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I Forge Iron

George N. M.

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Everything posted by George N. M.

  1. If you are in an area that gets lots of miller moths you can put a light bulb a few inches above a pie pan of soapy water the moths will circle the light, hit the water, and drown pretty instantly. It works best at night when there are no other lights in view. You may have to stir up the millers resting on the cieling and walls with a broom or a towel to get them flying. When they are on the ceiling and walls and are kind of torpid at night you can use the wand of a vacuum cleaner to suck them up. Millers are harmless but annoying. GNM
  2. A couple of thoughts: 1. Might they be shotguns (aka "fowlers") rather than muskets? How thickk are the barrel walls at the muzzle? If they are "thick" they are probably muskets. If "thin" they are fowlers. Also, there do not appear to be any rear sights. Are there any front sights? I can't tell from your previous pics. If no sights, front or rear, that is evidence that they are not muskets. Measure the bore and see if they are the caliber of common shotgun gauges (10 gauge = .775 cal., 12 gauge = .729, 16 gauge = .663, 20 gauge = .615, etc.) 2. Is there any writing on the lock plates? It kind of looks like in the photos but I can't tell for sure. 3. In the first photo it looks like there is sort of a ridge above your middle finger extending from where the nipple would go in line with the hammer. If so, it appears to me that it may have been made of percussion ignition rather than being a flintlock conversion. 4. I don't see any empty screw holes in the lock plate in front of the locks which would have secured the frizzen (the striking plate that the flint hits) spring for a flintlock. so, that is evidence that the locks were originally built for percussion ignition. 5. the fore ends of the stocks look nice enough that I think they look more like original fowlers than being cut down from military muskets or hunting rifles. Folk who know more about black powder weapons (I'm looking at you, Irondragon) may have more to contribute. My sense, for what it is worth is that they are shotguns/fowlers dating from about 1830-1870. If they turn out to be 12 gauge caliber I won't be surprised. I wouldn't try shooting them but i would try to replace the nipple on the one which just has a hole in the side of the barrel. If you hang them on your wall you can forge some fancy wall hooks for them. Still, very nice score. GNM
  3. Welcome back Slag. I/we have missed you. George
  4. I have seen a number of large steam engines run on compressed air. I have been told that the problem is that seals and packing will dry out with compressed air where they would not with "wet" steam. One of my favorite memories of a steam traction engine was when we were at a Sweet Corn Festival and Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON. There was a large traction engine on the main street which had a steam line connected to a 55 gallon drum full of sweet corn. The worlds larges, most complicated, and expensive corn steamer. GNM
  5. But, with percussion locks you are dependent on one more manufactured item, percussion caps. That is one of the main reasons that trade guns for the Native American trade in both the US and Canada stayed with flintlocks for long after percussion ignition was common. Also, there was the idea of providing possible enemies with weapons that were not as good as what you had. GNM
  6. Ed, it is a lovely hachet but I will have to be a bit of a nay sayer. Years ago I was on a camping trip with friends and someone had a commercially made one similar to yours (not as nice). I recall trying it and not being impressed because the weight was not in the head which changed the balance from what I was used to and the head area didn't have enough mass. It didn't "bite" as well as one with a heavier head and lighter handle. Maybe I was using it for something too heavy for it like chopping a limb or something. I can see it as a splitter for straight grained wood or going through a pelvis when field dressing a game animal. Still, a very attractive job. GNM
  7. Definite pass. Good move not to get caught in a bidding frenzy/competition. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  8. Here is a link to a report of a recent Bronze Age find in Poland which includes bronze sickle blades. I imagine that using a bronze sickle would involve a LOT of sharpening but it must have been worth it compared to the alternative. I recall seeing Neolithic sickles with flint blades set along a curved wooden handle. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69628#respond
  9. Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. I'm afraid that the link did not open for me. In my experience swinging a large tool like a sledge or a pick is more about controlling its direction and point of impact rather than brute strength. You let the weight of the tool and gravity do its work and you just guide it to where you want it to go. That said, exerting that control is a very subtle skill that does not come easily. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  10. I have heard that heating to forge welding temps will not "heal" micro fractures in a spring but I do not have any first hand experience. I yield to those with more specific knowledge. GNM
  11. Back in the late '60s and early '70s I had a friend who had an elderly great aunt who lived in the back of beyond, West Virginia and cut her tall grass with a scythe. She complained that you couldn't get goof, American made, scythe blades any more and she had to buy imported Austrian (IIRC) made blades. There is a great hardware store (Arp Hardware) in Boulder, CO which still stocks scythes along with all the other shovels, rakes, etc.. If you are ever in Colorado Arp Hardware is worth a trip to Boulder. There is very little that a person needs in life other than food and clothing that they don't stock. GNM
  12. There was a similar incident in Laramie in IIRC the 1890s. A lady whose mother was expecting at the time was always told that she had been born when there was an elephant in the back yard. Every word true. GNM
  13. I have seen miners' picks with a similar curve. The idea is that they are easier to swing in the confined spaces in an underground mine. The idea may have been that a curved head is more ergonomic and follows the arc of a swing of the arm. Others may have more details. There are old Atha Tool catalogs on line that you could go through. Here is a link to the 1912 catalog: https://ia802309.us.archive.org/22/items/atha-tool-co-catalogue-1912/Atha Tool Co Catalogue 1912.PDF "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  14. Yeah, the buggy eyes are reminiscent of Peter Lorre. Also, Marty Feldman. Why the last one? G
  15. Old car springs, either leaf or coil, are a good source of fairly high carbon steel but they have two possible drawbacks. One, they may have thousands of little microfractures from long use of many, many cycles of being compressed and relaxed. These can result in failure points when forged into a blade. The newer the spring the better. A good source are places that do custom suspensions where they take off and discard the brand new factory springs and install some sort of custom kit, e.g. lifts. Second, some newer springs are odd alloys which are harder to work in a home shop. Always, experiment with "coupons" to see how a particular spring will work, harden, and temper. Once you have hardened it you can snap it in two and look at the crystal structure on the line of the break. The smaller crystals the better. Do you have some particular reason for wanting to make a sickle? Maybe hanging it on a wall crossed with a hammer to symbolize agriculture and industry? ;-) "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  16. OK, a couple things: First, rebar is probably not the optimum steel to use for this because it varies in compostion pretty fast along the length of the bar. It may be fairly high carbon at one point and a few inches away it is very different. Frankly, given the amount of work and time you are going to put into this you are risking losing a lot of effort because the sickle may fail at an unexpected spot during fabrication or in use. You may have a nice hard edge at one spot and it will bend like a noodle a few inches away. I think you would be better advised to use something of more consistent content like a spring if you are using scrap steel. Experiment with a sample (a "coupon") to see what quenching medium and tempering process works best. You are more likely to come out with a good, usable tool. Second, a sickle is nothing more or less than a specialized knife for cutting grain stalks. Grain stems are pretty dulling to a blade because of the silica spicules in the stem. So, I'd think that you would need a fairly hard edge so that you don't have to resharpen as often. The blade is fairly long and thin. So, I think you'd need it to be somewhat springy even though it may not get much in the way lateral forces in use. I'd try for a differential temper with the edge being dark yellow or bronze and the back of the blade a blue. I don't think work hardening is going to be much of an issue one way or another. Yes, you could get some work hardening on the edge by hammering but IMO that would be of minimal effect compared to proper hardening and tempering. And, yes, if you do have something with a resaonable amount of carbon, harden it, and then "bonk" it you will likely snap it off. That is why you temper hardened steel, so that it is more bonk proof. If you don't heat treat it at all you can sharpen it but it will dull quickly in use. Basically, you have made a wall hanger, an object that looks like a sickle but is not very good at doing what a sickle is supposed to do. Yes, prior to easy availibility of steel scickles were often made of wrought iron but I suspect that in use the scickle wielder spent almost as much time resharpening as cutting. Finally, it is kind of tough to forge a curved blade with the edge on the inside because as you thin the edge the metal wants to curve away from the edge because while the metal is being made thinner the excess has to go somewhere which is spreading out. Yes, it can be done but it takes good hammer control and a feel for how to counteract the tendency to curve away from the edge. You may need to start with the thicker piece of metal than you would for a straight blade because in controlling the inside curve you may need more metal to avoid over thinning the back of the blade. I suggest forging a practice one in mild steel or a piece of rebar and then, once you feel comfortable with the technique, make your final version in good, high carbon steel and then do your heat treating. And, remember, if something is too thick you can always grind or file the excess metal away. There is an old expression of "If a good blade you would win, forge thick and grind thin." "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  17. Since the leg vise doesn't appear to have a spring for the moving jaw or the original mounting bracket (I am assuming that the thing under the screw housing is some sort of "after market" mounting bracket and that you are unable to see the condition of the screw I think that I would pass. Yes, you don't see them every day but they seem to be commoner than decent anvils. Post vises are nice but you can make do with a bench vise until a post vise in decent condition and at a decent price comes along. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  18. Billy, for dry leather you may want to try neatsfoot oil. Sometimes leather is so dry and brittle there is no way to bring it back but I have found neatsfoot oil works about the best of anything I have tried. It will darken leather but almost anything will. Trivia factoid: A neat is an old word for a cow. Neatsfoot oil is made by boiling the lower legs (not hooves) of slaughtered cattle and collecting the rendered fat. GNM
  19. I have a theory that a person's taste in music is largely formed by what was popular in their early teens. For me, that was the folk music period in the late '50s and early '60s. I like some othe genres but I still probably play more folk than anything else. GNM
  20. Here is a suggestion to keep the vise and stand from moving when in use. Drill a couple of holes near the front corners of the base. Drill a couple of holes the same distance apart with a star drill or a masonry bit in your concrete floor at the location you want the vise. Line up the holes when placing the vise and then drop a couple of bolts through the base holes into the floor holes and the vise will be much more resistant to moving in use. Probably, the longer the bolts and the deeper the holes in the concrete the better. You can keep shorter bolts in the holes when not in use to keep dirt and gruck out. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  21. I'd say to put in the equivalent bid of $US 5-10 and if you get it and it is wrought iron, great. If it is mild steel that is still OK because you will have paid not much over scrap price (25 cents US/pound the last time I checked). I'd guesstimate that there is about 30 pounds of metal there. Others may have a more accurate estimate. The post vise may be the better prize. Scrap steel is pretty common but post vises are more rare. You might call the auction house and see if you can inspect it. Is it an on line auction or an in person auction? If the latter, get there early enought to inspect the threads on the post vise. If they are worn, walk away. GNM
  22. If you want to go down a rabbit hole regarding thermal stress in glass look up "Prince Rupert's Drops." Very cool and amazing. GNM
  23. If you are wrapping the marbles up in with the metal hot the cracking is due to thermal shock on the glass. You might heat the marble some or do the last bit of wrapping cold to avoid the cracking. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  24. Red, if it isn't too costly I'd say to get it. If nothing else, you can use it as trading stock with other blacksmiths. BUT, I would make sure that it is really wrought iron. You can do this with a spark test. You touch it with an angle grinder or touch a piece to a grinding wheel and look at the sparks. Wrought iron will send out stright streams of sparks with no secondary bursts (like little fireworks bursts). Steel will have bursts, generally, the higher the carbon the more bursts. There is much more to spark testing but you can look it up easier than we can explain it. Just because it was used in a "wrought iron" railing does not mean that it is actually wrought iron. Wrought iron largely passed out of common use in the late 19th and early 20th century when steel became cheaper. So, if the railing came from a house built in the 19th century it may well be wrought iron. If it came from a house built in the 1950s it is likely mild steel. Also, if it is rusted fairly deeply you can can see a "wood grain" pattern because the iron and the included impurities will oxidize at different rates. Wrought iron works differently than mild steel, usually at a higher heat, and it has "grain" like wood due to layers of impurities. It is often used in knives (with a higher carbon steel edge welded to the iron) to give a pattern similar to pattern welded steel (aka "damascus") because the grain will become more pronounced when it is acid etched. Also, it tends to weld more easily because the impurities in it make it "self fluxing." If you can post some pictures we may be able to give more informed opinions. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  25. Ah, I knew this would go into conspiracy theory sooner or later. Ted, I think we should leave this topic and get back to blacksmithing. We'll end up irritating each other. George
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