BIGGUNDOCTOR

Stainless steels are also pretty good at handling high heat situations due to the chrome and nickel content, so you have to get them really hot, and have enough oxygen around the item for the scale to form.

Thomas, sure you can buy new, I was talking more along the lines of picking them up as scrap. Around here they come through with a magnet and load them up for distant scrapyards. L.A. is just 240 miles away and pays better scrap prices. Althooooooogh , driving to work in Las Vegas I saw piles of new ties along the rails. Looks like there is going to be some work done soon, so I will have to keep an eye out if the crews get close to where I can pull over to talk with them. I would love to get a few dump trucks of the tie plates. I flip them upside down and use them as metal floor tiles where I forge. Wouldn't mind doing my whole driveway with them, but if I can get a bucket or two of spikes they would last me a long time. One big difference I see between the States and the UK is the price of anvils. Far less expensive than here, and very large ones seem to be more common. Don't know if Robin Sharples Waterfoot is on IFI, I know him through Facebook, but he has hundreds of anvils and quite a few over 400# on up to his 1,354# Wilkinson. Another difference is that I believe that in the UK there are still blacksmithing guilds, and you can get formal training as a smith. Here , any yahoo can hang a shingle out after watching a Youtube video, and call himself a smith. Apprenticeship programs have pretty much disappeared over here. It wasn't until a few years ago that I learned what Journeyman originally referred to. I briefly met three German ladies during a First Friday art event in Las Vegas who were doing their Journeyman tour, and one did metal working.. They stood out because they were wearing the traditional Journeyman outfit. Found a picture of the big Wilkinson just after it was forged C1895

I would think that a Champion blower would be rare in OZ.

Looks like a horseshoe with a cross bar for added traction.

The anvil looks in good shape. Is that a Champion 400 blower?

FlatLiner, where are you getting the silicon? Grinding up computer chips?

My favorite knot is a Carrick Bend for visual effect, I use a Bowline a lot at work. I keep thinking about the Scouts in my Troop asking why they needed to know all of these different knots..

I have used coal (coke is hard to find) and just recently started using a propane forge that came in a package deal I made. To me , the side blast has advantages over the bottom blast for coal use - clinkers don't plug up the air as easily. If I was to build a forge it would be a side blast. The forge welding you saw done,was it with real wrought iron? I have a couple of pillar drills, but they live in a storage bin. No interest in actually using them for drilling when I have electric drills. The new alloys confuse me Cm15Vblah,blah,blah. I know 1018, 4140, etc.. Spikes can be tough to get here too. You can always make a 2x72

Places to get improvised anvils; tractor repair shops, earth moving equipment shops, large paving companies, rental yards, hydraulic shops, crane shops, and any place that uses larger machinery. You are looking for large diameter bucket pins, axles, shafts, hydraulic breaker points, forklift forks, blocks of steel, forgings , castings if cast steel-not cast iron. You also have the BOEING surplus sales in either Kent or Everett and they have some cool stuff go through there.

You only need a working surface as big as the hammer you are using. Maybe make a tube stand where you can flip it over and use either end as needed.

I bought mine from shop auctions, and they work great. The first was a LINDE UCC-305, and the next was a Miller 250. Paid $250 for the Linde and another $250 or so for a foot pedal, flowmeter, and torch. The Miller was $1,000 and it came with a mess of extras. If you can, test them out ahead of time. I was not able too, but just doing some inspection visually I figured that they were in good working order.

post a picture of the damage

I wouldn't pay $3 a pound for a Vulcan in great shape, and I own one that is 150#.

Hmmmm, this sounds like a youngster getting their points together to pitch smithing to their skeptical parents Pros- it is fun and you get to play with fire. Cons-burns, dirty, possible lung and eye damage (breathing combustion and metal fumes, CO, particles, infrared radiation, flying objects) , fire hazards, smashed fingers, and more----but you get to play with fire . Pros-solid fuels are inexpensive, easy to obtain. Cons-smoke, coal is stinky, large storage space. Propane/natural gas - strike a match and get going. Cons-Potentially very explosive, costs more then solid fuel. Induction-flip a switch and ready to go, fastest way to heat metal, no combustion fumes, no flame. Con-expensive to obtain the unit. Money Spent-that is up to the person to decide if it was worth the expense.

Check the face hardness, stone carving hammers are soft faced to allow the chisel shank to bite into the face.