Frosty

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Please forgive Glenn for "shouting" but when he suggested reading Iforge he meant it. If you read even the opening page you would've found several pages or regional organizations with contact info listed. There are also literally thousands of posts archived on virtually any blacksmith related topic out there. Thousands of posts is why he suggests packing a lunch and drink. Charles suggests moving your computer to the bathroom and moving the fridge within reach. How long have you been a bladesmith? Frosty The Lucky.

I've seen stone knife handles but only as display pieces, it's too heavy to be vary usable. If you wish to work semiprecious stone, agate, jade, etc. you get to learn an entirely new craft and buy lapidary equipment. A good diamond saw is just the first piece. Have you looked into cutting, joining and polishing stone? My Father was a rock hound and had a basement full of lapidary equipment but I'd spend a few hours researching before I charged the little tumbler I picked up at a garage sale. Asking such a vague question hoping for a specific answer, let alone a good one is kind of futile. I'm not trying to discourage you but a blacksmith forum isn't the best place to ask about semiprecious stone work. Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty The Lucky.

You can buy stove pipe connectors and subs, I believe the Ts are called "clean outs." Come straight up off your hood and place the T so one leg faces forwards with a cap and the other leg runs back through the wall or window using a "Wall Jack." Once clear of the eaves install another T with one leg down the other up to make the run to the pipe cap. The downward facing leg gets a little damper that opens when you light the fire so back pressure caused by cold air in the stack doesn't cause the appliance to smoke in the building. As soon as warm air tries to exit the "barometric damper" opens and allows the cold air to fall out till the warm air starts a draw, then it closes. The T above the hood lets you clean the horizontal section of the stack easily, this is the area that will soot up most quickly as the smoke is moving the slowest and will condense out. The little cap just slips into the T so it's easy to check. A forge fire doesn't make a lot of excess heat when burning properly so your stack has to have good draw or the smoke will just drift around. Side draft hoods work much better than over head hoods as they're more restricted so the smoke has to move faster and doing so creates more draw. Faster smoke means less soot too. The top of the stack must be at least 4' above the highest obstruction within I THINK 10' to avoid wind causing a back draft and blowing smoke down the stack into the shop. If you pick a quiet day at the FD, say they're out front washing trucks just stop in and ask about the local codes. That way you can get good info anonymously. The guys and gals with the FD aren't under legal obligation to report "suspects" they're more interested in folk being safe. Once the stack is above the forge a few feet it won't get hot enough to burn galvy so, say at 4' to be safe, ventilation ducting is okay. Frosty The Lucky.

Yes, smiths or HEY where'd all the beer go!? Don't sweat it, the terminology or professional jargon is just part of the learning curve and sometimes regional. Like any other craft/trade the jargon allows folks to communicate clearly without spending all day explaining what THAT meant. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Thief glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang are within visiting distance. However, please feel free to drop by, I'll show you what I know. Frosty The Lucky.

I like the second pistol's pattern better, though I'd almost feel honored to be shot with either. I watched Jesse "learning" to smith at Uri's and seeing as he's been doing some darned precise work with iron for years learning to smith isn't like learning a new craft. Mostly it's a matter of just adjusting techniques to new materials and machines. Before the accident I was very in tune with the sounds, feel and condition of metals under the hammer. If you're paying attention you don't need to see the color to know when it's time to put steel back in the fire. Same for working brass, bronze, silver, copper, SS, etc. they all talk to you if you understand their language. I didn't any of it at the anvil, I learned it at the spinning lathe starting as a toddler sitting behind the tail stock while Dad spun. Anyway, my point being I wasn't surprised how fast Jesse picked up blacksmithing. If you can make a Pullmax dance to your tune, running a power hammer is just a different rhythm not a different craft. Nothing will teach you steel's song like working sheet in compound curves with hammers. Then there's my opinion about certifications. I've known too many folk with certifications that couldn't do the job or even know a subject. I don't discount certs. but I want to see the qualifications in action. So, I'm pretty firmly in the "quality of the work is what counts" camp. Of course that's just me and I'm not someone who tests, awards, or strips certs. I could be wrong. Frosty The Lucky.

Must be time to make some new history with it eh? Yeah, I like to know almost anything's history but sometimes they just are. Occasionally a tool's history with me means a lot. I have an old ball pein with a handle I epoxied and taped to keep it from breaking. I got it as a tip from a customer who was moving out of state. I worked in a service station when I was getting established in Alaska in the early 70's and pump jockies and grease monkies rarely if ever get tips. That hammer is still taped and has my color spray paint on it and lives on my machine lathe for bumping things true. Mostly it's there so it doesn't get lost with the other stuff in my shop. Frosty The Lucky.

Heading a rivet is upsetting. Neil means use a LIGHT hammer, 8oz or smaller is what I use. If you have a torch that works about as well as anything I know of. The stick out you're going to head should be about 1.5 times the rivet's diameter. for example a 1/4" dia rivet should have 3/8" protruding to pein for the rivet head. My the way, your first tongs look WAY better than mine and mine don't hold anything perfectly, barely is more accurate. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Fense, glad to have you. China Town and the Valley, are you in LA and or vicinity? You're "location" is a little vague even for our loose use of the term "general" when discussing locations. Frosty The Lucky.

It came from SE eh? That could very well be Iron Mountain magnetite from the Hoonah, Angoon area just outside Haines. I suppose iron sand would be easy to collect from one of the streams coming off it. It's a big black mountain, everybody in the area knows it and it really messes up a compass. You could unplug a pipe on the air belt by pulling the plug in the T and ramming with a rod but that might not have been an option. Boy, I could've made a real pest of myself. Maybe next time. Frosty The Lucky.

The OP, Remist17 is still here and posting. I didn't run him off hard as I tried, I am such a failure. <sigh> Don't go getting all Socratic on us, we're blacksmiths not philosophers, Wassamatta you? Frosty The Lucky.

If you use a cement backer board on 1/2" standoffs, (off the shelf items) you can put the forge right against the wall. Dont build the fire against the wall of course but cement backer board is intended as a fire barrier. Frosty The Lucky.

We used a product called CylCap to cap concrete test cylinders for the breaker to test. CylCap is a mix of sulphur and clay specifically to exceed the strength of any concrete mix for test purposes. It's also used to test anchor bolts and such, we'd drill a hole in the target stone set the bar, bolt, anchor, etc. to be tested and anchor it with melted CylCap. Then I'd clamp it in the cylinder breaker and try to pull the bolt out of the stone. That cylinder breaker would pull up to 2,000tons I have NO idea why our lab had a brute like that but. We'd note the tonnage and which sample broke, sometimes the #6 rebar would snap first, sometimes the granite block but never, not once did the CylCap fail, not once. We varied the annulus as well, the gap between the bar and hole and even with a huge fill area the CylCap never failed. We used CylCap because straight sulphur was a little inconsistent but generally considered excessively strong. Anchor it with sulphur, you ain't going to pull it out. Removing the anchor is as easy as heating the bolt or whatever with a Bernzomatic torch. Frosty The Lucky.

While handy horns aren't all that necessary and if you rig a hardy hole like Thomas suggests you can forge an anvil bic. A bottom tool that does what a horn does. Frosty The Lucky.

All of the above, agreed. Very well done. Frosty The Lucky.

A list of scrounged high carbon steel is a long way from what a person needs to contend with at first. Have you given any thought to telling Alex how to determine HOW to work with mystery steel before advising him to select for high carbon? The warning about galvanized is a good one and one I hadn't thought of, seeing as Alex is so new. That's my bad, the dangers of any plating should always be advised to the new folk. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Alex glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how may of the IFI guys live within visiting distance. Have you done any reading? It's a really good place to start and there are a lot of good books listed here as well as literally thousands of pages written by hundreds of guys on all kinds of smithing topics. However your question is pretty typical of a fellow who doesn't know what to ask, no problem, nobody is born knowing this stuff we all asked really basic stuff. The term blacksmith means a person who Smite's "hit's" (smite is the root word of smith) the Black metal. Iron coming out of the fire is black once cooled. A blacksmith beats iron or iron alloys into things. So, the answer to your question as asked is iron or steel. Steel is a lot easier to come by than wrought iron so folk usually start with mild or A36 steel, A36 is cheaper but can be a little more challenge. You can of course work with whatever you find so long as it's legal so don't take down the neighbor's fence. If you scroll to the bottom of the Iforge front page you'll come to the regional organizations section where you can find contact information for the blacksmith club closest to you. Get hooked up with the local club or a smith close enough to visit. You WILL learn more working with an experienced smith in a couple hours than you will in days or even weeks on your own. Frosty The Lucky.

Hi there . . . SMITHIES?! Are you greeting our shops or what? A "smith" is someone who works in a "smithy." That's not a BIG distinction but terminology matters so we all know what the other fellow is talking about. Don't sweat it, nobody is born knowing this stuff and we tease each other all the time. It's a family thing. What have you made? It doesn't need to be fancy or a masterwork to be good iron in the hat material. Owning something another smith made is a special thing to us, sometimes serious bragging rights. For instance if I owned oh, one of the first punches Brian Brazeal made I'd have it signed, framed and hung prominently. Some day one of YOUR early works might be something for an old timer to brag about, "Why I remember Squirrelstick when. . ." Useful steel or iron stock is good too, files have already been mentioned and spring stock is okay but not so hot, it's pretty iffy. An old crow bar and such is good stock, ball pein hammer heads or heck any smooth faced hammer head. . . You get the idea? Doesn't have to be fancy just something a blacksmith might covet. Frosty The Lucky.

If I can't see it it didn't happen. Frosty The Lucky.

You look kitted up well enough to get started just remember that's a bench vise, hitting it with anything much will break it. Think straightening nails and bending say 1/8"x1" strip stock HOT. It's a GOOD thing to have in the shop, I have a couple you just can't take a hammer to one. Jaw inserts to prevent it marking the work and it's perfect for twisting and such AFTER it's bolted to a solid bench or stand. I don't see scrap but I see a full rack of tongs in that coil spring in your stock pile. Coil spring is less likely to have hidden cracks than leaf spring. Leaf spring is used as part of a stack and grit invariably finds it's way between leaves in the stack making scratches. Scratches = cold shuts and initiation points for failure. That's a FYI so you won't be so surprised when things you make with leaf spring fail more often. Is your anvil at the correct working height for you? Wrist height when you're standing next to it in the shoes you wear is a good starting height. Different work requires different heights for example: Finishing blades wants to be higher so you can see your work, you aren't going to be hitting hard or using heavy hammers for the fine work. Heavy forging or using top tools wants the anvil lower so you can develop more power in the blows and the top of the tools are at a good working height. The stake tool you have in the stand will be very useful and should be higher than your normal anvil height. It looks like a fine dome or button stake for plannishing out hollow forms, say smoothing up a dipper or spoon. Good tool, a keeper needing nothing but a little polishing. Don't be afraid to experiment with things, just be careful. Frosty The Lucky.

You bet you can do that, if you don't run temper colors with the grinder it wont affect it's heat treatment. Some guys run welding beads to make texturing dies or to use as dies to make texturing dies. One I've wanted to try for a while is to braze BBs to a plate and use it to make a pebble or scale texturing die or hammer. If you're using the die on hot steel it doesn't need to be hard unless it has sharp features, say the chisel center of a rope/cable die. Even then I use mild and it holds up well enough. Frosty The Lucky.

Good GRIEF Bryan, that was quite the project! Did you concentrate the ore with a magnet? Roast it first? Details please, I REALLY wish I could've been there. Where did you guys do it? I'm no longer familiar enough with the interior to recognize the neighborhood but that isn't in the bush. I also love to see a typical Alaskan project, if we aren't burning diesel we ain't serious. Power tools forever! If you were to want to drive to Haines I can point out a big black mountain of magnetite that's listed as a hazard to navigation it's so magnetic. The highway cuts the toe of the slope so you don't even need to pull all the way off the road to fill a truck. Hmmm? Frosty The Lucky.

How did you search for HVAC suppliers? Online isn't always the best method, I spend more time deleting ads the IT geeks who wrote the search engines THINK I should buy than reading company info. Have you tried the yellow pages, the paper ones? When I started my search many years ago I tried ceramics studios and suppliers but was scared off by the prices. Still if it's the only game in town. . . However I guarantee you there are commercial furnaces in or near Knoxville and they NEED servicing so there ARE companies doing it full time. Give one a call, ask the receptionist if s/he has a little time to spare for an unusual request. You'll be surprised how much office folk NEED a little out of the ordinary in their day. Even if they don't sell to the public, the guys doing the work will have scraps from jobs and being licensed and bonded they can't legally use scraps in a job so the stuff is just taking up space. If they don't use the materials you're looking for, (Specifically, 2,600f, 1", 8lb. Kaowool (by brand) or the equivalent ceramic blanket) They certainly will know who does. I've never had someone tell me to shove off they're too busy to tell me to call XxX or talk to Biff in the shop. Web searches are far too impersonal to do this kind of hunting/gathering. However you can certainly find a phone number to start the ball rolling. Have you CALLED, Ferguson HVAC? https://www.ferguson.com/branch/knoxville-tn-hvac Ferguson is listed as an industrial supplier of HVAC in addition to installing and servicing. I'll bet they send dumpsters of refractory trimmings and drops to the dump weekly. Seriously, the phone makes you a human being and being pleasant makes you a good guy. People WANT to help good guys. Walking in and talking to the guys who design and spec out furnaces, boilers, etc. puts you in their world. The guys on the desks live controlled fire and talking forging furnaces is a holiday for them. I deal exclusively with EJ Bartell in Anchorage and it's almost impossible to leave without them loading my back seat with rems. Kaowool, light fire brick, pieces of refractory to test for them, etc. Seriously I have to say no more and they're disappointed if I don't take enough. However, I'm a likable Bull Shooter and can get along with almost anybody. It's like a super power you know and not everybody can walk in "cold" off the street and strike up a relationship. Still, just being polite and interested in THEIR work goes a LONG ways. Frosty The Lucky.

Yes I have. It's a wood grain pattern rather than bark but the technique I used will work for other textures. when I hit garage, yard, etc. sales I only have a few things on my buy list anymore and ball pein hammers are near the top. My recent texture hammer is made from about a 4oz. ball pein head. I just heated it to high red, low orange temp and rapped it repeatedly on my hardy cross the eye. I'd crowned it a bit more so the texture is on a rounded face allowing me to alter the pattern slightly in use and not have to deal with getting a flat face to strike an uneven surface. I tested it while making it by striking a 2" x 4" while hot. A quick rap before putting it back in the forge left enough impression to help judge but wasn't so hot as to burn the texture out. I tried it hotter and it didn't work as well as when it was getting too cool to forge on. I quenched the face to harden and let residual heat draw it down to a dark straw. The attached pic is textured with it before I put a little more texture on it. I'm sorry I don't have a pic of the texturing hammer but it just looks like a messed up hammer face. Wow, I need a better example than that one, this was really early in the hammer's life. Deb wanted a cross NOW. Frosty The Lucky.