OTOH the ancient smith was *used* to every piece of metal being slightly different and old manuals mentioned testing each new piece to see what you got, cf Moxon's Mechanic's Exercises circa 1700 CE, We're the ones who tend to assume that all mild steel/A36 will be the same...

Exactly. Even if a smith from 200 bpe simply put a piece in the fire, the first hit with a hammer would tell him/er it wasn't a common material.

Regardless, the idea a smith of the era wouldn't test steel from an auto before trying to work it is more than a bit beyond my imagination. There's virtually zero steel content in a modern vehicle that hasn't seen finish machine work of one kind or another. Basic closed die forging being about the roughest work in today's vehicle.

All of it would be extraordinary at first glance and tested as such.

Frosty

cf Moxon's Mechanic's Exercises circa 1700 CE

Now theres an eBook I'd like to see

I've made a few BBQ implements (Forks & fire pokers) from things such as AC,alternator & power steering brackets, thou I "cheated" a bit & used a hacksaw to make the split to form the prongs ;)

Now theres an eBook I'd like to see

I've made a few BBQ implements (Forks & fire pokers) from things such as AC,alternator & power steering brackets, thou I "cheated" a bit & used a hacksaw to make the split to form the prongs

And how do you figure using a hack saw is cheating? Blacksmiths invented metal cutting tools like saws, files and such. If you're wondering how "period" a hack saw is there's one in the Mastermyr tool kit, Cir. 1,000ad

On the other hand I hope you took some pics of your projects to show us. We like pics.

Frosty

Well I did use quotes to imply it wasn't truly cheating. lol.

Sorry, no pic's of em', this was from a decade or more ago. But as I piece together things (just moved, lost / left behind some stuff in the process) I'll have some to share for sure.
About all I have for pic's now is the hole I'm digging for Clay & Sandstone which will become a compost pit eventually for my Garden next year.

Sorry if the shots are a bit :offtopic: , just working with what I've got.

So once I dig the clay, I slake it in the wheelbarrel, let it settle some and siphon off the wash into the 5 gal. bucket thru a nylon screen to catch gravel, roots and whatnot, once that settles it gets poured off into the kiddie pool where it settles for a week or so, then I siphon off the excess water. Unfortunatly my tarp has a pinhole and the rain keps finding it's way thru. The majority of what I've dug is simply Potters clay, but I've found traces of fireclay here & there, hoping to find a more significant batch as I go deeper. if anything I'll try amending the Potters clay with pulverized flint or something and hopefully raise it's refractory limits a tad.

Edited July 30, 200817 yr by FritzDaKat

Don't you have problems taking your computer out to the forge so you can refer to your e-book as you are working?

I picked up a reprint of it by Astragal Press in a used bookstore in Van Buren AR 20 years ago---*constant* *vigilance*!