Frosty

Why am I not surprised to read this story Dick? I think the only thing that WOULD surprise me is if you let something minor like not having the "proper" kit stop you. Here's to walking the Glory Road. Frosty The Lucky.

Very nice Stephanie. I was beginning to wonder if you'd left us. I'm really glad to see you post again. <wink> Frosty The Lucky.

Vaughn's about covered what to look for. If it's good, $150 is a good price. 80lbs. is a handy size, easy to move around and plenty to do serious forging on. Frosty The Lucky.

Well Steve, we WERE making LIGHT of it. Let the forge be with you. Frosty The Lucky.

Dick! Darned good to hear from you! How are you and Leah getting on? I think we agree about good choices in the sousal units eh? I sure wish we could've come to your wedding, just not in the cards. <sigh> Heck, I couldn't even get a call through. Are you getting any forge time in? Have you added anything to your kit? It has just been too long, I miss you. Frosty The Lucky.

As a rail road tool I'll bet it was used to score rail to break. Simply score rail at the point you want it to break, lift it and drop it on another piece of rail at the scored place and it'll snap surprisingly cleanly. I've heard it can be snapped with a hearty blow from a sledge hammer but haven't seen that done. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Please put your general location in the header, you'll be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance and NOTHING tightens the learning curve like face time with experienced smiths. I don't know anything about the little anvil but it looks to be in fine shape. It looks to be cast from the bottom of the foot. I'd be clearing a space over one of the legs on my bench for it's new home. @ 55lbs. it's perfect for a bench anvil. The Fisher looks good too and will serve you and your grand children well. Frosty The Lucky.

That's what you're looking for, you're about as close to there as it's worth hassling for. A little green in the dragon's breath is fine, don't worry about it. Mine does that all the time, sometimes it means I'm over heating a piece of steel. Part of the sputtering is the result of exhaust fumes being drawn into the burners. Extending a deflector from the tops of the doors will really help. I have to do that on mine. It's no big deal, it happens. Kiln shelf makes a fine floor, call ceramic suppliers. Put it on another layer of Kaowool so your forge chamber is smaller, it'll develop some serious heat in a smaller volume. If you put more water in the ITC-100 it'll be much easier to apply, I like it about gravy+/- consistency so it fills a paint brush and lays on easily. Wet the kaowool, fire brick or whatever you're coating (butter it) and it'll apply better and not peal. Dry surfaces suck the water out of it on contact so it doesn't bond well. Buttering the surface first does the trick. You can in fact add enough water to ITC-100 to use a spray bottle to apply it. I've never done that but talked to folk who have and it works. butter the surface first no matter how you apply it. Now you're down to putting that anvil on a proper stand, move it to a proper working distance and doing some forging. Oh yeah, read the knife forums here, that is NOT the way to harden tool steel! It was WAY too hot and that is NOT the way to quench, eve in water. Frosty The Lucky.

My older sister used to date Marines from Camp Pendleton hen she was down visiting. Okay, you'll bump the performance and still be able to clamp the jet if you cut the end off the nipple and use it as a threaded insert/clamp. You guys have a machine shop on base, bribe the guys with donuts and coffee, I'll bet you'll get to use a tap and more. Tell the guys what you're doing, get them involved, make them a cool forged thingy. Good PR will carry you farther than a fat wallet. Check large HVAC companies, ask about the outfits that build and maintain large industrial furnaces, etc. They use Kaowool by the ton, literally. Better yet for our purposes, even the sales guys in the office LOVE to talk fire and furnaces. Tell them you're building a forge and they'll be more helpful than you'd believe. Locally we have E.J. Bartell and they've adopted the Association of Alaskan blacksmiths unasked and give us the commercial rates and kick in a discount AND send me home with a boat load of Kaowool rems and different refractory bricks to experiment on. Not counting the freeby rems, the last I paid for 0oz. 2,500f Kaowool was $0.75/sq/ft. If you're going to be welding, tell them you need a refractory that's resistant to hot caustics. Usually high phosphate or phosphate bonded refractories are what they'll have but it's been a while, things change. I hope I didn't come on too abrupt, I'm into building burners and really hot forges. I'll be thrilled to help you as much as I can. It's the least I can do. Thank you for serving. Frosty The Lucky.

Then you could get him to work it by leaning his head against the wheel. Frosty The Lucky.

It's easy to edit your profile. Click on your name or avatar, at the top left of the page that comes up click on the "edit Profile" button, make and save changes. Including your general location isn't a rule but it sure helps folk know who is in the neighborhood, making get togethers easier, tipping on tools, projects, supplies, etc. much easier. Frosty The Lucky.

I like cats Sam and they don't like bags. . . Well, Damascus, Bug's Bane likes bags but she's weird, even for a cat. At least I didn't say anything about vitrified dilithium refractory in the phaser forge did I? See? I can keep mum. Frosty The Lucky.

Have you done a pencil rubbing? Or tried rubbing the anvil with chalk and wiping it off LIGHTLY? Oblique lighting is also helpful for bringing out surface features. Frosty The Lucky.

Wow Rich, that's high praise indeed. thank you. We're a pretty young club with a lot of new smiths so I think there's a youthful vigor working. many of our meetings have folk taking hammer to hot steel for the first time in their lives. When Gordon Williams was holding his clinic here we had four ladies at the classes. Three had never seen hot steel and two had never heard of blacksmithing, had no idea whatsoever what it was, did or even existed. Day three was open forge day and all four were taking their hands at the forge, anvil and even power hammer. I odn't know if we'll see three of the ladies again, maybe. lady four was Deb and I'm pretty sure we'll see her again. <wink> As long as we've been married and how many times she's watched me at the anvil, she's never shown any desire to take a slash at it. She did then and turned out a pretty nice wall hook for her barn. This is the first time I've been involved with something growing like this. It is just soooo wicked cool. Thanks again Rich. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Please put your general location in the header, you may be surprised at how many IFI gang live within visiting distance. I really wish you'd done more and better research before going to all the trouble represented by your forge. Plaster pf Paris and sand is sometimes used as low temperature investment for casting, I've never heard of it used for a furnace liner of any kind. I don't think it'd survive in a BBQ. Refractory it is not. If you must make your own refractory liner go to the local concrete plant and buy a bag of fire clay and a bag of sharp silica sand. 2pts, fire clay - 3pts sand - 1/2 pt portland cement. Add only enough moisture to make it clump in a hard squeezed fist and break clean. If it crumbles it's too dry add a LITTLE water. If it leaves your hand dirty or damp, it's too wet add a LITTLE more dry mix. Once it's the correct moisture RAM it in place with a wooden dowel or mallet. The best way to ram up this shape liner is to place a smaller diameter form in the can. sono tubes are perfect. Figure how thick the liner needs to be, 1"-1.5" will probably do in your forge. If you just MUST have an insulating liner add fine saw dust to the mix, it'll burn out and leave voids that'll help insulate, this is how light fire brick is made. Lose the nipple from the intake end of the burner, It's only inhibiting air intake. We see this little addition all the time, guys just have to add something of their own to things. This one only hurts the performance. If you want to see how a linear burner should be built find Ron Reil's site and read it. Don't bother trying to ask him questions though, he burned out on guys asking questions rather than reading the faqs ad stopped answering years ago. You can ask me though, I'll point you to the pertinent post or section here. Frosty The Lucky.

Ugly?!? It's dirty and if that counts as ugly I'm sunk. <sigh> It looks to be in excellent condition. How's the rebound? ring is a so, so indicator, rebound is much more telling. Still, being a Hay Budden if it rings it's almost undoubtedly good. Good score. Frosty The Lucky.

Cool, there's more craft to writing than imagination, as off putting as that seems to a person who writes. I caught a History channel show about Vlad the Impaler's castles in Walachia(sp?) and sure enough many of the dungeon cells had iron bars, including the one HE spent a number of years in. Of course those mountain ranges are much richer in metal resources than all the British Isles put together. I've shifted my fiction writing to slightly more light hearted stories than earlier. I discovered I'm much better at irony than profound. Write what you know eh? Frosty The Lucky.

For a proper pro look I'd sand blast and powder coat it. Any oil or wax finish will require occasional touch ups. Powder coating is pretty much bullet proof, is available in different colors and gloss-flat finishes. Frosty The Lucky.

Matt: You bet a hood and stack will help. Go with a side draft hood, they can be as simple as a length of stove pipe on end standing right on the forge table. Just cut an opening in the side a little smaller in area than the stove pipe itself and face it towards the fire. Extend the pipe 6' or so and you're golden. Side drafts draw surprisingly well, search side draft hood here and you'll see just how well. I know I'll never use an overhead hood again. Sure I'm primarily a gas forge guy but have used coal and charcoal and know what a pain it is to try keeping out of the smoke, ash and sparks. the breeze/wind swirls around YOU and just brings the smoke right to you. You're far better off getting the smoke well above you where the wind isn't effected by objects setting up turbulence. That's my two bits YES, make a hood and stack. How's the story coming along? Frosty The Lucky.

Nice rack, looks good. You can store stock by standing it on end between the rack bars. I like cake pans better than coffee cans for holding small tools, chisels, punches, drifts, etc. and small stock. They're square and stack, keep the tools straight and visible, don't care if you toss a hot tool or project piece in. They're just handy and you find them at yard/garage sales for less than a buck all the time. Teflon is a bad idea though, red hot steel does stinky things to it which is BAD for you. Frosty The Lucky.

I just heard this on the news this morning. My prayers go out to all the brave people who lay their lives on the line to protect others. When this happens it strikes us all. God rest, peace to you and all yours. Frosty The Lucky.

I'd let it stand as it is but that's me. Frosty The Lucky.

We're still pretty young club and live pretty well spread out so we hold quarterly meetings with the occasional get together. I live about 50 miles north of Anchorage in the Mat Su valley and teach a few people. there are a number of guys living in Anchorage as well so you have opportunity to play with fire and beat steel. October is getting into cold season but we don't shut down completely. Keep in touch with us here and we'll see about smoothing your move here and set up some forging time. Frosty The Lucky.

Perfect Jacques, thank you. Frosty The Lucky.

And ain't that just like you Sam. Not going to reveal the secrets are you? We're old friends, you can trust me, I won't tell anyone else. Should I use a solar forge to forge a Light sabre? What kind of anvil and hammer? Frosty The Lucky.