Everything Else

I'm a biginer blacksmith looking for a teacher, I might be able to dozoom calls .

Frosty sent a message this morning to let me know about Thomas Powers and Glenn. I am sad. I planned to have a fire this week as it's cold but dry, and I'll raise a glass to each. The toast, "To absent friends," or "Fire is pretty." Maybe both. The fire I planned is to burn some scribbled pages for the new book*, which ash kept me underwater for the past year or so. There is no blacksmith in this one, though there is in the next (or the one after that) and I was hoping to get help for research, etc. from this community, esp. TP as he was a neverending fount of information. But sometimes the fount does end and to paraphrase Glenn, there are many here I think of f…

While looking through the catalog of the college's Art Library for blacksmithing-related resources, I found an interesting honors thesis by 2017 graduate Jacob Bradley Roosa on "Sound and Silence in the Forge: Work, Space, and Communication in Early Cistercian Monasticism". I haven't read the whole thing yet, but the introduction is promising. For those who'd like to take a look, the text is online HERE. (Seeing this, it struck me pretty hard to remember that ThomasPowers is gone. I think he would have enjoyed this, and I would have loved to send it to him.)

On this Veteran's Day I want to reach out to my fellow vets and say that we have shared a unique experience with our service that most folk will never completely understand. Today, and every day, stand a little straighter and be proud of what we did. The country is a better place because of our service and, for the most part, we are better men and women for our service. Even after we got out of the service we have been leaders and have been the people who get things done. The Anglo-Saxons called the man who stood beside them in the shield wall "shoulder brother." I salute all my shoulder brothers and sisters. George (late of 1/C/1/12 Cav, 1Cav Div (Airm…

Howdy everyone hope y’all are doin well today! has anyone heard from Scott/ NoDebt? He ain’t been on in a week and he’s not replying to texts I’ve sent him for several days now, it’s unlike him to drop of the map and definitely weird that he hasn’t responded on the phone I don’t wanna raise the alarm I’m hoping he’s just busy or maybe he lost his phone? I just wanted to see if anybody else has heard from him? lastly Scott if you see this send up a smoke signal an let us know your alright!

From an esteemed IFI member! Thank you so much!

Just a rant. What are your thoughts? I found a niche in the market awhile back, don't get me wrong I'm grateful, but making the same thing can get tiring. They're not special, anyone could make them but as far as I can tell nobody does. It's not life changing money or anything and it comes in waves but it does keep me from digging into my primary income to keep the hobby going. Sometimes I lose the passion to make them though and have to take a break. I suppose it's a good problem to have. I have no online presence, no online store but that day might come. I've been smithing now for 5 years so that seems like the next logical step. Maybe it's human nature, a…

This was filmed a few miles up the road from me. There's some stuff about restoring a forge in amongst the other bits: BBC iPlayer - Victorian Farm Christmas: Episode 2

Hello Forgers of Metal! Please bear with my lack of knowledge <3 I have only actually forged once with my uncle in his homemade forge almost a decade ago, though I can get the very basics someone might understand about metalworking. I'm an author currently working on a fantasy book series and, while it is fantasy, I am doing my best to research the science behind things I am less knowledgeable about so that those in a particular field could pose a question and I could answer it with above-baseline knowledge (such as astronomy to explain how black holes theoretically work, genetics beyond the Punnet Squares we were taught in science class, and my Bachelors in…

TV host Mike Rowe of show Somebody Gotta Do IT has filmed a show at Dragon Forge in Colorado to be viewed in early spring of 2015. Mike Rowe,s other shows include The Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs. Dragon Forge has been in business for at least 40+ years. Father and Son operation and produce highend ironwork for the trophy homes in the Colo. ski areas. Should be well worth watching when it comes on. Smokey.

Hey all, I just signed up for the Level 1 Curriculum course ABANA is running over the summer via zoom. Just curious whether anyone here had done one before and knew what to expect, had advice, reviews, etc. I'm quite looking forward to it. One thing I'm curious about that I didn't see in the description was whether your work was evaluated and you'd be eligible for the Level I certification at the end. I assume so, but you never know. Apologies is there is already a topic on this; I couldn't find anything manually or via a site search on Google.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to welding chairs which help a person with problems going from a standing position to seated and then back up?

Thought a few of you could appreciate this. Heard a sound and had to take a look at the video to be sure. Love that triangle Finnish Bluegrass band Steve'n Seagulls playing "AC/DC - Thunderstruck

I was unboxing some stuff from the move and came across this, it was in with a bunch of homemade machettes. My Grandma gave it to my mom and she gave it to me knowing how I like old things. Call it a glommer, grabber, picker upper, what have you. It's got rivits..... I wish I could use banned language to describe the cheap plastic junk they sell today. You can't even tear that "stuff" apart to fix it. Those plastic squirt bottles squirt twice and quit. I tried taking one apart and it's impossible without sawing. No wonder the landfills are bursting at the seams.

I got a notification via Youtube on new videos from Technicus Joe (aka Joey van der Steeg)...long time no post. When I opened the two new threads they were about restoring a Ford Model A car.????? Thought maybe his videos had been hacked. If you listen carefully to the audio, it appears to indeed be Joey's voice. BIG departure from blacksmithing.....!!!

Good or bad? It's coming fast. Do you think it can't mimic blacksmith or metal arts? Will we be able to tell the difference? It's a hideous idea, but there's no hiding from it. Robot blacksmiths, artisans, fabricators, artists, what have you. Do you think someday it wont even require physical robots? What do you think the end game will be? I would never quit doing what I do in the face of it, but I wonder about human creativity. It may not be on everybodies radar but maybe it should be.

my apprentice that work with me for 4 years a kid 15 to 19 years old is now working for the air force as a turbine mechanic + a crew chief in Valdost Ga on the base right now HE has what I call the NEED for Steel He is a welder & a smith that I have trained here !! Does anyone know of any smiths in this area ?? I can turn him on to ?? Ironwolfforge or IW thanks !! PS this Kid Aston is going places !! in his life He is just starting But !! He is way smarter than Most kids !! It was a Fun 4 years with him !!!!! I run a mom & pop welding shop & Fab & Blacksmithing since 1984 A to Z metalwork that's my background

Hide your hammers, hide your forges cause I have returned! Took a hiatus due to in law issues that prevented me from even touching a hammer last year, let alone forge something. Ill have to try and upload a few pictures of what I have managed to hammer out since I finally got to forge for the first time in forever this week and am happy with the progress I have made. I did manage to get a new anvil with much better rebound than my previous as well. Sadly, I spent the majority of my excess funds replacing my computer that died in December but the new one is quite the beauty. With what I spent on it, I could have bought a nice 2x72 grinder, a Chili f…

I had a moment today where I realized a few things I "knew" were connected in a way that I'd never considered before. I've long known of Occam's Razor; "The correct conclusion is usually the one with the fewest assumptions". Today I saw a reference to Hanlon's Razor; "Never attribute to malice, that which is adequately explained by stupidity". I'd definitely encountered Hanlon's Razor before, but today it struck me that I'd never asked myself why these things are called "Razor". Turns out a "Philosophical Razor" is a philosophical principle which allows one to eliminate or "shave off" unlikely explanations for phenomenon so as to avoid unnecessary acti…

Bring in Philadelphia on a business trip and finding myself with a six-hour chunk of free time between appointments, I took myself to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, wherein one may find quite a large collection of ironwork. Much of this was collected by Samuel Yellin on the Museum’s behalf; one of the following pieces is by Yellin himself.

I went to a glassblowing demo/festival recently. While not blacksmithing, it was interesting to see them working as a team as blacksmiths sometimes do. And with fire.... I love watching talented people do what they do. The first demo they made a human heart of all things. I tried to get a photo of it but they shoved it right into an oven too fast. I wanted to ask about slumping glass into metal but didn't learn much. It was at an artist colony and they offer a (too) basic blacksmithing class, but plan to expand on that in the future, so I'm keeping an eye on them.

Wife’s aunt sent me a picture of this thinking it is blacksmith related. Looks to be a set of saws and jewelry files. Any seen or used something like it.

I just found old documentary od this smithy and wanted to share it To this day this smithy work

Last month at a dig site in Japan in an old tomb researches found a bronze mirror in the shape of a shield, on top of it was a sword that was 7' 10" long made of iron. Along side a 13' long coffin. Researches say that the sword was made for ceremonial purposes or for use in the after life fighting demons. It is in a curved shaped, a Dako or serpentine shape. The coffin has yet to be opened but it is speculated that it contains the remains of a normal sized person and contains his treasures. Not much information on it yet but this is the largest and oldest sword to ever be found intact in Japan. I guess i should add that the site is from the 4th century. Not s…

Since we occasionally talk here about using the balls from a ball mill as the working surface of raising stakes, I though folks might be interested in another, totally un-blacksmithing-related use for a ball mill itself: pulverizing water frozen to -320°F/-195°C to create an amorphous type of ice with the same density as liquid water. Shaking Ordinary Ice (Very Hard) Transformed It Into Something Never Seen Before - NY Times