I've been trying to weld a simple stack of 3 rebar rods together since January and every time it would just flake apart at the anvil. Today I got the heat just right, hit it twice, and it stuck solid like butter. Did you guys have a specific trick that made forge welding finally work for you?
He said he never grinds his anvil flat, just hits it until the face settles, and after 30 years of forging I'm starting to think he was onto something - anyone else just let their anvil wear in naturally?
I thought I had it strapped down good but I was wrong. Last Tuesday I was working on a big piece of rebar and the whole thing tipped sideways. My anvil is about 150 pounds so it hit the concrete floor with a nasty thud and bounced right near my toes. I spent the next hour building a new stand out of 4x4s with some serious cross bracing. Has anyone else had their anvil pull a sneaky move on them like that?
Been messing around with leaf hooks after work for a few months. This 70 year old dude named Hank who's been coming to my bar for years saw me post a pic and said I'm ruining the metal by dunking it in water after shaping. Told me to just let it air cool on the anvil. Tried it last week on a batch of 5 hooks and they're way tougher now, no cracks at all. Anyone else get told some old school trick that actually made a difference?
Last Tuesday I was out in my shop in Wichita trying to get a piece of 1/2 inch round stock hot enough to do a scroll. I had a little too much coke in the fire and it was burning real smoky so without thinking I grabbed a plastic jug of water I had sitting nearby and dumped about a gallon right on the fire. Of course that shot steam and hot ash right back up at my face and I practically jumped backwards into my tool rack. The fire went totally dead and I had to pull all the wet coke out and start over from scratch. Took me a good 45 minutes to get the forge back to welding heat and I still had a red spot on my cheek the rest of the night. Has anyone else done something this boneheaded when your brain just shuts off for a second?
I watched a guy from Maine knock out a perfect tenon in like 4 heats by barely moving his hammer off center, just letting the mass do the work. Now I'm all about letting the momentum carry instead of muscling every swing, how often do you guys actually count your hammer blows per heat?
I spent 8 hours trying to heat treat a 1080 blade with lump charcoal before a buddy said to try bituminous coal and it took less than 2 hours, so what do you guys think is the real winner for even heating?
I was trying to make a set of T-handle chisels for my shop near Lansing, and upsetting the heads on a hand hammer was taking forever. Then an old timer told me to heat the bar to a bright orange, clamp it in the vise with the hot end sticking up an inch, and hit it straight down with a 4 pound sledge. It mushroomed out perfect in about 6 hits instead of 30. Has anyone else tried this method for tool making?
Ive been working on making gate hooks and barn door hardware for about 8 months now. Today I finished my 100th one and it surprised me how far theyve come from the first few. The first hooks were all wonky with uneven curves and bad transitions. The last 20 or so have been way more consistent and I can feel the rhythm in my hammer strokes now. Did any of you notice a similar milestone where the numbers really clicked for you?
I was working on a set of 3 fireplace pokers and everything went sideways. My hammer slipped and I hit my thumb so bad I couldn't grip for an hour. Then I tried to quench a piece too fast and it cracked right up the middle. Anyone else have a day where you just should have walked away from the anvil?
Turns out I was heating the billet way too fast and trapping scale between the layers. Took me 20 tries and a conversation with a guy at the local hammer-in to spot what I was doing wrong. Has anyone else had a simple rookie mistake take forever to catch?
I been using whatever bagged coal I could find for years, figured it all burns the same right? Last month I grabbed a 40 pound bag of the anthracite from Tractor Supply in Peoria, and man, it threw way more heat and barely smoked. Lesson learned, the grade really matters for forge work. Anyone else notice a big difference between coal sources?
I was forging a 1-inch square stock into a leaf shape and the handle just gave out on the third hit. Turns out there was a hairline crack near the head that I'd missed from an old repair job. Anyone else ever have a handle fail mid-swing and how did you fix the balance on the new one?
I've been hand forging hooks and brackets for years but last month I rented time on a 25lb power hammer at a friend's shop. It cut my time in half but I felt like I lost some control over the steel. Which side do you guys lean for detail pieces?
Was at a local ren faire last fall doing a demo on making simple knives. Got a bit too confident and tried to eyeball the quench timing on a scrap piece. Thing came out soft as butter, bent right in front of a crowd of like 15 people. The guy running the turkey leg stand next to me laughed and handed me a magnet. Now I always use one to check temp, never again winging it.
He kept piling on flux and cranking the heat till the whole thing was just a smoking blob. Took him 45 minutes and three rods before he asked me for help. How many of you have seen someone ignore a clean joint and just blame the metal?
I've been forging for about 4 years now, and for the longest time I just accepted that round stock would always try to spin in my tongs. I'd tighten them down so hard my hand would cramp up after an hour. Then last month at a hammer-in near Portland, an old smith named Roy watched me struggle for maybe 30 seconds before he walked over. He told me to quit trying to squeeze the life out of the metal and instead just grind a shallow groove across both tong bits. I went home and tried it on a pair of my flat jaw tongs, took maybe 10 minutes with an angle grinder. Now I can hold a 1 inch round bar tight with barely any pressure. No more cramped hand and way fewer twisted pieces. Has anyone else found a small modification that made a big difference in a basic tool like this?
I keep seeing people on forums say you can just crank the heat and go, but my first two tries had slag inclusions all over. On the third try I spent 5 extra minutes preheating the plate with a torch and it came out clean. Anyone else notice preheating makes a bigger diff than people let on?
I've been fighting with forge welding for AGES. Kept getting cold shuts or just plain no bond. Then I tried cleaning my steel with a wire brush RIGHT before putting it in the fire instead of letting it sit. Total game changer. Also started using a bit more flux than I thought I needed. Anyone else have a simple trick that turned their welding around?
Picked up a spike from the tracks near my shop in Tulsa and after hammering it out I was shocked how well it held an edge, now I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this with other scrap metal or am I just lucky with this batch?
Tried just heating them straight and hammering last week and saved myself a ton of waiting around. Has anyone else found a step they always did that turned out to be totally pointless?
Been messing around with basic knife stock removal for about a year. Never really paid attention to heat treat, just used whatever the steel came with. Last month I finally built a little forge and tried hardening and tempering a 1084 blade myself. Tested it on some scrap 2x4 and the edge held up way better than any of my store bought blanks. Night and day after a proper two cycle normalization. Has anyone else put off learning heat treat and regretted it?
I always thought 1095 was the only real choice for anything that hits hard, like a tomahawk or a camp axe. Then I read a breakdown from the guy at New England Blacksmiths who tested 5160 against 1095 on a cross-section and found 5160 handles shock way better without chipping. I tried it myself on a 2 inch hickory target and the head held up perfectly after 50 swings. Has anyone else switched steels for a specific tool and found a new favorite?