cdent

Ten days, that's quite a commitment Owen. You should have some fun new skills to work with and develope. Take care, Craig

I think the entertainers get more pc mileage out of their favorite maladies. Kind of interesting, a couple of weeks ago, I saw a tv factoid. Five year prostate cancer survival rate in the US is a hundred percent, in the UK it's only 77%. Tough pill to swallow, when as noted, it's so treatable. I'm fine with ladies first, Craig

The birth of a trend, within a year no one will be normalizing, j/k. Thanks Dan for taking the time to get the pics and post them. Take care, Craig

Great knife Don and I appreciate any that you post. When I see how you manage natural materials that are shaped symmetrically or the care you take in matching damascus patterns, I appreciate your talent even more. Thanks for showing, Craig

Hang in there Sam. Take care, Craig

Sounds good to me. I'll eat ahead of time in case it's hard to break away for dinner. Take care, Craig

If you can get a good rough blade out of that hour, maybe once or twice a week. That leave a good stack of finishing work to keep up with. I'd bet that the old conditioning would improve if you needed more forgings than that. Just thoughts, Craig

Hi Craig, For reference, what's the size of the round stock. The straight bar looks a little bigger, maybe one inch? Nice set up, don't don't leave it out in the rain . Take care, Craig

And....so where's the updates Craig. Someones gotta give you a little bit of prodding. Take care, Craig

Thanks Nick, I don't imagine you'll need much luck, but wow the crowd and have a safe trip out to Montana. Take care, Craig

Hi Nick, I've noticed you mention your tempering tongs in the past. Is there a general temp or color that you try reach, and about how long do you try to keep them in contact with the spine. Thanks for any comments you might have. Take care, Craig

Thanks for sharing the story Jerry. Only the best, Craig

I think you're doing a great job. It might not look like your sketch, but I'm pretty sure you learned quite a bit. Maybe don't worry about making your practice piece look like a knife. Get a feel for how the steel moves, work up the conditioning and work on the accuracy. Then, when you feel like progress is slowing, do what you can to do a shop visit, or class, or hammerin. Ed Caffrey's advise help me get started. I did repeated round to square to round exercises with large scrap rebar. They get skinny and draw out so I called them rat tails and made dozens of them. Hold the work safely and get enough heat to cut your reheat time way down. Best of luck, Craig

Maybe you can visit a shop or attend a hammerin to get a feel for the type of tongs that work best for you, but careful trying to get one set to do it all. If you have a welder, you could use a scrap rebar handle and just leave a little extra to cut off when you're done. Have good control of the hot stuff, Craig

Score indeed!

I could be wrong, but I think most of the control valves for hydraulic cylinders need the fluid to recirculate to work right. To control the press, your setup might be more involved than your diagram shows. Good luck with your project, Craig

Between a hack saw and the chop saw, I'd go back to the abrasive chop saw. I've hacksawed through heavy stock more than a few times, and I would not be so eager to face multiple inch and a half wrought cuts by hand. I'd go with a cut off wheel in an angle grinder. After you cut a chuck out of your link, there's still a ton more work to get maybe a guard out of the middle of it. Good luck with it, Craig

Call the old mans wife and find out what he likes to drink. See if you can go back over with a bunch of good pictures and maybe he could walk you through some of what he did to run it and keep it running. Worthy project, Craig

If you have a local fastenal, you might be able to pick up some W1 (not W2) drill rod in managable sizes. But you and Jared ought to get together and have a break the big bars down day . Take care, Craig

I believe the reasons to keep this thread up in the first place have value. It's unfortunate to require reconsideration, but the learning experience may truly help a new maker. Craig

I don't think the fiber board would hold up too well, unless I'm thinking about the wrong product. If you can't pour a slab for your shop, maybe packed gravel would do the trick. Consider looking up 'subpanel' for your electrical. Maybe you only need to run one 220 line out to your shop, and then have a little breaker box for just your shop. Good luck with the new shop, Craig

Thanks for showing the great work Jesus. Take care, Craig

Hi JJ, Beginner comments, but I'd go with the horizontal burner alignment. When it's running, if it has the swirl that you want, it may not matter. When you shut off a hot forge, the burner tube becomes a chimney, if it's pointing up, and I wonder if it'll damage parts of the burner. Based on the Reil tutorial, I place the end of the burner inset about one inch from the inside chamber. I also 'molded' a port for the incoming flame. You might consider looking for a freebie smaller diameter forge body if you're considering three layer of refractory blanket. I believe if you line with satanite/itc-100, one layer (inch) does a fine job. I can touch the outer body of my forge when it's been running for a while. Good luck with the build, Craig

Welcome Jim, and thanks Don for taking the time to share with us. Take care, Craig

Let me know when the mini hammerin is. I'll bring propane and a cooler of water. I'm glad you got it spotted just right. Even though it's the 'little' version, it's still a pretty good chunk. Yup, hammers might have flown if that thing did a timber before it got to its new resting place. How's the back , Craig