bobc

Use a 50% diluted phosporic acid on the rust and apply every hour or so. Then apply deisel fuel and an application of brass or lead hammer to shock.

I am in Fort Worth and am an auctioneer. That trade provides me many tools for reasonable amounts of money. I am currently working on a 24# Little Giant in my spare time. That will be about all I will need for doing the smith stuff. I have collected around ten hammers of different weights pens and drawing hammers mostly. I am short on tongs and am looking for them. May have to make them. When I was a kid every summer I worked on the Quinsabe ranch in the panhandle of Texas as a blacksmith helper. I got it in my blood at that time an that was 45 years ago or so. I enjoy welding and the newest toy a plasma torch. Recently I put up a shed roof over the back overhead door of the auction house. Made the two support beams by welding together two by six inch by twelve foot pallet racking rails and cutting the ends off. Four schedule 40 steel posts to hold up the beams and 4 inch c perlin spaced about five foot apart on a 1.5 to 12 pitch with galvaluminum r panel made a 20 by 22 foot cover 14 feet high. Had to be high for the tractor trailers to unload when I am not working on something. The roof survived the 80 mph winds we had the other day. I think I have read all the blueprint posts and many of the other posts and it has been very informative. I like to make my own garden tools because they don't bend up and wear out or break. New blades for my out of date rotary tiller, hoes, new edges for plows and the like are all projects for me. I don't know the best steel for skinning knives. I used to think leaf springs were good but having read some of the posts looks like I was wrong in my thinking. For finding blade steel I would grind a piece and use the one that produced the biggest shower of sparks and had the high pitched ping sound when struck. There are probable much better ways of doing that now. I am close to several steel yards- Hawk is maybe the closest just down Mansfield Hwy, I have saved up maybe 30 jack hammer bit some as long as three feet. I figured if the would go through rock and cement they might someday make something for gardening or butchering. Have collected two good leg vices, an ok anvil - had a chance to get a beat up very large anvil but was to cheap to put the money up. Adios-Bob