Scott Thomas

Christopher,

Very nice,

I like the way you used two pieces of square bar wrapped and collared together to make the main body instead of a single piece of flat bar. It takes more skill to do that than splitting the ends of a flat bar. Well done.

I would sugest that you use decorative fasteners to hang it it up instead of purchased hardware.

Excellent job!

My hammer set: (at least the primary ones)

Note: the wieghts are aproxamate. I make them where they feel comfortable to use not necessarly to a spacific wieght.

Straight pein: 1 3/4 lb and 4 lb
Cross pein: 1 1/2 lbs
Round face: 1 3/4 lbs and 3 lbs
Ball pein: 1 lb and 2 lb
Single hand sledge: 8 lb (named Thug)
Two hand sledges: 6 lb and 10 lb
Raising/Planishing hammer: 2 lb

With the exception of the ball peins and the sledges, all hammers were made by myself.

I find that so far, this hammer set answers for all my smithing needs from decorative work to knives and swords.

I finally found the pics of the swage tools I used for the rivet heads. (And the rivet headding plate)

This is another device I find useful with my coal forge. It is a barrier with an adjustable opening to keep the coals from riding out on long flat stock that I might be forging. It is made from 18 ga. sheet metal I had laying around the shop. I use it mostly for blade work.

What did you have in mind to weld?

I have not tried it, but I would say no for the forllowing reasons:
This is an indirect method of heating and hot as eficient as direct heat. To get the inside of the container (This one made of steel) hot enough the out side would have to be abve melting tempature. Poof steel container gone. If it was ceramic it might work because it can handle higher heat.(That is how crucible steel is made. Liquid steel in a jar) On to problem number two. The container is an open space, therefore is is an oxidizing atmosphere which is not useful in forge welding. If you fill it up with coke or something you are just creating a small ineficent forge in another forge which is a waste of energy. If you want to forge weld something just build a proper fire and do it there.

For something like welded ring mail armor you do it like making regular chains except you make the weld IN the fire with a pair of needle nose tongs by pinching the weld together while it is in the fiire. Since the wire ring is so thin it reaches welding heat in a matter of a few seconds so your tools do not heat up.

Make a box and play with it. You might discover uses that I have never thought of.

By the by, what are you making the devorative rivet heads for? Do you have a special rivet set for them?

Nick

They were for a set of steel doors. (See pic)

I made a top swage for the heads. Using mild steel, Take a square bar of your finished head dimentions and file it to a pyramid shape of what you desire. (Heat it and quench it to toughen it up) Take another square bar of a larger dimention and heat the end to yellow hot, clamp in vice and drive your pattern into it to form the swage recess. (Might take a heat or two to get it to the depth you want) take a final heat and quench it to toughen it up a bit as well. Save the pattern bar to use for a counter sink punch for square hole rivet or tennon joinery.

Note: The mild steel (A-36) I use will not have a high hardness like tool steel when quenched, but it will toughen up enough to be used as hot work swages and dies for hand hammering use.

Scott, will it do/enable forge welding to be done?

Since it is made of steel, it WILL NOT do for forge welding, unless you want to forge weld something to it (most likely it will melt away before you can accomplish anything). You might be able to do some brazing in it though.

I posted this on another board a while ago and thought folks here might like it.


Here is a handy item for heating up a quantity of small parts in a coal or charcoal forge. It is basically what is called a

Sa for posting pics I use the "Manage attachments" button under "Additional options" Browse and up load from your computer.

I am not as skilled with the computer stuff as I would like so it has to be easy for trained monkeys to do it if I am to figure it out. Even then it might take a bit for me.

Seamus,

As for adapting the chuck to your drill press, I would cut the large size threads on a lathe and then turn down the rod beyond those threads and cut the smaller size threads to fit my chuck.

Is your chuck threaded for 1/2-20?

On mine, the chuck still had the plain 1/2 inch hole with the set screw. I just got a bolt of the approiate legnth and thread for my chuck and used that as a stud. (After I cut off the bolt head of course.)

Why, is it broken?

Isn

Alan,

The term

Dale,

It was built for boring out the pilot holes for sword blade grips prior to burning in the tang. I have an order for a pair of Early 16th century Hand and a half German long swords that have a 10 inch grip. This will make drilling a 10 inch hole a little less dificult.

I am sure more uses will pop up over time.

Hello folks,

Here is a horizontal drill press setup I made from an old hand cranked post drill and some scrap steel angle iron and square tubing I had laying around the shop. I had to forge up a new automatic feed lever assembly, and since everything is horizontal, I had to make a return spring to move the feed ratchet back up. In the vertical setup the shape of the feed ratchet allows it to return by gravity. I could have made up a counter weight extended off the part that rides on the crank cam, but a return spring gives a clean appearance, plus I wanted to try my hand at spring making. It has a flat stock table that can be adjusted up or down and forward and back from the drill chuck. Line it up, clamp your work to it and drill away. Right now I plan to use it only for wood stuff, as I do not think the worktable is rigid enough for metal stuff, although I

Hello,

With my respects to both Mr. Hofi and Strine, you both are reaching the same objective, just in slightly different ways. Just variations on the same tune.

The MAIN objective here was to utilize three different methods of drawing out a piece of steel using hand hammering without a striker.

First, the most aggressive: Using the offside of the anvil face to in combination with an offset hammer blow (Some call it a half face hammer blow) which is just a form of fullering the steel. Deep indentations = lots of metal movement in a lateral 180 deg. direction. This is rough forging.

Less aggressive: Forging the steel on the horn with flat hammer blows. This starts to smooth out the deep indentations while still stretching (Displacing) the steel yet giving more control of the final dimension desired.

Least aggressive: Flat hammer blows on the anvil face (Means using the flat of the hammer against the flat of the anvil even though you may be hammering at an angle on the work, it is still flat face to flat face). This is finish forging, and should give you the final dimension desired with little or no grinding needed.

NOW, as to how you start you taper depends on you.

Some folks are great at spatial relationships and estimation of stock size needed. They can start their taper wherever they want and end up with the required final dimension.

Some folks are not, and they start by defining the end of the taper first and then working it back along the stock, blending it into the previous section until the final dimension is reached.

Sometimes you need to be very specific about the amount of stock you are using, how much stock you need and the exact final dimension. Here is where the mathematics is most useful. Some smiths can do this in their head, some have to use a measuring stick and a calculator.

No matter how you start, the important thing is to utilize the proper technique (such one of more of the three listed above) of drawing out the steel to achieve your objective.

As a side note, blacksmithing has been around for over 2500 YEARS OR MORE, so nothing we do today in regards of hand hammering technique is NEW or

Alan,

As far as I know, all of the early forges (As well as some today) were all side blast air sources, and that is the way I made my "Celtic" forge. Since we can't dig a proper trench forge at every event, I made a portable "hole in the ground forge" to take with me. It weighs about 70 lbs. and gets up to welding heat very quickly. (Using oak charcoal).


Scott

Alan,

The tool in question is generally called a

Hello,

My name is Scott Thomas. I am a full time blacksmith using an early 20th century shop to do all my work with a good old dirt floor and coal forge. I would pretty much call myself a general blacksmith because I do everything from shoeing horses, ironwork for the home and bladesmithing.

I started working metal back in 1991 and have been at my current location for the last seven years.

I also teach students on a one on one basis. I start with a strong emphasis on proper body mechanics with respect to standing at the anvil and swinging a hammer. They start out forging some basic tools and then use those tools to forge up projects that focus on a particular blacksmithing principal. This gives them a solid smithing foundation from where they can go on to specific areas of smithing if they want.