[TheForge] chinese ASOs

Sun Mar 30 00:42:00 2003

RE the brazed joint..( no, not garlic lamb ).
I like to take pieces of steel from other applications and braze them to 
 short pieces of bar  for use under my TH on hot iron. Tend to view them 
as disposable . Even the best prepped and seated pieces eventually break 
at the braze  joint. The brass seems to fatigue under the impact. This 
doesn't bode all that well for your hammer face...BUT.....carbide tools 
points are brazed in place and take a pretty good beating...Sure would 
like to know how it's doing in a few years....Pete

Jerry Frost wrote:

>I can't disagree with anything you say Chuck except regarding the brazed
>joint.
>
>True, there's going to be plenty of prep work and if I could get suitable
>steel locally I'd go a different route. Heck if there was much chance of
>finding a decent anvil locally I wouldn't mess with making one at all. The
>last one I found was in N. Dakota,  hauled it home myself and still paid
>$3/lb. for a 200 lb. Trenton in "decent" shape.
>
>Heat treating is indeed a touchy process under good conditions and we'll
>have to take special care to make sure both the process is safe and the
>final produce won't chip dangerously. If it dings easy it'll be a bummer but
>not dangerous.
>
>The braze on the other hand is unlikely to have voids if we do the prep work
>properly and maintain good fire control. It'll be a good exercise in
>matching faces for Richard if nothing else. I've told him about
>smoking/dusting faces for matching but nothing's like practice. Once the
>faces are matched and polished to a fine degree, the fluxed brass will sweat
>like solder.
>
>How well it'll hold up in use is something I think we will all be interested
>in finding out.
>
>Upon reconsidering though, I think we'll just let the thing air cool without
>the quench. Grader blade may be plenty hard as cooled and need no further
>heat treatment. This is something I can test safely and will also be a good
>experience for Richard. If we have to build another fire to heat treat it, I
>live on 30 acres of forested land.
>
>There's no argument about this being a practical exercise, for the time
>it'll take I could get a part time job and just buy another anvil. I could
>also go to Pier 1 and buy some cool looking "rod" iron and forget about
>anvils altogether. . . . . .  Yeah  RIGHT! <grin>
>
>Thanks for the comments. I'd rather have mistakes, misconceptions, etc.
>pointed out here on a public forum for us all to learn from than learn from
>a catastrophic failure. I've made several changes in my plans for this
>little experiment based on the comments made here.
>
>Frosty
>------------------------
>If it ain't forged
>it ain't real.
>Wrought iron is.
>The FrostWorks
>
>Meadow Lakes, AK.
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Chuck Robinson" <[email protected]>
>To: <[email protected]>
>Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2003 7:39 AM
>Subject: Re: [TheForge] chinese ASOs
>
>
>  
>
>>As a maker of  specialized blade smithing anvils, I've looked at and
>>    
>>
>tested
>  
>
>>a lot of anvils in the past 15 years.
>>One of the main reasons that most new anvils being commercially
>>    
>>
>manufactured
>  
>
>>today are cast, is because it is so hard to get  perfect complete fusion
>>welds of anvils made from 2 or more pieces of metal.
>>The older forged anvils can vary considerably in hammer rebound
>>    
>>
>(lively -to-
>  
>
>>dead) depending on how successfully the makers controlled the welding
>>process. It was a real art, especially considering the lack of
>>    
>>
>sophisticated
>  
>
>>techniques available in the old days.
>>The most critical factor in hammer rebound, assuming that you have no
>>    
>>
>metal
>  
>
>>voids or bad welds, is the mass of metal directly under the spot you are
>>hammering. The vibrational harmonics of the metal are seriously degraded
>>    
>>
>if
>  
>
>>the metal has these imperfections, and I suspect that a brased joint woud
>>also degrade the VH.
>>To take  a questionable ASO casting and put a lot of time into it is a
>>    
>>
>waste
>  
>
>>of time. A person would be better off investing the time using a chunk of
>>structural steel and sculpting it to shape with a cutting torch and side
>>grinder, and hardening it in Gunther's super quench. (GSQ can only be
>>    
>>
>safely
>  
>
>>used for  simple medium carbon steels of less than >50 points of Carbon).
>>I make my anvils from 1340  double melt Crucible steel and harden the face
>>in GSQ.
>>I try to harden my anvil faces to between RC 45- RC 50.  Much softer, and
>>the face dings up too easily, Much harder and the edges tend to chip.
>>If you attempt to harden any large mass of tool steel you had better check
>>out the heat treating specs for it in the manufactures spec sheets or "The
>>Heat Treaters  Guide".
>>Chuck
>>
>>    
>>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge
>theforge mail list group photo site is
>http://www.photoaccess.com
>Login:  [email protected]
>password:  anvil
>___________
>
>
>
>  
>

--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
The reason this message is shown is because the post was in HTML
or had an attachment.  Attachments are not allowed.  To learn how
to post in Plain-Text go to: http://www.expita.com/nomime.html  ---