It's like seeing a magician reveal his secrets! Very nice.

Although a year old, I am finding all your videos relevant still. I am truly enjoying your work. Thank you for the inspiration sir.

@kevind7617

2 жыл бұрын

I just discovered him.. Been binge watching all day

Just figured out how the "view reply" function works. Here I thought John and I had something special. LOL. Actually, John, you are really good about answering everyone's questions. Can't thank you enough. But man do I feel old.

Now this is a topic that this old woodworker will use. I am not sure how I am going to heat the screws, etc. but it is exactly what I need for historic pieces I build.

@BlackBearForge

5 жыл бұрын

Hot enough to scorch the wax a little might be enough. Try full heat in the kitchen oven, then wax outside

dropped one on the dirt floor... its gone forever. LMAO. Been there.

Ive recently been making up countersunk bolts from de-zincified dome headed coach bolts, i made a larger heading plate, I like the smaller and more economical one youve made there. Also had to make some dome headed long bolts by using threaded bar, screwing a nut just down leaving a cm of bar poking up, welding the nut top and bottom and then sticking in the forge, this time reversing the heading plate so that the blob of excess was on top and then panning out the material. 2 of 4 worked out ok, the other two were still strong but you could see faint crack lines where the materials still hadnt perfectly welded. Its for a restoration job on a horse drawn wagon so these components need to be strong aswell as looking rustic too.

John I now change bolts to square as per your video. In addition I made a hardy kiss block with various thicknesses in a cross pattern. I got the idea from the kiss blocks used on power hammers. This allows me to make bolt heads square. Cheers from Western Australia.

Thanks for showing us quick versions for vintage looks. Defiantly looks better than a shinny bolt or screw.

The "dropped one on the dirt floor it's gone forever" had me laughing. So true.

Hello I’m a new subscriber and have watched a few of your videos and always enjoy them and only recently began blacksmithing and want to thank you for your time and knowledge and most of all for passing it along to those like me thank you again

Here from today's Hook Of The Week (HOTW tm BBF lol) Excellent. Simple concept that makes the end work infinitely better in the long run. It really shows true craftsmanship and attention to details above and beyond. As always, thank you J for your hard work and free education.

Another great lesson in blacksmithing... Thank you.....

This is so good.. was thinking about how I would make screws for my hooks a couple days ago and how bad the zinc plated ones would be.. Thank you! Will be trying the white vinegar.

Sure beats dismantling old barns for the hardware

@3870TheDad

6 жыл бұрын

Eric Wolcott especially if they are still in use. LOL ;-)

I finally found this video! Thank you for what you do!

Good advice and a good video. Thank you for your time and wisdom.

Good idea to speed up your production! Makes Good sense 👏 Keep up the good work and God bless 🙏

Learning alot from these videos thank you for taking the time to make them!

I was gonna say vinegar when you said it. I've stripped zinc off rings for chainmail with vinegar. The neat thing I is was heating the rings to cherry while still wet with vinegar, flattening them and the scale would crack off and the metal would be a nice purplish black.

I realise this video was published in 2017, a bit late for a comment! , but you might try removing the zinc coating by electrolysing your bolts and nuts in a concentrated solution of common salt in a plastic bucket using an ordinary battery charger or a 12 v battery using any iron bar or pipe as cathode (the negative terminal) and connecting the bolts and nuts to the anode or positive terminal. This is quick and simple and does not requires the use of corrosive acids that requires more care and knoledge. I love your video and admires your persistance in prodicing this sort of material for all.

Great info John thank you. New to the channel but any really enjoying catching up on your older videos.

Another great one. Thanks!

Thanks again. Little things become big things when added together!

Great advice as always.

Great advice! Great video. Thanks John.

Fantastic video, thanks for the insight! I learn a lot from your channel!

Great stuff! I'm an Uber novice at this point but learn so much from your videos. One thought I might offer - place a piece of old truck bed liner up against the siding and leave acid bath where it is - you have it well secured with the bricks and out of the way where it is. Bring the bricks up a bit and capping with a flagstone or the like makes it highly child resistant. Thanks again for exceptional videos!!

John that's pretty cool and definitely useful. Thanks so much. Can't wait to see more videos soon my friend. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Forge on. Keep making. God bless.

Great video and advice,Thank You for all the great info that you share!

Very nice to share this with us I just been healing enough to go and buy bonus and nuts thank you buddy very much

Thanks for the tip!

This is a bit of an older video, but I just used the entire process to replace the ugly, shiny lag screws on my gate. Only bit of difficulty I had was keeping the head from getting bent while squaring them up. An old leaf spring piece with a 3/8" hole made a great bolster to flatten the face and remove manufacturer's marks. Thanks John!

Great idea

thank you mate from down under love your work

Great explanation John ! Really enjoyed the video.. God bless you.

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

Thank you Roy, I appreciate it.

Agree with you Sir Thanks

John, 30% white vinegar is easily available and works fast. Not necessarily overnight.

Super useful, thanks for sharing!

I use a stainless cup, with holes drilled in it, to heat up things like those small screws/bolts.

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

The stainless would last much longer

Excelente... Maestro, saludos desde Argentina.

Those are good ideas!

wow that is a good one, very timely, thanks for the passive vinegar solution as well.

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

I generally don't worry to much about rust. It all turns to scale during forging. But if a part isn't going to be brought up to heat and forged it would become an issue.

So many uses for Johnson's paste wax. It also makes an excellent bullet lube among many other things.

I just use brass screws they look good with the iron

good to know, also for fixing or modifying commercially purchased tools (bent crow bars and such). I keep white vinegar around for derusting already, locked up to keep the kids out of it.

Squaring off hex bolts is definitely the only way to go. My forge is outside, and I know I probably shouldn't but I just go ahead and burn off the coating being outdoors.

You can find 10% cleaning vinegar at some stores

Thank you very much for the good ideas and for the video! Another way would be the medival way with long nails through the wood and bowed at the end. But may be that would be another video. Hanjo

@BlackBearForge

5 жыл бұрын

True, but few people like the look of clenched nails on their cabinets or furniture these days.

I just finished watching this video, & when you brought up the bolt you made for the challenge made me think about if you ever tried to make a bolster set to stamp in threads to reduce / eliminate filing the threads ? It seems that with a little prep work, it shouldn't be too hard to accomplish. Maybe weld up some angle iron for upright corners & sandwich a lag bolt. Might be video worthy ? Thanks for sharing. Not just this video, But all of them.

@torchofkck4989

2 жыл бұрын

I think that there's a number of ways to keep alignment... From a guillotine style frame, to a spring fullering design, to who knows what ? ... y'all are more indepth to more useful setups. Like always Appreciate your insight. Thanks again.

I know it is 5 years later, and maybe someone has already made this comment. I like blackening my hardware as well. When I do more than one at a time, I use a semi-disposable basket that I made out of some scrap steel. It has several small holes drilled all around it. I can put the hardware inside and place the basket into the fire so I don't accidentally lose any into the fire pot.

I know it's impractical (for at least two reasons I can think of), but after watching this, I can't help think how cool it would be to have a hand-forged metal cellphone case

This is a really handy video. I use white vinegar to remove scale, its just as easy to remove the zinc. I usually painted screw and bolt heads for our customers when installing vintage door locks or other hardware, because original screws are often lost and misplaced, but this is a much better idea, and I can do them in quantities ahead of time. Thanks for the how to!

@BlackBearForge

4 жыл бұрын

Glad to know the video helped out.

Keeping the white vinegar hot when soaking the metal helps speed up the process.

Great tips but I have found that you can strip the heads of the screws out really easy after heating and loosing hardness in the screw.

The one thing I hate most is taking off that blasted zinc plating. Thankfully, brass looks pretty good with the ironwork and finding large quantities of brass screws in various sizes is pretty easy. I really do have to knuckle down, though, and make up a few thousand blackened wood screws in various sizes. I use something like 1,000 per year just for the wall hooks I forge. Stripping that many, even when you break it down in batches, is a real chore.

I was surprised you didn't use the guillotine tool to make them an exact size. I am guessing you do when you have to. Thanks for all your great videos.

I use white vinegar often, also eats rust off! Great stuff, just don’t dump the waste on the wife’s garden! You will pay dearly for that! Makes a great environmentally friendly weed killer though!

I just use the white vinegar because it's non toxic, and if you leave it in there it won't hurt the metal. Small bolts and nuts don't take too long, but larger pieces can take a couple of days.

You can get 30% vinegar to remove it faster, it kills weed without harming the soil, like other poisons. Another good video & I agree that the hook looks better with "forged" hardware.

Would like to get a better look at that forge hood ur running thanx for all the videos u do there wonderful

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

I will try to do a video just about forges with a closer look at the hood.

Wonder how double strength/cleaning white vinegar would work. It has 10% acidity instead of the 5% you usually get at the store.

Great tip on the white vinegar. I know what I will be using for my spanners. I assume it would work the same with chrome vanadium plating? Thanks for the video.

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

Probably but I can't say for sure.

@shifty3453

6 жыл бұрын

Don't think so chrome vanadium is very hard and unlikely to come off.

@jeffreyquinn3820

6 жыл бұрын

Chrome vanadium plating is used for acid resistance, so the readily available acids like hydrochloric & muriatic probably won't do much. I don't recommend trying this unless you really need to, but chlorine and bromine from pool supply shops MIGHT take it off -- I know you can't use chrome-plated parts on chlorination/bromination systems -- but I have no idea how long it would take. I suspect the vanadium will slow the chrome reaction down a lot. Household bleach concentration probably isn't high enough. You could try this outdoors (indoors could kill people), but be sure to use full-seal eye goggles and a cloth mask to stop small droplets. (The gas will go through ventilators.) Bromine is safer because it doesn't form gases as fast as chlorine, which is why it's the better option for indoor hot tubs. (Yeah, former pool boy.) Sanding the item first to remove the thin chrome oxide layer may help as well.

@yeldarb141983

3 жыл бұрын

@@jeffreyquinn3820 I realize the chrome vanadium plating is used to resist oxidation, but could you use a simple electroplating technique in reverse to remove it? You'd probably have to watch it like a hawk so your piece wouldn't rust away, and even then, you'd have some rust to deal with, but is it possible? just curious.

Thanks for the great, informative video. I am making steel pipe shelf supports, could I heat those pieces on my grill (claims to reach 600° F on thermometer) and then wax them?

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

Thats plenty hot to melt the wax, 300 - 400 is probably hot enough

Thank you for showing what is a new technique cause traditional blacksmiths didn't have to de-modernise their bolts and hardware lol :-)

If you are doing them in large batches, squaring them up with the power hammer & a kiss block should produce a good square head of reasonably consistent dimensions. At least consistent enough for an old open end wrench.

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

They are so easy to do by hand I haven't seen much need to go to the power hammer. But a kiss block would guarantee consistency.

Kool

How do I harden a former zinc coated fastener after squaring the head? Just quench in oil after heating and squaring the head then temper in oven? I just twisted the head off one going into wood. Happily an easy-out saved me.

@BlackBearForge

5 жыл бұрын

Most fasteners are not hardenable. But if you have some that are It would be worth trying oil, then if it doesn't work try water

First like, comment and view? Sweet haha, great video John!!!!

I've been looking for a way to make the hardware look nice... I guess I was thinking too hard.

In my early 20s I worked at a place and did a lot of cutting and welding of galvanized pipe etc. I had the zinc flu quite often, it's horrible. I wonder now how much I may have shortened my life.

@aliceharvey3019

4 жыл бұрын

A friend of mine did a lot of braising on zinc parts, and others who weld zinc stuff told me they drink milk when they do. Not quite sure what that does, but some how it helps with something. So I'm told.

That heading tool ... does it need to be tool steel? or is it OK to make it out of mild steel if you are just tapering the bolt heads?

@BlackBearForge

5 жыл бұрын

They are better out of tools steel, but mild steel will last for a while. The holes need to be cleaned up from time to time because they start to mushroom in.

Johnson paste wax does what for the metal sheen and corrosion protection?

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

Exactly. Think of it like the seasoning on a good cast iron skillet.

I sure appreciate this video, sir. I don't think I'll brew an acid solution, but I will give the vinegar a try. I think I'll use the 5% solution that is referred to as cleaning vinegar. Is that what you use? Thanks, good job!

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

I think regular vinegar is 5%. But I can't be sure. I have not actually tried the vinegar myself yet, but have hear good results from lots of other people.

I many videos I see people use vegetable oil, paste wax or linseed oil to finish their work. Is there anything reason mineral oil or "salad bowl finish" (mineral oil and bee's wax) would not be a good choice? I am a hobby wood worker and use mineral oil and salad bowl finish quite often. I am just entering the world of blacksmithing. I love your videos and the explanations!

@samuelmellars7855

5 жыл бұрын

I'm not an expert at all...but it think it's because natural oils polymerize or "set" while mineral oils stay liquid. Which is needed to make sure the coating stays on.

I don't like the numbers that price tag has for u bolts made for my truck. What did they expect me to do? Pay them for shipping and handling?

John, thanks for the great info as always. One question I had-- do you ever modify stainless fasteners in this way? Though they cost more, it seems to me you could save time (and thus money) by not having to strip the finish first. Do you know if stainless fasteners tend to be solid stainless? Any reason you wouldn't want to put them in a forge right out of the box? Thanks, Steve.

@BlackBearForge

2 жыл бұрын

Its so easy to soak the plated one, I'm not sure it would be worth the expense. But I also can't think of any reason you couldn't

@stevenlamphere2028

2 жыл бұрын

@@BlackBearForge Okay, thanks for getting back to me! I mostly ask cause I live in an apartment and have no yard or anything, so not sure where I'd keep a bucket like this. Cheers!

Can confirm. Welded too close to zinc primer. Felt like $#!&

Hi John, I'm in Australia so I don't have access to the shops that you might have. I'm thinking of making my own linseed/bees wax mix. Do you have any suggestions as to the mix ratio? Another great video. Thank you very much.

@threeriversforge1997

4 жыл бұрын

Woody, you should be able to buy Paste Floor Wax at any of your hardware stores. Johnson's is a brand. Minwax also has a version. It's common the world over even if it goes by a different name Down Under. Mixing your own will be rather hit-and-miss, but I prefer more wax and only a little linseed oil. I want it to be a clump of wax that I can apply like shoe polish. Too much linseed oil and it'll be more like a paint and run all over the place. No fun at all. For the effort it takes, it's far more economical to simply use paste floor wax or even car wax that's mass produced. They all have a blend of beeswax, parrafin, carnauba and oils blended nicely together. If you get one that's in a metal tub.... those tubs are very handy once they're empty!

@stuffbywoody5497

4 жыл бұрын

@@threeriversforge1997 , thank you for the information. I've already got beeswax and linseed oil 😁 temperatures he are pretty high on most days (as you probably would have guessed with bushfires ravaging my country). So was thinking that it would be a bit easier to blend it without too much trouble. I was assuming that I wouldn't have to use very much linseed oil in the beeswax. I had thought of trying other products but don't really want the other additives that come with them. Many seem to have stuff added to them that make me a little unsure about using them. Thank you again.

Would using a galitine tool make a square head to a calibrated side work?

@BlackBearForge

4 жыл бұрын

It should

👍✌️

Hello everyone, please tell me wich solution was used to remove the coating from the screws?

@BlackBearForge

3 жыл бұрын

any weak acid. Even white vinegar.

Bons conselhos : QUE PRODUTO FAZ ESCURECER.

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

It is a paste wax used on floors. Apply while the iron is at black heat

I'm curious how you can tell if all the zinc coating has been removed, especially with a weaker acid like vinegar?

@BlackBearForge

4 жыл бұрын

They turn a darker grey once it Is removed.

@wilcooley

4 жыл бұрын

@@BlackBearForge Thanks! So you don't see the zinc flake off?

Couldn't you make lag bold thread dies so you could forge in the threads?🤔

@BlackBearForge

4 жыл бұрын

I have never seen one that cuts threads, but have seen them swaged in. Swaging would be very easy to get off.

I have bought a couple of old cabinets with rustic hardware and black sheet rock screws. How ugly.

Warm up your vinegar and it will work much faster.

@BlackBearForge

5 жыл бұрын

It does, but since it sits in a bucket outside, its usually just what it is. 2 day soak in the winter and an hour in the summer

blacksmithbolt.com will save some time. good products.

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

True, but I have found that they won't always have everything you need, plus they cost more than starting with fasteners from a commercial supplier. But I do use them frequently if I need a small quantity of a particular size.

@allenverman5153

6 жыл бұрын

i am happy to find a supply of such things, although you are surely right about cost from a cash standpoint. i must weigh making rivets etc with time, fuel and up front cost with available product which allows me to use it without remaking something.

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

Definitely agree on rivets. I almost never feel it's worth my time to make a rivet.

@allenverman5153

6 жыл бұрын

slotted head screws as well. the bolts etc are not something i use much anyway. since i also revive old furniture and such the screws are something i have had to scrounge.

Weird how people think a four year old video might not be relevant. Wtf? I wonder if they realize that blacksmithing has been around for centuries, and isn’t going to change much in a four year span. I wonder if they think books aren’t relevant? The encyclopaedia is pretty old.

John you could have made this video in 5 minutes or less !

@BlackBearForge

4 жыл бұрын

But then you wouldn't have had something to complain about

This guy talked for ten minuets before he did any work... To much talking.. less yack yack more wack wack

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

Sorry you didn't enjoy the video. But I do feel that while just hammering away is entertaining, it does not fully explain the details. My goal is to provide more education and not simply a reality TV show.

@scottjosen2606

6 жыл бұрын

There's other blacksmithing videos out there for you, some of those guys make funny faces and dance around the anvil but the vast majority I've seen seek to inform, instruct and respect the intelligence of their viewers. Jim obviously seeks to complement the community and does so very well with these highly informative offerings. All who I have turned on to these videos have been as equally impressed as I've been.

@jeffreyquinn3820

6 жыл бұрын

I work in a hospital laboratory, so any yack that keeps people out of our emergency room is highly appreciated. Also, for a lot of us "hobby forgers", this is a great starter project. I plan to buy and rent out some older houses over the next few years, and since nothing ruins old-house appeal faster than shiny new screws and bolts, this video makes owning a small forge and learning to use it look like a solid investment.

@BlackBearForge

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks, I’m glad the video is helpful

@stickywicketful

6 жыл бұрын

This guy needs to go back to watching Alec steele

Great idea

Taps and dies are not expensive, so you can always make your own nuts and bolts from stock even without a lathe!