Frosty

Cool beans. Give it more time to cool than you think it needs! Frosty The Lucky.

Bending hot is normal enough in a Hossfeld, Case hardening only effects a couple thousandths of the surface and doesn't add to stiffness in any meaningful way. Maybe buy stronger steel or send it to a professional heat treater? I know it flies in the face of DIY but sometimes it's the best and most cost effective. Lola has seen the vise stand, I don't think she'll show more interest in something new or yummy. Frosty The Lucky.

It's also much easier to wrap 1" into a tube than 2". 2" wrinkles and requires work and extra quantities and thickness refractory to make a smooth interior so the flame flows smoothly. Frosty The Lucky.

I'm with you on that George. The forging was impressive as all git out but the machining was like a stroll down memory lane. I was never any good n a 4 jaw chuck, took me forever to center the work but Dad, Glenn or most any other machinist in his shop could in less than a minute. Dad's bog machine lathe was about the same age as the one in the video. All in all a good hour's watching, thanks for the link Arbalist. Frosty The Lucky.

Put a magnet in a plastic bag and pass it around your anvil, floor, yard, pickup bed, etc. when it won't pick up more turn the bag inside out over a bucket and put the magnet in another bag. When you stop getting filings, scale, pinch offs, etc. Go visit another blacksmith. Lather rinse repeat. When you have say 20lbs or so you might get a 4lb bloom. Frosty The Lucky.

You just put a big happy smile on my face Paul, that is excellent news! One follow up doc visit I remember clearly was getting my feeding tube removed. The doc and I chatted briefly while he got the bladder on the tube deflated and started trying to tug it out. He says in a calm relaxed voice, "You heal fast, it's healed in place, this is going to hurt . . . A LOT" and gives a hard jerk. I swear I could feel my stomach trying to follow the catheter out too! For a second I thought he'd lifted me off the exam table but of course I just jumped . . . about completely out the door! He put a band aid on the hole once he made sure it wasn't bleeding and said I was good to go, call if there are problems or questions, etc. etc. I complimented him for being the first medical professional who told me the truth. Boy that put a stop to his activities. "How so?" I asked. "you said it'd hurt a LOT and it did." . . . "WHAT?" he responded with a confused expression. "Nurses, doctors, etc. all tell you things like you might feel a pinch. A little discomfort, etc." Then inflict serious pain. You can't imagine how refreshing it is to have a doctor be honest about what to expect and you over stated the pain so it wasn't as bad as I expected." He laughed and said, "You must have a high pain threshold, most people yell at least." Ah, I'm off rambling again. "Expect some slight discomfort Paul." Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Caststeel, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you'll have a much better chance of getting together with members living within visiting distance. Do the drill marks show chatter or are they reasonably smooth? Have you run a sharp file across the face to check for hardness? A drill bit being able to cut an anvil face makes me suspect it's been through a fire and run the temper out of the face. She's a beauty though, looks to be in pretty decent condition. What do you have for a forge, tools, equipment, etc.? What are you planning on making? Frosty The Lucky.

A large part of the bloomery process is getting rid of slag like clinker. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice bull dozer die John, how wide have you tried to bend in it? Frosty The Lucky.

Compare it to the eye in his hammer, it's about 1" wide, maybe a bit more but yeah, Bryan isn't afraid to work heavy stock. Frosty The Lucky.

I can dowse a poker chip under a rug with coat hanger dowsing rods. Got me cussed by the boss when I'd dowse the keybox and track a waterline that needed thawing faster than he could get his metal detector out of the case and turned on. After the first couple times I'd start the welder and unship the cables while he looked for the keybox and waterline. The second time he looked up at me leaning on the thaw truck waiting on him he cussed me again and told me to find the fribbin frabbin line and box! A slow scan along the sidewalk till I crossed the waterline, followed it 2 steps to the keybox, then to the house where the other end of the ground wire emerged. Iron pipe in the ground I can explain but plastic? Gold in the ground is too sparse for me to dowse and I've never messed with finding water, no reason. Frosty The Lucky.

You'd have to lift Bryan's rounding hammer to understand why he tends to choke up on it. I lifted it once and wouldn't have tried swinging it without a double jack handle. Frosty The Lucky.

An emergency stop was the only thing I could think of but thought there might be other reasons. Looked up Lac Magentic disaster, a train with 70 tankers carrying crude oil was parked without hand brakes or a properly functioning engine and rolled away while the crew was . . . ? It derailed in the heart of the town of Lac Magentic, ground zero was burned to the ground and 47 died. Derailing it in the countryside would've been referrable though I doubt there would've been time to get a derailer bolted in place. Thanks. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Tyary, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you'll have a much better chance of meeting up with members living within visiting distance. Sounds like you got a great deal on an anvil that looks like it's been through a war. It appears to have a trademark on it, I expect someone better at searching such things will be along before long. Or better yet, someone who knows what you have. The horn looks to have been broken or torched off quite a while ago and hammered on. The broken feet look pretty worn too, almost like it was rattling around in a rock truck or tumbled down a hill lots of times. I wish I could tell you something about it but I'd sure like to know it's story. Good score bye the way. Frosty The Lucky.

I used to do stuff like that with my stick welder, I'd turn it down really low, disconnect the ground clamp, hold the wire, nail, etc. with the stinger and pull the ground onto the table by the cable. Worked about 3/5 of the time. By work I mean it actually welded rather than just stuck and broke when disturbed. If you have paste soldering flux it's almost 100% Frosty The Lucky.

Good tip though I don't mess with anything on or near the rails. Unless it's an emergency, I did help a lady push her car farther from the crossing once but I think she was clear anyway. The derail above really has me curious. Why would you derail a wheel, truck, car, TRAIN!!!? Frosty The Lucky.

You paint an excellent picture George, I can see myself sitting on the roof, wine in hand tossing niblets to the bats watching the stars come out. Years ago I was driving to visit the folks in S. Cal and stopped in Crescent City to take a break and have lunch. It was a beautiful day and I took my Subway down to sit on the beach and enjoy surf, sun and light breeze. As soon as I say down the seagulls started gathering at sight of a Subway bag. I was enjoying my combo and Pepsi as the gulls swooped closer so I tossed a pinch of bread and one caught it in the air. Cool, entertainment and all was well till a more aggressive gull chased the others off and started trying to grab my sandwich, it got the bag off the beach and wasn't being Good entertainment so I stopped throwing bits. Then it actually gave me a wing strike and brushed my shoulder with it's talons. Sooooo I tossed it a slice of jalapeno. It squawked in triumph and climbed away, then the squawks became distressed, it dropped the jalapeno slice and dove for the water. The slice made it maybe 2' and another gull caught it only to drop it in a few seconds for the next gull and so on. Finally gulls stopped catching and dropping the pepper to dive head first into the sea when it fell in the water itself. A number of people applauded laughing and I got to enjoy the rest of my sub while 15 or so seagulls entertained me by floating tails up righting just long enough to take a breath and back under just beyond the surf. The ranger in charge of the beach asked me what I'd thrown, thinking I'd thrown something dangerous I'm sure but broke out laughing when I told him. "I'll remember that one. Have a good day Sir." "You too officer." I learned something else, Gulls are SMART, not one more begged for food from me, other beach goers yes but they left me alone. Your bat story brought the Crescent City beach gulls memory back, thank you. Gotta LOVE a good Kodak moment! Frosty The Lucky.

Aren't there more factors to efficiency than just time John? How about material and power usage, waste disposal / processing, or personnel requirements, etc.? Your point about efficiency being a form or effectiveness is valid, enough. But, efficiency can't exist without effectiveness. No? Pat, you're still stuck on the horn as a fuller, it isn't. The horn is a multi use forming tool, drawing is only one of them. It's like thinking your car is only good for taking the kids to school so you need another one to get groceries, another to get to work, etc. Fullering on the edge is much faster if certain conditions are met. First the edge is properly radiused for the purpose YOU need to perform the job at hand. For example if you are setting a step down the inside corner NEEDS a radius or it will be a failure initiation point. It only needs a minimum radius though, 1/32" is typically plenty. Try using a 1/32" radius to fuller and you'll end up doing it in many stages or have lots of ridges to planish out. Fullering ridges and planishing is how I learned to draw down long sections. A larger radius makes for less work so works better in general. Lastly, how much do you know about Bryan Brazeal? If you look at the hammer in the picture you posted and compare it to the anvil face you can guestimate it's width and from that weight. Yes? Unless I'm mistaken that's one of his home made block steel anvils and has a face closer to 5 1/2" - 6" wide, I base that estimate on the general fact that Bryan typically swings a rounding hammer of his own making a bit heavier than 5lbs. He draws with the pein on the edge If radiused properly AND it's a long reduction. He does short draw downs on the face or horn as suits the situation. Bryan and Lyle demoed for our club for 3 days partially in exchange for a remote fishing trip so I've listened to and watched him work over a couple days. Then there's Mr. Aspery who is probably a foot shorter and 100lbs lighter who swings a "traditional" smithing hammer so he draws with either a flat face or a cross pein on the horn. A direct comparison doesn't work, two different men, two different products and philosophies. I think you're over estimating how your understanding of horns will affect things. The horn is a recent "invention" less than 300 years old IIRC and humans have been forging iron for closer to 4,000. For most of the world smiths don't use anvils with horns, we're the minority. The horn is a big draw for folk's who's main education about blacksmithing is watching TV. I believe the only smiths I know who make regular use of the horn are farriers and the horns on their anvils are MADE to work horse shoes efficiently. Modern farrier's anvils have turning lugs making the horn less necessary still and they only come into play if shoes have to be made from bar stock. For the most part you size premade shoes to the hoof often but not always on the horn. Once again, you're over analyzing a very complex craft with too little knowledge to be able to interpret most aspects let alone understand. I've been doing this more than 52 years off and on and my "understanding" is regularly corrected as being mistaken or most often not the better method. I hang here because I learn something new about the craft almost daily. Blacksmith's craft is a never ending learning curve but you have to climb it with a hammer, anvil and fire. Reading is just knowledge, practice makes a smith. Frosty The Lucky.

I read a couple articles about tanging bees, it seems evenly split between works well and myth. I'll keep it in mind in case we get caught in a swarm though, Deb is allergic so getting them to settle would be a good thing. Well. we should be set fine for the fae then Billy, we live in a forest and my idea of yard work is trimming the tag alder back so it doesn't scratch the vehicles in the driveway. I'll have to try clacking the bats in, I've never heard of that and we see bats when the bugs are out. Not many but they're around, maybe if sonar gets out that we're good clackers more will hang here and eat mosquitoes. Frosty The Lucky.

Don't you LOVE IT when a plan comes together? Well done, Frosty The Lucky.

Yes, there is plenty of evidence that drawing over a fuller, be it horn, edge or bottom tool, is more efficient than on the face. Mr. Aspery was classically trained in England and is very traditional so it's very unlikely he'd use more modern techniques. Not that he doesn't know about or is unable, it isn't traditional so he chooses not to. Lastly if Mr. Aspery looks inefficient in a video it is because he is demonstrating a technique NOT competing in a speed contest. The point of demonstrating techniques is that the audience is able to see what and how you do things at a pace they can grasp and hopefully perform themselves with a little practice. No, the horn doesn't have direct support beyond the anvil's body, nor does the heel. They are not for "heavy" work. They are the way they are so you can work around them, say form a U shaped clip or a horse shoe. The result of doing HEAVY work on either can be seen in the 1st. post in this thread. Efficiency is a common goal for newcomers but it's not nearly your best focus. Try being Effective instead, efficiency is more a production goal. I don't recall what you're making as learning projects but I start folks out on leaf wall hooks so that's what I'll use as my example. Effective is knowing what dimension stock to use, the best heat color per step, which step to do first and so on. Efficient comes in when you have 20 hooks to make in an afternoon so you precut your stock, have 2-3 in the forge as you hammer one in a round robin of hammering fury. You will be using the most effective techniques you know and adopt new ones as they come to you. While you're learning the craft forget efficiency, you'll waste too much precious time and effort wondering about things that just don't matter like why a master smith apparently doesn't go as fast as another. Right now you want to focus on the best way to do the processes. Once you become proficient speed will come. It's like learning to type, even after you've learned the keyboard and can maybe touch type you're lucky to type 15wpm, in a week 25 and by the end of the semester 50+ is an A. When I was in jr high anyway. So relax and enjoy the craft, you are SUPPOSED TO hit things with hammers, play with fire, get dirty, smelly and end up with cool things! It doesn't get any better. Frosty The Lucky.

Looks great Das, I like it a lot. Frosty The Lucky.

Oh, if I'd come across them for reasonable I'd have a pair or two. Frosty The Lucky.

Cool, thanks Billy. That means there's a better chance we'll still be living here! Frosty The Lucky.

The Fae living in suburbia need places to live more than in the country. Building them fairy houses keeps them from living in the house and making mischief. IIRC in the old country you'd leave a bowl of milk with a pat of butter in it to keep the Fae from making your cows dry up. Ankle high cosa nostra. Frosty The Lucky.