted to spend more time with his wife. Can't blame him.

I think it sounds pretty interesting! Take lots of pictures :)

UPDATE: John Turkingtons store Farrier supply in Monroe Oregon is NOT closing. The shop is alive still and is open 8-5 mon-sat There is Plenty of coal and Coke and Blacksmith supplies to be had even anvils. The family has taken over the business, and his granddaughter is working in the shop, I thought I would post since I know a few other Oregonians post here. If you haven't heard, Monroe Farrier Supplies is closing shop. They are selling out their inventory at around 40% off now (except coal). I went there this weekend and picked up a rounding hammer, butchers brushes, some H13 blanks, and a little coal. I think the owner still plans to sell coal (not on sale) and was talking about having classes in the future. I was a little sad to find out they are closing. It was really the first time I had gone up there.

Looks great What method of welding did you use to attach the bailing wire to the sheet?

Yeah, thats what mine looks like, except it doesn't have the middle piece. Boy I wish I had more of it. I found a link at the scrap yard once.. Mine is probably an inch and a half in diameter..

A good friend of mine recently converted his forge to a side blast by simply making a wall of fire bricks on one side and sticking a 1" or 1.5" diameter pipe out from the wall. Easy to replace if it happens to burn off. So far, after several weeks it is still doing fine. It works great and it is easy for 2 or 3 or 4 smiths to have an iron in the fire and not get in each others way too much.

Why not make a side blast forge and then you don't even need a clinker breaker!! :)

Is that formula testing for carbon content or something? I have an old chain link I am pretty sure is wrought. I can see clear grain patterns in the rust, and under the paint. I'd be curious to try it.

Congrats :)

I have a Wilton that was purchased from a big box store a few years ago. It's not as nice as these older Wiltons, but I like it a lot. The jaws swivel around if I need to clamp something at a weird angle, and there are pipe clamp jaws underneath the regular jaws. It looks more like Mende's tho then the other Wiltons.

I wouldn't think the tolerances would make that big of a deal in the application I am thinking about. Dodge, didn't you just build a belt grinder? Did you use hot rolled or cold?

Howdy, I recently stumbled across some plans for building a 2x72 inch belt grinder. Basically a KMG clone. The material list for the machine specifies cold roll material. It is decidedly easier for me to find scrap hot roll. Will using hot roll instead of cold roll really make a difference? I did some initial research, and it kind of seems like I should be fine with hot roll, but I thought I would ask. I know cold roll should be a little harder, or more rigid, but will it make that much of difference? I thought another reason they say cold roll might just be the appearance.. Thanks!

We have two local steel scrap yards in town. I buy secondary or scrap steel at about 35 cents a pound from the scrap yards. Also, I've been starting to do some bicycle work, and have found that most bike shops toss out old frames and components by just setting them behind their shops. I have a growing pile of bike frames and other bike goodies. I haven't tried forging any of the metal from the bike parts, but it seems there is a fair amount of steel tubing.

I have a Lincoln AC/DC tombstone. I run it in DC all the time. I keep 6011 and 6013 on hand in various sizes. If I am worried about not getting too much penetration (thin stock) then I use 6013. Other wise I use 6011. I'll toggle between electrode negative or positive depending on if I want more or less penetration as well.

Here in Eugene I was just hoping my shop didn't blow away! Costco car port and all. I added some extra stakes and weight last night. So far so good. I'm glad I'm not over on the coast for those 100+ mph gusts. I did work for a little while last night out in it (not forging), and did get a few gusts that worried me a little.. Since I have to push my forge out into the open when in use, I tend to just not forge when it rains. Also, there is a nice puddle right around my anvil One of the draw backs of having a dirt floor is if you have low spots.. I've been slowly trying to fill them as they crop up and become an issue. I ground down a stump that was in the middle of my shop at one point, and that left a good 2-4 inches of wood chips over most of the floor, but not all :(

I've been happy just rubbing hunks of bees wax onto the metal while it is black hot. One piece I have inside, I never used wax, and one day I took it down and sprayed a non-stick cooking spray on it. Maybe Pam. Wiped off the excess and put it back up. It looks surprisingly nice.

The old gas tank I have is about the same dimensions as Jr.s. I like the idea of the wheels and tong rack. That sounds like a great addition! :)

Log truck or semi truck or large flat bed trailers etc, have leaf spring that is 4 inches wide or more. Can be an inch thick or more too. A friend of mine made a few pieces for a fellow who worked at a log truck repair shop (i think) and he gave him a few HUGE sets of leaf spring. Most of it will probably end up as dies or other tools. I've had OK luck getting coil spring cheap off of craigslist.

We have a pool for the kids near my forging area. Since I winterized the house (removed hoses and insulated the faucets) I've been filling my slack tub from the pool. I even quenched in it once or twice. The pool was winterized too, so I'm just using rain water collected on top of the cover..

Mine is an old truck gas tank that was cut open. It has a shelf where the tank had a step in it..

I have a 10'x20' costco car port that acts as my shop. I have to push the forge out from under it before I use it. So it's sort of a hybrid. All my tools go under the car port. The longer I use the space, the better I get at using it efficiently.

The hex bar I used was from the inside of rollers. It didn't really spark that hard. I made two eye punches. Both bent pretty quickly at first use, though I didn't harden them. Thanks for the feed back all.

Making several versions of the item you are making seems to make sense to me. If you make 5 or 10 or 20 at the same time it seems like it would not take up as much time then if you just make 1 every once in a while.

OK.. So I've heard that people make disposable (or limited use) tools out of mild steel, maybe a drift or something I guess. And I've heard people talk about hardening mild steel with things like SuperQuench. But my understanding was that in order to really harden metal, it takes carbon. And mild steel just doesn't have much carbon. I always wrote it off. Earlier I made a few tools from what I assume was mild hex bar. They bent or deformed when used on the one project I used them form. I may have let them get too hot without quenching (I honestly don't recall how much I quenched them while using) but to me, I wrote it off to them being made out of mild steel. Now I make my tools out of coil spring mainly. Then, the other day I burnt the end of a bar I had just started working on. When I pulled it out it was sparkling and spitting, so just for fun, I submerged it straight into the quench tub. I thought maybe it would crack, and I hadn't seen that before. When it was cool, I figured I would cut off the end and start over. So I threw the end in my band saw. The saw barely scratched it. It removed the surface layer, then wasn't cutting beyond that. So it seems like the quench hardened the mild steel. So now I'm confused.. Can mild steel harden? Is it just that mild steel does not stay hard once it is hardened? Thanks for any enlightenment!