MeltedSocks

I got my xxx-xxx slapped twice in two days by a mod. One was for using a word for “donkey” that you can even find in the Bible. The second time was for “improperly quoting.” I feel like I’m the nicest guy who will have been banned from IFI. Anyway, I’ll try to do better. Incidentally, I hate it when people speak about me in the third person when I’m literally right here. It’s not a big coal forge, and the canoe definitely was too big. You can watch the first youtube link I posted to get an idea of it’s size. I bought a piece of 1.5” angle iron and will try again with a 1.5 x 1.5 x 3” canister.

That Harbor Freight press was just sitting around gathering cobwebs after I replaced the rear axle bearings on my pickup. I just wanted to see what I could make it do. I got the idea from a blacksmith on YouTube (who was also on F in F twice), but he didn't have the foot pedal and air cylinder. I need to build a proper hydraulic press one of these days. I remembered the admonition that if you think the can has soaked long enough at forging temperature, let it soak for another 20 minutes. I kept that in mind. I think the problem is that only the bottom half reached that lemon yellow color. As soon as I rotated it 180 degrees, the lemon yellow cooled to bright red. Just too big of a canister for my coal forge. You can see where the powdered steel didn't quite reach a high enough temperature where the steel is grey and porous. I wonder if I can slice this up with my band saw and use it in another smaller canister? Twenty-five years of kitchen remodeling is what did my shoulders in, specifically, holding an impact driver overhead and driving 3" screws into studs. It took my ortho doc 4 hours to do my surgery. I had a 3 cm full thickness tear in my suprawhatchamacallit, a SLAP tear in my labrum, and many bone spurs on the bottom side of my acromion, plus a couple other things I didn't really understand. My left shoulder is worse, but I don't think they can fix it. Thirteen cm tear that is retracted 13 cm and atrophied. Supposedly non-repairable. My right shoulder felt good hammering on that canister, though. I think that hammering motion is not hard on the shoulder. It's the overhead stuff that hurts the shoulder.

It’s not my usual practice to get distracted and neglect the fire, so no real issues there. Only happens every once in while. But I admit that after four months of recovery from rotator cuff surgery, I am indeed out of practice. My Harbor Freight press is really only good for making smaller knives. So, I guess I need my son to come over next time and man my big xxx sledge hammer.

I’m just now getting back into blacksmithing after four months of PT. I had a wrecked right shoulder and recovery from surgery had been slow and difficult. I feel good enough to wield a hammer now and decided to come back in grand style. I’ve had several successes doing regular Damascus, but I decided to try a canister. I TIG welded up a 2”x2”x4” canoe, 1/8” thick walls, painted it with White Out, and filled it with spring coil segments from a garage door spring, cut nails, some hurricane shutter screws, and powdered steel. When I picked it up, I immediately knew I probably made it too big for my coal forge. I accidentally burned off one side of the canoe, which wasn’t good. I could only get one side of the canister up to forging temperature at one time, so I alternated sides, heating, hammering, and pressing. I squished it down to about 1.25” thick using my converted Harbor Freight 20 ton press, but I reckon quit a bit burned off as well. Take a look at my build videos. Part 3 is a demonstration, while Parts 1 and 2 are more detailed about the build process. I got the canister off with little difficulty. The top was completely burned away, so no resistance there. After etching and washing, I blew compressed air on it and in it to dry it out. I noticed that it was porous like one of those aquarium rocks that makes the small bubbles. I’m assuming it was because I got it up to forging temperature but didn’t compress it enough. I appreciate any feedback on how to do this better with the tools I have. https://youtu.be/y32-M8o1e-k https://youtu.be/cDd3C4T4h_8 https://youtu.be/-wdJUfO4zo0