I was showing this guy at a meetup in Missouri my setup and he pointed out my anvil stand was way too springy because it was just a chunk of pine. He said you need something that won't bounce at all so the hammer energy goes into the metal not the stand. Have any of you swapped out a wood stand for something stiffer and noticed a big difference?
He said my edge quench technique was keeping me from getting a proper hamon line. I've been doing this for like 4 years and nobody ever told me that. Now I'm wondering if I should switch to a full quench on 1095 or stick with my usual oil. Has anyone else had an experienced smith call out a habit you thought was fine?
Been grinding and redoing welds for forever. Turns out my ground clamp was barely hanging on to that rusty table corner. Anybody else find out they were fighting their own setup for months?
I dropped $400 on that fancy anhydrous borax blend from some online outfit last spring. Touted it as the secret to perfect forge welds with zero scale. First billet I tried it on, the weld failed halfway through the twist. Second attempt same thing. I went back to my plain old 20 Mule Team borax from the grocery store, $4 a box, and got perfect welds on the next try. The expensive stuff just burned off faster and left this weird crust I had to grind. I contacted the company and they just said I was applying it wrong. Has anyone else fallen for the hype on these boutique fluxes, or am I the only sucker here?
I've been at this for about 15 years, mostly out of my shop in rural Indiana. Tried a gas forge a few years back because everyone says it's cleaner and easier. But I still get a much stronger weld on my damascus billets using coal. The heat just seems more even and I can control the carbon better. Has anyone else stuck with coal for certain jobs?
I had a crack in my old 150 lb Fisher anvil that was getting worse over about 6 months. Decided to weld it myself with a standard nickel rod. Looked great for about 20 minutes then it shattered right along the weld line. Buddy at the local scrap yard told me cast iron needs to be preheated to like 500 degrees and cooled super slow. Cost me $80 in rods and wasted a whole Saturday. Anyone here actually fixed a cracked cast iron anvil successfully? What method worked for you?
Turns out a tiny spider had built a web in the nozzle and I could have solved it in 5 minutes with a piece of wire, has anyone else wasted a whole day on something this stupid?
He saw me struggling with a forge weld and told me to stop whipping the hammer like a fancy chef. Said just lay it down square and trust the metal - and the joint set first try, so I guess he was right. Anyone else had an old hand make you feel like a rookie with just a few words?
I was just cleaning up my shop yesterday and decided to count up all the railroad spikes Ive made into knives and hooks over the last 3 years. Turns out I hit 1000 about a month ago and didnt even realize it. Thats a lot of spikes for a guy who works out of a backyard shed in Phoenix. I started doing this just to save money on gifts for friends and family. Now I sell a few at the local flea market and it pays for my propane and coal. It really surprised me how fast the numbers add up when you just keep at it a little bit every weekend. Has anyone else here ever actually counted up what they make in a year?
I picked up a cast iron brake drum from a junkyard last month and spent a weekend turning it into a forge. Got it all welded up with a pipe for the air supply, but after heating three pieces of rebar the drum split right down the side. Anyone know if there's a way to prevent cast iron from cracking like that, or should I just stick to using a steel drum instead?
I was at a hammer-in down near Springfield last month and a guy named Jerry watched me screw up three welds in a row. He just said "you're pulling it out too soon, watch the color in the shadows not the bright spots." I was so used to just looking for the glow on the surface that I never paid attention to the darker parts of the steel. Now I wait until the whole bar has that even yellow-green tint in the low light and my welds actually stick. Has anyone else had a simple observation from someone completely change how you work at the anvil?
Honestly, I didn't even know what a swage block was until the guy selling it showed me how it shapes hot metal. I've been using it for a week now and it's cut my time making round shoulders on tongs by half. Has anyone else found a hidden gem like that at a random sale?
Thought I was being smart taking the guesswork out of it but the gun was reading the scale not the steel, has anyone else had this happen with infrared thermometers?
I was cleaning up my workshop last weekend and decided to count all the copper and mild steel repoussé pieces I've made since I started learning this technique about 4 years ago. Turns out I passed 500 of them without even noticing. That number surprised me because most of them were just practice pieces I beat out late at night when I couldn't sleep. I kept every single one in a big plastic tub under my workbench. When I laid them all out on the driveway, I could really see the improvement from the first lumpy mess to the cleaner ones I did last month. It made me think about how many reps it really takes to get decent at something in this trade. Has anyone else ever gone back and counted their total projects or practice runs? What number surprised you and how long did it take to get there?
I've seen three guys at the last Guild meetup in Tulsa ruin $200 worth of 1080 because they tried to normalize and quench a blade that was still 1/8 inch thick, and I'd rather just grind it clean, heat treat once, and skip the stress relief step entirely if you're not doing high-carbon stuff over a campfire.
I been trying to weld up a chisel for weeks and kept getting cold shuts that just fell apart. Old timer at the shop said to sprinkle a little borax on the steel before it hits welding heat, said it stops scale from forming. I thought he was pulling my leg but I tried it on my last attempt and the weld held solid. Has anyone else used household borax for flux or do you stick with the fancy stuff from the supply house?
I tried using a coal forge for the first time last weekend on this junk steel I've been messing with, and the weld came out smoother than anything I've gotten from my propane setup in the last year. The heat control was trickier, but the scale just flaked right off and left less mess to grind away. Has anyone else found that older methods sometimes beat modern gear for certain jobs?
I've been forging for about 3 years now, mostly making simple hooks and brackets. Last Tuesday I set up a new anvil and just started hammering out 4 inch nails from scrap rod. By the end of the day I had 1000 finished nails sitting in a bucket. I counted them twice because I didn't believe it. Has anyone else blown past their own expectations on a simple project like that?
The old track was fine for basic stuff but I never realized how much bounce it had. First time I hit hot steel on the new anvil the hammer just... stuck. Like the energy went into the steel instead of back into my wrist. Been having way less fatigue on long days. Anybody else make that switch and notice the same thing?
I was out in the shop trying to finish a set of three brackets for a gate in Tulsa. On the third one, the handle just gave out right as I brought the hammer down on a 3/8 hot strap. The head flew clean off and bounced off my garage wall, nearly hit my propane forge tank. I had to stop and dig through my old scrap bin for a hickory billet to carve a new one. Has anyone else had a handle snap on a decent hammer they thought was solid?
I was down near Macon last weekend visiting a friend and we stopped at this old blacksmith shop that's been sitting there since the 1800s. The owner let us wander around the back, and I saw three anvils sitting outside under a lean-to, all rusted and half buried in leaves. One of them was a 150 pound Peter Wright with the horn still intact. It got me thinking about how many of these old shops just faded away as welding and fabrication shops took over. The guy running the place now mostly does ornamental gates and railings with a mig welder. He told me he hasn't lit his forge in over 6 months because nobody asks for hand forged stuff anymore. Has anyone else come across an old shop like that and wondered what we're losing?
He stopped me mid-quench and said 'the fire tells you everything if you stop trying to see it with your eyes' and ever since I've been using sunlight through a dusty window to gauge temp instead of my flashlight.
I used to fire up the coal forge for anything from a nail to a sword blade, spent 15 minutes just getting a good coke bed going every time. Switched to a propane forge last November after I got tired of cleaning clinker out for hours on a big commission. The gas forge heats a 3/8 inch bar in under 2 minutes flat, but I still miss the control you get with coal on fine work. Anyone else find themselves keeping an old coal forge around just for the tricky bits?
I was at the yard down on Elm Street last Tuesday picking up some old coil springs when this older fella started talking about his knife making. He said he just gets the steel to non-magnetic, quenches it in canola, and skips the temper cycle completely because it's 'good enough for what he does.' Kinda made me wonder how many folks out there are skipping the temper and ending up with brittle blades that snap on the first hard use. Has anyone here ever tested a blade that wasn't tempered and seen how it holds up?
I picked up a used Pexto 2B power hammer at a farm auction last spring for $400. Thought it would speed up my drawing out work, but the thing eats up shop space and the clutch needs constant tuning. On the other hand, a buddy in Dallas got the same model and says it pays for itself in a month. Anyone here had a similar love-hate with an old Pexto?