agsolder

7018 makes a beeeyoootiful bead, but is sometimes hard to get re-started because the rod burns back inside its carapace of flux. 6011 is my all-around fave, 'cause it floats the slag out, unlike 6013, which can give you inclusions. 6011, however, will never make a pretty, smooth bead like 7018. Do not start open-bottomed welds with 7018-- lay in a basement pass of 6011 first.

My scrap pile(s) have turned out to be the most inflammatory, corrosive, divisive issue in 50 years of our marriage, and getting worse by the day. My advice to anyone starting out: put the scrap far from the house, at the very least totally out of sight, preferably at an altogether separate dedicated location well away from public view. Scrap materiel a few years ago in fact caused a relative to be forced to move out of his neighborhood, so volatile is this subject!! What is money in the bank, handy raw material full of potential to us is just unsightly junk to many others, alas.

If the photograph of the newspaper copy of the British notice that I posted should be published somewhere, please credit photo to: Joan Neary. Thanks. Thomas-- no, I did not see a copy of the license, nor any further details. That time, however, was a period of unrest in Ireland, and much has been written about it. Smithies are hard to find in modern Ireland, at least in my limited experience. I did not come across much interest in old tyme ironwork. Some replication of old gates, but in square tubing. The real ones I found are rotting away where they stand. The one working forge I came across was just being built, at an Irish Heritage Center up in the northwest, Crossmolina, I think-- and the resident smith, whom I did not get to meet, was German!!

Hope this produces a larger, easier-to-read copy of this chilling document.

This might be worth looking into for your project. Wish I knew more about it-- it is a copy my wife shot of a reprint in an Irish newspaper of a 1798 order by the Brits requiring Irish smiths to register-- and promising death to any smith caught making weapons. We found it in a display case inside a little hall in a village we drove through between Dublin and Westport in 1998. The town is noted for having hanged a priest.

Art! Congratulations!

Thanks, all for the great info!!

Yes, but... how? Edge up? Down? How can you tell where the grind line is vis a vis the other side when you can't see it if you are hollow grinding freehand? Or is all that what the friend who gave me his daddy's old Paragon anvil called "stereognosis," the hand knowing?

Brethren, brethren, brethren, harken unto me. Puleeeeze! Leave us eliminate the acrimony, please! Leave us credit each unto the other the good sense to have read, to have pondered deep within ourselves, to have studied, to have practiced. Okay? This ain't no lecture hall, in other words, it's a colloquy. There is no gospel, no one received wisdom. There are many voices. I just simply wanted to know how people do what they do, is all, freehand or clamp. I am not holding Bob Terzuola out as the pre-eminent exemplar, merely as an example of somebody who makes splendid blades, with the aid of a clamp. Ed makes his splendid blades freehand. How do you do yours, is my question, plain and simple, period.

Square Wheel (as of April) prices for wheels: 10 X 2 SERRATED 790.00 -- 8X2 SMOOTH 306.00 -- 8X2 SERRATED 324.00 Of course, what with gas going up, who knows what they are now....

Ed-- you are describing exactly the set-up that came on my old original-maker Square Wheel. Square Wheel aka Wilton wants really incredible money for their large wheels. I have the prices here somewhere, but they are on the far side of $500 for a biggie. I got an 8-inch from SunRay, thanks to the guidance of Vicopper next door, for just under $100 with shipping. Rich-- what size stock is optimal for grinding with an 8-inch wheel? Many thanks, gents!!

Ed-- what diameter contact wheel do you recommend? Do you think an 8-inch wheel is adequate? The prices sure do jump up past that. Many thanks.

Terzuola is striving for total perfection in the symmetry of his grind lines, side to side, and every other aspect of his knife, on not just one or a few, but hundreds of knives, all of them hand-made. The prices his work commands speak to his quality. I am sure his private-designed and custom-made clamp helps make this possible. But I am curious how others do it.

Bob Terzuola in his excellent book on how he makes his fabulous tactical folders shows using an adjustable and moveable clamp on the table in front of the belt, to hold the blade, which is edge up, in exactly the same position both sides of the blade, relative to the contact wheel, in order to get the grind-- and the grind line-- symmetrical on both sides. Bob has a machinist background. How do you achieve this? What's your method? Clamp or freehand?

Didn't ABANA ban anvil shoots at any of their chapter seances, smite-ins, smitharees, etc. while back?

Textbooks I've seen say let acetylene bottles that have been horizontal stand upright for 15 minutes before using themto let the contents settle down. I've moved many bottles horizontally in my pickup from the welding boutique to my shop and used them immediately after the aforementioned 15-minute vertical period. I have seen at least one smith using the bottles horizontally, definitely a bad idea-- something about the acetone getting mixed in with the fuel gas. Fret not-- I do plan to make a rack for carrying them vertically.

You will find no more beautiful vessel than the ones made by Pascalou, who has posted pictures of some of her amazing work on this very site.

swarf... slake tub... swedge... smite

Beautiful plate and a handsome mounting bracket, too!

Pascalou-- could you please tell us what years of study, training, apprenticeship, it has taken you to develop this masterful level of skill? Or are you self-taught? Do you work in a commercial shop? An art studio? Self-employed? Thanks.

Pascalou-- Many thanks for posting the pictures! Your work is just stunning!

Anybody have any experience as to whether ramping an electric kiln up to max temp, say 2000 F. at a rapid rate, say in an hour, would tend over time to shorten the life of the heating elements, and the electronic controller compared to a gentler rate? If so, what would an ideal rate of increase be for maximum equipment life? (Kiln mfr. rep says it doesn't matter. Dealer says it doesn't matter. But... controller mfr. tech suggests 500F. per hour.) I just got a little PMC kiln that looks as if it is going to be dandy for heat-treating smallish blades and I want it to last. Likewise the larger one I am in the process of building. Many thanks for any help on this.

pascalou-- great to hear from you again! Have any work underway that you feel like posting pictures of? Many thanks!

Just use your computer and Google Thermal Ceramics. They make all sorts of high temp insulation for stoves, chimneys, etc., such as Super Wool and Kaowool. FYI, their tech support people are among the most snidely and totally unhelpful people I have dealt with in a long lifetime, refused to answer the simplest questions re: a wodstove chimney problem I was working on last year. I guess they are scared to death of liability. Perhaps if you are really polite they will deign to tell you who might sell you some Kaowool. Or, if you just Google Kaowool, you can bypass these jerks and will find leads to scads of dealers. There are. by the way, other solutions, similar products.

Lotta muy peligroso hazards, as in debilitating and/or fatal involved in handling lead, breathing lead fumes.