Randy Griffin

14, 15 and 17 and still believe in Santa. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE.

OK, you have a boat. When Dale said head for the river, I'm thinking, there are crocodiles in the rivers. Stay safe. I'll be praying for you and yours.

You and Sandy are in my prayers.

I went back and re-read IF&C's post and as usual, looked to me like he was trying to help. Keep up the good work.

Anvil, just for my information, why would you dome the hammer end? I would have thought flat would have more contact with the hammer and transfer more energy to the tip. There i go thinking again.

That's going to make a great anvil. Mine is roughly 4 x 4 1/2 so you will have more area. You can even leave the guides on the backs and weld the front faces together, if you decide to weld them. There is actually plenty of face on just one. I still say an angle grinder with cutoff blades is going to be the best way to cut them. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Das, there are different styles. One like yours is next on my list.

I played around with the bearing steel again today. Got my daughters carving knife shaped and ready for HT. First I need to do a test piece to see if I can harden this steel. Is it 52100? You tell me. I know there are beter ways to do this but I must've done something right. I cut a small piece of the race and pounded out a rough blade shape. Then normalized twice. I heated it to yellow heat and cooled with my air hose and blow gun. Normalized a third time. I then heated to nonmagnetic or a little hotter and watching the color, tried to keep it as close to that temp as I could for 10 minutes. Quenched in conola. The file skated so in the toaster oven at 400 for an hour twice. It came out dark straw, almost bronze. This thing is still hard. I roughed some bevels with my belt sander and got the edge close. Took forever to sharpen. I was beginning to think it wouldn't sharpen. Then all of a sudden it started shaving hair. Right now it's as sharp or sharper than any blade I have. I see more knives in the future using this bearing. I'll make a post in the knife section when I finish my daughter's carving knife. Some of the high end detectors claim to discriminate between metals and they do a pretty good job but none of them are perfect. A large piece of iron will still make you think it's a silver dollar. You should get a detector. There's lots of free metal in the ground. I cleaned an old file today that is probably 100 years old or older. I am going to forge it into a knife and try to heat treat it. It should be close to 1095. We'll see.

Not that easy. It takes years to distinguish the difference in the sounds of different metals. I have been using a metal detector for 20 years now and pot metal still sounds just like silver. Best thing to do is dig everything. After all, wrought iron is considered a precious metal, isn't it?

Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Now I'm off to eat everything in sight.

I used the two upright pieces because there was no wear on that part. Pick up several cutting discs for your side grinder. If you are going to weld the two together, clamp them together really tight. You don't want even a small gap when finished. You can clean the top with the grinder but I used a file and small belt sander to get it flat. Good luck. I love mine.

TP, there's nothing better than fried cornbread. Well, maybe cracklin bread.

A good hard days work makes your beer taste good too.

Yes, I've been reading everything I could find. I don't have the right equipment to heat treat it to its full potential but I hope to get a decent knife.

You have two choices. Forge them with a socket like the Europeans did or forge them in the shape of the stone points our native Americans made and tie them on with sinew. Either way works.

I cut a small piece of the bearing race and got it forged to a decent shape. Normalized 3 times. I got to go out of town tomorrow so will be a few days before I can quench and see if this steel is going to make a decent knife.

Looks good. All the welds seem to be holding. When you say large band saw blade - how large?

Good luck. I'll be watching for the pics.

I'm sorry to hear of their passing. we never know what we have until it's gone. Lawrence Welk - Wow - that's a childhood memory. LOL I've eaten hickory nuts but never cracked them and picked them out for baking. Don't know why, they're delicious. I have a tree in the pasture. I think I'll get some. Hang on to that anvil and cherish it. And keep that chair. It's a good one.

That might be a good avatar picture. Griffin Forge. We're getting somewhere now. Thanks pnut and CGL. I never thought about that.

Nothing wrong with that anvil. It just needs using. I would get a little better anvil stand though.

CGL, Nice forging. I don't know how you could get any more perfect than that.

What is the brand name of the blower? Those gears look to be in good shape.

I like it. What steel did you use?

Yes, I raised it to get the fireball higher and it comes up to heat quicker. I also raised the bottom of the firebowl. It's still just an inch below the bottom of the tuyere. That's a place for ashes to collect also.