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Thanks everyone, it's all rough around the edges but it all works good. I got some time today to use everything, The press is all plumbed, the valve is on the bottom so as I can use my foot to operate it, freeing both of my hands, it's a bit awkward, but I'm getting used to it. I made a set of...

Thanks everyone! Now I just gotta get to work and make something sharp with it all :) Zeb

Making the iron from dirt :) Zeb

Been building alot of tools lately, trying to get enough stuff around to make my life a bit easier. Being as I've got a wife and 3 daughters, I've got very little fun money to just go buy stuff, so I save scrap and scrounge around to find useful stuff that can be used. First up is a heat...

I've been working on this on and off for a while as a gift for Christmas. The blade was forged from a mix of W1, 1095, and 15n20, in a low layer W's pattern and drawn out width wise instead of length wise, if that makes sense. The handle material is a black micarta bolster, and some stabilized...

Looks alot better than my 2x4, I've been meaning to make something a bit better, but I'm sooooo lazy. Great looking thwacker there! Zeb

Thanks everyone! I've been working slowly on getting the bloom sectioned up and worked up. I've got a bar now worked to 3 folds and it's seeming pretty solid. I gave Randy a piece of this for him and Jr to work their magic on, Can't wait to see what they do with it. Zeb

I've been prepping for my 4th smelt for the past week and this morning I got up and started to smelt :) A few details about the smelt, I used about 45 pounds of crushed taconite pellets and crushed up bloomery bits. I used a new blower for this smelt, an industrial vacuum cleaner motor. It's a...

Yesterday turned out quite a bit better, I started by reworking my blown propane burner on my forge, I didn't have a restriction between the regulator and the burner pipe and tuning it was difficult, so it got a ball valve that I scrounged up, nothing too fancy, but it made a world of...

Well I haven't been having very good luck lately, I cut the blade up into 7 pieces, stacked them up, drew it out and folded it 4 more times. I had what looked like a good solid billet, no cracking on the corners and behaving very nice under the press. I started to forge the bevels in, and in no...

I wish I would've taken more pics along the way of the consolidation of the bloom, but it's hard to hold the camera while I work :) I've got the blade cut up into pieces now and ready to be welded back up again. I'll set the weld, draw it out, and fold it 4-5 more times to see if the bar works...

Well I spent most of the afternoon forging out the blade. I had to deal with a couple little delam's, but I got it stuck back together. The problems started when I started to forge in the bevels, I noticed a couple little cracks on the spine when straightening it, I kept on going though as I...

Not just any respirator, look for a p100 particulate filter, and don't think that just because you've got a respirator you're safe. Melt it outside, you'll know when you're to pouring temp when the zinc smoke is coming off of it. I've poured alot of brass using just a heavy walled steel...

I started a few days ago to start processing up the bloom from my last smelt, and in doing so I started to make a bar that I wanted to turn into a contenental style seax (spear point) I had some iron from my last smelt from magnetite and some very high carbon steel and cast from running some of...

Congrats Randy! Now you gotta start working on him for some grandkids :) Zeb

Randy, I'll definatly keep you in the loop when I do this again, you and Jr are always more than welcome to come up here and watch me run around for 4-5 hours feeding the stack what seems like a ton of charcoal :) Bubba, I'm very new to bladesmithing and I consider myself very lucky to have the...

Yea, I sure did, just gives me an excuse to get back down there soon :) Zeb

Looks great Randy. Integral's are so cool. It was awesome meeting everyone this weekend, wish I could've stayed around longer. Zeb

Thanks Bubba, I ran my third smelt today, and it's definatly under my skin, I'm horrible at making blades, but I'm gonna try :) Everything today went pretty well, other than a blower issue, I made some metal from rocks. I think if I didn't have the blower issue and run down the stack a bit more...

Got the stack back up and ready to burn on Sunday :biggrin: Zeb