matto

i let a lot of antique dealers, estate appraisers, and "junk" deals know what i want. i now have two that will call me on items when they are at auctions or estate sales. one will just pick the stuff i want up and then keep them in the back of his shop for me. he always charges me the same unless i can show him something wrong on the item. like missing parts or badly abused. i have recently got 5 leg vises from him, one 85# peter write, one 50# iron city, one 50# columbian, one 35# columbian and one 50# i think peter write. all for under $35 each. he also gets and keeps a couple boxes of hammers and files for me.

looks great. if you plan on doing a lot of lamps to sell, make sure you are using ul certified parts. just a side note.

as josh said heat it up to a dull orange (non magnetic) then let it cool as slow as you can. if you do not have a bucket of wood ash or vermiculite, just leave it in your forge shut the forge down and let them cool off together. the key to annealing is a slow even cool down. if you have extra firebrick put it in front of the openings to help slow the cooling. when it is done cooling it will be as soft as it can get. try it you can always harden and temper. when you temper you want to get to the blue and purple colors. but you may like it the way it is annealed. most cheap (under $20) hammers are relatively soft anyway so you might not have to soften it check it with a file if you are getting file shavings ( the file is biting) then it is a fairly soft hammer and you should be fine. p.s. take the handle out before annealing. then replace it.

thanks ridgeway and glenn i will check out old world anvils and centar, kayne and son, pieh, and others. i am thinking time and material cost on made tools and jigs, i might add 10% to that for business expence.

at one living history park i worked at we did have a couple of "soft" hammers for people that wanted to try hitting metal and for use on cutoff hardies. we would anneal them re-harden them then re-temper them on the "soft" side. the hammers we used on our cutoff hardies we just left annealed.

Where would you start valuing tools that are not made any more, like post drills, leg vise, .... Yes I can check e bay, but the prices are at each exstream, example $500 post vises, so where is a good place to start?

good thoughts john did not think about puting id marks or stamps on thinks while i am inventoring them. i have a 141# hay budden farriers anvil that has two old owners names and dates stamped on the bottom of it.

for the new year i am doing a shop inventory and am tring to put a value on stuff, for my own knowlege and insurance. how do you all value your stuff; leg vises, forges, anvils, hand tools and so on? you see so many different prices on things. most all of my stuff has been restored and displayed or put back into use. i think it is all worth more than what i bought it for do to time in restoring. so was wondering how you all value your stuff, matt o

that is what i think

thanks frosty i just made a stand out of 2x6 with 4x4 legs and 3/4 round stock. works good and fits in a corner.

now the fun part comes in figuring out how to use them all

this is a parlor stove i found in an old barn this fall. took it all apart, fixed and repainted it. wish nickel plating was not so expensive would of liked to re-plate all the pieces that where nickel. nickel header paint will have to do for now. now to decide what to do with it. replace my shop barrel stove or sell it or put in in a different spot in the shop?

a pexto crimp/roller machine a peck, stow & wilcox wiring and large burring machine sitting on a small buffalo forge standing next to a tiger blower. three post vise, two 50#, one 85# and 12 metal forming stakes, i am blessed with a family that wants me to succeed at what i love to do. probably has nothing to do with the free art and metal work they get. so all in all i had a great christmas and now have to figure out what all the stakes do and how to use the pexto metal machines.

Here is a pic of the stakes

that is kind of what i had in mind. will post pics when built

i received 12 tinners stakes of different size that i am trying to make a shelf/stand to store them when not in use. was wondering how you all store yours. don't want to pile them in the corner or under a bench. am thinking of a table or rack style stand?????? will get pics tomorrow

A dagger that my niece came up with when we were forging in the shop this weekend. . The file is one of her great, great grandfathers. The handle is an elk shed.

Looks cool. I have been thinking about cuffs also

Here are a couple pics of a trigger guard I forged for a friends 20ga.

Here are the bellows we will use in the museum shop. They where from around grand junction Co. Acording to the news paper around the blow pipe. All original. Leather great.

For general forging it can be a straight pein a cross pein a rounding a ball pein a double face a carpenters framing hammer it all depends on what you want to accomplish and if the hammer you are using will do it. I use a cross pein or a rounding hammer as my two main forging hammers. Best advise would be to try as many as you can and figure out what works best for you. That means all day forging. So you can really see what each hammer can do. And what you can do with each hammer. Matto

Nice score!!

blacksmiths christmas tree poppies from rose pedal pattern

The stove is 20 inches from the brick wall. Which 18 inches is minimum for code in Kearney. The wall is 16" thick. So far the wall does not get that hot. I have put some hedge in the stove to test and have had it to 1000 plus degrees. Again just to test!! And the wall did not get that hot. When my coal base is good and the stove is warmed up it runs at 320 to 500 degrees. If you look close there is another temp gauge behind the one in the bung hole. It is on the stove pipe. I also have a temp gauge on the pipe where it hooks to the forge pipe. The nice thick walls one the old keg style barrels are nice also.

The bottom door is for ash then the top door is to the fire box it has a metal grate with 10 gauge screen so I can keep a coal base to keep a better burn. The rest of the barrel is open. The stove pipe is 6 1/2" 14 gauge pipe that elbows up to my 10" forge pipe. It has great draft. Have never had smoke in the shop. I will try to get picks tomorrow. Pretty simple. My niece was the one that wanted to put it up vertical rather than horizontal. She thought it would be more Victorian. The gauge on top is a temp gauge from my great grand dads steam tractor. The legs are old John deer and ih tractor wrenches. They have a nut welded in them so I can use a bolt for leveling the stove. I am thinking about putting some tube on that hook to a small blower and rap around the stove pipe as a heat reclaimer.