dickb

The anvil looks a litle rusty and dusty, but don't waste a lot of time cleaning it up. Just use a wire brush and the solvent of your choice (kerosene/wd40/etc.etc. ) and add a little elbow grease. Just clean up the surfaces you expect to use , the face and horn and maybe if possible the hardy hole. With respect to anvil tooling, try to get or make a cutoff hardy where the shank extends past the bottom of the hardy hole. The hardy will never get stuck in the hardy hole if you can apply a little persuasion from the bottom. Cleaning up an old anvil might be a lot of work, so I see you have selectred an excellant helper, the "ten year old" . Nice work, a good start.

Beautiful. The finish is sometimes called Brut de Forge or blacksnith finish. The area that has not been ground is pretty near rust proof. The area that has been ground will of course tarnish or rust, but not very fast. Food poisoning from using this blade is not an issue unless you cut up and eat something that was unfit for human consumption in the first place. ( roadkill, really stale unrefrigerated meat, chicken, etc). If you Google Brut De Forge knifes you will find they are commercially available. I make and use brut de forge knifes all the time. They will even withstand scrubbing with Comet or Ajax scouring powder with little or no degradation of the finish. nice work

You are putting him at a big disadvantage useing tools that are much too big for his hands. It's real easy to heat up the reins and bend them to fit his grip. As far as hammers, Harbor freight has some that are cheap enough, His hands are simply too small to properly grip a full size hammer handle. You can buy a couple of these and reduce the handles so he can get a comfortable hold. Maybe even grind the heads down to reduce the weigh to a bette weight for his strength. Your hadns are more or less double the size of his. Something that's comfortable for you has got to be pretty hard for him to grip.

I 've made a few hidden tang knives and used various brands of Epoxy, all of which worked fine, but I don't like using it. Shelf life after opening is too short, most set up too fast for me, and assorted other real (or imagined reasons). Does anyone know what knifemakers used before epoxy was invented.

I have a couple of new, but worn out 14 inch Save Edge hoof rasps . Does anyone know the carbon and/or other content of these rasps? Thanks

I heard about removing rust using molassas, what nonsense. But I had half a bottle in the refrigeraor and decided to give it a try. I put an old hammerhead covered mostly with rust and some remnants of the original red paint into a half and half mixture of molassas and water and sealed it up in a glass jar and put it out on the porch. Nothing happened for a couple of days. I left it soak for the rest of the week. Then I noticed some yellow scum floating on top and checked it again. The rust had turned to a black sludge that you could rub off with your fingers and the paint had loosened up to the point that it could be removed with a nylon scrub brush. I have used vinegar to remove scale but the stink is too much for me.. Does anyone understand whats happening with the molassas ??

I'd be interested in learning the pros and cons of tempering to about 400 degrees Fahrenheit by immersing the work in a pot of heated oil. You could measue the temperature of the oil with a deep frying thermometer of maybe a thermocouple . There are plenty of oils (peanut oil, soybean oil, etc.) with smoke points higher than 400 degrees. Thanks

For sure we have cold here in New York. In really cold weather, about 40 degrees, it takes a heavy hand to operate the crank for the first half hour, but them it loosens up.

I have a Canedy Otto forge hand cranked blower. It's a Chieftain Model. It's been about ayear since it was lubricated. Can anyone suggest what grade of oil I should use. Thanks

Many tool rental shops have used jackhammer bits that they just throw away. I think they include the cost of a jackhammer bit in the rental price. Maybe to limit their liability is renting a used and possibly damaged piece of hardware. They work fine for hardy tools. After forging to shape and grinding, I use them as is without any heat treating. They are plenty tough enough and easy to dress with a file if you miss the work and hit the tool with the hammer.

I just received a 2.5 pound cross pein hammer made by Collins Axe co. Only a little better than Harbor freight. There is nothing indicating it was drop forged, most likely cast steel. The cross section is one and a half inches by one and a half inches. There's a large chamfer at about a 45 degree angle that reduces the striking face to a one inch circle. I usually dress new hammers to remove sharp corners but here I would have to remove about a half inch from the face of to get a reasonable size flat working face. The head is poorly fitted with gaps between the handle and the head. On the positive side the handle is hickory . Don't buy this hammer if anything else is available.

I would prefer to close the gaps with something that I can kind of mold in place. The pot is about 40 years old, cast iron about 3/8 of an inch thick. Dimensions are about 4 inches deep, about 10 inches by 10 inches across the top. Blast is from the bottom through a triangular clinker breaker. Basic masonry is of brick with a concrete cap about an inch thick . The cap is in poor shape with a few cracks and a few loose pieces. The firepot has a flange on the left and right side and these flanges rest on iron bars supported on masonry. This part of the masonry is in good condition. There is a gap of about an inch between front the firepot and the cap. Coal falls through the gap. There is a larger gap at the back of the firepot, about two and a half inches wide. I put an iron plate over each of the gaps to reduce the coal dropping through. Unfortunately this changes the geometry of the firepot . The firepot was built with the front and back about an inch lower than the sides. We will be doing a complete rebuild in September or October So the question is, how do I patch to get me through till then ?

Not exactly on target, but can you easily reach the handle on the clinker breaker ? If not, then it's better to fix that now or it will plauge you forever. I know this from experience.

I am repairin a masonry supported coal forge . A hole burned through the side of the cast iron firepot was patched with Rutland Furnace cement and a 3/8 steel plate set up in front of the patched hole. Seems to be holding up okay. But there are some gaps between the firepot and the supporting masonry ranging from an inch to two inches wide. These gaps ae presently covered by some a few loose steel plates. The plates shift around, coal falls throught the gaps, and are a very poor fix. I would appreciate suggestions on repairing these gaps . Thanks

Will try the 3/8 plate, Thanks

I am using an old (possibly 40 years old) cast iron firepot . It's about 9 inches by 9 inches at the top and four inches deep. The sides slope inward and the bottom of the pot is about 5 inchs by 5 inches. It appears to be about 1/2 thick throughout. We are burning smithing coal and using an old Canedy Otto blower. A hole has developed in one of the side walls, about 3/4 by 3/4 inches. I would appreciate any suggestions on how to repair it before it gets bigger and destroys the firepot. Thanks

I am using a rivet forge and the blast is supplied by a hand cranked blower. Plenty of draft. The airblast comes in through a flat plate at the bottom of the forge. The diameter of the fire is too small for the length of the pieces I am working on. Any suggestions how to increase the diameter or at least make it longer in one direction ? Thanks

Must be some misunderstanding, My intent is to form the shoulders that will bear down on the face of the anvil by expanding a section of the shaft with a wedge and then when fully hot, drive the shaft into the hardy, Hopefully the expanded section will conform to the hardy hole and force excess material to form the shoulder. No power tools, welders, just hammers, punches, punches, drifts, and a good hundred year old Canady Otto blower. I figured it would be easier expanding a small section than tapering a long and oversized shaft. Dickb

The hardy hole on my anvil is about 3/4 inch square. I prefer to have the shaft sticking out below the anvil, particularly with a Brian Brazeal hot cut hardy, so I can knock it out easy. So what I propose to do is slit the stock near where I want the shaft to lock into the hardy and then forge a wedge to fit the slit. Then I can hammer the wedge which is cold into the slit which is hot. This should result in a shaft that drops into the hardy up to the expanded part near the wedge and then hammer it in letting the edges or the hardy hole create as shoulder on the shaft. This is theory, hoping to save some hammering fitting the shaft to the hardy hole. Comments would be appreciated

I have seen a few videos showing a blacksmith making bottle openers from open end wrenches so I bought a handful at a garage sale. Some are chrome or nickel plated and some are not plated. How safe (unsafe ?) is it to burn the plating off. Is there a safe way to dissolve it off. I don't want to mess around with muriatic, sulfuric, nitric, etc, etc Or should I just use the plated ones to add ballast to my toolbox ?

Very nice, but my guess is that bedframe steel isn't any better than 1018 MILD STEEL, Did you test it with a file before tempering. I have used vinegar for descaling, but the stink is awful. Pallet wood is very very tough stuff,

Not sure how hard it is, but I suggest Radium, It will glow in the dark and Illuminate (or maybe roast) the player. Or maybe you could browse around the local scrap yard and see if you can pick up some Kryptonite . Nota Bene. If using Radium you should consider wearing lead gloves.

The lower piece is a rail anchor. They hammer it onto the flange or a railroad rail right next to the tie. It prevents the rail from slipping with respect to the tie. Not sure what they ae made of. I searched the internet but ran out of time before finding the answer. I have used them for punches and drifts and other tooling. They will accept heat treating very well. Considering what they are designed and used for, I'd say any load you could put on them will be trivial.

I prefer tools that don't jump around in the hardy hole, so if the tool is too loose then run a couple of welds and file or grind to your preference . While you are at it, extend the length of the shaft so it projects through the hardy hole. it's easy to drive it out if it ever gets stuck. If you are forging hardy tools then the shaft will always fit perfect because it was formed by driving it into the hardy, Again add a little extra length make extracting it easy.

Probably yes. I suggest you get a lighter one and see how it feels and how your work comes out Compare it to the four pound hammer. I'd go for about a three pound cross pein hammer . Also suggest make your own, The more things you forge, the better you will get at it, They may come out like they have a severe case of rickets, but you will learn from your mistakes. The next one will better. You can Google "Dempsey twist tongs" . They are easier to make than more conventional ones. They're pretty inexpensive at Harbor Freight, but check them over carefully. Sometimes the handles are loose.