natenaaron

I'm not discouraged I just know not to chase the pot. I would rather forge than fiddle with the forge. I will post my forge design and explanation later this week. I am hoping folks chime in about things before I put it together.

Not a woman. I think your heart is in the right place but I am afraid the knife might cause them more harm. A whistle, Self defense classes and pepper spray. or maybe make a few of these only sharper My wife usually has about 200 pounds of muscle and love and sharp teeth with her. She will not carry anything "dangerous". I may be able to convince her to carry something like the one above.

I have no clue about your question but what is the seam thing? Did you do it on purpose?

If they have it they aren't letting me buy any. I will give those places a call, thanks.

I feel like I am chasing my tail with this one. I have done so many things wrong on it, that something else will just go wrong. Next weekend, god willing I will be starting a new one. This time I will admit that I have no idea what I am doing and NOT try to improve anything. I will follow the advice gleaned from here and some help I have gotten from a very helpful smith, no longer on here. Lessons learned the hard way is the story of my life. This one will stick around just in case. but the next will be much better because of the lessons.

Here are some pics. It is very hard to get pics of the dragon's tongue because it is a very light blue purple no matter how high I turn up the gas. The blue flame is blue no matter what too. All of my tech seems to be rebelling against me today. Short of firing up photoshop nothing would save the images right side up. no idea what I am doing wrong. If the images being upside down is an issue I will do what I can to right them.

DO they use the wood fired Adobe ovens like they do at Acoma. Those things produce amazing bread. Even better when one of those old ladies is trying to outdo a younger one to show her she has a lot more to learn. mmmmmmmm......brreeaadd

Forgot about this thread. Got busy researching the new forge. I will post some pictures in the next day or so.

My wife would poo buffalo if I suggest this too. Mississippi huh? You should move because humidity sucks all energy and motivation from a person. I may have to move all of my equipment home soon, at least I hope I will, and I have been looking at shipping containers and those steel building kits. These guys are having a clearance sale but you have to provide your e-mail to see the list. I gave them mine on Monday, and so far have not seen a piece of junk mail from them.

You made it jump in the car. I would have built a ramp so it would not strain itself and let it drive if it wanted to.

Reading intervention teacher at the middle school levels, boat storage business operator (with some minor boat repair in there). Woodworking, metal working, photography, reading, I was pretty heavily into hydroponic gardening, but put it aside for quite a while. Food prices, rising like they are, has rekindled that hobby, except now I am looking at aquaponics because I am supposed to eat more fish. Sounds like the dating game I like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain. I am married person #7

Funny this magnetic North thing should come up now. One of my great uncles was the blacksmith in a small barely still existing town in East Texas, Powell. I was talking to my dad about him the other day and one of the old Smith tales (like an old wives tale just grungier) he taught my dad was that you give your item a final hammer with the piece facing north "to align the grain." When I laughed my dad swears every piece that went out the door, that he saw, was given a final hammer with the tip of the piece facing north. Wonder if the quenching facing north ideas come out of the original bit of folklore.

I didn't see the show. What is up with this comment?

That looks like a corrugated yurt.

Is there something that will go over glasses, besides the clip on variety? I have used them in the past and they have ended up scratching my lenses.

If you watch the videos about Japanese swords, the master holds the stock with tongs while two younger folk do the heavy work. Maybe you can do the same. So what if you are new and not a master. You heat the steel, grip with the tongs and one or both kids start hammering when you get it to the anvil. Trade off when you get tired. you are still spending time with them, Still smithing, Still being active, still getting griped at by the wife for stinky smelly clothes and shirts with burn holes in them. Yep the search function on this site is a real big PIA. Not to mention all of the lost pictures that go with some of the important content. Don't trust the thread that says "All stickies are here". They aren't. It takes some searching, and learning your way around. Here is what I have started doing. go to google type: iforgeiron.com in the search bar and hit enter You should get a link to the site and a search bar underneath type what you want and it will search IFI Search the site this way.

I think we are lucky in this regard, except monsoon season. I do zero wood working during monsoon season. Our current humidity is 6%

What Vaughn said is correct. Anyone who is making something handmade is IMO an artist. We want to make things our way. We may get an idea somewhere but we make it our own. Tell people the truth and say you made it. It is an original Comtois. Don't call it a Tiffany candle holder..

With that budget go used. You will be able to get a much higher quality DP. Inspect it first. You might even be able to get a full sized one.

Hardening is not really hardening as a smith sees it. This is how fire hardening was explained to me by experimental archaeologists slow heat the piece to draw out the pitch plunge the point into the coals to form some carbon polish the carbon pitch mix with a stone. Seeing as how I was in the southwest the stone was a piece of fossilized river bead. Whatever the stone was it needed to be very fine grained. After polishing the process was started again. This was done over and over until a suitable coating of pitch, carbon and stone particles was built up. It makes sense that the points would be adversly affected b y the fire. The coating would melt. I wonder about the abrasion test. Were they rubbing or digging in soils. Way too many variables IMO but this is one of the reasons I walked away from the Archaeology world. IMO "fire staining" has it's place like all other wood finishing techniques. This video from 0-2:15 shows the traditional Korean method and the results. It also gives a very good look at just how far the char penetrates.

It is for aesthetics and some say it helps with grip but they are wrong. Grip is aided by poly, wax, or skin oils and sweat. It will allow wax to penetrate further, not because the wood is more accepting but the wax is warmed by the wood and more easily enters the cells. Scorching and sanding wood is a popular way of coloring and bringing out the grain in some traditional Asian cultures' wood crafts. I have seen Japanese, and some Chinese pieces but mostly Korea. A beautiful look, especially with a red grained wood. It does not harden the wood in one short pass through the fire. Heat will shrink the wood as it draws out the water and when heat is no longer applied the wood will eventually return to the ambient humidity. this is why a drawer made in the winter gets stuck in the summer, and a joint fitted in the summer does not fit so perfectly in the winter. A short pass through the fire will not shrink the wood enough to make any difference. In a kiln environment the wood will emerge harder than wood that was air dried in much the same way a sponge is stiffer when it is allowed to dry, but this is not going to happen in the forge with a brief pass through. Hardening is is done with green, or air dried wood (If I remember my archaeology), followed by repeated, slow heating, charring and polishing.

I'm going to offer a piece of experience. Follow ONE plan. Don't do what I did and put together a forge from a couple different plans taking what YOU think is better. Learned that lesson the hard way. I am now building my second forge. Oh yeah triple check your math. I will be the first to say I screwed my forge up because I thought I knew better.

Somewhere someone loved the boy enough to teach him some manners and he held onto them. Means he is a good kid just wrinkled. I deal with some bad situations every day and the ones with a foundation in manners are the ones who you can iron out the wrinkles. You are doing a good thing. A boy needs a positive role model and a real family he can look up too.

Thanks folks. Yes 3" thick. Charles, you are correct a PIA but a friend is going to help. He has more welding and fabricating experience than I will ever have and he said the same thing but doable since it is mild steel. If nothing else I will have gained experience. I have two of them. That is interesting. I honestly did not think about cutting it in two but what you said sounded totally doable. This is going to be interesting.

My anvil is a railroad track. That is why I have been using the round as an ASO when I feel I need some more real estate. The 3 inch thick round is the only wide enough item I have with some mass for this. The round is mounted flat on a stand next to an anvil. I suppose a hardy hole could be cut in the round but I have never cut a hole in something that thick. I can't imagine how long it would take to drill a hole that deep. I have a drill press but it will not support the weight, so I would have to do it by hand. I have to go to the welding shop today, I'll see if they have a big enough cutting tip.