Iron Fangs

I don't plan to again. It was just the only thing he had laying around he would have considered scrap, but its going to be a really fun tool to finish bladed tools with But thank you for the tip on avoiding soft metal for it

Found this in my Uncle's basement when I was helping him move in last year, this was before I decided to try blacksmithing and he said I could have it. No idea when it was made or who made it, but it works just fine when plugged in, tested it using a piece of copper

It's weight rated for 350 pounds, so I'm hoping lol, it's the 1 inch dowels that I'm concerned about. But their stuck in about an inch and I put gorilla glue in the holes so let's see when I fill the box

Continuing on the steps, I gave my forge legs today, I used a Walker I had in my shed and secured it with poplar dowel rods (in case I need the walker later I didn't want to make it permanent, never know)

Cool, I have a ton of those

My thought process is to fill it a few inches, put the pipe in for the air intake, put a circular object inside to pour dirt around and pack it and remove the object to make the hole, does this sound right or should I just dig the hole after the fact?

Recently I have been looking at designs of Axes, they look a bit easier to construct than swords for the time being, and of course I'll make tools I need as I need them to keep my practice going, first in my list is taking a shot at my first set of Tongs. On another note, when I fill my Jbod forge with the actual dirt/sand/ash mix, should I fire it to cure or will it be ready as soon as the hole is in it?

It was a lot of fun and I feel like I learned a lot in terms of fundamentals, most important part of skill building am I right? I won't soon forget it

Speaking of the leaf, the one on the left is the example Das made, the one on the right is mine!

I had a lot of fun too, when I got home I finished the Box portion of my Jbod forge, it's very Frankenstein looking since I basically used the first scrap pieces of wood I found, but here we are lol I think the piece at the bottom that says "test" on it is very appropriate for this little project, I bought a wood burning tool a year ago and tested it on that piece, it's been sitting around since.

So basically hit it with my hammer when its hot and see how easy it shapes?

Fair point, but in terms of rigidity and flexibility, how does it range in performance between mild, medium, and HC steel? Does it fall more toward the mild end or toward the HC end? Or does it depend on the specific alloy mix?

Is there anything that I should avoid making with Stainless?

I have a different size, about 2 inch diameter and maybe 1/16 inch thick I'm also in process of making a 15in×15in jobd forge to start myself out

I need a new blade on my angle Grinder to do that, but its on my list, if it is actuslly stainless what is a good use for it and can I use it as the air intake for my forge?

Filing the pipe with the same pressure I use to rasp a red oak plank does not scratch it in the least, all it did was remove the last bit of dirt from that spot lol, this means stainless? Anything to do with that? I'm thinking of using it for the air intake for my forge

Update on mystery object, I had my brother-in-law post a picture of it in an antique forum and if he is correct it is basically an anchor, but for horses, a portable hitching post to deter your caravan or carriage horse from wandering off Unfortunately this would most likely be a cast iron piece if that is true, still very interesting

I do have a collection of files, I'll see what happens, I am not sure of the exact alloy but the product description said "crafter from Hardened Steel" which should be suitable for scratching aluminum yes?"

On the subject of alloys, I have submerged half of the short pipe in the picture in white Vinegar and there has been no change on the surface appearance and there is no evidence of anything coming off in the container, I also tried to stick a magnet to it and the magnet did not seem interested, do I assume stainless steel and the Shiney silver color is from Chromium, or do I assume the pipe is Aluminum? Also, any additional insight on that mystery object? At this point I just want to know what the heck it is even if it isn't forgable lol

You are very right about that, I should not think narrow minded about my stock

So maybe I cut the spikes off of it for chisels or tongs?

After wire brushing the pick I I jot see anything that looked like a seam, the press thing looks like it has welding marks almost

That is really cool, any good test to see if it's cast iron?

The angle Grinder actually did not have a guard. So I will probably have to find one for it, the bacon press, all I really know about it is that it's really heavy, I'm comparing it to a 30 lb bag of dog food I bought today and it is certainly heftier, it's not perfectly flat on the bottom, in fact it seems to have legs, I'm going to test the pipe in vinegar to check for Zinc, the gears I thought would be useful, I have my eye on that squar bar of metal, and any suggestions for the pickaxe if not for anvils part? It's most likely tool steel right? MC?

That's one heavy bacon press lol, either way it seems useful for making curves on the top, but if I mount it upside down it might give me a nice sized work space. Thoughts? It's huge, and very heavy, useful? Not useful?