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I Forge Iron

BartW

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Everything posted by BartW

  1. Nice piece of cannister damascus. I live in belgium; and I bought my borax on the German Amazon.de ... but I can't anymore. When did this regulation changed ? Also; what harmfull thing besides annoying people can you do with borax ? I'm not worried yet; as I have a LOT of kilo's left, and I never use much at all because it eats my gasforge's floor. As Borax is used as flux in making jewelry; by horseshoe makers; by glas-blowers.. you should be able to find some. Also; if you have welding sticks; can't you just beat that powder off ? Give it's purpose; it should have some flux-like capabilities no ? Hmmm gotta try that at home; it may even work better than borax without destroying my forge ... mvg; Bart
  2. I'd say; we mostly all have several vises; try one like this ? it was an experiment for me too; but I like it a lot so far.
  3. Hello; Lately I've been doing a bit of an experiment. I mounted one vise with the spindle vertical; so I have one fixed jaw horizontal, and a moving jaw going up-down. The picture below will help; it's the left vise. I mounted it next to a nice and heavy post vise. The workbench is a repurposed table; solid oak; about 200 pounds of it. I fixed it to the rear wall too. I paved the top with Aluminium. Now I know how to mount a vise; and the left is NOT how they should be mounted. However; given that we're doing lots of cutting and grinding; having a fixed horizontal jaw really helps keeping work steady. In the post vise; it *can* slide out of the jaws towards the ground. However; that usually means you didn't clamp it hard enough. For the past three courses I've given; I noticed the vertical one actually gets used the most. There's more dust on the floor below it than any other vise. The "normal" vises are used too; for filing, bending things ...general purpose stuff. But when it comes to cutting or grinding ... I kinda prefer the vertical spindle vise. So my question ... who else mounts at least one vise in their shop like this ? Greetz; Bart
  4. Hello; I have a fairly redundant question. How many anvils do you actually need ? The reason for asking is simple. I'm fairly spoiled in the anvil (or anvil-like-objects) departement. Mostly using my skoda anvil (there's a thread https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/57774-anvil-from-the-railway-workshop/ on that one). There's a huge block of D2 (1.2379) from a press; 200 pounds; surface area 5 inch x 15 inch; hardened to the high 60'ies HRC. Nice 'n flat; and perfect to hammer on. I had a Vulcan (110 pounds); which I used when I needed a pritchel or hardy hole; but I took pity on someone and gave it away. Looking at Alec Steeles youtube videos; I made myself a low striking anvil from mild steel with some holes in it to serve as swage block. I have a couple of train axles cut off in various lengths; they make a wonderful anvil if struck on the flats; and a good ring horn when struck on the rounds. there's a couple dozen meter of heavy railway track; which I tend to give away as beginner anvils. All of the above - yes all - were either given to me or traded for a couple beers. So I never bought any anvil at all (neither new nor used). in a moment of boredom; I find myself surfing the web searching for second hand anvils... then I realized that I don't actually need one... so there's my question ... how many anvils does one need ? and what's the attraction to searching/ buying anvils ? greetz; bart
  5. Well; all of them as a group are planning a sequel. Granted, there will be one or two less; but I still consider it a success. And Most of them have more people they want to bring along; so for the next course I'll probably draft one of the "regulars" in my shop to help me Also I specifically target groups of scouts or similar; and tell them it's a great way to learn to work together as a team (teambuilding). Which it is, if you're taking turns on the sledgehammer. Keep in mind; I don't do this for a living; this is my hobby. i'm a professional IT guy; specialized in Linux; mainframes and Really big computing and storage things. Also; I've *never* turned a student down. Someone willing to learn is precious. Okay, I've told one guy that he needed to work on his hand-eye-coordination a bit because he was hardly hitting the hot steel and more dodging the hammer towards his head . It was just one guy; most of the other have really learned something. mvg; Bart
  6. BartW

    two leg vise ?

    After a couple hours with a steel brush on an angle grinder; and half an hour sandblasting; then applying the two part epoxy paint for diving bottles; than I assembled it again with a lot of lithium grease. She looks better now. I'm pondering cutting the legs off; and making it a free-standing vise ... welded to a round heavy plate.
  7. ITC100 is a zirconium silicate thing with some other stuff in it, designed to reflect IR radiation. In fact; it may even help; but it won't save the anvil. You need some shielding to whitstand a LOT of heat and even more pressure. I think I read somewhere that it's only a small percentage of the heat generated by friction; but the majority is generated by the compression of air infront of the object. So; if you make a ceramic cone; and some way to divert heat to the other side of the anvil (like heatpipes and cooling blocks); you actually could make it. You anvil would need to be re-heat treated after unfortunately.
  8. Agree 100% ; but the question was storing metal outside and protection from rust for a couple of years. He didn't mention getting them out I do like the outer space suggestion tough. Good luck getting that back. Apparantly there are better paints than the two part epoxy paint for diving bottles; but if you rough sandblast stuff; and then apply a couple of layers of industrial hi quality paint; it'll still be there after a century.
  9. Well; the customer collected his hammer today, and over a coffee & a whisky, he told me what he wanted the peen like this for. He wants to work sheet metal (steel & copper), and he wants to shape the peen the way he wants with the specific radius of his choice. Well; that works for me. He was happy with his hammer, and I like the design as well. Gonna make a couple for myself
  10. Hello Everybody; Just wanted to showcase a reasonably heavy treadle hammer. It started life as a guided helve hammer; but the central column isn't strong enough for that. So after some pondering; I turned it into a treadle hammer. And I specifically didn't choose the guided hammer type; but this type; because I had the option to make the arms really long; so the arc is from the user perspective almost a straight line. the anvil is a train axle; the hammer is a solid bar mild steel (3cm x 8cm x 100cm). I machines the hinges, the axles (30mm), the bearings (machined teflon) all myself on my lathe as practice, I plan to start on a real tire hammer next summer. One picture shows the hammer; the other shows it in use. The pictures are deceiving; the hammer and the anvil really do line up straight vertically, and the arms are perfectly parallel. It hit a LOT harder then you would expect; especially in the second and the third hit when you are building up momentum. Now if anyone sees room for improvement, please tell me. P.S. yes, there's also a log-splitter press conversion; I'm waiting for longer hoses to mount it vertically.
  11. BartW

    two leg vise ?

    Hello Guys; Found at an industrial dumping ground (and this was effectivly thrown away as scrap) from the Belgian train companies; a two leg vise. I have never seen one like this, it's cast steel, and both legs are marked 70KG; so I assume it's 70 kilos or 140 pounds. Jaw size is 16 cm or about 6 inch. It's got almost no scars , and looks very good. Taking it apart,the spindle was greased up well and shows no wear at all. The "key" in the back to prevent the box from rotating was missing tough; I made a new one easily. But that aside ; has anyone ever seen one of these two-leg vises ? any info on them ?
  12. Some very good articles about this : cryogenic-part1 cryogenic-processing-of-steel-part-2 I've talked extensively to Achim about this; and I'm not a fan of dry ice. Not cold enough really. mvg; bart
  13. Hello All; Just wanted to show my workshop (yes, I know, I have too much tools ), and a group of people making their first knife. They wanted to use both the gasforge and the coal forge, so we did the heavy metal moving in the gasforge; and the finishing and heat treatment in the coal forge. It was fun, educational, and everybody left with a razorsharp knife. All participants were absolutely amazed about their own creations. A couple have already said they want to do it again to improve on this or that parts of their knife. I told all of them that your first knife is something precious, don't modify it at all. If you want to improve it, make another. Just FYI, I do this kinda thing once or twice a year, on request of a group of people between 4 and 8 people. And it motivates me to clean my workshop
  14. Hello Guys; A good customer of mine wanted a specific hammer made. He wanted a 60° sharp cross peen back end. Weigh around 1 kilo (2 pounds). He wanted resistant steel; but I don't have any EN9 of C50 or something like that, so I took a piece of this huge coil spring (40 mm diameter rod). It was a bit of a bear to forge straight and to punch the hole; but I pulled it off. I treated it as if it were 5160 - so annealing cycles and all that, hardened in oil completely; then ground it so I could see bare metal; and heated up the drift and put that in the eye untill both the peen and the face were about blue. This is for all intends and purposes the first hammer I ever made myself by hand. However, I have no idea what the form is for ... I'd use it as a chisel.... but it forges quite nicely too. Oh, I epoxied everything together (handle, wedge, eye) and I rubbed the whole hammer with it to prevent it rusting. The handle is boiled linseed oil finised. greetz; Bart
  15. I found my anvil coated in tar. Took some cleanup, but was well kept for years. Having no tar; should I be in the position to need to store a lot of metal outside; I would sandblast everything; then paint it with industrial paint; then store it in a wooden box (or build a box around it) to shelter it from the direct sunlight and direct rain. As for industrial paint; I'd use the two-part epoxy paints used on diving bottles. This stuff is NOT porous; and keeps steel bottles protected from seawater. As for weird ideas; don't we have the technology to make something like a castable silicone that isn't corrosive ? Put everything in a wooden box; pour it full; leave it outside; the box would rot away, and you'd be left with a block of pudding protecting your stuff greetz; bart
  16. There's something wrong with that anvil. Doesn't look right. And it shouldn't ding at all. I have one block of steel (1.2379 aka German D2 with extra vanadium), which was a block from a forming press in heavy metal industry. It's HRC 62 -63 all over. Files skate acros it as if it were made from glass; and I barely can scratch it with a HRC 66 test file. Makes a 3 inch ball bearing jump straight back into your hand, and leaves no dings at all. This thing is scary to hammer on, as I fear it can chip; but I've been at it with sledgehammers, and haven't managed to make a single chip. My other anvil is a 1940'ies Skoda (Czech) anvil; made from cast tool steel - same steel they make naval gun barrels from. This one is HRC 62 on the top, and gradually descends towards a HRC 50 in the feet. This one makes a ball bearing also jump back in your hand, no dings at all. I'm probably spoiled in the anvil departement (both costed me excactly 4 beers); but yours sound defective. I've seen actual peddinghaus anvils from the 60'ies; they are very hard and very noisy anvils. but they don't ding under a bearing...
  17. Is there anyone who can use things like this ? anyone up for a trade ?
  18. Hello Guys; Some time ago I found these in the trashbin of a large company. I've attached a picture. All of the toys are brand new - some are even in the plastic sleeve they get sold in- even tough they have some rust, like on the wrenching bar. each bucket is about 30 kilo (60 pounds). The three largest reamers are 5 kg each The brands are "cleveland" and "Dormer" for the drills; a couple reamers are marked "Dormer" as well; most reamers hawever have no markings except their size. Now I have 3 questions. 1. The large reamers (65, 50 and 40 mm) don't look like HSS. The mill-scale is all wrong (large spotty); the colour is too black, and the socket end files easier than solf-annealed HSS. Anyone know what steel they are ? 2. The bucket of drills are almost all in the 24mm to 36 mm range, all mk4 socket. But a couple have hardly any spiral, while some have almost 3 whole rounds... anyone know why they use these almost straight drills ? 3. Can these be forged or turned (in a lathe) into usefull tools ? greetz; bart
  19. Powerhammer, no, press, yes (30ton). Large forge, check. Sometimes some young people with 10 pound hammers and motivation. Helps too :-D About hammers from this stuff, how do you harden the faces? Quench in oil, draw (temper) to purple? Keep in mind that I will test it anyway in advance. Just to know what steel it is, how it behaves and such. Mvg Bart
  20. Hello Everybody, Today somebody told me they have tons (literally metric tons) of these things lying around. The round is 42 mm ( 1,65 inch). They are about 100 pounds per spring. They also got smaller ones - 32 mm round, but less volume of those. They are free, because they are basically taking up space and the workshop is moving. Now I don't want to fill up my workshop with these, so what are they good for? and how much can one lazy blacksmith possibly use in his lifetime? Is this good for making hammers, punches, drifts ? I figured the long tapered piece on the top and bottom of the springs are basically drifts already, they just don't know it yet untill I pound them straight. What steel would these be ? The maker is Siemens, Germany (they come from Siemens trains), but I cannot find a steel designation. Half of them are brand new, the other half have been replaced by newer springs, but still seem in one piece, and there are a couple broken. friendly greetings, Bart
  21. If you want one, there's another one for sale: Commercial link removed I've had a chat with the woman selling it - Friendly but doesn't know much about anvils -, and this one also came from a train workshop (same train company), from Liege (100km east of brussels). They must have bought more than one, and since the train company is closing a lot of workshops this years ... Mine is in better condition tough
  22. Well Frosty, what you describe would be the most correct with the facts. Like the czech guys describe - solid steel, cast one-piece, hardened tempered, then the face got ground flat. It would also account for the reason why the hardness seems to lower from the top (about 60 HRC) to the feet (between 45 and 50 HRC). Or at least, that's the impression I get with hardness files. I absolutely love it too. Makes my vulcan feel like iron ... at least hot iron doesn't move as much on the vulcan as on this skoda anvil. Thanks for the info guys..
  23. Hello; Well sorry to drag up the old post; but I got a reply from a Skoda Works foundry ... They confirm making anvils like this from the 30'ies to the 70'ies. They also told me my assumption that it has a hard face is wrong, it's one piece cast; but the top part is ground; the rest isn't, which makes the horizontal line. And I can confirm that; as below the line where the grinding stops, it's still hard. The feet are still hard, but less hard. I assume differential hardening ? Makes the upsetting block more usefull I guess. The steel they used for this is extremely pure and clean tool steel, as they were quite expensive. I checked it, and in fact it is almost like a solid block H13. My other anvil is a industrial press die made from hardened 1.2379 (D2), and it behaved similar. The 100 pound Vulcan anvil I have feels like soft iron in comparison. They don't have a clue what the FO-AL means; altough they admit not being in charge of the foundry for about 15 years when the Nazi's took over. So anyone who speaks Czech any clue what FO-AL means ? greetz; bart
  24. Yesterday I weighed it, 115 kilo's (230 pounds). I tried her out, works really good. The face is HRC 60 tip to tip (tested with hardness files). absolutely lovely anvil. As for price, I got it (along with a couple of other things) for 2 beers So I assume it's a czech anvil. Does anyone know what the FO - AL mean ? It has been a good week for me.
  25. It looks like the first sign, but I cannot read the text.. Polish?
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