Shamus Blargostadt

Where would a beginner (without bags of money laying around all over the place) do best in finding some hammers and tongs to get started with? ebay seems to kill you on shipping costs, due to the weight of things. Can anyone give a rough idea of what one would expect to pay for hammers in the 3lb-5lb range, and tongs? Also if there are "bare necessity" types of hammers, hardy hole tools, and tongs one should pursue to start with I'd appreciate the tips. We plan to focus on knife making and perhaps some simple projects like hooks and camping gear.

TP - you were right, he replied back and said it was 5160. So are my steps above correct (especially the part about heating until it looses magnetism then quenching in warm veg oil) then the oven treating (minus the quenching as you said)? The Heat Treat app describes a more complicated sequence but perhaps it's the same process and I just don't know it. I sense that screwing up these heating/cooling/machining steps can probably be fatal to the piece. At this point the knives are machined to shape and rough scale removed. They are not machined sharp yet (blade edge is still the thickness of a dime or more) I have a pile of coal and I'm hot on the trail of a break drum to make a coal forge. Guess I better find me some tongs..

JME - yes I was looking at the paaba website. I'll be in cleveland on the 21st but was wondering if I could make one of the thursday night open forge's sometime. Its a little far, about an hour and a half from ellwood. Do you guys ever do anything up north? Here is the bottom of the anvil. Thank you for the comments and advice everyone. Should I at least try to sand it down and put oil on it or anything to clean it up? For you guys hunting for an anvil, a buddy at work had a friend who's father worked at a junkyard that had this laying around. At $50, my impression was they thought they were robbing a baby. You can't see it in the pictures but you can barely make out where someone wrote "FREE" in chalk on the side.

Hoping you guys can tell me if this was a good purchase and what it would take to restore it to working order. I paid $50 for it. It's 140 pounds, 2.75' long, 10.5" high, and 4" wide. I can't see any markings but there may be some under the rust somewhere. I don't have any welding tools or supplies but know some welders. I know I probably can't get it to look as gorgeous as some of the restoration pics I've seen here but would be very happy to get it to a state where we can use it. We're beginners.

I have a sears craftsman 2x42" sander/grinder

​ah! ok. I was looking for an actual online store in the top menus rather than a forum section. Thanks!

yes I'll write him and ask. Assuming you are right about it being 5160 (I apologize for mine ignorance at this stage) Do I: - finish shaping and removing steel short of actual sharpening - heat in a coal fire until it looses magnetism (the knives are about 12" overall length, 1/8" thickest) - quench in the oil as you described - Cool completely - heat in the oven at 400F for 1 hour (from reading other threads) - quench in the oil - cool/oven/quench x 3 - sharpen on the grinder, being careful not to heat enough to color - polish/clean - done? (aside from handle scales) Just want to make sure I have it right. Hoping my boys (and myself) will be encouraged by success to really get into smithing. Thank you again

​That was what the instructor said it was, trusted he knew. He said it was from the springs from a 19something chevy that he had cut into bars for instruction.

Thank you very much. Good info here. Where do I find the iforgeIron store? I can't seem to find a link to it anywhere on the site.

Hello - My sons and I have been interested in knife making for some time now and we recently took a class on blacksmithing which had the content of forging a knife out of 1060 spring steel. It was a great experience and we want to dive deeper into smithing. We were not able to finish our knives though in the course of a day. We were able to finish our blanks. I think our remaining steps are to finish shaping on our grinder/sander, heat treat (3 step process? tempering and hardening?) then sharpening polishing, then the handles. I don't have a forge but I have a pile of coal. From what I'm reading it looks like you can treat 1060 by heating then quenching in water or brine? Is this something I can manage in the backyard? I'm looking at various plans for making a gas forge. My oldest son is going back to college in a week and a half though so was hoping he could finish his knife before then. Thank you for any guidance.