Pat Masterson

Lol ok brain was not working right. Had to stare at it one more time. Got it. Thanks guys.

Ohh ok so I just have one anvil then? But there should be different sizes to match each size hole?

Ah ok - I see how it would work to flare pipes. Still confused on what the “anvil” would look like but I can look it up. I’m going back to my uncles shop for a second load though so maybe I can find them.

Made the flat jaw tongs from the blanks I bought. Super ugly but they hold 1/4 and 3/8 really strong and 1/8 and 1/2 just ok. Either way I’m happy to add another set and itching to get the other four sets finished because literally every single project I end up angry at some point because of the way I have to hold the work. Also, anyone know what this tool is??

That is a crazy hoard!! Unreal. “Orthopedic smith” who would’ve thought - that’s amazing.

I got a really great haul for free yesterday but im always amazed at the type of things guys on here find like Biggundoctor - that’s crazy. I think it’s the area I live in though. There’s just not many blacksmiths - at least that I can find. Anyway my uncle passed a few months back and my aunt is getting rid of his tools so she said I could scavenge. Mostly woodworking tools that I don’t even understand but also some really awesome stuff. These letter and number stamps which I think will be ok for steel. These three compass/dividers not sure of proper name but they look extremely well made and stamped France on them - not sure if that’s good or bad and also this little tiny one in a glass case. I got more clamps than I could carry - all different kinds, almost brand new dremel 3000 and some great wood chisels. Also got this benchtop mortiser…kind of funny my aunt brought it with her the day after I was at her house because she thought it was the drill press I said I wanted lol. So I’ll still go get the drill press at some point but I think any blacksmith (that doesn’t know what he’s doing) would look at this and think the same thing…think with a modified bit this could be used to punch holes? Not hammer eyes obviously lol but thin stock? Got this set of gauge blocks too. Cheap ones I’m sure but doesn’t matter.

worth** the price difference

Hey guys - anyone use both brands and have an opinion on which is better? I’ve heard great things about both. I’m a big fan of Jason Knights knife making YouTube and he swears and I believe is sponsored by Red Label. I’m also a huge fan of John Switzer from Black Bear Forge on YouTube. He’s sponsored by Combat. I ordered some belts from combat with John’s discount code for my little 1x30 a while back and they were pretty good but the grinder was kind of a joke lol so I don’t think I got their full potential. Just upgraded to a 2x42 and wanted to try some Red Label belts but even without the Black Bear discount and plus shipping I literally got almost double the amount of combat belts that I would have gotten had I spent the same amount on the red label. Just curious if anyone thinks the red labels are really that much more superior and worse the price difference. Thanks.

Anyone have a suggestion on how to keep the rams from lifting up when they come under pressure? It’s not a terrible amount but if you look at the two pics you can see the difference. It’s probably a good 1/2-5/8” maybe a little more that they will lift. Usually the moving one. I was thinking about drilling into the black bar that runs along the body and moves with the ram then drilling into the side of the ram itself and putting a bar from the ram to the black bar so they’d be connected and kind of holding each other in place but I’m not sure weakening that thin black bar is a good idea. The lift isn’t the end of the world I guess but it would just be easier to control and I’m guessing I’m losing at least some power when it happens.

Maybe Im google challenged but all I could find were the already forged billets. I saw that site also Buzz but that’s not the one I saw last week. Just driving me nuts that I know it’s out there somewhere lol

I’m going crazy here. Last week I found a site that was offering stacks of 1084 15n20 or similar steels for Damascus billets - like it was literally a picture of the layers stacked and taped/packaged ready to throw in the forge. It was some kind of small forge shop - I thought it was Coal Iron Works but apparently not. Anyway the price was really awesome and now I can not find the site again. I’ve literally been looking for almost two hours now and can’t find it in my history either but I know I wasn’t imagining this. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Thanks JHCC. That makes more sense now.

Nice axe Jobtiel. I’d say the log splitter press is a success lol. Really surprised me how powerful it is. This was only half inch bar I was testing with but it still did in 30 seconds what would’ve taken me at least an hour by hand. Definitely need some fine tuning with the one hand operation, getting the rams to stay in line a little better and the next set of dies to fit better but I’m super happy with it so far. IMG_2332.MOV

Sorry this isn’t related to 1045 but Speaking of “in rust we trust” reminded me - are there different types of h13 - some with more chrome than others? Asking because I picked some up and it’s very chrome looking - and when I look up other listings for it sometimes it looks like what I have and other times it looks to have a finish more like regular steel. My forge is outside anyway so I’m not sure breathing in fumes would be a major concern but still wanted to be sure it’s safe to forge.

But don’t they HAVE to be differing alloys in order for the etch to reveal a pattern? I’m just using 1084 as an example but if I did a billet of 1084 on 1084 it would be kind of pointless as no pattern would be seen, no? This is why the cable thing always confused me lol.

Both like you Thomas - adult onset type 1 which from what I understand is one of the tougher diabetic situations to control but I could be wrong. Nice knife Das - is it the inner and outer strands of the cables that are different and therefore provide the contrast when etched? I ask bc I feel like I’ve seen videos where people remove the inner and just work the outer or vice versa but still get the Damascus look - which seems confusing..

Been a while since I could get on here - glad I have a couple weeks of others projects to scroll through now though. Sorry to hear you’re not feeling well Thomas. My late 97 year old grandfather and 96 year grand mother had and have diabetes. I’ve been helping to take care of her since he passed and it’s really tough on her. Nice knife Chimaera. JHCC did you do that with just file work? I need to redo my touch mark but haven’t thought of anything that I really like AND think I can pull off making on my own - only either or for ideas. My current one is just an M from some rebar that hardens somewhat well but not great. Log splitter press is done - well, done meaning I can use it. The stand ended up being a bit taller than I wanted lol so I may bring it down a little and I still have to make more dies - I want at least some drawing dies and I think this is a good spot to use some of that Flutagon I got to make a punching die but it’s useable nonetheless and I’ll try it next weekend for sure. I was incredibly excited to finish and use it yesterday but then my new belt grinder arrived and it turns out I was more excited about that. I copied another Amazon buyers mods so that it will take thicker belts and the wheels can be used as contact surfaces. He also made a really cool work rest I want to to try to make also.

Nice axes guys! Im in desperate need of tongs so I spent a little while prepping these blanks I bought a while back for tomorrow. Just drilled and countersunk for the rivets. I thought these were from Kens Custom Iron, but once I looked at the other pair I bought like a year back I noticed the rivets are much smaller than the ones from Ken. It turns out these are some kind of knock off. I’m sure they’ll still be fine but I would’ve rather bought from him instead of someone who is passing something off as the same.

Thanks for the tips JLP. I finally finished this ball peen hammer into a hatchet project. Unfortunately I got overzealous with trying to get it heat treated right and it cracked. It’s a small crack.. so small I couldn’t get a pic that showed it. Luckily my brother lives in an apartment so he has no real need for something like this anyway. Before I even showed him the crack he said he just wanted it to be something on display since it was once my grandfathers hammer. He loved it. My first shot at leather work also. Not so good…but good enough I guess. Going to make him something to display it in his house as well. Gave my other brother the globe. It was hard to let go but he fell in love with it when I showed it to him a few months back so now I have a reason to make another one. And for once I finished a project same day and came up with it on my own. I know it’s not the most brilliant idea lol but my aunt loves dolphins so I worked on this little dolphin candle thing allll daayyy long so she could get it tonight. Well my holiday season technically started back in August to make all these gifts like I’m sure it did for a lot of us here…I’m glad it’s over lol. But I did want say that this last year that I started smithing has been different for me…gave me something to care about at a time I didn’t care about much else. This site has been an enormous help and inspiration to keep going with it so I want to say a sincere thank you and merry Christmas/happy holidays, whichever applies, to those that keep it running and to the people that repeatedly answer my dumb questions and give great advice - Thomas Powers, Frosty, Daswulf, Jlpservicesinc, Les L, Alexandr, JHCC, Jobtiel1, Frazer and probably a couple dozen others that I apologize for forgetting or if I spelled your name wrong lol thank you all and Merry Christmas again!

Tried doing this for my mothers birthday and failed three times. I tried to do it with round bar and square bar so only half would be pretwisted. Pretty sure it was because the square bar started off larger than the round bc I didn’t have matching sizes so I tried forging it down to size first. This meant they just would not twist at the same rate no matter what I did. This is really really nice though. Great job.

Wow JLP those pokers are nice. Consistency or symmetry between two or many pieces is one of my biggest problems - those all look very consistent. Speaking of which…I had some one ask me to make this star candle holder thing. They sent me a pic of an existing one and asked me to replicate it. Came pretty close I think. Luckily the four star parts look very symmetrical when set up the way they are but before assembly when I had them lined up against each other….not so much lol. Had to get creative with my magnets to get the bottom welded up. This ended up taking waaayy longer than I thought it would - should’ve charged double what I did but now I know for next one I guess. I don’t know what’s up with this little welder I have. It’s rated for 3/16 max. but I welded up the stuff for the log splitter press with no problems, pretty decent looking weld beads, good penetration which I know because I did a test piece and cut and etched it and all of that material was 3/8 or 1/2”. But 1/8, 3/16 and 1/4” I can not get welds that don’t have all of this porosity. Really frustrating. My settings must be off for the smaller stuff but I feel like I’ve tried everything. Oh and I found this really cool little hammer screwdriver thing in my late grandfathers garage. He has so many amazing old tools. No markings on it or anything - Probably mass produced but I thought it was pretty cool.

Haha good idea Thomas. Delivery from Coal Iron Works today. 3/4 Flutagon/A33. This stuff just sounds way too good to be true. Forge, quench in water and well…that’s it apparently. Can’t wait to try it out. I feel like at the price point I was able to get this for and the amazing properties it’s supposed to have, everyone would make all of their tools out of this stuff - if they were buying new material I mean. Obviously making tools from good hardenable scrap is another story but that’s why I say it sounds too good to be true. Anyone have experience/suggestions for this stuff? My heat treat app doesn’t even list it.

Nice works as always Alexandr. Really cool to have stuff you made on the other side of the world lol. I made some good progress on the log splitter press. Got one die done. I really regretted cutting this 1/2” plate for the dies as soon as I started with a 4 inch grinder lol. I did it bc I have a lot of it and I wanted to close the gap between the two dies as much as possible. I might see if I can just buy some 3x3 squares of it to make more dies. Coming along nicely though. IMG_1887.MOV

Das I believe it does have to go all the way back but with the size of the rams it shouldn’t have to travel too far. I also have to rig something up to bypass the two handed operation. Have to hold a button and press the level to get it to move. And build a stand so I don’t have to lay down while using it lol. Lots of work left.

All those by hand? Impressive. I’m terrible at repeatability. I made some good progress on this log splitter press build. Got the body of the “ram and anvil” parts built. Going to try to get the dies done tomorrow. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that after taking some YouTube advice and changing out the wire that came with my little flux core with some Lincoln electric stuff from Home Depot I finally was able to make something that resembles a weld bead. Poor quality wire from HarborFreight I guess. I’m still quite sure at least some of these might break once this thing is under power but we’ll see. I have a tradition of giving my grandmother an angel for Christmas each year. Starting last year I make instead of buy them lol. Wanted this one to stand up on its own instead of having a little stand like last years. Diamond holes are way off but it’s ok.