Frosty

There's a good chance this is an example of more welds is simpler in execution than fewer. Handleability of the piece as you make it is important. A piece might be so awkward in only two pieces it takes many times as long to finish and increases the chance of a failure. That's just a thought though, it could've been for the show too. Frosty

Maybe they're not perfect but it's still a slick idea James. Something else to consider is you can change jaws simply by changing the rod part of the tongs. Frosty

Dan: Matt lives in the UK. I don't believe the Magna Carta says anything about keeping and bearing arms. I could be wrong though, I've never read it. Frosty

Chert will work though not as well. I've used local chert for strikers and knapping. It isn't as good for sparks as flint and isn't as good for knapping as obsidian. Worked though. You could also try one of the rock shops in Reno or try contacting one via the web in Oklahoma or Texas, both have large deposites of flint. My folks used to live just above Lake Davis over by Portola. Small world eh? I've made a few strikers but no pictures. Used mostly spring or hex, but some mystery Fe. Hex worked better than spring but neither worked as well as the stuff that was the real mystery chunk of rusty steel from the parking lot gravel. Of course. Frosty

Great deal. Congratulations. Frosty

There's a fellow in california with a similar problem but he needs quite a bit more space. He's a multi-media sculptor and a number of media don't like being worked in the same space. I wish I recalled his name, he had an excellent series of pics showing how he managed the SQ/ft restrictions. Basically what he did was build two sheds just under the limit, spaced far enough apart the space was also just under the limit. Each "shed" has a single pitch roof with the high sides facing, and a separate "breezeway" roof covering the open space. It's also built on three separate slabs to keep with the spirit. One "shed" contained his "clean" non-staining dirty media; like wood, glass, fabrics, ceramics, etc. the other shed contained his casting studio, if I recall correctly, and the "breezeway" held his forging area and dirty stuff area. As in staining, gritty, dusty, etc. He even managed jib boom cranes that would interact to move stuff from one "shed" to another. It was a pretty slick way to get around the frankly ruinous permitting, inspection, etc. "fees" and completely legal. Where he lived any way. I used to live in Anchorage which is turning into a serious tax and spend, permits and inspections for EVERY danged THING, city. Permits to build a dog house will cost about 3x what buying one will and for a store bought dog house you don't need a permit. (IDIOTS!) When I met my wife in 97' we had to come up with a proper solution. Deb raises pygmy goats, add to that I like smithing and other kinds of metal work there just wasn't enough room or good will, in the old trailer court. Our solution was to move about 50 miles putting us about 20 miles outside Anchorage and just outside Wasilla. No zoning, no conenants and no codes, except fed and state, like wells and septic which aren't unreasonable. We bought 30 acres of undeveloped forrest, we would've prefered something with a home, barn and shop but couldn't afford it. Built a 2,200 sq/ft home, relocated and expanded a 2 car garage for the barn and I've been building a 30' x 40' steel shop over the last couple years. No permits except well and septic. Borough wants to change that though. . . (mumbledy mumble greedy Buzzards!) :mad: Frosty

James: When I started reading your post I thought you were describing twist tongs, then it stopped making sense so I looked at the pics. The lightbulb went on. Ah HAH! Very slick idea for field expedient, short term disposible, or boot strap tongs. I don't know if the idea's original to you, I doubt it but have never seen it before so I don't know. Regardless if you're first or someone else has thought of it you did without help so it puts you right up with the guy/gal who did. Well done James, well done. This comes at a good time too. We're just getting a smithing organization going in AK and we have a large percentage of newcomers to the craft. Finding tools in AK can be really difficult and expensive. On top of that many of the guys don't yet have the skills to make things like tongs so we've been working on boot strap projects. By boot strap project I mean projects that both produce a useful tool for the beginner and provide good practice and experience. last meeting we showed how to make twist tongs and about a dozen pair got made, some with various jaws. Next meeting I think I'll run this gem of an idea out and see who follows. Thanks Mucho. Frosty

Nice find there Radar. It looks like a collapsible cavalry forge. The blower should have an oil port on top of the gear box. Just put a little oil in it before use. Don't use real sticky or heavy oil, it isn't necessary and will make it really stiff if it gets very cold. 30w is just fine. Welcome aboard. Glad to have ya. If you go to the top of page and click on user CP and enter your general location it'll really help put you in touch with people in your area. Frosty

San Luis Obispo eh? Cool, I used to own a lot on Lake Nacmiento, lo those many years ago. Frosty

You might try heating and furnace suppliers, that's where I found it here. Alaska, US. It isn't the edge of the earth but you can see it from here. Frosty

If you make your angle iron stand three legged it'll be stable even on uneven ground. The typical three legged setup is one leg under the horn and two under the heel. A quench bucket under the stand is a good idea, you need to make a shelf for it to sit on but don't make it too close to the ground. If the ground is uneven and the shelf hits the ground your anvil will get rocky / wibbly wobbly on you. Frosty

You can see a horn clearly, front feen and part of a face poking out on the right of pic #2. It's just to the right of the white rag hanging from the roof pole. Good pics and story. Thanks. Frosty

Check with the PO for specific numbers but I believe 70lbs is allowed in a flat rate box. More and it'll be charged for the weight. Frosty

Good for you Mark. Too many people spend way too much time trying to get all the "right" stuff to try something new. Next thing they know they have a large collection of tools they don't know how to use and never actually try what they wanted to in the first place. So, here's to you for just going at it. Huzzah! The pics are too small to get a good look but from what I can see it looks to be a fairly good job. Frosty

DANG! When did that happen? Frosty

I can't give up any trade secrets, I don't know any. What little I do know of thier new process involved extrusion presses. Jim has been known to use a vacuum furnace but I believe he mostly seals the billets in foil with various oxy absorbing fillers. Charcoal would or could be one. I don't know the specifics. A clamp that increases pressure as the temp rises is a steel clamp. Most combinations of metals used in mokume have greater expansion coeficients than steel so the billet expands more than the steel clamp. So, what you're thinking of is exactly what's happening without the danger of super heating a gas. I have zero experience with vacuum furnaces and suggest researching the subject. Vacuums can be entirely too dangerous to mess with based on the opinions found on a public forum. I recommend getting professional advice. I can't give you specifics for temps either, I eyeballed the couple billets I made and let them soak sweating heat. Sweating heat is where the metal begins to have a liquid looking sheen literally like it's beginning to sweat. Afterwards I found a couple tiny droplets squeezed from between layers near the clamp where it was hottest. That billet was forgable across the layers so I evidently got it right. Good enough anyway. Inlay is a whole different thing and something else I have no experience with. A little reading over the years is about it and certainly not enough to make my opinion useful. Frosty

It depends on what you mean by reproduce Son. If you mean mokume gane in general the answer is a hearty yes. Many of the things Jim and Steve do take specialized equipment and materials but it's still doable in a home shop. Steve sells one of the best how to books on the subject. If you mean reproduce their recently patented process of extrusion production, the answer is still probably yes. You'd have to figure out how they do it, buy or build the equipment and probably defend yourself in court. It's not really a home shop process though. Frosty

Granted. However there is a difference in process that sort of excludes mokume gane from the explosive welding realm. The lack of an explosion. No? If you come up with a version that does use explosive compression I don't know if you could call it mokume gane. It's like calling pattern welding damascus. Sure both are generally made up of many welded layers but unless the metal originates from a batch of Wootz and the visible layers are made up of austentitic, martensitic, perlitic, graphitic, etc. steels it isn't properly "damascus." Welding up billets of different alloy steels, folding, rewelding and manipulating produces similar results visually but the process was discovered/invented because western smiths couldn't reproduce true damascus. Frosty

I'd also be a little suspicious of the horn being hidden behind the hand truck. I don't know about the UK but this side of the pond an anvil is worth a lot more than a hand truck and would get front stage in a picture. Frosty

Very nice. What's the finish? Frosty

A source of nearly pure nickle is Canadian quarters and dimes. If you have a welding supply near by you can buy 98% nickle welding wire. It'll give you something to experiment with while you wait for the foil order to arrive. When you order the foil, sheet or shim stock you might want to order some nickle screen, it makes for some interesting patterns in a billet. Frosty

A friend from the Artmetal gang. I've known Jim Binnion for quite some time. Deb and I wear Mokume Gane wedding rings made by Jim. Mokume Gane is done by diffusion welding, not fusion or explosive welding. In it's most basic form you clamp multiple layers of different metals together after very thoroughly cleaning them, then heat to sweating heat. Just below the lowest melting temp in the billet. The iron or steel clamp expands less than almost anything you're going to put in the billet so the pressure goes extremely high. At temp, under pressure the electrons in the different layers begin to exchange. Properly done the weld is as strong as the weakest metal in the billet. Some metals are easy to do this with. For instance I've done copper and brass in my propane forge and once in a charcoal forge. Copper, brass and bronze are easy combinatins but don't have a lot of contrast. Copper and silver are another easy pair but silver and brass make silver solder and a puddle at a temp lower than the diffusion temp of either. The methods Jim uses are a lot more sophisticated. Jim's been making mokume from combinations a lot of people consider on bordering the impossible. Gold and iron being one, titanium and zirconium another. Jim and Steve have invented a process for making mokume in quantity and various shapes. It can be made from virtually any combination of metals. It's pretty cool stuff. I can't wait to see my first set of Mokume Gane car rims, maybe bumpers. Frosty

There is a new material becoming available. It's only available in small jewelry size quantities right now but more will be coming online as demand allows. I'm not connected to this other than being a friend of one of the inventors. http://xpmcorporation.com/ Frosty

There's another way of making a melting furnace that has advantages. The furnace body lifts off the crucible instead of having to reach down into it. It eliminates one step in handling and every time you change tooling, grip, etc. increases the danger of a spill. Frosty

Gass powered table saw? Cool I thought only people in AK had such things. :cool: Frosty