Nihonius

No I'm not having an actual anvil made, I was going to have a guy take a chunk of railroad rail and cut it to anvil shape. He never got to cutting it, so I just accepted the piece of rail. I think its cool because the rail has the year it was made stamped into it, 1939. He also gave me a fairly large and very thick piece of copper plate to set on the anvil when cutting metal. With the high price of copper right now, getting that and the anvil for only $6.00 was a really big discount from normal. For cutting hot metal does a regular cold chisel work okay? Thanks for the picture of the stand Quenchcrack, I'll have to either get working on a stand or still wait for a stump. I'm sure the stand is probably alot lighter so I'll probably go with that now.

All I really want to make are knives, and I know they wont likely be anything great at first. I've never seen a part like that around here. I might try to take pics of the stuff i find to show you.

I'll look around for some stand ideas sometime then, though I think I am going to go help a friend cut down some trees soon anyways. I'm sure I'll find something. I can't believe I'm still waiting on my anvil to get done. First it was going to take maybe 2 days, then a week, and now I'm guessing if I ask again, they'll say a month...

Actually I'm reading "The Complete Bladesmith" by Jim Hrisoulas. If everyone thinks that heat treating the anvil is not necessary, then I'm glad I have less work to do. So do you think a fairly wide tree stump is good enough as a base for the anvil?

I'm not sure what the clips on a railroad look like. All Are they the square flat pieces of metal with ridges and like two holes in them? I can find some of them once in a while. Mostly I find spikes and some weird pieces of metal that are fairly heavy, and are in a slightly hooked or "J" shape. Google was no help in showing me individual rail parts and their names. Yesterday I did get to go out to the dump and scrounge the metal pile for some stuff. I think I found my forge and a quench tank. The forge part is an oil barrel someone turned into a cheap fireplace. Its on its side with legs to raise it from the ground, and a door to open and close. All I have to do is fix the door, cut the top off and coat the inside with a wet mix of sand, cat litter, and ashes. Before that I guess I also need to cut some holes to add the tuyere pipe. I think I will use a camping air pump for the blower. Hopefully it doesnt melt, being plastic. My quench tank is just an oil barrel I need to clean out. I have no idea where you find cheap mineral oil for it...

Sadly I dont have a torch of any kind to use for heat treating or anything. So an un-tempered anvil wont get chewed up over time with the hammer blows? I'm not sure why my book says to temper it. Isnt the hammer supposed to bounce in some way when you hit the metal? I dont know if maybe thats the reason. My book just says heat the anvil upside down with the face burried in coals until it is cherry red, then quench it. Then place it right side up in the coals to a light straw color before quenching again. Then you anneal the horn with a blowtorch to blue color. then you quench it again. The hole drinlling I was talking about was so that I can screw the anvil onto a stump so that it is to a proper height.

It's only a chunk of railroad, so if I mess it up I'm out of $4 and the time to wait for it. What I'm wanting to do is heat treat it. It's talked about in my book by Jim Hrisoulas. So tempering it isnt bogus if thats what your all saying, unless he is bogus. Sorry for bugging you all with my stupid questions. I'll just wing it from now on then.

On anvilfire.com there are alot of tutorials on making various knives, axes, and tomahawks out of the spikes. I cant imagine the spikes are completely useless for blades, though I'm sure they probably arent the best. I'll try it out when I can and see. I need to find a way to get/make a blower. I've looked for bellows instructions, but they werent so good.

So dont wear gloves at all? It's really that cool to touch? Wow. Shouldnt someting like a sword be heated evenly down the entire length when working it? If you only heated the tip for instance, isnt the metal in that spot now going to have properties different than the rest? Then if you cool the piece and reheat it later, everything is way different. I would think for a piece so dependant on the state of it's entirety, you would have to heat the entire piece evenly. Thats just a theory, I have no idea really. I cant just go find out on my own yet because I dont have an anvil or forge yet. I may get the anvil on monday, but still need to temper it and maybe drill hardy holes and such in it.

Really? OMG that scares me now. Back in 8th grade in art class we had to carve something in wood, then coat it with linseed oil. The teacher never said anything was wrong with it, so I got the stuff all over my hands. Then again, this guy had us melting lead for casting without breathing protection too. Is the oil toxic through the skin?

I think a video would work great at showing how do things before I ever even fire up a forge, so I'll have to check that out. I've also seen stuff from the Poor Boy blacksmith, sadly i'm the "dirt poor in an alley" boy. Lol. I'll take a look on there again, but I still thought it was pricey. @Charlotte, thank for clearing that up with me. If I'm working a long piece, I can wear gloves and hold it by hand.

Those snakes are pretty cool, you must have really drawn the metal out to get that long of a thin wire out of it. As for getting spikes, thanks for all the advice guys. The lucky thing for me is that I live in a really small town where the chances of me even being seen on the tracks in some areas are slim to none. But I'll be cautious and nice to anyone who talks to me. I've never seen anyone pick up the spikes with a magnet around here before, they just get thrown to the side and sit there until the end of time. As for making a knife from these, some people say they get decent ones from HC spikes tempered in water or super quench. I'd think a serrated edge blade would probably really be able to cut through meat at least.

Isnt the top layer of coals supposed to add carbon instead of taking it away though? Bottom layer oxidizes, mid layer is just right/neutral, and top is full of carbon because the oxygen from the bottom has been used by the fire. Oh ya, are you supposed to hold onto your metal work with your hands in the area not being worked? I've seen pictures of people doing it, but I would think the immense heat would travel up the metal and be hot enough to burn. I always thought your tongs just had to be good enough to grip the piece well. If this is so, I guess you can just stick the tip of your work only slightly into the coals? I'm just trying to eat up as much info as I can before I accidentaly kill myself out of stupidity :)

Once you have them, do you know if the sale of things like railroad knives is illegal? I have a friend who's dad works for the railroad, maybe I can ask his dad if there is someway they would let me go about it legally. I'd think its worth a try. If the railroad okays it, and I get picked up, they would hopefully clear my name and such.

So everyone else going out to get them is getting some kind of permit to do that?