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I Forge Iron

Halphwit

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  1. Awesome tongs dude! Way better than my first set. 2 bottles of prop though, ouch! Just curious, how fast do you burn through a tank? I can usually get about 7hrs out of one but I only have a single burner. I'm so frickin jealous of y'all. I was looking forward to going to that dang demo for a month until my boss told me a had to work. Maybe next year
  2. Awesome setup man! It's taken me close to 3 years to get even close to that far along. But I have built a 2x72 and love it. If you build one, you'll regret not doing it sooner. "Screw a bench grinder! lol". I built my first anvil stand almost identical to that(I'll try and post a pic) and it works great. That work bench though! That thing looks phenomenally sturdy and well built but please get it dirty so I can feel better about mine lol. Great design! I would definitely modify that forge to suite your needs(which I'm guessing is knife making?) Edit- just read the first paragraph, I'm stupid lol I too am in the Houston area(southwest), there actually seems to be quite a few amateur blacksmiths in this area. If you haven't already, check out the HABA-Houston area blacksmith association. I joined up last Sept and have really been and learning a lot. Anyways, forge on brother!!! PS is that a bc rich behind the sander??? Sure would be cool to meet another metal head smith
  3. Looks good so far. Looks a lot better than my first. I don't however see where you intend to put your burner. If I'm getting this correctly, it's a 5" ID pipe 10" long, with 1" wool all the way around. So it's roughly a 3"x10" hole? Do you have a specific intended purpose for this forge? Only reason I'm asking is because I'm running into the issue of not being able to fit larger things into my forge and when I do, I have to do relief bends. One to get it in the forge then another to work whatever section needs it and repeat. It's definitely doable but kind of annoying.
  4. Thanks y'all. I haven't found the gallery yet. Was gonna do a little progression from start to what I'm working with now.
  5. Hello everybody, just stopping by for my introduction after posting last week asking for help with anvil identification. Didn't mean to be rude but like your typical halphwit I rarely read stuff before jumping in. Anywho, I've loved the idea of manipulating steel since I was a little guy, watching my dad shooting sparks across the garage with a grinder or what not or telling me not to look at the light while he welded. I learned how to weld somewhat in a vocational school back home and that just kindled the fire of me wanting to start working metal. I've been an Ironworker/rigger/crane operator for the last 12ish years so its kinda ingrained in me to work steel. It wasn't until a few years back that I finally was in a position to actual start building a small shop in my garage. I started small with just stock removal knives. Literally just a hack saw, file, and sand paper for my first couple. Then I built a small heat treat forge, kinda coffee can style but with a Christmas popcorn can instead. I then started getting very interested in Damascus because of some darn youtube vids lol. OMG! So I went straight to my little forge, fired it all the way up and tried to weld some pieces of mild steel together. I beat them together on a 10# sledge head(turned on end) with a little HF 2# drilling hammer. Needless to say they fell apart with a giant gap of disappointment between them. Since then I've rebuilt my forge, built an anvil out of scrap, built a 2x72 grinder, and just last week bought a awesome anvil on Craigslist. Oh and a few months back I joined the HABA(Houston area blacksmith association) and have been learning tons from some very knowledgeable people and have made a couple friends. I'm here to learn and possibly share my limited experience with others. Also just show others what been up to making/building/forging
  6. Yeah the guy I bought it from was thinking it was from the military but he wasn't sure. He said the company he works for(where he got it) buys up machinery off ships, refurbishes and then sells for profit. But he was saying a some of the stuff they get comes from naval ships so there could be something to that. It had a light grayish paint(kind of hard to see in the pics) that isn't a uncommon color in the ship yards back home(Norfolk,VA). It was almost like an epoxy paint judging on the thickness, actually thick enough to suppress the ring which is why I originally was concerned with it being cast iron. I was wire wheeling on it for a good 25 minutes before it dawned on me... Possibly military/navy... Possibly old... FML!!! I might have just contaminated my entire garage with lead paint dust along with poisoning my self! So I'm waiting until I get a lead paint test kit before I play with it any more or even go in my garage for that matter.
  7. Me too!!! I'm so happy I didn't waste my money on a pos. But honestly for what I paid, even if it was cast iron, I would've beat on it until there was nothing left lol. And for anyone else that reads this tomorrow or year's down the line trying to find out if these are worth buying, I say yes. It's solid steel with a hardened face as far as I can tell. At 192# I paid 600$ and I feel like I got a great deal especially for the condition it's in. However I would like to know a little more about them. Where they're from(inside the US) and possibly how old they might be. Maybe someone will stop by and enlighten us all.
  8. Ok, I'm thinking this thing has got to be steel. I finally put it on its stand and it's ringing like a bell. I am friggin stoked. I'll try and post a video 20170310_183533.mp4
  9. Not necessarily, unless I've been miss lead a lot of those had a hardened steel plate forge welded to the striking surface and I believe that make them real anvils.
  10. I thought it was "xxx slap opportunity" you've always got to be ready. Wait what forum is this? lol
  11. Haha I was thinking more like the old Batman and Robin tv show. I hit it with a wire wheel last night so it should be pretty clean for the test I really appreciate all of y'alls input on the topic, thank you. I'll try and make a video on it later tonight of the bearing and hit it with a hammer a few times. I'll post it on here(if possible) or just pit it on YouTube and let y'all be the judges. Thanks again
  12. Alright I found a approx 1/4" ball bearing in a paint marker and a marble in a paint can. I tested them both here at work on some mild steel just to see if they were similar in rebound and they're not even close. The marble gets somewhere in the 80% range on mild steel so I doubt that will give an accurate test results. I'm afraid that the tiny ball bearing I have will bee too small and light to be accurate but we'll see when I get home. I work at a refinery, anything I could look for in the trash that might contain a ball bearing that size? Or even around the house? I could order some on Amazon but I'm impatient and cheap so... lol I also swear I had a ball from a rock crusher I might be able to find when I get home. Wonder how that'd perform... As far as the ring... It definitely has more of a TINK with a fading ring resonating from the horn which, when struck has loud ring so that might be 2 points for possibly cast steel(fingers still crossed).
  13. I'm in the US, the Houston area. So not far at all from Mexico at all. Some would argue we live in North Mexico lol. I think it's solid cast because I can't find any evidence of a face plate but that's not a definite. I was beating on it fairly hard last night with a medium hardened hammer and didn't dent it that I could tell so fingers are crossed for steel. The edges however aren't dressed yet and my son took a ball peen to it and left a small dent in the sharp edge. I would think hardened steel would chip off but I'd rather not test it and put a giant chip in it. I'm going to dress the edges this weekend sometime so I'm hoping to get a glimpse of what material it is, assuming there is a big enough difference between cast iron/steel in a spark test. I'll also try to make a little rebound jig to test that out as well
  14. Just bought an anvil and can't find a whole lot about it online. The only identifying marks are "USA" and "IAF". Some say it's just an ASO but i don't know and no one seems sure. The USA mark is protruding out of the rear foot and the IAF is stamped in the front. Check the pics, it's in great shape, has decent rebound, rings ok-ish, and is much better than the welded together scrap i used to use. And just for shiggles, what's the most you'd pay for it?(pretty sure I over paid)
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