The Village (of Texas) Blacksmith

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on this subject, so I think it's high time that I did so. Though I have not done nearly as much smithing this winter as I would've liked to I have gotten some accomplished. Here is what I have accomplished so far:
This is the "Hot Set" that I mentioned in a previous post. It is made of S7 tool steel; properly austentized and quenched, and tempered at 500 degrees. Though it looks rough and doesn't follow the traditional profile of a hot-set (which greatly resembles a hatchet) I believe in function over form, and this tool accomplishes it's intended function; that of severing heated metals. Of course it still needs a handle (as it is the recoil of the hammer blows is almost hard enough to break fingers!!!).



This is the beginnings of a large kitchen knife which, owing to my late delivery I may as well say was intended as a gift for my mother. This is a fragment of an old file (1095 tool steel) which I was in the process of seperating the blade and tang when I lost my ambition (both due to burnout and serous flaws in my forge). When I get around to finishing it I see the blade as being 6-8 inches long, and I plan on handling it with either stag (my preferred choice) or hickory wood.



A dual-purpose scraper I made for the TLEW railroad out of rebar (probaly the lowest-grade steel of them all, but adequate for the intended use). The flat end is sharpened at a 45 degree bevel, the flat end is square. Both ends are hardened (a relative term considering the extreme low hardenability of rebar), and the shank is left both unfinished and untreated.

The tools I used to make these: My (considerably undersized) anvil and a pair of cross-peen hammers. The right hammer is a 3 lb. cheap Chinese "Harbor Freight" hammer (whose brother, by the way, I recently managed to break at work!). The right is a 4 lb. Mexican hammer (a considerable improvement over the other) which cost more than both of the previously mentioned hammers combined! I also have a small ball peen hammer (a gift from my father), and I plan on adding a 2 lb. cross peen hammer to this collection. I would LIKE to add a 4 lb. straight peen hammer (identical to the pictured hammers, except the "pointed" end is parallel to the handle), however I think it unlikely that I will find one...