TimB

Just curious, but it seems to me that a blade made out of two different carbon content steels would have "soft" spots in its edge, and depending on the pattern, could wind up with significant portions of the edge softer than the rest of it. Is this true, and what would be the experiences any have had on the use ability of the blade. I have carried a carbon steel Schrade 5" belt folder for 30 years, and the blade now has little more steel than your average 3" pocket knife. I tend to shy away from SS blades like Buck. I sharpen them with a hand stone, and tend to preferr the harder sharpening steels that hold their edge well. That's my experience with knife steels, just wondering how Damascus would generally compare.

:D I was wondering the same thing. Oh, well, I don't mind the rain...'cept when I have to poke around in a 240v or 480v control panel. I can deal with most weather fairly well, but I hate wind ...and the sun in my face...but wind most of all.

Same here Frosty, 'cept it was raining, a bit warmer and more humid, some sun, and I got sent out to work on a couple chillers that had problems no one else in the shop could find. But it was still better'n the 90* day yesterday. Like you said, a perfect day :)

I just use ear plugs. I don't like even the noise made while hammering a nail, so I where ear plugs often. Just one good whack can create enough noise that my ears ring, and kind of go dead, like they pressurize or something. My wife says I shouldn't carry on like that, though when I hit my thumbnail. ;)

Y'know, I want a good heavy, massive, and incredibly cheap anvil too, but I'm thinking they don't exist, so I made mine. Still dreaming about that anvil, but something about a homemade one adds to the whole " learning to blacksmith " thing for me. Sometimes they ain't picture perfect, but the homemade anvils here are things of beauty.

Well...as long as it's just a real cold day. ;)

Interesting, I've been thinking about this too. I made a stock tank heater last year out of a mason jar and a 100w light bulb. Had to weight the jar down with lead to get it to sink, but it worked good untill it hit 0*. Still, there was a hole in the ice big enough for the animals to drink out of. I been kind of curiouse to find out how much ice a good big chunk of hot metal will melt though. I been toying with the idea of makeing a propane burner that would wrap around my homemade anvil, but I'll probly just set it on the coal for a while, that way my welding gloves will get warm too, when I move it back to the stand... :D

That's what I was thinking too. Some molds I've seen advertise their 255gr. bullet as for .45 colt and ACP, which I thought would be handy to get one mold for both--though it's a little lighter than I wanted for the colt, and a little heavy for the Auto--but I wasn't convinced it would work out that way. The ones I've seen tended to be .452". Though I've done a lot of reloading for the auto with 230's, (store bought lead) I don't recall seeing any data for 255's ever. Thanks for the input. I been thinking about getting back into reloading, after about 10 years away from it. I know I've seen my books around here recently, but I can't seem to track them down when I want to. :rolleyes:

LOL!!!:D:D Hey, if I can't be a good example, at least I can be a good bad example. :D

Any time amigo! In fact, pretty much exactly that, --any time. I pretty regularly have $100K AFV winners, just no one around video taping the moment is all. :)

There ya go! .54 CVA here, 410 gr. minnie ball, but I'd like to get a .45 mold. Probbably a 255 gr. for both my colt and acp, if I can find some reload info for a .255 cast for ACP.

In Washington it is too...but everyone does. They even sell Purina deer chow at the feed store.

.45 Colt ? I'ld like to get a lee pot, but right now I don't have the money. Maybe some day. Maybe sooner after my latest adventure :rolleyes:

Thanks all for your insights. A little update. Well, I finally made myself a lead dipper, and was casting some more bullets. My melting pot was an old sauce pan I had laying around in the garage, and I used my coal forge as a stove to heat it with. I made my forge from an old propane tank that I cut the top off of, about 2" deep. I took the valve out of it and screwed a piece of 3/4" pipe into where the valve was screwed in. I had a piece of 3/8" pipe screwed into a "Tee" in the 3/4" pipe, which my PSI regulator and compressor hose hooked onto. This apparatus formed the duct for the forge combustion air to force up into the coal bed in the inverted propane tank lid. The other side of the "Tee" had another length of 3/4" pipe screwed into it to form the stand. So anyways, I set my metal sauce pan of lead on this forge, and my dipper was working pretty well, until the lead in the pan started getting cool, (Generally a sign that a clinker is forming over the air inlet, but this time, because I turned the air down) so I turned up the air, higher than before, to heat up the lead faster, before my mold cooled off too much. It worked pretty good, till supper, when I shut it down. Curious thing though, my forge was peculating, probably because the liquid clinker forming at the air inlet was so hot and big by now. Tonight I go out there to fire up my forge and the air doesn't work. I got it all working right but air just wont flow through the forge. Fast Forward... I had to get the lead out. Evidently the pot I was using to melt the lead in was aluminum, and I hadn't realized it, but I burned a hole in the bottom of it and the lead drained out and filled my air duct solid. Note to self...don't use an aluminum pan to melt lead in over a coal fire.:rolleyes:

I like your style, Nakedanvil. BTW What time of the day are you, "...in the shadow of Mt. Ranier" ?

Well, I been content for now just banging away at hot metal, trying different things with my hammers, and generally getting the feel of the art. I took a 3/4" residential furnace blower shaft, upset the end a bit, drew out a 1/4" square handle, then flattened the upset end, into a 2" round, intending on bending it over a 1 1/8" trailer hitch ball. I had originally attempted to use the ball as the anvil, to form the dipper bowl as I worked the upset shaft end, but found that it wanted to stretch more length ways than width ways, so I took it back to the anvil and worked it out width ways with the cross pein, and the hammer edge. Once again I took it to the ball, but found the hot handle was twisting, before the ladle would wrap around the ball. I started heating the ladle only, leaving the handle cold where it meets the ladle,-- and wallah, now it is cracked, at the stress point, where the ladle would try to twist at the point it meets the handle. Evidently, I get to try my hand at forge welding soon, too. Wrapping a flat circle, around a sphere, results in some folds, which in my imagination, worked beautifully for a pour spout, but at my anvil...didn't. I would like some suggestions / comments, please. I assume there are more than I would think to ask for. :)

I been thinking of trying to forge weld the claws together, then draw them out to form either a drift punch, or hot cut tool. Ain't tried it yet, but I been thinking about it.

;) I put a hammer handle on an 8# sledge head I had laying around, so I been having fun with that set up. I love the way my arms feel after swinging that around a while. :D

Yep, I was. Sorry it wasn't clearer.

Hmmm...decarburization, is that what's going on with the "sparkler effect"? And that would explain why the splitting maul head I'm trying to forge into an anvil horn is arguing with me so much

So steel, depending on the carbon content, (in combination with the catalyst used to keep the C in suspention) must be forged at a higher temperature than, say, mild steel, in direct proportion to the level of it's carbon content, in increasing temperatures, in order to avoid a situation where the C may precipitate out during forgeing? And then cast iron has a C content that precipitates out of suspention at the temperature where it begins to freeze?

...uuhh, I stumped myself again. ( it's getting easier these days...) Are you all saying that cast steel is just steel that's been cast instead of forged? such that if you took a "cast steel " sumpthin and put it in the forge, it would heat and beat out like a similar chunk of steel? evidently, the crystal needs some polishing :)

Yeah, thanks guys. Night, your responce was the string that the solution precipitated out and crystalized on, thanks... , and yes, I was asking from the standpoint of looking at a scrap heap wondering what to try out next, and you all gave me more than I asked for, but that's only because I'm too ignorant to know to ask for it. It was not more than I wanted to know. Thank you

Maybe, instead of trying to reason this through, I should just come right out and ask what the difference is, between cast iron--with a higher carbon % than steel, and cast steel. Does the cast steel have yet higher carbon content than cast iron? Why is cast iron called "iron" even though it has a higher % carbon content than steel.

I have a bib type, leather. Bought it a while ago at the local welding supply shop, and if memory serves, the price wasn't too bad.