Biggusdan

I have quite a few questions as to what the stakes are used for (newbie alert!) once I clean them up i'll post some pics for identification. Thanks Dan

Thanks gents, you have put my mind at rest somewhat. The welding table is actually a bonafide one it comes with the bricks for gas welding/brazing and there is a steel plate underneath for electric. It looks like an older model as flamefast doesn't list it on their site.

Hi all I decided to bite the bullet and buy some kit. I managed to find a very nice swage block with stand and a load of tools nearby on ebay, the seller also had a professional welding bench so I decided to get that too. These all came from a school and apart from some surface rust on the tools they are like new. All tolled I paid £400 is this good?

Thanks for the input. I have been given a t/d blower but I have not seen it yet so cant say if it will be suitable or not yet. I was just wondering if anyone had used one before. My hobby forge set up has 1 1/4" inlet pipes with 8 10mm holes as the blast. In the pic I am using charcoal and the air is coming from the bellows (easy to control the air flow) I have already made up a slide valve for the inlet ready for the electric blower, once I have that I will be burning coke.

Hi all I was just wondering if anyone has used a tumble dryer fan/blower on their forge. I was tempted to buy a bouncy castle blower for my hobby forge but if I can get away with using a free tumble dryer one I will. Any thoughts? Dan

Well I picked up the bellows on sunday evening, there is no makers name on them anywhere unfortunately. They shift a fair amount of air so the valves work.The leather seems to be ok but I will condition it to make it more supple. The plan is to have it driven by a vintage stationary engine via a reduction box, I think it should have enough 'puff' to run two small forges for demo purposes but time will tell im sure.

Hi all I came across this on ebay and it was close and a real bargain. I go and pick it up on sunday so I will be able to have a closer look. It looks like it might be an Allldays and Onions but i'm not sure, maybe someone will be able to confirm that?

I plan to have a go at making a split feather from an old butter knife as a gift for a friend.

Thanks for the comments guys. It would appear that I have inadvertently made an extremely rare backwards swimming bass ;). Next one will be more anatomically correct i'm sure. Cheers Dan

Hi all, I decided to have a crack at making a Bass fish from 1.5mm alu sheet. This was my first attempt at a fish of any kind, I may have a buyer for it already and they also want a full size salmon too. What do we think?

They are arc welded on and filed back to near flush.

Here's the toasting forks I've been working on this week. I also made some copper roses, you could wrap the stem round a glass to create a vase.

Hi all, I managed to find an anvil today. I was told about there was one sitting in someone's car port on the other side of the town (about a mile away). I did a reccy and there was a man in the garden so I asked him if it was for sale, he seemed a bit defensive at first but after I told him I was a trainee blacksmith his mood changed and he said yes he'd sell it. We agreed on a price and it was mine. I gave it a spell with the wire brush and gave it a lick of paint, it has part of one foot missing but that shouldn't matter, I think it's around 35kgs. What do we all think?

Thanks for the kind words gent's. I'm really enjoying the work so far.

Hi all, I had my third visit to my friends forge yesterday (also my third ever go at smithing). I spent the day making companion set handles and forging the business end of a couple of pokers into a diamond arrowhead design. I thought i'd share a pic to show you all my progress, what do you reckon? :D