Subject: Re: hinge eye bender

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 96 14:25:24 PDT

Has anyone fabricated a hinge eye bender as described in Donald Streeters' Professional Smithing?
This looks like an ingenious little tool that could certainly save alot of my agonizing over getting the perfect 'eye'.

I'm wondering how easy it is to fabricate and to what capacity they could handle. 

Thx,  Steve Howell

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From: "[email-masked] 415.855.5707" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 1996 15:56:02 -0800 (PST)

I know we've talked about files until we're all blue in the face, but...

I have a file that I need to heat, bend and then re-heat treat.  It is a curved
tooth vixen file.  I am guessing that it is plain high carbon steel, something
like 1095.  Does that seem right?

After bending should I just re-heat to a non-magnetic heat, quench in oil and
temper in the oven at 350 degrees?  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Joe

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From: George Ezell <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 1996 18:38:02 -0500

> temper in the oven at 350 degrees?  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Sounds good to me, but I don't think most files are tempered.
Unless I'm mistaken, they are left with full hardness.  I'm 
going to try the same thing this weekend, trying to figure
out the best way to avoid scaling and decarborization...
I'll probobly use fire-clay.
I also suggest normalising and annealing before hardening.
	George Ezell

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From: Sebastian Laiblin <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 08:56:26 +0200 (MET DST)

i want to forge my own cable damascus. now i sold a flux.
but it is powdered form, how do i apply it ???
or would it be better to have a liquid flux ?
how to apply that its regular put on ???

thanx und tschuess !!! -=> SEBASTIAN <=-
-- 
alle schraib- kommer- oda gros- und klainschraibunksfehler
basiren auf der neuen rechtschraibreform und spiegeln den
aktuelen bildunksstant wider !!!

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From: Sebastian Laiblin <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 08:53:05 +0200 (MET DST)

i have build my owb forge some days ago ...
but now one question:

what do you use to fire ?
charcoal, anthrazit (?), wood ,,,

what burns hottest, whats best for what ...

thank you und tschuess !!! -=> SEBASTIAN <=-
-- 
alle schraib- kommer- oda gros- und klainschraibunksfehler
basiren auf der neuen rechtschraibreform und spiegeln den
aktuelen bildunksstant wider !!!

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From: Michael Spencer <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 96 12:36:34 EDT

> charcoal, anthrazit (?), wood ,,,

It's quite possible that in Germany you may have ready access to
what's called pea coke in North America and breeze by the
Brits. Uniformly about the size of almonds or pecans (in the shell),
burns very clean, very hot, easy to manage, a little harder than
bituminous coal to ignite.

Also, I don't really know for sure, but I don't think we have anything
like German "Braunkohl" here. Is it good coking coal or not? It would
be interesting to hear whether it's usable for a forge fire.

> aktuelen bildunksstant wider !!!

Oh No! How are we humble strugglers with German-as-a-second-
language going to cope? There's a vocul munoratee that keeps trying to
maik us yoos fonetik speling in Inglish, to. Feh. :-)

- Mike
-- 
Michael Spencer               (902) 543-8375
[email-masked]
URL: http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/mspencer/home.html
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From: George Ezell <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 18:12:24 -0500

> thanx und tschuess !!! -=> SEBASTIAN <=-

To apply flux, heat the metal to be welded to a dull to medium
red (about 1000 to 1300 degrees f...sorry, no good with metrics!),
and sprinkle a liberal amount of the flux over the entire surface area.
I've found that light blows from the hammer is all that is needed
to get a good weld with cable.

i made experience that the weld would be easy when the steel is light
yellow and there are many little stars sprinkling(?) away from when
taking out of the fire, then its easy to weld with a 1kg=2pounds
hammer. now a friend of mine meaned the stars would mean that the steel 
is overheated and burns away, that could be the true i think.
so, how to forge weld ?
what hammer to use ? hammering very hard ? what color should the steel 
have ? ... ?

In my opinion, you got it too hot.  Try to heat it up to the point
right before it starts sparking, a bright yellow/orange color.
Otherwise, you might be burning the steel and get too much grain
growth.  High carbon steels weld at a lower tempature than mild
steel or iron.
Another thing you might like to try...there's a guy by the name of 
Manfred Sancshe, who supplies Boker with thier damascus.  He has
also written books on the subject.  Learning from an experienced smith
for one day can save you a year of trial and error!  They are located in
Solingen.
	Hope that helps!
	George Ezell