Frosty

A Brooks anvil pattern! Did you make the mold or is it part of the score? Welcome aboard Leighton glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. We LOVE pictures here and I'm looking foreward with GREAT anticipation to pics of you pouring steel in that mold, break out, clean up and the finished results. No need ti wait till it's finished, we love good Works in Progress pics and reports. Frosty The Lucky.

Josh: You need to check Iforge more often, Ric replied a while back. You can set the site to notify you about new posts on threads or by people you follow. You can have email notices or have them appear on the IFI opening page you set. And Ric isn't the only world class bladesmith hanging with us duffers either. Frosty The Lucky.

Sometimes rough and crude are selling points as valuable as refined and well finished. Anyone who wants to make a living at the craft or even have it pay for itself has to learn to read the market and not, NOT take it personally. Demos can be a confidence builder or killer depending on how you take the comments. Most of the time folk walking by have zero idea of what the craft is. "Blacksmiths shoe horses," is probably THE most common thing Daddy tells a child who asks. "My grandfather, uncle, etc. was a blacksmith" is another. These are often the critics who just HAVE to say something especially if they don't have ANYTHING worth saying. You can't let them bother you. You have to keep your eye open for the appraising look of the person who's scanning your product. You k now that little brow wrinkle and Hmmmmm. purse of the lips that says they're thinking of a gift or whatever. You may not get anywhere selling THEM something but not what they're looking at, especially if they appear to be comparing one against another. If you're set up demoing ask if you can make them something, mix and match is a good thing. That's what "real" blacksmiths did in the day they made what people needed or wanted on request. Just thoughts of an old fart. Frosty The Lucky.

I like idea of bringing in a beginner as a striker on a significant project like this. It's a great confidence builder and you get the advantage of the Marco the Newb in the finished product. Couldn't resist the straight line Theo. I'll be watching for progress and finished product pics. Frosty The Lucky.

One thing I forgot to mention. Items that fit in a pocket or purse under $20.00 sell well. Under as in $19.95, it's an old OLD trick but it works. Frosty The Lucky.

If your second liner is good enough and an inch of ceramic blanket is usually plenty if it's reasonable flame tight fiberglass insulation works just fine as the outer layer. It too has a melting temp around 2,000f. I've never tried the saw dust treatment though I've thought about it. The practical problem is firing the refractory, bricks, etc. long enough to burn the sawdust out. Think 2-3x as long in the brick kiln as hard brick, say tending the fire for 2 days or better in a home brew operation. I got that from a fellow who spent years doing just that. Here in the US and abroad as a Peace Corps volunteer trying to bring a little industry to the 3rd. world. He said it wasn't too bad when you had village kids to tend the fire for you but modern kiln is the only way to go otherwise. Frosty The Lucky.

Post pics. You can bring it and the forge (if you can) to the next meeting 01/23/15 at Pat's and I'll take a look if you don't get it tuned by then. Frosty The Lucky.

Water glass or Sodium silicate is now listed as a hazmat with a pretty small reportable quantity so shipping includes hefty premiums. On the other hand it's pretty easy to make, for some reason sodium is easier to come by and readily dissolves silica, colloidal being the better bet. On exposure to the CO2 in the air it breaks out and turns into a glass like silica solid. Makes really good glue in is used a lot in casting. I'm not familiar with colloidal silica as such so I'll just read along. Frosty The Lucky.

Forge the tip first. Drive it in at about a 45* angle till it's close to the finish width then work back by driving the angle down into the center. What's happening when it "fish mouths" is a result of basic physics. Force ALWAYS takes the path of least resistance. This means the hammer's energy as imparted into the steel finds an easier path on the surface so the steel flows sideways where there is less resistance from surrounding steel. You can see this with modeling clay if you press with your thumb near the edge, it will mushroom more than bulge in the center. There is less resistance at the edge so that's the way it goes. Forging directly into the corner provides equal resistance to movement all round so it goes (sort of) straight in. It will bulge getting thicker take care of this quick, don't let it build up or it'll drive the section you just forged in back out as path of least resistance. I've known a couple bladesmiths who ground a 45* on blanks before they started forging because, "it's impossible to forge the 45*," I figured that was a statement as to their skill level. I'm not a bladesmith guy, I just like playing with fire and beating really hot steel with hammers and that's what works for me. Frosty The Lucky.

Ayup, the down side to bubble alumina refractories is the expense, it's as far out of my "reasonable" range as ITC-100 has become. There are insulating rammable and castable refractories that will work fine if not as efficient. I'm not a fan of using perlite in a forge refractory it's melting temperature is just too low at 2,000f. I'd rather use saw dust to make voids in the liner and if you use the right saw dust it makes the shop smell nice till it's burned out. Grant put that little job together more as an example than a working forge. The design is sound but needs refinements, especially burner alignment. Frosty The Lucky.

Sure, make a spring die by driving it yellow hot over rebar. That'd probably be easier than making a proper spike header. Oh heck make it both! Pseudo rebar with a spike head pommel. Spectacularly vivid pattern weld billet of course. Ooh but WAIT there's MORE! Frosty The Lucky.

So what makes it a spike knife after all the forging, grinding, etc. is done? It's not the blade nor heavy duty steel handle, its the head. Almost everybody recognizes a spike head. Sooooo, forge a knife from quality steel with a proper tang, wood leaves and a spike pommel. Hmmmm? Frosty The Lucky.

Nice one Daniel Frosty The Lucky.

Long handled shoe horns. Must have for boot country. Garden tools. Garden "furniture" trellis, plant hangers, stands, etc. Stakes to mark rows with loop for string, etc. Beer holders. Barn hardware: wall hooks, singles and doubles to hand tools, drive & S hooks long enough to safely hang a lantern from, Gate hardware, handles, latches, hinges, etc. Drawer and cupboard pulls, hinges, etc. Ranchers will need tack room hardware with saddle racks, bridle and halter hooks, shelf hardware for all the stuff that needs shelves. Oh yeah! Boot scrapers! Gotta have boot scrapers and boot jacks in boot company. Address bracket to hang from the custom wrought mailbox stands you make. Driveway markers so folk know where their driveway is IN their yard as well as the entry. Stands for solar walkway and driveway lights. Frosty The Lucky.

Though I shudder at the term its called "collective bargaining" Unions have so sullied the term most folk don't even consider taking advantage. For example get a dozen friends together and go talk to the insurance company about home owners, liability for your shop, etc. Compare to what you as an individual can get. Now get Say the ABANA membership to sign on. We've gone in on a few things in out club, last year we bought zirconium silicate flour and had it flat rate mailed up for a total cost of $3.26/lb. We parceled it out in 10lb. batches. Frosty The Lucky.

It drops below 40f in San Diego so sure they have heavy coats. You just want the point that takes the most weight to be smooth and reasonably large so coats, etc. can't snag or wear through. # 5 Perfect?! Oh, I get it you got me good there! Frosty The Lucky.

So weld in a HC bit for an edge and have a real knife. Keeping count on pineapple twists can be a problem and at my age forgetting how to count to 3 is a little. . . Nevermind. Uh, Heap O. Explaining puns is a waste around here, it'll get you belted one. Frosty The Lucky.

Use a coaster! I don't want any rust from sweat rings on it! What more could be said about your luxury anvil? Oh wait I didn't just issue myself a challenge did I? Frosty The Lucky.

That makes sense, shortening the intakes maintains the slot width and slip stream characteristics. Adjustability and consistency are so nice together. So install a centrifugal valve in your vortex burner so it shuts as soon as the fan does. Or perhaps an iris on a recoil spring so it opens when the fan is driven and snaps shut when the power's off. Hmmmm? Frosty The Lucky.

Using the refractory as the final nozzle extension eliminates burner overheating and secondary induction. The pic of my shop forge shows how they're mounted, the rectangular plates are welded to the thread protector mock flares I use. I also dip the flares in kaolin/zirconium flour slip as a little protection, it fills the threads nicely and stays. CO will leave the hemoglobin but it takes a long time and a heavy over abunance of O2, hence hypobaric chamber therapy for CO exposure. Agreed on the main point though don't breath it if you can help it. Frosty The Lucky.

Lacking a better term right now I'll make this one up, "Telescoping tube extension?" Or? My question was what does moving it do to tune the flame? For instance, I know what moving the jet closer to or farther from the throat of the tube does and can describe it in detail. Jer

I'll have to give it some thought Das, maybe it should hold my mug in a pincher. Hmmmm. Frosty The Lucky. I'll have to give it some thought Das, maybe it should hold my mug in a pincher. Hmmmm. Frosty The Lucky.

They were talking about the mid-west on the national news. We've been pretty war the last couple winters. I don't know how many times it was warmer here than in Alabama or Georgia last winter. Darned El Ninos, they go away so soon. Frosty The Lucky.

Me either, I must be holding my tongue wrong. Frosty The Lucky.