clinton

Ya I had a guy tell me today that he has a forge and that my items had no place in his shop, so I invited him to a throw down at the forge and we could see who could make a better item, I left my card on his counter and walked out. I do not expect to hear from him anytime soon

$80 k a year- maybe I should move, wish I didn't have so much stuff it would take a couple tractor- trailers to move me

A lack of skilled welders? I have been right here and no one called me for that job. I did get a call from a fab shop that needs a structural welder, start on Mon, yes there is a need for skilled workers

Ya I think my dad just had to show us he still has what it takes, we both had a good laugh afterwards. Here are the bottle openers that I made And thanks Fe-wood for the hospitality and for the thumbs up on my "teaching" I have a long way to go but this is a step forward

That is why I will not be doing any festivals, craft fairs, ren fairs - people do not understand what goes into an item that is hand made, and I am not willing to lower my standard to accommodate a "cheap" sale

Take a look at some other anvil stands and use that as a fabrication design, you want the legs to be angled out some for stability, rectangle tube 2 inch by 4 inch is a good choice for the legs I know this would require a complete rebuild at this time, I would try to find a piece of heavy plate for the anvil to sit on 1 inch plate would be good, then weld the legs to this for a tripod stand. You could save the other stand and use it for a saw horse. I like to look at what other people are doing when I start a project and take that information into the design stage, find out what others are doing, if it works well I will use it

I do not quench the ones that I make but simply rub down with vegetable oil at a black heat, I just take a jar of whatever is in the kitchen and use a rag to apply

Ya it is a beautiful place, I grew up there and I do miss it. And yes we did have a good time, even managed to get thrown out of my dad's house (that was cool, thanks to Fe talking politics) oh the bourbon probably was a factor as well. And we were both happy with our tongs, thanks for the vote of approval ironstein

We did manage to get some work done, and we had lots to talk about over the weekend. We made a few bottle openers and a Brazeal style pair of tongs each. the tongs are for holding hammers during forging Fewood's tongs my tongs scale drawing Forging station

You are in our prayers

The sugar is for the bees, snack mix and beer is for me The anvil is a Tom Clark Ozark Pattern- yes magic

Wow that's weird it looks like the face started to delaminate and someone just cut it off. You can repair it by using the Rob Gunther anvil repair method, build up with weld metal using a hardfacing rod

I would say its probably a Mousehole anvil, that would be my first guess. It has the features that I relate to Mousehole- it leans forward slightly, the underside of the horn is abrupt not rounded off. Take a wire wheel to the side and see i you can find any markings. I think you did good that is a lot of anvil for the money

It looks like he said it right there in the title- anchor

Going upstate to spend a couple of days with Fewood at his shop, which is in my home town (well close enough) We will be forging for 2 days and working on way more projects than the time allows. We will have fun and share ideas and knowledge; what more could you ask for? Dog does not think too much about getting left behind

You may find that a tripod works better, they tend to sit better. And you do need to bolt it down to keep it from moving, no matter how big your anvil is

I do not prefer to use gloves for general forging, never on the hammer hand. Sometimes a glove is needed when holding a piece to forge, I use Kevlar in this situation. Also when I am doing certain hot work with hand tooling it is needed because there is so much heat in the work that you can not do it without a glove. I have seen smithing done where an asbestos glove was needed to withstand the heat. I am not a big fan of gloves but sometimes you do need them. I also use nitrile coated gloves for general work around the shop, they do not take heat well and sparks just ruin them, but they do have their place they prevent a lot of cuts from sharp edges and keep your hands clean

That's a lot of air- wow, ya seems like a press will be more efficient

Looking good wood- What is the gauge of the material? Do you have to anneal before spinning?

I think the tool you are asking about is a drill bit sharpener I stole this picture from another post, I would like to see how this thing works

It is a soldering iron used to soldier rain gutters or other sheet metal items

Wow that is a long journey, I hope I can make it up there, it looks like about 11 hour drive from here, 14 hours if I drive my Volkswagon. I will take you up on the offer of a round or two if I do get up there. It is hard to pass up an opportunity like this especially when you see someone traveling as far as you ianinsa. I need to start looking for someone to share a ride with.

I think JFK airport is in New York, which is on the other side of the country, unless you have a reason to be there a closer landing may work better for you. I guess if you arrive on the 3rd you will have plenty of time to get there by car. You are welcome to stop by my backyard shop in Salinas CA. I am thinking about going to the conference, but I need to find a ride share, as I am financially embarrassed (broke)

12 hour drive is a long way to go for an anvil

I have a set of the original Yater blocks and they are great indeed. This was a rare find of new old stock Yater blocks, they do not get any better than this