Larry H

You can make your own touch mark by cutting the head off of a 1/2" Allen bolt so you just have a hollow hex shaped hole, this will be your guide, take a 1/2" Allen wrench for your touchmark. Carve or punch your design so you can see it through the hex hole , weld it over your design, mark the wrench so it goes in the same way for each heat and start heatin' n beatin'.

A nice hammer which reminds me of my ole horseshoeing days. I like the broadened cheek for more gripping surface to the wood. Does anyone know why a farrier might want such a hammer for turning and finishing horseshoes? I do.

I started out with an old Heller Brothers rounding hammer. Of course, a rounding hammer can also be used by the blacksmith for various operations.

http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

Frank, It not only reminds me of my shoeing days ,but I still use it daily. Mine is a diamond, I always think of making a new one but something else always come up

I used machinist layout fluid for the color, I never use paint on art pieces except marine spar poly for rust protection.

Here is an incomplete piece I'm working on for an art show I was invited to, called "Wreath Interpretations " I have to finish by Dec. 6. this is the first time its early

New jersey blacksmiths, a good group, and at least one certified weldor. Look at ABANA s web site for a full list of BLKSM associations

I don't like the way they are across the photos interfering with the full picture

good job on the bamboo, never made it myself, you got the right side of the brain workin'

While a more mature and appropriate response may have been "sure let's have a chat, maybe tour your shop and talk, then I can decide if this is a fair fit" his response that nobody he knew, knew you or your work should not be taken as offensive. Abrasive, rude, unbecoming sure, but I think no deliberate offense was meant.

Phil

I was not offended that nobody knew me,.... most people don't, makes no never mind to me, .... I was offended by the fact that it sounded like he was expecting me to send him my resume' so he could determine if I was worthy of his time. This is not the first time someone wanted to learn, six months after one other person was learning in my shop was on T.V. pretending to be a blacksmith!!!. He told me he always wanted to learn blacksmithing , and now he had some horrible kidney disease and wouldn't last much longer,.... what a load of xxxx, hung out his shingle and everything.

so this kid ( i think ) puts a post on a very popular web site looking for blacksmiths in my area. I give him a call, because I'm a sucker for people who wish to learn. He says he is in North Carolina at a blacksmithing school. So I wait a week and call him back. He tells me " i asked around and nobody ever heard of you " And never called back for FREE lessons. May be no one ever heard of me but I think anyone looking to learn should make better decisions. Even scoundrels and fools can be bearers of wisdom, Thanks for letting me vent its been stuck in my craw for a few months now. I hope I can give it a rest .

When you make your first 50 one heat leaves you will understand

It takes a lot more time to " forge " a forge weld than to make one. Laying down a bead then grinding it away, smoothing it so you can't see the grind marks, then heating it back up to even out the color, it all seems like a waste of valuable time

Northeast blacksmiths they just had the fall hammer in at ashokan near Kingston e mail me at nyblacksmith.com and I'll hook you up

You didn't sell because it was the wrong show, wrong time, what ever. There's nothing wrong with any of that product, good stuff, keep moving forward.

Nice, you fit right in. My wife already wants to wear my butt as a hat, " is that all you think about? " yup.

It's more like a magic wand, we are learning to live with each other.( He's tolerating me more, I think ) Any way,...I guess I was in the zone again,... When I came to,,,,,   this critter was lookin' at me

Go with bituminous, after all you live in coal country. Better yet go with coke if you can, if you get good quality you will never go back to coal. More heat, less ash.

I want to thank you for the beautiful Repousse hammer, its almost to nice to use, but I'll try. I have just the project to learn how to use it. Will post pics thanks again

I think southshore and mainly bob have Said , it all, many of the old ways are gone , forgotten, and/ or lost. my mentors have all passed, and with them went at least one hundred years of things I still wanted to learn. Many of the techniques are not needed
( mostly ) but when a job stops because of mech. Failure and a smith does it by hand,
People stand there with their jaws hanging. South shore was right when he said a master smith could work in any shop, but he left out the part where the rest of us are embarrassed for thinking we were good smiths. I've seen some amazing things

worst part was I called long distance to talk to him, and he only mumbled a bit... but I did have fun talking to the lady that would talk to me there.

On a side note I hear Frosty is now 2 inches shorter than he was a year ago? is that true? anyone?

yes but not in the vertical

Oh great, now my head is so big i can't get out of the room. I would like to thank you for such kind words, My wife always wanted to see Maine, me too, Norse blood runs hot . So my wife says I should think about taking you up on your offer, in the future, maybe.

The material is 14 ga. backed by a 6"pipe with 1/2 " round sticking out for support of the nose. The pipe was squished (thats a tech. blacksmithin' term) in a vise, to be 1/3 narrower than the height . I just discovered sheet metal about a year ago this stuff is great!! it will do what ever you want it to!. So I borrowed an art book, looked at the pictures and away I went, the most difficult part of every blacksmithing endeavor is getting your tooling right.

Nice, whats the size?

life size (but he has a high forehead )

O.K. I was trying to make a skull, the first time, I saw it failing, cut my losses and left it like you saw in the everything else section. Two more try's and it turned into the skull you see here, the rest of it will have to wait until next week, when I hope to figure out the back of it, I would like to make it all one piece.

Who needs to hit it is right !!!, years ago i spent 7 hours forging a beautiful slate tool for a friend of mine , hardened it and turned around to get a temper heat and knocked it against the anvil by accident. half fell to the floor, the other half flew across the shop being closely followed by expletives

What did it start out being?

Uh oh you got me this is the third try, I'm still going on sat.