fleur de lis

I haven't heat treated it as of yet. I normilized twice afteret forging. Once in ashes, & once in vermiculite (no idea if I spelled that right). I worry about cracks with this being mystery metal. I am using this as a learning experience for a lot of this. Reading the utterly massive amount if info here will only take me so far. Knowing the theory behind a process is good. It helps with understanding. But putting that theory into practice. That takes time and screwing stuff up to improve. My little projects before have been helpful in this endeavor. This project is really combining my experience from those projects. Good eye on the direction of the grain. I wasn't paying attention when I cut it. The temp here took a 20° dump in an hour & I wanted to get inside. That's what happens with inattention. May try to use it anyways. But, I've got more if it doesn't workout at least.

And today's progress report. Addressed the tang as well as I could figure out. Filed out my crack on the one side & the gouge on the other side. Then hit it with the welder in each corner. I didn't care to do this as welds are a pain to file through and blend for me. In retrospect, I believe the the better option would have been to not have dorked it up to begin with. Live & learn I reckon. Due to Latticino's kind mentioning of an angle grinder. I made much faster work of the other side of the blade. Used a 120 grit pad to take most of the scale most of the way off. Then went the rest of the way with files. I broke down & called a truce with the devil grinder. Did a peace dance & sacrificed three chickens so that it wouldn't ask for anymore fingers. I really need to invest in some better belts if I continue doing knives after this. The cheapo belts wear out FAST! Ran a 60 grit belt over it to blend out the file marks & to profile the tang more to my satisfaction. Finished up today with cutting scales from a piece of Russian Padauk I had left over from something. The I cut a chunk of brass & squared it up. Not sure if the brass will be a bolster or a pommel type thing yet. I simply like brass & wanted to incorporate it somewhere. Пока.

@Latticino I agree with you about the tang. I hope I can save it, but if not I'll figure something out. Its a learnable moment either way. Since I've done so little with forging knives. I genuinely struggle with forging in bevels & keeping things straight. Unless its a froe, herb chopper, or other similarly curved type blade. I realize this is a over sight on my part. I've just not had enough interest in bladesmithing to bother myself to learn to do it right. But I've really enjoyed doing this one enough that I may need to fix that attitude in myself soon. As for filing. I've got plenty o tools to not need to use files. Several of the 4.5" grinders you mentioned. With many assorted body buffer pads. And I honestly didn't even think to use the thing. I feel stupid now. Also got a 2"x72" sorta knife grinder (it's a grizzly). But I've got a hate / hate relationship with it. I kinda sorta took off the ends of 3 fingers with it a week ago & haven't gotten pass wanting to take a 10lb sledge to it yet. I completely blame the machine entirely. It is rhe one who set the rest to far from the platen & its the one who was grinding material thin enough to get sucked through the gap taking my poor to get a with it. I am completely blameless in this particular endeavor. I am better with a file than a grinder anyways. A skill I've spent more time developing. But as always. One should expand their skill sets. I truly appreciate the vinager tip. I had never heard of that before. Very very handy that is. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to point things out.

SW Missouri ain't no different than NW Arkansas. Practically neighbors. Heck. I got married down in your neck of the woods.

I work with a bunch of hillbillies. They are a very knife happy group of guys. Пока. = See ya. Been slowly learning Russian. I am at the point where I've started injecting the random word without thinking about it.

First thing first. I am not a bladesmith. I've made knives before for whatever utilitarian need, and for the odd coworker. But never anything serious. So critique & advice is appreciated. This project got its birth the other day by watching a documentary about the White Death. The Finnish sniper Simo Hayha. Saw some puukko's in the video, and got the itch to make one. This started life as a coil spring. Not sure of the material. But it does harden. More so with a water quench than oil. I wanted an over all length of 200mm. 100mm for the handle & 100mm for the blade. Got close. I'm at about 215mm at the moment. I like heavier & thicker blades. So I am aiming for 7mm thick at the spine. I hammered my material to roughly 10-11mm in thickness. Wanted some slop for filing/grinding. I formed up the tang at the shoulder. I got a bit happy with a hot set trying to isolate the material. Pretty sure I've got a crack there I'll need to deal with. But I've still got plenty to do on the tang . Finally for the day, I filed one side flat. Had some scale on the anvil which I hammered in like a moron. Took some judicious filing to get through it. Sorry to be long winded. Just a personal habit to be thorough. Пока

Thank you for that information on shipping Marc. I've been looking at one these Perun Swiss anvils for a few years now. Shipping has been the road block for me keeping me from taking the plunge. Maybe now, one may be back on the menu in a few months.

Now with a stand, not sure of baby anvil / ASO, and ready to get back to work. I need to add some gussets to the stand, but my dinky little 110 machine really ain't up to material this thick. I'll snag one of the suit case tig machines from work at some point to do it. Not sure of the baby anvil right there. Its not the one I was expecting. That one ended up being cracked through the waist. But this one is what I got, so I'll make the most of it. Also got the parts in for making a new screw box for the smaller vise. Anyways. Till next time.

Haven't posted anything in a few years, so I figured I'd share this. Since I've finally started selling some of the stuff I make, I decided it was time to invest in some better tools/equipment. Time is money and all that With that in mind I went to the great bazaar of the interwebs. Craigslist. Found these two local to me for a fair price. Not great, but fair. But when you don't have a good vise at all, fair is relative I guess. $300 for the pair & will be getting a 80-100 pound travel anvil from the guy this weekend for rewiring a car trailer for him. One of these is a dang nice 70 Iron City. Still has almost all the cross hatch on the jaws. Yeah, it'll out last me. Not real sure what the other on is. Its a 50 and has what looks to be ENGLISH WARRENT above that & that its old. Unfortunately I've got to make a new screw box for it. Had some weird cobbled together thing with seized up ball bearings in it. Got a acme screw and coupler nut coming & some pipe. Also got a 2-1/2" x 4" round of mystery metal I'll likely turn down for the handle end (can't remember the name). So not to bad I guess. Another 50 bucks in material to fix it. Get these cleaned up and some stands made & then its off to the next project. Build a bigger forge. Then take over the garage..... Maybe.... I hope..... Well, it'd be nice.... Man I hope she doesn't change her mind on that one..... It gets cold on the back porch.....

My new blower works a heck of a lot better. Moves 3-5 times the air as my jury rigged one. So that should help. I get lots & lots of sparks, but they're all ash & embers. Didn't have much time to fiddle with things today as I'd hoped. I think i may just bite the bullet & make a coal forge. Whole heck of a lot more heat for the same volume of fuel if i understand correctly.

I thought I had been seeing sparks, but maybe it could have been embers from the charcoal. Can be ffrustrating trying. But it's still fun to try. I'll be giving it another go tonight. Be watching closer for sparks to. I don't think i really understood the significance of the sparks.

No. I haven't read the existing thread on this. I'm limited to a cell phone right now for Internet, & it is frustrating to say the least. It is 1018. Due to my employment i got in the habbit of always getting a mtr when i get metal of any type. Has saved my bacon more than once. I thought i was sstriking to hard, so i switched to a 20oz claw hammer with the same results. I'm strongly suspecting that I'm not getting my material hot enough. I have a better blower arriving today. So maybe that will help. I keep my work area clean and clear. I'm already a klutz, i try not to tempt fate. Thank you for the link Steve Sells. Very helpful.

I would love to spend some time with an experienced smith. Couldn't agree more tthat's it's a mistake that i hhaven't been able to yet. The opportunity has not presented itself yet. II've been working with mostly 1018, with a little 4140 ordnance steel I had on hand. It falls apart from the get go pretty much, and yes its a simple lap weld I've been trying. Just not so simple right now.

Hello all. I've been attempting to learn to forge weld & it's not been working. Not at all. I'm using a charcoal forge. Borax for flux. Been cleaning my pieces up reallllllllllllllly clean. Bringing things up to a bright orange heat. And i get a nice gooey mess that just falls apart right away. What am I doing wrong? Thank you.

Thank you folks. I fell better about my impulsiveness now. I went to look at some hammers and tongs since I was needs those as well. I was planning on ordering a new kanca from centaur last night, but as soon as I walked into this fellers shop I couldn't help but want this one. Maybe it was just ment to be. I am rarely so impulsive about buying stuff that I am really uneducated about. Now i just need to learn to use it correctly.

Thank you. I had read up on centaur before, but had no idea they once sold a kolshwa made anvil. Which I had also read up on some as well. HopHopefully it's not one of those bad ones from later on in their relationship. It has a loud high pitch ( almost painful ) ring to it. A 3.5 pound ludell hammer dropped from 10" or so will rebound around 90% or better.

The wood stove is actually my fireplace. I'm in the process of turning it into a heat exchanger. The big piece of stainless in the picture is really just a cover over the fireplace surround and a door. The door is going to have a opening water jet into it to accept a 8" x 10" piece of ceramic glass. The sanitary couplings are for the exchanger part of the set up. There is an air intake on the bottom & 2 exits on the top. I'm making a log holder out of 1 1/2 " sch 10 pipe that connects the intake with the outlets. The pipe is light enough, that it'll heat up quite a bit as the logs sit and smolder / burn on them that the air inside will heat a lot. I have a small computer fan that will fit inside a concentric reducer that mounts to the air intake. I guess it's going to be more like a radiant / heat exchanger type system. We bought our fixer upper here last August. We use wood to heat, so i was trying to make things more efficient. But with so much to do, winter caught me before I got it finished. Probably be spring before I get back around to it. & my welder is broken right now. Thank you for the info on the anvil. Will it work for learning the basics of blacksmithing?

I found this locally to me today for what I hope is a reasonable price & would like to ask the experts here what i picked up. I'm assuming it's a farriers anvil & after that I don't know. Thank you for any help.

South Central Missouri. Thank you for clarification on that.

Are you indicative of the help nature of people here? I signed up for this sight seeking knowledge. If i don't ask the questions properly, I do apologize. Perhaps you could inform me of the proper way to ask. Thank you I would love to own a naval gun by the way.

Hello, been a lurker here for a while now & finally have some questions in need of answers. I've been working metal for close to 20 years now ( primarily as a welder ), so I'm not a complete idiot on the subject. But in regards to anvils, I might as well be a complete idiot. Up till this point my smithing has been small piddly stuff, now I want to get more serious about it. I have always gone the wood fired forge route & will continue to. Since I have scads of wood. Free wood. So far I have used a section of I beam as an anvil. It is 1 1/2" thick, 12" wide, 18" tall, & 5 foot long. The problem is that it weighs close to half a ton. Once placed i can't move the dang thing without a engine lift. I don't want to cut it down because it's so good for sheet metal work as well. So I've been looking for a new anvil. All the local ones of craigslist are generally a ASO or well outside what I can spend right now. What I've settled on in my head as to what I want feature wise is this: Double horn, Upsetting block, At least one hardy hole & punch hole, In the 125 to 150 pound range ( I do field work sometimes welding. I want a transportable anvil ). I've got 800 - 900 I can spend The only one I've come across that meets that is from Perun. I can't find much about them. Outside of Europe anyways. Can anyone point me in a different direction, or advise me on another company to look at? Thank you.