Chris P Posted May 31, 2009 Share Posted May 31, 2009 Has anyone ever made or tried to make a swage block(s) out of rail? It might work good because of it's reputation for being hard steel. I was thinking it would be possible to machine the proper angles and radii into different 1.5 or 2 foot sections and then bolt them down like an anvil. The only problem I can think of off hand is the track not being thick enough for larger forms. Thoughts? opinions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 31, 2009 Share Posted May 31, 2009 I've never seen a hard swage block, most are ductile iron and square or rectangular in outline. Rail would need to be annealed and probably squared up before machining. Just a proper annealing will probably cost as much as buying a larger piece of mild steel. I hear good things about the Salt Fork swage blocks and the price last time I checked was darned reasonable. Still, I'm sure some of the shapes could be machined into RR rail. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris P Posted May 31, 2009 Author Share Posted May 31, 2009 Possibly a stupid question, but why are swage blocks made from milder steel? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mills Posted May 31, 2009 Share Posted May 31, 2009 For shaping hot metal under a hand hammer it is all that is necessary and costs less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arftist Posted May 31, 2009 Share Posted May 31, 2009 These are the types of questions I like to see here. The essence of Blacksmithing; inventiveness, creativity, building your own tools, using materials at hand. Swage blocks were square or rectangular for a good reason; to provide more surfaces with upon which to place shapes. The more sizes and shapes in one implement, the more efficient use of the normaly small blacksmith shop. Early swage blocks would have been simply grey cast iron, and derived needed stength from size and design, rather than material strenght. In spite of this one will ocasionaly find broken swage blocks. With the advent of ductile iron, size(mass) and shape of swage blocks has become more flexible. Many modern swage blocks have features or shapes which hold no interest to me, and lack others I think might be usefull. As far as the hardness of ductile iron goes, some of the most popular modern anvils are cast of ductile iron, are quite usable, and yet not as hard as wrought anvils with tool steel faces. Frosty is of course entirely correct that annealing would be nessasary for machining. However, many shapes could be cut into a track section with a cutting torch and cleaned up with a grinder. Many other shapes could be acheived by grinding alone. Additionaly, one with carbide tooling and a stout milling machine could machine rail road track in it's normal state. Futhermore, annealing is not nessasarily an expensive proposition, depending upon the resourses at hand. The two frugal ways I anneal tool steel are as follows; After using the forge, I put the hard part into the forge, bring it to above critical heat, then shut the forge off. In the case of a coal forge, it might do to dump dry ashes over the still hot forge, or simply bank with coal. The next day, most steels will be fully anealled. In the winter, I use an even cheaper method, the woodstove. Insert the part upon a hearty glowing bed of hardwood coals. Add fuel (wood), open the air for twenty minutes or so, shut down air to normal. Remove softened metal from cold stove the next morning. Finaly, another idea which presents itself, sections of rail would make excellent stock for hardy tools. Cut off the mount, add steel to enough of the web, forge to fit your hardy hole, design from there. For hardy tools which are seriously abused, the properties of rail steel may be especialy helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philip in china Posted May 31, 2009 Share Posted May 31, 2009 Iron also casts easier than steel. If you want a swage block with holes through it you should have some draft on the holes to prevent pieces from sticking. For a good look at the subjects try SwageBlocks.com Special anvils for repousse, artist blacksmiths and armorers I think is the link. For a very reasonable swage block I got mine from Ironworks forged iron steel custom blacksmith blacksmithing supplies It is thier block and weighs about 60 pounds which is plenty big enough for me. I use it a lot and the students use it more than I do! Eventually I hope to get the 600 pound block from Vaughans (Hope Works) - For all your Blacksmith, Foundry, Farrier needs. Now available Ironworkers and Bending machines but that will be for my retirement shop when it is built which won't be for a year or two yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted May 31, 2009 Share Posted May 31, 2009 (edited) Until recently I thought ductile iron was just a fairly soft easily cast material. I knew it was replacing forgings for many demanding applications. But after hearing glowing reports about TFS anvils I was surprized to find out they were ductile iron. Well, I did my research and found out that ductile iron is a whole family of modern alloys with some that can be heat treated and yeild hardnesses over 60 Rockwell! Go figure! Edited June 1, 2009 by nakedanvil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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