Matt Walker

Impressive first piece! You might find something helpful here http://matthewdwalker.com/damascus_notes.pdf Copy it if you want, for reference. The site may not be up a lot longer.

Thanks Jerrod! The 4340 is much easier to see in person than in the photo. I feel good about that. I haven't tried forging on a piece yet.

I recently came into possession of a few large to me pieces of 4340 ( roughly 6--1/2" X 10-3/4 inches 3' to 6'. They are marked Atlas Mill Cond C1 or CI. Just wondering if anyone here has a good guess what the C1 or Ci might mean? I've already asked Alan and he suggested I ask here in hopes Jerrod or someone that hangs around a steel mill might have seen this before. A 6.5 inch cut is weighing in around #140. I'm thinking beginner anvils. I can see that it will work harden by peening a spot and doing the ball bearing drop test. Any ideas on backyard heat-treating #140 blocks? I have a big rosebud but a local shop has quoted $75 to do a face. My crane doesn't reach my forge.

So don't make your holes random. It will only index if they are the same size and on an even grid.

Here is an article about my press with comments by an engineer, from some years back. It now has additional bracing to control flex. http://matthewdwalker.com/visit_my_studio/forging_press.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faoLGu_vPXc Maybe this will work? If you find the channel for onedamascusmaker, it's the first video I ever put on Youtube.

A different but similar option, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faoLGu_vPXc A few guys have these in our local guild. We have mostly used them for cold work as in the video of my friend. Sometimes one can find these old OBI presses near scrap price.

If your closest guild is 4 hours away, think about starting a club in your area. Offer to trade grunt for work shop time. If you spend 2 hours pulling weeds, mowing, washing cars or splitting firewood for 1 hour in a good shop you will come out ahead.

Yeah, the hyd calculators are nice. Here's the math in case you are interested. A 5 inch piston has an area of 19.63 sq inches, a 3000 psi pump puts 3000 pounds on every square inch of the piston. Resulting in 58,890 pounds of pressure, so about 29.5 tons! If the pump pressure is lower the force can be the same with a larger piston. Some Porta-power kits operate at 10,000 psi so the cylinder is small/light enough to be handled by hand and still make tremendous force.

No problem Alan! And Yeah, when building the press I didn't know what all I might want to do with it, think pushing drifts if a hole were cut in the bottom die holder. And yes at this point the tank would need to be moved for drifting through. And I will admit a shorter stroke would allow for a more rigid frame, which would be better a lot of the time. But a longer stroke cylinder is negligibly more costly than a short one. And I had that much frame material on hand. If you found things you want to reference it might be a good idea to copy it, because I'm not sure how much longer the site will be maintained. This anvil (#270 Trenton) is mounted in a fabricated steel box filled with concrete. The anvil was suspended from an engine hoist, about an inch deep until the concrete set. Nuts buried in the box for bolt on shelves all around. I have enjoyed it. And it really killed the ringing. http://matthewdwalker.com/visit_my_studio/270_trenton_anvil_swage_blo.html

Some notes about a press, http://matthewdwalker.com/visit_my_studio/forging_press.pdf

Just wanting to share this because it's been a (two weeks so far) miracle for me. I'm thinking anyone who works with a hammer might benefit at some point. I have no stock in raisins or gin. I would like to know if it helps or doesn't for sore elbows, wrists etc. http://matthewdwalker.com/gin-soaked-rasins.html

Having been there also, I can agree with everything Alan says about the device and Paul.

Wow, so nice!

Wow!