Jon Kerr

I know some people do rig up controllers.... JHCC did one.... but if I remember rightly the components needed are expensive unless you can find one somewhere. A variac........ whatever that is.

I don't know many (any!) other blacksmiths here except Neal unfortunately. Neal has given me a little forge welding help but on his propane forge which would seem to be a bit different. Maybe Owen / Basher might be able to give me some quick coke forge welding tips during course in April if theres time.

Awesome- thanks for the clarification Frosty, and thanks dickb for the testing method. I'll do exactly as you say. Thanks again!

Thanks all of you! I shouldn't really be attempting a blade yet.... I'm booked onto an Owen Bush (Basher on IFI) course in April which I'm super excited about, during which I'll learn how to do things properly I'm sure. I blame Neal entirely. He gave me the leaf spring, and I couldnt wait to use it for something.

Thanks for the reply Frosty... unfortunately I think I'm being dim so not sure quite what you mean. Wont be tolerant or being restricted? or won't be damaged? I understand both these points but they would seem to contradict each other in terms of what to do- unless I'm misunderstanding? Is overheating the only likely issue that could cause damage? If I compare the temperature of the motor in restricted and air-bleeding setups I might be able to get an idea what effect its having?

Thanks for the offer John! I have a blade course booked with Owen Bush in April so my tuition budget has currently run out.... but if I can scrape some money together for a visit to you in Devon later in the year I will do. In the mean time I'll have to try and bumble through on my own! Cheers,

I'd like to gift it to my brother and sister in law..... They will only use it for general kitchen use- vegetables etc. Neil- it's quite thick-4mm at the spine (its made from your leaf spring!) The colours definitely ran back to blue but I just wonder what the effect of not "soaking" for a longer temper might be? Why is it ok to temper a punch or chisel for a matter of seconds, but a knife needs 3 hrs?

Thanks guys. Wish I could get on one of those courses Shabumi! Thanks for the reassurance that coke will work. I expected as much and it had to be my technique. I will have a go with charcoal though also just as a test! Thanks.

Hi guys, Ive just bought a new blower and its fantastic... way more powerful that my last one and I'm sure its going to solve many of my issues. Question is- how can you tell if a blower is tolerant of being restricted/choked without any bleed off for excess air? If I plumb it in without a T Piece, this blower is almost silent which is percfect, except its so powerful that the valve is only 20% open. How do I know if I'm damaging the blower operating this way? If I fit a T piece it still works great but roars like a jet engine!

Finished my first knife..... first ever handle too. I dont think I've heat treated it properly. I quenched it (in oil) but then questioned my memory regarding tempering (I have done it before in kitchen oven) and ended up trying to do it in the fire by heating the spine (using a kind of residual heat method like for punches and chisels). This actually went too far and the blade turned purple, but a file still seems to skate so I sharped it up. Now that I've come back in and read up again I remember thay knifes are usually tempered for a few hours. Is it likely that my knife is glass hard in the middle? Will it be dangerous? If so I can remove it from the handle and do it again properly. Any tips on steps welcome. (Its leaf spring).

Hi all, I've found various topics discussing bits of this but no definitive answer.... Can anyone comment on the benefits of different solid fuels specifically for forge welding? I am having troubke forge welding with coke and have seen mention that coke is actually not ideal for forge welding. Might I have more success using charcoal just for welding? I have heard of other blacksmiths have special coal just for welding use..... is that true? Any tips from anyone else who uses coke?

Hi all, Can anyone recommend any books, websites, articles etc about saxon or "viking" blacksmithing? Id like to learn more about exactly what tools and techniques were used in these periods.

Hi there Daniele- welcome to the forum. I'm based in Benfleet, Essex, UK, so not far from you. I started Blacksmithing around 2 years ago, in a similar position to yourself in terms of looking for training and courses etc. Since then I'm now lucky to be set up with a dedicated indoor workshop/forge in my garden. You're welcome to visit any time if you feel like a trip to Essex. As for courses/training, its generally very expensive in the UK. Experience days charge a premium price. I've now done a couple of these, and I'm not sure I wholly recommend them..... the problem is they main clientelle are people are arent serious, who just want a fun day and to get a trinket that they can say they made at the end. They're usually not looking to properly teach you blacksmithing skills for later use. If I had my time/money to spend again, I'd personally visit the Copper Elf/Iron Dwarf at Kettering. Iron Dwarf is a member of this forum. The Copper Elf is his friend and colleague and its the elf who does the teaching classes. His prices are far more reasonable than most, and after one quick chat with him I can tell he'd be a much better teacher than most also. He's set up more for teaching than experience days but its probably a happy medium to see if you really like it. http://www.copperelf.co.uk/ If you're serious I would ask the elf for a beginners toolmaking class and try to come away the day with some punches, chisels and maybe even a basic pair of tongs. This will massively help you get started. Further to that, there are a series of good value 3 day course at Hereford College. This is probably the biggest UK blacksmithing college/university. You actually get a qualification at the end also. I'm looking to take this myself sometime soon. I wish I'd known about this much earlier! https://www.hlcollege.ac.uk/course/580f77471dfd6/Introduction-to-Blacksmithing https://www.hlcollege.ac.uk/course/5854155a53ffe/Intermediate-Blacksmithing https://www.hlcollege.ac.uk/course/5d357200e0960/Blacksmithing-Tool-Making Also, join the British Artist Blacksmith Association (BABA) on Facebook. If you want to visit me sometime for a day's forging, I'd be happy to hook you up with a hammer, and help you make a set of tongs. .... dont spend a fortune till you know you like it. What sort of property do you live in in London? I know many are in apartments, flats, etc. Do you have the space to set up a forge etc? Blacksmithing is quite a space-hungry hobby! Jon

Pictures didnt post.

Another pretty frustrating session..... I started trying to make a wrought iron hammer with a welded face. Made a drift first- that went well. Punched the hammer eye, but I want to try the weld before drifting. I have two problems.... a) struggling to chisel the "teeth" to grab the face of the hammer until its welded. This is just practice, technique and getting the vice to hold on.... b) I cannot get the iron up to welding temperatures. Im back to wondering if my blower isnt adequate..... Wish I had someone local, experienced using coke who could look over my setup and tell me whats wrong!

As others have already said... upright, boxed in, and work the wood underneath to make it sit flat! Definately your best option. You want to maximise the amount of mass under your hammer blows, hence putting it on end. Unless you can make a cool stand like caotropheus describes and have both orientations interchangeable (yet also firmly held!)..... Radius the edges with a flap disk slightly- I've found it very useful to have different radii on my anvil face for different jobs. Here's an example of my anvil. Mine is shorter so is only boxed in with 2"x1.5". You would probably want a deeper "socket", 4x2 or 4x4 as TP says.

Awesome looking hammer, well done. I'm super jealous as a Masterymyr style hammer is top of my list of "projects do to when I finally have enough tools and skills to do it". I have loads of wrought iron (at least 5 feet of 2inch x 2inch) but haven't dared to try it yet.

Hi JHCC, Can you tell me what the purpose of the kinks in your spring fuller is please? Is it so you can use the fuller with different sizes of stock? Are the kinks the same size? Looks that way in the photo. I want to make a spring fuller as my next tooling project as I need it for what I'm planning after that. I have some 25mm round spring steel, which will be the perfect size for the actual fuller for what I want (fullering rounding hammers and necking down to a chisel bolster). I’m anticipating having to do a fair bit of hammering to thin down the “springy” section. What do you think of these designs? I’m thinking design 3 will be best as it gives me the option for working larger stock if needed. Its also fairly easy to forge (and no welding) which is good for a beginner like me….

Today I managed to straighten a pandrol clip..... ready to make some chisels as a housewarming gift for my brother in law. I had a go at a chisel... it was going fairly well until I lost grip with the tongs and dropped it in my slack tub.... resulting in a load of cracks as a result of accidentally quenching in water.... expletives were uttered. I'll have to start again. Im fortunate enough to have an unlimited supply of those clips, for free, from a legal source! The cross was finished in time for the funeral.... my family were really pleased with it. Thanks for all your help and advice as always.

Great story Jennifer! Keep going. Re/ your friend and the offer for moving more into bladesmithing.... "hindsight is a wonderful thing". Would you have made a different decision if you could go back? Your hardware stuff is beautiful, and all the videos etc online are incredibly helpful for beginners like myself. Maybe if you had ended up a "rich and famous" bladesmith you'd have missed many other good things along the way

Thats a great idea. Lately I've been wondering how to hold a blade in a bench vise for draw filing..... having a jig like this would be perfect.

Fascinating to hear your story! and all the details and pictures are great.

Hi Jennifer, Loved the video, thanks very much. I'll definitely be trying this out. You mention at the end of the video the blade was finished with filework (and pictured above, the seemingly finished blade with files). Do you have any videos of this filing technique? Approximately how long did that take? Would you say its a reasonable alternative to a belt grinder since you're already forging so close to the final shape? .... I want to make some kitchen knives but I cant afford a belt grinder yet!

Thanks Irondragon! Thanks also for your suggestion re/ filling the open sections, that became my backup plan if all else failed.

Thanks for all the advice everyone! My error here was a) not drawing an accurate circle as a guide..... really silly! b) as anvil point out, my bending method left flat spots at each end of each curve. I hadnt really notice this initially. As suggested I drew a much more accurace circle on the floor, along with a trace of my cross.... then I bent the straight sections. THEN I used light taps of the hammer to actually evenly UNBEND each curve. I personally found this gentle unbending to be easier to control than the bending... at least, with the tooling available to me. The result shown below speaks for itself- still not perfect but certainly now circular enough for me to be proud of it. I'm not concerned with the uneven twists......controlling this was beyond my skill level, and I personally think they look close enough to not matter. (Also, if I'm careful which twists go in which place, I can match them almost symetrically. The picture below is close. For example, if I flip the top-left piece end to end, then the whole thing will be close to symetrical where some twists are tighter or closer to the ends etc.) In other news.... I started a kitchen knife. I hadnt planned to try this prior to my course with Owen Bush (Basher) in April, but I wondered if trying it at home first (following tips on one of Owen's online videos) might actually be beneficial prior to the course. Next step is to finish grinding before heat treating. I'm not in any rush and will probably work on this in between other projects. What I REALLY want to start doing is making hammers....... and hopefully my next few projects will be to forge the tools I need to make my first hammer.