Llabak

Wow, thanks for the detail Mike! I'm gonna give that a whirl!

Mike - How do you do the case hardening for those strikers? Do you use one of the commercial products like Cherry Red (I think that's the name)?

Linky here. Neat story, and while I'm not one for poetry, that one rocks.

I've been working through the Blacksmith's Primer, and I got sick of meat forks so decided to make something as a gift for a friend's daughter who had a first communion party yesterday. Took me about 45 minutes or so, but I think it turned out not half-bad for a first go. That's picture 1. Now as far as my questions, here they are: 1) I can't seem to get my biscuit to pop out when I'm punching. The metal just pushes over to the side and I end up having to break it off with a pair of pliers. What does this mean? Does it have something to do with the hammer delivery or is my (home made) punch not right? I thought I had a picture of the punch I made, but evidently I don't. I can take one later if need be. 2) When making the above project, I seem to have done a number on my hot cut chisel. I fear I got sloppy with quenching and I'm wondering if I messed up its temper. Attached is a picture of the ding. Should I just re-grind and move on, or do I need to re-heat treat it? More generally, do you grind the blade before or after the heat-treat? 3) My anvil has seen better days. The face isn't really flat anywhere, and it looks like the sides have been pretty abused (pictures 3 and 4), making it not super easy to shoulder. How critical is it for me to get this fixed when I'm just learning? Thanks for your responses!

While I was looking at Hofi's bowl blueprint, my wife asked if there was lead in any of the steel I've been using and I told her the 1018 I bought fresh doesn't, but the stuff I got from the scrap yard could be anything. The junk guy said that the steel I bought was excess from some manufacturing process, so I'm curious as to how I would know if it's got lead in it. Is this something that I could reliably test for, either by grinding or some other way? The blueprint on spark testing has a pattern for 12L14, but nothing specifically about what lead should do to sparks. A more general question: do you folks make any sort of food-preparation/serving items from mystery metal? I'm working through the Blacksmith's Primer and am making meat forks now. In fact, the first fork I made I cooled and immediately used to turn a steak on the grill Thanks Dave

I'm actually using one of his forges. I bought the dual-orifice one (the back is plugged with a firebrick when not needed) and so far so good. As said, he's clear that it's not professional-quality, but so far I've got no complaints, and have managed to forge-weld with it (only once so far...). Price was a factor for me, so $220 was perfect. There will no doubt come a time when I'll want to upgrade to one like what Diamondback makes (which look really slick, I have to say!), but for a beginning hobbiest, the Poor Boy forge does the trick.

Well that's about the best answer I could have heard! Thanks, Chris! Cheers Dave

So a friend of mine whose father is a mechanic got me this lovely coil spring. The problem is that it appears to have a coating (rubber? plastic?). How do I go about getting this stuff off? I melted a little bit of it, and it didn't smell so good, so I don't think that is a very good long term solution. I've got a bench grinder, but no angle grinder. Is my best bet to get myself an angle grinder and grind it all off? Or is this something that I really can just burn off with good ventilation? Thanks! Dave

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Hi everyone I have a grinder question. When I searched the forum for grinder, I found most people talking (and showing pictures of) largeish-looking things, and talking about prices in the hundreds of dollars. That, and making their own grinders and I know for a fact that I'm not that proficient with metalworking yet. I'm just starting out and am trying to get as educated as possible about the other tools I should have for my shop. Grinder offers on Craig's list tend to be much smaller grinders, such as this jobbie, and are quite a bit cheaper than a hundred bucks. To be honest, my first interest in a grinder is to spark-test stuff I get from the scrap yard for carbon content, and then I'd figure out what else to use it for as I went. Sharpening tools and whatnot, I guess. So here's the question: Is a bench grinder like the one posted above sufficient for basic forge work? Or am I going to be disappointed once I get it? If that sort of thing isn't good enough, what would be the minimum specs so to speak for a blacksmith grinder? Thanks in advance for any responses! -Dave

Wow, those look pretty sharp. We did leaves at a class I did at NESM and I turned a pair of them into cloak clasps. I haven't sewed them on yet (or lacquered them...or thought about doing either...), but it was a fun application of the leaf project. It's neat to be able to bring the metal to life like that.

Words to live by! Thanks :)

Hi All I've got a followup: I'm going to head over to the scrap dealer for the first time this week and I'm worried that I'll end up picking up something that's not safe. Other than galvanized, which I think I can recognize, what other things should I stay away from?

Hi Everyone! Brand spankin new blacksmith here - took a weekend class at Brookfield in CT and a 4 day class at NESM with Derek Glaser, and they were pretty amazing experiences. I picked up a HB 144# (I think) from a retired smith here in Maine, and the number stamped looks like 19870. It was pretty rusted (the Hay-Budden logo on the side is barely visible due to wear) but I think those are all the digits. I'm guessing this one is pretty old since it's only got 5 digits in the number. Anyone care to look up when it was born? Thanks! -Dave