That's great information...thanks.

Yes Swedefiddle that is very good information to know thank you both for the heads up.

TP- Not sure what steel they are. Had a few projects in mind- Spear head, folded eye hawk, possibly some big chopping knife. First they need to be flattened out, though.

Whatever I do, I expect it to fail, so I won't be disappointed when it does. I need a ton more work and practice. Should be able to get a lot more soon.

Chimaera, cut a bit off the end of each blade and do a test-harden before committing time and effort to potentially inappropriate steel. 

As for me, I found a couple of fun tidbits at the ReStore: a plastic 2” blast gate (just right for a JABOD) and clip-on side shields for a pair of glasses. 

Also, this sticker came in the mail a couple of days ago and has been added to the side of my welding mask:

Got this as an early birthday present from my wife. Thank you mister Powers for the suggestion.

 

For free, from my dad. It has however been outside an entire winter. It's an oil burner, 8 - 30 kw. The kind that would heat a homes boiler, this one was in a commercial scale green house that has since been torn down. I think if it works it will be a good start to a diesel forge.

Super excited went to an auction today I’ve been waiting for a month. I bought a bunch of tools an metal but these are the two things I was really wanting! 

ok so i got the parts for my frosty T-burner yesterday as well as a piece of rosewood that should give me 4 handles great day with my father getting supplies for a chicken shed also recertified a 30 and 100lb propane tank

M.J.Lampert

TWISTEDWILLOW is the first one a train whistle?

M.j yes it’s a steam whistle! I’ve been wanting one for a long time to hook up in the shop, I finally got one

ha that would be neat to have guess I'll have to look around the area for one. what will you hook it to for the steam?

Edited March 27, 20215 yr by M.J.Lampert

TW, are you going to install a boiler to power it or use boring old compressed air?  You could install it on the house so that the wife could use it to summon you home.

Do you have neighbors close enough to be entertained or annoyed?

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Lol I plan to mount it on the roof of my repair shop and blow it off at noon and five throughout the work week! I’m out in the country so no city ordinances for me, I do have neighbors in the area but nobody that’s gonna really care. I’ll probably start out running it off the shop air but a boiler might be in the future if I ever find a steam engine! My business is located in shouting distance of the house so when my wife wants me she just Hollers out the door lol. 

JHCC, that was my plan. I figure they won’t be high enough carbon for a good knife. I think a spearhead probably wouldn’t need to be that hard. Same for a folded tomohawk, especially if I can weld in a bit. Then again, most of my work is garbage in the first place, and my time isn’t worth much, so it’s alright if it doesn’t work out. It’s practice and it’s steel, the two things I need the most.

No work is garbage, if making it moves you — however incrementally — from a lower level of skill to a higher one. 

16 hours ago, DennisCA said:

I think if it works it will be a good start to a diesel forge.

That’s outside my wheelhouse, but please make sure that you have excellent ventilation. We do NOT want to read about you getting suffocated by the fumes. 

TW: I'll be  more than happy to offer suggestions to hook it up as a door whistle in the house. Imagine the look on the face of a door to door salesman. 

An old friend who ran the last steam powered blacksmith shop on Kodiak Island had a developer buy a plot of neighboring  land to turn into a subdivision. He immediately started filing suits to get the pioneer ship / rail road blacksmith shop closed down. Wasn't going to happen, it'd been declared a historic site decades earlier. Anyway the owner installed a steam whistle on his steam hammer's exhaust so they gave a good toot with every blow. 

Anyway, steam whistles work fine on air though they sound slightly different. The density is different.

Frosty The Lucky.

If you want to learn more about steam whistles, a good reference is "The Engine's Moan: American Steam Whistles" book.  I enjoyed reading about it. 

Frosty, as to dealing with  door to door salesmen, my grandmother said if she had one that just wouldn't leave, she'd offer them a spoonful of her "pickled vegetables" to taste......and of course they'd take her up on it.  She'd give them a spoonful of fresh ground horseradish (she grew it and made her own paste) and then would not give them any water.....she said, with a twinkle in her eye, that they always left in a hurry and never came back.

Frosty that’s not a bad idea on the salesman or other unsolicited visitors lol, farmall thanks for the tip on the book I’ll definitely look into it. I tried to hook it up on a 3/8” line and quickly discovered that isn’t near enough volume to make it blow so this week I’m gonna plumb it with a 1” or 3/4” line directly off the main tank and see were that gets me. 

I've had a number of people tell me that can't use an improvised anvil as they have to have a hardy hole; well another set of improvised hardy holes showed up at the scrap yard for 20 UScents a pound:

 A little large though; 1 1/8"  So far my anvils take 7/8", 1", 1 1/4" and 1 1/2"  hardy tooling I may sleeve these to 1".

19 hours ago, JHCC said:

No work is garbage, if making it moves you — however incrementally — from a lower level of skill to a higher one. 

That’s outside my wheelhouse, but please make sure that you have excellent ventilation. We do NOT want to read about you getting suffocated by the fumes. 

No worries, I don't even have a shop yet to put it in. But once that's completed it'll be an uninsulated shed with good air circulation and open doors. Anything that applies to a propane forge applies here.

6 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

I've had a number of people tell me that can't use an improvised anvil as they have to have a hardy hole;

A lot of people confuse the words want and need. I used a vertical rail for about a year and a half and improvised a couple hardy holes using stumps and steel tubing but as soon as I got a post vise a hardy hole wasn't really needed anymore. 

Pnut

My post vise is a bit too tall for  use as a Hardy hole for long periods. Originally the leg was embedded in cement. I could mount it as it must have been, but then it would be too short for what I normally use it for. 

I need another one.  Obviously.

 

"I need another one  more postvises!  Obviously."  Fixed that typo for you!

True. I could use one in the garage. One or two for my Dad’s shop when I am working there. Plus a portable one. 

More stuff from my dad, the bottom of a water tank he threw out, fire pit so we can have a our own smaller bonfire at home this year. Since the public easter bonfires are not allowed due to covid.

Might be a tad large. I will see where I can fit in our yard, I'd like to make a permanent spot for it, with benches (thinking split logs) around it and a tripod to hang a grate from so you can cook over an open fire, or maybe a spit.

If it's too large I'll probably use the plasma and a circle jig and cut it down, and move the legs inwards.

Chimaera, try not to discourage yourself so much in relation to your work. It does nothing but ensure you create something sub-par. Even if you do end up with something that’s not what you would have liked, you’ll have a piece to learn from. I remember a few months ago when I was just sure I would never be good at forging. I’ve been busy with school and so haven’t been able to do much forging, but even with the little I  have done, I’ve seen myself improve greatly. Sure, I’ve made some big mistakes and some stupid ones, but I learned from them and have made less of them in later projects. Granted, your work is probably better than mine so I may not be in a proper position to say this, but it does no one any good for you to not try things “because it would be garbage anyway.”