Found a good "Metalworking" link? Let Us Know!

See also: Smithing; Toolmaking; Arms, Armor & Armour

M.A.I.L. Articles: M.A.I.L. started from a simple idea: artisans congregating at The Chainmaille Board would come together to create a resource for all, a place of communication, information, and tutoring. We started this resource because chainmaille had no neutral, definitive information database. Excellent database of projects and tutorials.

Hammering Hammering is a technique of forming or straightening work pieces or increasing their strength and hardness by means of well-aimed hammer blows on sheet metal and sections. Marking is a technique of punching - by means of hammers and special marking punches - letters, figures or texts into the surface of work pieces for the purpose of identifying work pieces, giving sequences for assembly operations or durably noting down dates of manufacture.

A HOME-BUILT CHARCOAL-FIRED FOUNDRY by Gene Elliott (c) 2000 (edited by Steve Kaehler) Since I’ve always wanted a small, portable foundry set-up that I could take along for field demos and other special projects, building this furnace gave me the perfect excuse to provide my very own portable small parts casting foundry.

Pewter Casting in Stone Molds (Site Excerpt) The majority of jewelry objects remaining from the Viking Age are either made of silver or bronze. Silver is commonly found in massed hordes, with coins, ingots, fragments forming the largest portion rather than finished jewelry. These hordes are obviously collected wealth, hidden in times of peril by owners who never returned. The common medium of exchange was obviously silver, gold objects are relatively uncommon throughout Scandinavia. Although simple sliver objects are found, many show a very high degree of craftsmanship. Complex forming and assembling techniques are commonly seen with silver.

Blowing new life in old technology - Viking Age Metal-casting. By Anders Söderberg. (Site excerpt) Early medieval founders cast using technology with roots deep in the Bronze Age. The process looked almost the same as it had done for a couple thousand years. If the Bronze Age was the golden age of bronze casting, the craft didn't die with the coming of iron. Casting in bronze and silver still played an important social part through the production of jewelry and prestige objects, a production of social codes expressing identity and belonging; sworn fidelity and social ranking. All confirmed by a system of gifts, sometimes almost strong enough to give each object a life of it's own; at least this may have been the way contemporary man regarded it. I have devoted the last three years to examining some of these crafts in detail. I have worked particularly with reconstructed bronze and silver casting, supported by excavation publications and earlier experimental projects. There have been many of them in recent decades, with varying ambitions and results, but the most extensive are probably the Danish and English. These projects are also the best documented. See also: Viking Bronze

Swedish Silver - Silver In The Middle Ages (circa 1050-1520) Since time immemorial, precious metals, and particularly silver, have been used to make ornaments and the fine articles of daily life. The very knowledge that he is working with a costly material inspires the craftsman, and the malleability of the metal permits him to vary form and decoration.

Cire Perdue: Lost Wax Casting Gold has always been an important medium of expression for Javanese craftsmen. In prehistoric times, gold-foil masks were used to cover the faces of the dead. These gold pieces were made by beating the gold with a hammer. While this technique was widely used in various parts of Indonesia and Southeast Asia, a more effective technique was adopted in Java during the early centuries AD, whereby heat was used to work gold. This new method not only cuts down the time spent in making gold objects, but is also responsible for the creation of more intricate designs. The technique is known as lost wax casting.

Scandinavian bronze casting in Viking Age and Early Middle Ages Anders Söderberg. My gateway to ancient metal crafts is both the one of the craftsman and the gateway of the archaeologist. An experimental study on the making of Viking age weights, during my education at the Archaeological Research Laboratory of the Stockholm University, made me understand that knowledge in craftsmanship can be quite a useful tool in archaeological research.

Medieval Iron and Steel -- Simplified Bert Hall, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto: Iron is one of the most useful metals ever discovered, but it is also one of the more difficult metals to understand in history, especially in medieval history. Iron comes in several forms, and the complications involved in producing each of them fosters further confusion. What follows is the layman's guide to medieval iron -- as simple as possible, but not one bit more!

Cauldrons and the Development of Cast Iron for Domestic Use by: Jacob Selmer. The study of early metallurgy and metalworking often focuses on military and industrial applications. However, the everyday uses of metals are sometimes overlooked. In particular, the cauldron played an essential role in day-to-day life. Modernly, manufacturers make these out of cast iron, but Europeans did not begin using this material until early in the fifteenth century and mass production of cast iron did not happen until the eighteenth century. This report discusses some of the history and importance of cauldrons and focuses on the development of cast iron for everyday use.

How Sword Making Works, by Jeff Tyson Pretty good series located on the "How Stuff Works" web site.

Coal and Charcoal : Blacksmith's Coal, Charcoal and Forges. An AnvilFire FAQ & Report by Glenn Conner AKA - NTECH

Forge Blowers Chart and article from MACHINERY'S HANDBOOK, 1914.

Gas Facts Fuel gas information, burning temperatures and rates.

Brake Drum Forge Plans. A low cost starter forge.

Hardness Conversion Table Metal hardness value conversion table Brinell to Rockwell A, B, C scales.

Heat Treating Hardening, tempering. Selected Q&A and metals heat treating specifications. Links to materials information resources.

Quenchants Coolants for heat treating. Air, Brine, Water, Oil, Synthetics. With Rob Gunter's Super Quench Recipe.

Roller Chain Damascus Selected Q&A on forge welding roller chain for knife making.

Rebar Reinforcing steel information. Selected Q&A

Temper Color Chart Standard temper color names text plus HTML color with Fahrenheit and Celsius.

Blacksmithing in the 21st Century An on line reference for Blacksmiths and other metal workers. Originally a book in progress.

The Power hammer Page A unique anvilfire! special features page. How to use, buy, build, repair and maintain forging machinery for the blacksmith shop. Machine specs, comparisons and more! Links to manufacturers world wide. Forging machines for sale.

Descriptions of common steels. This is pure text information and just about every bit of it is useful to the knife maker.

Polishing with wet or dry emery. Very Long & Detailed

Knife making step by step Many of the publications have great how-to instruction, but tend to gloss over some of the very simplest steps. We offer this sequence or outline in an effort to make the routine more understandable.

Differential hardening with clay by Bob Engnath Excellent article from 1997

Tips on making your grinder compliant.

Build your own portable forge Building a small, portable hobby forge is not that difficult. This article will show you how to build one from a charcoal grill. Later, when you delve more deeply into blacksmithing, you can build yourself a full blown smithy.

"Blacksmith Basics" Online tutorial pages of blacksmithing basics. Excellent layout and presentation. Series covers blacksmith primer, forge design, pump bellows, and fires.

"Advanced Blacksmith Techniques" More online tutorials covering tempering, welding, riveting, decorative twists, splits & cuts. Truly amazing wealth of info.

Fullered Straight Bar Shoe Excellent tutorial for the Farrier arts. Complete with text, photos, and graphics. Easy layout.

Bob Punch Clip I love this guy! Great info, easy to follow. Excellent tutorial on the Farrier arts.

Fullered Shoe Another winner from Fremlin’s Forgery on the Farrier arts.

"Bronzeworking" Generalized but informative article on making bronze from copper ore and then casting it by various techniques. By Ben Levick.

"Iron Working" Interesting article by B. Levick on Viking ironworking techniques, with a short history and illustrations.

3 Phase Converter .PDF File. Only two pages. First page is instructional, second is a blurry (but readable) schematic.

Pipe Forge Plans .PDF File. Only two pages. First page is instructional, second is a blurry (but readable) schematic.

Guillotine Tool .PDF File. Five pages of mixed photos, text and hand drawn plans.

Metalworking FAQ/Compendium This will someday become the Web home of the FAQ and other information for the UseNet newsgroup rec.crafts.metalworking. The original FAQ has grown to almost absurd proportions, and contains answers to questions that are not actually frequently asked. My intent is to first place all the original FAQ information here on the Web, then trim the FAQ and allow this Web version to grow into more of a compendium or encyclopedia. FAQ and archives via w3.uwyo.edu Courtesy of Jim Kirkpatrick, [email protected]

Measuring 2 After each operation within the manufacturing process, work pieces must be checked for size, shape or surface finish, This is mostly based on the data of a manufacturing drawing. In addition to judgment by the eye, by the ear and tactile sense as possibilities of non-dimensional testing, dimensional testing methods using sensitive measuring and testing tools are predominantly applied in manufacturing processes.

Punch Marking Marking means laying off the shape and size of a work piece from data in the manufacturing drawing onto the blank. This is done by scribing, with special scribing tools, lines on the work piece which must remain visible during the period of manufacture. Punch marking means impressing conical marks for permanent marking of the scribed lines by means of a special tool - the prick punch. Punch marks are also applied as a guide for dividers points or drills.

Hammering (& Marking) Hammering is a technique of forming or straightening work pieces or increasing their strength and hardness by means of well-aimed hammer blows on sheet metal and sections. It is used in single-piece production only, in special industries and trades or repair work. Special hammering techniques are: lengthening, curving, chasing, flanging. Marking is a technique of punching - by means of hammers and special marking punches - letters, figures or texts into the surface of work pieces for the purpose of identifying work pieces, giving sequences for assembly operations or durably noting down dates of manufacture.

Manual Sawing & Manual Sawing 2 & Manual Sawing 3: The present material contains 7 selected instruction examples which are intended to help practicing the main techniques of manual sawing with increasing level of difficulties. This includes straight, angular and parallel cuts - from simple cutting-off of flat and cylindrical parts as well as of various sections up to the manufacture of complex parts. In order to facilitate the preparation and execution of the work, the necessary materials, measuring and testing tools, hand tools and accessories are stated for each training example. Moreover, knowledge required in addition to knowledge of manual sawing is mentioned. SSRsi Note: You might want to start with manual 3.

Filing By filing chips are removed from straight or curved faces of pre-machined parts. It serves to change the size, shape or surface finish of faces, to remove irregularities, to deburr, chamfer or round off edges, and to make parts fit. Filing is hard and time-consuming manual work. It is useful only in single-piece production, repair work and partly in assembly work (fitting work and reworking).

Metal Scraping Scraping is fine finishing of largely rough-finished in order to smooth them, to correct defects of the form or to provide them with a pattern. Scraping is highly qualified manual work and is applied only if the respective material cannot be fine-finished by machines. Normally, plane surfaces should be finished by surface grinding, curved surfaces and bore holes by precision boring or honing. By scraping mainly sliding parts of machines are worked such as carriages and slide bearings which must show a high surface quality. With sliding surfaces, the recesses achieved have a positive effect since they enable an accumulation of lubricating oil. An even lubricant film is required to reduce friction at these surfaces. By scraping also oil grooves are placed in domed brasses.

Drilling 3 Drilling, Counter-sinking and Counter-boring - Course: Technique for manual working of materials.

Reaming Reaming is applied after drilling in order to make bore holes true to size, e.g. for plain pin connections (in ranges from hundredth to thousandth millimeters), fine-finish the inside surfaces of bore holes, align offset bores with riveted joints, make conical bore holes for machine taper or taper pin joints. Reaming always necessitates the existence of a bore hole. See also: Reaming 2

Thread Cutting Thread cutting is cutting of helical turns of threads out of the tapping-size hole or bolt in order to create screwed connections. A complete screwed connection requires an internal thread and a matching external thread as a counterpart. With single-piece manufacture or with repair work, manual thread cutting is a necessary working technique, because - due to technical and economical reasons - machines cannot be used in every case. See also: Threadcutting

Chipping Chipping is working on materials by a wedge-shaped tool (the chisel) in order to separate or chip material. The cutting effect of the chisel is achieved by hammering on the head end of the chisel, which is an energy and time consuming operation. Chipping therefore, is useful only if other mechanical working techniques cannot be applied or are not worthwhile.

Riveting Riveting is the permanent connection of two or more work pieces the rivet being put as a joint in a predrilled bore hole and formed on one or both ends. The riveted parts can be connected in a movable, fixed, close or fixed and close manner. For the connection to be undone, the rivet must be removed by destroying one of the two rivet heads.

Tool Grinding & Tool Grinding 2 & Tool Grinding 3 Sharpening is grinding and whetting of tools after their manufacture in order to prepare the cutting edges for use, i.e. mainly in metal cutting processes.
Furthermore, dull, worn out tools are made serviceable again by this technique.

Shearing The document is meant for training in trades which require fundamental skills and abilities of machining and processing sheet metals, pipes and sections. The document describes the execution of various shearing techniques for sheet metals and sections on shears of different design.

Steel Bending Technique of working sheet metals, pipes and sections. The handbook describes the execution of various bending techniques with tools, appliances and machines. The necessary calculations are explained with the help of examples.

Straightening Technique of working sheet metals, pipes and sections. The Handbook describes various techniques for straightening bends, buckles, distortions, dents and corrugations in metal sheets, pipes and sections.

Steel Heat Treatment Annealing, Hardening, Tempering - Course: Working techniques of heat treatment of steel. The present material has been elaborated for the training in professions which, apart from knowledge in the field of metal working, require command of the usual heat treatment processes. The material includes the description of various heat treatment processes on principle and the necessary devices and auxiliary means with their specific features of application. All working steps have been described by the material group of plain carbon steels (tool steels); given temperature data are not applicable for alloy steels; with regard to that, tables elaborated by the steel manufacturer must be consulted.

Engine Lathes Setting-up and Operating of Regular Engine Lathes. The regular engine lathe is a machine tool which gives a work piece the desired shape, dimensions and surface quality by chip removal. Creating a movement between tool and work piece, it places the tool on the point from which the chip has to be removed. The chip removal is carried out mainly by single-edged, permanently acting tools and serves to manufacture rotationally symmetrical work pieces required for high-standard machines and plants.

Turning Cylindrical Turning and Face Turning. See also: Lathe Recessing Recessing, Cutting-out and Cutting-off

Drilling Centering, Drilling and Counter-boring / Countersinking - Course: Techniques for machining of material. See also: Drilling 2

Knurling Cylindrical parts, such as screw heads, round nuts, gripping surfaces on measuring tools and all kinds of handles or grips which have to be gripped firmly, must have roughened gripping surfaces. Good grip of such gripping surfaces of operating elements is ensured by providing them with knurled portions. According to the patterns produced, the knurled portions are called straight knurling, cross knurling or spiral knurling.

Milling Machines Setting-up and Operating of Horizontal or Vertical Milling Machines. See also: Milling and Milling Face and End Face Milling and Milling Offset Faces and Groove Milling

Metal Shaping Machines Setting and Operation of Shaping Machines: Shaping machines are machine tools which by way of chip removal give work pieces the desired shape, dimension and surface finish. They produce mainly flat surfaces, shoulders, grooves and similar shapes. It is, however, also possible to make circularly arched surfaces. See also: Shaping Plain Surfaces and Shaping Angles and Shaping Grooves

Machining Metal (Course) On completion of this training course the trainees should have the necessary knowledge, abilities and skills to work with engine lathes, horizontal or vertical milling machines, horizontal shaping machines and boring/drilling machines.

Metal Working and Metal Working 2 The course comprises the following training units (TU): 1st TU: Chipping; 2nd TU: Riveting; 3rd TU: Grinding of Simple Tools; 4th TU: Shearing; 5th TU: Bending; 6th TU: Straightening; 7th TU: Annealing, Hardening, Tempering

Fitting Fundamentals of Fitting - Course: Techniques of fitting and assembling component parts to produce simple units. See also component parts: Pinned Joints and Threaded Joints and Feather Keys and Keyed Joints

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