Sukellos

I live up in Mesa. My shop is just a ramada held up on 4x4 posts. I leveled the floor and ran 1x4s around the inside of the posts. I filled this "box" up to the top with fine clean sand. It's easy on the feet and drains well in the monsoon. I often arc weld there so my floor acts as a sort of "clamp" for longer pieces to hold them in place until I tack them. Dropped hot iron is no problem and I can normalize pieces simply by shoving them into the floor to cool. Dropped small parts can be a problem. A small kitty box sifter can help with that. Hain't perfect but it works for me. My shop, though, is only about 10'x12'.

Doesn't look like it will be shown on BBC America.

Eh bien mon ami. Tres interessant!

Pecan works for hammer handles? That's one thing we do have lots of here in AZ.

Old files! I've made a couple dozen or so. My tempering method could get me put away in a rubber room, though. I take a red heat, dip only the striking surface in water then pull it out and let the heat from the curled ends creep back in and then quench the whole striker. Here's where it get's weird. My way of timing how long I wait between the first and second quenches is to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" up to the end of "like a diamond in the sky". You may think I'm kidding but I'm not. NUTS maybe, but dead serious! It works every time. I have a striker that I have used for nearly 30 years without having to re-heat-treat (is that a word?) A couple of Saturdays ago my 17 year-old niece used it to start a fire for a wienee roast. It still throws good fire.

I have made handles on the shaving horse before, but not since moving to Arizona. Any of you Southwest Desert Rats have any experience with any local woods for handles? I have a walking stick made of some sort of ash that grows here, but it doesn't grow straight. We have a lot of citrus too, but I've not tried any for handles. Anyone have any wisdom to share?

This is the simplest I've ever used. Cut a circle, according to the size you want to make the rose, drill/punch a hole in the center for the stem and divide the circle into 4,5 or 6 pie pieces. Nip off the outter corners and shape to suite. You can stack 3 or more of these depending on how many petals you want the rose to have. Forgive the crude drawing. I don't draw so well with a mouse. Who am I kidding? I don't draw so well with a pencil neither!

Dang! It just so happens that my 80 ton horizontal press is at the dry cleaners this week.

So much info on such a simple, yet vital, issue! I've used the round steel wedges and they work. Again the problem is that, when the handle does loosen, as it invevitably will, any metal wedge is such a pain to remove. My hope with the round wooden peg is that, when the time comes for a fix, I can just drill it out and do it again. I too am a firm believer in linseed oil. My grandfather, a professional country blacksmith, always had some on hand to treat his tool handles. On the topic of hammer handles. I went into my local HOME DEPOT to buy a couple for some hammers I need to re-handle and guess what? They didn't have any! Not that they were out of stock. They simply do not sell replacement hammer handles. The world is just getting too wierd for this ol' cowboy! By the way, don't worry about your English, young man. It's fine! My Norwegian is practically non-existent. My grandfather spoke some that he learned from a Norwegian co-worker.

Just a roof and sand on the floor. Right now I got a single burner, commercial made propane forge. I don't tackle big jobs any more and I don't make things for sale. I just pound iron to lower my blood pressure. I have a Lincoln ac/dc buzz box and a wire feed you can't see in these pix.

Thanks Trevor! I've been perplexin' over this since I first posted about a month ago. You should write FORUM POSTING FOR DUMMIES for old geezers like me! BTW a dragon bottle opener I made for my son the bartender. He's got a lot of positive comments on it.

I can fail a simple math test in 6 languages!

I finally decided to dedicate this morning to tightening up several loose hammer handles. A long time ago I gave up on the use of steel wedges as they always work loose, but not loose enough that you can pull them out without first removing the handle from the hammer. I have been using only wooden wedges which I coat in woodworker's glue before driving into the cut or split in the handle. When the handle works loose, as all wooden handles eventually will, I simply drive a chisel into the top of the handle and drive in another glued wedge. Some of my handles look, from the top, like they're made out of glu-lam. That still was unsatisfactory. In an effort to find a way to tighten up a handle without having to knock it out of the hammer head, this morning I tried drilling a 5/16" (8mm) hole about one inch (25mm) into the top of the handle. Remember, I don't have any steel wedges in my hammer handles to interfere with drilling. Then I tapered a 1" (25mm) length of 3/8" (9.5mm) hardwood dowel, coated it with woodworker's glue and drove it into the hole. The handle expanded out in all directions and made a good tight fit. Will it last? Ask me at the end of summer. Here in the Sonora Desert (Arizona) that will be in late October or early November I have one hammer that I have had for 30 years now that the handle has never loosened. I bought it in a hardware store in Central America. I think it was made in China. It is a simple square-faced (both peens) 3 pounder and appears to be forged rather than cast. The eye is tapered rather than "waisted" so as to slip the handle through from the top, no wedges. The harder you hammer, the tighter the handle wedges. I keep it smooth and use is to remove hammer marks etc. when finishing blades and the like.

I'm with you all the way. Problem is, I've yet to find a way to do so. When I click on the INSERT IMAGE icon, all I get is a blank writing field that doesn't even state what it wants written in it. I'm not a computer genius, but I'm feeling really dumb here.

My son went to Croatia last summer. He says it is BEAUTIFUL! I'll have to try to get there myself some day. Don't get discouraged with your equipment. I have seen smith's do beautiful work with very simple tools. And you're not the only one whose tools give him problems! Watch! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tuYsqVYC38

TONGS? What are tongs? (just kidding, folks!)

I don't see anything wrong with the proportions. And this morning, I got my shoes on the right feet n' everything!

Hey, If it works, it works! I've used far more primitive setups myself, including anvils that were no more than a BFR (big freakin' rock). If you want to see a fellow forger "makin' do" follow this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blBzKTly4Yc&feature=related

Got a T/C .50 cal Renegade FLINTLOCK!. They're rare. I've cusomized mine quite a bit in the 30 or so years we've been together. I also have a .50 cal CVA percussion Mt. Rifle and a 16ga. double barrel flinter and a .54 Sharps paper cartridge breech loader.... and a few other like toys. I was off the hunting circuit for several years due to a bad bout with Lyme's disease, but I'm putting in for deer and elk this year. j.d.

I was a POW interrogator with the Ut. Nat'l Guard linguist group at Draper! 1988-91 I think! Hard to remember that far back. Heck, I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning!

I was GSE here at BOEING, Mesa AZ for several years, but in the Service I was Security Police from 1979-1983 at Howard AFB, Panama. I also worked as a liason to none other than the Guardia Nacional under Manuel Noriega. I got out for awhile, then went into the Army National guard as a POW interrogator in the Romanian Language. When Romania went from enemy to ally, I cross trained back into the Air Force as an Airborn Crypto Linguist. I spent another 2 +/- years in Panama. I got out in 1994.

Since I've moved around quite a bit and had a number of temporary homes, I've used all kinds of "yee haw engineered" setups. One time in Central America, charcoal was cheap and plentiful but the only anvil I could manage was a big ol chunk of basalt rock. It was harder than the back of my head and had one sharp edge where I could hot cut steel. I've also used pieces of sharpened leaf spring driven into the end of a stump. Just for fun, have a look at this smithy in Africa. Pay particular attention to the "hand crank blower" behind the forger. Then be grateful for your own setup. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=nQMkWHrt-i0

You'd better find some kind of thick, polymer coating that will preserve the artwork! It's irreplaceable.

Hey Ken! I don't know about that Ark nail but a feller in Rome, Italy offered to sell me a nail from Caeser Augustus' outhouse door! ;)

The forger gets something too. Years ago I made a candelabra for a beloved aunt of mine. Every time I visit her house I see it prominently displayed. I almost feel bad that it turned out to be more of a gift to myself than to her. :rolleyes: