Woody

when using fluxes other than borax, get a material safety data sheet (MSDS) and read it. Some fluxes contain Fluorite which when heated gives off very toxic even deadly fumes. As for a flux that is concocted by a blacksmith I would want to know exactly what was in it before I used it. You can mess up a weld every day and live with it but you can only mess up your lungs once and you can't live with that.

That was very good Junior.

20 mule team borax is not soap. There is a hand cleaner called Boraxo that has soap and borax in it, that is what everyone is referring to when they say don't use soap. 20 mule team is pure borax and is good flux material, it's all I ever use. Woody

Ah Wooldridge san numma 1 steel is velly good steel as oppose numma 10 steel which is velly bad steel indeed

Rich pretty pretty and pretty. Very nice indeed.

Matt: "No Hazardous Chemicals to Deal with??????????????????" Ferric Nitrate is an Oxidizer and Ferric Chloride is an Acid. Check the following Hazardous Chemical Data Base. The Chemical Database

Check the following link this is the website of Artist Blacksmiths Association of North America they will be able to help you with everything you need. [ABANA] The Artist Blacksmith's Association of North America, Inc.

I am not sure, but some sort of scraper comes to mind.

Lorenco: Check page 1 of this thread for a reply by Oakwoodforge, there is a link listed there where you can download the material directly Woody

I just talked to my daughter, they met with the surgeon today, the surgery is scheduled for April 2.

Jim they make wet/dry sandpaper in grits of 1000, 1500 and 2000 these are very effective in getting out very fine scratches. After that you can hand polish with the rough side of a piece of leather and finally with paper towel. Woody

I just posted a new page to my website titled "Murphy's Law" I got the idea and most of the info from an email I got from Alan Brazzel. What I have does not begin to cover all the variations of Murphy's Law that are out there. If you have a favorite one, please send it to me so I can include it on my site Thanks Woody

Lodo sand can be used as a flux, as can many things, Boric Acid for instance. In Richardson's Practical Blacksmithing the list several recipes for flux that contain sand. As for dehydrating borax, heat it in the oven at 200 degrees F. the only drawback is that once it is dehydrated if you don't store it in an air tight container, it immediately starts absorbing moisture out of the air again. Woody

Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts. For continued updates you can register at the following site Visit a CarePage: Annalise01 every time there is a new development, my daughter updates the care page and you will be notified by email of the updates. Your prayers are appreciated, thank you from the bottom of my heart Woody

Ludo: My guess is mild steel

I support my anvils, both of them. They only have part time jobs and don't even bring in enough to put a roof over their head let alone put any food on the table. Most of the time they hang out in the garage doing nothing. Most of their friends are unemployed hammers and tongs along with a couple of forges that get high by huffing propane. They are antisocial, they only have a couple dates a year and since they have no driver's license, I have to take them everywhere they go. Woody

Thanks for the picture Rich, it's a beauty. Very nice indeed!

Ludo: What was the original use of this material, was it a spring etc? If you know that, you can consult junkyard steel lists and or Machinery's Handbook and get some idea of the type of alloy. You can heat a piece of it to non magnetic and then quench in oil. After it is quenched try cutting the quenched area with a file. If the file skates, it's high carbon, if the file will cut it, reheat it to non magnetic and quench in water try the file again. If a file will cut it at this point, it is mild steel. You can also heat to non magnetic quench in oil and then try to bend the quenched area, if it bends, mild steel, if it breaks, high carbon steel. You can also spark test it and there are those who swear by spark testing, but I find it to be not much use. As for what if any alloy mateial is in the steel, that's anybodies guess unless you can determine the original use of the steel. Before half the blacksmith world goes of on me with a rant about the advantages and the preciseness of spark testing, save your effort, I don't care.

Sounds interesting Rich, ya got a picture?

On my Canday Otto blower there was an O ring type gasket that was totally brittle and broke in a million pieces when i took it apart. I used a leather shoe lace to replace it.

UMMMM I am thinking that if positive identification is all that important it would probably be cheaper to buy new steel with a certificate of analysis. Woody

As for tempering it, if it's mild steel I would just leave it as quenched. Woody

Cooter: If you quenched it from a red heat in oil and can still cut it easily with a file, you have mild steel. You can't harden it very much. To get it harder, you could quench in iced salt water from the point where it goes non magnetic, about a dull red. If you used super quench, you could get even more hardness, but with mild steel you would be hard pressed to get much above a Rockwell C 40. Woody