ThomasPowers

Calling is a much better way to contact many blacksmiths in a timely way.

Remember: if you are guessing at the heat treat you can't be upset if it selfdestructs during or afterwards.

If you need to move it weight won't be as nice as having a sturdy plate to stand on while using it. Make the plate a round one and you can tilt the vise and roll it on the round plate.

We drive 5 miles to go to the local town, 1 mile will get you anywhere in it. However any "specialty" stuff requires a drive to the big city. Too hot to walk.

OTOH I consider forges, especially cast iron forges to be items cheaply and easily replaced while the blower is the most of the "worth".

Have you researched explosive forming? You can do explosive repoussé with disposable dies. It is rather expensive though. A lot of die issues hinge on how fast the top die moves. A hand cranked hydraulic press is not going to work. OTOH have you looked into screw presses; I've used mine for coining. The pressure spike at the bottom/reversal helps "shoot" the planchet into the die cavities.

Then you are buying a car without seeing if the engine works.

Old files can also be good for pattern welded billets or San Mai blades. I like the old black diamond NOT stamped Nicholson---1.2% Carbon and great for "juicing up" billets. Also steels for flint and steel sets. However a lot of smiths have little or no use for them; like racing tires the folks that use them may love a "donation", but most people don't have a need for them.

Don't let that one get away!

OTOH; doesn't hurt to learn what will help you when you go for the "good" stuff first. As has been mentioned "a cone mandrel tends to be an expensive coat rack for most blacksmith's shops."

Don't you expect to look at the gears?

I let the scrapyard store leaf springs for me; they never are short of them. Note that places charging for used car parts charge a lot more than scrapyard prices for random leaf springs; so don't buy there! I have also found that a bottle opener forged from an unplated wrench can be used to open the gate to many a mechanic's scrap pile!

If it has a fiber gear' run away! No replacements.

It seems that all NM needed to do to get rain was to get me out of the state! Gone from no rain for 6 months to thunder storms every day, the tank is afiiling! Worst weather was the last 20 miles of the trip; all the trucks were slowing down with their flashers on on the Interstate!

Did you like it?

It's a 100 miles just to see my Endocrinologist; shoot we drive 100 miles just to go out to dinner here in NM! The dryness is a killer on wooden instruments though! (Our churches piano has it's own humidifier inside it's case.)

The SCA armoury was in my garage during college and I still have a ton of tools for armouring 40 odd years later.

Have you read "Bond of Iron" about a VA ironworks?

Clean up/out OK; messed up gears is a HUGE EXPENSIVE MASSIVE amount of work. Missing vanes depends on where they are missing.

Note; even some "closed" scrap yards may make an exception by fetching you a piece to buy; A good way to suborn folks is to give a box of doughnuts to the office for them and ask that if it's a closed yard if they could let you buy a chunk without going in. Don't forget to explain what you are trying to do...folks like smiths for some reason... Also fork lift tines; I don't know any town in America that doesn't have a fork lift or two around it. 120# anvil made from a 190# forklift that was free. When my wife started her raised bed garden plans I had to point out that single digit humidity and 368 days of blinding sun a year called for a different raised bed plan than places where they were trying to get rid of water in the raised beds and were worrying about getting enough sun. She finally found some folks using them in Arizona and was able to get workable suggestions for out here where we get 9" of rain a year.

Remember "Mad Cow disease"? It's a prion disease as is Creutzfeldt Jacob disease, Chronic Wasting Disease in Elk, Deer and Moose, scrapie in sheep, etc see the CDC page on prion diseases---or the book! https://www.cdc.gov/prions/index.html Turns out that feeding animals "protein" from their own breed is a BAD idea and actually a lot of cross species transmission is known to happen----vegetarian animals should be vegetarian!!! I was always upset when the restaurants would only serve beef "Well Done"; it needs to be over 700 degF to deal with prions so that was just trying to fool folks that it was safe. I like my beef rare and am willing to take the chance knowingly.

Note that around 8:20 and 9:47 they are hammering on the blade *cold* so fairly soft! And at 10:25 they are using the denglestock and later the bar kept in a "holster" with sand and oil to touch up the edge.

Any patent dates?

BTW go to garage sales---an old ball peen hammer head can be forged into bowl adz!

Is the bottom inset and nailed in from the outside edges; or is the box resting on it with nails going from the bottom into the sides of the chest? Basically: nails __ __ __ or | | | ?