New guy (question heavy thread)

[ganman]

Well i just started blacksmithing, its allways been something ive wanted to do now i got the time and brains with a hint of brawns to do it

built my first forge stealing various ideas from others and generaly just improvising something workable.

I got no pics but a description

2 metals parts that form the inside rim of a wheel, stacked on each other to get the depth thats ive read needs to be 7 inch for charcoal. These are placed on 2 bricks with in between these 2 bricks has a pipe that leads to my hair dryer. The intire stucture is sorounded by bricks in a kinda pyramid for stability. well on round 1 this setup kinda failed, not eneugh air so i just moved the dryer to ontop of it blowing down into the charcoal and that seemed to work half decently.

First try at making something i had a piece of rusted steel a bit thicker then a piece of rebar and abour 1 1/2 feet long. managed to smash into a bottle opener that works better then the store bought

QUESTION TIME! :! !!

1) When are you supposed to quench your piece? Also whats the procedure to make whatever your making stronger like repeat heat quench... or something like that?

2) I read that it looses its magnetism when its ready to whack, so i had a magnet, piece was not glowing or anything but lost its magnetism. and it was fairly shape able, (it was strong stuf to start with too btw) But must i wait till it glows red or is it preferable or no magnetism, go ahead and whack?

3) I was using a store bought charcoal royal oak i think its called, canadian tire blue bag. It sparks alot, any way to reduce this?

4) Whats the best way to recude your charcoal use but keep the heat as high as possible?

5) Do you always run the blower on and just crank it to high for the extra push or turn it off when your metal is out of the forge&

6) I got hit by a spark caused a blister bump thing, pop or let it be?

7) My long term blacksmithing goal is to make a suit of chainmale armor. any suggestion to information bought making one of these?

8) how do you weld 2 piece of metal together especially wire steel or iron.

9) Railroad nails(not the word but i forget what it is) good for making stuf?

10) whats the general guidlines to picking scrap steel and knowing if its safe to use or not (chemicals)

11) do car junkyards provide good scrape steel to use? if yes whats the best parts

12) Best source of steel overall?

13) How reusable is the remaining bits of charcoal after a burn?

14) when im done should i spray water all over my forge or is there a super awesome special technique that makes relighting easyer.

15) Anyone feel like shipping to Canada a pair of good pliers

16) Any suggestions for a next project? exempt is the pair of pliers of above that i hope someone ships

17) Wheres the hottest part of a forge, in the coals? ontop? ...?

18) how long do you usualy get to work with the steel before you got to reheat?

19) how do you tell difference between iron and steel)

20) can you weld the above metals into 1 bar?

21) temperature that glass melts?

22) any trinkets that are good to sell that a blacksmith can make?


Thanks all Lowing the hobby so far.

[jeremy k]

Well - I have to say WOW. Good that your interested, although I think in the time you spent thinking and typing this post, you could have spend the same amount of time searching the vast amount of information on this site to get most of your answers. Do alot more reading and investigation for yourself, you will learn lots more that way.

[Marksnagel]

Ganman,

Welcome to IFI. While you are encouraged to ask as many questions as you need to, others have given you sound advice. Research all you can through the rest of the web and others.
This site is a great tool in your education of blacksmithing. We're glad to have you and look forward to seeing you grow in the craft and share your projects.

Mark <><

[ThomasPowers]

If you are in the USA you can go to your local public library and ILL a book on blacksmithing to answer these questions. Or if getting hundreds of pages of information written by an expert is not for you then the search function will bring up hundreds of posts on these questions. Do we really need to retype them again?


1) When are you supposed to quench your piece? Also whats the procedure to make whatever your making stronger like repeat heat quench... or something like that?

Never I almost NEVER quench a piece that is not a high carbon steel being used for tooling or a blade! When I am done forging it I let it sit in a safe place till it cools---most of the time thrown out into the smithy driveway or under the forge if people are around.

The procedure to harden, NOT make stronger as hardness is coupled with brittleness. is to take a steel of a proper alloy to harden, heat it up to the proper temperature for that alloy and quench it in the proper quenchant [air, oil, saltwater] for that alloy/shape and then draw temper to the proper temperature for that alloy, shape and personal preference. Notice how many things gotta be known to answer that question specifically?

2) I read that it looses its magnetism when its ready to whack, so i had a magnet, piece was not glowing or anything but lost its magnetism. and it was fairly shape able, (it was strong stuf to start with too btw) But must i wait till it glows red or is it preferable or no magnetism, go ahead and whack?

Depends on the alloy and what you are trying to do with it. For low carbon steels an orange heat makes it much easier to work. For some alloys too high a temperature will cause it to burn or "cottage cheese"---you should not be working with high alloy steels until you know the basics though.

3) I was using a store bought charcoal royal oak i think its called, canadian tire blue bag. It sparks a xxxx load, any way to reduce this?

Is this real chunk charcoal or is it briquettes? Briquettes are mainly NOT charcoal going to real charcoal helps as does letting the charcoal heat up and drive off any water before getting it raked into the hot spot of the forge.

4) Whats the best way to recude your charcoal use but keep the heat as high as possible?

Make the firepot of your forge deep but fairly narrow so you don't have a lot of charcoal burning that's not contributing to the workpiece heating. For a coal firepot I usually add a couple of firebricks on edge to wall in the sides a bit.

5) Do you always run the blower on and just crank it to high for the extra push or turn it off when your metal is out of the forge&

For charcoal you run the blower as little as possible for coke you run it all the time

6) I got hit by a spark caused a blister bump thing, pop or let it be?

Personal preference. I usually get sparked/scaled on my hands and they get popped going into my pockets pretty fast. I generally don't do anything to it while forging.

7) My long term blacksmithing goal is to make a suit of chainmale armor. any suggestion to information bought making one of these?

www.armourarchive.org a series of forums dedicated to making armour pretty much none of which requires a blacksmith's forge these days. If you want to make butted maille you could be working on your shirt by the weekend! If you want to make rivetted maille then you will probably need to tool up a bit; but butted maille will help you learn the basics. I finished my first maille shirt back in 1981---all done cold.


8) how do you weld 2 piece of metal together especially wire steel or iron.

Forge weld, arc weld, explosive weld, vacuum weld? (they do a lot of explosive welding out here near my office!)

For forge weld you heat it to the right temp in the forge and for wire you squeeze the overlap.

9) Railroad nails(not the word but i forget what it is) good for making stuf?

RR Spikes: Yes, No, Maybe: depending on what the stuff is. They make quite nice garden trowels but pretty bad knives.

10) whats the general guidlines to picking scrap steel and knowing if its safe to use or not (chemicals)

Anything plated may be deadly! Assume something is mild unless it was originally in a use that requires high carbon. Heavy old paint can be toxic as well (lead and or zinc). The basic rule is "if it's rusty it's good"

11) do car junkyards provide good scrape steel to use? if yes whats the best parts

Depending on what you want to make from it almost all ferrous parts of a car can be used for something! Leaf and coil springs are a source of medium carbon steel, as well as torsion bars and axles.

12) Best source of steel overall?

Right over that way about 1/2 mile is the best source of steel around HERE, it's a scrap yard that allows me to pick through it... I buy my new mild steel from a windmill supply store and buy my knife steel from Admiral or other blademakers.

13) How reusable is the remaining bits of charcoal after a burn?

If it's not ash or tiny it's good to go.

14) when im done should i spray water all over my forge or is there a super awesome special technique that makes relighting easyer.

With charcoal water is a safe way. If you had a forge that could be closed up airtight that would work better for re-lighting.

15) Anyone feel like shipping to Canada a pair of good pliers

16) Any suggestions for a next project? exempt is the pair of pliers of above that i hope someone ships

17) Wheres the hottest part of a forge, in the coals? ontop? ...?

Forges have oxidizing levels, neutral levels and reducing levels you want your steel to be in either of the last two, so somewhere in the middle to upper reaches of the fuel stack.

18) how long do you usualy get to work with the steel before you got to reheat?

Depends on what I'm working on---thick stuff I'll tire out before the steel losses colour, thin stuff---like a knifeblade in winter I may get *1* hit before reheating.

19) how do you tell difference between iron and steel)

Define iron: Cast iron, Wrought Iron, mild steel, medium carbon steel, high carbon steel, high alloy steel.... Look into spark testing of steels to get a better than just guessing method.

20) can you weld the above metals into 1 bar?

Everything but cast iron and some of the high alloy steel is what I do on a regular basis.

21) temperature that glass melts?

What type of glass? Most types will melt on hot steel.

22) any trinkets that are good to sell that a blacksmith can make?

Pattern welded steel bottle openers, Rasptle snakes, hooks, loaded dice, RR spike letter openers---really depends on the venue you sell at.

[ThomasPowers]

Aha---canada! Can you attend CanIron? It's coming up FAST and will be the best way to get a fast start on smithing!

http://www.ontarioblacksmiths.ca/CANIRON8/

Of course if you are far away from it it won't be of much help.

[Timothy Miller]

I suggest you buy your self a book on basic blacksmithing. I recommend "the New edge of the anvil". You are asking for a lot of information that is a lot of typing. http://www.amazon.com/New-Edge-Anvil-Resource-Blacksmith/dp/1879535092 You cant go wrong with this book.

[Drewed]

On 7/19/2011 at 5:38 PM, ganman said:

1) When are you supposed to quench your piece? Also whats the procedure to make whatever your making stronger like repeat heat quench... or something like that?
When you no longer what it hot. Unless you want to file it, then let it air cool
2) I read that it looses its magnetism when its ready to whack, so i had a magnet, piece was not glowing or anything but lost its magnetism. and it was fairly shape able, (it was strong stuf to start with too btw) But must i wait till it glows red or is it preferable or no magnetism, go ahead and whack?
it needs to be minumium of red before wacking, yellow is better for the most part
3) I was using a store bought charcoal royal oak i think its called, canadian tire blue bag. It sparks a xxxx load, any way to reduce this?
Use coal? try getting it slightly wet?
4) Whats the best way to recude your charcoal use but keep the heat as high as possible?
More air / better planing, use coal.
5) Do you always run the blower on and just crank it to high for the extra push or turn it off when your metal is out of the forge&
Run it only when heating metal, or when fire is dieing.
6) I got hit by a spark caused a blister bump thing, pop or let it be?
let it be
7) My long term blacksmithing goal is to make a suit of chainmale armor. any suggestion to information bought making one of these?
Chain mail is not blacksmithing. You can cold bend the wire needed to make that.
8) how do you weld 2 piece of metal together especially wire steel or iron.
Very carefully. You need to get the metal way way way hot and move fast. Best to have someone show you how.
9) Railroad nails(not the word but i forget what it is) good for making stuf?
You can make a ton of stuff using RR spikes
10) whats the general guidlines to picking scrap steel and knowing if its safe to use or not (chemicals)
No galvanized metal. If it is rusting it is generally safer.
11) do car junkyards provide good scrape steel to use? if yes whats the best parts
Car suspension springs. leaf or coil. Anything that a magnet sticks too.
12) Best source of steel overall?
??? Depends on where you are. My junk yards have all become "Pick your part." places and don't have a lot of scrap in decient sizes. I buy my metal online. Ask around look for metal shops and see if you can dumpster dive the scrap bins for metal and say you will pay for it.
13) How reusable is the remaining bits of charcoal after a burn?
Unless they are ash or clinker re-use it
14) when im done should i spray water all over my forge or is there a super awesome special technique that makes relighting easyer.
Just let it bun out. using charcoal, you may need to cover it and smother the fire. Water only if your in danger of starting a fire.
15) Anyone feel like shipping to Canada a pair of good pliers
Nope!
16) Any suggestions for a next project? exempt is the pair of pliers of above that i hope someone ships
just practice point and drawing and bending.
17) Wheres the hottest part of a forge, in the coals? ontop? ...?
Your metal will heat to the color of your coals. Find the bright spot and stick it in there
18) how long do you usualy get to work with the steel before you got to reheat?
depends on the size. 1/4" 5 or six wacks depending on how fast you are. 1" steel, a minute or more. when you cant see the color, re-heat it
19) how do you tell difference between iron and steel)
You can only get steel now. Iron doesn't really exist any more.
20) can you weld the above metals into 1 bar?
Yes, I can, but it is a pain.
21) temperature that glass melts?
"Glass". World Book Encyclopedia 2000 ed.Chicago,IL. World Book Inc. 2000: Page. 215 "Melting: The mixture melts at 2600-2900 °F (1425-1600 °C) depending on its composition" 1425 - 1600 °C

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_temperature_that_glass_melts_at#ixzz1SbU4czH6

22) any trinkets that are good to sell that a blacksmith can make?
All trinkets are good. But you wont make $$ selling them.

Thanks all Lowing the hobby so far.

 

My answers in BLUE

 

[Old N Rusty]

Welcome to IFI, at the top of the home page is PAGES read all there. This site has so much information available that all your questions will be answered.

[lordcaradoc]

Ganman,

Another good piece of advise that I haven't see here yet is to tell everybody you know that you are getting into Blacksmithing. Don't ask for stuff, necessarily, just let them know how enthused you are to be doing this and it will amaze you how quickly things will fall out of barns on your front step, or somebody's Grandfather was a smith and there might be some tools in the barn you could have or buy cheap.

Also, and this is a help to many of us, go edit your profile to show at least the town and province you are in. It could lead to meeting other blacksmiths in your area who can help a great deal.

Regards,
Tim