Crazy Ivan Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Yes you do. look through the heat treating section of the forum for more info, heat treating must be done evenly and all at once for uniform results. Moving the blade back and forth until you have an even heat throughout is doable (though it takes a keen eye and good heat control) -Crazy Ivan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Not a lot to add here..but i would like to ask if the sord pic you showed is one of yours,,and also the mace?....Now about the forge...If you are forging a long blade and heat it the full length each and ever time you heat it to forging temps. .You will only be able to forge a small section at a time as the rest will drop below forging heat levels.Heating the parts of the blade yooui cannot work will cause a large loss of metal due to scale..and likele leave pits that will take forever to remove when finishing the blade. If you read deep into the forums here you may find threads that talk about a ground forge for heat treating long blades. If the sord is one you made you are off to a good start. If not It is REAlly a good plan to begin with short blades and get the forging,,heat treat,,fit and finish all down really well..then add lengh before you get into the realities of how making a sord is so much more complicated. than a knife. I have been making knivees since the ark landed and am no way near reaady to try one... I have only touched on learning about sord harmonics...if I do step up it will take a lot of shop time to work that out. Keep us posted of progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 What's the best way to care for my anvil? I was planning to give it a once-over with a wire brush and I saw somewhere that it's a good idea to coat it with boiled linseed oil. Anyone have other or better suggestions?Best thing to clean up the face is hammering hot metal on it. When finished wipe it with some ATF (automatic transmission fluid)leaving only a thin film on the metal.Straight boiled linseed oil takes a week or more here in my location. I use a 50/50 mix of BOILED linseed oil and mineral spirits on the body every 30 days or so. The mineral spirits thins it out a bit so it can get into all the places. It takes about 3 days or so to dry. Multiple thin coats of the 50/50 mix works best and build up over time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feral Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 Not a lot to add here..but i would like to ask if the sord pic you showed is one of yours,,and also the mace?....Now about the forge...If you are forging a long blade and heat it the full length each and ever time you heat it to forging temps. .You will only be able to forge a small section at a time as the rest will drop below forging heat levels.Heating the parts of the blade yooui cannot work will cause a large loss of metal due to scale..and likele leave pits that will take forever to remove when finishing the blade. I don't plan to heat the whole blade over and over during forging, I just need the long forge box for heat treating (to avoid the expense of a heat treating oven of that size). I figured the best way to avoid the extra cost of a 3-4 foot long heat treating oven is to get a forge that I can use for heat treating in addition to forging. :-/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feral Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 Best thing to clean up the face is hammering hot metal on it. When finished wipe it with some ATF (automatic transmission fluid)leaving only a thin film on the metal. Straight boiled linseed oil takes a week or more here in my location. I use a 50/50 mix of BOILED linseed oil and mineral spirits on the body every 30 days or so. The mineral spirits thins it out a bit so it can get into all the places. It takes about 3 days or so to dry. Multiple thin coats of the 50/50 mix works best and build up over time. Is there any reason I shouldn't use transmission fluid on the whole anvil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Anything you use will protect it, some coatings are better than others. The Boiled linseed oil mix tends to harden and build up like paint. Paint would be a much longer lasting protective coating for the anvil. If you choose paint, may I suggest a nice plaid or the family tartan. Pin striping is optional. (grin) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feral Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 Anything you use will protect it, some coatings are better than others. The Boiled linseed oil mix tends to harden and build up like paint. Paint would be a much longer lasting protective coating for the anvil. If you choose paint, may I suggest a nice plaid or the family tartan. Pin striping is optional. (grin) Of course I could just be super stereotypical and paint it pink, right? On a more serious note, would I need to use high temperature paint or would pretty much any rattlecan exterior spraypaint work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 You expect the paint on your car to last how long, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, more? Suggestions to paint anything: Clean the metal of debris, oil etc. Use a good primer to bond the metal to the paint. Use a good quality paint. Apply several thin coats of paint for the best protective coating and protection. Maintain the integrity of the coating. If you build anything as best you can, using good materials, and then maintain the finish, it should last for years. There is ironwork in Europe that is hundreds of years old and still in very good condition.Overall the finishing and maintenance turns out to be more costly than the original project, but even so it is easier to maintain a piece than to replace it. There is no use to paint the working surface, You will burn off any paint when it encounters hot metal. You will chip the paint at some point and you should repair the chip or damage ASAP to keep the protective coating intact. Yes, just like on the car. (grin). For reference: I have tried powder coating where the metal is sprayed with a powder and then the powder is baked onto the metal forming a uniform coating. Problem is you can not repair the powder coat. Moisture will get under the chip or ding and start it rusting from underneath the coating, This causes the powder coating to form blisters and peel off. The only option is to strip it down to bare metal and refinish the entire piece. You can repair a chip or ding in paint by repainting the area of the chip or ding. Remember the little bottle of *touch up paint* that you can get for your car? A pink anvil? I can hear the collective gasp already. (grin) As Thibeau grabs the purple, green and yellow rattle cans to pretty it up a mite, and Thomas Powers stands guard in front of his anvil to prevent any over spray LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feral Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 Ugh, I know what powdercoating is and I know how to paint metal. I was just asking if you'd suggest high-temp paint or just plain old spraypaint! And no, I wasn't planning to paint the face. A pink anvil? I can hear the collective gasp already. (grin) Imagine a lace curtain paint job! If I did that I'd need to make my motorcycle and my anvil match! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feral Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 Not a lot to add here..but i would like to ask if the sord pic you showed is one of yours,,and also the mace? Totally forgot to answer this and I can't find a button for editing posts, but yes, I cast that bronze sword last semester as a project for an archaeology class. I did it in a rush so I didn't clean up the lines on my wax positive and as a result the finished piece looks really weathered (though I could always take a dremel to it and clean it all up, but I don't know that I'll bother at this point). I made the mace last semester too from a 3-foot long mild steel pipe and some scrap steel plate that was laying behind the art building. I used the same scrap plate for the axe too. So the sword was cast, the mace and axe were fabricated, and only the helmet and pauldron were worked on the anvil, but they were entirely cold worked. Edit: NOW I found the edit button. :angry: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Olivo Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Personally I am against paint. I use used up vegetable oil on them frequently with my punches hot cuts in heat treatment and as a finish. Works great and the only place rust has ever poped up at all was on the face and one to two heats of work and it was gone. There are a couple of other smiths who have pink anvils. I need to spend some time repainting my stump into a companion cube. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Olivo Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 oh and on floors. 2 smithies I know including one that shows up on the woodwrights shop frequently have end grain floors and it works very well. That might be an option as you could place several 4x4 pieces that take up the empty space and buts up to the concrete…hmmm let me see…. http://www.thirteen.org/programs/the-woodwrights-shop/field-gate-hinges/ there it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaughnT Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 "don't I need to heat the whole blade evenly at once to properly heat treat" It certainly is useful, but not 100% necessary. That's why I was trying to caution you away from getting a long-bodied forge. You can build a very nice, efficient small-ish forge for about $200 (if you elect to buy a burner), and it will be great for 98% of what you'll do as a weaponsmith/artist/tinkerer. When you need to heat treat a long piece, well, primitive man has been heat-treating swords in troughs filled with charcoal for a very long time because it works. All you need is a long pipe with some holes in it to transfer air the length of the trough and you're good to go. Very cheap, very easy, and you get your uniform temperature for quenching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielC Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Nice work and welcome to the craft. Pretty anvil as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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