Blacksmith Jim

It's nice to see a number of different folks around Oregon on here

Are there any good scrap yards near Roseburg?

Someone with more experience, etc., may come along and say something else.. But I don't think you want your punches crowned at the edges at all. You want them sharp so they can cut through the metal.

It seems to be a disturbing new trend. My local scrap yard changed management and now they only buy metals :-( What a bummer!

This just happen with the bigger scrap yard in Eugene as well. Schnitzer's Steel. They are now only buying. It gets loaded directly on to a train and moved up the track a ways to their mill. There is a smaller place that still has an open scrap area, but not nearly the selection of odds and ends..

I need to look farther south, maybe the Roseburg area anyway though. I think I heard there was a yard down there...

Looks great :)

jkeller, thats great! Lately I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about trying to find a post vise to use. Fantastic! Nice landlord btw..

I've already got a good recipe for my Clinker Breaker IPA!

I was thinking about the marketing potential too.. Selling T-Shirts that say "I got hammered at The Forge"

I've been home brewing a fair amount lately, and was thinking of trying to come up with a name that incorporated "Forge and Brewery". Not sure what the first part should be though. There is a brewery down in California called Ale Smith. That seems to use a blacksmith theme for their marketing. I sent them an email at one point though, and was a little disappointed about their response.. Some day I'd love to open up a small bar called "The Anvil" and have one side be plexiglas, and on the other side of the plexi would be the blacksmith shop. I figure people would get a kick out of watching people smith and drinking some beers..

Look on the bright side. You have a shop! :)

Looks like a fancy pry bar of some sort, but its got a point at the end, so I guess it probably isn't.....

Happy hammerin' LOL
as long as you dont own a power hammer (dont know whats the smallest size available at your place, here it starts at 20mm diameter)

You can hand forge H13 easy enough. You just need to work it at a high heat, and not try to work it any lower. It might not move like wrought iron, but you can move it ok. Especially if we're just talking tapering 5/8" down to 1/4" or so.

can you find this stuff under 1/2" for making punches?

Forge it down to the size you want..

You might be able to order H13 punches from a blacksmith supply or maybe mcmaster or something, I haven't looked. I purchased about a half dozen 8" pieces of 3/4" rod from a farrier supply store. All I have to do is heat it and shape it. I would plan on getting the material and making my tools, as opposed to just finding the tool to buy. I would typically plan on this because I think it would be quicker, and I would get what I want (hopefully). I tend to try to buy or make tools once I actually have a use for them. Saves money, time, space by not just hoarding things I think are neat. Not that I have any problem with that. Its really handy to have something already there when you need it.

yeah, but air hardening does not mean heat and let cool slowly. thats more normalising than hardening. It should be an 'air quench', a strong blast of cool air for example. You will get a much better working H13 tool with a good heat treat.

I tried it once with the blower of my coal forge (VERY strong, if i give full power it blows the biggest coal pieces out of the forge through the shop) but was not really satisfied.
I quench mine in warm oil which works really nice for me.

frank

I hear yea. For getting THE MOST out of it, you should air quench for sure. But I think if you talk to a lot of people, they will 'forge and forget' air hardening tool steels. I know I hear people talking about 'forging and forgetting' H13 and S7.

I'm not claiming to be an expert or anything, and I'm not forging for my income. Just a hobbiest. But I've only had to dress my slot punch once I think...

If warm oil is working for you though I think thats great. It's not hard to quench in warm oil, I have oil to quench tools made from spring. So maybe I'll give that a try in the future.. Thanks.

I try to religiously quench coil spring made tools every 3 strikes. I only have 1 h13 punch (buncha blanks tho) but I'll let that go 7 or 8 strikes before quenching. The h13 has performed marvelously, the coil spring punches have gotten the job done, but I redress them a lot more between heats with a hand file.

I've heat treated coil spring tools, and not, and found it a lot better when they are treated. But again, they work to a degree. H13 is air hardening, so you can forge it to shape, give it a good heat, and let it slowly cool. Then dress and use, no fancy heat treat.

The shop looks great! I'm jealous The countryside looks great too..

Welcome aboard!

One of the more experienced blacksmiths that I know loves to work with cold rolled. He has influenced my work and I have found cold rolled to be more desirable as well. It is more uniform, moves easier, looks nicer, etc.. I buy all my metal at scrap prices, and don't get charged different rates for hot or cold rolled.

You could use an angle grinder to flatten them. They aren't really 'big machinery' and are very useful tools. Or you could use inserts.

Don't worry about rust. It will flake off when you heat it and beat it.

Diver Mike, did you fine an old anchor chain when you were diving?

I would try with something other then rebar and see if you still have problems..

.. there is a great book called "Anvils In America" by Richard Postman that has a lot of good info on anvils that were used in the USA and a lot of dating info in it too.

I can't recommend this book enough. I got a hold of it through inter-library loan a while back. Sooo much info. Really neat to thumb through it. It's on my list to buy..

Wive's are like that I've found...

Here is what I ended up making last night..



I want to finish my guillotine and get dies made, but this was the quick solution for now. I used it to put a few tenons on some basket twists I had done prior, then attach a base and top for an OK candle stick. The product was quick and dirty because it was more of a proof of concept, but it worked well enough for putting on small tenons. I didn't butcher in or set the shoulder, just swaged it down through the different sizes then cleaned with the monkey tool. I think it would have worked better to set in the shoulder, but it still worked fine and set solidly..

could roll two different rings and weld them together...

John, that forge you posted looks ALMOST the same as mine. I love my side blast forge! A brit that is a good friend of mine built it, and introduced me to the joys of a side blast.