Woody

Jason: It is called an explosion. In the coking process, the gasses produced are extremely flammible and much of them goes unburned. Unburrned flammable gases collected someplace probably in the vent pipe and when they found their way back to the fire and ignited with explosive results. Glad you were not injured. I once left my rivet forge for lunch, put a block of wood in the fire and covered it with green coal and patted it down with a shovel. When I finished lunch, I came back fished the block of wood out of the fire, ignored the smoke wafting out of the intake for the blower. There was a boom that rattled the windows in the house, caused me to jump clear over the anvil and the neighbor lady to come out and see if I was ok. The unburned gases from coal are not only very flammable, then also contain numerous toxic components. Woody

Aaron: I generally bake my blades for 3 hours. This link Blade Steels, Steel Analysis and Heat Treating Methods.- 1st page has some good info that may be helpful to you Woody

Ed you have been in my prayers for a long time. I will continue to pray for your recovery. Best wishes, may God be with you. Woody

I too think that this movie is over the top, yet to the film industry nothing is sacred anymore. They can put anything on film. As long as it has multiple explosions every 5 minutes, tons of bodies laying around and dosen't mention God or contain a prayer it will make millions. The First Ammendment gives them the right to produce this tripe, but we can send them a message that it is unacceptable by simply not paying to see it. Woody

Have you thought of using the face of the hammer to scallop the edges and instead of just dinging it all over with a ball pien using a straight or cross pien lightly at various angles to give it some texture then perhaps a nice rusty finish. Woody

Welcome Pine. there are several knifemakers and blacksmiths in the Phoenix area and one in Bullhead City that frequent this site. You can usually catch them in the chat room in the evenings. They may be able to help you in your search for an anvil. There is a guy in Skull Valley that has anvils for sale on ebay from time to time but he wants a princely price for them. Used to be an antique shop in Show Low that had a lot of old blacksmith stuff there but it's been years since I been by there. Anyway welcome aboard. Woody

Pam: My thoughts and my prayers are with you. Perhaps some of our able bodied smiths in the area would be kind enough to help you with your demo. Take care and may God Bless you Woody

Victor: I think the anvilfire store sells it, don't know about the export end of it though. Woody

Duck: The two round pins suggest that the drill was built for use in a foreign country. Voltage used overseas is different from what is standard in the US. I am not absolutely sure, but I think that running a drill built for 220 volts on 110 would not work or it may do damage to the drill. Woody

Very nice, good looking knife and sheath Woody

I finished these three knives last week. The one on the right with the sheath is for my nephew who is a cop in Tucson, AZ it is a 5160 blade with a black Micarta handle. The one in the middle is a Cable Damascus blade with a Mesquite handle. Mesquite courtesy of Tio Pick, thanks Tio. The one on the left is a 5160 blade with a black Micarta handle. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=953 Woody

Excellent Robert, absolutely beautiful. You do teriffic work Woody

Jim: Your friend is included in my prayers Woody

Here is another site with much valuable information, click on property data on the menu at the left and then select the steel type it will give you forging information, heat treating etc. Principal Metals Woody

I came across this site while surfing the web, thought some of you might find it useful. M E S T E E L Woody