Tools for the shop you make yourself

[Harv]

<font color=blue>I wouldn't take no for an answer</font color=blue>

I don't have enough voice left to say, "no", Harv. /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif All these answering machine messages have just about rendered me speechless.

Much the same way your projects and pictures have left the TBN membership.

 

[Mrwurm]

Hey wroughtn_harv, once in a while I need to bend metal for a project. I use a rosebud (multiflame tip) on my acetylene torch to do the heating. I would much prefer to have a small furnace to heat the whole piece. How would I begin to find or build something like this. I would really love to start heating and hammering. Thanks,

Jerry

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Oh Jerry, this is almost like seeing a friend flirting with an old girlfriend that's a real animal, wonderfully so. I'm not sure if you are aware of exactly all the trouble you can get into with this.

The first thing to keep in mind is allegedly Francis Whitaker, the gawd of blacksmiths, said "you can do anything with iron that you would do with clay. You just have to do it hot."

So all of a sudden you find yourself like I did yesterday. I was in a tractor dealer friend's office and on the wall he had a beautiful hand tooled leather holster for a pistolever. I reached up and touched it. And then told him that someday I was going to be able to that kind of work in steel.

Hot steel will get in your blood. Then you become an addict. Life is so good.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.keenjunk.com/sketchbk/sc00423a.htm>This forge</A> was made by a kid just out of highschool and his brother. The cost was absolute minimum.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.keenjunk.com/junkyard.htm>This</A> is where genius lives and talks. Peruse through the links for supplies and then read the discussion forums. If you don't just sit back in awe I'll eat a bug.

I have a propane furniture makers forge. I also have a coke forge. (Coke is what coal is after the gases are burnt off)

The propane forge is great for doing what you're talking about. You can get them from one burner to six. I have a five. That allowed me to get a piece of two by two bar stock two foot long hot enough to put one and a half twists in it. You can build your own for minimum cost if you like to just do it cause doin' it's two thirds the fun.

You have a blacksmith group near you. You will find kindred spirits. It's well worth the fifteen or so dollars a year to belong to a group. And there is so much to learn and enjoy with the hot metal crowd.

Just remember it's addictive. Hammers become more than something you swing. They become friends and works of art and start feeling like family. You'll find fondling steel often. You won't beable to help yourself.

Jump in, both feet, and only sissies hold their nose and close their eyes.

 

[Mrwurm]

Ok Harv, I bookmarked that forum. It looks like a lot of good information. I think I'll try to find the blacksmith group you spoke of. I'd really like to get a chance to watch, learn, and eventually participate.

Jerry ("Maker of ugly welds that hold up just fine")

 

[EdKing]

<font color=blue>Jerry ("Maker of ugly welds that hold up just fine") </font color=blue>

Better ugly welds that hold, than pretty welds that break. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Rockyroad]

wroughtn harv-

I have this Buffalo rivet forge sitting in my barn in absolutely mint condition. My father picked it up in the mid '60's war surplus. It came all crated up in wood, and I can remember the day we unpacked it. He used it a few times as a barbecue grill. He loved cranking the blower to get the charcoal going.

I have fired it up a few times with charcoal to melt scrap lead to make bullets for my pistols. I am considering using it to heat metal. My uncle gave me a Fisher anvil dated 1891 that is in pretty good condition, so I can try my hand at shaping hot steel.

Here is my question: I already have anthracite coal piled up next to my barn (chestnut size) that I burn in my coal stove in the house. I know that coke is coal that has the gas burned off, but my coal dealer doesn't stock coke. Can I start regular anthracite in the forge and let the gas burn off for a half hour or so and then proceed to heat metal? Would the pea sized coal be better than the chestnut?

Last question: coal is real hard on steel. The grates in my coal stove (cast iron) have to be replaced every 4 or 5 years. Will the bowl of the forge be eaten away by the coal, or should I line it with fireclay to protect it.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Wow RR, some of us row against the flow and others just let the waves bring the good stuff to them!

I'm not up on all the different coals. But I do know I purchased come coal that came in bags and it wasn't cheap from a blacksmith here in Texas. It varied from powder to baseball sized chunks. I found I could dechunk it relatively easy. The smaller coal would be better for a start.

Coke fires are hotter than coal fires. Same stuff I know but if you order a firepot (the thingy you're worrying about burning up) from <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.centaurforge.com>Centaur Forge </A> you will find the coke pot like I've got thicker to last longer.

You don't have to let it burn off for that long. What you do is start a fire in the firepot with green coal stacked up over on the sides so you can replenish your fire as it burns down.

You are very fortunate because where you live there are real smiths with real knowledge and I've only met a couple that were so full of themself they were hard to get along with. Most blacksmiths I know are the most generous and willing folks to share knowledge with folks you'll ever find.

Be carefull around the farriers though. I suspect the whatevers of anyone that prefers to play with the feet of large animals.

Here's the keys to the kingdom.

NEW ENGLAND BLACKSMITHS

Pres: Richard Gilbert
69 S. Main Street
Ipswich,MA 01938
(978) 356-3145


Ed: Fred Mikkelson
23 Waterman Drive
North Scituate, RI 02857-2036
(401)647-3086
fred@trollshammerforge.com

www.neb.abana-chapter.com

I got that <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.abana.org/chapters/chapter_list.html>here.</A>

These guys can lead you into the chapel of great pleasure and not let you succumb to the pit falls tendonitis and other incidentals of just having fun.

The biggest thing about blacksmithing is practice and just doing it. There is so much to learn that you can study and study and study from other sources that never really reach you until you're doing it. But when you do it right it touches you down deep in your soul. And you know you've reached the source of pleasure across the universe.

I mean, heck, what's the sun but the biggest forge we'll see in our lifetime hopefully. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

C'mon harv, speechless???????

That's enough to make one want to say they're from Missouri..............

Seriously my wife loves this place. She thinks it great that I get to share with so many wonderful folks that seem to have that extra bit of politeness and patience that's required around eccentrics like myself.

There's probably only one thing better than making something. That's explaining and describing it to a kindred spirit who genuinely appreciates the effort.

So stop with the compliments and just grin that someone like me could have the good fortune to find folks like yourself and your fellow denizens of TBN.

 

[s1120]

Thanks Harv. Now I don't just want to get anouther welder,[ already have a small MIG] now I want to try blacksmithing./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[wallysue]

Harv, could you please post an image of your gas forge. I have scrounged up some some Kaowool insulation and some 18" light weight steel tube and was wanting to build one. Was figuring on a propane forced draft burner. I and many others would love to read your thoughts. Also I remember your posts on the wire rope fence shortening up over time. Could it be the rope rusting or dirt blowing inside between the wires and being they are twisted spreading the wires apart and shortening the length? Kinda like twisting a rope tighter. Along the lines of the hanging welder here is an image of a table saw hanging from the ceiling. A boat winch gets it up and down,