Jackdawg

Nice job. Got a lump of rail iron I want to stand on end like that, but I was thinking of "sharpening" one of the flanges (? not sure if right term) to make a cut off "built right in" so to speak.. And radiusing the other so it was a nice curved surface to work on for fiddly bits - like a mini horn.

depending on the hole size a brass welch plug for an engine might be a cheap way to come up with a plug. Would be a very effective contrast.

Was offered a job on an oil rig in the Persian gulf in the 80's just before the missiles starting flying around. Weekly income was more than I got a month in the job I was in at the time - Was very glad I turned down the big dollars a few months later

beautiful bit of work. I assume had fits comfortably above the leave?

So whats the secret as far as not having to fit the scales? Is it some sort of product you dip the tang in and let it set on to it?

We have a saying in Australia for a certain type of tedious gentlemen that you find everywhere. we call them FIGJAM's stands for XXXXXXX I'm Good, Just Ask Me

Does look like a crack in the photo doesn't it? I shall have to look closer when I get a chance!

The Quality you get, is the quality you accept. The Quality you accept becomes the new standard for the next project.

Thanks Frosty! Littleblacksmith and JHCC - I had noticed people recommended not bothering to heat treat cut off tools because of the heat they end up getting in use - , but it was my first bit of carbon steel I've had a chance to play with, I just had to have a go at doing it

All our army stuff (Australia) has used that same arrow head type mark as well. It would appear to be some sort of universal military symbol.?

cheers all, finished it off yesterday. Didnt grind out all the burn / hammer marks, just dressed up the pointy bits and had a go at quenching it and tempering back to a straw colour. It ended up about 10mm shorter and similar reduction in width to what I had before I burnt it. Straw colour on the working edge looks deeper in the photo's than it did in daylight when doing it, but I am happy with a first go at it. Frosty burning wood and charcoal, playing with both, but yeah Australian hardwood gets nice and hot! Was using charcoal when I burnt the steel.

So, being a rank amateur when it comes to blacksmithing, I have been playing about a bit, soaking up info on the site and learning the lessons from a couple of other beginners who are traveling the same journey and have posted about their adventures recently, including the advice they got. So I think I finally reached the point where I am advanced enough to actually show my failures and share them I have been playing about with a couple of things, made a few S hooks tapers etc, then decided to make a set of tongs from reinforcing steel, and also making a cut off hardy tool from the end of a CV shaft. My anvil is only a little 20kg caste steel unit, so only has a small hardy hole, 13mm square. Gotta say my biggest issue until today has been my kak handedness and inability to visualise what it is I am making. (or attempting to make). Today I moved to a new level of "Oops" So today I got both the hardy tool and the tongs to the point where they were pretty rough, but at least functional and looked like a usable tool . I wanted to heat the hardy tool and let it cool gradually so I could finish it on the grinder, and I wanted to rivet my tongs. So now getting thoroughly cocky, I tried to work both in the fire at the same time, end result being I burnt both of them! The cutoff tool is salvageable, but wont look anywhere as good as it did, and will be somewhat shorter! (You can even see the shower of sparks coming off it in the photo, was like a fireworks show) The tongs, well the end of one side of them was just missing when it came out of the fire! There was enough left for me to at least practice putting a rivet in I think I managed to do the rivet quite well without stuffing anything up any more at least !

The gods of scrounge have been looking upon you favourably Gergely! I like the lines of that German hammer, GDR, Was that the old East Germany?

Very nice. I had my first go at making a hardy tool the other day also. Only partly done before I ran out of steam, and not looking anywhere near as good as yours! I used the spline and threaded section from the outside of a CV joint. Probably twice the size it needed to be, which is one of the reasons I ran out of steam! First time I had tried to work anything with any sort of an amount of carbon in it, just about did in my foo foo valve trying to get it to move compared to the mild steel I have played with to date! - yes 2lb hammer swapped out for 4 lb hammer, including accompanying loss of hammer control and target acquisition capability , resulting in the first two dent marks in my poor little anvil. Going to fire the forge back up today and give it some more love!

Yeah, I reckon its hard to beat spotted gum. Ended up with some hickory handles a couple of years back when the Oz dollar was back where it should be against the greenback and we got a wave of tools in to the country from the US. Cant say I thought they were any better than the gum. Only issue was they had soem sort of black stain / wash painted on them Replaced the handle on a small ball pein the other day, all I could find in the small shaft size was some dodgy hardwood from Brazil in the ready made handle section of the local hardware store. Found 1 handle out of the 10 on display with no knots. Rasped to shape and sanded ok, but time will tell quality wise I suppose.

Which is why I might go $50 for it to put in the front garden

Stop your paper falling through on the first light up...... Price tag on the anvil made my eyes bulge.

Be no issues copying it if it is an old one and the original company is gone - trademark etc is only good for 15 or so years here. If it doesn't get renewed, it is open slather.

The price matches the product at least, caste steel anvils with "guaranteed" hardness for the face I see advertised are about double that price here .

demonstrated some good technique in making that! I like it!

We have not even bothered having a handset connected to our landline for the last 2 or 3 years. Service and quality was so bad. Wife, myself and kids all have mobiles, so no need for it. If it wasn't for the need for the internet connection I wouldn't have a landline at all. Our service is woeful, all the call centres go overseas to people whom english is definitely not their first language (or 3rd or 4th.....) our DSL is barely faster than the old dial up modems. Although having the number does come in handy for all those places that insist on you providing a valid phone number - it will never get answered, but it is a valid number!

Yeah Stan, from what I can see as long as it is Australian steel, it is usually 500 mpa unless it is special order. This stuff has the Australian mill marks on it..

Chandler Dickson has a U tube video where he forged titanium in to a knife successfully. Unknown whether what he had was a similar alloy to what you have though.

I have never seen a set of tongs that grips like that before. Quite an interesting way of doing it.

Scored my self some more reinforcing steel to play with, cost me nothing! 4 x 2m lengths of Y16 and 2 short lengths of Y28. One of the Y28's looks like it might have been painted with cold galvanising or similar zinc based paint, will probably give it a bath in something to strip it before adding it to my steel pile.