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Well took some advice and found my self a break drum and a chunk of RR track. I had laid a piece broken pot down in the bottom of the drum to cover the large center hole. Then I laid my charcoal and lit it off. All worked well for a while until I noticed that my coals were little by little disappearing . Finally I shuffled the coals around and discovered that the cover I had put in the bottom had broken from the heat and fallen through allowing the coals to drop out the bottom. Needless to say I need to do some more work in the fine tuning department to get every thing working well but the break drum is the way to go that darn thing stands up to a lot of heat. All in all happy with the progress.
RR track anvil. I need to take the belt sander to it to clean up the work surface.
Foot added to make YK happy
Jeremy
GySgt USMC Ret
To err is human, To forgive is devine, Neither of which is Marine Corps policy Semper Fidelis
I have spent many an hour pounding on red hot steel.
Something about it satisfies. For knife making, get an old coil spring from a car and cut it up. Some of the best steel around. Here is one of my pig stickers.
Have fun!!
Chuck that is a very nice blade. It will be a long time before I get good enough for that. Right now I am just beating up scrap from around the house and yard. I'll stick with crawling for a while.
Pounding on hot metal with a big hammer is turning out to be great stress relief.
Jeremy
GySgt USMC Ret
To err is human, To forgive is devine, Neither of which is Marine Corps policy Semper Fidelis
Hey there JReed - Could I suggest a hefty chunk o' stump under your railroad iron. Would elevate it to a convenient hammering height. Best regards. Wind
Wind wrote:Hey there JReed - Could I suggest a hefty chunk o' stump under your railroad iron. Would elevate it to a convenient hammering height. Best regards. Wind
That's the next acquisition. I am putting it together 1 piece at a time. I had to go to 6 different auto shops for the drum and I just lucked into the track today. I will have to keep my eye open for a stump shouldn't be hard to find one lots of folk around here have been cutting trees lately. Then I need to get some fire brick to get the forge off the ground.
Once it get's all put together the first thing is to get good enough to start making some decent tools. Then I will work on other things as I get better.
Jeremy
GySgt USMC Ret
To err is human, To forgive is devine, Neither of which is Marine Corps policy Semper Fidelis
madman4570 , I don`t own a single blade I have made. I used to make them and give them away as gifts to special people. The one in the pic. belongs to my wife.
Lately I cant even find time to cast bullets!!
I made most my of my gunsmithin' tools in a metals class in college. Motorcycle springs or coilover shock springs make really good chisels and scrapers. Later on I found the broken coil springs from over head doors works real well. Just remember to swirl or keep your stock moving in the oil bath or air bubbles will affect the hardness. When you draw the temper remember to quench in water to stop the colors. Wood chisels work well w/ a light straw color and cold chisels are hard w/ a purple color. Hope this helps Abilene
Thanks for the tip. This is a work in progress. I will have to pick y'alls brains when I get the point of making real items instead of lumps of beat up metal.
Jeremy
GySgt USMC Ret
To err is human, To forgive is devine, Neither of which is Marine Corps policy Semper Fidelis
Chuck 100 yd wrote:I have spent many an hour pounding on red hot steel.
Something about it satisfies. For knife making, get an old coil spring from a car and cut it up. Some of the best steel around. Here is one of my pig stickers.
Have fun!!
Blacksmithing is a fun adventure, however be prepared to be added to some sort of big brothers watch list. Think about it, you make fire, without supervision. You heat and bend various alloys without goverment supervision. Who knows you might be making all kinds of dangerous weapons, knives to start, then swords, spear points. Then will come the time for rapid fire large bore cannons, machine guns, it will never end. We need forge regulation it is for the children. Now then lets talk about Carbon Credits, air pollution, the list of the dangers to the enviorment can be endless. A lot of blacksmiths are also free thinkers. The horror of it all.
Hope you enjoy yourself. ATB
The leaf springs from cars can work for big stuff but can be unwieldy. A good source of metal for blademaking is the local metalshop/manufacturing plant that uses the older powered hacksaws. Get some of those worn out blades and they make great knives. Worn sawzall blades are good sources for quality metal for smaller blades, too.
"People who object to weapons aren't abolishing violence, they're begging for rule by brute force, when the biggest, strongest animals among men were always automatically 'right.' Guns ended that, and social democracy is a hollow farce without an armed populace to make it work."
is the forge naturally aspirated, bellows or what? I see the air inlet pipe. I was daydreaming about a brake drum forge that uses a battery-operated computer fan to run air in via the pipe. I figure a trip to the scrap yard, a big ole truck brake drum and a hunk of 3" pipe and an elbow and I'm good to go. I note above the center hole needs a plate to cover it. I just happen to have a couple of chimney blocks I can use to elevate it, maybe glob some concrete around the drum to add heat collection so the drum need not be buried?
My previous knives have all been stock removal method using an angle grinder. I wanna do damascas
8" fan pushing the air into the other hole. There is a hollow space under the drumb that allows the air to come up underneath not a lot of pressure but high volume.
Jeremy
GySgt USMC Ret
To err is human, To forgive is devine, Neither of which is Marine Corps policy Semper Fidelis
Jeremy, start with carbon steel. It will forgive most mistakes, it is easy to make it soak up carbon as compared to stainless, and carbon steel usually holds a better edge. When you get to the point of quenching it, get a heavy plastic 5 gallon bucket and try a saltwater quench. Sometimes an oil quench will work, but with carbon steel of unknown origin, stay with saltwater. Don't forget the heat soak, and most of all, take all the enjoyment in the porcess as you can. It is as much fun as most people ever have.
D. Brian Casady
Quid Llatine Dictum Sit, Altum Viditur.
Advanced is being able to do the basics while your leg is on fire---Bill Jeans
Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up---Robert Frost
adirondakjack,
Back when I was doing gun shows; I used to ghost around and buy ( cheap ) old double barrel damacus shotgun barrels, that were no longer good for barrels, I have not done it yet, but that should satisfy you untill you can make your own damacus.
Seems like I remember seein' a forge simular( I still cain't spell)to yours that used a metal tube (sheetiron) to get a plastic hair drier far enough from the heat that it didn't melt. That would give ya 2 or 3 air speeds. May just have to assemble one for myself. Abilene
"I never made a knife from scratch, so this may be a dumb question, but - COIL spring... or Leaf...Surely Leaf... "
I think the part you are missing is that the metal will be heated and hammered, ie forged, in to the desired shape. The coil spring has a lot of round spring stock that can be easily heated and straightened into a round bar and comes in many sizes. For a knife say the size if a kitchen knife or smaller, a garage door spring, heated and flattened only, will produce a nice size blank in which a knife can be filed and shaped. Much easier and faster than cutting or drawing a flat leaf spring.
Gobbler
. Finally I shuffled the coals around and discovered that the cover I had put in the bottom had broken from the heat and fallen through allowing the coals to drop out the bottom. Needless to say I need to do some more work in the fine tuning department to get every thing working well but the break drum is the way to go that darn thing stands up to a lot of heat. All in all happy with the progress.
or Leaf...Surely Leaf...