Lou L

The walls of the forge are just structural. They hold everything else together. If they are strong enough to hold it together then they are good. Don’t waste effort and money getting thick, heavy steel for the walls. Also, you really don’t want to follow Alec Steele’s design exactly. He doesn’t use refractory wool blanket in his forge. He only uses castable. His forge is not efficient and must use loads of propane (hence the collection of huge propane bottles in his shop). You would be better served following the instructions on Wayne Coe’s website (search for Wayne Coe artist blacksmith). His design is simple, effective, and proven, There are a lot of good threads in the gas forge section (along with hours of reading) that will help you a ton...but, once again, the “how to” on Wayne’s site is good. Another option would be to visit a blacksmith near you and get help/advice.

Welcome aboard! From what I have heard, anvils can be hard to come by on that coast. Don’t wait for a traditional one to find you. Check out the threads on improvised anvils and take the insights from the scrounge masters on this site. My advice is that you go ahead and buy some decent tongs to get started. My personal experience starting out was that bad tongs was the biggest factor in limiting my early success...and it made smithing much more dangerous. To this day, when I don’t have the right tongs to get a task done, everything becomes more difficult and dangerous. Everything else can be improvised and scrounged!

I saw a mokume gane demonstrationat by Bob Menard at a Fall NEB meet. He used quarters and got subtle patterns with them alone. You could cut out round billets from copper sheet and alternate them with the quarters and get a similar pattern. It would be much cheaper than buying nickel at least. According to Bob, oxygen free (highly conductive) copper is the way to go. I’m not sure if brass or bronze would work because they are a lot less conductive than copper. In the end, mokume gane is the art of welding precious metals. By definition it is not a cheap enterprise. You can get plenty of practice in using coins, though, and the law allows the use of currency for artistic expression as long as it is not used as currency afterward....or something to that effect.

I have our last toaster oven in storage. I was hoping to dismantle it, add firebrick walls, and install a cheap thermocouple. Once again my flights of fancy inhibit progress!

This problem with anthracite has been a thorn in my side. It is manageable but I hate how the ash and clinker surround the tuyere. Soon I will be making the drive to buy some bags of bituminous to run a test of how it works in my forge. I’ll accept clinker buildup on the bottom of the fire pot all day as long as I can create the high fires I do with anthracite. Hoping to get some bituminous before your visit. We shall see.

Chris, I’m “color impaired” which is the correct term for what people usual call lcolor blind”. Basically, I can’t see a number of wavelengths in blue, green, and red. I always doubt what colors I’m seeing. Still, when I turn off the lights in the shop, I feel I’m getting good at determining the colors of the steel. I’ve seen those co.or scales but pretty much wrote them off because of my eyes. You just reminded me of that option and I think I need to go ahead and get a proper one. I will look into buying one because I don’t trust my printer and I want it laminated. Thanks for the idea whether you intended to give it to me or not. I just did only one tempering cycle on the last knife two days ago because my wife was none too pleased with me two days ago. It’s been super hot and humid here and I use the oven in the kitchen. A second tempering was not in the cards! Good luck on yours! Lou

Wow, that’s a great idea. That one goes in the mental scrapbook for sure.

I read an article by Ed Caffrey in which he purported that there was a benefit in strength and sharpness of knives made of 5160 when triple quenched. He claimed to have made samples using identical methods in heat treatment ovens and quenched knives up to four times. He then tested them and had the grain analyzed by a metallurgist. He found a 15% improvement with three quenches and no benefit to the fourth. He left the knife in the oil each time and came back to it the next day. I’ve also read other people arguing that the idea was nonsense. I’ve tried finding the article just now but couldn’t. If there is interest I will keep looking. For knuckleheads like me, in their simple home forge, the odds of getting those proposed benefits are highly unlikely. We are, after all, essentially guessing at proper temperatures. Chris, I’d seriously suggest you use a magnet to check for when the steel goes non-magnetic as your target temperature is just 100 degrees higher than that. It gives you a good basis for the type of guesswork we are doing and helps identify the right colors so that, one day, we can be accurate going by eye alone. Thomas, I seriously could have used those people managing my fire for me, but it was my failure alone. I knew it was on its last legs and thought I could get away with it and then shut the forge down. The easy path is always the hardest.

Let us know how it went. I just had a quench fiasco myself two days ago. The knife was too darn long, the coal fire was too old and dirty and I was too impatient. I should have cleaned out the fire pot and built up a nice large ball of heat. Instead I frustrated myself for a half hour trying to get even heat along the length of the blade....and then rebuilt the fire. It was the single most powerful inspiration for building a propane forge! I seriously had to keep reminding myself, “3000 years worth of smiths have done it this way...you can do it too.” Once is set myself up for success it worked out. I think....

Welcome, Franz. Sooner or later someone is going to ask you where you are located so you may as well edit your profile and add that info so we can see it. I must admit, I looked for it right away because I’m always looking out for people close to me. Lou

That sucks so much, I’m jealous!

Seems like a clean build to me. Id love to own it. I’ll be rereading this thread for ideas soon enough. Thanks for sharing your experiments with us.

Welcome Ron, I imagine plenty of people look forward to hearing your opinion on a variety of matters. I hope you join in the discussions on forge and burner design. You may find the gas forge and burner sections interesting. Lou

There are various opinions on swage blocks. Some here use them all the time and others done them to be an ornament in their shops. This is important because it drives value. Anvils will always cause a bidding war. Many people who think anvils are something of value don't even know what a swage block is. I've met a few antique dealers who frequently have anvils in stock but had no idea what a swage block is. As JHCC said, in the end, it's based on your need. You can always make swages for specific purposes. But if you really really want/need a block then search your soul and your budget! For reference, a heavy swage block user will still only use one for a fraction of the time they use their anvil. Therefore, it would make no sense to pay anvil prices for one. Collectors would disagree with me. Also, you can buy new swage blocks from a few sources still and expect to pay maybe $200 for a decent smaller one.... Before shipping of you aren't close. You may want to set that as your logical limit. Same idea with rising anvil prices. People are paying massive amounts for 150 year old anvils when they can have new ones for the same prices. Either way, enjoy the hunt!

Welcome aboard. Since Frosty hasn't been here to say it yet, pictures of your smithing progress are welcome and appreciated.

I'll have to do into my gold stash to make a replica of that beauty! Seriously though, I am always awed by the Egyptian artifacts.

I got the first one handled and roughed out. My friend intends to do some shaping with a dremel so I left it unfinished. The handle is leopardwood. Should look cool when finished. I’m not entirely happy with the shape but it does match his picture...mostly. I made many mistakes making this one and I think the next four will be much better. There is some cleaning and polishing do do on the blade as well...I’m aware

Chris, nice to see another denizen of CT on here. Have you joined the CT Blacksmith Guild? Good luck on the knife. Please do keep us in the loop. A word of advice from my own recent experience: The color of the 5160 when it is at quenching temp is not as bright as you might think. If you watch videos of people doing it you can be tricked by the camera’s color management or by the fact that many people quench well past the right temp. I aimed for about 100 degrees past non-magnetic and used color as well. If you have left over steel try it a few times with scrap to get a feel for it. Lou

Beautiful anvil and you got it basically for free. I believe I can see the 1 indicating 112 pounds as the first number on the left side. The rest should come quite clear with a wire wheel as Stash pointed out. Others have said that anvils are hard to find in South Africa so you really made out. Congrats.

I was struck by the red color and immediately thought “tractor”. A quick search brought the possibility of them being hitch supports or stabilizer brackets for an old tractor. However, the different sizes makes this a bit unlikely. That fact also makes it less likely that they are hinges. Unless, of course, they are the same size and I’ve been confused by perspective in the photo.

I think the twist was invented as a ldecorative fix” to this universal mistake. It’s plausible!

Welding shops usually have loads of scrap steel in all sizes as well. The one I visit is definitely owned by a hoarder who has romantic associations with old metal. He’s sitting on a gorgeous 200+ pound anvil But is attached to it. I would visit welding outfits and find one with the most chaotic exterior possible. You are welcome to drive the couple hours (maybe 1.5 hours) to Logan Steel near me. I’d happily meet up with you and show you the place. You can get massive A36 columns anywhere from 4” to 18” diameter in a variety of lengths. Steel prices went up and they are now charging 1.50 per pound but that’s living in the Northeast for you. The manager was willing to let go of those big columns for half price (.50 cents per pound) last time I asked about them. Maybe you can get half price. Also, I saw that a Metal Supermarkets store opened up near you. I’m not sure what they are about though. Good luck, Lou

If I have the time to make the top and bottom fullers as well as the drift we can go for it. Great idea, thanks for the offer.

Seriously, this is a really fun game. I’m hoping this goes on for a while.

Agreed, that’s pretty. How thick is the spine?