TwistedCustoms

No idea what they actually are but the blade shape on the left looks like a sculptors tool for sculpting in clay.

Hi JW513. The Centaur products are on the high end price wise but they are solid. There are a lot of variables such as, do you own a welder and are you proficient fabricating? You can purchase the raw materials to build a solid fuel forge for a lot less than the manufactured ones but if you don't already have some of the more expensive tools and or you value your time more than the cost of a manufactured forge it may be the way to go. Having a good, working tuyere/clinker breaker and a fire pot made for the fuel you will be using is nice. I have never used or felt I needed a hood when using a rivet forge outside. Coke produces less smoke than coal which is only really a consideration if you plan to do demos. If I were going to purchase a fire pot I would get the coal pot. You can burn coal or coke in either pot or a combination of coal/coke. You wont get great results with wood charcoal and a bottom blast of any configuration. Charcoal requires side blast and a gentle puff. Most hand crank blowers I've used will make charcoal lift up like a mini volcano in a bottom blast. As long as you stick with coal/coke a rivet forge will do the job. You can build it for less money but if the money isn't a stumbling block you could do a lot worse than a Centaur! My first was a break drum, bottom blast with a squirrel cage fan out of an old gas water heater exhaust. Guess how I know about the charcoal volcano effect! Once I got coal the brake drum served me well but having a proper clinker breaker and ash dump is nice!

I finished with my Spring event schedule two weeks ago and wont start back until late summer so I have some time to "play" in the shop. Last Sunday night I fell asleep watching the HBO mini series "Rome" and this is what came off the anvil on Monday. I forged a different style crossguard and after I got it fitted I shifted e gears and started playing with the copper. Couldn't stop thinking about those Roman daggers. Blade is 7 3/4", forged 1095, annealed and draw filed, hand sanded to #600 and hardened in canola. Tempered for two two hour cycles at 450f. All the fittings are forged copper. Handle is canvas Micarta and the scabbard is Ash.

Yes, but will it Keel? Seriously cool stuff as always James. I never thought of your stuff as "missing" anything but that turks head on the pommel was missing! I don't know how long you've been doing that but those are the first I've seen and they are Beastly!!! (in a good way!)

Beautiful blade Steve! Gerald Gardner was convinced that powerful magic was employed in the forging of the Keris blades. I think meteoric iron would qualify as "magic ingredients"! Whether or not you had a Jinn to work the bellows those blades take skill and that one would make any Malay Warrior proud. Kudos!

I'm with Charles and the rest on this one. I sustained a very minor injury a few years ago that could have been a life altering or life ending event with a little more bounce one direction or other. I wont describe the steps I took leading up to those events but flying steel is not your friend! Just because you've done something a dozen times doesn't mean it wont go sideways on you on number thirteen or twenty. If you want to mess with springs under tension purchase a good wall mount spring compressor or pay a pro to do it for you. Depending on what I make from them I can convert one truck spring into several thousand dollars. That's a good return if I don't end up crippled or dead. There is something to be said for harvesting "low hanging fruit". Purchase springs that are not under tension, ie just the spring, not the whole shock assembly, or else chose one of the one hundred percent safe ways to deal with the shock. As to the shock shaft that may or may not yield six inches of one inch water hardening steel when you're done, it's hardly worth the effort. There are easier, safer sources for that material. Good luck and stay safe!

Nice looking razor. The handle looks more ergonomic than the folding style. I thought I had the only Shop Smith left in the US! I don't use it often because I now have dedicated tools to replace all the functions of the old SM but I can't bring myself to part with it! I may drag it out of the corner and set it up as a dedicated drill. Never to many drills in the shop!

paulgatx, if you haven't been to the Centaur store in Austin check it out for sure. Mike is the manager but everyone there knows their products and is very helpful. I don't own a Kanka but I have forged on them and they are top shelf for a fair price. I buy American when I can but I'm not down on any other countries stuff. The Kanka anvils are Turkish, my favorite factory made hammers are German and French and my best machete is from El Salvador. If China ever produces anything I like the quality of at a good price I'll give it a go. (That is not a jab at China, I honestly haven't seen any tools or machinery made there I wanted to own) Centaur does carry some nice tongs that happen to be American made so if you're close it's worth stopping in.

MIG is fine to attach your handle, some of us use the terms "MIG/Stick/Weld/ interchangeably" if the method is inconsequential. The part that matters is getting a handle on the billet. No pre heating required for that welding operation. As to the forge welding, the first heat is just hot enough to get the flux to flow and coat the seams. I have never used the vise as described by Jclonst82 but I understand the benefit as he describes it and I will be trying it when I hand hammer my next billet. A-36/mild has been harder for me to get to stick to itself than HC steels. I'm not saying unequivocally that it is harder to weld, just that I have had issues with it, 1095 and 15n20 are two of the easiest steels to weld so if you have been welding mild to mild you shouldn't have any worries.

Great news Jason, I'll watch for it! Great looking sword!

Congratulations Daswulf!!!

Thank you for the info JHCC. I suspected as much just from glancing at the website. The hand hammers are clearly "hofi style" but no mention of their origins. It's interesting about the air hammer school aspect. I love my Brazeal style rounding hammers, one of which was made by Lyle Wynn on a day when Brian happened to be at Lyles shop, the other was made by one of Lyles students. I'm fortunate to have gotten to spend a little time with those guys. Since the curriculum they teach is called "Tools to Make Tools", it is expected that students, once instructed will wander out into the world and duplicate what they learned. That isn't the same as visiting some ones shop under the pretense of wanting to learn and then taking every idea and invention and claiming it for your own. Glenn, I for one would be interested in getting a Hofi hammer. Let me know if I can do anything to help facilitate making it possible.

That's a good looking hammer windancer. I have seen and read about those for years but I never knew they were scarce. Your comments prompted me to do a quick search and the only thing that turned up was the "Big Blu" hammers. Are they connected with Uri Hofi in any way or just making knock offs of his design? I assumed a hammer made by the man himself would be harder to get but I thought the cast ones would be readily available. Not so. I never really wanted one till I knew they were hard to find and now I'm mildly obsessed with finding one!

When I was only using coke I was spending about $1000.00 USD per ton delivered. I switched to LP last year and honestly I'm loving it. I watched the numbers really close based on the smallest unit of each fuel. Coal and coke when purchased by the ton come to me in fifty pound sacks, not bulk. I use two grill size LP tanks ganged together on one regulator/supply line so 10 lbs of LP @ aprox $26.00 USD vs 50 lbs of coke @ $20.00 USD. I didn't use any instrumentation to measure BTU output on either fuel so this is purely anecdotal but for what I do in the shop day in and day out I get about twice as much production out of the $26.00 dollars worth of LP. I still have my solid fuel forges and I still keep coal, coke and wood charcoal in the bins. I like all those solid fuels better and if I were a hobby smith I wouldn't even consider switching to LP but for production it is more cost effective for me! Also, no trouble getting fuel. I can buy as little or as much as I want/need at one time so I don't have to purchase six to nine months worth of fuel to keep the shop rolling. With coal and coke when the bin gets low you either buy a large quantity or double the unit price for a small quantity. The convenience is a plus too. Now when I walk in the shop in the morning I open a valve and push a button and by the time I'm done tuning the radio to whatever I'm in the mood for the forge is ready to go. I can also set the psi to keep the forge from getting too hot and stick three or four blanks of whatever I'm making in the forge without fear of burning anything up. By the time I lose heat in the piece I'm working on there are three more at forging heat ready to go. Honestly, you can work yourself into the ground with LP if you want to. You can heat multiple pieces in a coke/coal fire too but if you go to answer the phone or get distracted you're going to lose some of them. That hasn't happened with LP. I have no trouble getting welding heat either by turning up the flow. Best of both worlds and it's cheaper. It lacks the soul and ambiance of a "real" fire, but money is money!

Dillon, the fiber cloth in those photos is not "sealed". If the advertiser is claiming it is sealed and safe to use as is well...... those photos show un coated fiber cloth. You could make either of those set ups work but you will still have to purchase rigidizer and a reflective coating. If you haven't already you should do a LOT of reading on the building a gas forge section here on IFI. Also check out Wayne Coe Artist Blacksmith website. Wayne is a member here and sells all the coatings you will need to safely run one of those forges. There are a few manufacturers who sell coated, ready to go right out of the box forges and none of them are near the prices of the models you posted. $600.00 to $1000.00 USD will get you a good, efficient and safe forge without you having to do anything except turn it on. You can get the same performance for about half the money by reading, ordering the appropriate materials and doing a little of the additional work those less expensive forges will require. I bought a Whisper Mamma two burner for $500.00 delivered and I still had to rigidize and coat the lining to ensure I wouldn't be breathing the evil little no see um floaties that will go airborne when that cloth heats up. You don't want that stuff in your lungs!

Garage door coil springs are nice for smaller projects that require more carbon. They make short work of screwdrivers and such because the diameter is pretty much there to begin with. If you harden your cork screw and draw it to blue it should hold up. Make a test piece and after you temper it screw it into a piece of balsa wood or soft white pine, really give it a workout. Once you're satisfied that you wont brake it give it a go on your favorite Cabernet! PS If you forge a tapered square lug on the handle end (like a brace bit) and punch a square hole in a forged, ornamental handle you can join the two pieces with a little peening and have a T handle model without much sweat. If you have suitable material to make a cork screw, ie spring steel, then you also have what you need to make some square punches if you don't already have a bunch!

You're smack dab in the middle of good anvil country. Anvils are like spiders, you're almost never more than a few feet from one but the sit very still, especially when you're searching for them! Follow the TPAAAT advice and be patient. Also be warned, as soon as you pay top dollar for a so so anvil a truly magnificent one will become available at a good price. Never fails. They also get easier to find in general once you have a good one. Farm auctions have never been my favorite way to shop but it all depends on who shows up on any given day. Put the word out with everyone you come in contact with. If you have a business card hand write "want's anvil" on the back of them and hand them out. Tell the guys at you're local scrap yard to call you if anything anvil shaped comes over the scales. Six packs of cold beverages strategically delivered to garages and shops along with word you're looking for an anvil can shake cobwebs loose. If a machine shop or garage has twelve cars in the lot and a waiting room full of customers come back when nobody is there. No one wants to do you a favor when they are up to there eyeballs in work. Figure out where all the farmers congregate for coffee and complaining about the price of corn or hogs or whatever they grow, (every town in the Midwest has the local farmer hang out) and tell them what you want. If you don't have an anvil or three by now you just haven't talked to enough people yet. Also, this may involve you knocking on a strangers door in which case you should use your own judgment but if you can get the info from them your garbage man and your mail carrier and power company guys know what's in every yard in your county. Coin laundries are a good place to advertise when you want to buy something because anyone in a coin laundry wishes they had money to buy their own washing machine. The more I think about it I'm pretty sure I could find an anvil in your town in a week or two! Good luck and happy hunting! -M-

Beautiful work James. Maybe think about shrinking that and using it for your business cards! Number two is my favorite but I'm partial to cable. The dye on number one is cool too.

With all the ASOs we see here it's a treat for those who know the difference to get to chuckle at a "forge shaped object". For the uninitiated such as MasterFabPro it is potentially fatal. What a joke. At least an image of the "device" made it here so it can be subjected to the scrutiny of knowledgeable smiths for the benefit of the unsuspecting newbs who may be considering purchasing one of these widow makers. Forged in Fire and other cable shows have done our community a service, and a disservice. A service in that they have brought attention to what we do to lots of people who may have otherwise never had any exposure to smithing. A disservice in that along with all the unqualified people who have never lit a fire and want to make swords from day one, we have to watch the predators/hacks who have never done any forging attempt to scam people out of their money buy selling them poorly designed, poorly made dangerous equipment. 40 years experience and you don't see anything wrong with that burner MasterFabPro? Slow learner indeed. Whoever put that time bomb together has NEVER worked in a Smithy!

For 1095 and 15n20 I grind the mill scale off on a 2x48 ceramic belt @ 120 grit, (I don't have a 2x72) and then clean them with mineral spirits before I stack them up. Weld a bead down both ends of the stack with the mig and most of the time tack on a handle.

Beautiful work! I really like the palm swell and the grain in the handle and sheath are awesome! The cable etched nice too!

You could forge weld high carbon faces on and make hammers or just make some soft hammers for those times that brass is too soft and hardened steel is too hard. I have some "soft" hammers for driving pins that I don't want to damage. Mild steel hammers will actually forge just fine, in my experience, but if you miss the work and hit the anvil it will mark the hammer face. Nice safe hammer to give a beginner you don't want chipping your anvil!

The purpose of playing with peas is to partake in poor table manners and get popped on the pate with a plate by the portly pantry wench. The purpose of playing with P's is plain enough! Very nice work Theo. I always enjoy seeing what you come up with and this one is very clean! I even like the satin finish. Looks like it's ready to "go to work".

As everyone has stated, yes, it can be done. I do it several times a year and even using every tip/trick it is still a lot of work! I get 15N20 from Jantz. They sell it in a thickness of .049 I also mill my 1095 down from .125 to .075 so I can get as many layers as possible in a relatively small stack. Still when it comes to drawing out it's a lot of hammering! If you're doing it for the first time stick with a low layer count and a simple twist pattern. I think every smith should do it, be able to do it, but if you ever plan to sell your work you will have a hard time lining up customers who want to pay for your time and the fact that it was "hand hammered". If you're doing it for yourself or friends and family and there is no need to be profitable then go for it. Power hammers and belt grinders wont produce anything beyond the skills of the person using them but they make production fast enough to be profitable. As a hobby smith all you need is a fire, hammer and anvil, some files and a vise and this website! Joining a local blacksmithing group that meets regularly can propel you forwards faster than you would think. Make sure whatever your doing is safe and then forge ahead. There is no substitute for "doing". Good luck!

Get well soon Frosty, lighting a candle for you!