Reid Neilsen

20 mule team borax - available in your local Wally-world (my cutsey nickname for Wal-Mart).

Another thing to consider is that, the example you showed is used to represent the armor of the future emperor of rome(Octavian/Augustus). Most scale armor of the period is believed to have been much more rough than that. The individual pieces probably being made from sheet iron or bronze or orialchum(not sure on spelling? the Roman version of brass). Many archaeological examples aare shaped with little punches and chisels to decorate them. Often there is NO decoration and they are rather "crude" in appearance. I'd go with your idea of annealing the pieces and stamping them to shape with a die if you want one just like the photo though. Here is an article from some very knowledgable folks that may be of help: Legio XX Scale Armor (Dont be fooled by the Welcome to LARP.COM, your home for Live Action Roleplaying address - these guys really know Roman stuff and are quite accurate) :p

Some people are just born metal-monkeys:D

It might take waaaaay too long, but have you tried wire brishing it off with a very aggressive wire wheel on an angle grinder? Just a thought.

Thank you for the advice on the subject. After posting that, I am feeling a little better about the whole thing. I can freak myself out about things like this! As for the 8 " thing, I couldnt agree more, I don't have a problem getting it to draw because I always have good influent airflow into the shop. It is drafty and I often keep door or window cracked. In the summer I just jeep the big bay doors open. If I had it to do over again though, I'd go with a bigger chimney. The 8" is definitely at the lower limit of what seems to work. I, not knowing better, went with it because it was the size that my forge hood attached to and I thought that was big enough. (D'oh!) Thankfully I have never had a problem with it drawing. I also have no screening or spark arrestor on the cap (I figured that it was not as necessary as it would be on a wood stove chimney and would just clog more easily with the coal soot). I just need to knock out that residue pretty frequently and I think I probably should not have much to worry about. This is just all new stuff to me - thanks for the advice.

As they say - "Your lungs are your life". I think many people do not take this one seriously enough. Be careful what you breathe in - coal smoke, grinding residue, welding fumes, chemicals, etc. it wil dramatically shorten your life. A $30 respirator and adequate ventilation will make you live longer. I know several people who have worked around coal/metals their whole lives and ended up dying of lung cancer or job related illnesses - one was a miner and the other a machinist. Neither of them were smokers... both died before 65...

Not sure if this belongs here or in the "Forges" section of this forum, but here goes: I am totally paranoid about chimney fires:o Help! I am curently using an 8" triple-wall chimney system that extends three feet above the roof line(all metal roof with 2x4 rafters/tresses) and comes out right about at the ridge line of the roof(just to the edge of it). The chinmey from the ceiling box to the cap is only about seven feet long. It claims to be a "all-fuel" type chimney and is rated for temps in excess of 2800 degrees for very short stretches. I think I am ok, in that I made sure when I installed it, that there is no combustible surfaces within 6 to 10 inches of the chimney itself(no studs, beams, insulation, etc.) I just use sinlge wall stovepipe to run from the forge hood to the ceiling box. This chimney makes a LOT of noise, small clinks, ticks, etc.(kind of sounds like crackeling:confused:) when in use and it just scares the heck out of me! I can only assume it is the sheet metal expanding and contracting or something under changing temps. It is in an un-attached garage type workshop that is single story. Coal residue is very thick and I clean it regularly with a brush. Having not had lot of experince in chimney building I often wonder is there is a flaw which could cost me my shop. I also installed two 12" attic vents at either end of the attic space - to allow adequate ventilation in the space, but the silly thing makes me nervous - so nervous in fact, that I have actually taken down plywood ceiling panels when it was making noise one night just to see if there was soemthing on fire up there above the ceiling. Of course there wasn't and it seemed nice and cool up ther due to the attic vents. PS I have a fire extingusher on hand next to the forge, but that does me no good if soemthing has caught fire due to heat between the ceiling and the roof. Am I too paranoid? What are your thoughts? Any advice on the subject?

Hehe - I am rather amused by the whole anvil shooting thing, but I just hope that they had the good sense to use compeltely junk anvils!:D

I just thought I'd throw this in: Not all hardie tools need be made from carbon steels. I have a set of swedges I made a few years ago that are made from heavy mild steel and they have held up nicely They will certainly last longer the harder they are. Of course, I also have a big anvil with a 1" hardie hole and therefore a pretty thick shank...I dont think Id trust a 1/2 " shank in mild steel at all though. I dont know how well it would hold up under any use. Who knows?

I'd be more inclined to just make tools that replace the sharp edges, like a anvil "block" with a shank that fits in the hardie hole, etc. These can save you the trouble of trying to refnish. You can make sharp shoulders on a block as well as you can on the edge of the anvil.

As Hoffman mentioned above: If the stuff is really heavy... If you are shipping UPS Freight or a private carrier, you can see if the buyer has the ability to take it off a loading dock (ie, with a loader, tractor or forklift) If so, you can shrinkwrap it to a pallet and ship it to someplace that can accept delivery - like a vendor, store, farm and fleet store, farm co-op, etc. The buyer can make these arrangements with their guy to accept delivery and when it comes in (for a small fee probably) they can have it ready for him to pick it up. I have had anvils shipped to me this way before. Only pain in the neck part is that you are dealing with a thrid party.

That is really quite nice man! Congrats!

My one piece of advice is the make sure you keep adequate ventilation to all parts of the shop. Your lungs will thank you and you will live longer:)

That really stinks about you injury - Bummer man - Sorry! Every time I have ever tried forging with my left hand it has been a excercise in futility. It was good for a laugh - I'll give it that!

I run a professional forge part time and I burn almost exclusively coal. I was lucky enough to find a guy not too far from me that sells slack coal by the ton. I don't have a big truck, so I pay a landscaping company with a dump triuck to haul me a few tons at a time. I pay about $100/ton for the coal and about $75 for the hauling. I usually get about 3 tons(6400 lbs last time) This usually lasts me the better part of a year. It isnt the best quality, but it burns hot, if not very clean. As far as my daily usage, I probably burn a couple of coal hod's worth at least a day, but I don't do a whole lot of welding or making pattern welded blades or anything like that. I am pretty conservative with my fuel and try to always shut off the blower when not heating, use and re-use as much as possible until it is tuly ash and no longer useable etc.

Brian, Those are very nice. Nice step by step as well. BTW for whoever asked about doing them out of mild steel instead, I thought I'd add this: If you start with heavier stock you would be fine, but I find tongs this heavy rather unwieldy (especially when handling something as heavy as tool heads or hammers) I may just have to copy these so I'll have a pair in my shop:) Thanks again!

All excellent points in this thread. I worked at a living history museum for a while and people often used to ask this question. We had a set of taps and dies that were hand made that we would show people. As stated before, the real problem was that once you had a nut and bolt made by a smith, you would not be able to go to a smith in another place and have him make you a perfectly matching mate(with threads that matched exactly) if a part broke or was lost. Often the nuts were square(because it is easier - less labor) and had very coarse threads. I often used to describe it to people this way: These types of jobs were the bread a butter of most smiths thoughout the 19th century. By this point, the smith had become much more of a repair man and maker of various replacement parts than a true manufacturer. I have read in several sources that the smith gradually became relagated to fix-it work and farrier work as time went on if they wanted to stay in business. You can look at the ledgers and work logs of smiths from the 1600's to the 1900's and see this trend with the proliferation of the industrial revolution.

Pressure-welding 101: 1. Go to your local grocery store and get a box of plain old "20 Mule Team Borax" 2. Build your fire so that as little oxygen gets to it as possible - you know how when you build a forge fire and it sort of "hollows" out after a while(so it is rather like an oven). 3. Prepare your pieces to weld(so that they overlap correctly to fuse) This is often achieved by shaping the ends that will lap or connect such that they overlap from thick to thin(often at an angle). Look up "scarfing" or "preparing the weld" for common methods. Heat the ends to be welded up to a nice orange/yellow heat. At this point put a generous coating of powdered borax on all surfaces that will be welded and return them to the forge.(it will melt to a liquid) 4.Get those pieces just about as hot as they will get before they burn. Ie, when sparks are flying out of the metal, it is TOO hot, you are just destroying the metal - but try to get it ALMOST to that point in terms of heat - it will be almost white in color(bright bright yellow!) It is much harder to weld properly at temperatures lower than that. 5. Pull both pieces out - put them DIRECTLY on the anvil overlapping and strike them with 1-3 solid, but not too hard blows. 6. Finish forging the weld(it has stuck by this point, but you will want to finish forging it cleanly to make it "purdy"). 7. Do this 10,000 times and you will be a comptent forge welder. A good way to practice is making "chain"(or even just indivual links or closed rings) out of 3/8" roundstock. I did a couple hundred feet of chain before I was consistent enough to make a chain that I would trust my life with.

I did a set of reproduction Roman loica segmentata for giggles once. Here is the site that had all the info: Legio XX Lorica Segmentata Did the whole project cold. I have met some SCA folks who do 90% cold work in their reproductions. Whats the fun in that??? No chance of gettin' the snot burned out of you? LOL

Huzzah! And another one is hooked...:p

I couldn't agree more. It will only lead to frustration. Make a few knives and master some techniques - then move on the big mamba-jambas. They will frustrate you like you wouldn't belive! They present a whole new range of problems for the smith that knives do not. Master knives then try some swords. ;)

When is the last time Scotsmen went on a killing rampage with swords? 1745? Look what happened there! That ended badly. I know what it is, somebody in parliament watched Braveheart with Mel Gibson and said "Holy mole! We dont want them doing that again!"

The word Gewehr means "rifle" in German(perhaps there is a waffenfabrik/manufacturer called Gewehr in the present day? Not sure) - Here is some useless trivia though:D: Mauser was the designer of the Gewehr 98(the rifle I believe this bayonet goes to, the "Model 1898"). The Karibininer is one model - it was the one used primarily by weapon crews, cavalry, Sto

Thats so awesome - congrats!

I just use 20 Mule Team Borax. Thats all.:o