[TheForge] Re: ranite hardfacing rods

[Mike Spencer]

Frosty> I'm sure you're plenty familiar with CRINGE Mike.

True, Frosty, but unkind of you to remark on it. :-)

Aubrey> Though when Mike's involved, "cringe" can't be far off the
Aubrey> mark.

Word has gotten out that I'm prone to cringeworthy exploits?  Hmmm...
Well, when I was first getting interested in iron, Bert Shaw spat on
the floor, took a puff on his twisty little cigar and told me that the
pritchell hole was named after Amos Pritchell, the who invented it.  I
don't remember how many times I repeated that before I learned better.
Cringe.  :-) Well, I shoulda known better because when a tourist asked
about a a really large pair of those old bench shears that were
standing in the corner, he told her that some farmer up to North
Canaan had crossed a Dorset ewe with a hydraulic ram, the offspring
grew steel wool and them snips was used to shear it.

Pete> I've seen several previously welded anvil edges where the whole
Pete> surrounding HAZ has cracked off in a chunk(s)leaving a coarse
Pete> grained crater.

Several similar stories have led me to just forget about any arc
welding on the face of my anvil.  I have a very little -- just enough
-- sway-back, an adequate shiny spot and edges that are pretty rounded
off. 

So the hardy hole tool that I use most often (after the hardy, that
is) is a block about 6" x 3" x 3" with very sharp, square edges and a
stake carefully fitted to the hardy hole to minimize chatter.  Unknown
steel scrap but it's held up just fine under hot metal for whenever I
need a sharp edge.

The only shortcoming is that its working surface is ca. 3" higher
than the anvil face, which changes the ergonomics of hammering.  But
that's true of all stake tools, especially the much taller smithing
magician.  I keep a piece of railroad tie near the anvil, standing on
end.  It has a big (7"?) ringbolt on the end for a handle.  So if I
see that I can't hit something satisfactorily because it's too high, I
can grab the block by the ring and drop it where I can stand on it.  I
use the block at the vise, too, because the vise is mounted for proper
filing height and that's noticeably too high for some hammering
operations.

Probably the third most often used stake tool(s) is a pair of blocks
about 4" x 4" x 2-1/2".  Each has 4 holes of different sizes from
about 3/16" to about 1/2".  That gives me eight different
sizes of small pritchell holes for punching small holes, punching out
pins or rivets and whatever.  

I have several bending forks, some boughten, some made by other smiths
and some I made myself for particular projects.  Seems like they're
use-once tools and rarely quite what I need for another project.

One "hardy hole tool" that I rarely use but is real handy every once
in a while is a leg vise. The vise's bench flange is bolted to a
twisty bar that snakes around and goes in the hardy hole so that the
vise stands (on a pipe leg extension) just to the right -- say 2:00
o'clock -- from the forging position.  Makes it possible to get from
the anvil face to the vise real fast.  (My main vise is "turn 120
degrees, take two long steps" away from the forge.)  Only worth the
trouble of huffing it into place if there's a bunch of repetitive
pieces to do in the vise or on a vise-held tool.

Another bit of hardy hole lore:  I have an anvil that I dragged out of
the ocean -- paid the aged owner ten bucks for the privilege -- that
is broken off right at the back of the hardy hole.  Rather than
undertake the tricky and tedious job of rebuilding the heel,  I just
welded a bar across the broken end.  The hardy from my first anvil
(and the first tool I ever made myself) fits as do several other
tools.  It's the one I take to meets and the like, not such a big loss
if it somehow "falls off my truck".


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^