glilley

The metal I was talking about in this thread was incorrectly ID - I got a few lengths from an acquaintance who SAID it was 1040 but when I called yard he bought it from all their hot rolled stock is A 36. Spark test seems to confirm this.

Matt - thanks a ton for the insight. I believe this thread answers my concern and now I'd best print it!

Now its coming back to me (although I still don't know where I read it). Something to do with the hotter the metal the more difficult it is/longer it takes for the surfacant in SQ to break down the surface tension between the metal and the quench.

Matt/pezking7p - I'm making some light-duty punches/drifts from 1040 but I probably shouldn't have started this hare since if I had searched more I would have found answer!! pezking7p answers the question correctly (which I forgot) - I just remember in a class I took that 1040 tends to go nonmagnetic around cherry red/dull red but it ain't consistant. I purchased a round magnet for this purpose several months ago and forgot about it so I'll take the time and hang it over the forge! Re. the part about any hotter and effects of super quench lessen, this is something I seem to have read several places, but under torture I would be hard pressed to tell you where.

Oops - meant "mild steel" vs "mild stell". I don't quench mild stell -ha ha!

When quenching mild stell in super quench, assume I quech when it is a cherry red - much hotter and I won't gain the benifit of using super quench. Am I correct? Thanks!

That's what I'm gonna start doing. Have a 1/4" sheller screen up in the barn and I'll pour my load of fines through that, keep in a pile good stuff that sticks and put the dust into newspaper to start next fire with.

----- What do you do with them??

Thanks to all for your responses! I guess I did not ask my question correctly: I too clean my firepot out completely at the end of every session but because I haul everything out at once and spread it out to cool I end up with a large pile of coal/coke/fines around the firepot on the hearth. I try and save/reuse all the stuff bigger than 1/4" but its the pile of fines on the hearth that's the issue. Do all of you clean up so that you start with a clean hearth too or do you just ensure that the firepot is clean and house-keep the hearth when it is in danger of burying you (har har!). Which sort of begs another question: what can one do with fines? Would be nice if you could mix them up in a slurry and pour into a mold and - presto! - coal briquettes!

I only fire my forge up 1-2 time a week for a couple of hours. When done each session I pull everything out of the firepot except for small amount of coal dust/fines. Every 2 weeks or so I find myself with a large amount of dust and fines (under 1/4" in diameter) built up on the hearth around the perimeter of the firepot that I shovel it out and dump it while trying to pull out the larger pieces of coal/coke from each shovel full. Most books/articles I have read usually generically state "clean out your firepot" or "keep your forge clean" or "after cleaning out your firepot", but are rather short on specifics? Am I being over zealous in my clean up and wasting fuel or is this about right?

Phil, DE2 and all the rest who have responded, many thanks! Think I will give Phil and Sam's method a try and put a ball on my reins and insert them into the hole on the rein-end of the swage and punch it down. Since my swage blocks are mild steel, will reheat and superquench just the blocks and let the reins normalize.

No, I would be securing these in my hardy with the swages laying across the anvil face.

Sam - Would I heat the swages first so that as they cool and normalize they would tighten-up around the ball?

Thanks John! I should have stated that I made my spring using 1/4" x 3/4" stock;however, fabing a new spring section out of round stock would not be a problem.

How would you tackle this? IRT the subject, I have forged my spring with the hardy bit and have the upper and lower swage pieces fabricated - now my challenge is how to attached the swage pieces to their respective upper/lower spring sets. I don't have ready access to welding equipment so I am limited to forge welding them on, bolting/screwing them on or securing them in some other manner. Any idea what great-greatgranddaddy would've done? Thanks!

Nice pix. Go to the top and search with term "blacksmith" and you get some good returns, particularly "Anvil Chorus". Check out the full-scale samples along the back walls.

Wow! What a turn-out! Thanks to everyone for responding with lots of great ideas. I get the essence what what needs to be done and since we live on an old farm I know I can easily find the material I need to fabricate something to pound it down smaller. My dogs will miss it though - they have a ball chasing the smaller pieces that would go flying off into the corner.

Finally found a relatively close source for coal that sells $10/50 lbs (they actually guesstimate the amount and I always end up with 5-10 lbs more!). Of course, this is not Pocahontas #2/#3 quality but it is decent bituminous that cokes well enough and doesn't produce excesive clinkers. Problem is, most of it is between 3-6" long/wide and 1-2" deep, requiring me to break it down to 1" or so. I am doing this on my smithy floor with a 4lb hand sledge but getting a lot shapnel! Any ideas on a low-tech solution to busting-up your own coal?

Store it in? Uhh...right-forgot about that. Well, what ever it turns out to be it had better not be from out of the kitchen! Learned that lesson the hard way long time ago.

Sam - Sorry about that! After my second post I realized that but it seemed eaiser than typing out "ApprenticeMan". Later this morning I will drop down and give you 25. Ha ha!! Are you involved in anyway with the Mastermyr project? CBran and Mike - Thanks for taking time to give your input! Since mankind has gone to a lot of trouble to create electricity and power tools I might as well use them from time time.

Dale - Just took a look at the link you provided. I was not aware of the Mastermyr project and history behind it but I am definately going to take the time to read through it all. Just another example of there being nothing really new under the sun.

Dale - A Viking huh? Probably he knocked an Anglo-Saxon smith on the head and took it! Ha ha! Or did you mean the ones from Minnesota... Thomas - Thanks again! I still might just score it deep and hot cut it. Would be good practice and uses up lots of calories. Then again, I might just shove in my "Alien" DVD and collect some of that good alien blood and use it - looks like it will cut just about anything.

Thanks! Yeah - I was thinking to score it deep with the cut-off disk and then hot cut it to fruition, but I've got to get off this purest mindset - great-great grandad has a hacksaw so why shouldn't I use one too??!!

Hmm...I was thinking leaf spring would have been too hard to cut practically this way, but I have a couple of disks for my saw, so will give it a shot. Thanks!

Steve - Well, there it is. Feel a bit foolish 'cause had I given it a couple extra seconds of thought I would have answered my own question. By the way, like your site - your glossary of terms is excellent.