Everything Else

Hi there. My family has a vacation scheduled to go to Pigeon Forge at the end of this month. And for the most part, i am looking forward to the trip. But, there is a day where the family is slated to go to Dollywood and spend a day there. That is the part that I am not looking forward to. Due to my PTSD, i just dont do large crowds. i go from withdrawn and angry, to really really angry and blacking out (usually when this happens i tend to make lots of people cry). So I was wondering if there were any blacksmiths in/around the greater pigeon forge area that would be willing to babysit a traveling blacksmith for a day? id be willing to swing a hammer and help you with…

Last week I received some devastating news, and I am having a hard time dealing with it. To make a very long story short I'll just say that my so called partners in my parent's estate auctioned the house without my knowledge, and the new owners scrapped all of my machine and fab shop equipment, along with trashing all of the family items left in the house. The house and shop are totally cleared. 18.5 x 54 Monarch lathe, 14.5 x36 Monarch lathe, Van Norman #2 universal mill, Millport vertical mill, small Sheldon horizontal mill, Canady Otto camel back drill press, small drill press, 5hp vertical air comp, 7.5hp Kaeser air comp, 10x16 Clausing surface grinder, G&am…

Happy saint Patrick's day to everyone! Does anyone here celebrate and if so how?

The Society of Inclusive Blacksmiths has a mini-grant program for anyone who needs an extra $50 as a boost to their blacksmithing. If you want to invest in a decent pair of tongs, a secondhand angle grinder, some kastolite for your first gas forge, a weekend class, or whatever, check it out. The next drawing is on April 17, 2022 (I'm posting this on March 16, 2022), but they do run these on a fairly regular basis. You can find more information by googling "inclusive blacksmiths" and "mini grant". (NB: They also accept donations, so if you want to support this program or any of the other SIBs efforts, you can do that through their website as well.)

I finally got the easement to allow the electric company to run power to my shop; filled out, signed, notarized, recorded at the county courthouse, and handed in at the Electrical CoOp! Now comes the part where I start hemorrhaging money...Any money left over goes for powerhammer parts. When it's done however; I will have 200 amp service for my 20'x60' shop; Swamp cooler in the summer and lights in the winter! I guess I need to take the shroud off my old tombstone and clean out the dust and cobwebs and decide where the bader goes.

BBC has an article about 'Teen Cousins Starting Blacksmithing Business During Lockdown': www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-60381729 Of course being the 7 generation of blacksmiths in their family does give them a leg up....and they are only shown doing welding and cold work...

Make sure you y’all give yer sweet hearts a big ol smooch! if you ain’t got a sweetheart give your cat or dog a big ol hug an if you ain’t got one of them then go treat yourself to something nice! Like some heart shaped bolt tongs or a pink anvil!!!

I turned in my resignation a few minutes ago, effective in 1 month. Lets hope my retirement will be full of forging and empty of job stress! (And that I can afford to go to Quad-State every now and then...)

this is where i will be posting pics of this years wrangler trip (for those who don't know a wrangler is the person incharge of the horses, in my case for a hunting outfitter) i will also hopfully give some pics as i prepare for the trip keep safe y'all and don't burn yourselves when I'm gone M.J.Lampert

I am a blacksmith and knife smith here in Texas. I was wondering if Mike Romo was still active on this page. He posted about Lief Gonnsen several years back, and Lief was related to my family. I know Lief has passed now, but was wanting to see what information was available. Thank you in advance.

Ran across an interesting online article about buildings in London that have architectural details about the trades they were associated with. These are four terracotta friezes (represent forging, grinding, handling, and finishing) that were made for the the façade of the Livery Hall of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers by sculptor Benjamin Creswick (1853-1946), who had himself worked as a knife-grinder in Sheffield. The Worshipful Company was chartered in 1416, and the Livery Hall was opened in 1888. (All images © Jerry Young)

A step back in time, for sure. I'm pretty certain that I've seen similar dogs around, but never knew what exactly they were used for. Beautiful lines on the things and you can tell the smith took pride in the making. I'd assume that all the local smiths had their own special flair they added to set their kit apart from the rest. You can be certain that I'd never make one for someone to trust their life to, and I'm most definitely not going to work as a steeplejack!

Folks, I woke up this morning to blizzard conditions. Thought I was going to have to dig my way out. Luckily I’ve got a shovel on my truck. Kinda looks like a whiteout. What would you guys from up north recommend? Salt my driveway or rig some tire chains? I haven’t measured the accumulation yet but looks pretty significant.

I refurbished this extension cord in record time. Robert Taylor

Good morning everyone! I just stepped out on the front porch to have a cup of coffee and enjoy the balmy 17f weather, and I was greeted by this wonderful sunrise! So I thought I’d share it with y’all! does anyone else have pictures of sunrises From their neck of the woods?

I haven’t seen it posted anywhere yet but it’s New Year’s Eve! ill be honest I’m prolly not gonna stay up tonight to ring it in lol, but I was curious if anyone celebrates and if so then how? also does anyone got any good New Years resolutions?

I am renovating a Victorian Police House, with 2 front doors, one has 83 metal studs on it, we hope to replicate this on the other door which has been made to look like the original. There does not seem to be anything on the market to replicate these, all options are the wrong shape/size and/or too ornate. Ours are simple flat square (no bevelled edges) nominally half an inch square in practice varying from about 5/16 squareup t half inch, as they were presumably hand forged. they are nomially around1/4 - 5/16" thick and have a 3/4"-1" spike on the back (although we would hope for something closer to half inch if possible). We were wondering if there was anyone out t…

Followed a few rabbit holes on Bronze Age casting and such. Socketed axes, swords Roman plumbata… This article discusses wear marks on socketed hammers. Something that stood out was a bronze hammer reworking a bronze axe cutting edge was more of a planishing action. Which likely makes for nicely work hardened cutting edge. https://exarc.net/ark:/88735/10244

Well, it is after midnight (Mountain Standard Time) and now I can officially wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope that you all got good coal in your stockings. And here's to a good 2022. It has to be better than '20 and '21. If you are not a Christmas celebrator, also happy Hanukka, Kwanza, Solstice, or any other holiday of your choice. I appreciate all of you. You have been a major part of my getting through the Covid isolation. George

I saw an article the other day trying to make the case that all these Millennial generation workers are leaving the workforce to pursue their unemployed passions. Down in the details, they eventually mentioned some figures for retiring baby boomers. If you did the math, you'd notice that the huge number of retiring boomers pretty well answered for people leaving the labor market. It leads me to wonder if maybe the real issue is that Generation X is so much smaller than the Baby Boomer generation that we're seeing an inevitable demographic shift in the working world. I've seen articles which suggest that as many as 10,000 Baby boomers retire every single day in the…

In case your keeping count. Today is the final 21st day, of the 21st year, of the 21st century. And so winter begins.

Quotes for material pricing and lead times are double to triple where they were a year ago. I can't place an order without a few manufacturers doubling their lead time at the last moment. During my apprenticeship I was on a project where we built a factory from the ground up in less time than these firms currently need to make a few mundane light fixtures. Heck, I can't even get a quote from some manufacturers in a reasonable amount of time. I'd just love to know about honest efforts to clear the backlog.

Hello everyone, ive got an odd and possibly funny question, every one has heard the jokes ( in days of old when knights were bold…) sometimes the jokes aren’t suitable for mixed company and sometimes they are clean and funny but my question is where did the joke come from? Who started it? Was it part of a real poem? I tried googling it and of course got hundreds of hits telling the joke, but I was unable to find the origins I was hoping one of y’all gurus of random knowledge and facts might know were it came from? Lol

Since this web site is accessed around the world I have a qeustion of the tradition of "ringing the anvil" in memorial of someone who has passed away. is there a certain number of times the anvil is struck? or what is the story of the tradition in general.

Late 13th Century AD, Anatolia https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030544032100203X?dgcid=author