H3xx
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Obviously I mean to melt them down and make them into ingots. I would appreciate at least the acknowledgment of that. I've done research, but haven't actually gotten into the culture, the Jargon is a bit of a second language to me.
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Cool. I have mountains of soda cans just waiting to be smelted.
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I've never looked them up, but I shall. They're really just up the road from me. I make it a point to never ask a question with the intention of being proved wrong. That's counter productive to learning. Instead when I ask a question, I'm asking for information. No ego involved at all. I know full well that anything I "learned" on History Channel or Discovery channel is subject to change. They've certainly let go of their principles in the accuracy department. On the subject of casting steel, I'd always assumed it was obvious why you can't cast a sword. The warping issues alone making it prohibitive, to say nothing of the difficulty in maintaining the heat required to liquefy steel without destroying the vessel it's in. Pouring steel is definitely not a do it at home hobby job. Go industrial or go home. lol I had an interesting Idea, has anyone here used the lost wax method to make an aluminum handle for a knife? Would you do it in separate scales, or mold the wax around the handle of the knife?
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In my experience, as long as the question is on topic, there are no stupid questions. I stand corrected. Always happy to learn something.
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Unless I'm mistaken, I'm fairly sure that the higher the carbon count, the stronger and more flexible the metal. The lower, the more brittle it is. That was the secret behind the Ulfberht viking swords. They were much higher carbon count than any other steel in the area at the time, making them seem ridiculously strong and maybe even magical.
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Indeed. The smaller and lighter the blade, the faster it could get in, cut, and let the wielder come out alive. And if it broke, (which happened often in that time due to very low carbon count) it was cheaper to repair if didn't have a lot of metal to it to begin with.
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I've been researching enough to know that an anvil looks like whatever will work. Be it a simple block of steel or something from ACME. lol I've been interested in Blacksmithing for years, but only recently gotten both the motivation and confidence to try it for myself. Since I'm not going to be able to dissemble this sledge I got today, I'm going to have to get creative with a stand, but my first anvil that I own will probably be either a rail track anvil, or a block anvil. I need to scope out some scrapyards for a source of materials right now, as all the materials I have are two rail spikes and a handful of used lawn mower blades.
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Funny you should say that. My Brother in law runs a skidsteer business and I asked him if he had anything, and he gave me this nice big 20lb sledge. Shows me right for being anti social, I go ask a few questions and I find what I'm looking for in one afternoon. Now Just have to figure out how to mount the thing. I should say ahead of time that the bucket of cement method is out, because he only gave me the sledge to borrow. So I have to keep it additive free and with the handle in tact. I think I can take some wood and a bit of rubber and make a high enough stand, with a bit of rubber under the head to keep it from doing too much to the wood... I wouldn't say close by, it's definitely not an afternoon trip. But yeah, it's always fun finding out there's real people near you that have similar interests.
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Okay, Location updated. I'll keep that in mind. Do you have an opinion on the auto body dollies? The heal dolly has a nice flat surface, and the Comma dolly as a good sloping curve, but I'm wondering if anyone knows something I don't.
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Okay, So I'm working on getting a forge up and running, and I really don't have any questions about that. My question is concerning Anvils. I have a set of Auto body Dollies that I've used once, and never picked them up again. I know they're built for hammer on metal abuse, but I figured I would ask first. If I welded one or all of them to a post, maybe so they fit in it like a hardy hole tool, so I can interchange them? I'm strapped for cash and would like to get a usable anvil as cheaply as possible, but I wanted to get a second opinion so as to make as few mistakes as possible. This isn't a picture of my dollies, but I have one of each of these.