whitewill1412

That's a nice handle Frosty. I don't have the tools and or skills to do the wood work. I'll check out house handles. Thanks for the tip

Thanks I'll check Amazon. I really like that handle. Wanna try one for forging

A local technical school closed down and they auctioned off everything. I bid on a few things, but only won one. With all these added to the hammers I already had I should not need to buy another hammer in my life. There are 2 Blue Point ball peins that are both marked 16oz, but one is definitely bigger and heavier than the other. Then their are the 2 identical "engineer's hammers" that look like rounding hammers to me. I looked up the model number and they are 2.25 lb. Wood handles will be had for those. There is also a brand new Vaughan 16oz claw hammer with a real nice wood handle. Anyone know where to get a handle like that? The chisels are all identical. Any ideas what to do with those?

I paid about $1 a pound. $140 total delivered. It came in a wood crate too. I still have to get it set up. It won't be as easy to mount as the 66lb vevor one I already have.

Yep

It's 132 lb cast steel

Just delivered today. Brand new 60kg(132lb) beauty. Guess what it cost me. Here's a hint. It was incredibly cheap.

If you are working outdoors I would suggest finding a log to sink in the ground as an anvil stand for your hammer head. I recon it would be much more stable that way. I buried a log 2 feet deep and my stand is rock solid.

Why would a steel anvil crack from being welded?

Yeah. Reality shows stink, but I do catch an episode of fif once in a while. Since I started smithing it is kinda interesting

That's a big beautiful chunk of metal. Make sure you show us what you create with it

That's awesome. I would love to have something like that to spend my time on. Keep us updated

I picked this up at a thrift store the other day. Thought it would look good out in my backyard smithy.

I've recently discovered that I need something to straighten twists, so I got me a rawhide mallet

Wow that is a monster vise. Very cool

Yeah. It's disappointing, but I'll make the best of it and I'll keep looking around for some wrought. This used to be called the iron city so there should be some around to be found.

I've come to a sad conclusion. I spark tested and it looked like steel. Then I cut and break tested and yep it's steel. Really had me going

Jhcc thanks for the information. I think I'll try cleaning up the smallest piece first and see how it goes. Then maybe get it hot and play with it a little. I will definitely get back down there and look around some more. These 3 spikes were just laying right out in the open. If I put a little effort in searching I'm sure I can find more.

How can you tell the grade and age? Would this stuff be salvageable? I can probably find more.

I found these old spikes by some abandoned tracks today. Does it look like wrought iron to you? Some quick Google research told me that wrought iron spikes were used up into the 1930s.

How long would beeswax hold up outside?

I did it by cutting the lengths and working both ends into a point. Then I shaped them. I probably got half of them with even sides.

Ok staples. That makes sense. Thanks Frosty

I had the day off today and had some time to light the forge. I cut up what I think was some kind of flower pot holder and used it to make some loop hooks or whatever you want to call them for holding tools around my stump. I made 8 and there are room for probably 3 more. I still have some metal left to make more. Now time is not on my side though.

Yeah I like my little forge. It is well built. I haven't really used it since I shrunk the jet hole, but I did a little test run and it got much hotter than it did before. My steel got to yellow temperature. The other modifications I've done is added another layer of ceramic blanket to the floor and sealed it all with rigidizer and then plistix 900.