Woody

Hi Erik. I am not exactly next door, but I am in the neighborhood, I live in Rapid City, SD. I am primarily a knifemaker, but I also do ornimeltal stuff too. If you would like to contact me, you can send me a message via this site and I will send you a reply with my email address etc. Woody

I have a document in Adobe titled "Metallurgy of Steel for Bladesmiths & Others who Heat Treat and Forge Steel", 200 + pages, By John D. Verhoeven Emeritus Professor, Iowa State University, March 2005. While it is extremely technical in nature, there are summaries of all the important points at the end of each chapter that are easy to understand and very clear and concise. It will help dispell some of the myths and alchemy associated with Knifemaking in particular and forging and heat treating steel in general. Also have an Adobe document "Experiments on Knife Sharpening", 55 + pages, September 2004 by the same author. If anyone is interested, please email me and I will send you a copy of one or both. Woody

My first anvil was a 10 inch long piece of Railroad Rail, later I modified it by welding a 4 inch wide half inch thick steel plate to the top and bottom to give me a wider working surface and add more stability to it. Late I purchased a real ASO it had Mexico embossed on the base. It was 75 lbs of crudely cast iron that I paid $65 for. I used it for a couple years until I purchased a 97 lb Wilkenson and later was given a 150 lb Vulcan. The 75 lb ASO was used for another 2 years by a new aspiring smith and was returned to me last year. It is currently loaned to another young smith who won't be using it for a while because he was just deployed to Afganistan. While it isn't the prettiest thing in the world, it serves the function it was designed for. All a blacksmith needs is some hot metal to beat, something to beat it with and something to beat it on. Woody

Steels with a W prefix are water quench, W-1 etc. Woody

Always wondered where the song "Three Blind Mice" came from. Also according to Hickory, Dickory, and Dock, a large clock while somewhat cumbersome may work also. Woody

I find it ironic that the indian crying at the sight of litter, his name was Iron Eyes Cody, was actually an Italian character actor who had changed his name and had no Native American Blood. He had a long career in Holywood playing Native Americans in the movies. Woody

A one word answer is "CAT". A longer answer is what people have mentioned above, remove what is attracting them in the first place, food and water. Also the sticky traps are less of a hazard than the poison baits such as D-Con etc. Last, deny the little buggers acces to your shop, seal door and other openings so they cant get in. Any small hole such as around pipes etc that is open to the outside can be stuffed with steel wool. They will try to chew their way through that and it will lacerate their innards which will cause them to bleed to death before they can ever get inside. Snakes only work in the warm months, remember they are cold blooded and hybernate in the winter. Woody

My Canady Otto rivet forge had the bottom of a 55 gal drum for a fire bowl when I got it. It was just lined with a clay like soil called gumbo that is prevelent in Montana. I relined the bowl using hard fire brick and fireclay. It worked fine except for the fact that it took 2 men and a boy to move it around. I fianlly made a new fire bowl using the bottom of a pressure tank from a water well and I left it unlined. While I don't use my coal forge on a daily basis, the unlined steel has not suffered greatly from the effects of the fire. If it eventually does burn through, i sill simply toss it out and make a new fire bowl. I figure it is easier and cheaper to do that than to mess around with a bunch of brick and clay or mortar. Woody

Most of the stove coal I have seen is Anthracite (hard coal) it is very hard to keep lit all by itself. It needs a constant air blast. I have used it mixed with soft coal and while not the best it will do in a pinch. Remember that in the old days blacksmiths used whatever coal was available or made their own charcoal. There are those that will tell you one must have Pocohontas #3 or some other superior grade of coal to smith with but I suspect that they are relatives of Ike Cant (remember he died in the poor house). I was once told that the local coal available here from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming could not be used for smithing. I was extreemely relieved to hear that as I had just finished my 4th Damascus blade using that coal. Had someone told me that in the beginning, I would have saved myself the trouble and effort of making 4 knives. Pocohontas #3 is definately superior coal and once you have used it, you never want anything else, but most of the coal available will do in a pinch, it is just harder to work with. You might check with your local suppliers and see if they have some low sulfur high BTU (13,500) coal available. Here in Rapid City, SD I checked with the local supplier and to my utter amazement he has Pocohontas #3 in 40 lb plastic bags at $8.30 a bag. While that price is not the best, it gave me 120 lbs for ten cents cheaper than I had been buying 100 lbs of supposed blacksmith coal from a mine in Raton, NM that the local blacksmith association had trucked in. All things considered, perhaps you should look at building a propane forge. Woody

Fired clay pots were more indiginous to the Indian tribes of the Southwest, first the Anasazi (Ancient Ones) who built the pueblos like Mesa Verde. Then later the Navaho, Hopi, Pima, etc. They not only made pottery, they painted it with intircate designs too. Farther south, the Aztecs and Incas were skilled in working gold. The reason they never worked iron is because they had no knowledge of it until the white man came. The Native Americans were stone age people until we came along. Woody

Andy: Just because you did it once and got away with it dosen't make it safe but I suspect that it has reinforced in your mind that this is an acceptable practice. That is human nature, if it don't blow up and kill us the first time it must be ok. Remember that there are Old Blacksmiths and there are Bold Blacksmiths, but there are few if any Old, Bold Blacksmiths. Woody

My Grandfather Really was a Blacksmith. check the attached link to see some of his work. Conrad Segmiller Woody

You will put more money in the bank giving the customer what they want than you will by telling them what they need or should have. If the customer wants someting that is fabricated and textured to "look old" then give them that or refuse the job. If they want authentic forged work then give them that. Remember that everyone is working on a budget. There are few people that can afford a hand forged piece made from wrought iron and fewer yet that would appreciate it in the first place. Remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there is no accounting for taste. What is art and beauty to you will be junk to someone else and vice versa. Whatever you do; do the best job possible and your skill as a craftsman will come through wheather the job is hand forged or fabricated. If the customer truly doesn't know what he wants, then submit a bid with your best design, but have several options ready in case he don't like your first choice. Woody

What Rich said about the pipe bomb!!!!!! Never but Never heat a completely sealed container especially if it has some sort of flammable material inside unless, of course, you would like a new address with 17 different zip codes. If you are going to make knife, it is better to use known materials, I obtained a quart can of powdered 1084 for about $26 check with Garey Ford I think he has a source of powdered L-6 or 15N20 which is very similar in makeup. Woody

Jens: The sheaths are made out of maple stained with ebony wood stain and then sealed with clear shellac. Have to wait a while for close up shots, till I solve the problem of brightly polished metal showing up black form the flash. Woody

See the following link for the effects of copper Woody http://hazmap.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/hazmap_generic?tbl=TblAgents&id=374