Ted T

Yup!!! all you said :p

I can just visulize it now as she said: Richard you sweet thing! How did you know that I wanted a red 24 ton hydraulic forging press? It will match the anvil you gave me last year!! I guess ya just love me! Ha Ha Ha H a Ha :cool:

dickb, Here is what I believe an appropriate URL that may lend some light on your inquiry. I found this thread under

Thank You Hofi!! I hope I can accurately pass on some of the many things that I have learned from you to other people with like minds! Because of your never ending generosity to the blacksmith community, your stream of expertise continuously feeds into the bottomless lake of blacksmithing knowledge for us to draw from. Thanks Again! Ted Throckmorton

Hot Cut being left in the hardie hole. As a young man and starting out in the blacksmithing craft I tried to absorb everything I was capable of as fast as I could. Some things I had to be reminded of once or twice by the blacksmith that I was learning from and that was usually very loudly spoken. Sometime I was given a hasty reminder by the process it

Thank you for sharing information about this rare episode while you were forging. In over a half century of forging I have only had a couple of occasions where mild steel acted similar to the way yours did. But I remember them very well because it made me question my forging skills! Each time it occurred I just blamed it on my self. But as I moved on, it always left me with a question of about

All Right Dale! All of us at T & L Forge are happy for ya! - - - - - - - - - - - - My Crew - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - :cool: Happy - - -George - - - - - -two Fingers - - - - and me We are all ImPRESSED with your new treasure!!!! Ted Throckmorton

Brasilikilt You make me smile! I learned that negotiating with a wife is a skill that may require you to make some close observation of her wants and needs, and eventually it will most likely cost you some money in the long run. Early on (1960

Les, Welcome to I Forge Iron. I think your kinda getting hooked!!!! I hope so. Blacksmithing has been an activity that soothed my sole for over 55+ years (although my body used to get real tired at times). I have put food on the table, bought my kids shoes and generally provided for my family by applying the craft of blacksmithing. Now I do it as a hobby sense I have gotten a little older and have retired. I just hope it will be something you will enjoy as much as I have! Ted Throckmorton

Jake, I welcome you to I Forge Iron! You will be in good company here at I Forge Iron. It is people like Brian and Karen, and many other highly skilled people that make this site a unique foundation of information for people such as for your self and for me. The wonderful part is that it is just a click away when you need it. I will be looking forward to reading information that you will be able to share with us someday! As a suggestion; Please take the time to read and understand all of the features this site has to offer. It will put you at the head of the line. Ted Throckmorton

Scott, I welcome you to I Forge Iron! It is a wise person who will look before they leap. It sounds like you know what is going here, so I hope it will serve your needs well! Ted Throckmorton

Jeepnut7261 Welcome to I Forge Iron Yes you is here!!! I hope you will enjoy you membership here at I Forge Iron. If you spend some time learning about all that is available to you here, you will soon understand that you have hit a gold mine of information and will meet a lot of like minded good people! Ted Throckmorton

Will (AKA) Lazy Branch Farm This is a follow-up. Thank you for providing your location. Now maybe we can start to be of help to you. I see that you are from Taylorsville, Georgia, west of Cartersville. So that gives us a starting point. If you go to the home page of I Forge Iron and look at the column on the right side that says “Side Menu”. Look down that list to the fifth entry to where it says “Blacksmith Groups”. Click on that, and then scroll down to where it says “Georgia”. You will see that there are three blacksmith groups listed. Alex Bealer Blacksmith Association Ocmulgee Blacksmith Guild Southern Blacksmith Association - SBA I would click onto each one of these to see if one, any, or all three would be close to you! Also, if you would, look up to the top of the page while you are in the forum. In the green strip you will see several topics listed that you may choose from. The first selection is “User CP”. Click on that and it will bring you to an area that will allow you to edit your personal information which includes adding your home location to your information and it will show up for all to see. Just click on “Edit Your Details” then scroll down to “Location”. I hope my attempt at giving you instructions have not caused you confusion :confused:. Enjoy!! Ted Throckmorton

Jimmy, Mary and your self are in my thoughts and prayer list. Ted Throckmorton

Lazy Branch Farm Welcome to I Forge Iron I would like to place an emphasis on the importance of posting the location of where you live. There may be blacksmiths who are living very close to you that you did not know about. It is possible we may know of them and would be able inform you of who they are. Or, we may be able to point you in a direction that would lead you to an existing local blacksmithing group that may be able to provide you with an enormous amount of help while you are getting started. Sometime we hear older folks express a concern about starting into blacksmithing later on in life. But I believe it can be a plus factor to start later in life. An older person has usually learned that there is

Black Flame, I like your spirited and respectful attitude. I wish I only had a 10th of your energy. I know you are in a hurry to get going at sword making, which I believe to be only normal and that it just shows that you have a lot of energy and interest. You mention something that alarmed me. You are not a village idiot by a long way. You are just someone who wants to get some training and hitting the ground making swords. We just want to encourage you to go about it in a way that will be safe, long lasting and effective! You mentioned that it is hard to find someone to help you get started. I see you are from Ottawa, On. Canada. So here is a blacksmith group that may help you obtain the training that you desire. I would bet there is a sword maker in their group Ontario Artist Blacksmith Association - (OABA) I wish you lived close to me, I would be glad to help you as I know many other smiths found here would do. Please stick around and take advantage of the training features found here at I Forge Iron. There is some good and information to be found on this site that will help you get a good start. In the mean time, please take the time to become familiar with the I Forge Iron site! For example, here is how to find a Blueprint about metallurgy. Go to the home page. Then click on Blueprints. Type in the word “Metallurgy” Then you will find BP0078 The Metallurgy of Heat Treating: Again, please stick around and you will be surprised how much help you will receive, but you need to take the time and effort to do some reading also! I wish you the very best! Ted Throckmorton

Black Flame Welcome to I Forge Iron!! You ask for opinions! I totally support and agree with what Rich Hale as said in his post! In no way would I want to discourage your creative intentions. In fact my wish for you is just the opposite; I would like to see you succeed. I would hope that you will pursue making swords or what ever you choose. But a certain level, reality has to step in so you can use your creative abilities and time more effectively. I would suggest that you have possibly underestimated the creativeness of hundreds if not thousands of people who make swords, knives, and who are also educated in the field of metallurgy. I would hope that you would consider that there is an established field of knowledge that has been already been honed by many intelligent and educated people in the field of metallurgy. It is not a simple field of study where just plain old common sense will pull you through. It is a technology (although it is always developing) that for the most part has been foundationally established with very few variances for basic adjustment. A person cannot just set that technology aside and expect to be successful. There is also a price each person must pay when they enter a skilled craft such as blacksmithing, knife, or sword making. It should be up to the individual to give the time and effort to do their homework and study at least the basics of metallurgy and elevate their blacksmithing skills to a level equal to and with-in the boundaries of their questions and or suggestions. That way it becomes an informative discussion. There is a saying that goes as follows:

Kinda proves that you do with what ya got! I have always wondered what some of the 3rd world blacksmiths could do if they were as fortunate as I am and had my tools? They would most likely make my mouth drop open with amazement! I feel so blessed to have the set-up that I have now; especially after seeing the 3rd world blacksmiths at work. Ted Throckmorton

Jayson, Welcome to I Forge Iron. You hit the jackpot for finding a steadfast and grounded group of blacksmiths from all around the world here at

Cloud, welcome to I Forge Iron! I suggest that you try to contact these people! Blacksmiths Organization of Arkansas : ABANA (Artist Blacksmith Association of North America) affiliate. Ted Throckmorton

Ironstein, Over a 36 year period I was an accident investigator (Reconstructionist). During that time I have reviewed over 200 thousand + accident reports. Two of them most notably caught my attention. And they were accidents where people had placed their babies (in carriers) on top of their cars and drove off. Many other people also did the same thing time and time again with other valuable and expensive items such as computers. After all was said and done, in each case we found that the person who had been loading the vehicle was interrupted during the process. When they got back to what they were doing with their vehicle, they had forgotten about the items that they had placed on top of the vehicle, and then drove off! So I would not beat your self up, it happens, and can happen to the best of people! Good luck on finding your tools! Ted Throckmorton

I had an opportunity to talk with Roger Lorance today! He sounds like a great guy and was willing to spend his valuable time to talk with me, just like most people who are found here at I Forge Iron. He said that he had spent quite some time talking with Glenn, and he sounded positive about that. Then At my request, Roger is going to send me some information about his products. I try to include every source of information about blacksmithing that I can ( including tools or supplies) to distribute to several of people that I teach, and are ready to gather equipment and make forges! Ted Throckmorton

I would consider everybody who reads this to be curious or they may even be a REBLE! :cool: But I think a lot of blacksmiths I have known are independent thinkers and pretty well do what they want, and don

I am like a big fish, and I am hungry for information. So I will bite and ask you why you use scroll jigs that can make a C-scroll that will touch? Ted Throckmorton

Brian, please know that when you present information, almost always I take comprehensive notes for my self and ultimately for who ever may benefit from my notes. I realize the basic skills and concepts of what you teach us are not new to the craft of blacksmithing. But the way you present the information and your approach for using the basic skills are unique and distinctive to your self as opposed to the fashion and manner that many other highly skilled blacksmiths use who teach us by using there own unique methods. I believe a person could compare having different teachers who teach the same subject with a photograph (s)! As with a photograph (s), sometime it is important to obtain several different angles of the same subject matter in order to obtain an accurate concept of what is being photographed. So your instructions are a very important part of the information pie, and I welcome your instructions and guidance. That is why it is important to me that you to continue to present you views and concepts of what you are teaching us. It gives us another prospective! I don’t always respond to each post or thread that you start. That is because I am absorbing what is presented and I realize that all I could possibly add to what you say would be a “Thank You”. Please remember that what you are teaching us will be available for time to come as a reference to those who are highly skilled, and an instructional guide and reference for those who are on their way to becoming skilled blacksmiths. So please teach us what ever your time and resources allow! Thank You! Ted Throckmorton