RichardT

Thanks for the review, I've just ordered it! (happy dance)

This is bleedingly obvious, but nobody else has said it, so I'm going to... At every step that involves people standing by to "help", it is very important to clearly state that nobody is to try to catch it if it tips. I have seen with my own eyes a person who was otherwise intelligent allow instinct to take over and try to catch a tipping piece of machinery with serious results! Saying it out loud every time before you move anything may feel a bit silly, but is much better than having to explain why your neighbour's son has only one arm (or worse).

I bought mine from here: http://zoellerforge.com/flare.html (including the gauge) and I have to say I'm completely satisfied. Delivery to Western Australia was faultless, and the product meets my needs exactly.

I just made the mistake of letting my wife see this... Sorry Dear, it's going to be a while yet before I'm ready to have a go at something that awesome. If it's not too rude a question, I'd be really interested in knowing what you charged for it and whether it paid you well for your time. I have no expectations of quitting my day-job to make a living as a blacksmith, but I’d like to add it to my day-dream list of “things that’ll help pay the bills when I retire & move to the country”.

As this is a hobby for me and it's hard to justify buying everything I want, I'm always on the lookout for cost effective solutions. I found that my local car sports suspension shop regularly takes brand new springs out of brand new cars to upgrade them to lowered and/or stiffened custom jobs. The manufacturers originals (still with the stickers on sometimes) go straight to the scrap bin. When I asked if he had any old springs I could have, he said "Help yourself to whatever's in the bin". I managed to only take a sensible amount (two matched pairs of sets of leaf springs and four differing thicknesses of coils) on the basis that he'll still be there when I've used it up. Hope this helps some of you amateurs.

Well I guess I still have a fair bit of learning to go before I'm in Clinton or Frosty's position of gaining brownie points for my work. When I showed my efforts to my wife her response was a few moments of silence, followed by "Is it finished?" Oh well, I am only a beginner...

AndrewOC, The prices for the hot face blanket look like about what I was quoted. I went to an industrial foundry supplier and got chatting with the boss about being an amateur blacksmith wanting to build my own forge. He gave me some great advice and showed me what he had as off-cuts which made a much cheaper solution for me. There is a ceramic paint you can put over the blanket which reflects a great deal more of the heat back into the forge and dramatically improves efficiency as well as extending the life of the blanket which is not rated for the temps you’ll be wanting to achieve sometimes.

As the others have said, making your own is not too difficult, you just need to be a little inventive. Check out this site for useful design details and important safety tips. Read the whole thing carefully, I found it very helpful. He shows you exactly how to make your own, but also sells them at reasonable rates. Ron Reil burners My nozzle is a 0.9mm mig welding tip (5 for $10). All the other parts are standard plumbing fittings from the local plumbing supplies shop, with two useful recent additions. Since these photos were taken I have purchased a stainless steel nozzle, and a propane regulator with gauge from here. They have made controlling the forge MUCH easier. Hope this helps! Richard

I know this is a really old post, but I have to say it was a relief to read this... My wife finally bought me a leather apron because she was sick of me reappearing from the shed at dinner time in another smoldering holey shirt. I thought there might be something wrong with me, but it turns out there is a good support group so I should be ok. This little passtime has been great for my domestic productivity. I've all but given up weekend TV - if I can get the lawn mown, gutters cleaned, & tree pruned in time, I won't cop any grief for spending a few hours at the forge. Should be possible if I don't stop to eat. At 42 I can't belive it took me so long to find a hobby where I have more projects, plans, desires & ideas than I can ever hope to complete. And best of all, I really achieve useful stuff as a consequence. I just have to balance the whole making a tool to make a tool to make a project. She does like to see the odd completed project, and tends to tire a bit at seeing the latest "tool" I've made...

Love it - Seize the cold end!

It is actually in a portable hardy hole in the stump. If I'm ever lucky enough to get my hands on an anvil, I will gladly use it there. In the mean time, I'm in the process of making an "anvil" by stick welding leaf spring to a 40kg lump of mild steel I was able to pick up as scrap. Photo's of the "anvil" will follow in a different thread once it's done. Unfortunately, more conventional style anvils are either soft cast iron or rare as hen's teeth in Western Australia - I read with a small level of frustration about $1/lb good quality anvils for sale in the USA. As for long distance options, I'm reluctant to buy an unknown quantity over the internet with high shipping costs, and without being able to "touchy-feely". I was lucky enough to come across a 4" leg vise, which is my pride & joy, but it's really too high to add a fullering tool on top of. Even getting hold of a decent hammer is a challenge over here...

I confess I stole my design from Irnsrgn. I can see the advantages of the more open designs, but this one allowed me to work within my meagre talents. It is constructed 100% from truck leaf springs (generously donated by our local suspension modifying company who considers “Standard” springs to be worth less than scrap. Starting with a flat leaf (there are usually several in a spring pack) and angle-grinding lengths of spring into pieces, then using a length of spring as a guide, I was able to weld together an extremely robust frame that, without any skill on my behalf, has exactly parallel guides, with radiused edges, cost me nothing beyond a cutting disk & some welding sticks, and works a treat. Tools are constructed from spring steel, so they’re hard and tough. I guess it’s horses for courses, but since I benefited from Irnsrgn’s design (found in a blueprint last year), I thought it only right to share my humble alternatives which don’t require access to a milling machine. Cheers, Richard Showing the cut pieces resting on the "future die" to ensure accurate spacing before welding. The "finished" product in my stump.

My shop-bought mild steel wok gets treated after every use with boiling water, followed by a warm peanut oil rub. Seems to me that's good enough for the stuff I make too, but then I don't sell the stuff I make - there might be more complex ways of achieving a food-safe finish...

Hi All, Another (relatively new to the site) Aussie here. Excellent site all round! I am very much an amateur hammer-wielder, but have definitely been bitten by the bug and love spending as much time as possible with the little propane forge glowing. I have picked up a 4" leg vise (ex Midland Railways where my Grandfather worked his way up to foreman many years ago), but my current "anvil" is a 50kg lump of mild steel. I am planning to try and stick-weld a truck leaf spring to the top to give me a better working surface. I would be interested to hear if any experienced smiths have tried out the 97kg Doug Slack anvil. It looks like it'd be better than the cheap cast iron offerings I've seen, but not as good as if you can get your hands on a well looked after old faithful. I'm not at all sure that 320 BHN is sufficient - it isn't true to say it's equivalent to a 3000kg hammer, it's 3000kg resting on the ball bearing. It is possible to create a fair amount of force with a swinging hammer. I also figure toughness & rebound are going to be as important as hardness, and I just don't know how to work those out from the supplied information. Thanks again for the welcome & the generous sharing of information! Richard PS My kids made me the sign in my avatar (it's double sided) for Christmas, and I forged the eye-screws, s-hooks & angle bracket as one of my first solo efforts. A pair of tongs was the first job, as I was told anyone who wants to be a smith should learn to make his own tools.

Brian, Thankyou very much for your videos, they were both instructive and inspirational. I am one of five blokes who get together once a month to heat-&-beat steel. We started yesterday's day of smithing by watching your steel and clay videos several times, and then went to work with a much clearer idea of what was possible. I discovered that using the ball pein, half face, is a very good measure for just how much work I have to do in hammer control. That said, it is also a good way to improve hammer control, because the results are very good when accurate, and very obvious when inaccurate. Cheers from the other side of the world, Richard