Forging at any wood stove with railroad track anvil

[IanS]

It would be cool if you could use the hacksaw to cut a piece of railroad track to use as an anvil. The way I'm imagining it, you could cut a piece of track and lug it back to a location with a stove, but it would be a big undertaking. It would weight 40-50 lbs, so it would be completely impractical to carry and require you to dump most of your items in order to move it. Cutting it would take all day and might ruin the hacksaw you are using if it has less than about 90% on it. Or perhaps it even consumes several hacksaws in the process and takes 12 hours or something. And if you can manage all that, you now have blacksmithing capabilities at your base. If it was to be totally realistic, you would need to either find or craft a bellows (which you could make with deer hide, scrap metal, and wood) to get the fire up to forging temp.

[Hotzn]

The idea seems a little weird to me, both from a realism and a gameplay point of view. 

[Rusty_Old_F250]

That could work, but you'd have to build a dedicated forge for it, a wood stove wouldn't stand up to the heat. Most "traditional fueled" (i.e. coal or charcoal) home forges get built out of sch 40 pipe, a brake drum off a big truck, and a hair dryer. A buddy of mine has one setup like that, works pretty good. We could feasibly build one the the game, but I dunno if it's worth it. It makes more sense to just travel to where there's one already.

I like the idea of a rr rail anvil, but it would be a lot easier to just find a piece of rail the right length. When track work is being done, the crews usually just toss any of the offcuts into the ditch and call it a day.

Sam

[Lovehandel]

If you started cutting with a hack saw now, you may get through a railroad track in time for the next apocalypse.

[akodo1]

You would probably need 20 hacksaw blades 

[Dug]

13 hours ago, akodo1 said:

You would probably need 20 hacksaw blades 

I'm with you one this. The idea of cutting through a railway track with a hacksaw (twice, no less) fills me with fear; it'd be a Sisyphean task that would never end - blade after blade blunted or broken, hour upon hour of sawing. Pffft - I'm losing the will just thinking about it.

[toebar]

worst youtube video ever... 

[Mpat120]

Im a Blacksmith IRL. I can tell you good luck with that, not enough heat in a wood stove without a blower, even with you would melt the cast iron/set yourself on fire before you got enough heat to actualy forge something, then there is the problem of tempering. Dont get me started on the Forge mechanics 270 degrees aint near hot enough......