c/blacksmiths

Soaking my anvil face in coolant was a mistake for like 4 years

I had this older anvil where the face kept showing these tiny hairline cracks after hard sessions. I thought quenching right after forging was helping it cool evenly, but someone from a shop in Ohio pointed out that dropping the surface temp that fast actually made the steel want to pull apart. I stopped doing it and switched to air cooling between heats, and the problem just vanished. Anyone else run into the same trap with an older face?

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david_stone•20h ago

Coal forge demo at a county fair changed my whole setup, but not the way you'd think

Watched a guy run a coal forge at the county fair outside Tulsa last fall. He was using this beat up old blower and a pan of slack coal, no fancy regulator or anything. His steel came up to heat faster than mine does on my propane rig at home. I spent the next month messing with my burner angles and baffles trying to copy that speed. Ended up slowing everything down. Now I'm wondering if I should just switch back to coal for small work and keep propane for the big stuff. Anyone else hit a wall trying to copy a demo setup and just went back to what worked before?

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the_keith•2d ago

Why does nobody talk about preheating your anvil in winter?

Took me 3 winters in my unheated shop in Ohio before I realized my hits were bouncing off cold steel, not bad technique. I started laying a $20 torch against the anvil face for 15 minutes before work and it changed everything about how my punches move. Anyone else do this or am I the only one who dealt with frozen anvils for years?

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reese_perry6•2d ago

Spent 6 hours fighting a mild steel forge weld, turns out my fire was the problem

I mean, I've been at this for maybe 2 years now and forge welding has always been my weak spot. Last Tuesday I tried to weld two pieces of 1/4 inch flat stock and it just kept falling apart at the anvil. I adjusted my hammer blows, cleaned the surfaces like 5 times, even switched to a fresh flux. Took me a whole afternoon before my buddy came over and pointed out my fire had a cold spot on the left side. Moved the billet an inch over and it stuck on the first try. Has anyone else spent way too long blaming their technique when the fire was just being lazy?

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bettyhunt•3d ago

My anvil flipped off the stand during a demo in Tulsa

I was showing a buddy how I upset a 1 inch bar and the horn caught the edge of my steel stand, the whole thing tipped forward and landed on my boot, so now I'm wondering if anyone else has switched to a tripod base or bolted their anvil down after a close call like that?

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karenm49•5d ago

My hammer head flew off in the middle of a demo last Saturday

I was showing a small crowd how to draw out a leaf at the county fair in Tulsa, and on the third swing the head just launched off the handle and bounced off a folding chair. Nobody got hurt, thankfully, but it scared the guy sitting closest so bad he spilled his lemonade. Turns out the wedge had worked loose over months of use and I never checked it, that was my fault. I spent the next hour finding a scrap hickory handle and re-hanging it with a new wedge from my truck, but the demo was shot. Has anyone else had a tool fail at the worst possible time, and how did you keep your composure in front of an audience?

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karenw23•9d ago

Quenched a knife in used motor oil, big mistake on Tuesday

I ran out of canola oil and figured old engine oil from my pickup would work for quenching a small blade. The smoke was unbelievable, filled my whole shop in about 3 minutes, and the blade came out with this awful sticky film that took forever to grind off. Plus my wife smelled it from inside the house and yelled, 'what on earth is burning out there?' Lesson learned, I'm sticking to proper quench oil or even water for practice pieces. Anyone else have a weird quench liquid story that backfired?

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nina180•16d ago

TIL damascus steel billets are 200 layers max, not 1000

Read it in a metallurgy journal at the library last Tuesday, turns out most of those folded patterns folks brag about are just surface etching, so has anyone actually counted their own layers before selling a knife?

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the_phoenix•16d ago

Overheard a customer say my anvil was wasted on me

Last Saturday at the local swap meet in Springfield, some older guy watched me straighten a bent leaf spring and told his buddy, "That anvil's wasted on him." I didn't say anything at the time, but it stuck with me all week. He was judging me because I use a 55-pound anvil for small hooks and brackets, not big demo pieces. Thing is, I've had that anvil for 6 years and it's paid for itself twice over with knife tangs and copper work. Made me wonder if I'm actually underusing it or if he just expects everyone to be a Farrier like him. Has anyone else got flak for not working their anvil hard enough? How do you decide when a job needs the big one versus the bench model?

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gibson.sean•17d ago

That old anvil story about ringing is half true

Heard a guy at a swap meet in Ohio swear his anvil rings less since he bolted it to a log instead of a steel stand. I tried it yesterday on my 150 pounder, and the tone did change, but the rebound felt softer too. Anyone else notice a trade off when you swap mounting setups?

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matthew_wilson46•19d ago

My first pass at a 20 inch damascus billet only took 7 tries this time

Used to spend half a Saturday fighting uneven welds and cold shuts, but after I switched to a slower forge heat and fluxed every third fold instead of guessing, the last billet came out clean enough to see the pattern on the first grind, so what did you all change that actually shortened your learning curve?

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sagesingh•21d ago

My coal forge firepot cracked after 3 heats, anyone else battle this?

I picked up a cast iron firepot from a swap meet in Ohio and it split right down the side after just 3 heats, spent a whole Saturday trying to patch it with furnace cement before giving up. Is there a trick to seasoning these things slow, or should I just save up for a fabricated steel one?

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the_sage•22d ago

That rusty anchor I pulled from a lake cleaned up better than expected

Honestly, last month I dragged a crusty old anchor out of a shallow spot near Lake Erie, figured it was beyond saving. Took it back to my shop, hit it with a wire brush for two hours, then spent a full day in the forge reheating and straightening the flukes. The rust flaked off in big chunks and underneath the steel was actually pretty solid, no deep pitting. Has anyone else tried restoring salvage pieces like this, or do you usually just scrap them for material?

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maxm63•22d ago

That $150 forge welder's course was a total waste

Paid for a two day class in Denver thinking I'd learn flux techniques, but the instructor spent half the time on his podcast stories. I got more out of a $12 book on fire welding. Anyone else sit through a pricey workshop that taught them nothing?

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robin_foster1•27d ago

Bought a 1940s lathe blind, took 2 tries to get it running

Last month I picked up an old South Bend lathe from an estate sale in Ohio for 400 bucks, no test run or anything. The gearbox was frozen solid and the previous owner had it sitting in a damp barn for 20 years, so I spent a full weekend stripping it down and soaking the parts in kerosene. Anyone else here take a gamble on old machinery and end up with a surprise rebuild project, or did I just get lucky with this one?

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dylanwilliams•27d ago

My anvil horn cracked after 15 years of heavy use

Last week I was drawing out a hook and noticed a hairline crack running down the horn on my 150lb anvil in my shop outside Peoria. I've been hitting it hot and cold for over a decade, but I'm wondering if anyone else has dealt with a cracked horn and if it's worth welding up or just retiring the anvil.

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oliver523•28d ago

My mentor said my hammer blows were too heavy, I finally get why

After 4 years of swinging hard and proud, a guy in Flint told me to lighten up and let the steel do the work, so I dropped my hammer size from 3.5 to 2.5 pounds and my twists came out cleaner in one week, anyone else find that lighter hits give you more control or is this just a Midwest thing?

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jade271•29d ago

The old anvil at my uncle's shop finally gave out

I was over at my uncle's place outside Columbus this weekend and his beat up Peter Wright anvil finally cracked right through the face. He's had that thing since the 70s, and I remember standing on a milk crate to watch him work when I was a kid. The striking surface was so smooth from years of use, you could see the hammer marks worn into it like a map. Now he's looking at a new cast steel anvil and the price tags are pretty wild, over $800 for something decent. It got me thinking about how the trade's changed too, these days everyone's got a power hammer or a press, but he still does most things by hand. I guess I just wonder if the new anvils will last like the old ones did, or if we're trading longevity for convenience. Anyone else watched an old tool finally die and feel a little weird about replacing it?

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wright.drew•1mo ago

Burned $400 on a gas forge that couldn't hold heat

Picked up a compact gas forge from a well-known online retailer last fall. Looked great in the photos, specs said it could reach welding temp. First real use in my garage in Denver, it took forever to get a 1/2 inch bar even orange. The refractory lining was thin as paper and the burner placement was all wrong. After three weeks of fighting it, I took a heat gun to the shell and found the outside was roasting while the inside stayed cold. That's just wasted propane and time. Sent it back and got a refund minus shipping, but I still lost about $60 in fuel and a whole weekend. Anyone else get burned by those cheap prebuilt forges, or am I the only one who learned this lesson the hard way?

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williams.robert•1mo ago

Just realized my teacher was right about flux ratio all along

I spent the last 6 months fighting with forge welds that kept coming out brittle or not sticking at all. My old instructor in Tulsa told me I was using way too much flux, said I was starving the weld. I figured he was just being old fashioned, so I kept loading it on thick every time. Last week I finally ran out of borax mid-job and had to make do with a light dusting. The weld came together cleaner than anything I'd done in months, no cold shuts, no scale pits. Turns out he was right, most of my flux was just boiling off and trapping air. Now I'm testing a few different ratios on scrap mild steel to find the sweet spot. Anybody else get told something years ago and only now realize they should have listened?

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price.jake•1mo ago

First day with a power hammer went sideways, and I'm glad it did

Picked up a used 25lb Little Giant last Tuesday and spent the whole day fighting it instead of forging. The ram stuck twice, I whacked my thumb once, and I got maybe one decent leaf done in six hours. But honestly, that struggle taught me more about hammer control than the last three months on an anvil. Anyone else find the first week with new gear humbling?

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sage52•1mo ago

TIL I was heating my steel way too long for damascus billets

I've been layering 1095 and 15N20 for about 6 months now, always soaking the billet in the forge for 10-12 minutes before each weld. Last week at a hammer-in near Springfield, an old timer saw me do it and just shook his head. He said I was burning off all the nickel from the 15N20 and that's why my pattern was always muddy. Sure enough, I tried a 3 minute soak on my next billet and the layers popped way cleaner. Has anyone else found a sweet spot for soak times with different combos?

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beth_baker69•1mo ago

Took me 5 years to notice I was overhardening my blades

I was at a hammer-in last month and this old timer picked up one of my finished knives. He tapped it on the anvil and just said 'sounds brittle.' I had been coming out of the quench and immediately tempering at the same temp every time without thinking. Turns out I was leaving them way too hard around 64 HRC when I was aiming for 60. Checked my last 12 blades with a hardness tester and only 3 were where I wanted them. Anybody else spend years doing something wrong without realizing?

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cora400•1mo ago

Picked a coal forge over gas for my first setup, kinda regretting it

I went with a coal forge because it was cheaper upfront about $200 versus $600 for a gas one, but after 3 months of fighting with airflow and clinker I'm wondering if I made the wrong call. Anyone else started with coal and switched to gas later?

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sagea88•1mo ago

Hot take: I stopped using anvils after that demo at Quad-State

I went to Quad-State last fall and watched a guy do a whole knife just using a block of mild steel he found in a scrap pile. Everyone says you need a proper anvil with a good face and rebound but that demo made me rethink everything. I spent 8 years thinking I needed a $500 anvil to do good work. Now I just use a big chunk of railroad track I got for 20 bucks. It rings different and the rebound is worse but my hammer control got way better because of it. Has anyone else tried ditching the traditional anvil for something weird?

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