evfreek

Hi. I bought a brazing torch set and found that the valves are a little sticky. It is a National 3A torch. What do you recommend for greasing the valves to free them up? I would be tempted to use Black Swan, but this might not be safe. The welding supply sells Krytox, which is definitely oxygen safe, but this is $81 for a 2 oz tub (enough for hundreds of torches). Dupont 111 might be OK, but it is not recommended for liquid oxygen service. Somebody suggested silicone high vacuum grease. I suspect that any of the non-petroleum based greases should be OK for low pressure oxy service, but its best to be safe.

Hi Fellas. Thanks very much for the recommendations. I will buy them!

Hi. I was interested in looking at the Bob Patrick forge welding video, but it looks kinda pricey at Centaur and our blacksmith association library does not have it. Then, I noticed that there are some demo DVD's on UMBA's www site which feature Bob Patrick demo's. Anybody familiar with these? How are they?

Hi Alan. Yep, I know exactly who you are talking about. I recall that his name is Bernie Swetz, and, like you (and I), is also a CBA member. He shows up with a bunch of those old tools at the spring conference. By the way, are you going to the next one? I don't know if he is a smith, since sometimes the tools he advertises on craigslist are misnamed. Perhaps he makes a living at this work, and it might be nice to cut him a little slack. I am certain that he meets a lot of "tire-kickers" through craigslist. Or, on the list, they are called "flakes." I ran into him at Petaluma, and the anvils were priced kind of high, but maybe not so high as on craigslist. My striking partner bought a farriers anvil that was carried up from Southern California (lower prices down there). It was a farrier's anvil, and I would not pay even half what he did. But he has a real anvil now and I don't. It is hard to see just how bad your anvil is without looking at all the edges. The one that is most visible in the photo is indeed bad. My feeling is that there must be at least one good edge somewhere on the anvil face, with a radius of no more than 3/16 of an inch. This is kind of like a pencil. Some people like a sharper edge somewhere, but I find that this just risks cold shuts, especially if a beginner is forging. A strong argument can be made for a 1/16 radius if you like to forge hammer wedges. Or, you can just spend an extra few minutes with a chisel and file. If I were you, I would try using that anvil as is, and then find out what you can't do that you can on a better anvil. For example, I have a friend who has a 400 lb. anvil with very crisp sharp edges. I found out that I mess up and get cold shuts especially if I am really wailing away (which is tempting, on an anvil of that size). I convinced him to take an angle grinder to just an inch or so of that sharp edge, and our results improved tremendously. Also, worked more efficiently, since we could just hammer away with a 12 lb sledge. As for forging that anvil top, I would be very careful hitting any forge weld in a shearing direction at forging heat. When Scott teaches you how to do a forge weld, take a quick heat up to orange, and hit your weld real hard right at the seam. I just did this last weekend, and I would have cried if I popped the face of an anvil as nice as the one in the above photo. I am not a good enough forge welder to work any of my welds, especially cross-wise, at much below a welding heat. Too risky.

Hi Alan. Make drift and tongs first. More "bang for the buck." But, sometimes I think that even tongs don't give that much bang for the buck. Tongs are richer in techniques training. Like leaves. In fact, I was just thinking that tongs are like leaves with a hole and alignment. To make a leaf, you have to point, set down, fuller, cut, draw and bend. Almost the same for tongs, except that there is that matter about the hole and rivet and upsetting. Also, the drawing down is much more work. How about just making the jaws? Scott is a great forge weldor (uses it a lot), and he can show you a really easy way of setting a rod as a rivet without a header or bolster. Then you won't have to do all that drawing. The hammer requires some upsetting and fullering. The main operation is punching the eye. Maybe drill two holes with that nice post drill at the smithy, then slit and drift. Fuller sides. Heat treat. Not as much basic technique, but a lot harder, heavier, and costly screw-ups. The hammer will be worth about half what the tongs are worth to you. And, the technique development will be much less (IMHO-only).

Hi Alan. When are you planning to be at Ardenwood Forge. I was planning to drop by this weekend. I saw Scott do an impressive demo on upsetting a thin edge (perhaps even on that sword you photographed) that was dinged accidentally. He showed ways of violating the oft-quoted 5 to 1 rule or 3 to 1 rule, illustrating it on a piece of 2x1/8 bar.

Hi. I have a question about wire wheel safety. I have read about many scary incidents involving out of control wire wheels, then I noticed some recommendations about the Harbor Freight 7" variable speed sander/polisher for using with wire wheels. The RPM is limited to 300-3000, which is lower than similar angle grinders, so it is reported to be more controllable. The sander does not have a guard, however. How dangerous is this? Is there any recommendation for a makeshift guard? It would seem for a radial (not cup) wire wheel, a guard would offer a lot of protection against flying wires, but it would not have to be as stout as a guard for a grinding wheel.