Frosty

Welcome aboard Paul, glad to have you. Deb's always looking for a barn cleaner and general "go do it" guy but it's not what I'd call a career. Sorry. Frosty The Lucky.

A magic wand. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. A hair drier will work at least for a while. Heater blowers out of a car, etc. work well too. Lots of us have used RR rail for anvils and keep them around, they're excellent for bench anvils. Read on, IFI has answers to most questions several times. Hood up with Quad State, you'll make lots of friends, get to beat some iron and find a wealth of tools, equipment materials and comaraderie. One last bit, we LOVE pics, tools, shop, equipment, projects, kids, dogs, etc. Frosty The Lucky.

That ought to work. Show us the results please. Frosty The Lucky.

Stepfather or sperm doner, doesn't matter as long as the kids have a dad. It takes more than testicles to be a man and it takes a MAN to be a father. The kids will heal and be stronger for the experience. It's good to have family, related or not. Frosty The Lucky.

Pretty good Frank, it's fun to see examples of the learning curve being scaled. Frosty The Lucky.

Good to hear from you again Nick. A funny thing about the learning curve, if you stop climbing you slide back. Good thing forging is so much fun to relearn eh? The hooks look good and they'll keep looking better as you climb. Frosty The Lucky.

One problem with the holes is the taper is on top. This means the holes get narrower as clinker falls into them. they need to be narrowest at the top so anything falling into them will just fall on through. Using a bar grate seems to be a more efficient and easier to clean air grate type. With holes you find yourself with a thin diameter tool trying to poke each hole. takes a long time, sometimes you can get away with scraping it with a rake but. . . . Using a bar grate gives a nice even blast, keeps the coal/coke/clinker on top but without blocking the blast, taper the bars so they're wider on top and anything falling into the grate falls on through. Cleaning a bar grate is as easy as scraping it with the point of a rake or shovel. Just run something along the spaces and it'll knock the dross on through. Bar grates are also a LOT easier to make, just cut some stock and tack it over the air vent in the Tuyere with a gap between bars. Easy Peasy. Frosty The Lucky.

Better than my first pair by a fair bit. Tongs are an excellent learning project, not only do they cover a number of essential skills you always need another pair for THAT piece. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Austin, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header it'll be easier to get together with IFI folk within visiting distance. Nice blade, good contrast in the pattern. Frosty The Lucky.

Wow, what a deal! I HOPE you bought a lotto ticket on the drive home. Frosty The Lucky.

I have both my anvils on tripod stands now and am thinking of putting a plate on the base like a large foot so I can get a hand truck under it from the side so it'll be stable on the truck. My favorite way of moving them is with the engine hoist but it's kind of a loose cannon moving, all the wheels are on turning casters so it's like herding cats. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Rollingblock, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header it'll make it much easier to network with folk who live within visiting distance. I'm not a fan of milling anvil faces because most machine shops don't know enough about anvils to do it without damaging them. How much face is left? I don't know about a shallow hardy hole in the center of the anvil, that's a new one on me. Yes, pictures, we need pictures. Heck, we LOVE pics. But we need a gander at this anvil to see what's what. Frosty The Lucky.

welcome aboard Saign, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you'll discover how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. Thank you for the repousse tutorials, it's a great expressive craft and lots of the gang here collect skills sets just because we can. Life without challenges is just processing food and air. Frosty The Lucky.

Hannes: Your story brings a surge to my heart. Few things in life are as satisfying as using a tool you've made with your own hands and to have that tool more than a match for challenges beyond what it's intended for is a life's moment. For it to be a first such tool is even more special. this hatchet will pass to your children and your children's children along with this tale and more. Thank you for sharing this great moment in your life. Frosty The Lucky.

Harris: burning too much fuel and burning up the steel is a fire management problem and usually not specific to a forge type. Learning to understand how a fire is behaving is a learned skill and takes practice. I know Glenn has posted illustrations of the burn zones in a coal fire a few times and if you just deepen each zone it works the same for charcoal. A fire making scale means there's unconsumed oxy getting to the steel, nothing else will scale it up so there's no other answer. You can turn down the air but if it isn't making enough heat you just need more fuel between the air blast and the work. Dick's forge is scaling for exactly the same reason, there's unconsumed oxy getting to the work, it needs to be choked down some or the jet can be lowered deeper into the tube. OR simply open the jet a little with a torch tip cleaning file. any of these will work, some are better choices depending on circumstances. I believe Dick's forge was running properly a while ago so it's probably just a little altitude tweaking needed. The main thing to remember at this time Harris is this is FUN. don't sweat problems, every single one is teaching you something but not one is worth getting worried over. I don't think there's a blacksmithing problem been invented that can't be overcome by the knowledge base on IFI. How about a little one aspect experimenting? When you're trouble shooting you can't be changing more than one thing at a time and expect to find a solution by anything but luck. Here it is, build a little charcoal fire and just play with it using a small diameter piece of steel, 1/8"-1/4" should be plenty. All you're doing is observing how the steel behaves in what region of the fire. You'll be able to see exactly what the fire looks like in each zone and what it does to the steel. Best of all, you don't really give a hoot about what happens to the steel as you're not doing any forging at all. NONE. Just playing with the fire. A bed of blown coals has a distinctive look to it, zone by zone and with a little practice you'll be able to see raw air moving through the coals and that's exactly what you want to eliminate. You can decide what size charcoal works best for the size fire you need per job. How deep to mound it, the shape of the mound, etc. etc. It won't be long and you won't be able to sit next to a camp fire without critiquing it's burn zones and deciding which is good for what. The fire speaks to you, you just need to know the lingo. <wink> Frosty The Lucky.

What, try to get someone to freeze their tong to a rail, who me??? I had a friend who was an accident investigator for the FAA and I learned quite a few wonderful tidbits about failure analysis. In this instance it's the cues a failed piece of metal gives. If you look closely at a piece of snapped metal, (steel is what we probably have the most experience with and it's on topic) you'll see little chevrons, or as the FAA cops call them arrowheads all pointing in one direction. They in fact point at one point and that's the point where the failure initiated. How that pertains is the arrows almost always point at some little flaw, be it a stress crack, chisel cut or very small ding. We as blacksmiths call these little surface imperfections "cold shuts." Ever cut glass? A glass cutter doesn't "CUT" the glass, it scores it, just a long ragged bottomed scratch and we know what happens when we apply a little shock. It breaks along the weakened line, the score, the cold shut. A chisel cut bottoms in a sharp "V" where a disk grinder yields a rounded groove. We prevent cold shut failures by blunting our butchers, radiusing our anvil edges, rounding the bottom of a choil and such. So, lacking first hand experience beyond watching a rail crew do it once and talking to the guys, my vote is for the chisel score but wouldn't be surprised if a disk ground groove wouldn't work a treat too. Frosty The Lucky.

I take it your forge isn't developing scale in the fire. If it's making clean heat the burner's operating well enough for now. Just try raising the PSIG. A lot of guys tweak till their burners run at really low pressure but that's largely bragging rights. It doesn't really matter what the gauge says so long as the fuel air mix is correct and getting into the chamber in enough quantity to develop the BTUs to do the work. Running low psi isn't doing much in an important way unless you're operating a naturally aspirated burner off household natural gas. What counts is burning fuel and air fast enough to bring the inside of the forge to the heat you need in your steel. If you're getting orange at 7psig, try ramping it up one or two psig at a time till you have your desired temp. Go to 9psig and give it a session. Don't start jumping around, give it time to work, it isn't like the throttle in a car, it's a delayed reaction. However, once you learn what it sounds and looks like you'll be able to judge a finial temp pretty closely by the roar and flame shape. Repeatably estimating desired temp is the main reason I use a gauge on mine at all and a good thing to keep in a notebook till you get a good feel for your forge. Unless there's something odd going on I don't ask what psig folk run their burners, I'm looking for flame shape, dragon's breath and effect. Seriously, we're doing this for the effect, not what a gauge says. Frosty The Lucky.

Gee. . . thanks! The least you could've done was invent a good story. I suppose we could share stories about getting teased as kids but I'm thinking mine would pale in comparison. Good to meet you. I sponge all the time, I read most everything but not so much in the blade sections, I'm not a bladesmith guy. I can do the dance I'm just not into the tune. Frosty The Lucky.

It looks like a very nice piece of work. If you use an oblique angle on the light the pictures will come out better. OR use a diffusion reflector like a piece of white typing paper, or shoot with a single ply of tissue over the flash. OR pick a cloudy day to shoot or make a diffusion box, basically a box with a cloudy plastic cover so the light is diffused. Picking a good background color is important, I try to avoid grey or light blue as steel, especially polished steel blends in too well. Dark blue works, as will most primary colors though I don't like yellow as a background. Just experiment around till you get a combination you like, just be happy for digital cameras, I learned when all there was available was wet film and hand developing Sure I could've shot to glass (not slides, I can't recall what they're called. Stupid tree!) but that's just crazy expensive to develop. anyway, with digital and even a freeware photo editor you can turn out some really nice shots of your work. Taking good pics is a LOT harder than most folk think but like most everything it's a little knowledge and lots of practice. Frosty The Lucky.

What's the story behind your web handle? If it's none of my business, no need to answer, I'm just curious. Reading is hugely helpful but building a fire and taking a lash at it is what really tells. I know what you mean by always having life interrupt, we have 5 dogs and one guest dog at the moment so even though I'm retired there's always a dog wanting to go out and messes to pick up if I'm not paying attention. Three daughters has to be a LOT more work. Worth it though. Don't forget the pics, especially if your daughters take a shot at smithing. The lady smiths I know are outstanding practitioners of the craft. Frosty The Lucky.

For a mobile stand the stacked lumber makes a nice flat square bottom so it's much easier to use a hand truck to move it. A light duty ratchet strap or even a length of line to secure the anvil back to the hand truck makes it a lot safer. What I have heartburn with when moving my anvils is they don't lay well against my hand truck so I have to strap them on or they tend to shift if I hit a bump. If I'm moving things in the shop I use an engine hoist I got at a yard sale some years ago. Frosty The Lucky.

Yes. Drop it so it lands on the scored line on something solid like another piece of rail. Or lay it over said piece of rail or whatever and give it a hearty smack on the overhanging end. Heck, maybe going caveman on it with a large rock will do. Hit it on the overhanging end and support it on the scored line, regardless. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Brian, glad to have you. Putting your general location in the header is a big help, otherwise you'll never know who in the IFI gang lives within visiting distance. Last I checked IFI is the largest blacksmithing site on earth with knowledge, experience and characters to match. It's a good place to hang out and talk if nothing else. Last note, we LOVE pics, all kinds but work, tool, shop, progress, etc. pics are really popular. Frosty The Lucky.

As Thomas says the burner is the most spendy and or difficult to build. You can find refractory liner material at a number of places, try a HVAC, furnace, etc. supplier or maintenance company, if they don't retail it, they'll know who does. I put a ceramic supplier at the bottom of the list, they'll have or order it but they tend to cost a lot more. Fire brick, hard or soft, doesn't much like thermal shock, they'll take the heat but it's heating and cooling that break them up. Using 3,000f split hard brick for the floor holds up well, kiln shelf does as well but is more expensive. Laying an extra inch of kaowool, etc. under the floor will reduce the volume of your forge and bring it's temp up. Coating the interior with a product like ITC-100 is expensive but pays for itself by making the liner much more resistant to flux and making it more efficient. Frosty The Lucky.