SEMO forge

thank you for the advice, ill go ahead and wait as Steve said but would be interested in using he tong method some time 

so would you recommend it to use a torch to try to draw out the temper? ive got a blade of 1095 that is 14.75 overall and wont be able to temper it in an oven right away. ive seen people grind or use a disc to scratch a small bit off the edge and wait until they see a straw color using the torch and quench it then when they get that color.

it does not have a pritchel hole 

the science fair project was very helpful

i was working for a man at my church yesterday and found this anvil, can you guys help me date it at all? it feels like mine in weight (about 115lbs) the farm was bought in the 1880s and i don't know when the anvil was bought (with the farm or after)

thank you very much once again 

thanks again, but what about that round piece that was with it ( down to the right) ive never seen one or heard of people using them. for all i know it was just something my papa put on it and forgot about for 10 years 

thank you, ive read never to grind on the anvil but people still do it and i wasnt really sure how to go about it. the face analogy really got the point across 

here is the picture, i tried to make it smaller but if it didn't work i apologize 

This anvil has been sitting on my Papa's back porch for as long as i can remember and he got it from a friend and who knows where he got it. It's about 115 lbs and not in bad shape from what i can tell, but the table is pretty torn up. I've seen people cut lines in their hammers for texture but never an anvil and that is what it looks like here. how should i go about cleaning it up? A friend of mine said to use an angle grinder, and my teacher has put his anvils to his surface grinder, i don't want to ruin the anvil by overheating and it is really only the table that is bad. Also, What is the round cup like thing? ive never seen one and it was with the anvil so im lost on that one.

I may have not worded this right previously, what exactly does a short soak time mean?

is there a way to relocate this post to the heat treating thread? if so ill gladly do it 

It has been relocated

Forgive me, im still getting used to the site and realize this is the wrong thread to be asking heat treating questions. i saw a previous post where you said "1095 likes a short soak time before the quench" im a little confused what exactly you mean by a short soak time, and will this be any significance to me since  i will not be forging the steel.

I've just gotten a bar of 1095 and plan on making several medium to large knives from it. Any input on hings like heat treating? I've heard that 1095 can be finicky with somethings but everyone says different things about different steel. I can't forge yet so I've just been doing stock removal.

thank you all, I was trying to over complicate things with welding the firepot to the bottom, I just did't like the idea of the lip getting in the way of extra fuel. the more I think about it the more I realize that it really won matter that much. I do have a few questions still. what are clinkers and what is the need for a clinker breaker? I've been looking at the firepot design in the complete bladesmith by Jim Hrisoulas and i didn't see that in it. is it needed?

Would using a brake drum style firepot work for this? Possibly cutting a whole in the table and then welding the brake drum to the bottom side? 

I've been interested in black smithing for a while now and my teacher is going to let me make a forge as an in class project. From scrolling through the forums and looking through websites that people mention I think I've found a design i like. If anyone has made a forge like this or has any input on it I would greatly appreciate it. One question i have is how thick should the table top be? 1/4? 3/8? also how big should the firepot be? This is just some image I pulled off of google. 

I might try to work it into a pommel or guard, thanks for the input 

I found a piece of steel in my grandfathers basement, I’m currently making a file knife for my father and compared the sparks of the file and mystery steel and it appears it could be close to 1045 from some charts I’ve seen, could I get a second opinion on wether to use it for a knife or not? I’ve never tried spark testing so I could be completely wrong here