Blacksmith Jim

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!

I have a friend that forges professionally. He originally got an arbor press when he was starting out, to see if he could fuller or butcher hot steel. He doesn't use it for forging now, so I'm guessing it didn't work too well.

Great feed back guys. I really appreciate it. It gives me a lot to think about.

Hollis, your site is great, and the suggestion for the name is definitely in the running!

IMO, the cards will get you all the work you can do, that is along with a "new baby, wife, 3 other kids and your day job".

The web site appeals to me because I am computer savvy. My day job is as a programmer. It seems like with the web site I could set it up easy enough, and post pictures of inventory as I have it. Then I don't have to do much work, if people find the site and want something they can purchase it or contact me, etc.. I guess the work I would end up doing for that would be to promote the website.

I'll definitely put together a good card, but it still leaves me looking for a name. I guess with a card though I could just use my name, and not have a business name...

I've got the beard and mustache already.. I'm half way there! :)

Thanks for the feed back guys. Its exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks!

Thomas, I'll have to brainstorm and come up with a business / forge / website name. RegionalChaos doesn't really work, and Chaos Forging isn't as professional sounding as I'd like, Eugene Ironworks is available as a domain name, but I'm planning on moving in a few years... I'll have to work on that one... I've thought about putting cards together but didn't want to until I was really ready to market stuff..

I got started blacksmithing after working on a project I decided I wanted to do. I had been to Burning Man a few times, and saw how well the large geodesic domes work out in the desert. So I decided I would build one. I bought a about 200$ of thin wall conduit and started cutting it to length. However I wasn't sure the best way to flatten the ends, and I didn't have a drill press to drill the holes. I know a friend of mine worked as a professional blacksmith, so I called him up. He said he hosts an open shop every week for his friends / acquiescences / etc., so just bring my project on by. He and some of the other regulars really helped me out. They got me set up smashing the ends of my conduit in an arbor press, and helped me weld up a jig for getting the holes aligned right under the drill press. It was great. I spent about a winter working on it. In the end I ended up with a 16' tall geodesic dome. It worked great. While I was working on the project, everyone else was forging. He has about 3 or 4 anvils and several forges, so there was usually a crowd working. When I finished my dome, I just kept showing up Now its been over a year (maybe going on two years now?) and I'm surely hooked...

Howdy all,

I was recently pondering how to help augment the cost of tools I have been acquiring. I started smithing a little more then a year ago. Since that time I have been slowly gathering tools and building my shop space. I haven't really gone nuts or anything buying tools (though it is easy too if you want!), instead I generally wait until I have a reason to buy (or make) a tool before acquiring it. But boy do some things add up quickly. Picking up a few sets of tongs, a box of rivets, some new band saw blades (oh yea, a band saw too!), that 25$ railroad monkey wrench from the flea market I just couldn't pass up, 20$ in scrap steel every few weeks or so, etc., etc., sure adds up. I think I have done a pretty good job only getting what I think I can immediately put to use, but I still know I have sunk a lot of money into it. And there is so much more I would like to be able to do or get.

So my question is this. What is a good way to start making a little bit of money back from smithing? I'm wondering what other people have done, and what kind of success they have had. I know that I can make certain basic items well enough that I imagine they would sell (if there is a market for it to tap into). Things like S-hooks, pot rack hooks, plant hangers, etc. And I am working on getting the drill down for other items, like trivets and sign brackets, etc.. I haven't made nails, but imagine I could make them fine with a little practice. I know I am not that far away from these items being decent quality. But I also have a day job, and a family. I'm not trying to be a full time blacksmith.

In the future I would like to be able to sell sign brackets to businesses at 250-300$ a pop. (I am just guestimating a price there..) But I'm not quite there yet, and won't be for a little while. What I'd like, is to be able to sell some simple items as I have them available to sell. I don't want to feel rushed to make 20 hooks by such and such a date, when I know I have a new baby, a wife and 3 other kids that may demand my time, indefinitely and without notice.

So... Should I set up a website and post my inventory when I have it? How successful have others been doing this? Should I try to sell them on ebay? or etsy? What about approaching local hardware stores with some of the items? Flea markets? Saturday markets? Farmer's markets? Ren Faire? Have people had any luck with these?

Personally, I was thinking about stockpiling my inventory all year, then getting a booth at a holiday market. Only I hear our local holiday market charges several hundred dollars for a booth, which would likely eat any money I might actually make... We have a Saturday market, but aside from the time commitment, I would have to start out as a wandering street vendor. You work your way up to getting a booth. It seems like custom forged work might be a little heavy to carry around with me. I have a friend that does this, but he only brings in 20-30$ a day, and it runs until 3 or 4 pm. I don't really want to sacrifice most of my Saturday for 20 or 30 bucks...

Anyway, I'm open to any and all ideas. I've been kicking this around in my head for a few weeks now...

The small thermite ignitions I have seen looked a lot like a decent sized pile of smokeless powder was being burned. Flame and smoke trailed up rather high. The difference, was that molten iron came pouring out from underneath it. I do not think it would be at all easy to weld a new face onto an anvil this way. My understanding of how they weld with it, is they dam up an area for the liquid iron to pour into, and the two (or more) ends of the metal to be welded meet in this reservoir. Thermite is ignited above it, and the result is allowed to flow into the the reservoir.

It does burn hot, as noted above, and once started can not be stopped. The demo was put on for us as a warning to be careful about grinding aluminum in a steel shop. I can't imagine they could ever treat thermite as a controlled substance (like nitrogen based fertilizer), there is just too much steel and aluminum out there.. Security is really only a state of mind.

2 conferences ago, someone in the NWBA demo'd it. Heck of a fun show! :)

The sleeve sounds like a good idea.

... it seams a shame that your valuable time is being taken up answering trivial / nonsensical & outright fanciful questions....

He's young, he doesn't have valuable time, he has time to kill, and he is choosing to spend it learning about blacksmithing..

Wish I had time to kill...

When scoring cold stock with your hardy, be sure you know what the stock is. Cold coil spring can mar a hot cut pretty quick...

I found this picture recently while looking at Dennis's website. I thought you guys might get a kick out of it.

The only blacksmith friendly presidential candidate I'm aware of! :P