Frosty

That's very cool David, I REALLY like the builder and mig welder. Wicked cool. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Joe, glad to have you. There are tomes of information archived on the site organized by subject. Pack a lunch, something to drink and pull up a comfy chair there's enough there to keep a person busy reading a week or more. Pick something you're interested in or think you need to learn and read up. Probably anything you may want to ask has been answered a bunch of times. If nothing else reading a bit will give you a handle on terminology, technique, tools, etc. so you can ask good questions and more importantly understand the answers. . . Well as well as anybody can understand some of these answers. <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Stick87, 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. I have a 206lbTrenton in the shop, it's a fine anvil, top tier. Don't do any welding on it till you know something about how they work and how you use it. It's a thing we all do, we lust after the "perfect" tool before we know what we really need/want. We all do or did it at one time, truth is no tool is perfect but that's okay. The tools don't do a thing without us. Without the hand and mind of man they're just highly refined dirt. It's YOU that does the work and till you develop the skills you can't know what you need in the tools. Give it a year or so and if then you decide you just MUST "repair" your lady let me know I'll run you through how I do it if I must. Frosty The Lucky.

I love it Billy. How's it feel having everybody on the road staring at your truck? Frosty The Lucky.

Naw, no photobucket or other photo site needed. You can attach pics files directly to IFI. Click the "More Reply Options" button at the bottom of the text window. Below the new text window is a "Choose File" button, click on it and select the pic file you want to attach from your computer. Click "Add to Post" Just follow the directions and it'll be attached to the reply. I attached the following so I wouldn't give bad directions for attaching pics. Abby is Deb's service and therapy dog, she really helped me though recovering from the accident. The cream colored guy is Falki, cool dog but a knucklehead. Loveable but a knucklehead. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Vaporlock, glad to have you. You're going to want to get all the gunk out of that forge, lead is a BAD thing in a forging fire, it'll vaporize and is very toxic to breath. The aluminum isn't good but not nearly so toxic as lead unless you are sensitive to it. If you can post a couple pics of the valves we're likely to have lots of ideas for repairing or replacing them. It's a blacksmith thing, we just don't do only one answer per question or problem. Frosty The Lucky.

Reminds me of the old saw about asking two blacksmiths a question and getting three answers. We just had a clinic by an East German blacksmith and he did everything with one hammer, every darned thing from heavy drawing to chasing details. Use what you like and let the other guy use what he likes. Frosty The Lucky.

Twisting doesn't reduce the length at all. . . UNLESS you are asking about twisting two bars around each other, about that I don't know. I'd have to give it a try, if you try please let us know what you find out. I have a rope maker friend and the wife spins, they may know something I could use as a departure point in the experiments. However, neither rope nor spinning fibers act like steel so it may be a useless thing to ask them. So, in short: twist one bar = zero shrinkage. Twist multiple bars together I'd expect some but don't know how much. Please let us know if you find out. Frosty The Lucky.

Post a picture? Frosty The Lucky.

Ayup, that's all folks. Nothing to find out there, move along. Frosty The Lucky.

Gotcha, bottle openers not blades! Make party not knife fight. Now we're on the same page. (code word for six pack) <grin> Back in my Boyscouts days I had a knife that had a bottle opener as part of the guard. It wasn't a Boyscout knife but one from that era, say early-mid 60's. I think that'd be a lot more practical than a pinky finger knife. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice job, it's a PERFECT coat hook for the barn. I'm thinking it has decent market value in the farm, ranch, rural communities. Eh? Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Marty, 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. Ask your friend about heat treat, he aught to be able to get you the spec sheet. That's a pretty little anvil it's profile is to be expected from someone who doesn't use one. It'll do just fine for now, you'll need to fasten it solidly. I the addiction catches you like it has us you'll be looking for and finding a larger more traditional anvil before long. Once you have a larger anvil in your shop that little beauty will be a PERFECT bench anvil or loaner to someone YOU are in the process of addicting to blacksmithing. Frosty The Lucky.

Skender: When I said "Oxy" I was referring to atmospheric oxy, (fresh air) not bottled oxy. A bit of experience to share, unless you're going to be twisting or scrolling a length there is no, ZERO good purpose to heating more than a few inches at a time. Even using a power hammer, 50mm (2" +/-) heating more than say 4-5" is wasting fuel. The only thing you can forge is what's under the hammer. Once you get your forge volume within the operating range of your burners you won't be needing anything else to bring it to welding heat. If I turn mine up it'll melt steel if you're not paying attention. I sometimes turn it up for students who don't pay attention after they've invested some work in the stock. Regardless your burners will get more than hot enough to weld once you get the forge in range. Putting charcoal, coke, etc. (carbon) in the forge will scavenge free oxygen from the fire. It works well. Frosty The Lucky.

If you're in the yellow pages as a blacksmith anvils will come to you, even here. Of course an add in the Yellow Pages, even just one season would drive up the cost of an anvil considerably. Even something in the news paper want adds is stupid expensive. Still, having the word out you are a blacksmith will bring smithing tools out of barns, garages, basements, sheds, etc. Frosty The Lucky.

You're going to have to post a link. "Dry welding" is a professional term meaning either a technique for welding underwater and keeping the weld dry, OR "Hyperbaric Welding" Meaning the weld is performed in a chamber at a high psi atmosphere of the desired gas(es). Unless a person has figured out how to forge weld underwater, that use of the term doesn't fit. Otherwise we're always "Forge Welding dry." Not hyperbaric though, so I guess that use of the term is out too. Need more info or all you get is funnin at. Frosty The Lucky.

I take it you want a texture kind of pattern, NOT a pattern welded pattern. Right? Expanded or perforated sheet might do. The expanded comes in lots of sizes and already has an elongated "diamond" shape that might do to represent feathers. "Expanded metal" is a good search term, gobs of hits. Frosty The Lucky.

Next time you search, (for anything) using the common name will be a LOT more successful. "Arrow tips" isn't a term anyone who shoots or makes bows uses for "arrow head". Heck even the back end of the arrow has another name, "noc." Maybe this is a bit of a side track but finding things on the web depends on the right name. Even if you don't know the correct terms the net is there to use, you can try searching, "Arrow parts names" and get more info than a person needs. Okay, I guess this is a web search tip. Frosty The Lucky.

I don't know if I'd like the knife style I've never used one. The one opinion I can offer with confidence is I believe the large ring needs to be a bottle opener. Doesn't it? Frosty The Lucky.

If you need a smooth flat face it's easy to make a bottom tool for the purpose. Just a piece of flat stock at least an inch thick to lay over the anvil face and held in place with a shank that fits your hardy. Put her to work and she'll give you good service as long as you want to work at the anvil. Try to remove as little from it as possible, whatever you grind/sand off is gone, bye, BYE. Frosty The Lucky.

Try different pieces of rebar, not different pieces of the same bar. Some is very workable some not. New steel shares a similar fault, unless you order and pay the vig for 1018, mild is a hash of recycled steel that meets a spec, not a formula. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Jack, glad to have you. Don't despair, rebar isn't an alloy spec material anymore, it's made to performance specs, just so long as it meets minimum specs they don't much care what all is in it. You may run across rebar that's actually tool steel, whatever was in the rail car that got dumped in the melter. Given some time and experience you'll develop the skills to determine what you're working with by how it reacts to a grinder, the fire your hammer, etc. You won't be able to tell it's analysis (don't be sily <grin>) but you will be able to determine a working range and utility range. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Yotie, glad to have you. Your rail anvil will work just right as it is, milling the top flat isn't going to help it at all. The only real reason for a flat face is when you're truing up straight or flat work and rail has both a web and flange that'll do the job better. Both web and flange are wider than the rail and are flat. Spending the money to have the rail surface ground is money you could spend on better things. Worse would be having it "milled" they'd have to anneal the rail first then reheat treat it again afterwards making the job at least 4x the money of grinding. Use that puppy as it is and as you learn, make lots of key fobs, decorative nails, coat hooks, garden pieces, bottle openers, etc. sell said and put it in a coffee can under the porch till you have enough to buy a London pattern or whatever, anvil. No matter what keep your rail anvil unless you loan or give it to someone you teach sometime in the future. I'd still have my 3rd. rail anvil but I gave it to a beginner a couple years ago. no sweat, I have plenty of rail if I want another, I was still using my last rail anvil as a bench anvil when I passed it on. Frosty The Lucky.

I'm sure Michigan HAS an Oak Island but is there buried treasure on it? <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

Looks like simple age patination to me, like an old penny. Johnsons will work if you keep with it, say wax every few months, just follow the instruction on the can. Trying to remove the fingerprints and match the existing patina is serious restoration work. If you really want to remove the prints take Brasso to the whole wall and patina it with one of many possibilities. Do you want to remove the patina from the entire wall just to clean up a couple spots? Frosty The Lucky.