I was moving some gear around my shop yesterday and decided to actually weigh my anvil on a scale. I've been calling it a 150 pounder for like 3 years based on what the guy I bought it from said. Turns out it's 112 lbs. That's a 38 lb difference. Makes me wonder what else I've been wrong about in my setup. Has anyone else ever been surprised by their anvil's actual weight vs what they assumed?
I crossed that mark yesterday and realized my dies are way more worn than I thought. I've been getting inconsistent draws on my last 20 leaf springs and never connected it to the hammer. Anyone else track their tooling hours and notice something shift around a certain number?
I went with coal because it was cheaper to set up, but after fighting with fire management for years I finally switched to gas last spring. The consistency is worth the extra cost, but I still miss the smell of burning coke on a cold morning. Anyone else make the switch later in their career?
I spent a year fighting with charcoal trying to get a decent forge weld on a pattern welded billet. Could never get the heat consistent enough, kept getting cold shuts and delaminations. Swapped to bituminous coal about 3 months ago and my first weld took in one heat. The flux actually sticks to the metal better and you don't get those weird hot spots. Has anyone else had way better luck with one fuel over the other for specific tasks?
I was pounding away on a billet at a hammer-in back in 2019, just trying to get it welded. A guy named Gene watched me for a minute and said I was beating the steel to death, not encouraging it to stick. He showed me to use lighter, more controlled hits and to let the heat do the work. That changed my forge welding completely, I stopped fighting the metal and started getting solid billets on the first try. Has anyone else had a fellow smith correct something basic that you were doing wrong for years?
I kept getting weird micro cracks on my carbon steel blades after heat treat. Couldn't figure it out for like three months. Then I finally bought a cheap infrared thermometer from Harbor Freight for 30 bucks and checked my oil temp. Turns out I was quenching at like 180 degrees instead of the 120-130 range that works best for 1095 steel. The oil was way too thin and it was just shocking the metal too much. I had been heating the oil up on the side of the forge and just guessing when it was ready. Now I let it cool down to 125 before I dunk and my blades come out clean every time. Has anyone else been burned by guessing their quench oil temp instead of measuring it?
Three weeks ago I was out in the shop in Nashville trying to get a good weld on some cable damascus and the sound from my anvil was just awful. It had this high pitched ring that hurt my ears after about 10 minutes. I tried wrapping chains around it and that helped a little but not much. Last Tuesday a older smith named Dave stopped by to pick up a hammer I fixed for him and he noticed right away. He said my anvil wasn't seated properly on the stand and that I needed a thick rubber mat between the base and the wood. I cut up an old conveyor belt I had lying around and slid it underneath. The difference was night and day. No more ring at all just a solid thud now. Has anyone else tried different materials between the anvil and stand to kill the ring?
Last year at the Florida Blacksmithing Conference I watched this old guy named Roy do a forge weld with ZERO borax. He just cleaned his metal perfectly and used a really tight heat. Everyone in the shop said you need flux every time but he proved them wrong. Now I only use borax on rusty or dirty material and my welds come out cleaner. Has anyone else tried going flux-free on clean steel?
I broke my second floor-standing swage block last Tuesday trying to collar a 1 inch thick ring for a gate. The cast iron just cracked right down the middle. Called up an old timer I know near Springfield and he said stop beating yourself up and get a fly press. Took me a day to bolt one down but I finished that same ring in 10 minutes this morning with zero issues. Anyone else switched from drop hammers to fly presses for collaring work?
He was talking about a high carbon blade he was working on and I had to speak up because I've seen three blades crack from skipping that step just this year alone, anyone else run into this shortcut causing problems?
I've been forging blades out of 1084 for about 2 years and always fought with cracks and weird grain. Kept blaming the steel or my quench. Last week a guy at the Tuesday night hammer-in at Miller's shop watched me take a piece out of the forge after maybe 4 heats and said 'you're working it way too cold, wait till it's brighter orange.' I thought I was being careful avoiding burning the steel. He grabbed my hammer and showed me one pass at proper temp and the metal moved like butter. I felt like an idiot. I went home and finished a blade in half my usual time with zero issues. Has anyone else had that moment where a simple observation from a stranger saved you months of frustration?
Honestly, I used to mess with charcoal forges for years, fighting to get even heat on my blade blanks. Last month, my neighbor's propane setup cut my heating time in half and didn't leave ash all over my shop floor. Has anyone else dealt with the switch and found it worth the cost of the tank?
He said wait till the color hits a dull cherry red instead of bright orange and since I tried that last fall my edge retention has been way more consistent, anyone else had to unlearn a bad habit like that?
I was showing a group of kids how to draw out a 1 inch round bar and got a little too aggressive with the hammer. The anvil tipped right off the walnut stump and landed on my boot, luckily just bruised my foot. Had to wrap up early and spend the rest of the afternoon grinding a new flat spot on the base. Anyone else ever had their anvil come off the stand or am I the only clumsy one?
I was looking up something about welding heat and stumbled across this scanned blacksmith manual from like 1887. It had a color chart for steel temps based on the shade of red you see in the fire. Turns out those old timers could nail the right heat within like 20 degrees just by looking. I've been using a digital thermometer for 5 years and still miss sometimes. Has anyone else tried learning to judge heat by eye instead of just relying on a gauge?
I finally built a coal forge in my backyard after running a propane forge since I started in 2019. Thought it would be a simple upgrade for better heat control. First three knives all cracked during the quench because the coal fire has hot spots I never accounted for. I had to adjust my steel selection and learn to read the flame color way differently. Took me about 8 hours of trial and error before I got a clean billet through. Anyone else switch fuel sources and deal with a steep learning curve like this?
After 3 months of use mine cracked clean in half on a simple upset and I saw sparks fly into my face.
Ngl after 500 knives I figured I'd have heat treating down pat but I ruined a $80 billet of 1095 yesterday because I forgot to normalize before quench. How many blades did it take you guys to stop making dumb errors?
I was at a hammer-in down near Bowling Green about 8 years ago. There was this guy probably 70 years old making damascus billets look easy. He wasn't using flux at all, just clean steel and careful heat control. I had always dumped borax on everything like my granddad taught me. He let me watch him weld three billets in a row without a single cold shut. I went home and tried his method on some 1095 and 15n20 I had. Took me a good 10 tries to get it right without flux. Anyone else ditch the borax and learn to read the heat better?
Forgot to check my quench tank temp at my shop in Ohio last winter and ended up with a blade that couldn't hold an edge against a cardboard box, so now I always preheat my oil to 130 degrees before I dunk anything worthwhile.
Ngl I felt pretty dumb after I figured it out. I kept getting cold shuts and weak joints, cleaned everything, checked my heat, even adjusted my hammer blows. Turns out the borax I had been using had been sitting open in my garage for like 6 months and absorbed too much moisture. Swapped to a fresh sealed container and first weld held perfect. Anyone else run into a dumb simple fix that took way too long to realize?
I was just cleaning up my shop after a long Saturday and counting up my finished pieces for a customer order. Turns out I passed 500 railroad spike knives since I started three years ago. That number surprised me because I never really kept track, just kept working on them one at a time. Has anyone else lost count of how many of a certain item you've made?
Honestly I knew it was coming. That old stump I had my anvil on was rotting from the inside for years. I was working a pretty heavy piece of 1 inch round bar and the whole thing just tilted sideways on me. Almost lost a toe when the anvil hit the concrete floor. It made this loud thud that scared the crap out of my neighbor's dog. I ended up cutting a new stand out of a big oak log my buddy had sitting in his yard. Took me about 4 hours with a chainsaw and some wedges to get it level. Has anyone else had a stand fail on them mid swing or am I just unlucky?