larnotlars

Thanks for both ideas! Lar

Thanks! I appreciate the steering away from over thinking it! While I cannot read the German on the link that she gave me, it looked kinda like a 1 inch plumb bob on a 1/4 inch shaft. Theirs was about 12-18 inch rod with a turned wooden handle. Now I am wondering about an ethanol wick lamp to heat it (like used for wax shaping to cast) that can be integrated in the holder. That's my initial concept. I will talk to her more and see if that is what she wants. Of course with alcohol and whiny humans, I will want to talk to her about avoiding litigation. It will probably be best for them to have the staff do it. Also, I can imagine bad things with a cold glass stein and forge temp steel. We'll see. Hopefully I'll have photos to add. Of course the irony is that I have Celiac, so no beer for me. I wonder how it would work with carbonated hard cider/mead/wine? Cheers! Lar

Hi I recently received an inquiry from a local brewery that is interested in getting hand forged pokers to heat and dunk in beer... Supposedly that is a thing and it caramelizes the carbs in the beer and gives it a unique and pleasant texture. I was given a photo, but the page was entirely in German. I am thinking that the easiest method would be form a small plumb bob with a hole and let it heat shrink onto a rod. I have not used anything besides mild steel for smithing and blade steel for knives. I would imagine that super heated beer would be a hostile environment for steel. Supposedly, the mythos of Bierstacheln is that a black smith used his forge poker and then it caught on... I am going to assume that he didn't use green coal much. Does anyone have suggestions for forgable, steels that would be sensible to use in a brewery? Thanks for ideas! [commercial link removed] Lar

Dang. There is a white residue on a couple spots of the forge. There was an addendum that I was going to put up, but I couldn't get on the Server... When it cooled, there was a yellow powdery cast from some holes that were drilled into the length of the piece of metal. The yellow powder on the broad face turned white. The holes could have been the source of the "contaminate" if it was hot dipped, but I would have expected them to fill (they are 1-2 mm wide). I hadn't thought of the coke being contaminated. Yesterday was beautiful and I had great ventilation, but I don't know about my next forge day. My coal is through Rocky Mountain Smiths (a truck load that the Org bought), and I am just finishing the half ton that I bought a few years ago. The fire was mostly coke at the time (maybe 1/10 green coal since I had stumbled on a can that I had coked at a previous hammerin). I woke up this morning, so that's a decent start of the day. Thanks for your assistance! Lar

I was trying to work a piece of Junk yard steel to make a punch block, a little while ago. I was working over a coal/coke fire and had a pretty hot fire going. The metal was ground off so that there was no surface coating on it. I noticed that when I was cranking the blower that there was a dark blue flame which I have never seen before. I took a couple steps back but was not particularly concerned since it is a nice day and my garage is very opened where the forge is. When I brought the metal out to quench the end that I was not going to forge, I saw a yellow scale that looked like elemental sulfur stuck to it that resisted the wire brush. I did a google, ask.com, and yahoo search and didn't find anything, but that doesn't mean much, I let the metal soak while I did that. I brought it up to a pretty bright orange to draw on my bick and the piece rang like it was still black. I guess that I could have had a cold center, but the hammer marks are like it was room temperature. The steel(?) had been brought up to orange 3 times within 45 minutes prior to placing on the bick. There was still blue flame even after reaching orange heat. So, 2 questions. 1)was this a presumed suicide attempt? :wacko: 2)what steel like alloy behaves like this? Thanks Lar

Oh Yeah, An update on the tongs... I am making them with 7/8 coil. The drawing is making my arms turn into rubber, but it is good practice. I'm working from the tip so will start half facing the jaws today. I have larger rivits on the way from Pieh so they should be here when I am ready to punch and drift. Hopefully pics will follow.

I spent a week at his class 3 years ago. I learned how to forge weld much more effectively than I had prior, how to chamfer, better ways to draw down metal, how to make punches and heat treat. Hopefully I will be able to go back soon. Once upon a time I thought that I would learn by trying and making my own mistakes... I never dreamed that there were so many mistakes to make, and so little time!

I'm doing a dry run with plain stock. So far I have found out that my slitting chisel is to big for the drift/rivet combination that I have... On the bright side, Pieh tools has My Life as an Artist Blacksmith by Francis Whittaker for $23... I'm not sure if I'll use the cutting disk from the angle grinder or try to hold it in front of the forge... My forge is a Chili habenero... it heats well, but the opening is tiny. I'd love to use the coal burner, but dang, I hate carrying everything out into the sunlight... Who knows, maybe I'll get really lazy and heat it with a carburizing acetylene flame. Hmmm, I wonder how well sucker rod would work?

Thanks a lot Phil! I have the coil spring downstairs! I just need to figure out how to cut it (gas burner won't fit, and I don't have enough ventilation in the shop for the coal burner yet... I might be reassembling the coal burner in the driveway this afternoon!

Thanks for the posting the process for making tongs for hammers! I've been trying to make them with rr spike tongs and it's been working so poorly! Lar

Yeah, I have the shortcoming of not wanting to finish projects that are not turning out the way that I want them to. Fortunately, I tend to make 1 hr to 3 day projects more often. I'm getting pretty good at making Jhooks with a leaf covering the screw hole, and am working on my first set of fire tools (opened twist handles). I proudly have a 2 foot tall stack of busted chain links that I have discarded, but have made several feet of working chain. I'm trying to figure out how I want to proportion the hammer tongs. I can't seem to find any to model for them except the ones that I borrowed, and they were clearly done with a power hammer, the joint is 1/2 inch by 2 inches on each side.... I could buy 1/2 * 2 and reduce the jaws and reins to a welding scarf, but that seems like a lot of 3lb hammer blows. On the other hand, I could use 1 inch bar. Still alot of hammer'in, but more likely to get an uneven joint. Oh well, it will be a few days until I get going... probably will try first with the 1 inch square since I have that... We'll see! Lar

Thanks for the help. I know that I was kind of sketchy on the details. The war ax is going to be mostly to laugh about, but I'm sure that it's a matter of time before someone grabs it and tries to make it stick in my Walnut tree. I think that the differential hardening is the way to go. I can do the multiple drifts. I will look up Brian's blue prints. I have made quite a few half tongs, but have not gotten a set that seemed worth the rivit yet. Thanks again! Lar

Hi All. I have 2 projects that I am up to that I should have done more research on before starting. At least they are modest ones. 1- I am making a war ax out of an old ball peen hammer. I have aspirations of drawing the blade to bearded ax dimensions, but it is not working as well as intended. When it comes time to heat treat, I was intending to use quenchtex A and temper to a purple 3 times each (yeah, I hang out with blade people). Is it better to just forge heat and harden the edge (1 inch) and let it temper with retained heat? Suggestions? (I also have an old tub o peanut oil and of course water). 2- I am making a double diagonal peen hammer 45 degree to the right on one face and left on the other to use on texturing leaves and other items. It was originally a 3 lb hand sledge from a surplus store. How do I temper the peens? 3- I have been borrowing a hammer tongs to work on both projects, but I won't have access to them anymore. I have not been able to find hammer tongs anywhere online. Has anyone seen them? Thanks for any help! Lar

Thanks for the input everyone! Yeah, I typo'ed the amps, it is 200 amp. The catch is that Xcel states that the transformers (yeah, there are 2 that reach my yard... both are 25kva) are both at acceptable levels of use, but would go over tolerance if I got the new service. So, they want me to buy them a new transformer with an initial quote of $10,000. One of my fantasies was to tell them to take a hike and get a NG generator and use NG for the forge, but that sounds like it won't work. I got hold of Stacy Starr from Chili forge (I run a habenero 2 burner) and she doesn't believe that I could suck enough gas out of the low pressure pipes to reach welding temperature for billets. It looks like it will be LP and an upgrade of service for the house and a line from my main box to a smaller box within the garage. Lar

That looks like the vise a friend of mine calls ViceZilla. His is 200lb, and is assumed to be for very heavy work. The length of the vice should allow nearly any size of metal to be held firmly without trying to roll. The adjustable pivot makes it even better, assuming that it is in good working order.