Dick Bromberg

I work at a forge which has a collection of old farrier tools, , masons tools, and assorted old tools, as well as a bunch of old wrought iron bars removed from a fence that's about 75 or 100 years old, I made a few fire strikers from some of the old farrier rasps. The teeth on these rasps are not all in nice precise alignment like a modern rasp so my guess is they were hand made. I heat treated to non magnetic and quenched in water. They do not generate sparks when struck with a sharp flint. I have made dozens of similar strikers using 1095 and/or modern farrier rasps and never had a problem, I ran a couple of tests. I made quarter inch notches on either side of a two inch wide rasp and then fully hardened it. I tried breaking it on the anvil with no success so I put it in a vice and tried to break it using a four pound hammer, I could not break it, It was not at all brittle, just behaved like a well tempered spring. Most of these will harden well, but rarely will any of them generate sparks. Does anyone know what they might be made of ? Thanks PS I have used mystery metal occasionally and get consistent results. Almost always bad. .

Sand and clay are available everywhere and it's usually priced as cheap as dirt. 1 Clay. Every supermarket sells non clumping kitty litter . It's fine for use building forges. Clumping kitty litter is a completely different product and isn't suitable. 2 Sand. You can find sand any place where construction is being done. It's used when they mix concrete. A polite request will get you all you need, and usually free. Masons and landscapers always have sand, as does the Department of Public works in whatever city or town you live in. Once again, a polite request helps. Not sure if "play sand" is the right product anyway.

It's a punch type can opener. The movable part should have a small triangle of steel project at a right angle to the shaft. Here's how to us it. Hold the opener with the point down at the center of the tin can and drive it into the can until it reaches the bend. Then then rotate the shaft down until it's flat against the top of the can and then slide the movable part until it's just inside the rim of the can. Next drive the point of the movable part to pierce the can. Then rotate the opener to make a cut through the top of the can. .Depending how sharp it is and the toughness of the tin can you may have to use a little force. Probably not a good idea to practice wearing a white shirt.

Knives are a poor choice for first project, you'r setting yourself up or frustration/disappointment. A better choice would be to practice making tapers on the end of a bar. A square taper on the end of a square bar. A round taper on the end of a square bar. A square taper on the end of a round bar, A round taper on the end of a round bar. So where do you get the square bar ? Remember the hundred railroad spikes ? If you cut off the head of the spike then you have a square bar. As DSW noted you can use the 5/8 square R spikes and you can forge them down to smaller cross section, like 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch or i/2 half round before you work on the tapers. RR spikes don't harden very well, even those marked HC. I did an internet search (Google) for " what does HC mean on a railroad spike" . The carbon content is somewhere between .2 and .3 percent carbon on spikes marked HC. That's not much better than mild steel. There are a number of sources of "price is right" steel, Machine shops (ask about drops), steel left over from their work. Automobile repair shops, particularly spring and suspension repair shops for leaf and coil springs, axles, sway bars, etc . And finally any shop that makes railings and fences. Don't forget to show them samples of what you have made and a wheelbarrow to bring the steel back home. Try to avoid rebar.

If you can get the exact spelling on the package then It can be Googled. The label is printed in spanish

The text at the lower part of the first picture translates from Spanish to English as temperatures pale white iron yellow orange steel

Knives are a fine target to aim for, but they are not a good place to start. If you can take a handful of steel wool and convert into a knife that looks li came from the Henkels factory, then you are a natural. Otherwise start with something more manageable, like drawing out (making a bar longer) or forging tapers (making a point on the end of a bar) or S hooks , etc etc, Fewer disappointments and frustration on this road.