I just stopped at a yard sale on my way to town to get some stuff I need because I saw some cable for sale. It's large, maybe 2 inch diameter about 10 or so feet long. Looks like a logging cable with the big bolstered lops on both ends. What are the chances that this is useless cable? I'll be headed back by in about 30-45 minutes and need to know I'm not wasting time and money buying it. 

I would buy it

 

Thanks Steve. I'll have to see if I can load in the trunk of my wife's car. 

Yeah, a guy cursed, ur, gifted me with some rather large cable.  It's not fun to work with hammers.  Been working a 5" long piece today.  Got a 1 3/4 square billet worked out so far. 

I posted pictures and information on it in the 'it followed me home' topic. It's about 20 ft long 1.5 inch diameter eip cable. I don't know how much will be done with it by hand hammer, that's a lot of steel to move by hand.

power hammers  are fairly new as far as smithing goes, you will do fine with out power hammers.

You're right, Steve. What I meant to say was that I'll have a striker to help me get it to a more manageable size. I could probably do it by hand by myself but that would be terribly inefficient having to reheat as many times as it would take me with my 4 pound hammer.

I'm using a 10lb sledge.  It would take forever to move that much metal with a 4lb.  Sure would like a power hammer for it though.  lol.  That cable I'm having to work with is 2 1/2", I wish it was 1 1/2, that would make things much easier.

 

I wouldn't even attempt 2.5 inches of material by myself. 

A funny side note, the guy I bought it from asked what I planned on doing with it (not sure why it mattered to him) and when I mentioned making knives from it he said he'd love to buy one. He asked how much I get for them and I said the cheapest one I'd make would be about $100 and you could see it in his eyes he messed up and didn't charge enough.

15 minutes ago, Michael Cochran said:

I wouldn't even attempt 2.5 inches of material by myself. 

A funny side note, the guy I bought it from asked what I planned on doing with it (not sure why it mattered to him) and when I mentioned making knives from it he said he'd love to buy one. He asked how much I get for them and I said the cheapest one I'd make would be about $100 and you could see it in his eyes he messed up and didn't charge enough.

I'm thinking the patterns going to be pretty blah for the big cable.  Just wanted to give it a go for the heck of it.  I'm thinking I'll do a wakizashi with that billet.  Much prefer smaller cable though. 

Those guys have to understand, until the smith makes it into something useful it's just scrap.

19 minutes ago, Michael Cochran said:

A funny side note, the guy I bought it from asked what I planned on doing with it (not sure why it mattered to him) and when I mentioned making knives from it he said he'd love to buy one. He asked how much I get for them and I said the cheapest one I'd make would be about $100 and you could see it in his eyes he messed up and didn't charge enough.

And right there is the difference between the cost of raw materials and the price of a finished piece. It's not what you make it from; it's the surplus value added by your labor. 

Both of you are right. I think another thing to consider is all the extra hardware needed on a knife. You have to buy the handle material and the bolsters and whatever else you use. The blade steel is not the only cost.

If I ever see him again I'll try to have a small EDC style made from that cable to show him and see if he still wants to buy one. Like I told my wife when we were headed home after loading that thing in the trunk, I don't think he'd buy a knife from me. I may be confused but I'd think if he seriously wanted to buy then he would've asked for some kind of contact info which he didn't. I know when I'm interested in something or someone I get information so I can follow up when I'm able to pursue it.

Well water powered powerhammers have only been around about 1000 years in Europe; so fairly recent for smithing....  However the *NORM* for a blacksmith's shop was to have a bunch of people working in it that could strike as needed by the master of the shop. 3 to 5 smiths with sledges can do a lot of the grunt work pretty fast.  If you look at historical photos of smithies or even paintings you can see a number of people working in a typical shop.

I enjoy watching the black and white videos from old shops showing the groups of strikers. That back when people went to work to actually work. I have lots of respects for those guys. 

I know that in the "Living Treasures of Japan" video by the National Geographic society the 3 strikers in the swordmaking section are supposed to be chanting a prayer to keep in time.  Anyone know any similar actions for other groups striking together?   Some of the industrial films of striking with large numbers of people make me wonder. (anchor making or the forge welding of the large ring.)

I've wondered about keeping time myself. When you more than one or two I'd imagine it could become difficult in a hurry if you don't have a beat to follow. 

I've used the chant from Monty Python and the Holy Grail before; funny that a lot of my smithing buddies know it...

I had to look it up. Seems a little slow between whacks according to the video clip I found.

I guess you weren't doing it as a round with every striker chanting slightly off the others...

Didn't think about that. I just watched the video clip and was noticing it has a rather slow cadence to it. 

Ok get 5 strikers and use "La Cucaracha" 

if ya want faster production, use Motorhead Ace of Spades

The Lumberjack song is a public demo favorite. Oh I'm a lumber jack and I'm okay I sleep all night and I work all day. . .

Frosty The Lucky.

3 hours ago, Steve Sells said:

if ya want faster production, use Motorhead Ace of Spades

I'd rather use their song 'Enter Sandman.'

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

The Lumberjack song is a public demo favorite. Oh I'm a lumber jack and I'm okay I sleep all night and I work all day. . .

Frosty The Lucky.

That's a funny one but I'd be too busy laughing.

3 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Ok get 5 strikers and use "La Cucaracha" 

Now I have seen it all. I did a search for it just to remember how it went and my sone clicked on a signing, dancing cockroach video.

 

Truth is I tend to listen to electronica if I need a steady consistent pace. If I'm not doing anything where keeping pace I like that old time rock and roll.  

2 hours ago, Michael Cochran said:

I'd rather use their song 'Enter Sandman.'

 

umm Metallica did that not motorhead, different people different groups