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I Forge Iron

FlatLiner

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Posts posted by FlatLiner

  1. I think FIF has been good to resuscitate a dying skill. Yes you might see people who may not be the best in the trade but at least they are there willing to put their work out there for everyone to forever critique and criticize. I find it fascinating that there are a lot of "experts" who are willing to critique and criticize the contestants but in the same breath refuse to attempt to go on the show. Maybe it's because it's not worth their time, maybe they didn't even get through the application  process, maybe it's a little bit outside their boat house, maybe they don't like being in front of cameras, and maybe it's because they aren't willing to put their work on the line to forever be critiqued and criticized. Maybe before we bag on the FIF contestants we should do a lot of introspection on how, when, where, why, and who we have tried to spread, teach, and pass on our knowledge of proper blacksmithing or bladesmithing techniques and principles.

  2. Break your cable down into smaller strands while you are learning how to forge weld cable. That is what I did. I didn't use a v swage, I used the step between the cut plate and face to forge weld the cable. I only work it at a forge weld temperature until I know it it completely welded. It will go from soft and squishy to solid like any other round stock when it is welded. The thicker the cable the longer you want it to soak in the forge at forge weld heat to make sure it is at forge weld temperatures completely throughout the cable. Like others have said, weld the ends, heat the cable, untwist the cable to get flux all throughout the cable, retwist, reheat to forgeweld temperature and twist as tight as you can, reheat to forge weld temperature and continue to twist until you can't twist, reheat to forge weld temperature and start to forgeweld it by rotating it in the v swage the direction of the cable twist as you tap it lightly and quickly, reheat to forge weld temperature and continue the rotating and quick hits, eventually you will feel the cable going from soft and squishy to solid, the more solit it is the harder you can hit it. Work it at forge weld temperature until you are certain it is completely welded up. Rarely will you get it right in the first try.

  3. That is exactly what I was getting at Goods. I like the transition from the horn to the face on south German style anvils because you can radius the transition as little or as much as you want to give you different radiuses to work with.

  4. Interestingly No body Special, I happened upon a railroad knuckle in a gas station parking lot once. I asked about it and they gave it to me. Caotropheus, good to see you are alive and well with everything that is going on in your neck of the woods. I also have a hydraulic breaker bar or something similar. It is my go to anvil when using a heavy sledge hammer. You are right, if you miss the work, you better move your head fast, because it rebounds the missed hammer strike like no one's business.

  5. Rdennet, anvil rebound isn't as important as some people will tell you it is. There have been and still are many successful and talented blacksmiths and bladesmiths from around the world that use unhardened and non traditional anvils every day and they are turning out some amazing work. I am willing to bet that they do more pounding on hot steel in one day then some of the top posters on this website do in the same day. If someone has enough time to post on a message board, in multiple threads, in multiple categories, multiple times throughout the whole day and into the night, then it's pretty apparent that they do more keyboard pounding then they do pounding on hot steel. A simple search engine search for Brian Brazeal anvil will result in a mild steel plate anvil stood on edge with the edge ground into various fullers or a plate laid flat as a striking anvil, YouTube is an amazing source of information, the smiths on there are always willing to answer your questions if you reach out to them. There are smiths on this site that are running successful smithing operations and running successful YouTube channels, they don't usually post as much because they are busy smithing. There is a smith in southeast Asia that goes by the name of amazing kk daily that uses a simple unhardened post anvil. There is a successful bladesmith on a different website that has posted pictures of his setup that he prefers to use, and no it's not the 200 lb fisher anvil that sat untouched for five years, it's some blocks of unknown steel one laying length wise the other standing up on end. the important thing is to treat this sight like google or the library, you will find all kinds of information, some of it useful, some not, some good, some bad. And most important of all is to actually get out and do some pounding on hot steel on whatever you can get your hands on.

  6. I could be wrong,

    but I would think that physics shows a hardened ball bearing being dropped on a piece of red hot steel and not bouncing back up regardless of whether that red hot piece of steel is on top of a hardened anvil or on top of a piece of forklift tine, or on top of a sledge hammer head would show that as long  as the red hot steel is softer than the anvil it does not matter. If the hammer blow is going through the hot steel and the unhardened anvil is absorbing any of the blow or rebounding it, than the heated steel isn't hot enough. Of course a hardened anvil will out last a softer anvil over time. That is not up for debate. Since no one has ever really done a true scientific test taking all the parameters into account it is all up to conjecture, hearsay, and what we have been taught, etc. All the while being subjected to our own preconceived notions based on others conjecture, hearsay and what they were taught in a never ending loop of conjecture and hearsay.

    I believe that if a true scientific test were done the differences between a mild steel anvil the exact same weight and dimensions of a hardened steel anvil, placed on the exact same size and weighted base, on the exact same surface, using the exact same sized hammer, weight and strike,  from the same angle and height onto two identically dimensioned pieces of the same metalurically identical steel, heated up to the exact same temperature. Would result in a difference so negligible that the average human wouldn't be able to perceive the difference.

    At best it might just be a placebo based on misconceived beliefs that were based on old wives tales about the what, when, where, why, how's and merits of a hardened faceplate on a wrought iron anvil vs otherwise that has been passed down for countless generations of blacksmiths with no regard or ability to check the veracity of what they were taught.

    The hardened faceplate might have originally been placed on wrought iron anvils to lengthen the life of said anvil once steel was invented since steel is inherently harder than wrought iron and with the hardened steel faceplate came a side benefit of better rebound from a cold hammer or hardened steel ball that over time caused the belief that the anvil with a hardened steel faceplate moves hot steel better, when that wasn't the original intent thereof.

    But then again, I might be wrong and this has just been a mental exercise all done in fugility. My brain is about to explode.

  7. I agree with your first two paragraphs, you make some valid points. I have a diy post anvil made from two forklift tines welded back to back. It is relatively unhardened when compared to my swedish made sisco anvil. The post anvil definitely has more mass directly under the hammer and an errant hammer blow will mar the surface of it but it seems to move hot steel just as well as the sisco. I have a block anvil made from annealed s7 steel that seems to move steel as well as well as the sisco. My sisco has really bad edges and if I need "better" edges my annealed block of s7 or my fork lift tine anvils are my go to. 

    As for cast iron, it is too brittle and too soft to make a decent anvil, unless like the fisher anvils it has a fully welded on hardened face plate.

  8. I second Frosty's advice. I also have a 125 lb swedish anvil and it also out performs my bigger heavier anvils. It is my go to anvil. I do use my bigger heavier anvils for different things but my gocti anvil that gets the most use is the 125 lb Swedish.

  9. I had the same thought as you. I got a used ranch anvil that had been pretty beat up by cold horse shoeing. I really liked and still do like the way double horn anvils look. I really wanted and still want a double horn, but I used what I had and grew to like it a lot. It is still my main anvil. I found out that there is nothing I could do on a double horn that I couldn't in my beat up Sisco. Someday I will buy my double horn but until then my beat Sisco and beat up Columbian anvils(also an old ranch anvil) serve me just fine.

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