George N. M.

Les, thank you. Do you use any leather treatments, e.g. neatsfoot oil, on the leather. Also. do you sew by hand or with a machine and if by hand do you punch, pierce, or drill the holes first?

My personal opinion is that a historical ironwork topic would get more traffic than some of the more obscure topics are getting at present. Some of them haven't had a new posting in the last 6 months to 1 year, a few probably longer than that. I would guess that I post something about archeological iron work about a half dozen times per year plus whatever comments my posts would get and other folk, e.g. Alexandr, periodically post photos of historic window grates, gates, etc. in Europe and other places. Also, having a dedicated topic may encourage folk to photograph various ironwork exhibits on their travels and post the photos. And it may be a valuable resource for anyone wanting to replicate or research historical pieces. Just my 2 small monetary units. George Billy, I played with an on line translator and the German word "zange" means either tongs or pliers but "brennschere" and "lockenstab" also translate as "tongs/" I figure that because German is the most common language in Swizerland that it is the most likely original one for this article. Maybe someone with a better knowledge of German can clarify. G

Les, good luck with the eye surgery. Are you having implants put in. Also, could you please describe you technique for making sheaths. In particular, how do you make the imprssion for area of the blade / handle transition. And is there a belt loop on the back? Maybe we need a thread on leather work since that skill supports our ironwork and blade smithing. Thx. GNM

Since we do not have a Historical Ironwork topic (hint, hint} and this is not about a blade I will post this here. This one is a twofer! Here is a link to an article about a 14th century find in Switzerland of an articulted iron gauntlet AND the remains of a blacksmith shop that was destroyed in the same fire. It's probably a translation error but what the article calls "pliers" are clearly, in reality, tongs. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69277/comment-page-1#comment-4256190 IMO pretty cool. GNM

I was aware of the "cannon" type splitter but one of the You Tube videos showed how to do it with just a chainsaw and black powder. You make a plunge cut into log, pack in black powder, use damp sand as stemming, and fuze as ignition. It seems to work best for long, straight, and large diameter logs. Yes, much more fun than pounding wedges. And interesting for the neighbors. Maybe do it on the 4th of July. GNM

OK, I'm going to put my oar in and make a few comments and ideas. The reason a thin edge is warping is often to do with the fact that the metal behind the edge is too short to support the length of the edge. The metal at the edge cannot expand lengthwise, so it has to warp out laterally to go somewhere. Often, trying to line up the waves makes the edge pop out in another place to take up the excess length. This is why a uniformly thinning piece of metal has edges that curve out like the top and bottom of an axe. If you want ends that are not so flared listen to or watch the metal as you thin it and cut or grind off the ends to the desired shape. If you have wavy edges I thnk that broadening the area just behind the edge will take the edge with it and straighten the waves. If you try to pound down on a wave you cannot compress the metal and you set up stresses that want to make the metal curve out somewhere else along the length of the blade. Even if this doesn't happen it sets up stresses that can cause cracking during heat treating or use. That is not to say that you cannot get mild curves from stresses which either set up or release during heat treating. But the curves in Goods cleaver look to me that they could be straightened out by moving some metal just behind the edge, not much, just a little bit. I suggest that a person go back to basics and use Play Do or othe modelling clay and make a replica, either at scale or larger, with the waves put in intentionally. Then manipulate the clay carefully to see what you have to do to take the waves out. Hot metal is plastic, you should be able to use the same techniques as you use in cold clay. Please keep in mind that I consider myself a blacksmith, not a full time bladesmith. I like forging blades but not so much all the bench work. So, I may be unintentionally blowing smoke with my brainstorming. Anyone may take what has occurred to me and see what happens. Results will probably vary. GNM

And, BTW, if you are using steel wedges don't drive them all the way in. If it hasn't started to spiit by the time you are about 1/3-1/2 way in stop and reevaluate what you are doing. A wedge pounder in flush is very difficult to extract. I have know folk who have had to burn the piece to recover the wedge. I knew one of my geology professors who used a thing like a small muzzle loading cannon which was filled with blasting black powder and hammered into the log (2-4' diameter) and was then ignighted with a fuze. Big bang, the splitter went flying into the air (unless chained to the log) and the log was nicely spit. Rinse and repeat. There are several videos on You Tube about splitting logs with gunpowder. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Re boot jacks: My experience is that the ones which work best are the ones which have a flat/platform to place the foot that isn't having the boot removed because when taking off the 2d boot you are standing on it in your stocking foot. If the "platform" is too narrow the 2d step will be uncomfortable. That is why those cast "bug" boot jacks work so well. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Actually, IMO the highest and best use of stump wood might be charcoal since, depending on the species, it may not split well. I'd try splitting forst and then, if it was difficult or totally unsuccessful I would figure that I had found my charcoal feed stock. They can always be turned into chucks with a chain saw.

And by spring it will be warm enough that you won't need firewood. So, it will get pushed to the late fall when the Weather Service says it will start snowing within a few hours. G

I have a 5A mounted to about a 6'x12"x2" plank and it is a serious machine that can do a lot of work. Where I use if the most is if I need a lot of pieces the same length, e.g. reducing a 10' or 20' stick into 16" lengths for miners' candlesticks. For a single length of something I usually use a metal cutting chop saw. Using the #5 by yourself can take some fiddling since the lever and jaws are too far apart to use one hand to hold the work and the other to work the lever. You have to line up the work in the jaws, sometimes using 1 or more blocks to keep the long part reasonable level and then stand up to operate the lever. This would be less of a problem if it was mounted at floor level. The jaws can be reversed when the cutting edge gets worn. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Full 4'x4'x8' cord or a face cord (4'x8'x?')?

Welcome aboard from 7500' om SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. This is pretty much a SWAG based on prices for other shears out there and prices for other Edwards shears in the past but I would guess in the US$200-300 range. That is only an approximation and may vary based on the buyer, seller, and location. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. I second what Frosty said about putting your general location in your profile so that it will show up in your header. Also, read "Read This First" first. The first illustration looks familiar. I'll check my library when I'm next out in the shop but it might not be today or tomorrow. It is pretty polar in WY right now and we are staying hunkered down in the house. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Zac, in case you didn't pick up on it, Frosty is one of our propane forge gurus.

PS Where are you in Sweden? I still have a cousin in Gothenburg? Also, my wife has gotten intrigued with Sweden and has been studying Swedish. If it wasn't for covid we would have visited there before now. GNM

That was a quick response. My grandparents were Swedish immigrants. My middle name is Nels and my last name is Monsson. I don't know the word "pressblechs" but I suspect that it is a term for a decorative plate which has thin metal pressed over it to make a repeatable design. I believe that they were often made of a hard wood since the pressing is done cold. Or, they could be done as male and female dies so that the thin metal could be pressed between them. And you English is much, much better than my Swedish. GNM

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. If you put you general location in your profile we can give better aswers to many questions which may be geography dependent. This is a world wide forum and for all we know you could be in Lapland, Tasmania or Kansas. Why do you not have a valve with a pressure dial in your supply line? They are reasonably cheap, easily available, and are necessary for tuning your forge. If you are not using propane and are hooked up to a domestic natural gas line that raises a number of different questions. Natural gas is usually supplied at fairly low pressures (about 4 psi IIRC). I'll let the propane forge gurus address any other issues. However, I will take a guess that you might be operating at too low a pressure and the gas is not cooling the components as well as it could to prevent heat from traveling up the pipes from the flame area. That is only a SWAG and the more knowledgable can confirm or deny it. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you/ I can't help with casting except to guess that it looks like your mold was too cold. What kind of mold medium are you using? Sand? Soapstone? As Steve says, preheat your mold. The question arises of why you are casting for a Valsgarde helmet. As far as I know, there were no cast elements in the originals. And which Valsgarde helmet? There are several, over a dozen. The ones with decorative plates were made with an iron cap covered with thin pieces of decorative gold or bronze with the decoration raised by repousse (raising the metal from the back with various punches and chisels) and then attaching the panels to the iron cap, probably with small rivets and the rivet lines covered with decorative strips. The use of cast panels would have made the helmet very heavy. And one made up of decorative cast panels would have been pretty flimsey and suitable only as a wall hanger. So, depending on how authentic you want your reproduction to be you may have to reevaluate the techniques you are useing. Finally, I don't know how much casting experience you have but it is a skill that can be VERY dangerous unless you really know what you are doing. Dealing with liquid metals, particularly high temperature metals like bronze, is much more dangerous than working with soft and solid hot metal when blacksmithing. One small mistake can result result in horrific injuries, disfigurement, and death. And it will hurt a lot too. So, be very confident that you know what you are doing. If you have any doubts about your skill level take a casting or foundry class somewhere or find someone to teach you. DO NOT rely on You Tube videos for instruction. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

IMO, any tool, from a hand hammer on up, should be rescued from scrapping. However, things like condition, cost, and logistics of transportation, and ability to install and use back home enter into the equation. That is a sizeable tool and you would need a truck or trailer to move it and because there is an international border involved it is not as easy as renting something from U-Haul. And I think the first thing I would look at is how much work would be required to get it running and how available are the necessary parts. Good luck and I hope you can get it back home and into use but I also understand that it might not work out. I had a similar problem with an anvil in France years ago and I just had to wipe my eyes and move on. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

For anyone looking to install LEDs the smaller 3500 lumen fixtures, in my experience, do not have switches and you have to turn them on and off by plugging them in or un plugging them or using an in line switch. The 5000 lumen units and anything larger have pull chain switches. Of course you can wire them directly into the 110v circut and use regular wall switches which means you aren't takinjg up an outlet with the lighting. I have 5k and 3.5 k units in my 12x24 shop with the 5k over the forge and anvil area and it works just fine. I do want to put another 5k over the bench area. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I, like Irondragon, am using overhead LED lights with pull chains. If I need it darker to see heat colors more accurately I can turn off one or more fixtures. LEDs are a real advantage over florescents here in Wyoming because they are not dimmer when cold and IMO give a light that is easier on the eyes. It is getting hard to find large wattage (>100 watts) incandescent bulbs. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Looks good. Did you do it by hand or use a power hammer or press? They look so uniform I suspect a power hammer or press. Do you have a plan for what you are going to make from the billet? Thx. George

Riverton was kind of a boom town in the '70s when the uranium mines were going full blast and there was a good amount of oil and gas drilling. Now, it is much more sleepy. I am not a native.though but I got here as fast as I could. I grew up on the South Side of Chicago and came out here to study geology in college. More recently, I was County Attorney in Morgan County, CO (about halfway between Denver and Nebraska) and my wife and I looked around and asked ourselves if we wanted to live out our lives on the eastern plains of CO. The answer was NO! After looking around at a number of places we ended up in Laramie. My wife is originally from Florida and she and her late husband lived a lot in the southern half of the US. When I told her that the all time record high temperature in Laramie was 94 degrees and that she would never see triple digits ever again unless we travelled to them it kind of messed with her paradigm. She has fallen in love with Wyoming in general and Laramie in particular (or as it is sometimes called, "Laradise." If you are ever going to be back in this country, PM me. But not in the near future, Madelynn is still pretty covid cautious. I would probably would be somewhat less so on my own but, as the US Constitution says, promoting domestic tranquility is a worthy goal. We'll just have to assume that you are somewhere on Planet Earth for now but I am going to assume that it is in the US of A (somewhere). GNM

Northman, a lot of us here are self taught, including me. No shame in that. I started in 1978 when I bought a rivet forge and a 100# Vulcan anvil at an auction in Riverton, WY (west central part of the state). This was long before the interwebs an all I had to learn from were some library books and my own mistakes (lots). It was probably 12-15 years before I even met another smith. So, since I did not have a mentor of teacher I probably still do some things bass ackwards. As to maintaining privacy and avoiding unwanted contacts in the years I have been on IFI I have not once have had a negative experience, contact, spam, etc. and I think that even those who have been around longer than I have (ten or so years, including under a prior "handle") have had a similar experience. Even the lte Thomas Powers who used his full, legal nme and his town of residence never reported any problems. But the call for how deep in your bunker or out in the world you want to be is, of course, up to you. I don't think a state or province and a "handle" is much of a security breach. George