Dillion Brian Grant

As far as ringing, it sounds like a steel bell when you hit it, much higher pitched the farther away you get from the waist

 

Have you done a ring test and a rebound test?

Well i honesty dont know what to be listening for, and i dont have any steel ball bearing and cant afford to buy any, is there anything else I could use as a substitute?

Lol well up until this past Saturday it was getting hammered on for about 3 or 4 hours everyday for the last month and a half but y'all know how busy life vcan get and I'm in the process of building a new side blast forge

Hey y'all, this is the anvil an older gentleman who does blacksmithing was kind enough to give me and I intend to use it and use it well but I just kind of wanted to know your opinions about it btw sorry for so many pictures but I figured yall would ask for them so why not add them to begin with

Also, the anvil weighs 124.2#

The hardy hole is 3/4" ×7/8"

The pritchel is 1/2"

The horn is 8 1/2" from tip to the table/step

The table/step is 2 3/4" ×3 1/4"

The face is 14 3/4" ×3 3/4"

The waist at the most narrow section is 5"×4"

And the anvil is 10" tall

So what do y'all think honestly don't sugar coat anything

Actually Charles even tho most kids my age do play a lot of video games I do not really play them much at all really I just use a computer alot for school work and to research things that peak my interest but other than that I am mostly doing stuff outside, like working in the yard, working in my grandads garden(may as well call it a small field lol, and forging of course

Well, tbh since it started hurting so badly last hunting season I have been reading up on it, and from the symptoms I have found I have all of them heck,  my hands going numb right now 

Slag, that is the exact grip I use, my thumb wrapped around to almost touch the other fingers

And Thomas, as far as the computer geek injury u basically described me lol

Well I mean I had been using the 2 lb hammer for almost a year and it didn't tire me out at all so I wasn't to worried about the weight change

About a year of so ago I talked about it to my doctor because it was becoming almost unbearable to skin deer and he suggested I wear a wrist brace and I did that for about 5 or 6 months but it didn't help any,

And Jeremy, I am pretty active, I'm not an exercizaholic, but i do exercise at home fairly often so I stay in shape, and I don't have a death grip on my hammer I hold it just firmly enough that it doesn't fly out of my hand, and the hammer I have been using was a 2 lb cross pin but it broke at the handle a few days ago and my granddad bought me a new one that is a 2 1/2 lb cross pein

And like I said Glenn, when I talked to my doctor he suggested wearing a wrist brace when I wanting doing anything and after about 5 or 6 months it wasn't doing anything of any kind of help

But it may just be something I have to deal with I've dealt this long so eh I definitely wont let it stop me from doing something I love

So, for those that didn't know, I am 17 I just turned 17 on September 27th, anyway I know it may sound kind of pathetic but I am serious when I ask, what can I do to limit or hopefully stop pain in my left had, fingers, and wrist, it isn't just blacksmithing only its anything at all if I use my left hand within about 1-3 minutes the pain increases to the point that I can't hold anything in that hand for about 10 minutes and I am unable to open my fingers completely and I have had this problem for quite a few years so it isn't new but it obviously hinders me being able to forge efficiently because I can't hammer more than 5 or 6 swings before the pain is to intense. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and yes I am left handed

So I guess by the time that is done it will probably be about 2 and 3\8 pounds right?

Dude, they look good, i bet shes happy

Well thank you so much for the advice and if anybody is wondering, no I do not have a belt sander tho if love it if i did of course.. oh the things I could do lol, but yeah I honestly wanted to just get a new handle for the 2 lb hammer but when my granddad bought it I wasnt going to turn him down because that would havebeen really rude of course 

Also what edges need to be rounded exactly?

Ok so the swirls and the center point on the face needs to be sanded off?

Well y'all I finally did it, the day before yesterday I swung and when it hit the metal the handle sealed just below the head, the hammer was a 2 lb cross pein with a wooden handle.

Well I told my granddad about it and he ended up buying me a 2.5 lb kobalt cross pein with a fiberglass handle it's nice but I have to ask this, there is a slight point on the face and I wanted to know if it will be an issue? And will the round circles be an issue as well?

18 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

I'm not sure how you are using the terms so:

For heat treating:hardening you would like as even a heat as you can get on your piece *and* a reducing atmosphere so as to not mess up the surface so you have less work to do on the hardened piece.

For heat treating: drawing the temper you don't need the reducing atmosphere as the piece should not get hot enough to scale; you do need to control the temperature VERY CAREFULLY which is why drawing the temper is often done in an oven.  

When drawing the temper is done outside an oven it's often done with a propane torch or a hot bar or a set of tempering tongs to create a differential temper.

I was talking about the first step for heat treating (hardening) 

As for tempering I usually use an oven

3 minutes ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

For charcol, keeping the fire size minimal ( you can only hand forge about 6" at a time) just enugh air and shutting the air down between heats. A side blast seems to work best for this, a trench 4" wide, 4" deep with the sides taperd out to about 8" works well, a brick on each side and a couple bricks on top is about as effecent as one can get, it makes a little furnace with a cases from each side, turn the brick on edge so you have a 4x4 opening, the brick can be pulled away and reconfigured to accommodate different shaped stock. I find a belows or hand pump to be best, as one dosnt need white heat to get to forging temp and I don't get distracted and burn up stock

This is a pic,of my forge, it is a converted homemade coal forge that originally had a hand,crank blower but it was to,unstable so I substituted a hair dryer 

Sadly it isn't a side blast forge bit it works fairly well at least

0801171530.mp4

Ohhhh ok so you were meaning to create a reducing atmosphere, 

So not most efficient but very effective for heat treat, so my best bet to conserve charcoal is to not use the pipe for regular forging is that correct?

First off what do you mean scavenge?

And secondly so do you think it would be the most efficient thing to do?

Hello everybody, I use a charcoal forge (yes real homemade charcoal that I made myself not that store bought stuff)

And I have heard quite a bit of talk about using a pipe for a more even heat treatment.  The way the method works is you put the steel pipe in the forge and let the forge heat the pipe up, then you put the knife or other tool your intending to heat treat inside the pipe so that the heat from the pipe heats the metal.

Now what I was wondering is would it be efficient to use this for regular forging to be able to heat specific sections more easily?

Hello everybody, first off I have been browsing this website for a long time now, but this is my first time posting anything, what I am trying to figure out is quite a few things so just stick with me please

First off can anybody tell me what the pros and cons are of a square body forge that has the burners going down vertically

And what are the pros and cons of a round/ cylinder forge that has the burner/burners set at an angel so that the flame swirls around the forge instead of being in just one spot on the forge.

what are the main importance differences of both of these forges when knife making is concerned.

How many burners is needed to be able to make Damascus or forge welding to be more sure fire instead of just a matter of luck.

And if I have multiple burners then is it better to have a single control set up so that all of the burners work together or is it better to have a multi control setup so that they work independently.

 Y'all all know how tight money is so really I would prefer only having one forge that can be used for 

Regular forging
Forge welding Damascus
metal casting

So can you give me some ideas please and thank u.

Dillion

Hello everybody, first off I have been browsing this website for a long time now, but this is my first time posting anything, what I am trying to figure out is quite a few things so just stick with me please

First off can anybody tell me what the pros and cons are of a square body forge that has the burners going down vertically

And what are the pros and cons of a round/ cylinder forge that has the burner/burners set at an angel so that the flame swirls around the forge instead of being in just one spot on the forge.

what are the main importance differences of both of these forges when knife making is concerned.

How many burners is needed to be able to make Damascus or forge welding to be more sure fire instead of just a matter of luck.

And if I have multiple burners then is it better to have a single control set up so that all of the burners work together or is it better to have a multi control setup so that they work independently.

 Y'all all know how tight money is so really I would prefer only having one forge that can be used for 

Regular forging
Forge welding Damascus
metal casting

So can you give me some ideas please and thank u.

Dillion