bobc Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 I am in Fort Worth and am an auctioneer. That trade provides me many tools for reasonable amounts of money. I am currently working on a 24# Little Giant in my spare time. That will be about all I will need for doing the smith stuff. I have collected around ten hammers of different weights pens and drawing hammers mostly. I am short on tongs and am looking for them. May have to make them. When I was a kid every summer I worked on the Quinsabe ranch in the panhandle of Texas as a blacksmith helper. I got it in my blood at that time an that was 45 years ago or so. I enjoy welding and the newest toy a plasma torch. Recently I put up a shed roof over the back overhead door of the auction house. Made the two support beams by welding together two by six inch by twelve foot pallet racking rails and cutting the ends off. Four schedule 40 steel posts to hold up the beams and 4 inch c perlin spaced about five foot apart on a 1.5 to 12 pitch with galvaluminum r panel made a 20 by 22 foot cover 14 feet high. Had to be high for the tractor trailers to unload when I am not working on something. The roof survived the 80 mph winds we had the other day. I think I have read all the blueprint posts and many of the other posts and it has been very informative. I like to make my own garden tools because they don't bend up and wear out or break. New blades for my out of date rotary tiller, hoes, new edges for plows and the like are all projects for me. I don't know the best steel for skinning knives. I used to think leaf springs were good but having read some of the posts looks like I was wrong in my thinking. For finding blade steel I would grind a piece and use the one that produced the biggest shower of sparks and had the high pitched ping sound when struck. There are probable much better ways of doing that now. I am close to several steel yards- Hawk is maybe the closest just down Mansfield Hwy, I have saved up maybe 30 jack hammer bit some as long as three feet. I figured if the would go through rock and cement they might someday make something for gardening or butchering. Have collected two good leg vices, an ok anvil - had a chance to get a beat up very large anvil but was to cheap to put the money up. Adios-Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Dean Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 (edited) Howdy from East TEXAS!! and welcome to IFI! sounds as if you got bit pretty good. I encourage you to join a blacksmith group...or 2. There is the North Texas Blacksmiths Association that meets every 2nd Sat of the month, check the site for the next meeting, July 11. That one would be a good one to attend. Great bunch of smiths in the group. The Saltfork Craftsmen and Artist Blacksmith Association Saltfork Craftsmen. With this group you can attend a meeting EVERY Sat. somewhere in Oklahoma or NE Texas. (Paris has a meeting on the 1st sat of each month) Glad to have you hook up with us here and once again, welcome. BTW, that would be a 25# Little Giant. I have one, good little hammer. Also have a 50#LG in rebuild mode and a 135# air hammer. Love em all.:) Edited June 15, 2009 by Thomas Dean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesrjohnson Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 Welcome Bob... Thomas is right, if you have the time, join up with the clubs... you will meet some great guys and can learn a lot along the way. Also, if you ever get the urge to pound some steel, come up to my shop. I am just 50 miles north of Ft. Worth (North of Decatur) and my shop is always open. We just had a demo where we invited the North Texas Blacksmiths and Saltfork (Oklahoma). You can check out the pictures at: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbuXLZw0Zt2Tm4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 Welcome aboard Bob, glad to have ya. It sounds like you were infected a long time ago, smithing is an addictive thing. Leaf spring has a lot going for it for blade making. There are more specialized steels, some harder, some more resilient, some corrosion resistant, some flashier, etc. Still, good old 5160 spring steel will take and hold a good edge, can be tough enough to bounce a car on and one of my favorites, is generally pretty forgiving in heat treatment. You can make mistakes and not necessarily lose a blade or turn out a bad product. Clubs are good, you'll learn more in a couple hours with the gang than a month or two figuring it out yourself. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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