[TheForge] Equipment for a newbie

[peter fels & phoebe palmer]

On 11/6/2010 8:46 PM, Matt Gallagher wrote:
> Im in Charlotte, NC, as I saw one of you ask.
Oops, too far for shipping.
>   Ill be doing my work outside,
> and i have some long pieces to work with (im making a
> replica Gladius [non-bladed] for a competition in Latin club) so i
> was considering an open trough style forge.
Functionally, you will probably end up only working on a few inches of 
length per heat.
A trench forge may be more than you need.
Harbor Fright has really cheap angle grinders, as low as $9 on sale. You 
generally get what you pay for.
I've had really bad "luck" with them. Other folks have them last for 
years. You can find refurbished Makitas ( better)
for under $50 probably.
Garage sales, swap meets, goodwill or thrift stores often have vacs for 
little or nothing. Any plug in vac will do.
Because you may run them fro long periods of time..buy a back up.

Be super timid about grinding or worse, welding on a good anvil!
It's real easy to screw up a tool that should last for generations.

Try taking your ball pein and gently hammer the raised part around the 
ding back into the crater.
The hammer will rebound so that it hardly takes any force to keep 
dinking away.
It's time consuming and you need eye protection, but can help a lot ,if 
the face isn't super hard ( it did ding).
Note that i don't know anyone else who does this, but it's worked for me 
for a long time.

I suspect you are going to need a heck of an arm to wield a sword that 
heavy.
Practice forging little ones and work up in size..it might save a buncha 
frustration.
Understand that sword forging is one of the more difficult things to do 
well in smithing.
Best of luck...pete
> http//www.peterfels.com_ <http://www.peterfels.com/> 

>   I think a vacuum motor would
> work, if i could find a used vacuum somewhere, which im sure with a little
> digging i can do. Ill be using a 1" diameter mild steel rod (i tested the
> steel using the spark test) that is about 3 feel long, and i will be
> reducing it to 25 inches long and about a half inch thick along the spine
> (or flat, although it isnt flat) of the blade. I also would like
> to know where i can get a cheap angle grinder or how i can rig something, i
> need to fix a ding in my anvil thats been annoying me, and it would be nice
> to have. I plan to make some more charcoal soon, whenever my dad allows me
> too. I will soon have my scanner up and running to send out my designs of
> forges for review, i have several.
> ~Matt Gallagher, your friendly teenage smith
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