Hammerfall

I just thought I'd share this work of art that just came in the mail from Brent Bailey. 

Its almost too nice to use. Kudos Brent!

Went to the scrap yard and found a nice stainless table for my new 2x72 with removable shelves and some nice clean springs. $30 all in.

I added an 1 1/2" wood top that I had leftover from another project and then capped it with a steel plate that I had leftover as well. 

Now I just need to sand the edges of the wood and trim down the back and I'm in business.

Nice pickin

Did you get her pulled out yet? She's a biggie.

I used Mizzou and it was relatively inexpensive, easy to apply and cure, and has held up great. Once it gets hot, which takes about 10 minutes my forge runs at 5 psi and will get steel glowing in a short amount of time.

I bought the same burner off of EBay. Adjust your slip collar. I had the same issues. Now it works fine. It does take some play to figure out.

I like your lowered treadle set up.

Is that a cast anvil?

Beautiful hawk!

Probably a 125 lb Trenton

I fired it up tonight. Once it was hot it worked really well. It took a while to get to temperature, but after that is was amazing. I only did two heat cycles. I'll keep everyone posted on how it lasts. I'm starting to think everyone makes building and lining a forge much more complex and technical than it really is to accomplish.

It looks like a Trenton, but the holes in the feet are suspect.

That is what it is Irondragon. Thanks for the heads up on hardy tools. I plan on making quite a few things out of this steel. My understanding is that it is very forgiving to quench. I ordered 5 gallons of Parks 50 today, but plan on trying to water quench this in the beginning.

Halphwit the forge chamber is 10x5, meaning the open part. I wanted a good size interior for general forging. The overall dimensions are larger. I fired it tonight for a bit over an hour and put firebricks over the ends to let I'd cool down very slowly. Tomorrow I will fire it again at around 500 and repeat the process if I think it's necessary. It is holding up well and seems to be really solid. 

5" interior diameter 10" overall length

Keep on forging. You have a very good start. Smiths a hundred and twenty years ago would have killed for your electric sander.

This should be tagged as a must see topic at the top of the page as show me your forge, or how to apply a coating to the interior of your forge.

i started with 1" of kaowool. There were a lot of people talking about the wool falling and becoming deformed. Maybe a fair amount of people will search forge coatings and not be as intimidated as I was after googling and reading as much as I did. This was really easy. I laid out cardboard and plastic where I thought I might make a mess. It took about 20 seconds. I mixed up mizzou refractory coating until I liked the consistency. I laid my precut prewetted kaowool out flat. I wet it slightly so the adhesion between the mizzou and wool would be better and the wool was more malleable. I coated the wool and even hit the edges lightly to reduce loose fibers and to promote later adhesion. Once a nice coat was evenly spread I folded it up and slapped it in the forge. EZ peezy. I then set the forge on its end for 15 or 20 minutes. It firmed up enough that I set the forge as it will be used and started filling the seam where the wool came together. I built this up at the bottom, as I had initially planned on putting a firebrick in the bottom of the forge. After some reading I'm going to forge as is for now, without a firebrick as a floor.  Mizzou is supposed to be very flux resistant. We will see. I'm open to criticism so please chim in any time. I was worried about uneven heating because the bottom will be thicker, it decided to roll the dice. It's curing right now and maybe tomorrow I will get to fore it up a few times. I just thought I'd share. Let the hammer fall.

That sounds like a good set up Frosty.

Yea the lag if you're not doing more than one blade is kind of a downer.

I needed a walk, so I went to the scrapyard to poke about. I found 190 lbs of 1060 that had the manufacturers tag on one piece. It's 4"X 1/2" and many of the blanks are long enough to get into swordplay. If you've been keeping up with me I just got a 25lb Little Giant. This is the perfect material for me to learn to draw out and grind on. I know this isn't the best steel for knives, but have read it will be good for swords, choppers, and hawks. Anyone have any advice on tempering and quenching 1060?

So I've read that some people use a torch, some use a heated chunk of metal they dip in the tank, and some use electric heaters for the quench tank. I'm looking for the easiest best technique. Any ideas would be helpful. I think I'm going to build a tank like the one below. It was posted here and I think it is a great design.

Northridge Tool 2x72

Very cool we need more info on how it turned out.

That look like you did an excellent job.

Here she is. I finished the base last week and did all of the hole drilling today, but the concrete. That will be the easiest part, but I have to borrow a longer bit from a friend. Tomorrow she will be all bolted down.