I believe the local SCA group is Lonely Tower: http://lonelytower.org/   in the kingdom of Calontir.  I just wondered as many people who are interested in replicating medieval items in a medieval way are associated with the SCA. (And many are not...)

A 4x4 drop of modern steel, even A36 will pass the 25 foot rule. Even the anvil at laceirn meadows is a cast steel replica. A replica of one of the largest found at that. Horns and pritchel holes were not comon, bicks how ever were, as were small stakes with a "V" that acted as a prichel hole. Bolsters were the name of the game for hole punching. And no vice for hot work. Now a few years from now a hand forged wraught Iron Viking style anvil with a tool steel plate will be major bragging rites! Right after you forge the accompanying hammer.

especially if you make your own blister steel for the face!

Your going to get this kid in over his head, TP lol. But dang if he won't have fun drowning!

On 8/13/2017 at 2:12 PM, littleblacksmith said:

Elmo also rents his shop for $20 an hour, my understanding is you have access to any tools he has. 

???  $20 an hour?  Crazy low.  Most pro blacksmith shops 'round here are in the $100/hour range.  Why should a blacksmith charge less than an auto mechanic?  Buy him out for a month or two, sell and produce the big job or a year's production of craft fair sales, and pocket the $80/hr difference.  I won't even turn on my lights for $20/ hour.  

Yeah I'll probably end up drowning with or with out TP's help!

I did end up looking up my local chapter and to my surprise there are no traditional woodworkers and there are a few blacksmiths already. So maybe I do have something to offer to the group. 

Edited August 15, 20178 yr by Kaleb

You will do just fine. You build your kit and learn to smith the same way you eat an elephant.

Now ho does one go about eating an elephant in the Viking Age?

First one forges a very large example of the Lund Spit....

Same as any age, one bite at a time.

the point being that wince you start learning how much there is to learn it can be overwhelming. Not unlike a 6 ton elephant. But once carved up in bite sized chunks it somthing you can manage 

So first place to start is to build a forge, scrounge an anvil and hammer. The basic hole in the ground is simple, and other than a soapstone bellows stone it is esentualty the same, the airs sorce may be diferent but that you can make more authentic as time, resorces and knowledge are available. You don't need the perfect Viking reproduction anvil, just a good hunk of steel, be it a sledge hammer head, drop from a steel yard or a drop from the rail maintenance crew, again, you can mine tord more authentic later. Same with a hammer, you just need a 1 1/2-2# cross pein, you can forge a more authentic one later. 

Well for everything I find an answer to, I end up with another problem. Now I need to forge a pair of tongs that will hold the 2" square stock. Thanks to LB I have a template but this is another project I have thought of doing but not quite yet.

On ‎8‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 7:15 PM, Judson Yaggy said:

???  $20 an hour?  Crazy low.  Most pro blacksmith shops 'round here are in the $100/hour range.  Why should a blacksmith charge less than an auto mechanic?  Buy him out for a month or two, sell and produce the big job or a year's production of craft fair sales, and pocket the $80/hr difference.  I won't even turn on my lights for $20/ hour.  

That's what my dad and I were saying, he could get away with charging ALOT more!! I wish he were here in this town, I would be all up in his shop, using he Power hammers for some of the bigger stuff. 

Kaleb, you should have mentioned you needed a drop. I got some, they are like 2" thick, 5" tall, and about 3 wide. something like that, just mild steel. I reckon i could ship it, it may even fit in a small flat rate box. Though it shouldn't be hard to find something in your area, not hard at all. If you have trouble let me know. or if you need some wrought iron for a hammer, I MAY have some wrought iron suitable, as I will be acquiring a wagon axle, and hopefully it is wrought, if so it would be perfect for a hammer, that's my plans at least, though no way would I use all of it.

                                                                                                                                       Littleblacksmith

LB you have done so much for me already, but if I have trouble finding what I am looking for I will make sure to contact you.

when I was forging the 2.5" sq stock for the shaft of my larger stake anvil I didn't use tongs.  We arc welded a piece of 1" stock to it to use as a handle.

Well I was thinking about upsetting the top to the size I desire. Just with sweat and a hammer, so I would need tongs to hold the stock upright on my aso. 

You will nead a sledge to upset 2'. Otherwise it will only move mabe 1/2 an inch. Esentualy I would recomend pointing an end, say 45deg., then bring it to a good heat and flip it point down and smack it down good. This starts your upset. It may take several years to drive the point into the body. Once it's flat, then a large fuller driven by the sledge used center out, two passes 90degre to each other. Once you dress the fuller marks with your hammer you should have the square mushroom you see in the books. Big fire, slow heat so it gets heated all the way threw. 

Not sure if there is a metal detectorist club in your area but they may have the wrought you're looking for. I personally detect lots of old homesite areas and have a few jars full of old square nails from that period. Just an idea, I'm not entirely confident that ALL of them are wrought nor sure how feasible it would be to form them into anything of a decent size from pieces so small. 

Upsetting wrought is very difficult without it delaminating.  Especially for the lower grades! It was usually bulked up by forge welding more onso upsetting is not the common period way to go about it...

I was thinking modern 2" square or the 2x3 little blacksmith has, TP. The only wrought I have in my collection is a draft shoe a client gave me. It would take a lot of beer to get a 4" block anvil forged from 1/2" money bars.

Yeah I would probably just use modern mild steel, and with that I should be able to get some good mushrooming over time.

 

You still need somthing in the interim to get started. We have talked about this enugh, time for fire and hot steel bashing! Lol 

I have a hammer, an aso, a fire, and what else am I forgetting? Ohh wait I don't have the steel or tongs. As much as I would love to right now I am on the hunt for steel... without a car to get me looking at scrap piles all across the Mid-West! This weekend I'll stop by Tractor Supply Co. and pick up some more coal and material to forge the tongs. Then after that I just need to acquire the 2x2 stock and then I'm ready to pound a piece of steel for 5 hours straight. 

And man I am totally ready to put this theory into action, but time, school, and other things seem to have other ideas.

 

I know how that is. Keep your eyes out, you will be surprised the amount of scrap you find just laying on the side of the road. Around here a premium find is mudflap hanger. And starting out a chanellock works ok as tongs, as dose long stock. Tonga can be forged without tongs infact

Kaleb: You're obsessing about tongs, you don't need tongs forget tongs. I assume you don't have a welder so buy a stick or two of 1/4" rd. stock, heat up a foot about 18" from the end and wrap it around the center of your hammer blank. Cut it free of the stick where the first half meets and twist it tight. Viola handle!.

Till then just forge stock long enough to hold without burning your hands it's better than tongs no  matter how much experience you have. Tongs are ONLY for when you can't hold it directly. Honest, I wouldn't BS you. 

Frosty The Lucky.

When I teach; students start with a 2' piece of 1/4" sq stock and make the first half of their S hook with no tongs so they can concentrate on their heat and hammering.  The second half is when they learn how much bother there is using tongs in their off hand!