M3F

It was working great BUT one of the inner races cracked into 3 pieces. I'm guessing the new bearings were too much stress on it. I hate to spend the money on a donor blower.

Alot of nice work. I especially like the choppers and your handle material. Really sharp.

Classic...

So scholarly. So grammatically proficient. Some people just like to prove the veracity of their etymological prowess. Others...just like to hear themselves talk. Social media is a breeding ground for it. It's exhausting and hard to follow for a simpleton like me. Me just wants to hit steel with hammer. Make fire! (I just couldn't resist)

Neat stuff. I've heard it said for anvils, we don't own them, we're just their caretakers.

I am a member in Buffalo and attend meetings when I can. Just looking to branch out to Genesee region at some point.

I work weekends so it's tough. I just need to burn a vacation day. Do you guys have a weekly email on what you'll be doing? If so can I be added?

JHCC thanks, unfortunately my shop is just too small. When I buy my next house it'll be a different story. One of the prerequisites is it has to come with an already established barn or shop building.

I need to get to RocAFC...for obvious and maybe not so obvious reasons... As for my body of work, like my ex wife would tell you, when I start something I start at 300% haha, I can't ease into anything.

Alot comes into play, like making sure you let the refractory cure properly and then the same with ITC. Firing it up slowly a few times etc. There's a section in the forums on it. Do those steps it'll last a LONG time. My setup is 3 years old and still fine.

Agreed. Frazer not to toot your horn there buddy but when I saw you forge the first time I was seriously impressed, and a bit jealous haha but you did inspire me to work on some things and I'm a better smith for it.

I'm no expert but do some casting. ITC is just that, a refractory coating, so you need to apply some refractory to the blanket first. If the shell is large enough, you want 2" of blanket, then refractory, then ITC.

Nice find Duncan. I always have an eye open for one myself.

Glad to see! I have the double burner also, it served me well in the beginning. One thing I noticed was your hammer. I'd recommend replacing the handle with wood asap. In Mark Aspery's 1st book he goes over shaping it, although what works for him doesn't quite work for me, but you'll get the idea.

I guess I should elaborate on my last comment. I edge quench the striker because that section needs to be hard so the flint shaves off steel. Quenching the entire piece will make it too brittle (it'll break if you simply drop it on a hard surface) and tempering it will make it too soft. That's what's worked for me anyway.

The striker needs to be hardened and NOT tempered.

Reading through the posts it seems like he's looking to reach forge welding temps. That single burner can reach those temps with a little TLC, described in the gas forge sections like Irondragon pointed out. You keep describing the color as orange, keep in mind orange to you may be a different color to me and a completely different color to a 3rd person. If your seeing that color outside in daylight then that throws off that perceived color even more. So in a nutshell God only knows what temps he's actually reaching. What i did was installed a removable thermocouple, addressed the forge by following the gas forge sections here then kept checking the temps on the digital display as I tuned the burners. Now I only use the thermocouple when I want to reach certain temps for heat treating and even then I barely use it as i become a better smith. Following that plan I wouldn't see a need to make a solid fuel forge unless he wants to just have one, or he wants the versatility of it. Lastly I second what George said about finding your local Abana affiliate. I learned and am still learning a great deal through them.

Natkova I assume your talking about a leg vise, post vise. Yea the leaf spring could have broken or had been lost and the coil could be someone's way of making the vise operational. If anything that's a talking point to get a lower price on it and you could always make that piece. I just saw a great diagram of said vise in another post. So in my opinion if the vise doesn't have any other issues it might be worth buying.

Definitely need pics of the hammer head to identify it. Rebar is great practice IMO. You could even make a set of tongs with it after you get better at forging. Vice grips will work but if your scrap steel is long enough, just forge one end and keep the stock long so you can hold onto it. Then cut off what you did and keep going, keep the short ends for when you get a set of tongs. Stainless can be forged but it's harder to move like George pointed out. Finally I would highly suggest finding your nearest Abana affiliate and start going to their meetings.

Thanks MacLeod! Yes Frazer that is the less refined WI and I now have a love hate relationship with it. I don't have the slightest idea what to do with the high refined iron. I put all my canister damascus in the last iron in the hat but I will make more and try it when the weather breaks. I still have that twist pattern I made but I'm scared to use it! I'm thinking of finding a knife guy to finish it for me. I'd like a tanto style full tang made but alas I'm not a knife maker.

Man... hammers, daggers, swords. I need to get my butt in gear! Frazer here is what you taught me. Using WI

The rack is gorgeous wow. Very nice work.

I cut mine with a good ole regular radial saw haha. I didn't think it would work but it did, I just cut VERY slowly.

I would think you would be fine. You could always save some refractory for when a crack inevitably shows up then just patch it. That's what I do anyway.

It definitely will be. Like I said 1.5" worked for me. The refractory does compress that down a bit though. For my forge floor I can't use a standard firebrick. I have to cut them in half. After messing with that and them cracking I switched to kiln shelf tiles. I suppose it depends on how large your work pieces are.