Erik(Gray Man Forge)

Hi, all. I don' know how many of you have face book but Michael J Neel just started a group called Las Vegas metal smiths. Active and the are looking to do meet ups. If you're interested we would love to have you.

Open flame is fine and all and you can get very beatiful colors, but I have a couple questions: I know that when people temper knives they often use a kitchen oven, there the metal turns different colors as the rest rises, yet, because of the controlled heat, it is a consistent color throughout the peice, would I be safe to assume this is the same for copper? What are all the colors copper can turn to because of heat? 

I am trying to make a chart for copper coloring via controlled heat and time, just like those made for tempering steel so any info would be awsome!

Scrap pile huh? Darn. Alright, thanks for taking a look guys and saving me some time.

This has been split off and put in its own topic.

Hi all. I'm new at blacksmithing so I don't know how to identify anvils by style. I was wondering if you could help me identify one:

It is only about a foot long and I didn't see any markings. 

Also is squared sides or rounded sides more useful in an anvil?

On the topic of tongs from a while back.

If you are a beginner and looking for some tongs, an alternative to vice grips are Twist Tongs. Really easy to make and a lot of tutorials on youtube. They work better to hold flat stock than my other tongs. And it only took me 15 minutes to do.

Take 2 peices flat stock with the same width (width depends on you and what you have), and cut them both to be around 12 inches. Clamp the flat stock togethe with a c clamp to make sure they'e even. From the end mark 2 inches from the end with a center punch then drill a hole a little bigger than your rivet( if you can't get an exact size just roll the drill bit around to open the hole some). Peen you rivit but make sure not to go too tight.

Put the tongs in your forge and heat up to forging temp. When ready take it out and clamp it to a bench vise so the rivit is about 1/4 inch above the jaws, use a Cresent wrench and (putting the wrench on the rivit) twist 90 degrees.

If the rivit breaks like mine did the first time, just resize the hole and rerivit. You can also adjust the mouth of the tongs to different shapes for what you are forging.

I made sure to say "about" for all the measurements except for the twist so you can expirement. 

What time in the mornings are you thinking?

Hendertucky.

I have all sorts of backyard equipment. To name a few: I have a home made forge that I'm always looking to improve, cross peens, homemade twist tongs (that actually work better than other tongs I've used), i have belt sanders and a mill that i mainly use as a drill press. My dad used to be an iron worker so I have plenty of steel at hand. I' interested in all sorts of smithing: blacksmithing in general, bladesmithing, and even gray smithing: such as mokume gane and the like.

Hi yall. I'm 18 and new to blacksmithing. I have been only been forging for about a month now. All that I know is mostly self taught or learned from reading books by JPH, Wayne Goddard, this forum and other Internet research. I was wondering if you guys had a planned meeting day somewhere in the near future.