Iron Clad

Do you mean he has to give you $2 to take the anvil?? :D

Good ideas John! I'm thinking of making another one for my home shop. It seem's faster and easier to use than setting up my guillotine for fullering, especially if I have different dies already in the guillotine.

Wow, this is great!!! I'm really having fun reading all of the stories! Thanks, everyone for the reply's. Let's keep it going... :D

Nice stand and block! I made my stand using 2x6 pressure treated lumber, basically building a box with a slot on top to fit the swage block. It's hard to describe, I need to take pictures I guess. Anyhow, it works good.

Hey Monster, 10% ???? I wouldn't give him $1.29 for that anvil !!!! :lol:

Well, since you live in West Virginia, try Colonial Williamsburg. They have a great apprenticeship program there. I don't know what the qualifications are to get into their program though. There are colleges that teach metal working and blacksmithing as well. If I were young and starting out I would take some art classes also. I hear that some professional shops offer apprenticeships, perhaps others on this forum can give you more detail. Good luck.

Nice anvil. What was the deciding factor in your decision? I chose the Nimba for myself. Either way both are very nice. And your right the mass makes a lot of difference! EDIT......Forget that question, I just re-read your post. Enjoy your new anvil! :)

Well, I don't know about that. I made it the way Mark described in his book and after trying it out, the bar I fullered went in easy. Perhaps it's a personal choice thing.

Thanks, Bill. Since my hardy hole is 1" square, I used 1/2" round bar as per Mark's book describes. This was just plain hot rolled steel.

Yep, sure is. Ya, I used it a little yesterday. Sure hits hard! Can't wait to use it more, however at this time I'm making tools and such for the Shaniko shop. I made a round tenon on the end of a 1/2" square bar with the treadle hammer and never touched it with my hand hammer. Just used a monkey tool to finish things up. It worked qreat!

Thanks guys. Ya, I love that anvil. Nothing like hammering on a big anvil. The wide face is the best part! :D

My project today was to make spring fullers the design of which came from Mark Aspery's book "Mastering The Fundamentals of Leaf-Work". I made these to use in my other shop. In my home shop I usually us a guillotine but I decided to go simple in my other shop. http://ironclad.shutterfly.com/43 http://ironclad.shutterfly.com/44 What do you think?

This is great! I like hearing about your shop names. Celtic...Flute forge?? I thought it would be Celtic Forge! That's interesting. Great reply's. Lets keep it going!! :)

What is the name of your blacksmith shop or business and what is behind the name if anything? Mine is the " Iron Clad Forge ". Not too much behind the name. One day a few years ago when my son was in high school I was helping him with some research for a paper on the Civil War. When we came across info. on the iron clad war ships, I thought well, "Iron Clad" Forge would be a good name for my shop... Perhaps because the word "Iron"... I don't know..... How about yours???

This is definitely a great book. I don't own it yet, but I borrowed it from the NWBA library. It was in German, however the pictures alone was worth the hours I spent with the book.

I would just use the anvil. It doesn't look that bad. Most anvils will dent when hit. The idea is to learn hammer control to the point to where you don't miss! When I teach blacksmithing to newcomers, I grab a piece of 2x4 wood and have them strike that for awhile before they ever hammer steel on my anvil. The idea is hammer control, proper swing, and hitting the same spot every time. After that they can hammer steel on my second older anvil! :unsure:

When the top of my punches start to mushroom I grind then back to round and put a chamfer on the end.

I use nothing but oak barrels, then again I'm in a wet climate. However, in the dry summers I never have any problems. just keep the barrel full. Remember, they held whiskey for a long time without leaking!! If the barrel has been empty for awhile, you will have to let it soak until the wood expands to be leak free. I usually run a water hose in the barrel letting it overflow for a few hours, this usually does the trick. Once, I had a barrel that was so dry that a person could see between the barrel slats. I threw that one in a river and held it down with rocks. A couple of days later, no problem.

It could be that your dinner bells were just hot enough for most of the wax to run off during application and quenching removed even more. Dinner bells tend to be of larger dia. material and hold heat longer. I never quench after bee's wax application, I hang the item and let it cool naturally. Sometimes I heat the steel near the point of bee's wax combustion, coat with bee's wax then let it sit for a minute or two, then re-coat again while the steel is still hot enough to melt wax. Basically a double coat. For interior items, sometimes I heat the steel and add bee's wax, let it sit for about 30 seconds, then rub down with a clean shop rag. This adds just a thin coat of wax, usually not even noticeable. Other applications I use is linseed oil mixed with bee's wax and other times automobile wax.

After two reply's myself and after reading all of the other reply's I just have to say one more thing.... Recently I forged 40' of interior railing for a customer, and of course he wanted it on the cheap with all of the pickets welded in. For the first time I agreed to do a large project with welds. I have to tell you that I will never do it again. I hated every moment of that project, with all of the welding and grinding. For me, part of the fun and enjoyment of this craft is sticking to traditional methods as close as I can. HOWEVER, I'm not a full time blacksmith and I fully understand why modern methods must be employed. I don't know how a full time shop could survive without modern methods. I participate in this craft for many reasons. First is the fact that I enjoy studying history, so traditional methods most appeal to me. Many times when trying to reproduce a complicated piece from say like the 1700's, I end up saying to myself "How in the heck did they do that?". So goes the reasearch along with trial and error. Now I don't always try to reproduce old stuff, I like trying to come up with my own designs as well. When it comes right down to it, everyone must do what's best for themselves. The great thing is that we all like to work with metal in one form or another. I just bought a treadle hammer from a friend, and I'm thinking of buying a power hammer. Did I just contradict everything I just said? :o

Great pictures Neil. Looks like you really enjoy your work. When I was a teenager I work at a foundry for awhile packing sand into the moulds. I never got to pour. Just the grunt work for newbie's....

Well, it seems that profit being a prime motivator, quick production necessitates straying from tradition. It would be nice if the public would pay for traditionally made work. This has always been my problem. I don't own a powerhammer, yet! I like to rivet and collar my work, so my welder sits unused. I use both a gas forge and a coal forge though. So, for the most part I produce in mostly a traditional way, and learned that way. Not good for the pocket book. :(

Very interesting, I like it. How did you come across the bog oak? Did you dig out the oak yourself from the bog? I have a couple of fossils my wife and I found in Eastern Oregon. We used a geologist hammer I made in my blacksmith shop! Anyway, I plan to use the fossils in some sort of metal sculpture. Just have to come up with a design first. <_<

It's interesting that you bring up thumb placement while hammering. I had a long talk with Peter Ross about this once a few years ago. I noticed that while he hammers hard with full swings he places his thumb to the side of the handle, and while he hammers less hard his thumb usually is on top of the handle. I do not believe it's good practice to have ones thumb on top of the handle when hammering hard to displace lot's of material, and it seems Peter Ross agreed with this. Now for accuracy with lighter blows it seems having your thumb on top of the handle is a better idea. This is the way I have been hammering for years, works for me. To me, it seems that people don't take the time to learn how to hammer properly from the start. While first learning years ago at Ft. Vancouver's blacksmith shop, one of our first apprentice projects was to hammer 12 feet total of 1/2" round stock into 3/8" square stock with square corners and NO hammer marks. The main goals were hammer control, proper swing, accuracy, etc. Peter Ross also told me once that a good smith will not leave hammer marks all over the piece unless texturing was the goal.

Have a great time monster. I'm in the same boat, cannot make this one due to a schedule conflict. First one I will have missed in a couple years. I will be at the next one though! :D