Frosty

Another thought besides teaching a class, I've never had a taker from the boyscouts I've volunteered to teach blacksmithing. Anyway a person can certainly forge some cool, useful or just decorative items and donate them to be auctioned at the 4H auction. If there's no interest at the auction or club, that's all needs be said. I haven't stopped offering I just don't expect a response so I don't feel bummed or guilty for not trying harder. Horse shoes and RR spikes are usually popular amongst the horse and farm folk. Frosty The Lucky.

This is a good subject and might aught to be a sticky. Keeping your tools in shape is important, really important. Two issues maybe top the list: If it has a blade it's supposed to be sharp, a sharp shovel or spade is a joy to use and few things will cut you worse or faster than a dull knife, dull chisels come a close second. I have an old bench grinder dedicated to blades and I tend to yell if someone wants to use it for anything but sharpening tools. The belt grinder has one coarse wheel for cleaning up mushroomed tools. Fixing mushroomed tools isn't really #2 on my list of must keep right list. Mushroomed tools don't make it far past my shop door before I fix them even if I have to take the cutoff saw (hot saw) to them. so, yeah I keep all my struck tools properly chamfered and all my blades,chisels and cuts sharp. I do have a couple badly mushroomed and chipped top tools I keep as is as part of my story board for demonstrations. I invite folk to examine and feel the mushroomed struck surfaces while I tell them horror stories about what can happen when the shrooms breaks off. My tool handles are tight. I use Johnson's paste wax on the handles hot. Now I can put them in the shop toaster oven instead of carefully heating them in the shut off gas forge. I used to slowly heat them till they began to show signs of toasting when using the forge, then I'd slather them liberally with Johnson's and let it soak in. Let it cool and wipe with a clean rag. Old worn cotton socks tend to find their way to my shop in general but all my wax cans have an old cotton sock for an applicator. I heat them to about 250-275f when I use the toaster oven and it works a treat, once hot the wood just LOVES Johnson's and soaks it up like a sponge. My oldest hammer handle has zero checks and is smooth without being slippery in your hand. I can't say how it compares with oiled handles but it does what I want and doesn't seem to need to be touched up in a couple few decades. If they get hot the wax will rise to the surface and need wiping down when it cools though. My other tools get wiped down, oiled and serviced as needed. I've found using chainsaw bar oil with about 1/4 cup of Duralube engine oil additive/ gallon of bar oil is the best darned lube I've ever found for my Little Giant. I don't need to over oil it like seems to be the tradition with the babbit mains on LGs. I have very LITTLE dribble and that's mainly from the link arms and it runs smooth as warm butter. Chainsaw bar oil is designed to stick and the Duralube is designed for high viscosity, very thin film lubrication and extreme thin film strength. Duralube is to help the spouse of someone who never checks the oil till the red light comes on relax a little, the engine wont seize right up. Anyway, the blend works a treat and charm in the LG AND chainsaws. I've been slowly changing over to what I'm calling "LG lube" till I come up with a better moniker, for everything that wants a drop of oil now and then. Hinges, latches, shaft/wheel barrow bearings, pivot pins, etc. My hammer faces get shined up as necessary. the smoother hammer and anvil faces are the more efficiently they move metal. When You hit a piece on the anvil the metal gets pinched between the hammer face and anvil face, any movement MUST slide between them. The fewer textures like dings, nicks, rust, etc. on either hammer or anvil face the more efficiently they move the metal. I've just never been able to bring myself to take a grinder to my Trenton. Before I got it someone "repaired" the edges with some sort of SS rod, whether it was build up rod or whatever, they drew the face's temper too soft and it's pretty dinged up. A missed blow or chisel strike will mark the face. It's fine if you don't hit the face but it's not smooth enough to be primo. <sigh> Electric motors and such get gently blown out now and then depending on how dusty/dirty their environment has been. I cringe if I've been so lax as to get a puff of dust when I dust my motors. Where appropriate a touch of dialectric oil or grease finds it's way to old style brushings or connections like bayonets on the welder or truck plow. Man you have NO idea how nice a bit of dialectric grease makes plugging in or unplugging the truck plow connectors in subzero temps! I'm sure there're more but I'm even more sure I've gone on more than long enough for now. My tools might not all LOOK pretty and shiny but they're ready to rockn'roll on call. Frosty The Lucky.

You two keep smiling like that and your faces will stick looking like the cat who caught the canary. <grin> That is one FINE batch of tools and the skills to go with is double fine. Frosty The Lucky.

I'll be looking forward to finding out how well the pattern lasts. I don't know if you can legitimately name that particular pattern, there's a good reason nobody had to guess how it happened. In the old days it probably had a name something like, "that lazy apprentice got it wrong again, make the lout do it again and get it right," pattern. If on the other hand you can make it reasonably durable as is, naming it might be your responsibility. Frosty The Lucky.

Right you are Thomas, 3/4" will want a heat shield over a wooden form unless maybe you can work REALLY fast or have lots of forms. I wasn't talking about forming them cold Jonathan, just tweaking them from close to right on the money. That thick it's easier to open a curve than close it, cold. I'm sure I don't need to mention it but better safe than sorry, yes, it's hammer time. <wink> Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Mathew, glad to have. If you're going to go around taking all the fun out of hazing a new guy by putting your general location in the header and bringing up the reading sections of the forum right off the bat, what fun can we have with you? I guess all we have left is just making suggestions. <sigh> I'm thinking all that 4140 would make excellent trading stock were you to hook up with the local organization. You can find local organizations listed near the bottom of the Iforge home page. I'm betting it wouldn't take much sweet talking for a "new" club member (hint hint) offering to supply some down right excellent hammer stock, to get a hammer demo going at a meeting or hammer in and walk away with a turning hammer and maybe a straight or cross pein in exchange. Hmmmmmm? If you keep your eyes open for ball pein hammers or heads at yard, garage, rummage, etc. sales for cheap ball peins are good steel and make excellent top tools like sets, slitters and punches of Brian Brazeals' pattern. Better they're not so heavy they're hard to reshape and better even still, they already have the eye! My most used straight pein hammer started life as a 36oz. ball pein hammer. It's sooooooo much happier now. <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

Just as a little FYI... rust bunnies growing in or near our shops are perfect feed for a bloomery. Well maybe not perfect but if they're just hanging out eating the rems and salvaged resources, why not? Just a thought from the TBI survivor living the the forest. Frosty The Lucky.

Looks like that'll work just fine to me. If I didn't have a couple stores handy that carry leather I'd probably use moose or caribou as locally available hide/leather, especially considering how darned tasty moose: steak, roast, stew, chili, burger, etc. is. How's roo taste? Frosty The Lucky.

Like any interesting shaped pieces of misc iron/steel engine blocks can be handy bottom dies or if it has the crank and isn't seized up make dandy drives for mechanical hammers. The original junkyard hammer being a modern manifestation. A person's imagination and building skills being the limit, if nothing else you can break them up for the iron pour. Frosty The Lucky.

If I were to just answer the subject line question I'd have to ask if your treadle or power hammer will wash dishes, clean the barn, do yard work or be a good companion on a road trip. A youngster as a striker has advantages no brainless tool ever will. On the other side of the equation, it (a power tool of any description) will always be there ready at the flip of a switch, won't need instructions and wont need lunch, bathroom breaks or sass back. On the up side (yeah, I'm back to that side of the argument again) telling jokes can be good as is dialing 911. I'd say BOTH if you can manage it is by far the better deal. Frosty The Lucky.

I think you're over thinking the job, get them close and tweaking them to a proof form.Simple curves will close up or open up pretty easily once they're close to what you want cold and a little final tweaking cold will work harden them a bit making firmer table legs so the table will be more solid. A good camp fire will make all the heat you need and you can use bending forks and a being wrench or a pair of bending wrenches and match them up to a soapstone pattern on a bench. You can cut an inside form from a plank and use it wet. It'll steam and smoke, just protect yourself from the steam and it'll work a treat. Frosty The Lucky.

That's how my shop is set up, I have gozintas in the floor for amongst other things so I can anchor jumpy things down. My 50lb. Little Giant would go a walking if she weren't plugged into a gozinta. The good lord gave us great big brains and thumbs so we could invent things like pallet jacks and engine hoists, I wouldn't want to get on the big guy's bad side by not using both my brain and thumbs. Frosty The Lucky.

What a moto for a micro brewery, "You'll need a crane to open one of our beers!" Frosty The Lucky.

That's how I did it and it worked for you too. <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

How about a pic of the other side of the second ring? A glass top clock table! Cool beans is right. You can glue a line of felt on the contact area between the glass and the iron. A few bronze bolt heads and a steam punk'ed counter top espresso maker and you have a PERFECT coffee table. Hang a couple large brass bells on the clock and it'll let you know when coffee break / tea time is. Don't forget glass insulators and brass conduit/fittings for the electrical. Frosty The Lucky.

Now you bring up Bees wax attracting bees, Arkie, I recall it being discussed before. That's a good tidbit of info to know. when I forge flowers I'll use bees wax and be able to pitch them being real enough to fool bees. Is that a marketing line or what? <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

I know, you have a pretty impressive inventory everywhere you go and proven product lines. I just got to thinking about kennels that didn't look like a shopping cart. I know I'm not going to start marketing products, regardless I can't help thinking about . . . things. <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

Normally I believe the general consensus would be forging an axe blade from O2 to be too advanced for a beginner. However being a tool and die maker you should be conversant with tool steels and have access to professional heat treatment. Bearing that in mind an O2 axe might be a great place to start. Just remember to look up O2's forging specs on the data sheet before you start. Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah, it's cast not forged. There's still a remanent of the flashing where the halves of the flask joined and there are no handling holes for forging. Not that you couldn't forge an anvil without the holes in the waist I just don't know of an example. I'm a huge fan of Soderfors anvils, (not a shock to the regulars here) they're hard and tough as a politician's heart. Some edge chipping is common, they're very hard so mis-struck blows on the edges can chip them. If they're a problem for you dressing (radiusing) them with a grinder is a good solution if they're not too deep and those look okay for "dressing". Put that beautiful old lady to work, she'll soon be queen of your fleet. Best anvils I've ever used. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. We aren't going to remember you mentioning it in a post, having it as part of the header gives folk instant data. Sure it's a little bit of info but it's a good one. For instance Jason probably has most if not all the Fisher patterns but without knowing where you are at a glance he might have just passed on by. It really helps to know where the question is coming from, if a guy in Cambodia asked it's not too likely folk in the USA, UK, AU, etc. could be of much help. Hmmmm? Frosty The Lucky.

I didn't think I remembered it saying much about ferrous patination. Good to now some of my memory is still working eh? I just don't recall reading much about patination of ferrous alloys, even stainless is pretty limited to the colors it'll turn or take. Chris Ray was experimenting with putting cooking oil and or sugar in his quench tubs looking for a durable finish. As I recall the sugar water made the toughest but he passed away a good 17 years ago and we haven't talked about long term results. <sigh> His inspiration for the experiments were his mother and wife's cookie sheets and how impossible it was to get them to bare metal. Frosty The Lucky.

Gendry: Do I have to keep bugging you about your general location? Hmmmm? <wink> don't sweat it, I wont, it's not like a forum rule or anything it just really helps everybody involved. Folk close to you may have an extra anvil they'll let you use till you find a better one. Maybe invite you to their shop for some hands on practice. Seriously, one day with an experienced smith is better than a week or even month teaching yourself. I know, I'm self taught ad still have bad habits I taught myself to unlearn. Having a group of folk with the same interests to call, visit or just hang with is a valuable thing, the more eyes and ears looking for you the better. Sometimes it's as simple as needing help lifting a heavy thing and not needing to explain what and why of the thing. Learning bladesmithing doesn't require you make dozens of "blades" it requires you to learn BLACKsmithing. There isn't anything to forging a blade blank that isn't blacksmithing basics. There are some things to NOT do where blades are the specific task but those are specialties and forge basics is what allows the special techniques to be details instead of major problems to solve. I'm not a bladesmith guy but can tell you practicing on mild steel is not a minor difference compared to high carbon steel so practicing blades in mild is more of a bad habit maker. Frosty The Lucky.

Nothing like a smile to lift a person's mood. Well done Yves, he's going to love that one. Has me thinking about adjusting the piece a little to make a door knocker. Maybe dance a jig and rap on a strike plate with walking stick, knuckles, sword, axe or . . .? I really like it Yves, it's got my imagination rolling along nicely, thank you. Frosty The Lucky.

Okay guys, I apologize for engaging in this subject in the first place, my bad. I'm afraid I was just so surprised someone would E-mail Vaughn because s/he doesn't like the color they paint their hammers I just started typing. I mean REALLY. What kind of priority is that? Vaughn has been painting their tools blue for how much more than a hundred years? Every tool company I know of paints their tools if they're not chromed. All you guys who value how your tools look more than how they work that's just fine. Not saying anybody needs my permission, approval or anything, they are YOUR tools do with them as you wish. If you apply the same value system to your firearms . . . well, I'll never have to trust you at my back, just try not to hurt anybody else. Please. Again, I apologize for engaging in this thread and especially my initial reply. When you get your tools just perfect, please post a picture of them in their frame. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard George, glad to have you. There are sections of archived threads and posts organized by subject here on IFI. Most any topic is covered to one degree or another so almost anything you may want to ask has probably been answered. Reading will also help you with terminology and give you a handle on things so you can ask good questions ad understand the answers, all of them. <grin> Blacksmiths tend to have more answers than there are blacksmiths for every question. Pack a lunch, something to drink and pull up a comfy chair, there's a LOT to read some by today's greats of blacksmithing. Frosty The Lucky.