Alchemy Forge

Wait- what?!

2011-08-12T16:17:00.001-07:00

This morning I received a call at 9:40, it was from Ken Anderson at WSU. I thought he was calling to discuss why I had decided to not attend this fall, like some kind of exit interview or something. I wasn't in the mood to have that conversation while I was at work, so I let it go to voicemail. When my phone showed that the message was waiting, I gave it a listen.

I could not have been more wrong. Ken was calling to offer me full tuition and a stipend as a teaching assistant. I sat, bleary eyed. I had spent the last hour and a half fuming about some random crap at work, and here (finally) was my way out-- but I was in shock. The key issue is that classes start on the 22nd (in 10 days!) and the mandatory orientations are on Monday- as in after this weekend.

Of course this puts the kaibosh on the $300 Job offer, and completely shifts my focus to being a student. What a day!

The $300 Job Offer

2011-08-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

Today I begin the next phase in my search for a new job- I enlist you, 'netizen. The successful headhunter will receive $300. More details are at BrainBottle.net/300dollars.html

General Updates...

2011-08-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

Just a few quick notes:
* AlchemyForge.net has been revised yet again. I recoded the site by hand and all of the updated pages work. There are still a few pages from the old site that have broken image links, but I intend to revise them significantly.

*AlchemyForge.com still directs here to the blog. I think it will stay that way for a while as this is updated more frequently than the website.

*Forge repair- I may do a quick photo essay about repairing the forge and prepping it for more welding.

*Tomahawk pics will be added showing the steps for doing a very (very!) simple wrapped-head throwing tomahawk. The resulting piece will be shipped off to Joel Runyon of Blog of Impossible Things who got all excited about 'hawk throwing becasue of The Art of Manliness. I hope his inner adult tell his outer child to be careful with the sharp thing. Fingers are crossed that it will go out on Monday the 8th (but it sort of depends on how well the forge responds to the repairs.) Worst case scenario: fewer pictures, and I use an oxy/propane torch to finish the piece.

Finally- Grinder Review

2011-07-15T11:05:00.000-07:00

TL;DR: It’s a good value—a great motor on a good frame.

I’ve been working with Wayne Coe’s grinder since 4th of July weekend, and have put in at least an hour a night shaping or refinishing pieces. I’m going to start with what I would improve or change about the design, and leave you with what I appreciate about the Moe Grinder.

*Assembly: As regular readers know, I had some difficulty in setting up the motor—there were seemingly endless tracking issues until I moved the drive wheel face to the end of the drive spindle. This eliminated the ‘grinding into the motor housing’ issue. User error/ignorance? Possibly. I hope the issue has been sufficiently beaten to death, and if not, I recorded my solution for posterity in my version of the instructions.

*Belt wobble: I found it quite difficult to make a belt track square to the contact wheels and to the platen itself. Frequently the belt would wobble back and forth like a tire without enough air. Much of the wobble was eliminated by moving the tool arm forward about ¼” while the tension was off of the belt, then letting the tension wheel do its job. But not all of the wobble. I had an unnamed bladesmith friend (UBF) take a look at it last night and he chalked up much of the remaining wobble to the belt I was using. When I put on a precision engineered 3M Trizact belt the wobble all but disappeared. He said that even on his grinder (which he’s used for the better part of a decade successfully) there is a hint of belt motion. Keeping the belt very tight also eliminated much of the problem I was having with the belts scooting to one side when pressure was applied to the flat of the platen.

*Belt Changing: This is a very minor issue, and it’s really more of a preference. The arm on the tension wheel isn’t very long and it’s on the same side as the tool-arm adjustment t-handle. This makes retensioning belts awkward at best. A handle inside the belt area would let me use my right hand to keep tension off the wheel, while my left hand tightens and moves the tool arm. Again, minor, but awkward.

*Square tracking: Another issue I had been having was that the belt would not align with the wheels and platen. Even when the contact wheels were each the same ¼ turn off of full-tight, the platen was cockeyed. UBF suggested putting a thin washer on the lower platen bolt between the platen and the frame, to move the bottom of the platen out that distance. What a difference 1/16” makes. The belts now track almost perfectly. UBF also said that even the best belts aren’t going to be perfectly squared on a platen, and he has to move his belts toward the edge of the platen when doing plunge cuts. So I have to chalk THAT up to inexperience, rather than a design issue.

*Fasteners: I very much appreciate the “one size fits all” approach attempted here. And I also very much appreciate that unlike other grinders I don’t need to keep a set of wrenches handy to make my adjustments. But the washers that are supplied are a problem. The washer that keeps the tool arm tightened in the guides is badly deformed from my torquing the handle to get sufficient pressure, making adjustments to the tool arm an issue. I will be doubling up on the washers, and may employ a split ring washer to help with tension. Also the washer that is used between the platen/contact wheel arm and the main tool arm is covered in some kind of fiber material. I had an issue last weekend in which I was edge grinding a radius in a guard using the 8” wheel, then I moved to the platen—the platen spun, throwing the piece and grinding my thumb in the process, as well as putting the 2” wheel dangerously close to my face. The fiber backed washer was immediately removed and I noticed that the face was both smooth and had some kind of metallic buildup. A homebrew washer that I had chiseled some teeth into was added. The arm can still swing if I push on the 8” wheel, but it takes considerable force to do it now.

*Tool rest: Actually I don’t have a real opinion on its functionality because I haven’t been able to get it to stay in place such that I felt like it was usable. I like the concept of the sliding round bars, but IMO this kind of part must be square to prevent rolling.

So what do I like?

*Value: This is actually a helluvalota grinder for the money. I looked last night and to purchase the legendary (and rightfully so!) KMG grinder, just the flat platen and variable speed motor will cost as much as Wayne’s setup (as of this printing). The KMG also seems to require additional doo-dads, and would require additional arms and wheels to do hollow grinding. KMG-clones are comparatively priced to the original KMG. I am not considering the KMG clones like the no-weld grinder or grinder in a box in my price figuring, only ready-to-go out-of-the-box grinders. Clearly, I don’t have whatever skill it is that’s required to drill a straight hole, much less get two pieces or metal to line up- without the use of a welder and grinder.

*Versatility: As hinted at above, being able to grind on a flat, and having both 2” and 8” contact wheels available in the original price is a great deal. Wayne also points out that the unit can be set up for horizontal grinding. I’m not sure how mine would need to be arranged to make that happen, but I’ve seen it (I believe a much longer cable between the VFD and motor would make this much easier). In addition, the adjustability of the arms allows for smaller 1” wheels at the 2” position or a larger 10” wheel instead of the 8” wheel. Wayne doesn’t offer either of those as options, but the wheels are available.

*Accessibility: Though there are other units that have contact wheels included in the base price, they do not allow said contact wheel to move into a position for easy access. With the Moe Grinder, the 8” and 2” contact wheels can be positioned as the primary tool.

*Versatility 2: UBF has said that he’s been able to source 2x132” belts for less than 2x72” belts. Having the motor separate from the frame would let UBF use these longer belts (without having to rig up additional arms and tensioners).

So overall, despite –my- issues with being jinxed during setup (I swear I have a gremlin in the shop) I am growing to like the Moe Grinder more each time I use it. I definitely appreciate the flexibility of the machine, especially since I’ve made the small changes mentioned above. I plan to come up with a way to add a rigid tool rest, and will update again when that happens.

So Where's the Review?

2011-07-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

I'm working on it. I want to be fair to the machine, and to my (lack of) skill with it. So far the only issue I'm really having is wobbly belts BUT it's just as likely that it's the inexpensive belts that I'm using, as it is that there's an issue with the grinder. I did adjust the torque on the bolts that hold the guide wheel and the contact wheels- that helped a bunch. I have about a dozen 3M Gator belts on the way, too, so I'll get a chance to see how precision belts behave.

However, I have written my version of the assembly instructions, and Wayne liked them so much he included them with a grinder he sent out yesterday. Take a look:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1Sc28VPKRdCENfvvmFEhsfciTIpUiJ3j7AfSqPqtwJ0c

[EDIT- the previous embedding didn't work very well. Try the link instead.]

Finally Finished the Grinder Build

2011-07-02T01:37:00.000-07:00

I received the grinder frame on Tuesday, along with the assembly instructions. While I managed to disassemble my car's engine and reassemble it with parts I modified myself, I am not the most mechanically inclined person. I had a helluva time putting it together- over 9 hours, not counting the time at work or away from the garage that I spent swearing and pulling my hair. But I -did- get it put together and it -does- work! I spent a little time tonight getting used to the speed controller and acquainting myself with a 2" wide belt. I think the results speak for themselves:

Grinder Build... Almost There.

2011-06-28T02:12:00.000-07:00

I'm going to make this quick since it's 2AM. The grinder frame arrived today and I spent 5 hours assembling it (I took a lot of notes and pictures because I may be rewriting the assembly instructions). There were a couple of snags, but right now the main issue is that the belt insists on tracking about 1/4" of its width into the motor--- regardless of what I try to move it won't stop. Everything appears to be aligned and squared, so I'm at a loss (and it's been a loooong day). I'm using a 600 grit belt at about 10% speed (roughly 170RPM) so it's not like it's ruining the equipment, but it's damned annoying and it's not even lining up with the contact wheels or platen, to boot so I can't really use it as intended. I'm sure I misread an instruction or something, so I emailed Wayne Coe for assistance/clarification. Fingers are crossed that it's a simple fix. By the way, this thing is gorgeous and I can't wait to do some work with it.

Tatara smelt April 2011

2011-06-20T00:42:00.000-07:00

Local bladesmiths Tom Ferry and Dave Lisch advertised that they would be doing another tatara smelt at the NWBA conference this past April. I had missed their first two attempts at making tamahagane, so I was really excited about being in the right place at the right time to watch the process. There were a lot of hands available for the work, but I was able to help with the chicken-wire frame around the chimney flue blocks. I put about a dozen shots together in my flickr stream and this should embed the slideshow... click to see the individual pics, most of them have an explanation of what's happening.

I'm not dragging my feet on this...

2011-06-20T00:17:00.000-07:00

I just got my UPS shipping confirmation this morning that my grinder frame has shipped. It should be here on the 27th, then I expect a few evenings after work for the build proper, and then on to testing.

In the mean time I was moderately successful in not screwing up a dagger when I put it on my current 1x42. After that it was back to draw filing, and a combination of block sanding and my "sandpaper plane" that I made several years ago. When my wife saw my using it she said, "that's my favorite tool that you've made." That was pretty cool.

Real Deal

2011-06-14T00:53:00.000-07:00

Well that didn't work very well. Even after jumping through some hoops and emailing the photo from flickr to the blog, it didn't work-- the image didn't post. So here it is from my flickr stream. . . oh wait! That didn't work either, blogger wouldn't accept the URL that Flickr gave me. This is from the computer... grrrrrr...

"Moe" Boxes Photo

2011-06-14T00:51:00.001-07:00

, a photo by Gowaduv on Flickr.

Finally! I couldn't even grab the URL (or short URL) and paste the picture into the post remotely. The photo in the other entry was uploaded from my machine. Sheesh!

Mobile Test

2011-06-14T00:31:00.000-07:00

This is as much a blog entry as it is a test. I'm sending this from my phone to see how the interface works, and to see what it's like to add photos from here. What's in the picture? One VFD, one 1.5hp 3-phase motor, and a box of drive/guide wheels. All I need now is the main plate from Mr Coe (fingers crossed that it's sooooon).

That was a short trip. I may not be able to import images to my blog. I'm going to try emailing the photo to the blog

The Grinder Build Begins

2011-06-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Ok it's not so much a grinder "build" as it is "waiting for all the stuff from Wayne Coe to arrive." The first two boxes of Wayne's "Moe Grinder" showed up on my doorstep yesterday and I now possess a gorgeous blue 1.5HP 3phase 115v motor and a natty looking VFD (it almost looks like Darth Vader's chest piece :) ). Wayne emailed that he was working on revised assembly instructions last weekend, and was also drilling and tapping all the holes in the main grinder plate. He didn't say when it would be shipped, other than he was trying to get it out before he left for Blade.
I hope he likes free advertising because I need to work on my video editing skills, and putting this through its paces will make great YouTube fodder. I'm going to do my best to stall the motor (Wayne says he hasn't seen anyone do it yet) and I'll fumble around with some blade work. A friend who is an ABS JS (passed the performance test for his MS) says he wants to give it a try, so I might video his playing around, too, and so a 10 minute interview/grinder test. That remains to be seen.

The Last Meritocracy?

2011-06-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

Maybe not the last, but certainly among the few remaining. I was reading an article on Slate this morning in which the columnist posted several resignation (and general "eff-off" type) letters from news writers to editors. In one, the author lamented that news writing was not the meritocracy many are led to believe it is. His assertion is that there's one person who is generally clueless who makes decisions about hiring/firing and they usully run toward nepotistic lines.

Banksy's documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop tackles this theme, and the documentary is kinda gut wrenching as we watch a nobody who wants to make a documentary about Bansky follow the artist around, immerse himself in the underground art culture, then make buckets of cash while milking the teat of the elites who want to prove their hipness and understanding of great art but buying art that is at best a pastiche of earlier works. Painful and embarrassing. Banksy says near the end

I used to tell everyone I met "yeah, grab a spray can, tell your story. Make art." I don't do that so much anymore

My friend Jaime is a trained photographer. Like the type who did a four year program to understand how cameras function, and used a 4x6 for his final thesis (he took pictures of industrial equipment sitting in the yard of Pacific Industrial Supply). He has a great eye and is very adept at post processing. He's had several shows of his work, topics ranging from stained glass to vintage motorcycles, pricing framed 24x36" prints for about $200. I believe he's sold about 3 prints in the last 5 years, despite a lot of really positive In contrast, the friend of a person he trains martial arts with has no training, yet sells laser printed copies of local landscapes and random people for $50-$100 each, and will sell out every "limited edition." Which I put in quotes because they're digital files, so limited edition is possibly disingenuous.

Which brings me to blacksmithing and knifemaking. While there are some artists who work in metal and will sell random assortments of scrap held together with welding wire, for the most part this community produces some very high quality work. I can't think of a single case in which a person is commanding top dollar for half formed cat turds as one forum moderate described some of the work being posted for critique. And by top dollar I mean the kind of money that can buy a small new car. And maybe that's what draws me to this work. I'm firmly in the middle, I believe, in terms of quality workmanship. The only complaint I've ever had about a knife was that a tip broke off when the guy was digging an arrowhead out of a tree. I claimed that was abuse, and when I brought it to my fellow smiths, I only had one person disagree with me. But there it is-- my work wasn't judged by someone who never sees the work, it was judged on its merit as a tool. There are collectors out there, and there will be a variance in what each is willing to pay, so in that regard it is a lot like anything else in the art world. But while a Banksy print is only valuable as a Banksy print, a knife or fireplace set has both an aesthetic component and a functional component.

A working anvil?!

2011-05-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

The hell you say! I know, more adventures in anvil face prep. I went back to work on the anvil last night. I started by marking the face with a generic permanent marker that lays a heavy, dark mark-- even when retracing over previous lines. Using a 12" bastard file along the length of the face I was able to file away the high spots (picture to follow). To speed it up a little I used my angle grinder on the high spots, back to the file, back to the grinder, to the file and finally I used a 3x21" belt sander with a 40 grit belt. I wanted to use the angle grinder more, but it's both too precise (it will dig a pit) and not precise enough (that pit will be too deep and too wide) so I did most of the work with the long file. For my purposes, there's a brand new flat spot, and I'll get to use it tonight.

A reminder...

2011-05-16T23:31:00.000-07:00

This was posted at Don Fogg's bladesmith forums by Alan Longmire, attributed to Ira Glass:

What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

http://youtu.be/BI23U7U2aUY

Site Updated

2011-05-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

I found a new web building program that does most of what I want it to. It's a little clumsy, but free. I updated the main page today, and I'll be working on the galleries. I need to come up with a new format/layout.

One and done...

2011-05-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

I believe I mentioned previously that I would be building a mini-hydraulic press. And I did. And it broke on the third test run. Despite my best efforts at clean, deep welds, apparently a 110V wire feed welder is just not up to the task, even with multiple passes of flux core wire. Also apparently most of these that are being built are being put together with stick welders, but I'm not going to make that kind of investment. It's under the work bench for now. It was pretty cool when it was running, but it was just as disappointing to hear the telltale "ping!" and have one of the uprights separate from the base.

Stepping it up

2011-04-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

I spent five hours last weekend working on a layered billet. By hand. So that was a billet that had already been welded, and I stretched it to double the length, folded it and welded it again. I was pooped. And a little defeated becasue I have a project that I need to have done in like 3 weeks and it, of course, hinges on a patterned* blade.

What to do? I had to buy a compressor for a car project in February (yes, it was a requirement to get it done, I had resisted a compressor for years), so it seemed like the natural next step to make a mini press. I purchased the 20 ton jack on Tuesday night and tomorrow I will be buying the steel tube for the frame. My main concern is my 110v welder, but with gas shielded flux core wire going into chamfered grooves, I think I should be able to get sufficient penetration for the project.

What about the big anvil? What about it... it will still get used, but for operations like welding, butchering, hot stamping, punching, etc a press will make the job go so much faster (or so I assume). I know that drawing out operations like I do for the fireplace sets will still be done on the anvil, and most of the blacksmith operations, as well. It won't go to waste, and with the press freeing up my shop time, the anvil will be used even more often.

*patterned=not monosteel. No it won't be even a simple ladder this time, but you can save your typing if you want to argue that random patterns aren't patterns.

Interweb Downtime

2011-03-09T14:29:00.000-08:00

Hey faithful followers. In the next few weeks I will be shutting down alchemyforge.net and .com in preparation for a comeplete site revision. I'm working on the overall layout but I should have new info, pictures, embedded videos, etc. It will have a more bloggy feeling and should have a uniform appearance from page to page (working on that CSS stuff).

Thanks for being patient!

Still Futher Anvil Obsessing

2011-02-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

The new anvil needs a stand. The big steel tube and plate thing that it came with simply makes too much noise on its own to serve my needs. I'm making another of my 4x4s on end anvil stands, but this time I'm only using Gorilla Glue to hold it together. Right now I have three sets of four blocks glued together per the bottle's directions, and they were brought inside prior to gluing to give the product the best possible environment to cure in. Once all five sets of four are glued I'm going to take them back out to the shop and use the anvil itself as my clamp to hold the base together while the glue sets up. I can't think of a better "clamp" than a concrete floor and a 400+ pound anvil allowed to sit over the weekend.

And that's gonna be all I do. Why? Because I want to see how strong this glue really is. Once I set the new block on end and smooth the faces* I'm going to apply a drop of glue to each corner of the anvil and glue it to the block. Whether it holds up or not, I'm going to write to the company and let them know about what I've done. I don't see why this won't work-- the stands don't take a lot of lateral force. I may even glue it to the floor to keep it from moving around. Yes, much to my surprise I have been able to make the anvil sway on the current stand.

* Why can't we get 8" circular saws? Cutting a 4x4 with a standard circular saw (7-1/2"? then subtract the hub) is ridiculous. I shouldn't have to turn the thing 90deg three times to get the cuts to got through without binding. Nor should I have to buy a miter saw.

More Anvil Obsessing

2011-02-03T12:16:00.000-08:00

I started this thread over at I Forge Iron: http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/20425-anvil-id-assitance/page__gopid__210151 inquiring whether any of the folks over there could identify my new shop tool. Three of three said it was most likely a Hay Budden, so that's what I'm going with. Maybe one day I'll get a chance to weigh it...

I did some measuring last night to get a better idea how bad the sway is. Using a steel ruler and a depth gage I determined that the -worst- spots are 3/64" but most of the valley is approximately 1/32". If the piece I was working on the other night hadn't been trying to conform to all of the undulations I might not care, but it was bouncing around pretty good. So I'm going to load my 3x21 belt sander with some 40 grit paper and try to get rid of that "high" spot on the far left of the anvil. I did like the sharp square shoulder that I ground into the close edge of the face, so that's not going away (yes, I knocked off the edge so it's not 100% sharp, but it's very square).

More updates soon, I'm sure. Maybe even some actual work in the near future.

Website

2011-01-31T23:59:00.000-08:00

I don't know if I've mentioned that Yahoo Sitebuilder is the tool I've been using to build and maintain my website. At any rate, the program has yet to be updated for compatibility with Win7, and it's not looking like it will be. So thank goodness for Blogger, because this is where all of my updates will be until I can get a replacement program. I may try a wordpress blog template. Stay tuned here for updates.

Anvil update

2011-01-31T23:56:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture heavy entry about my new anvil. My -guess- is that it's an Arm & Hammer, possibly a Trenton. This is based entirely on the rough finished heel, as there are no maker's marks on it. I did find a 5 or 6 digit serial # and there is a 6 or 9 stamped under the heel. I believe it is a 9 because I saw another anvil with a 4 stamped on it, but the 4 was upside down if you look at the anvil as it would be mounted for use. This anvil has been in use for a while and has several weld marks on the face. Too bad the welds weren't very good and have gaps. She was a "painted lady" at one time-- while I wouldn't characterize her as a prostitute (to use the terminology) she's no stranger to working hard.
I spent nearly two hours with a hard disk trying to remove chisel and punch marks from the face, and trying to make a couple of relatively flat spots. I don't honestly think I could have made things worse, and I need to post one of the photos that shows the face before I started. In the side-by-side picture all of the pink chalk on the face represents either a chisel/punch mark or roughness from exposure. I was fairly successful-- using a steel ruler to gage flatness, the gap is now about 1/16" and there are only a few deep pits remaining. The last picture in this series shows the face after a quick wipe with ferric chloride (used to bring out the areas of different hardness, as with welded layered/patterned steels). I've inquired about having the face welded and/or machined but will see if it does what I need before I go messing about with it.

I gained about 400lbs

2011-01-31T11:43:00.000-08:00

I've been working on my 156# Peter Wright since about April 2005 (at least, that's what my old emails indicate). I wish I'd recorded what I'd paid for it, I'll have to look at my smithing journal. Even though 156# seems like a good weight, there are limitations. This anvil was (ab)used but a smith in the mid-west who likely did a fair amount of horseshoeing, or shoe repair. There's not a square edge on the whole thing, the hardy hole is 1" at the top and wider at the bottom for some reason, so all of my hardy tools wiggle around (even with shimming) and I can bounce it with my hammer strikes. It's been a fine tool, and I plan to keep it in my stable for now. But, it's time for an upgrade.
After not being able to decide between a new Nimba, or an Old World Anvil I did a google search for used anvils and ran across a post about an ad with anvils for sale. Turns out the seller is local, but in the ensuing year had sold off all of his 250#-range anvils. So I picked up a 400# instead. He had a 500# anvil with a nicely polished face and horn, but it was $600 more for another 100# and I really couldn't justify it.

I've chalked the sides. I've used soapy water and a wire brush to scrub off any dirt, paint, etc. I cannot find any markings on it at all, except for a large 6 that was deeply stamped just to the left of the handling hole under the horn. It only has 3 handling spaces, too. The hardy is just about 1.5" and the pritchel is about 5/8". She rings like a bell regardless of where I tap her. My hope is that it's some unnamed Swedish anvil that is forged from steel- it was clearly forged by hand, given the rough texture under the tail and horn, and the unevenness of the sides. I'll take a ton of pictures and I'll tip it on its side to see if there's anything underneath.

It is far from perfect. The people who used it before were clearly not blacksmiths- there are punch and chisel marks all over the sides and face, the edges are rounded (though not apparently from abuse) and there is welding stick in some of the holes. It's going to take a while to dress it, but instead of spending an additional $600 on the other anvil, I can spend a full work week at my shop rate and break even. Tonight the face meets Mr Angle Grinder, the step is getting touched up and I'm putting at least 2" of fairly sharp edge somewhere on it.

Shiiiii....

2010-12-22T22:21:00.000-08:00

Well, the knife that I posted the photos of has turned out to be a failure. The heat treat came out alright but I discovered that the bevels weren't at all even, and there wasn't any way to fix it-- I worked on it but it was starting to not look like the knife I was trying to make and I wasn't getting very far with the bevel fixing anyway. So I bent it, chopped a 2x4 with it then shaved, threw it at the ground a few times and called it a day. The pisser is that I'd put about 10 hours in to the reclamation of what was a pretty ugly blade experiment (that includes the guard which was about 80% done).

grrrrr.....

First Bowie WIP

2010-12-16T23:27:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics from the heat treat of the "bowie" I'm working on. I put bowie in quotes because no one knows what Jim Bowie's knife looked like and anything that's large anymore is either called a bowie or a seax. I digress, on to the pics:
Prepping for heat treat-

Normalize cycle number 3

Burning off the oil from HT 1 prepping for second heat treat. I've never done this before, but I've heard of it and decided to give it a try. Dramatic, yes?

Quick thanks to Jaime Forero for bringing over several filters this weekend- I shot these with the UV filter and I think they came out really good.

Website

2010-12-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to work on the Alchemy Forge website since the weekend, without much success. When my old computer (the stolen one) was running Vista and then Win7 I didn't have any problems with Yahoo Site Builder. Now that my new machine has Win7 Pro running, I can only make the smallest of changes, and only once. So when I fix a typo or smooth out a rough section of my prose I find that I can't save the file to then publish it.
The Mrs has been taking a mass media class about blogging and web design, and has moved her personal site and blog to a new provider. I may do the same and switch over to a WordPress-based format which will allow for easy creation of dropdown menus and embedding. I'll keep the blog up to date with major changes.

Catching up on life

2010-11-29T18:48:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted, and about as long since I've been in the shop. The 31 months it took to finish my BA kept me out of the shop more than I liked and it's been hard to get going again. I had a conract writing roject at the end of September, which overlapped my dealing with my backpack being stolen (including laptop and backup drive- long story). I've been trying to catch up on missed TV (Netflix is -not- helping me get back in the shop) and books that have been collecting on my shelves. Not to mention that I loooove video games and the BioShock2 multiplayer has been really addictive. I've also been reapplying to master's programs in public history, which has involved rewriting my statements of purpose and waiting for letters of recommendation from instructors.

In the mean time, I've been making slow progress on a bowie style that is going to have a coffin handle and "s" guard, a dragon-tooth dagger and a quasi-tanto (which is taking forever because I'm trying to do it the "right" way following the instructions in Walter Sorrells' DVDs). Using a sketch book has been helpful in figuring out how pieces fit together before I start mangling metal.

I'm hopeful that I'll finish that bowie in the next couple of weeks and I'll have it posted for sale in time to have it shipped for the holidays.

Rowan handled knife

2010-09-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

Not much to say, OAL is about 2.5" the customer just wanted a simple knife for cutting yarn and other generally small things. I'm happy to oblige.

Anvil blocks

2010-09-27T22:08:00.000-07:00

I made these a couple of years ago with the intention of selling them, then started school and forgot they were on the bench :) The blocks are cut from 2x2 1045 and each is at least 2" tall (the one pictured is closer to 2-1/8" ). I gave them all a coating of my Goddard's Goop and they all look like this one (no, it has not been touched up on a sander or anything like that). The one that I use looks almost as good. On mine I gave it four different radii so I have a nearly sharp edge through about 3/8" radius (I didn't measure, but if I had to guess it looks like a section of 3/8" bar). My anvil doesn't have a single square edge, so that's why I made these. I figured they would also be good for smiths who have radii ground into their anvils already, but maybe need a much larger radius than normal for a particular project. They fit a 1" hardy hole and each stem is at least 4" long.

These are $30 each plus $5 for USPS flat rate to the US- no international, and I'm talking to you, Canada :| (UPS is $10 to ship plus $5 for packaging, also to US addresses only).

Ugh- paint...

2010-09-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

The other night I started in on a new project- a fireplace poker like the one I made at Jerry Culberson's in 2007. The trick to this project is hot chiseling a tail onto the end of a bar and then forging it into a hook. Anyway, I noticed a smell that I thought was paint, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I haven't used the big forge since I relined it and thought the sairset mortar might have had some zinc in it so I chalked it up to the first firing burning off the zinc.

Imagine my surprise tonight when the smell came back. Well, I assume the sairset does not use zinc (because that would be stupid, seeing as how it's designed to be used in kilns). It took me a little while, but I finally figured out that it was the new shelf I added to the front of the forge so I can rearrange the bricks. Here's the lesson: if you're going to use something that has been painted, either make sure the paint is going to be burned off (as opposed to just offgassing repeatedly when it gets really warm) or grind that crap off.

Better photos are coming...

2010-09-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

I just felt like updating the blog, and I think the most exciting news right now is that a friend and I built a diffuser box for taking photos. I'll post pictures of it, but basically it's 1/2" PVC pipe with some elbows and "t" connectors to make two squares that are connected at the top to form an open bottomed box (yes, pictures would -really- help). We tried it on a few simple items, comparing regular flash photogrpahy in ambient light, to forcing the camera to use the light diffused into the box and then allowing the camera to fill-flash the box. Both pictures with the box were vastly superior to the "regular" photos.

I also purchased a hot-shoe flash for my camera to help control the flash even more. I took some pictures at the Washington State Convention Center over labor day weekend and the onboard flash was just strong enough to give people red eye, but not really improve the photo. This flash should be strong enough to take pictures at 40 feet using ISO 100 eqivalent. I've seen some test examples that people have done and they look great. the unit reads the info from the camera and adjusts the power of the flash AND the distance of the flash bulb from the opening of the housing to give the perfect lighting for the situation (in theory).

So, hopefully no more flashy pictures that don't really show the detail I'm looking at. Which is more aesthetically pleasing for readers and more informative for potential customers.

EDIT to add picture:

New video- flint and steel firemaking

2010-08-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

Two days, two videos. If I hadn't had tech problems, I might have been able to do even one more about primitive fire making.

First Video! One Brick Forge

2010-08-28T22:54:00.001-07:00

My first published video. hooray!

A few updates

2010-08-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

Greetings all,
I just wanted to let folks know that I have updated my beginner's page. It's new words for similar ideas. If you read through it and have questions, please let me know. If you know someone who's thinking about getting started, please spread the word.

The twin seaxes are in my flickr stream and should be on the website this week.

I still have part of my garage to rearrange/tidy up before I start on any projects, but I hope to be back doing work by the end of the week. It's amazing how much I'm able to get done in an evening- finishing that BA really made me see how much time there is in the 6-or-so hours I'm awake after I get home from work.
I have several pieces that were just sitting around half finished. At least one of them will be a fail, but I'm going to give it a try anyway. A couple of them are victims of my "must do everything by hand" mentality. They'll be on the belt sander and finished in short order- including a snake themed camp knife that should be awesome.

Burner Blowers

2010-08-09T09:10:00.001-07:00

Though I didn't spend much physical time in the shop while finishing my degree, I did think about it a lot. One of the things I'd considered was a less costly blower fan for my burner. Now, you're probably thinking "BFD, it's just a fan" and that is true, but I like to aim for efficiencies when I can, and should I need to run this stuff off of a smaller power source, the issue of power consumption would be important. By way of comparison, a venturi burner uses more propane than a blown burner does, but no electricity which is one of the "selling points" when people discuss burner design- you can run it anywhere! If I had a smaller blower, then I could feasibly be able to use my forge wherever I had a car and power inverter- or even a car battery.

My long standing blower is a 120CFM unit with a 60CFM side blower that runs off of 110V pulling 1.1A to give 3000RPM. I don't recall if I have any pictures of it in action, but for day-to-day forging, I kept the piece of cardboard over the opening such that there was almost no air getting in (note, there is a side inlet so that the fan never pulls zero air, I assume this is a safety feature to keep the motor from burning out).

Last night I tried a 15CFM unit running off of 110V pulling 0.21A at 1750RPM. I was impressed. I made a restrictor plate out of an altoids tin and can adjust the airflow that way. I can choke it down to 1450degF if I mess with the propane input, and I "cranked it" up to 2101degF. That said, if I choked it down too low it would gurgle, burp and then report- so it was drawing propane back into the motor and igniting it. Or, more likely, the heat from the burner pipe was flowing up to the blower, taking the propane with it. If the burner outlet could be outside of the forge then I might be able to run this small blower. A backfire situation is not great, but it gave a lot of warning before it happened, and it's just a matter of not running too much gas with too little air.

It also doesn't give welding heat, but I kept the old blower choked out even when I made that billet for the twin seaxs so it was still overkill. I'm thinking something on the order of 30CFM pulling 0.5A might give me the air for welding with the control for "low temp" heat treating IF I were to want a single unit for all of the forging I could conceive of doing. In the meantime, the larger blower will stay on a shelf for those high heat needs.

[EDIT: to add, the small blower became too unstable for long term forging. The gurgling and backfiring became an issue when the blower had any noticable restriciton. I have gone back to the larger blower, but will continue to look for a smaller unit.]

I'm baaack

2010-08-05T00:58:00.000-07:00

What's up my faithful followers? I finished my degree (graduated Summa Cum Laude) and my professional writing certificate, so I'm free to spend more time in the shop.

Tonight I finished my twin Seaxes, and I completely revised the beginner's page. The seax pics are on my flickr feed and will be added to the galleries this week.

It's good to be back, I hope I can update far more frequently.

Laters.

5 Elements Forge Hammer-in

2010-01-17T15:23:00.000-08:00

My friend Geoff hosted the 2nd hammer-in in what may be a series. He continued working on a blade that he started last time as part of his press-testing. This time it was surface grinding and heat treating. Photos are at http://alchemyforge.net/5EF-H2-jan2010.html The finished knife will be donated to the Northwest Knife Collectors as a raffle item at their next fundrraiser, and I think they decided to do a sort of rifleman's knife with a forged S-guard... but I wasn't privy to the entire conversation, so we'll see how this progresses.

He also had engraver Tom Sterling in attendance with a hands-on demo. I wasn't able to participate in that, but it looked like fun. Geoff's Mrs made some killer chili, cinnamon rolls and cornbread, and the lunch table conversation was interesting and stayed on-topic (i.e. it didn't stray into the political) which was nice.

First Grad School app is on the wing...

2009-12-07T11:49:00.001-08:00

I'm actually a week late with this. Last Monday I sent my first grad school application to the College of William and Mary, via certified mail. It really feels like it was weeks ago. I almost forgot to send my transcripts but got those ordered and they should be there by now. I know I won't hear until April (at least) but I'm already nervous... that's great. My application to Washington State University is next and I think I'll be removing those blog entries (saving them for another time) just in case some intrepid application reviewer decides to look for me in the interwebtubes.

In related news, I'm almost done with this semester- one assignment and a final, then I'm done. Next semester has me working on my internship, one philosophy class (a capstone, and I'm hopeful it's not as "busy for the sake of being busy" as the capstone I dropped this semester was) and a 1-credit seminar about food choices (based on the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma"). I'll go through commencement in May and finish my degree over the summer with more internship... maybe a "real" class if there's something that I just can't resist.

So, I'm going to have to spend some time in the shop over the next month to get some projects out. That should be fun, although it was 23 degrees this morning. I better make sure that heater works.

Thoughts on banner ads...

2009-11-17T13:04:00.001-08:00

This http://blog.pelland.com/?tag=banner-ads got me thinking. You guys really were doing a good job. According to that article, the average click through rate is about 0.2%. One of my blogs had about 500% click through a couple of times and each had about 100% click through- so I can see why AdSense thought something was fishy.

The article also confirmed my gut reaction- people don't really like banner ads. According to the article, 94% of people dislike banners, just 1% less than the number of people who hate pop-up ads. Wow.

So even if AdSense reactivates my account, I probably won't reactivate the ads. I have a hard enough time keeping any semblance of respectabiltiy, I don't need to shoot myself in the foot on top of it.

Ads...

2009-11-17T09:36:00.001-08:00

I've had a few emails this morning asking me what happened to my ads. My AdSense account has been disabled, but Google won't say why (it's a "trade secret"). I did submit a help request last week asking why I wasn't getting page impressions but I was seeing ad clicks- no response (surprise). I appealed the disabling of the account and we'll just have to see what happens. I guess you folks were just -too- curious about the advertisers.

I may have to reinstate the paypal buttons.

Almost out there...

2009-11-16T00:55:00.000-08:00

I'm almost done with this semester- then next semester will be one class, a seminar and an internship, then an internship over the summer and I'm done with my distance degree. After this, I'm hoping to be accepted to graduate school where I can study blacksmithing in either the colonial or fur trade era.
In the mean time, I'm thinking about working on projects from Sonn's book or carving knives out of smaller, thin stock. Those would be quick, and useful tools are always satisfying. Mostly just bored, not really tired and wanting to blog about something.

Hammer-in report

2009-11-09T12:43:00.001-08:00

Alright, I'mma be honest. The hammer-in left me a little bummed, and I think it's because I really want to be out in the shop making things, but haven't had much of an opportunity. However, here I am on Monday, sitting at work while our main system is down, and I'm pretty excited about a question that was posed. Why not make a blade out of just 15N20? For those not in the know, 15N20 is a steel that is usually added to a stack of other steels in pattern welded billets because the nickel resists most etching solutions- this gives very bright areas to contrast the darker carbon areas.

I don't see why it wouldn't work. Most 15N20 has about 0.75% carbon (which is a mid range carbon content) plus the nickel adds abrasion resistance. I think it would be cool to try. I can't look at many suppliers through the company firewall, but Admiral steel has 0.065x8x36" sheets for about $32. (that's just over 1/16 inch, so probably a 14 gage? sheet). Maybe a little thin, but that's another thing Geoff was talking about- how thin can you make a blade that still performs most of the duties you want it to? It would be very difficult to forge a blade that starts at 1/16" (most will be forged to approximate shape, then thinned to about that thickness) but certainly many blades end up at 1/16".

Maybe I'll give it a try.

As for his press, it's pretty awesome. It squished a 2x2x6" billet without any fuss and the resulting pattern was tightly welded, even at the ends where these things tend to split or not weld properly. Next time I'll show up the night before to help him set up, and I'll make sure someone drives into town to refill at least one of the propane tanks.

Hammer-in tryout

2009-11-06T00:15:00.000-08:00

A good friend has built a hydraulic press and he's unveiling it this weekend. I don't have a lot of specifics, aside from knowing that he did a lot of additional wiring to 3 phase, had to find some specialized parts and I have no doubt it's bad ass.
He's a journeyman bladesmith and will likely spend most of his time using it for pattern welded (damascus) steel. I can't wait to see it in action, and to see what he does with it. He's having a bit of a BBQ/BYOB- it will be very nice to get out of the house and away from the books for the better part of the day.

Back again

2009-10-26T23:44:00.000-07:00

I'm still in school, still plugging away. I dropped a class this semester to preserve my GPA- no detailed, long winded complaining. I just thought this guy was taking off points for really weak reasons and he was bragging in emails that the average for his classes is 78%. I'll just say that that would kill my GPA. Plus we had group projects which aren't any fun in real life, but they're downright painful in cyberspace.

The above means that I had some free time over the weekend, so I cleaned up the shop area. It took almost three hours to break down the boxes that had accumulated, sweep up and throw away all of the garbage that built up over the past few months. When I feel like I have some free time, I can head on out and do whatever. I just need to feel like I can put the books down (to be fair, I goofed off nearly all weekend, just to unwind from school stress).
I don't have any immediate plans, though I'd like to start working on reproducing items from Albert Sonn's "Early American Iron Work." On Nov 7 I'll be heading over to a friend's house for what should be a rededication of his shop and he'll show off his home-built hydraulic press. Sounds like good times to me.

Don't touch the metal...

2009-08-27T14:13:00.001-07:00

I DVR "The Woodwright's Shop" on PBS. It's a show that holds particular sentiment for me, which I'll dicuss later. I'm sure much of the appeal, though, is that I'm absolutely clueless when it comes to working with wood and Mr Underhill does some fantastic work in those 26 minutes.

Anyway, this last episode had Master Blacksmith Peter Ross from Colonial Williamsburg demonstrating filing techniques. The premise being that modern smithing usually leaves a rough finish to indicate that the metal was worked by hand, up until fairly recently, the metal was smoothed, polished and otherwise had a high degree of finish work. During the episode, Mr Underhill touched the corner of a piece that had been filed on two of the four flats and Mr Ross said that blacksmiths are taught to not touch the metal. He stated that the oils from the fingers were enough to make the file slip on the metal.

I have a better reason- that metal is going to get hot! There's a lot of friction between a file and a piece of steel. I learned this the hard way and I don't touch any metal with bare hands until I'm finished. Smithy Rule #1- if it's metal, assume it will burn you and don't touch with bare hands.

Editing for clarity...

2009-07-16T16:06:00.001-07:00

I received an email from one of the folks at DDP and he wants to "interview" me. Sounds good to me. He says he'll link to the site, but the blog not so much, especially in light of my missives concerning issues from a few months back. I assume that a little press will drive some folks to the site and by extension, the blog. In the interest of making it look like I've learned a few things about writing, I'm going to put some polish on most (all) of the blog entries to date. I assure you I will NOT be modifying content, message or censoring language- I'm only going to try to improve clarity.

Back at it

2009-07-07T09:25:00.001-07:00

I've been wanting to light the fires again for a while. I can't remember the last time I was in the shop to pound metal. June, maybe, during the three days between semesters, I think. I took some time today to tidy up and read the Northwest Blacksmith Assn's newsletter "Hot Iron News" while the forge came up to temp.
I needed a project that wasn't too intensive, but wasn't something that felt like production work, either (something besides sets of hooks or leaves). I found a plan for some acorn and oak leaf napkin rings. The hard part is forging 1/2" down to 1/8" round- well, it's time consuming if not hard. But it was good to be out there swinging the 2, 3 and 4 pound hammers. Most of it was with the 2# because I need to work on my control and it's too easy to squash rounds that thin. I might have the first one done tonight, maybe. I'm not in a rush and again I'm trying to avoid feeling like I "have" to be out there or that I'm doing production.
I think I need to be out there as a way to refocus my mind. I'm finding it's too easy to waste a bunch of time goofing off on the internet (and I'm not even going to smithing sites) instead of answering the question sets for history or taking the time to write quality responses to message board posts for my English class. Now I need to balance working in the shop with homework and eliminate 90% of that aimless internetting. Only 10 more months and I'm done with the BA. Then I will likely move on to a master's program for a public history degree... but that's still up in the air.

EFC 7/21

"Engineer" hardest job in America to fill

2009-06-05T15:24:00.001-07:00

From http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/107149/the-hardest-jobs-to-fill-in-america?mod=career-leadership

“Why are engineers so hard to find? 'We have whole generations of people loving liberal arts, not going into science and math,' says Larry Jacobson, executive director of the National Society of Professional Engineers. "

Bullpuckey, Mr Jacobson. We are not "not going into science and math" we're being pushed out of them. If I had ONE math teacher above the high school level who gave the appearance of giving a damn, I might actually have completed my engineering degree. Not that it would have mattered in terms of this discussion, because he's talking about professional engineers and engineering school is a lot like medical school. You go for four years, get your diploma and then you do your internship (or in engineering it's called "Engineer In Training" or EIT). My understanding is that of those who finish their degree about 60% actually become professional engineers because, well, so many engineers are exceptionally hard to deal with. Your knowitall neighbor who tells you you’re doing “it” wrong, regardless of what “it” is, kinda sums up my experience with engineers. On top of that, there's the disenchantment that you've been told you’re an engineer, not a tech- you want to be working on design and checking loads and all that good stuff. You don't want to be getting a "real" engineer's coffee.

On top of that, most engineering schools are designed to get rid of students- or at least that's what I was told by every engineering and upper division math instructor I had. The worst? At UW there was a class that was a three quarter series. In order to go to the next class (i.e. to go from 01 to 02) you have to have an "A" in the class you're in. The class was an hour a day of lecture plus a weekly lab. Here's the kicker, at the end of the third semester, if you have an "A" in the 03 class, you get ONE CREDIT for the whole series but you're paying for each class as though it was a five credit class.

So no, Mr Jacobson, I didn't initially choose Humanities with a double minor in history and professional writing. I spent the better part of a decade feeling like a failure because higher education told me that it didn't want me to be an engineer. I chose this path because history is basically stories and my transcripts reminded me that I was taking Humanities classes to keep my GPA afloat so I could afford to take more engineering classes. Blacksmithing is pretty close to engineering (I get to make and design stuff) but it's more fun to do it with fire than AutoCAD. So nyaah.

It's your bed, National Society of Professional Engineers, you lie in it.

EFC 7/21

Summer Semester

2009-05-20T15:02:00.001-07:00

So summer semester is in full swing. I decided that since I did soooo much complaining about my history class I'd talk about classes I'm enjoying. I'm taking history of the Pacific Northwest and a class that I can never remember what it's called but it's about multimedia and communication. The PNW class has just about restored my faith in the history department at WSU. The instructor has been very responsive and respectful about the few issues we've had (mostly technical). WSU changed to a new interface and the bugs aren't 100% worked out plus summer semesters are shorter than spring and fall so they have to rearrange the schedules which is making things interesting, but manageable.
I managed to not take Washington State history in high school. Apparently some social studies class I took in 8th grade had sufficient content that I could skip it. I don't regret that at all as I think back to my classmates from 8th grade who sweated and bitched their way through it. I've already learned a lot and I think the only advantage I might have over a transplanted student is that I have over 30 years of perspective and association with the places and events were talking about.

Here's hoping for good times

EFC 7/21

Straight razor shaving

2009-05-07T18:42:00.001-07:00

Well, I bought a derby single edged razor holder to try straight razor shaving. It's a good thing I don't shave very often and when I do it's just my cheeks. It's also good that I'm not freaked out by the sight of blood...
Very interesting experience and I'll definitely give it another shot, it's just going to be a few days.

Edit to add: Boring? Someone thinks shaving with a straight razor is boring. Whoever that is needs to leave a comment explaining himself.

Actual Smithing Content

2009-05-06T22:56:00.000-07:00

I know, surprise, right? :) Since I have this week off from school I want to make as much use of it as I can. I started a pattern welded billet sometime in January... I think. I honestly can't remember when I started it. But I did write down what it's made from. 15 layers of bandsaw blade (1/2" x0.20") and two layers (outside) of 1/4 x 1/2" mild. I've folded it twice and I'm ready to do the third fold tomorrow. That'll be 164 layers and should give a decent pattern, I guess. I've stretched lengthwise and folded it back on itself each time. I knew I had limited time and wanted to keep my chances of success as high as possible so nothing fancy. I did have a little end delamination when I twisted it back to straight, but that's a section that I know will need to be cut off.

I think the most surprising thing is how much volume I'm losing with each fold. One more and it will be about 1/4 x 5/8 x 8. I'm hoping for a raven's beak seax that's 6" of blade about 1" wide and 1/8" thick. I hope to use it as my primary hunting knife- we'll see.

Wootz!

2009-05-03T22:12:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited to be finished with this semester. 8 days before the next round starts... I tidied the shop tonight and I'm hoping to spend some time out there pounding on metal.

My final project for technical writing was a research paper about the traditional smelting of wootz. That can be found over at brainbottle.net and I'll post the link at Don Fogg's knife forums.

GenderAnalyzer.com

2009-05-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

Apparently, I'm a mangina. According to GenderAnalyzer.com this blog is "very gender neutral" but is probably written by a woman. God. Damnit. So I guess I'm gonna have to butch it up around here. Ironically I started this thing by saying I wouldn't try to be offensive and in the process have pussified to the extent that I have had a virtual sex change.

I guess it doesn't really matter... I mean, the three people aside from myself who read this thing haven't complained about my gender neutrality or lack thereof. I don't think I'm going to start discussing anatomy or technique to make myself feel better about the results of one probably fatally flawed website... I'm off to finish my Civil War exam, eat a steak, drink some beers, smoke my pipe and then find some sports on TV after "Dollhouse"... I assure you that was for your edification and had nothing to do with genderanalyzer... really. I swear.

Edit to add: that increased my manliness by 6%. Booyah!

School AND smithing related

2009-03-31T23:47:00.000-07:00

How can you beat that? My Civil War term paper, essay exam and English papers are all due on Sunday. Two of them are in the "needs polishing" stage so they're just about ready to go. I haven't even thought about the exam paper yet.

But the good news that's smithing related. When I get done with these, I'll have time to get back to my wootz paper. I posted the survey to Don Fogg's forum last night and had an email with some awesome crucible pics in my inbox this morning. I'm not sure if I'll go the journal publishing or completion paper route, maybe both? I don't know who I'd send the paper to, but I'll have to figure that out in the next month before the paper is due. I think I'm babbling but it's late and I should have been in bed a half hour ago. 5:30 comes awfully early.

Tired

2009-02-25T23:59:00.000-08:00

It's just after midnight and I spent about 10 minutes checking in at Don Fogg's site. Man, there's lots of absolutely amazing stuff going on over there. It made me miss working in the shop.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not forgetting the recent lessons: the economy sucks and smithing items are Luxury goods (yes, with a capital "L" because there's really no other way to look at it). I'm basically stuck where I am, career wise, unless I either get a miracle or a degree and I have some control over the degree. And, if I'm honest with myself, I really didn't spend as much time in the shop as I thought I might. It's been cold, I got an XBOX for Christmas (early, even) there was all the family stuff to do, the homework and exams for classes, the hunting trips, etc. I didn't make the mental shift to thinking of shop time like a "job." That said, if I had my druthers, I would be in a place where I could work at night because I really feel more creative and inspired to do metal work.

But, this is the path I chose and then abandoned only to be brought back to it. I must follow it or it will eat me from the inside. Only 17 months to go and then I get pressured to apply to grad school ;)

Etsy...

2009-02-01T20:05:00.000-08:00

Yahoo! had an article Friday about making money without really working. They suggested some fairly obvious items, collect spare change was one. They recommended two kinds of sales, though. The first was the sale of books and media through half.com, which isn't a bad idea as the wife and I have been talking about revamping the library/computer room/sewing room/cat bathroom.

The other idea was to sell stuff you're already making through Etsy.com. I think it's a fairly clever play on "etc." The issue is that they're pansies and have a "no weapons" policy. I tell you what, if they want to make some real money, handmade knives, tools and firearms is the way to go. I didn't look very hard (except to find their sales rules which I sort of knew in advance would be based on an Ebay/Paypal wussified system) but a lot of people seem to be very proud of their knitting.

Back to the grind

2009-01-27T14:02:00.001-08:00

Well, I did my interview last Monday. My former supervisor basically gave me every possible indication that the next time I heard from her would be to tell me that they found someone else... she stopped just short of saying "well, I had to bring you in here as part of our internal rules."

I just about had a heart attack on Friday. She called to offer me my old job back (basically- it's a different work list, but it's the same work). So I go back to work tomorrow, torn. On the one hand the economy hasn't improved dramatically in the last week and a steady paycheck will be welcomed. Indeed, the wife just received an email at her law firm that they're cutting back on extras and will be laying off in the next 60 days. We doubt that her position is in jeopardy and if it is, she's been there for 14 years and has worked in three departments, we're sure she'll continue to have a job. But it's disconcerting.
On the other hand, the work wasn't exactly fulfilling- in any definition of the word.

In the meantime, I've completed a custom fireplace grate for a guy. He said he wanted the wood to be able to fall into the middle. I tried to tell him that it wasn't the best idea, but who am I to argue? So there's one of the whole thing and another of one of the front corners. I tried to forge square corners but it's not a technique that I've ever been very good at (haven't had a lot of need for it). I may get into some art deco pieces in my free time (Bioshock has sort of inspired me) so square corners will become the norm.

I'm hoping to have some production knives posted within the week, too. I do need to take the time to actually do my homework. I can't goof off at all.

Tongs!!

2009-01-20T08:51:00.000-08:00

This super awesome tongs video was posted to Don Fogg's bladesmith forums last week. It does a really good job of showing all the steps and none of the processes are particularly difficult. When I made my first pair we were shown how to make "Poz" tongs. To make each jaw we slit the mouths of the jaws to take the bar stock we were using and used a piece of the stock to make the jaws fit. I think I much prefer to twist and use the square stock to make the impression. We also punched the hole for the rivet. I think I prefer that because it will leave most of the material that's there to start with. Plus the bulge from punching looks good :)

Full time.... so close, so far

2009-01-15T20:52:00.000-08:00

Last week the wife and I were driving around and I was lamenting my inability to find employment to my liking. Surprise. What did surprise me was when she told me that she'd be completely supportive of my metal work as long as I worked at it full time. Awesome.
So the weekend came and went and on Monday I spent about 6.5 hours in the shop working on a commission piece. Then a conversation I'd been working on came back to me. My former supervisor emailed me and told me what I would need to do in order to reapply for my previous job. Well, it appears that full time smithing is going back on hold. I suppose I'm not completely disappointed. The economy is basically in the dumpster and I'd say 90% of smithing work is easily considered "luxury." Even Geoff at 5 Elements Forge has been blanked at a couple of shows lately (ok, he said he'd had a bad show in October but I don't imagine he's done a lot more shows since then)... anyway his account was that guys who normally do several thousand dollars in sales barely walked away with their vendor fees.

So we'll see what happens. I don't have the job yet and I still need to actually do the application. My motherin-law passed away Tuesday night and we're in OK to take care of the funeral services. If the office is open on Monday (MLK Jr Day) I'm going in to take care of that.

Target ruined my Wii!

2008-12-22T22:29:00.001-08:00

How's that for a hard hitting headline? Ok, not exactly blacksmithing related but I don't have a better place to put this. The wife and I bought some fancy-pants LED lights for our Christmas tree at Target and the tree is kinda next to the TV. I also bought her a new Wii game (Boom Blox and it's awesome). Well we've been having a hell of a time with the Wiimotes acting all screwey. We were told that we probably need a new sensor bar and we should get the long one to fit our 50" TV.

There isn't a long sensor bar that I was able to find. But I did find out that the sensor bar isn't really a sensor bar, it's a UV emitter. Apparently it has LEDs on either end of the bar and the Wiimote senses these UV emitters then sends the info back to the Wii. People on the interwebtubes have videos of Wii games being played by candlelight (candles emit UV). See where I'm going with this? The LED tree lights that we bought at Target were interfering with the Wiimote. Unplug the tree= Wii is fixed= wife isn't frustrated with "Boom Blox"= life is good :)

Yet another

2008-12-07T17:23:00.001-08:00

Well, I know nobody reads this because I have a tracking service (free, thank God). But I went ahead and added my hunting blog, just in case someone wants to read about my freezing toes and horrible luck. I also updated Brainbottle with some writing samples.

BrainBottle...

2008-11-24T23:19:00.000-08:00

For those who may be interested in the more intellectual side of yours truly, I've started another blog that's designed to be for my writing... no, not that kind of writing. You won't find bad poetry or half assed fiction there... I keep all of that stuff on my local drives :) Ok, eventually I may post some bad poetry or whatever, but for now I'm trying to have a professional appearing online presence where I can post works that I've written and edited so as to have a "portfolio." To that end I'll be posting the three pieces that I had to submit as part of my WSU student writing portfolio. They definietly have the "I'm trying to be smart" vibe- but hey, I got an "A" on each of them so I guess it worked. The new blog is in the sidebar. As always, enjoy.

A few changes

2008-11-13T21:52:00.000-08:00

I started thinking that the galleries on my page were a little too "wordy." So I removed a lot of the text and I'll feature pieces here. I plan to cross link pieces to the blog and the blog to pages that may have more pictures on them.

I also looked at some of the gadgets that are available and wasn't impressed. The art galleries (Dali, traditional Japanese, etc) are a good idea but the scroll bars, the fact that they're a mile wide AND that they have Google ads attached kept me from adding any of them.

I went and did it...

2008-11-05T11:49:00.001-08:00

Well, for the first time in my computing history I've lost BOTH my login and password for my WordPress blog... so I moved the posts over here. To be sure, I've lost a password or two- some of them have to be so complicated that I end up requesting a new one every time I login to some sites (and as a rule I refuse to write my passwords down).

So, here I am. We'll see how this works.

I had to take alchemyforgenet because plain ol' AlchemyForge was taken in 2005. That said, the current holder of that address is not using it and they apparently last logged in in, you guessed it, 2005. So if you are or know the holder of that address, please get in touch with me becuase I'd like to have it to go along with the blacksmithing site I've run since 2004 and I've used the name Alchemy Forge since 2002.

UPDATE: I deactivated the old WordPress account and tried to open a new one. Everything looked fine until I tried to login with the new info- it came back AGAIN saying I had a bad user name... sigh...

UPDATE 2: I did a little searching around and apparently the problem was with a WP upgrade. I had my blog hosted through Yahoo so I didn't have anything local. Also, Yahoo automatically updated for me so I was blissfully unawares that anything was going on. Apparently in a recent upgrade the new WP software reset most people's password BUT the email that was supposed to be sent out to notify users was NOT sent- that's good work right there. I tried uninstalling WP, tried deleting some of the plugins, tried clearing my cache, etc and still no good. So that's done with. I think I'll stay here for a while though I'm going to look at a movable type blog to see how that's set up.

7.2.8

2008-11-05T11:48:00.004-08:00

This Year...

This year I have been absorbed with school. Since January I’ve been attending Washington State University through their distance degree program… and jumping through the attendant hoops. So far, so good but it’s very time consuming. So much so that I think I’ve spent about 5 hours in the shop since January. Couple school with a new-found desire to hunt this fall (which, for me, has included many hours of archery practice, gun safety classes and time at the gun ranges) and smithing has sort of taken a back seat. Unfortunately I haven’t been that interested in it this year.

But, that’s ok. I’m finishing a project I started over 10 years ago, my BA. And when I’m done I’ll not only have the BA to show for it but a professional writing certificate, as well. I’m hopeful that I’ll graduate with some manner of accolades but I’m not going to boast- I don’t want to set myself up like that My end-goal here is to find a job that allows me some measure of creativity, independence and pays really well. I’m finding it difficult to do my day-to-day job. All I’ll say about it is that I push papers aound and I have to wait for other people to tell me where to push them. As you can imagine, it’s a difficult position to be in for someone who would prefer to spend time next to a fire using a hammer to direct the movements of steel.

So to oddmix and any others who may be wondering what fantastic things are keeping me away from blogging, there you go. Keep me posted on your projects and progress!

11.15.7

2008-11-05T11:48:00.003-08:00

A Little Change...

I updated the site again today. I tried to make the galleries more organized and I changed the fonts around some. There shouldn’t be any prices left on the site. I figure it’s best to let people contact me and we can discuss pricing. I also removed some of the comments that I felt were “sidebar.”

I added my “KMS” touchmark to the main page, too. I like it. It’s compact, it’s mine and it looks sort of Nordic (runic).

11.9.7

2008-11-05T11:48:00.001-08:00

Pimping Myself Out...

I added a few donation buttons to the site this week. Why? Because I wanted to
I’m pretty lucky when it comes to informal trades with people. Many members of the message boards I frequent are more than willing to return items of like-value. In several cases I’ve received what I think is more value than what I sent out and it’s been useless stuff to the sender (their ‘trash’, my treasure.) But what if the recipient doesn’t have piles of chert, files, unused tools, etc to trade? I figured it was time to give people the opportunity to help out financially, even when I won’t help myself. The links are to PayPal and donaters don’t need a PP acct, they can just use a credit/debit card and PP sends me the money.

I’m also hoping that people who read my page discussions of beginning blacksmithing and foundry work will offer to drop a little in the coffers. I have considered writing a book, especially after having read a coulpe of self-published books that were not spectacular. The idea is to start from the beginning and work up in difficulty/complexity. I’ve read several books that are literally all over the place with techniques and skills, going from simple twists, to forge welding then back to punching a hole. It would be a good way for me to get some blacksmtihing advice and info out to the public and would be a good format for my semi-professional photographer buddy to get some practice shooting things that move (me) and would get his work in print. Who knows, though.

5.11.7

2008-11-05T11:47:00.000-08:00

Make a'hun'erd of 'em...

At the most recent NWBA conference I overheard a conversation in which a very well respected local smith told a story of a guy who took this VWRS’ beginners class. The student came in all cocksure having been at the metalwork game for a little while and VWRS told him “make me 100 hooks” and the student proceeds to pound out 100 hooks of the requested style (he didn’t say “S” hooks but whatever). VWRS said he put them in a tumbler to get the scale off and then arranged them on a table, selected the best one and looked at the rest. He then said “I said make me 100 hooks. That means 100 hooks- all the same”

So the guy makes another 100. Same result, except this time there were 5 that were almost exactly alike.

Another 100. 8 were the same

Yet another 100. This time he got 15 or so.

…..

And it’s here that I’m revising part of this post. After having discussed this with a few people, it turns out this may not be an accurate story. It may be that it’s a story that our VWRS tells pretty often, although the people and objects involved change somewhat from telling to telling. It’s been proposed that I may have misheard the conversation, or walked in on the middle of the story. I don’t think that’s the case, as I’d been standing around listening to VWRS for a while before he told this one. But that’s ok. If it didn’t happen like this, then that much the better.

It has been proposed that the story went more like “I was telling this guy, who came to class all cocksure and acting like he knew everything, that if you make 100 hooks only two will be almost exactly alike. And that in the second hundred, you’d probably get two more that matched and maybe one or two that matched one or two in the first set….”

The point of the story, apparently, is that you need to practice. A valid point. Especially if you’re hired to actually MAKE 100 hooks all the same. I suppose there’s a masochist smith out there who doesn’t believe in jigs. But I do. And so does VWRS. And that’s where this would end up. After mangling 5 or so pieces of steel into a generic hook shape, one would get fed up, cut some pins, weld them to a plate and make a damned hook jig. Then he’d heat and bend 100 pieces of steel, probably banging on them a little along the way to ensure that there’s a “hand forged” look. Nothing wrong with that.

The story, as I heard it, made VWRS sound like a wholly unreasonalbe person who basically liked to waste people’s time. The moral, that hammer control CAN be very precise, to the point of near identical repetition, was lost in the jumble of forcing the student to perform a near impossible task.

So in the interest of not sounding like I don’t like VWRS, I’ve decided to make the above change. Because I DO like him, and I respect all that he’s done for our region and our craft. I’m almost eager to say “I was wrong about this.” And that’s a rare thing, indeed.

4.11.7

2008-11-05T11:46:00.003-08:00

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr: 11/11/22 - 4/11/7

Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt. ~ Slaughterhouse Five
Thanks for every word. May your rest be more peaceful than your life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut

4.11.7

2008-11-05T11:46:00.001-08:00

I Stand (somewhat) Corrected

In an earlier entry I chided folks who advise people to seek out welding and metalworking classes at local trade schools and community colleges. I still stand by my earlier statements that I have yet to find a -trade school- or -community college- that allows people to come in off the street and learn welding with no prior instruction. However, just today I found that Seattle’s Pratt School of Fine Arts does in fact offer oxy-acetylene and MIG welding classes to people with no prerequisite! Further they offer TIG welding instruction and have advanced classes which allow students to pursue their own projects. The only trick is you have to look in the sculpture section of the class offerings.

My interest in Pratt began last year at the spring NWBA conference where I met a gent who eitehr instructs there or has taken several classes. The basic jewelry classes seem more the speed I’m looking for. The scuplture classes appear on their face to be geared more toward people who want to reproduce another Lenin statue for Freemont, as opposed to folks who want to make pretty sword and knife furniture. I will probably take their blacksmithing 1 class simply so I can do their damascus/pattern welding classes later on. Plus I might -learn- something in the process I haven’t had time to read every word of their course offerings so I haven’t seen any wood carving (which would be the next step in the evolution of my handle-makling efforts.

Currently I’m deviled by the desire to carve braided hair for a knife project. It sounded easy enough and I even considered doing something harder. But trying to freehand eight equally spaced spirals onto the practice piece has proven to be almost too much. That’s to say nothing of bringing the spirals back the other way to start gridding out the braid itself. I had one sloppy start that I erased and while I’m not kicking myself for it, in retrospect I should have maybe started carving -that- and then gone back and done another. It’s not like I couldn’t do another once I did the first. Oh well. I guess I keep at it.

I readded the chisel tutorial at the request of a gent from the carving path. I was suckered into thiking that it might be helpful for him. Rather, I think the technical discussion at that forum piqued his curiousity. Once posted, he proceeded to send me some “tips” about how to improve it. I won’t be responding, but I look forward to his free-for-everybody tutorial, with pictures, written for people who’ve likely never heated and shaped metal. I’m interested to see the critics of this particular page find a balance between good technique and usability for the rank novice. At the level it’s written for discussions of time/temp curves, austentite/martensite/pearlite/cementite, six different normalizing/quenching/tempering methods only serve to -confuse- and scare people away. That’s what engineers do, and that’s why I dropped out of the aerospace enginerring program at UW. I make knives that I would be confident in carrying as my main tool if I were to be dropped in the middle of nowhere but I don’t spend -any- time thinking “gee, I wonder how much austentite I’ve formed.” But I’ll let it sit, for now. If it goes another year without being viewed I’ll retire it indefinitely.

1.13.7

2008-11-05T11:45:00.001-08:00

First of the New Year

Yeah, we’re entering our third week, but no one reads this anyway so it’s more of a personal smithing journal The weather has been crappy. Very cold for our neck of the woods, snowy, frozen. But I’m not going to use that as an excuse anymore and I honestly plan to get into the shop far more often than I have been. I’ve come to realize that my smithing is a kind of gift. And that gift needs to be used and my skills need honing, especially if I intend to sell anything Yes, it IS enough that I know how to heat, bend and form metal with a hammer and tongs. That I can do the very basics and that I intend to share that with as many people as will listen ensures that this craft will survive. But I’ve been thinking that I want to do more than just share it with people, I kind of want to inspire them. I know, it sounds like ego, and it is. But let’s be honest, I spent my entire adolescence being told by one preson or another that whatever it was I was doing wasn’t good enough. Couple that with being inherently lazy and you have a combination that results in someone who just doesn’t give a damn very often. Well, now I feel like giving a damn.

In that regard, here’s what I intend to do for 2007:

1) Pattenwelding steel/forge welding. I’m already on my way with a sizable billet that started as 3 layers: 1 of 1095 and 2 of basic mild. Might not make the prettiest patterns but I’ve got it started and that’s a start! If this works out then I’m going to try to make a “wraparound” axe with a patternwelded bit and mild steel body forge welded together. That will be an exciting piece.
2) better furniture. I started using a new method late in 2006 (well, it’s new to me). I’ll be adding the description to my tutorials in “the smithy”. I like the end result, there’s not a lot of waste and it’s not super labor intensive. But for my “through tangs”, etc I need better lines, more refinement: handles need to line up better, nicer furniture front and back (smaller gaps, more intricate designs). No one can do that for my knives but me. The bloodwood seax is moving me in the right direction. But the sycamore handle’s grooves don’t look as good as they did in my head, the blade has a couple of blemishes from where the belt sander bit in and I need a nice leather sheath. I’m hoping to attend some jewelrymaking classes this year, they should help with design and execution in non-ferrous metals.
3) Better sheaths. This shouldn’t be too hard to improve. I’ll have to put my hands on some of the leatherworking DVDs or books. I’m not sure if the leather is the issue or what but I’m just not getting the results I’m looking for.
4) Overall refinements: fewer divots on blades. Better planning. Less saying “meh. good enough” and more “can this be better?”

I’m hoping for a good 2007 with a marked improvement in overall quality and maybe a couple of sales

12.28.6

2008-11-05T11:44:00.002-08:00

Quick Update...

Hello to the one person who might be reading this

Just a few quick updates:

I changed the pricing on the site last night. Looking at some of the prices you might think “was he drunk?” but no, the previous pricing was honestly competitive with what I’ve seen from other custom metal sites. I went and checked some of them again and I was still “in line” with thier pricing, but I won’t feel good about charging what was listed. I’d like to think that an honest accounting for my time and materials is a better way to go than to just say “well, I’ll shoot for the stars and maybe I’ll get the moon”

Second, while I was rolling around last night I came across a person at TheKnifeNetwork.com named “Alchemy knife”. I assure you, this person has nothing to do with Alchemy Forge. I was shocked to see a user name so similar to mine and was even more shocked at her seemingly Evangelical world view. Fortunately TKN is the only place I’ve found her (with that name) and maybe she’ll be confined to their message boards.

Lastly I’m working my tooling for metal casting. I’ve had a few requests for copies of existing pieces from the 1800s and will post pictures as soon as they’re ready. I’m trying to make the most efficient melts that I possibly can. Check back soon.

7.4.6

2008-11-05T11:44:00.001-08:00

Do These People Live in the Real World?

I don’t think so. I was reading an “instructional” page (which BTW hasn’t been updated since 2003) on which the gent was discussing the good ol’ brake drum forge. I’ve never used one and frankly he makes some good points against them. My problem is his attitude toward the beginning smith.
“Enroll in a blacksmithing class near you. The blacksmithing class must be taught by an experienced blacksmith. Avoid learning from other beginners (the blind leading the blind). In a good class environment the beginner will have the best opportunity to learn fire maintenance, heating the iron, and get to try out a good forge for themselves. The class experience will give the beginner an opportunity to learn if they would like to continue the craft of blacksmithing and find out what it is like to work with good equipment.

If the beginner wants to start by jumping directly into smithing on his own then I recommend he/she buys good equipment. The best tools are the cheapest by far in the long run. So you say you don’t have a lot of money? Then start saving money. Get a job. This craft is very expensive.

Use a good forge first to learn how it is used before building your own forge. Buy a good firepot or tuyere from a blacksmith supplier such as Centaur Forge or Baker House Group. Check out your local scrap yard for scrap steel but be ready to buy new steel when they don’t have some of the things you need. Buy a new anvil- they are cheaper than overpriced worn out used anvils. Buy new Peddinghaus brand hammers. Buy some 5/8ths round, 3/4ths round steel new and learn to make your own light tongs. Buy the book The Blacksmith’s Craft by CoSIRA or RDC and modify their method for tongs making using your lighter materials. Buy a 5 inch leg vise- make sure the jaws are in good shape, not misaligned or worn out. Buy good blacksmith’s coal, not the cheap stoker coal. Stoker coal is full of clinkers. Buy a large forge blower. Not the tiny blowers. Don’t buy the tiny portable forges. Attend some seminars and see other smiths working and get some ideas for your own work. Attend a horseshoeing school that specializes in forging hand made horseshoes. Make your own rake, shovel, and poker, and make a nicer set of fire tools a year later. ”

Holy Christ. Where to start?!
“Enroll in a blacksmithing class near you” I’ve tried. My experience in the Seattle area is that there are no blacksmithing classes and only a few bladesmithing classes and they’ll require nearly $500 just to make one knife. Even the legendary “Black Dog Forge”, many students claim to have some learned lineage from them, will deny that they’ve ever held classes there. The closest I’ve come is some fine metal art at an art school and a community college. But that doesn’t help the aspiring blacksmith worth a damn. Also, you’ll get recommendations such as “take a welding course at a local community college or tech school” Bullshit. There, I said it. Maybe the guys who give this advice live in a place where the average Joe can walk into a school with no training or experience, throw down a couple hundred bucks and BAM! you’re welding. First, I believe only South Seattle CC teaches industrial skills like those and you’re sure as hell not going to enroll in welding as your only class and the same is true of the dedicated tech schools. Which welding do you want to do anyway? OxyAcetylene? MIG? TIG? It doesn’t matter because all of these classes have prerequisites that will keep you in the school for at least a full quarter before you’re able to put two pieces of metal together. My stepdaughter applied to a summer tech program through her highschool, one of the courses was in fact welding. They had 80 spots and over 500 kids applied to just that program. Promising if you’re a highschooler but the kid I know who enrolled wasn’t accepted and they simply said it was because they couldn’t take every kid

“This craft is very expensive” followed by “go to the local scrapyard”. Alright if you’re going to the scrapyard you might as well get a chunk of metal that will work as an anvil. There is no rule that states ‘ones anvil must conform to these specifications: have a square hole, a round hole, a pointy end and a square end’. Primitive smiths use granite as an anvil. Seriously. Many bladesmiths use a 4×4″ chunk of tooling steel that’s planted in a bucket of concrete or into the dirt floor of their workspace. Japanese smiths STILL use a chunk of steel that’s planted in the ground. And the crap about old anvils- give me a break. Yes, there are a lot of old anvils out there that are useless for a variety of reasons- chips, cracks, delaminated faces, deep pits, bowed faces, etc. But an anvil ought to outlast at least one owner and old anvils that are perfectly serviceable ARE out there. My Peter Wright was found in an old barn in Minnesota and was probably sitting for 40 years before it got shipped to Seattle to be with the smith I bought it from. He didn’t need it because he found ANOTHER older anvil that weighed more and was just as serviceable. I’ve been using it for almost a year and a half, quite happily I’ll add. Would I like a new one with the hardie hole nearer the horn, a horn that’s a perfect 6″ cone and the overall weight os closer to 300#- sure would but I don’t have that kind of money for something that wouldn’t really fulfill a need right now. It won’t make me a better smith, nor will it make me get out in the shop more often but it would be something to brag over… who cares. The Harbor Freight anvil will do the job but it’s relatively soft and only weighs 110# That said, you can get them on sale for $70 and they will get the job done. My first “anvil” was a face of a 3# sledge and my first hammer was a 16oz claw hammer. I still use the lifting hook I made with basically no equipment. That first forge was a coffee can, lined with refractory blanket that was sealed with a high temp refractory clay (ITC-100) and the burner was a propane plumbers torch from the home store. Not fancy, not a lot of room to work with but it was a start. The materials were pricey but I didn’t know about “Forge-B-Qs” and “washtub forges” whose price would be very low.

“Buy buy buy buy buy”…. please. Check my links section, I’ll update it with a notation that there’s good info for the beginner or the smith who’s tired of being pulled by the ancient craft while tethered to an electrical outlet.

Do I have “fancy” tools? Sure. We all get fancy stuff as time goes on. Some of it you “need” and some of it just makes everything else easier. Where would I be without my MIG welder? I love my oxyacetylene torch, too. My harbor freight bandsaw, 4-1/2″ angle grinder, die grinder and files (yes! files) are indispensible. I found my post vice on eBay and paid more to have it shipped than I did for the item itself. Did I buy all of this stuff at the same time? Shit no. My second anvil was some railroad track that was given to me by a gent who had several scraps because he knew a guy who knew a guy. If I teach nothing else through my site and this blog it’s this: No one is going to teach you how to do this. They can’t. I can’t. You’re going to have to want to learn it. You’re going to have to read the books (library, amazon, borrow them (but you damn well better return them in a timely fashion- got it?!)) you’re going to have to ferret out the people who know this stuff and make shit up if you cna’t find the answer. Yes, I do advocate finding the group that’s nearest you- and they may not advertise that they’re doing it, you may have to talk to people and tell them that you’re looking to get together with people and watch what they do or help out. My first foray into learning with others was at a “hammer in” and I had to drive over 100 miles to get there. Once you’ve seen it done or figured it out, then you find a billion other ways to do the same goddamned thing you spent a month figuring out and the worst of it is that the answer was right in front of you, but you skipped that page or didn’t click that one link. That’s part of the balance. You can’t learn to do this by reading about it. You have to do it. I hate to say it, but if you want to learn to work metal you need to figure out how you can get metal hot, safely, how you can shape it and how you can cool it, safely. The rest- the fancy tongs, hammers, anvils, forges, torches, welders, grinders, etc - are all superfluous. You got to start somewhere and there’s lots of time to get where you want to go.

Sure, having a bunch of money would make this easier- custom shop, custom worktables, big belt grinders, milling machines, benders, industrial welders, hydraulic presses, power hammers- but I’ve seen several guys go out and buy every piece of equipment they could get their hands on, try it out and then decide that they didn’t want to do it anymore “complete shop, all tools, u haul- $12,000″. I’ll stick with what I’ve got for now and I’ll replace/upgrade as I need to, pass me that bastard file.

5.21.6

2008-11-05T11:43:00.003-08:00

Helluva weekend so far. Friday I had all 4 wisdom teeth yanked from my head. I was awake for the procedure and I haven’t really needed much in the way of painkillers. In fact, last night I went out drinking and ate a little (but I didn’t try to float any percoset on alcohol).

I just spent several hours revamping the website to make it more streamlined. I’m trying to stay in line with what other smiths are doing (as long as I like what I’m seeing). The captions and descriptions below pictures seems to be out of fashion right now so I’ve gone to galleries. It also seems that including approximate pricing is working against me: people see a price and are afraid that they can’t afford it or that I’m not charging enough and there must be something inferior to my work. I’ve left descriptions and pricing on the “available” page, but for now that will be about all.
I hope you find the update pleasing.

5.12.6

2008-11-05T11:43:00.001-08:00

Let's Begin...

This is, obviously, the first post in the Alchemy Forge blog. I’m making myself as available as possible in an effort to get the word out about my metalwork. As I said on the home page, it’s starting to get cluttered up there and this is a more logical outlet for regular updates.

So I’d like to lay some groudrules…. there are none. If you’re being patently offensive, I might have to edit your post, or delete it all together. Please don’t post pictures- you can like to them offsite (don’t waste my bandwidth, thanks ). “Family friendly” discussion areas bother me because they generally unnecessarily prohibitive. My proposition for those sites is to not let children read them first, or unattended. Besides, kids have always known about sex and always will. Whether parents want to believe it or not, sex is encoded into our genetic makeup and traits and curiosity develop early. I also believe that a healthy attitude toward sex (among consenting adults), not running away from it or trying to hide it, will benefit everyone; kids want to explore something that’s “naughty”. Stop being a pansy and explain it to your kid!

That said, what’s new?

I’ve signed up for the SITH (Seax in the Hat) at http://forums.dfoggknives.com It ends July 29 and I’m pretty excited to see the other interpretations of this ancient style.

I just finished installing the vapor valve on my new propane tank- a 10 gal forklift tank. Big thanks to Tim “the Crazy Canadian” Lonnee and my neighbor, Mike the Plumber. I turned it up full blast (welding heat) and I use about 0.5gal per hour and there’s no freezing (yay!)

I purchased a 1976 Ford F250 pickup a couple weeks ago. It’s hard to complain about a $350.00 truck, but there sure are lots of things you’d want to fix Right now it’s a toss-up between the master cylinder and the steering coupler. Both work, but not as well as I’d like. It definitely needs a tune up and everything under the hood is rusty because no one replaced the hood gasket that keeps rain from entering the engine compartment from the top. Paint is necessary- primer grey is only cool for so long It runs good (needs tuneup) ad the cab does seal (no mildew or moss- thank goodness!)

New anvil stand!! The pine box started to fall apart. Now is 4×4 pressure treated cedar, 12×16″ for the face. It’s a little taller than before at the advice of Doug Wilson, of Maine ( http://www.morrowwilsonstudios.com ) It’s now at the height of the knuckle on my thumb that meets my hand (so it’s up about 2″ from before). It didn’t take much to get used to a level anvil that’s a little easier to hit.

That’s all for now… as jobs come up, I’ll post about them (customer permitting) and I’ll definitely add as many pics as possible.

Thanks! Kris