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  • General Zod

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    Nice, Axxe! I'll be easing my way into forging knives soon - right now I'm just learning how to move the steel and make things, so I've started with wall hooks out of mild steel. Once I've bulit up a certain level of skill with that, I'll make the leap to high carbon steel and start learning to heat treat and temper blades.

    As it is, though, I'm having a ball with what I'm doing, and I'm making some cool basic pieces. This one started out as a 3/8" round bar.

    05.jpg
     

    Axxe55

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    Nice, Axxe! I'll be easing my way into forging knives soon - right now I'm just learning how to move the steel and make things, so I've started with wall hooks out of mild steel. Once I've bulit up a certain level of skill with that, I'll make the leap to high carbon steel and start learning to heat treat and temper blades.

    As it is, though, I'm having a ball with what I'm doing, and I'm making some cool basic pieces. This one started out as a 3/8" round bar.

    View attachment 246745

    Very cool! My main reason for the forge is going to be heat treating knives starting out. Later on, I do plan on doing some forged knives, and when I do go that direction, I plan building a two burner forge for better heating.
     

    General Zod

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    Very cool! My main reason for the forge is going to be heat treating knives starting out. Later on, I do plan on doing some forged knives, and when I do go that direction, I plan building a two burner forge for better heating.

    I've just always wanted to forge steel. Ever since I was a kid and watched "Conan the Barbarian" with the (unfortunately ridiculously inaccurate, but still cool as hell) sword forging scene at the beginning. Early last year, my wife surprised me with a drill press, a belt grinder (not a 2x72 like you're building - I'm jealous! But mine will be a start), and a bench grinder...and told me to find an anvil to buy. That got the ball rolling. I spent most of the year getting things ready, setting up my space, waiting out the heat of summer...and now here I am. I started teaching myself to forge in December, and last month I started making things to sell.
     

    Axxe55

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    I've just always wanted to forge steel. Ever since I was a kid and watched "Conan the Barbarian" with the (unfortunately ridiculously inaccurate, but still cool as hell) sword forging scene at the beginning. Early last year, my wife surprised me with a drill press, a belt grinder (not a 2x72 like you're building - I'm jealous! But mine will be a start), and a bench grinder...and told me to find an anvil to buy. That got the ball rolling. I spent most of the year getting things ready, setting up my space, waiting out the heat of summer...and now here I am. I started teaching myself to forge in December, and last month I started making things to sell.

    Zod, if you have a welder, you can build a 2x72 belt grinder pretty easily. There are lots of videos on how to DIY a belt grinder on YouTube, and I have probably watched the majority of them. A cheap commercially manufactured 2x72 belt grinder is going to be above $1000. I had most of the scrap steel, and an old electric motor from my father that I used. I sourced some of the minor parts locally. My biggest expense will be the belt grinder motor pulley and the wheels.

    UZT68Cxl.jpg

    ZdLgQFvl.jpg



    Trust me, I'm still in the learning how to do this as well! But I an learning by watching, reading and asking questions, and I'm having fun with this as well. Another small gun forum I'm on there are at least four knifemakers that I'm asking questions and gathering input from. I also plan on joining a knife making forum in the near future.

    I decided to make this journey almost three years ago, but got sidetracked to some degree with other more important things. It's taken some time to get where I'm at, but only because it's a secondary thing and I'm doing this all on very short budget and as I can afford the things I need.
     

    General Zod

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    Yeah, I don't have any kind of welder...but I do have a son who's taking a welding class in high school. I might hint to him that a 2x72 would be a unique welding project for next year...

    I'm learning the same way you are. Getting a lot of good infor from a few blacksmiths on YouTube - epsecially Black Bear Forge, Purgatory Iron Works and Alec Steele.
     

    Axxe55

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    Yeah, I don't have any kind of welder...but I do have a son who's taking a welding class in high school. I might hint to him that a 2x72 would be a unique welding project for next year...

    I'm learning the same way you are. Getting a lot of good infor from a few blacksmiths on YouTube - epsecially Black Bear Forge, Purgatory Iron Works and Alec Steele.

    I have watched quite a few videos by all three of those guys and picked up lots of useful information.

    The 2x72 belt grinder would be an awesome welding project. I'd also look into a small 110V MIG welder. I have a MIG and flux core welder that I bought about ten years ago, very similar to this one.

     

    General Zod

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    I have watched quite a few videos by all three of those guys and picked up lots of useful information.

    The 2x72 belt grinder would be an awesome welding project. I'd also look into a small 110V MIG welder. I have a MIG and flux core welder that I bought about ten years ago, very similar to this one.


    Yeah, hopefully I can afford to do that - of course, first I have to get power to my workshop. It sucks having to run a 100 foot extension cord from the laundry room across the yard if I want to use a grinder or drill press...but, one step at a time I'll get there.
     

    candcallen

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    Anvil, do you have a real antique Texican anvil? Those bastards ain't cheap or plentiful.
     

    Axxe55

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    Anvil, do you have a real antique Texican anvil? Those bastards ain't cheap or plentiful.

    I wished I did have one. I think my father may have my great grandfather's old anvil from his blacksmith's shop out in the barn.

    I suspect that with the success of the TV series, "Forged In Fire" that the prices of anvils and other blacksmithing tools have probably gone up.
     

    Axxe55

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    Anvil, do you have a real antique Texican anvil? Those bastards ain't cheap or plentiful.
    You suspect correctly...

    I have watched a couple of YouTube videos of people making an anvil from a section of railroad rail. Looks pretty straightforward, and they seem like they might be a pretty decent anvil in a pinch.

    Thoughts as to whether this is worth pursuing?
     

    General Zod

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    Rail anvils are good (my granddad had one, but it disappeared before I could inherit it), but they are lacking a few features that are pretty important for knifemaking - specifically the Hardy hole and the Pritchell hole, and the rail isn't tall enough to make good use of these tool holes if you do put them in. But...the rail is a good, hardened steel striking surface and you can shape a decent horn onto one end. I wouldn't turn one down, and wouldn't mind at all getting my hands on one as another tool in my shop.

    This is the best low-cost anvil I've found. I bought mine off Amazon, but the price has gone up there and it's gone down slightly on Walmart's site - but it still comes from the same source. It's a cast steel anvil with a hardened striking surface (avoid the cast iron anvils you see in this price range - they won't hold up to serious use and you'll wind up with a dimpled striking face that'll screw your work up). For anything better than this one, you should expect to shell out $400 or more.


    When mine came I discovered that the blue powdercoat is total crap (not that I wanted a blue anvil anyway) and came off on my hands, on the cardboard box the anvil came in, and on every object within a foot of the damn anvil, so I used a flap wheel on my angle grinder to remove the paint and the "30 ACCAIO" markings when a brush wheel on the grinder wouldn't get all of the blue crap out of them. I'm not sure why an anvil made in China had the word "STEEL" on it in Italian, but mine no longer does. I also put about a 1/4" radius on the edges so I can work steel across them without cutting it, did a LOT of cleanup on the horn, because it had this weird pebbled finish on it but you want the horn of your anvil smooth so it won't emboss a texture into anything you work on it. All told, I probably ground almost a pound of material off the 66lb anvil, but I'm mostly happy with what I've got, and this will tide me over until I can graduate up to higher quality. One cool thing about this anvil is it's sturdy, but it's light enough I was able to make a mobile stand for it so I can stow it out of the way in my workshop, or even wheel it out into the yard to work in the sun if I want to.

    ACME.jpg

    The square hole toward the tail of the anvil is the Hardy hole - it's mostly for holding Hardy tools to help you work the steel. I've got a scrolling tool that fits in there and I'm going to be making a cutting tool in the next couple of weeks. The round hole you can sort of make out at the base of the horn is the Pritchell hole. It's not really well placed on this anvil, so there are a few things that are more difficult than they should be. The Pritchell hole can be used with a holdfast to keep your steel in place while you use both hands to work it - say, if you're holding a hammer and a punch and want to make sure the hot steel doesn't squirt right out from under the punch. It's also used for letting tools pass through such as "drifts" you drive through to open up a punched hole to a wider diameter, but it works better for that if it's on a flat part of the anvil.

    Having those two tool holes makes working steel probably 30% easier. With a railroad rail anvil, it's definitely doable (and if you've got a source, GET ONE because if noting else, it's still useful and it's cool as hell!), but you might need a block of steel with tool holes in it to use for punching and certain shaping tasks, and the narrowness of the rail could possibly be an issue.
     

    General Zod

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    Here's a closeup on the anvil stand I made. It's 9 4x4s, bolted together with 3/8" all-thread, washers and hex nuts. I've got casters on one side so I can tip it like a furniture dolly and move it wherever I want. The anvil itself is secured with 1/8" steel bar, pierced with 8"x 3/4" lag bolts deep into the timbers of the stand. Securing it like that also helped dampen the ring it had when I first got it.

    Also, see that hammer I'm using there? DO NOT use one like that. The blister the rubberized grip gave me was the first hard lesson I learned blacksmithing. Only use hammers with wood grips, and sand the finish off of them before you use them. Anvil Stand.png
     
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