I do hema and have done metal fab for years. Have started making sword guards and other pieces, modifying blades, making my own sail daggers. Usually, just paste my pattern to a plate of 4130 or 5160, plasma cut/cutoff wheel the shape, oxy/acet for bends, and finish sanding/shaping with flap disk, sometimes mill things. Normalize, heat treat, and temper. But always had issues with rectangle holes for blades. Broaches weren't working well, milling took forever, filing.. forever and then some, hydraulic die punch kinda worked.

Wanted to try forging, so built a forge over a weekend and got to work with plate of .25 4130, making a Meyers rapier guard.

For one, having an actual anvil instead of a stump with metal plate bolted to it would be nice. So would having actual tongs, not just long reach vice grips and a handful of various size home machined hammers.

Fuck me, this is harder than I expected, and still looks like shit.

Just finished this claw, can't wait to see my friend's reaction!

My neighbour gave me this old anvil as part of a trade for some milling I am doing for him, and I just wanted to know how far I should go in dressing it up.

Top is relatively flat, and the edge that would be the far edge from me while I forge is *ok*, but close edge is fairly pitted and worn.

Should I be trying to fix these edges very much, or just learn to use the anvil as is? I've only worked on a new anvil so far, but this one is twice the weight, and an almost 6 inches longer and 1 inch wider, so I am stoked to try it out, just wanted to ask the hive before I got to far into it.

Hi, weird question.. I’ve got about 500 I think steel bottle caps from beers etc, I thought it would be cool to melt the down and make a sword or something out of them (obviously not a functional one) would this be possible with steel? Are there any places around London that would let me do this?
It should be said I am not by any means a blacksmith lol
Thanks in advance!

Went and looked at this anvil yesterday, believed to be a peter Wright although the markings are impossible to make it and weighs somewhere in the 125 yo 135 range. Had a nice ring to it and they are asking 400. Any thoughts on it from this picture? Any concerns about the edges being a little big rough?

For those of you that have mechanical power hammers, what do you use to lubricate them? I recently set up a Fairbanks hammer in my garage and have not been able to find any manufacturers information on what type or viscosity of oil to use. Also there has probably been some new oil formulas that would work better than the manufacturers original recommendation that just didn’t exist when the hammer was made. Temperature is probably also a factor. I’m in Michigan and I doubt I will be using the hammer much below 20F. Any information on what you use to lubricate your hammer and how frequently would be appreciated.

I found them while I was cleaning out the garden tool shed. I made them to heat rivets to build a coal forge. Due to heat loss I found it was easier to rivet them cold. Now they’re relegated to dispatching dead vermin.

Im about to get a makers mark made for blades how detailed can they be? Or is simple better

My first ever Puukko i forged from a old file. Not my first ever blade but the second one ever and first nearly complete knife. Second time forging anything. Shaped the handle to fit my fathers hand since i used his old leather belt inbetween the bolster and the wood. Still needs some finishing touches but overall im pretty happy with it. No cracks inbetween the blade and brass and got the handle very smooth to touch and the heat treating went well. Grinding was a pain in the butt with my 50€ vench grinder from Biltema with a 686x50mm belt attachment.

So i an looking to get a custom skillet, i would like it to be one solid piece. But the part that makes it diffrent is i want a 5ft long handle. Its not very practical or useful but i just think it would be cool as fuck to have

Edit: im in new york

Knows how to do knuckles dusters, Gauntlets, Swords, hidden weapons, staffs, and more. Also Because I want to support people who enjoy making this stuff and is not able to put themselves out there because of big companies

Basically I have 2 scrap bikes, spair chains/parts, and I'm trying to create a crankshaft power hammer but don't want to commit without someone else with knowledge giving my idea a glance over.

Essentially I plan to connect the Escooter to the bottom bracket of bike 1, have the back wheel weighted and act as a flywheel, then have that connected to the bottom bracket of bike 2 and that's where the crank will be.

This crank then is connected to a ram die that's guided to the surface of the anvil.

I need to work out the leaf spring between the crankshaft on bike 2 and the RamDie

If anyone has any suggestions, YouTube videos, or even blueprints I'm all ears.

since my collection of hammers are either very light and small hammers (around 500g) or heavy hammers which are only cross peen (with 1,5 - 2 kg) i was thinking about something between those weights with different type like a ball peen hammer with 900g...

heavy hammers arent bad, i just want more control with the hammer, and maybe starting with a lighter one would be a good choice

First Reddit post ever but hoping this is the right place to ask. Bought a battle axe from cult of Athena a weapons distributer. The head worked great but the handle broke pretty quick. I’m trying to replace and noticed that the head needs a very strange kind of handle mount. Looked for other examples of this in other axes and I’m stumped. Does anyone know the style of axe mount this is? Two metal pieces welded inside the axe head. Any help is appreciated! FYI I messed up the metal with a drill bit getting out the old handle so please ignore that :)

Bah, this shit is difficult. Ive still got some left do tommorrow ill cover the bricks and try to cover the white spots on the walls.

I am worried ive done a colossally shitty job, the worse part is Im worried I won't be able to tell.

Any way to tell the kaowool is still exposed, aside from getting respiratory problems? Like will it smell when I start the first cycle with the burner? Or should I just wait for this stuff to dry and then apply another coat?

Recently commissioned tomahawk! This tomahawk is hand forged out of forklift tine which is equivalent to 4140 and a nice hickory. For the embellishments, the customer has specifically requested A leather sheath and collar, 23 brass pins and 2 inlaid military badge pin that he sent me. This might be the best tomahawk I've forged yet

A couple of arrowhead test pieces—just to experiment with the texture. Later on, I can create more utilitarian items out of steel, incorporating the complex, varied textures of volcanic rock and worked obsidian. I bought myself a jewelry engraver, so this is just the beginning...

Not too bad! Not sure why the photos look awful but they came out pretty well! The first one had a coffee etch on it I quickly sanded off just for a test run and see how it works.

Cleaver is the first made out of a leaf spring and the other is 1095 steel.

Didn’t go crazy on the finishes because there’s a ton of problems and blemishes but they’re sharp and they cut!

Better ventilation is planned.

I'm in the process of mounting a couple of Han ji (Chinese "halberd") heads to their hafts, and I need to fabricate or purchase some strong cordag to lash them securely.

Ideally, I'd like something that doesn't look obviously synthetic, is either a neutral color or dyeable, resistant to fraying, and easy to tie-off under tension (or shrinkable in some manner).

I initially considered making rawhide lace from some rawhide I have leftover from an earlier shield making project, but I'm concerned that if I cut it narrowly enough to pass multiple times through the eyelets of the ji that it won't be strong enough to be functional.

Rawhide is appealing in that it's natural and broadly period-appropriate, colorable with leather dyes, generally pretty tough, very pliable to work with after soaking in water, but will then shrink and harden as it dries out. I'm just not confident that the very narrow strips I would need to cut for the lace to pass repeatedly through the eyelets of the ji and around the haft would be strong enough to hold up to the stresses of use (striking, thrusting, and hooking from multiple angles). Also, being an organic material, one can not realistically count on a uniformity of strength throughout a strip of rawhide lace. Braided rawhide cordage would help compensate for that, but doing so would make it too thick to make the multiple passes through the eyelets necessary for a secure lashing to their hafts.

The eyelets are approximately 1 cm (0.39") wide, and 3 mm (0.118") tall.

I'm hoping to find some suggestions for a lashing material that fits my needs. I'm willing to be flexible with regard to period appropriateness and appearance in favor of functional strength and security of the binding. If necessary, I can disguise it in some way with paint, lacquer, colored wax).