Still up for bid are two of Bill's famous diagonal pien hammers as well as the item from Mark and Randal. Bill's hammers are custom made and hand polished. Although he is selling right and left hand hammers both can be used right handed.

The advantage of a diagonal pien hammer is that it puts the pien at a right angle to the work while working in a comfortable position. When a right handed person uses a left handed diaglon pien hammer it makes it easier to use the pien parallel to the work. So, the truth is they are not really right or left handed. It just depends on what you need the hammer for. A pair is a great way to go!

THANK YOU BILL!

Please note that our auction page is not just to donate items to raise funds for anvilfire. It is for you to SELL!

Currently it is free to all to sell and buy. Note however that when you post something on the net and say you will ship it anywhere it may go ANYWHERE! Happy Bidding!

The anvilfire Tool Auction is another Andrew Hooper Production

1. Uses big 4 pound plus (1800-2000g) hammers and a short pile driver stroke. Peter Ross of Williamsburg uses this style and so did the late Francis Whitaker. This technique usualy gets smiths into trouble but there are a few that can do it. I doubt it is the right technique for any woman (OR younger smith).

2. Uses a light fast hammer. 2-1/2 pounds (1200g) or so max. Practices using a very light grip or balancing between side of thumb and forefinger. Raises the hammer very high to get the maximum energy. Learning this technique has saved many a carrer that started in school one and had to quit due to shoulder or elbow injuries.

Now that I sit a desk much too much my wrists and arm are way out of shape. The 3-1/2 pound hammer still feels right. . But I KNOW intelectualy that I need to HIDE it and get out the old 2-1/2 pound hammer.

Heavy smithing was done with LOTS of helpers from the beginning of time. Virtualy NO smith went without helpers. There is no reason you should either. Today almost anyone in the developed countries can afford a small (new, used or home built) power hammer to replace the team of strikers that did the heavy work in the past.

Work smart!

Please read ALL the information about the various burners before deciding on one or spending a lot of money building a forge. Like a lot of things it is easy to end up spending more than the cost of a commercial item when building your own.

Ron Reil - T-Rex Burner page

• Site insurance
• Bonding Requirements
• Late delivery penalties
• Workman's Comp Requirements
• Equal Opportunity Requirements
• Who gets paid when
• Final inspection and approval.

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Just a reminder if you're anywhere near NW New Jersey on Sept. 1, you'll want to attend the Peter's Valley 1st Annual Pig/Iron Fest. Pig roast, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc., music, beer, all to support the Peters Valley blacksmithing program. This is a great crafts center and deserves your support. If you send your check in before 8/15, it's only $30 per person. After that, it's $40 (I think). For details, check the PV site:

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Now comes the tricky part: check the number of treads. Multiply that by the tread width at the outside edge -- do not include any overlap of the noses. You want just the horizontal distance covered by each tread, starting where the one beneath ends. Add them up and you've got the bottom leg of the triangle. Lay that out square to the height and then connect the two ends and you have the basic length of the outer rail (except for code-required stickout--see below) and the rise, too, the pitch, the angle at which the rail goes up.

Now build yourself a jig:
Find a section, partial is okay, of hefty -- because you are going to be doing a lot of bending against it-- pipe or cylinder of maybe 1/4-inch or 3/16 plate close to the diameter of your stair. Now weld some L-shaped anchor points onto the curved plate. These should be at least 1/2-inch round, stock bent into Ls just a smidgeon bigger than the width of the rail, positioned at the same rise-angle relative to the long axis of the piece of cylinder as the rail is to the floor. Heat the rail stock and bend it, pulling against the anchor points, to fit the curve of the jig. It'll be close enough. Note: you will save yourself a lot of grief if you can use round stock for the rail. With round, you will not have to try to keep a flat rail flat as it curves and rises at the same time.

Do the same layout process for the inside rail. The rise is exactly the same. You just wrap it tighter, around the smaller cylinder representing the distance the inner rail sits from the center of the circular stair. Do not forget to allow for the horizontal stickout past the top and bottom treads that is probably required by your code as it is by the Uniform Building Code, which calls for 12 inches past top and bottom risers. On the install, be extremely careful in measuring for and mounting anchor points on the wall if the rail is wall-mounted-- or on the treads if the rail is free-standing with balusters-- to go in same distance from each tread nose. Otherwise, when you plumb up from them, if you are not plumbing from points the exact same distance on each one, or setting the balusters at the same distance in, the pitch of the rail will be wayyyy off, will not follow the stairs.

Balusters cannot be farther apart than 4-inches max. UBC sez stair rail must be 34-to-38 inches high (guard rails are minimum 42"), 1 1/2 minimum to wall, 1 1/4-to-2-inches in cross-section.

So here's the next portion. massive sulfide ores are crushed in jaw crushers then in rod mills then in ball mills. Ater all that crushing the ore is like a fine powder. the metallic sulfide particle are separatedfrom the worthless country rock by processes like flotation. the ore is wetted in baths in which frothing agents are added. The mess is agitated and bubbles are blown into the bath through the bottom of the tanks.The bubbles attract only metal sulfides which stick to the bubbles as they rise to the top of the tank. The bubbles are skimmed off together with their adhering metal particles. Eventually only non metallic gangue is left in the tank and this is discarded often to be used as back-fill in the mines. The metal sulfides are dewatered and put into reveratory furnaces where they are roasted. Roasting converts the metallic sulfies into metallic oxides. The metallic oxides are put into converter furnaces where heat, flux chemicals, and a fuel source usually carbon, combine under great heat to dissolve unwanted material in the flux which floats and tapped off. The metallic oxides are reduced to the metal by carbon monoxide which stealls the oxygen of the metallic oxide.to form carbon monoxide. The latter chemical is a gas that rises and leaves up the stack. The resulting copper or zinc can purified by other processes such as electrolysis. Also hot lead oxide is volatile and comes off as a gas , if that is desired. (more about that in a minute). The left-over silver sludge can then be treated with mercury. The silver dissolves in the mercury amalgam. That mess is separated from the other material and the amalgam is heated in enclosed retorts where the mercury is driven off , and is condenced elsewhere to be reused. The silver that is left behind, is What we want. Please note that this amalgamation process canbe used right away, without the other steps above if we have an ore that is mostly silver with little meatallic sulfide. But the ore must still be crushed before beng amalgamated. A more efficient process subtitutes dilute sodium cyanide, instead of mercury, dissolved in the water. The cyanide attacks the silver to form soluble (i.e. dissolved compound). The solution is then filtered and all the undissolved gangue is discarded. The dissolved silver cyanide solution is put into a vat and metallic zinc powder is mixed into the solution. Zinc displaces silver cyanide to form zinc cyanide and the freed silver sinks to the bottom and is collected, melted and poured into ingot bars.

Highly impure mixtures of gold and silver and other unwanted impurities, can be can be separated, by adding lead oxide and some other fluxing forming materials to the mixture and reheating the mess. This resmelting of the lead, silver, and gold is cupeled, in order to remove the lead. Cupeling occurs when air is blown over the molten mess. The oxygen forms lead oxide which comes off as a gas, if the retort is hot enough. The gold-silver mass is treated in an electrolysis bath. Where silver dissolves in water-nitrate solution and an electric current drives the silver to migrate from the anode positive pole to the cathode negative pole where it is deposited on a silver sheet. (added to the cathode at the begining. The gold does not dissolve and remains at the anode and sinks to the bottom). The gold is then removed remelted and poured into ingots. And a jolly good time is had by all.

Dave you may encounter problems. Mercury is very poisonous, should not be let into the environment. And never should be dumped in the garbage. The local authorities and the Feds will go ballistic if the previous described acts are committed. Gaseous mercury fumes are very toxic. The Mad Hatter, in Alice in Wonderland got permanently mad because hatters used mercury, a lot in their work. That brings me to sodium cyanide solutions. This little darling kills. And kills even faster if the acid becomes hydrocyanic acid gas. I think California still uses it to execute criminals. Cyanide water solutions are very hard to dispose of and cause a major polution problem at old gold mine workings all over the midwest.

I hope that the following "note" helps you or has solved your (and other peoples), insomnia problem. Seriously, have fun with the project, but please be careful. And if you decide to have a shot at it., get LOTS more information on the processes and their designs and details before you go ahead with the project. This short note is NOT sufficient to carry out the project. And I will not take any resposibility for any successes, outcomes, mishaps or disastrous screw-ups that result from your chemical adventure.

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