chrisfrick

Well said. All of your points should be taken very seriously by all who attempt to do what we do. (Especially the fact that we all wield 20 lb hammers and move 200+ lb anvils with ease!).

On the glove note--I agree with Glenn. I have never used gloves in my just over a year experience smithing. I feel that there is much, much more control to be had with bare hands, and if you need gloves, you're either doing it wrong, or need to figure out a better hold for the piece. (I do use welding gloves on occaision when quenching in oil, so maybe I need longer tongs?!)

Your positive attitude will take you far. Keep it up!

I've got a 3 year old son who, at every chance he gets, runs out to my anvil, grabs some small scraps of steel, or some tongs (in several cases he grabbed one of my cold chisels that I forgot to put out of reach), then proceeds to beat the anvil with them all the while saying, "I make meetal dadee!" Can't wait until he's a little older and stronger!

Spot on post, Quenchcrack. Point taken--I'll stop asking questions now. :)

I hate this guy! One more thing to add to my "must learn how to do this, even if it takes me 80 years" list! Very nice.

One thing that will kill most insects almost instantaneously is Lacquer Thinner--I use it on black widows and it drops them in their tracks! (probably *really* bad to use around a forge, though--nevermind ;)

Is it white pine, or yellow pine? BIG difference in hardness--white is really, really soft and the yellow (more common in the Southern U.S.) is much more durable--so durable/strong that it is used in anything from making ladders to flooring. IMO, yellow pine should be fine for a knife handle--you could also explore the option of getting it stabilized, too.

Makes much more sense now after looking at the video--assuming they cut the knife out from the blank leaving the friction stirred section as the cutting edge. I think it would be fun to just hang out at a place like that and watch it for a couple of hours (or days)!

Aside from the *massive* cost of a friction stir welding machine, what on a knife do you need to weld? Or are you just wanting to mix up the material (which I don't think is possible)?

That's a slick setup--sorta like the one I got, except it's on my back yard lawn without a covered area, so everything is "super" portable. I too, started out with a RR track (and soon figured out that mounting it upside down, in a 5 gal bucket of cement worked good for the first one or two hammer blows and then it was all over!). I've got a similar forge, however I "dismantled" one of my wife's "dead" hairdryers and made a variable speed controller for it (not going into electronic engineering here--go to radio shack and buy some books!) that works awesome. You got a screamin deal on that piece for your anvil--I got one half that size (2 1/2"X4 1/2"X10") for about $125--and that I had to save up for, for a long time). I'm going to weld the large piece I have to the top of my RR track, standing it on it's end (and as you said before, similar to increasing the mass under the hammer area), and then already have it welded to another 1" plate on the bottom for bolting to my home made anvil stand (used 2X12's--looks pretty slick, and when it's all done, yes I'll post pics). Don't worry, I'm familiar with the welding of this type of materials--preheating, cooling, etc. Currently I'm in the process of building another forge, just for the sole purpose of heat treating my new "anvil top" as the Lively design is a little too small for that big piece of steel I got. Gonna get crazy with some furnace cement and pearlite.

Anyhow, nice work man. The next project you need to work on is *making* your bolt tongs. You shouldn't ever have to buy those types of tools--I use the cheap stuff you get from one of the major home building supply stores, but have some 4140 that's just waiting to be transformed into some useful tools.

What kind of drill were you using? HSS, Cobalt, Ti coated, etc.? I have had very, very good results with Cobalt and that's pretty much the only thing I use now. Aside from that, Dodge hit it on the head--use the proper speed and feed for the drill and the material and a cutting lube helps too.

That's awesome, man--too bad you're way over on the right side of the country. Would be fun to hang out and make goofy stuff like that!

The knife in my avatar is 5160, made from the right, rear main leaf spring of a '65 ford pickup, 7 1/2" blade with an 11 1/4" overall length--takes and holds an edge really nice. I'm able to chop up seasoned oak, bamboo, chicken, beef, carrots, prune my apricot tree and can still shave hair with it (okay, it's more like pulling the hair out by scraping, but it does hold a good edge given the abuse I can put it through).

I have heard that most U.S. auto manufacturers used 5160 and it was pretty much standard on the vehicles using leaf springs from the '50's to the '60's and then the auto makers started experimenting with other alloys. (at least that's what I've heard--could be totally wrong.) I have also heard that the newer vehicles are using some rather nasty elements such as selenium (again, could be totally wrong), but they're not really consistently 5160 anymore, which would explain some coil springs *not* spark testing like 5160. And yes, you can heat the coil springs, unwind them, and make blades--may or may not make *great* blades, but you can get enough material out of one spring to make a dozen knives and if the material doesn't hold up well, the only thing you've lost is the material--you've gained valuable experience forging them!

First and foremost, nice knife!! I've tried to use tung oil on cocobolo (very, very oily wood) and never really got it to work quite right. I do like the paste wax products that "dry hard" but you need to really work them into the wood and be careful not to let it dry until it's all smoothed out--kinda hard to explain, but the wax will dry with ridges that you can just barely make out if you look at it really close. Second to that would be shellac, however shellac doesn't really like water all that much. Another idea would be to do a test piece--try to get some different products together and try them out if possible. Also, try to locate a "hardwood" lumber yard. There are many yards that only deal in exotic hardwoods and there *may* be someone at one of those places that could help. Lastly, try Google--that's what I end up doing most of the time ;)

Nice looking chopper there--try hacking up some wood with it, then inspect the blade for chips/cracks/bent edge/etc. Really kinda cool looking with the "feathers" in it. Nice work!

Maybe throw in a "no B.S." warranty-it's not covered if they do something with it that they weren't supposed to.

I love cooking, and I love knives, but have yet to make myself one (been focusing on camp knife stuff). I *do* know what makes a good chef knife and actually prefer the longer blades (10 inch-that's the length of the blade alone, not blade + handle)--a lot of people like the shorter ones, though (8 inch). If you can, google Shun knives by Kershaw--very nice, high carbon center with SS laminated sides friction welded to the inner carbon piece. They also have a "D" shaped handle design that's very comfortable. I don't have any, as they are way beyond my budget, but have tried them out several times and really like them. If you can, go to kitchen supply stores and look/feel the "high end" chef knives and also take note of the various blade grinds/designs and also ask the salesperson what they think of them and what they would most likely use a specific blade design for (chopping vegetables vs. carving a turkey). And as mentioned before, food produces some rather nasty chemical interactions with steel (I'm thinking that's why most knives used for food are stainless?). Hope my ranting helps.

The motor oil idea is probably the best/most economical--I've got several hammers that are about 20 years old that I only use for mechanic stuff--a couple of ball peens and a small sledge that have a "custom treated" motor oil finish on the handles (work on the underside of any old car/truck, grab hammer, beat on something for a little bit, repeat process until the entire handle is a nice dark color)--and that's *used* motor oil. Much better to use new, if possible. Before applying, I'd let that stump dry out for *at least* a year, 2 if possible, before treating with anything. (of course you could get crazy and spray on something like spar varnish, but that takes about 2 days to fully dry properly).

Thanks for all the great info, guys. This chunk just may end up being turned into a couple of punches and some hammer eye drifts. (understood about drawing the hammering end so it won't chip/explode).

Hatchets/camp axes, hmmm. Being that it's considered a "shock resistant" material, I'm now starting to think of making hammers with it...

Thomas--no, unfortunately all I have is a home-made 70 lb. anvil and a 2.5 lb crosspeen. I was thinking about cutting it into maybe some 1.5" squares and trying to forge them down into something useful. Any ideas?

Since I got it for free, I think I might look into using it to chew up my power hack saw blades and make some punches and drifts with it. Thanks for the help.

I've just come across a piece of S-7 that's about 1.5" square X about 8" long and was wondering if this might be something to forge down into either a blade, or parts for laminating. Does anyone have any suggestions/advice on what I could use this for? (reason I'm asking is that I got if for free).

I've been forging with lump charcoal for about a year with great success--I can get 20 pound sacks from a local grocery store (NEVER use the brick-ettes). There are a multitude of internet resources to find out how to make a "washtub" forge for charcoal forging and also the ingredients for a "home made" castable refractory type cement/lining. You will have to break up the lump charcoal into small pieces for it to work well--I use my hammer and anvil and just give the lumps a small smack and they bust up pretty easy. Size of lumps should be around 3/4-1" size.

Also, welcome--I'm new here too.

Hi all,
Figured it was time to say "HI" and introduce myself.
I've been forging for about a year now and am now trying to figure out how to convince my wife that I need to build a smithy out of my lawnmower shed!
I've been using a charcoal forge which I built out of a small metal washtub and a hairdryer, an anvil that is made out of a couple blocks of steel and a railroad track and am looking forward to the very, very far off day of actually buying a proper anvil!

I originally got an idea to make pattern welded knives just out of nowhere and decided to give it a try--well, I haven't tried forge welding yet but have made a pretty nice knife out of a '65 Ford pickup leafspring along with various tongs. After awhile, I started thinking that it would be fun to give the "artsy" stuff a try--leaves, candle holders, etc. and now I'm pretty much consumed by blacksmithing--I hope I'm in the right place!

I'm an aircraft mechanic by trade, and have formal training as a machinist, as well as being my own mechanic for my cars and other things that get hot and have wheels.

It's good to say Hi, and I'll post some pictures of current projects as well as some past things soon.

Hi all, first time post here--felt like I needed to pipe up regarding the charcoal forge blower issues. I've only been forging for about a year, but have had great success using Tim Lively's design (with the addition of two removable refractory bricks set on top--makes sorta like an oven, and the two piece was just out of convenience). I'm usually good at scrounging for old tools and whatnots, but have been unable to find things like hand crank blowers, post vices, and other misc. blacksmith tools for decent prices which brought me to my current equipment setup. Anyhow, I've been using one of my wife's old hairdryers for my forge blower. I removed the heating element, cracked off the motor/fan/tube assembly and built a variable DC power supply with parts from Radio Shack as ALL hairdryer motors are actually DC motors that operate around 12-15 volts. My setup is capable of blowing almost all of the charcoal out of the forge when at "full blast" and can be regulated down to tiny breeze if needed.

I'll get some pictures up soon after I get my railroad rail/chunk of steel anvil finished. I've been using the lump charcoal you get at the local mega-mart as it's pretty cheap, but you gotta break it up into about 1" chunks, and it takes about an hour to bust up a 20 lb. sack of the stuff. It works really well, and the smell makes me want to throw on some hot dogs...