I have been a blacksmith/ fabricator/ machinist for 50 + years and i never tire of watching other craftsmen share their knowledge. And i still learn stuff!
Hi friend I just figured I'd ask you but im getting into blacksmithing and I've mainly been using a friends forge but I was wondering if you know where I'd go about getting my own.
@@BigVince80bce i just saw this two months later. Try Pie tool company. Its a blacksmiths tool seller online. You’ll also find forges and what not on ebay.
This comment had me dying and I had to watch it!!! Anyway I love this fella, as a beginning bladesmith I love this channel. Very informative and love how you show all the work and explain things. Will be an avid watcher of your videos as long as you make content sir.
Me and my wife just took a blacksmithing class a few days ago and I also made RR spike tomahawk. The gentleman that instructed us made it a very enjoyable experience, never took over, only pointed out where and why we running into any problems and told us how to correct it. When I expressed my long time interest in the craft he gave me a sizeable piece of railway track to use as a beginner anvil, and I just ordered my propane forge last night. I look forward to being able to use this video as a refresher when I finally get all of the equipment set up.
Thank you for doing the hardness test. I’m not the guy who picks a fight over that, but I am the guy who always asks about it! I’ve heard several times that those are mild steel, but I’ve watched plenty of guys make knives out of them. Yes, I understand they are novelty items, but they always imply that they are hardenable.
Well, the last two years I've been secretly learning about forging and Smelting. I wish I knew your channel existed. I've recently turned to UA-cam for a few educational purposes. With the right research one can learn quite a bit from people just like you. Thank you. Thank you for being.
I have been watching craftsman like you for several years now. It has been educational of course but also therapeutic in some ways. I cant remember the last time I gave any attention to television. Thankyou.
thank you Sir, I particularly like the miss hits at the end, adds to the realism of the video, and as always thank you for the wonderful lesson. take care and Happy Holidays!
Great video John! And thank you for the test. I also see lots of people arguing over rr spikes. I think it is an awesome place to learn how to forge a shape into a different shape. Are they great steel? No. But I would not be scared to say that hawk is better than some that are commercially available and will serve it's purpose well.
Going to have to make a set of those spike tongs. The moment that convinced me was when you used them like flat jaw tongs to pick up the spike by the upset end. Way more versatile than the other spike tongs.
Loved watching you make this. You do an excellent job teaching the process. The bonus was the final scene with you throwing it along with the failed hits and total misses. That cracked me up.
Great video John. Loved that you used your recent gifts and also the end was quite fun. I also agree with the direction of the spike point/blade. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Great video, again, Switzer. I have a huge bucket of spikes in my shop that I never touch. Maybe its about time I start making things out of them. I particularly like the hook spike ideas, but the Hawk is really cool too.
I was thinking the same thing! It's been of interest to me for a long time. I'm a flint knapper and make flint knives and I wanna get into steel blades as well. Maybe this is the year we'll both start our journey into forging. Best of luck to ya and some day maybe we'll get to the level we wish to achieve. Y'all stay safe and God bless
Nice slim axe and svelte handle, John. I've made a list of your tutorials and this one is a dead cert to make next! Many thanks, lovely video. ~Wendi UK 🌻
Thanks John! Great video. Definitely fills in the gaps where a couple others left a few details out. Guess what I’m about to go do? Make one of these little guys.
I love watching your videos, I find you very easy to listen to and I always enjoy seeing what you come up with. The axe throwing montage was very funny, I thank you for all your effort, skill and time you take to make these.
Been told by 2 good BlackSmith to quench mild steel in water and still not tool steel but improve the hardness. I'm surprised that RR spike has enough steel Seems you drew it out well. Thanks Mr Switzer for the teaching Sir
I would have never thought that there was enough material on a spike to make a tomahawk. It looks awesome. And Merry Christmas and a great new year. 😁👍
Great learning videos! I like what you teach us in your videos. I am a beginner in forging and I watch with a lot of interest to what you present in your videos.
I don't know how UA-cam has never suggested one of your videos to me before, but Facebook did some time ago, and I finally made my way here. Great stuff! Subbed!
John Merry Christmas here's to a Happy New year's ahead of you. I can't wait to see what you Forge up in the year to come. Very nice job turned out very cool. Big fan of the design of it. Hopefully you get great use out of it for many years. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work John. Forge On. Keep Making. God Bless.
This is the first video of yours that I've watched and you get an automatic sub! Fantastic work on the axe, AND the video work! Your presentation is perfect for educating someone like me who's just thinking about getting into smithing. Thank you! You've sold me on it.
What about flattening a ball bearing in splitting the head of the railroad spike in Forge welding the ball bearing steel to the railroad spike Steel, then either upset the pointed end to utilize as a hammer head.
It looks like you may have made your own Christmas present. Thanks for the explanation about the letters on the back of the spike and what it means. I had heard that they weren't good for much more than paperweights after they had been used.
Hello John Niche little tomehawk good for bushcraft and when needed for defence . Thank you for the idea and the sharing of your skills Take care Yours Frank Galetzka
I think your videos are great I've learned some much about blacksmithing I'm almost 16 now and I watch your videos because I want to have some what of a side business as a blacksmith when I hit my goal to be a farmer I've always wanted to have a farm and make my own tools and sell some to the community I hope you have a good day and thank you for making these videos
Reminds me of a RR spike knife video a few years ago, sliced rope, chopped wood, cut paper, but had debatable acceptance, depending on the intended usage.
Very good job 👌👍 on the video ! In the black smithing books they talk about steel you can find , and about what hardness they are . I think at one time railroad spikes my have been harder than what they are now . A lot of the older books mentioned that spikes are harder . Now they know they don't need to be that hard so it's cheap & good enough so that's what they are . I think there neat + if you know people that like trains then you really want to leave that nail head on it . Again good job
I think that railroad spike hawks look awesome enough to initiate a piece of high carbon steel Forge welded into it. I think they look I think that particular hawk there is awesome looking and I think it would be worth putting a high carbon bit. Will be a little extra work, but I think you would really have a really serviceable little mouse. Most of the people that tomahawks use like a 1040 a real low carbon steel with a welded bit and those as well so just an idea.
Nice video John! the tomahawk turned out awesome! as far as the heat treat, I use an aggressive brine solution for spikes and they get near a 55 rockwell, its called a super quench and its 5 gallons of water, 5 lbs of salt, and a bottle of dish soap, I was able to make a nice paring knife for my mom out of a spike and the quench got it 50 - 60 rockwell.
@@BlackBearForge Robb Gunter's "Super Quench" 5 gal water 5 lb Salt 32 oz Dawn (blue) dishwashing liquid (28 oz if it says "concentrated" on the label) 8oz Shaklee Basic I or 7oz UNSCENTED Jet-Dry or other surfactant (like Simple Green) of appropriate quantity for 5 gal mix (wetting agents) The Jet-Dry (or whatever you use for a rinse agent) does something chemically to the surface of the steel. It allows the salt in the mix to start attacking it as soon as it hits the air - make sure you have a LOT of clear water to rinse in ready at hand. These surfacants are wetting agents. They break down the surface tension of water allowing it to make contact with a material. We've all dipped a cold piece of metal in water and seen a bubble-like "skin" form with dry metal under it. This is surface tension trapping a layer of air, it makes a fair heat shield. In a quench, steam will form a similar surface "skin" and prevent full contact with the water, insulating the steel from a proper chill. Wetting agents prevent the "skin" from forming. Detergents do a somewhat similar job, they're emulsifiers allowing oils and water to mix. This prevents any oily residues from the fire from forming a "heat shield" surface layer. The salt in the water raises the specific heat of the water and draws the heat from the steel faster. Stir it up to get it moving before you quench. Don't quench anything with more than 45- 50 points of carbon. It's color coded - when you've exhausted the usefulness of the quench, it'll shift color from blue to green.
It is still only surface hardening... Rail spikes are 0.12% carbon and 0.30% carbon for HC spikes.. So while you can surface harden them it wont penetrate deeply as spikes are mild steel and wont through harden... That being said, you can spit the end when forging and insert a high carbon bit in and forgeweld it in order to have a high carbon steel edge.
A friend of mine whipped up one of these things. It's been surprisingly handy. Think of it as a cutting wedge with a handle. Root cutter, welding hammer, and a fair felling wedge
It's been a while since I've made one of these. I think I'll try another. I'm going to try using a short, wide handled chisel under the inline treadle hammer to open the eye this time. Last ones I made, I used too narrow and small of a chisel and ended up stretching the sides of the eye a bit too much. Nice video, Merry Christmas John, thanks for all the content!
That does look like a fun project. You could make a bunch for friends then meet up and play with them. That amount of temper seems a good compromise as you would not want them too hard anyway for when they hit the ground or rocks or whatever. If you really wanted I'm assuming one could forge weld in a hard piece for the edge. I hope you had a relaxing Christmas and took a break from all your video production.
I was splitting some kindling wood other night with a hatchet .. the handle is too smooth ,,, plus I had gloves on ,, well 5 stiches in my leg above me knee .. watching you split that board I was getting flash backs ,, works nice , only problem if you were splitting with it all the time would be the spike head catching on the firewood ,, thumbs up on the video
I have been a blacksmith/ fabricator/ machinist for 50 + years and i never tire of watching other craftsmen share their knowledge. And i still learn stuff!
Hi friend I just figured I'd ask you but im getting into blacksmithing and I've mainly been using a friends forge but I was wondering if you know where I'd go about getting my own.
@@BigVince80bce i just saw this two months later. Try Pie tool company. Its a blacksmiths tool seller online. You’ll also find forges and what not on ebay.
@@beshkodiak thanks mate, I'll give the websites a look
U know Right!!🖒
What kind of charcoal you used sir?
I love the montage at the end; where the throws start good, and quickly go badly. Very funny.
Yeah same here!! That *woosh* cracked me up!! 😂
This comment had me dying and I had to watch it!!!
Anyway I love this fella, as a beginning bladesmith I love this channel. Very informative and love how you show all the work and explain things. Will be an avid watcher of your videos as long as you make content sir.
Yeah, especially that in UA-cam videos, they usually cut the bad ones so that it looks like a perfect hit first time.
@@J1I9M7M4Y I died at the pause and then the whoosh as well!
Me and my wife just took a blacksmithing class a few days ago and I also made RR spike tomahawk. The gentleman that instructed us made it a very enjoyable experience, never took over, only pointed out where and why we running into any problems and told us how to correct it. When I expressed my long time interest in the craft he gave me a sizeable piece of railway track to use as a beginner anvil, and I just ordered my propane forge last night. I look forward to being able to use this video as a refresher when I finally get all of the equipment set up.
How's your journey going two years later?:)
Blacksmithing has always fascinated me. Love watching these and glad you talk through what you're doing.
I come back to your channel frequently. Your insightful comments are absolute gold. Nice work, thanks for sharing. 👍
great video! that cartoon sounding whoosh at 16:59 had me dying
I like how you included the misses at the end.
Very nice video John. Your instructional videos are always worth watching. This rendition of a tomahawk from RR spike is pretty sweet.
Glad you enjoyed it
Thank you for doing the hardness test. I’m not the guy who picks a fight over that, but I am the guy who always asks about it! I’ve heard several times that those are mild steel, but I’ve watched plenty of guys make knives out of them. Yes, I understand they are novelty items, but they always imply that they are hardenable.
Well, the last two years I've been secretly learning about forging and Smelting.
I wish I knew your channel existed.
I've recently turned to UA-cam for a few educational purposes. With the right research one can learn quite a bit from people just like you.
Thank you.
Thank you for being.
I have been watching craftsman like you for several years now. It has been educational of course but also therapeutic in some ways. I cant remember the last time I gave any attention to television. Thankyou.
thank you Sir, I particularly like the miss hits at the end, adds to the realism of the video, and as always thank you for the wonderful lesson. take care and Happy Holidays!
Thanks for showing us that last throw! Gave me a good laugh and shows how genuine you are-no one is going to throw perfectly every time :P
My pleasure!!
Your little t;rowing demo at the end was welcome it got a smile out of me.🙏
Great information and instruction as always. I also appreciate the inclusion of the missed throws - we're all human and imperfect.
I had a good laugh at the montage from the end. Nicely done John.
That got harder than what I thought it would. Another great video. Thank you!
Nice work John, your perception of things to make from railroad spikes is quite amazing.
Turned out great. Think I'll give this a shot. Looks like those new spike tongs are working great.
Great video John! And thank you for the test. I also see lots of people arguing over rr spikes. I think it is an awesome place to learn how to forge a shape into a different shape. Are they great steel? No. But I would not be scared to say that hawk is better than some that are commercially available and will serve it's purpose well.
Going to have to make a set of those spike tongs. The moment that convinced me was when you used them like flat jaw tongs to pick up the spike by the upset end. Way more versatile than the other spike tongs.
I had the same thought process.
I'm a wood guy but I have always admired black smithing 😊
I'm making this for sure! Plus it's a good excuse to add a new drift to the collection 😉
Hello John! My favorite thing is when you make tools! Cool! I wish you a Merry Christmas from Poland.
Loved watching you make this. You do an excellent job teaching the process. The bonus was the final scene with you throwing it along with the failed hits and total misses. That cracked me up.
Great video John. Loved that you used your recent gifts and also the end was quite fun. I also agree with the direction of the spike point/blade. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Absolutely fantastic video
Glad you enjoyed it
One of the best videos I’ve seen in a while, John. Thanks for the gut rolling laugh you caused at the end. Love it!
-
Good video, those spikes have so many uses, very cool. Thanks, Clinton
Loved the 'wiff' near the end.
Fun. Thanks!
Great video, again, Switzer. I have a huge bucket of spikes in my shop that I never touch. Maybe its about time I start making things out of them. I particularly like the hook spike ideas, but the Hawk is really cool too.
Wow! Turned out nice! Looks like it throws good too!
Nicely done. One day I will start forging. Love the channel
I was thinking the same thing! It's been of interest to me for a long time. I'm a flint knapper and make flint knives and I wanna get into steel blades as well. Maybe this is the year we'll both start our journey into forging. Best of luck to ya and some day maybe we'll get to the level we wish to achieve. Y'all stay safe and God bless
@@BM205 God bless
Nice slim axe and svelte handle, John. I've made a list of your tutorials and this one is a dead cert to make next! Many thanks, lovely video. ~Wendi UK 🌻
Thanks John! Great video. Definitely fills in the gaps where a couple others left a few details out. Guess what I’m about to go do? Make one of these little guys.
Love the miss at the end. Thanks for all your hard work this year. Great vid
Woweewow! Super project. I definitly want one of these. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you .I I enjoy your work Iam starting smithing your videos have helped me understand things better
Glad to help
love loggin onto youtube and seeing that you uploaded, great videos. always helps me relax
you make it look so easy, especially making blade
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Nice closing shot there!
a sense of humor is a good thing!
I love watching your videos, I find you very easy to listen to and I always enjoy seeing what you come up with. The axe throwing montage was very funny, I thank you for all your effort, skill and time you take to make these.
Been told by 2 good BlackSmith to quench mild steel in water and still not tool steel but improve the hardness.
I'm surprised that RR spike has enough steel Seems you drew it out well.
Thanks Mr Switzer for the teaching Sir
Very interesting, thank you for sharing.
I would have never thought that there was enough material on a spike to make a tomahawk. It looks awesome. And Merry Christmas and a great new year. 😁👍
Great learning videos! I like what you teach us in your videos. I am a beginner in forging and I watch with a lot of interest to what you present in your videos.
amazing gifts!! i love to forge them, you're the grandfather/father i always wish i had.
I don't know how UA-cam has never suggested one of your videos to me before, but Facebook did some time ago, and I finally made my way here. Great stuff! Subbed!
Welcome aboard!
LOL when it completely missed the target was hilarious. Great video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I just clicked on the notification but i already know i love it!!!
Nice job best one I have seen yet
Great work John, that's a nice tomahawk!
very nice , lots of great pointers !!!
Hope you had a Merry Christmas John.
Thanks John, very nice once again. Joe from Wisconsin
I'm trying this tomorrow. Amazing work btw
A very well done video. Your ending was perfect.
I really appreciate this video. It contains valuable information and knowledge. Thank you kindly black bear forge.
Love your vidoes,videos, haven't ever forged anything, I have watched you for a few a few yrs now,I love what you do
Looks great, I like how you spread the cutting edge out, thanks for posting 👍
John Merry Christmas here's to a Happy New year's ahead of you. I can't wait to see what you Forge up in the year to come. Very nice job turned out very cool. Big fan of the design of it. Hopefully you get great use out of it for many years. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work John. Forge On. Keep Making. God Bless.
This is the first video of yours that I've watched and you get an automatic sub! Fantastic work on the axe, AND the video work! Your presentation is perfect for educating someone like me who's just thinking about getting into smithing. Thank you! You've sold me on it.
Welcome to the family
@@BlackBearForge thanks for having me. Ummm. When do we eat? :D
Really nice hawk. Great video. Thanks for sharing.
This is actually a great idea, thank you for the inspiration
Love this man’s shop and his work!
After watching this video I had to subscribe. This was a great tutorial!
What about flattening a ball bearing in splitting the head of the railroad spike in Forge welding the ball bearing steel to the railroad spike Steel, then either upset the pointed end to utilize as a hammer head.
It looks like you may have made your own Christmas present.
Thanks for the explanation about the letters on the back of the spike and what it means. I had heard that they weren't good for much more than paperweights after they had been used.
Turned out great John...i do at some point need to make more of these.
I love your great work and fun projects! I hope to do this myself soon!
A nice and simple hawk. Pretty useful I'm sure. 👍
Splendid work 👍
Hello John
Niche little tomehawk good for bushcraft and when needed for defence .
Thank you for the idea and the sharing of your skills
Take care
Yours Frank Galetzka
I think your videos are great I've learned some much about blacksmithing I'm almost 16 now and I watch your videos because I want to have some what of a side business as a blacksmith when I hit my goal to be a farmer I've always wanted to have a farm and make my own tools and sell some to the community I hope you have a good day and thank you for making these videos
Fascinating to watch you work, truly art.
Merry Christmas! Love the video
Reminds me of a RR spike knife video a few years ago, sliced rope, chopped wood, cut paper, but had debatable acceptance, depending on the intended usage.
Amazing Job John great work with a railroad Spike thanks for sharing hope you had a great Christmas and I wish you a happy New Year
Thanks, you too!
Very good job 👌👍 on the video ! In the black smithing books they talk about steel you can find , and about what hardness they are . I think at one time railroad spikes my have been harder than what they are now . A lot of the older books mentioned that spikes are harder . Now they know they don't need to be that hard so it's cheap & good enough so that's what they are . I think there neat + if you know people that like trains then you really want to leave that nail head on it . Again good job
Looks nice John, and I appreciate the highlight real at the end! I was concerned for a minute that you were a professional tomahawk thrower as well. 🙂
Newbie here, I really appreciate you explaining the steps is basic terms ! Bless you for sharing your knowledge! Can’t wait to make my own someday
Glad it was helpful!
Awesome piece of work sir...I enjoy hawk throwing but enjoy watching them being made more. If u make another one I'd be interested in buying one.
This was a joy to watch. Beautiful work
Great editing choices on the missed throws!
Glad you enjoyed it
Very good and informative video. Thank you!
Great job John, turned out to be a great throwing hawk. Stay safe, fred 🙏🏻🙏🏻👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻✋🏻✋🏻
I think that railroad spike hawks look awesome enough to initiate a piece of high carbon steel Forge welded into it. I think they look I think that particular hawk there is awesome looking and I think it would be worth putting a high carbon bit. Will be a little extra work, but I think you would really have a really serviceable little mouse. Most of the people that tomahawks use like a 1040 a real low carbon steel with a welded bit and those as well so just an idea.
Awesome video and a great little tomahawk
Thanks 👍
Nice video John! the tomahawk turned out awesome! as far as the heat treat, I use an aggressive brine solution for spikes and they get near a 55 rockwell, its called a super quench and its 5 gallons of water, 5 lbs of salt, and a bottle of dish soap, I was able to make a nice paring knife for my mom out of a spike and the quench got it 50 - 60 rockwell.
I have wondered about that. I just try not to have any more buckets of stuff around the shop. Will super quench freeze in cold weather?
@@BlackBearForge
Robb Gunter's "Super Quench"
5 gal water
5 lb Salt
32 oz Dawn (blue) dishwashing liquid (28 oz if it says "concentrated" on the label)
8oz Shaklee Basic I or 7oz UNSCENTED Jet-Dry or other surfactant (like Simple Green) of appropriate quantity for 5 gal mix (wetting agents)
The Jet-Dry (or whatever you use for a rinse agent) does something chemically to the surface of the steel. It allows the salt in the mix to start attacking it as soon as it hits the air - make sure you have a LOT of clear water to rinse in ready at hand. These surfacants are wetting agents. They break down the surface tension of water allowing it to make contact with a material.
We've all dipped a cold piece of metal in water and seen a bubble-like "skin" form with dry metal under it. This is surface tension trapping a layer of air, it makes a fair heat shield. In a quench, steam will form a similar surface "skin" and prevent full contact with the water, insulating the steel from a proper chill. Wetting agents prevent the "skin" from forming.
Detergents do a somewhat similar job, they're emulsifiers allowing oils and water to mix. This prevents any oily residues from the fire from forming a "heat shield" surface layer. The salt in the water raises the specific heat of the water and draws the heat
from the steel faster.
Stir it up to get it moving before you quench. Don't quench anything with more than 45- 50 points of carbon.
It's color coded - when you've exhausted the usefulness of the quench, it'll shift color from blue to green.
It is still only surface hardening... Rail spikes are 0.12% carbon and 0.30% carbon for HC spikes.. So while you can surface harden them it wont penetrate deeply as spikes are mild steel and wont through harden... That being said, you can spit the end when forging and insert a high carbon bit in and forgeweld it in order to have a high carbon steel edge.
@@BlackBearForge probably will freeze if it gets below 0. Maybe even in single digits.
I definitely want one of those axes. Super cool.
Hey you're really informative now it's my time to make one or a dozen it's my hobby and I love it so thank you for sharing this
A friend of mine whipped up one of these things. It's been surprisingly handy. Think of it as a cutting wedge with a handle. Root cutter, welding hammer, and a fair felling wedge
It's been a while since I've made one of these. I think I'll try another. I'm going to try using a short, wide handled chisel under the inline treadle hammer to open the eye this time. Last ones I made, I used too narrow and small of a chisel and ended up stretching the sides of the eye a bit too much. Nice video, Merry Christmas John, thanks for all the content!
Shore looks nice
That does look like a fun project. You could make a bunch for friends then meet up and play with them. That amount of temper seems a good compromise as you would not want them too hard anyway for when they hit the ground or rocks or whatever. If you really wanted I'm assuming one could forge weld in a hard piece for the edge. I hope you had a relaxing Christmas and took a break from all your video production.
Liked the keeping real with showing the miss throws.
Made me lol.
I was splitting some kindling wood other night with a hatchet .. the handle is too smooth ,,, plus I had gloves on ,, well 5 stiches in my leg above me knee .. watching you split that board I was getting flash backs ,, works nice , only problem if you were splitting with it all the time would be the spike head catching on the firewood ,, thumbs up on the video
Watched the whole way through great watching the process and funny ending! Great job and thanks for making this video
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great vid! My next project. Thank you!!
Great job