Blacksmith Jim

Out on the west coast it isn't as common to find tongs at flea markets as I think it might be out east. I did find myself one pair though. They are flat with round groove down the middle. So far I've made 2 pair. One flat, one v-bit. The flat ones are kinda junk, but I abuse them to make them fit pieces, and I won't fill bad if they break The v-bit ones work great (and look half decent), but I made them for some 25mm square bar I have, and I don't do as much forging with that stock. I picked up a pair of Off Center v-bits at the last conference I went to though. They work great! I think I snagged a 1/2" pair. I plan on picking up one or two pair every conference I go to. Grant had a HUGE selection laid out at the last one.. I think the advantage to flat tongs is that they are more versatile in some situations, for oddly shaped pieces, like a large circle you might want to dish into a bowl, etc..

I wear leather welding gloves when I feel the need. Usually only on my tong hand, but I might were them on both if I am doing something like twisting with a short wrench. Basically if I have the hand close to the hot metal. I try to never wear a glove on my hammer hand though..

I'm guessing that one takes the cake for 'things that followed me home'!

Looks great kevin A real nice start!

I'll have to try a test heat treat and etch on them. Good idea. For the other material of a billet, I was thinking about pounding some coil spring flat.. Not sure if that would layer well or not..

http://www.iforgeiron.com/blueprints-400-500/bp0465-treadle-hammer.html Looks like a decent approach. I've been thinking about a treadle hammer more and more lately, as I know I will eventually build one. An inline stoke is one of the things I wanted to do. These look like great basic plans.

Glad to have ya here! There is a lot of information that can help you. There are ergonomic ways to through the hammer, try looking for Uri Hofi's Hammer technique. It's probably in the blue print section of the site, in the last section of blue prints. Looking forward to the pics :)

Hoary, its hard for me to tell in the picture, but is the pipe carrying the air level? It looked like maybe it slanted down? I would recommend not letting it slant down if it is, hot stuff my fall down it and ruin the fan. Otherwise, It looks like you should fire it up and see how it works :)

Was the hardy hole positioned diagonal to the face? There are a lot of cast iron 90lb Russian anvils out there. I would probably rather go get a big random block of steel from a scrap yard then spend the money on a cast iron anvil.. It took me about 3 months of watching Craigs list to find an anvil, and it wasn't really a cheap anvil..

Here are a few pics. I thought the teeth on one were interesting. It looks like they dropped weld beads on the end, so they could file them to a new point I'm assuming...

Simply Amazing!

I'll see if I can get a picture tomorrow. The digital camera has been finicky lately. The cell phone tends to be a little blurry, but it does work..

Last time I visited the scrap yard I picked up a few large circular saw blades. They were about 2 foot in diameter. The hole in the center is probably 8 inches across. Does anyone know what metal these might be made out of? I looked in the junkyard metals BP but didn't see any mention. I picked them up because I thought they might work OK for layers in a damascus billet. I've been thinking that I would like to try making some damascus soon. Is there anything anyone would suggest for easy material to use? I don't want to do anything fancy, but would like to have pronounced layers visible. I've heard band saw blade and strapping before, but I don't have either of those lying around...

I try to go to our local flea market about once a month when they run it. It only runs 6 or 7 months a year maybe. I usually have a few things I'm looking for specifically, mostly punches, chisels, files and until recently old pipe wrenches to use as twisting wrenches. This most recent trip I found one that should do me just fine for 99% of the twists I want to make, so I probably won't pick up anymore. But occasionally I find hammers or hammer heads or an odd pair of tongs, or just some totally random metal thing I decide I need. Flea markets are indeed a great place for blacksmiths..

Coke smokes a lot less. I really like it. Although a very talented smith out here recently talked about one advantage he thinks coal has over coke, and I would have to agree. He has found that coal maintains a good 'edge' of the hot spot. In otherwards it goes from hot spot to out of the fire in a very small distance. Where as coke tends to gradually cool the farther you get from the fire. So if he only wants to take a heat on a certain section and he really doesn't want it to get hot beyond that, he prefers coal. Hope that makes sense... Anyway, I wish I had a source for good metallurgical coke out here. It's all coal for miles and miles.

Beautiful hammer! Thanks for sharing :)

A nice video I liked his torch setup..

Hofi, thanks for uploading the photos! It looks like some great works were made!

Ive been a computer geek for ages. Years ago I was setting up some servers and had to name them. I like the phonetic sound of 'regional chaos', so I choose to name some servers that. Eventually I snapped up regionalchaos.net to host my website. I try to use the same name across different forums and resources, that way I don't have to remember a million different names. Now I would probably choose something more professional or mainstream, but hey, it is what it is! I'm yet another Jim.

Sam, I don't think fire maintenance is harder or easier on either a side or bottom blast. The only thing that is sort of a PITA is the size of forge, since it is bigger and has the attached water tank etc. Mine could also be made a lot smaller in general. It was built over sized. But heating up metal and getting the metal hot in a specific place is easier for me in a side blast. Much less constriction due to the size of the firepot.

Pam, I've heard of motorcross and dirt bikers doing just that for field repairs.

I recently decided to go with a 225 AC/DC Lincoln stick welder. I'm pretty happy with my choice so far. I don't have a huge welding background though, just a community college stick welding class and some random blacksmith projects.. I was thinking about taking a welding survey class this winter and getting exposed to gas welding, mig and tig..

I'd think a perfect tank wouldn't be galvanized? :confused: