Yance

Nice vise. When you clean up your next one try one of those knotted wire wheels for your angle grinder, not a flap disc. The brush cleans really good and leaves a nice smooth patina finish, kinda "gun metal" gray. The "shed" my vise is under is one of those rectangular plastic buckets that bulk clothes washing detergent or cat litter comes in. I use nickel anti seize on the screw.

The recession didn't bring down anything except our raises. Food Lion can only afford to give us a 1% raise this year. My Neice teaches in Little Washington. I'll have to get down there sometime. back on subject: did you use mild steel or wrought?

shortdog; I'm just a little Southeast of Asheville. Yup, lovely country. Too many "imports" coming in. HUGE Gated communities and multi million $$ houses. Flag Pond, TN is starting to look REAL good.<G> I'd like to get down there on the Neuse for a while. Been a long time since I've been down that way. I have cousins in Carterett Co near the Cedar Island ferry terminal. THAT'S my kind of beach coutry. Try one of the folded axes. The welding on those is easier for me than smaller stuff I've tried.

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement. I already have orders for three, so I'd best git hammerin'. :D

Jake; They're from the early Westward expansion, Mountain Man fur trader days and were called "Trade Axes" supposedly because they were one of the things traded to the Native North American for their furs or whatever. They're a style of throwing hawk or camp axe, 18-19 inch handle, 6-7 inch by around 3" head. They weigh around 2 lb or slightly more. Check out the video on artistblacksmith.com . Davis Roberson makes it look SOOOOO easy. :rolleyes:

Winter has finally given way to Spring here in the North Carolina Mountains and I finally had nice weather for a couple of my day's off so I could fire up the forge. Last Wednesday I made my first attempt at a folded trade axe with leaf spring steel insert. Today I made a second one. A few more and I might have a saleable one.

Nice tongs Dave. I like the "mass" of the reins and know what you mean about the lighter ones "giving' a little. Now, put the guts back in the ice cream freezer and exercise yer blower crankin' arm for something cold and tasty. I'll send you my Mom's Vanilla Ice Cream recipe if you need it. :lol:

glilley; One thing to try is setting two "shoulders" on two touching sides at the top of your taper. Also, 1/4" round is too small for a 1/4" square header hole. I had to "shrink" the hole in the header I made by re-heating and driving the top down then opening it back up a bit with my square punch. Now I can use 1/4" stock with no problem. (Except for not leaving enough material for a good head.) :(

OK, you posted this last Friday and no update from your weekend trip to visit the anvil. :unsure:

I've made a couple dozen from broken garage door spring, and for larger ones I use heavier (aprox 3/8" D) coil spring I found at the "resource center" (scrapyard). I forge to the desired shape, mostly "C" style, but also really like the feel of the old English Monkeytail style. After shaping I reheat to orange and allow to cool to black at the edge of the fire, then re-heat to orange again, (a good bit hotter than "critical") and quench in motor oil, face first moving it up and down to blur the quench line, then when the color leaves the "handle" portions quench the rest. I've also had good luck quenching just the face in water. I also had a friend pick up some English flint spalls for me on one of his trips to Friendship. Talk about SPARKS!!!!

This one has cracked where the front jaw "eye" was forge welded to the arm. After straightening both the front and rear I'll grind out the cracked area and stick weld it back solid. Any ideas on the manufacturer of this one? The "C" is stamped on the front upright below the handle. Thought the decoration on the screw box might be an indication of the maker.

I did have an E-Z Up 10'X10' borrowed in case of rain but didn't have it up. If there are two of us working together again we'll set up a little "tighter" so both can make use of the tent. Smoke wasn't a problem as long as I added coal a little at a time and often, however my "Mentor" liked to "help" me out by pulling a good bit of green stuff in at a time. While I like my 24"X36" forge, I'll probably wind up building a more portable one later on. Just gotta keep scrounging the scrapyards.

Split personality:rolleyes:

Lots of folks in the community know me from my "real" job in the produce department of our local Food Lion supermarket and several know I'm a 'smith wannabe, but Saturday was my first time out in public with my forge and anvil. Two other local 'smiths worked with me, one with his gas forge, and my "mentor" working on my forge. It was a great day! Several "I didn't know you did this too" comments and a good bit of interest in my camp iron pieces. Did make a few sales and some possible future "consignment' projects. Bottom line was I had a ball!!! Beautiful mid-November day, high was in the 70's, slight variable breeze to keep the coal smoke moving. Highlight of the day was the 8th grader who just would not leave. I finally let him take a turn at the anvil and walked him through how to make a twisted "S" hook from 1/4" square stock. Kid's a natural! First fishtail and taper was just about perfect, and the second was real close. He thought putting the twist in the middle was the neatest part. Another 'smithing friend walked him through making a flint striker, then I showed him how to make a leaf key ring. With any luck he'll keep the interest and grow with it. Meanwhile I'll be looking for more local craft shows that don't mind a little smoke. I forgot all about having my camera in the truck until I was packing up to leave so one of my produce customers provided me with this shot. (Thanks Michelle) Hope it works here.

Two pretty neat ones can be made from one horse shoe. They may even have enough carbon to make a pretty decent camp knife.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/pre-order-hofi-hammers-october-2009-a-14374/index2.html

Drum in a drum is a great idea. Should hold up a LONG time. Check out your nearby muffler shop for some flex exhaust pipe to replace the dryer vent hose. It comes in different sizes, one's bound to be close enough to work for you. That's what I have coming off my Champion 400 held by a simple hose clamp. A large muffler/tailpipe clamp would be even better.

Hello Andrew, and welcome. Care to post some pics of your knives and hawks? Great bunch of folks to hang with here, you'll like it.

We count ourselves lucky here in Western North Carolina. Biltmore Iron and Metal still lets us scrounge the whole yard, (stay clear of the "claw") and retails all "metal" @15

Beth; I'm sure you'll let us know how your now hammer "fits". Looking forward to that report. Now I have to: #1 sell some stuff and buy coal #2 sell MORE stuff and get in on the next hammer order.

Do you mean Muriatic acid like masons use to clean up brick? It's a dilute of HCL and should be available at building supply places like Lowes' or Home Depot, or the local concrete/brick dealer. By "etching" do you mean to clean off scale or actual deep etching like engraving? I used to use 50% Nitric acid for cut wax etching back when there were "real" drug stores and it didn't require an act of congress to buy "dangerous" materials.

What I did was heat it back to yellow-orange and quenched in old motor oil. (PEWWWWW!!) Polished it out then with the shank deep in the fire and the horn above the coals drew it back to where the bend was dark purple/blue and the tip was just getting to straw. water quenched just the horn, "sloshing" with the tip to slowly cool the bend. The shank was still probably barely dull red (if it had been dark) and it went back into the oil. I just used it to finish shaping an open heart and it's still in one piece.