Michael Cochran

As someone who has the desire to make a side business from my hobby this will be a very good topic to follow. Thank you JLP, for starting it.

Blacksmiths’s manual illustrated by J W Lillico pages 82 and 83 shows some useful information as well.

That was exactly my point. The question was asked, right before my post you quoted, “... what is the best oil?” I replied making mention different options available and that asking such a vague question is a way to get people goin since there is no “best” for all purposes.

Used the burn barrel at work to test some metal strapping to see if would harden. Used a mud puddle right by it for the quenchant. Muddy water isn’t the greatest but it worked well enough. The wide bands our bundles of pipe are held together with didn’t get brittle hard but tough hard so I’ll take some home to see if it’ll harden better with a more proper setup. The bands holding the cross ties together we ordered are hardening brittle hard so there’s something good there to go with my bandsaw blades I’m getting.

I like Thomas’ idea too.

What’s a typewriter? Lol I haven’t heard of such a thing in so long I’m not sure what that is. I wonder how many people actually have no idea at all what that is. I personally would love to have a good old fashioned non electric typewriter, the kind you have to bang on the keys. If you find a way to hold the ball secure (think ball vice setup) you could drill the balls and then run the handle through and rivet them on the last one.

Ausfire, well a handle on the ball and start forging it flat. Once it starts flattening out some turn it up on its side and forge some flats. Alternate sides making it into a bar of sorts and go from there. I have a small knife blade I made from a roughly 19 mm ball bearing. If I ever get around to finishing it I’ll post pictures of it next to a raw ball like the one it started as.

BLO = boiled linseed oil

I hope I’m not stepping out of bounds here but why not just make an interference fit instead of trying to rivet or upset the one piece into the other? I’ve never done this so I’m only asking out of my own curiosity. As I have a chair project I’m planning that could benefit from a nice detail like this blind mortise.

I like that poker very much. I can’t help but imagine how many other places that a handle like that would really set off the project. You have my gears goin now.

The picture says it all. Found while browsing just now and almost fell out of my chair.

There’s a way to turn wood in an oval cross section on a lathe. I saw it done on the woodwright shop years ago. You just have to set it offset a little and run it slow and carefully. He used a treadle lathe on the show so you definitely want to go really slow.

Best bet would be to ask officials, in an anonymous manner, what those codes entail for what you’re wanting to do. Tell them you’re planning on building a forge and maybe even provide some detailed drawings. Inform them of the number, types, and locations of your fire extinguishers in proximity to the forge and see what they have to say. Of course you could build a gas forge and not have to worry about it.

A 500 gallon tank is much different than what most of us use for a forge. There more thermal mass in the 500 gallon tank than a 20 lb bbq cylinder so it’ll be functional longer at lower temps than the grill tank.

I had a 2lb hammer I used for a little while that had an octagonal handle and liked it. I never used it with forge work so I don’t know how it would work there. The handle started cracking so I set it aside and haven’t taken the time to rehandle it yet.

That would probably be what I’d do if I didn’t plan to use them in my forging. Cut them off and forge them long and flat. You might want to try a graduated temper after you quench to see what colors you might want for tempering. Remember to try air quench then oil and lastly water. If it doesn’t harden or doesn’t harden enough you might try the next step to see if it’s better.

Your hardening and tempering process will be a hit or miss kind of thing. Using scrap or mystery steel you need to cut off a couple of test “coupons” so that you can test your quench and temper to find a good setup. I cannot help with working temps or steel type. I can only assume that it might be a tough steel but I could be a cheap steel masquerading as a good steel. This is why the suggestion of using good/new/known steel is so prevalent here on IFI.

Heavy duty airbrush?

Just because it’s magnetic doesn’t mean it’ll harden. Copper alloys harden and they are non magnetic. Steel from the big box stores “weldable steel” rack is magnetic but is not capable of hardening as is a rail road spike. You might want to read up on what actually makes steel hardenable. I’ll give you a hint as to what it is too, it’s mentioned in most ever discussion here on IFI about hardening steel and it’s found in every living being in the known universe. In case that isn’t enough of a hint look up the element C on the periodic table and do some hard reading.

Glenn, your timing is great with this discussion. I have all sorts of plans for my shop in the coming year and feel overwhelmed by al of it. Trying to put deadlines in place and make actionable plans to get things how/where I want. I think your “30 days at a time” play is a much better method than what I was doing. Now I’m going to go back to the list I have and reprioritize and rearrange a few things to match up and see how that works for me. Thank you, Glenn, for removing the box for me yet again.

We can’t all be perfect all the time.

JHCC, I think he’s meaning it’s meant to last 40 years. Like 40 year roofing shingles are meant to last 40 years. Of course it could be a typo and he left out the word “old.”

Just takes time and practice.

Yes, I meant attached. TIG is cheating lol.

Josh how did you stretch the handle to the pan? I hate that I missed that demo, I’m sure it could’ve save me some headache whenever I get around to trying for myself.