Archie Zietman

Don't wait for the clay, I used dirt for a whole year. You need to wet the dirt and dig a fire pot before a fire, but it's cheap, and very versatile, and works great.

corn works really well. At the local gardening/farming type store I can get cracked corn in 50 pounds bags for $6.00, it's ridiculously cheap, it works exactly like coal just burns a bit faster. The smoke isn't green, which helps. :)

Hello. I am working on making my school pottery studio to be more sustainable/ user friendly. One of the things I want to do is build a few simple pedal driven pottery wheels. How do some of you turn your footpedal grinding wheels? And how would you suggest turning this vertical rolling motion into a flat wheel turning? Simple drawings would be much appreciated. Thanks eversomuchmoreso! Archie

with a bit of shaping it'd make a very very nice round top sheetmetal stake for planishing and raising. Another thing you could do is, since it's so wide, flip it upside down so that the flat end is up, and embedd it in a big traskcan full of rocks and cement, it'll make a very nice bladesmithing anvil.

Hello. Over the next weekend or two, I will be working on making a few "Kantharos"es which are two handled greek wine goblet which I like the form of very much. The design is based off of vague memories of work I saw at Penland. Goblets will be all mild steel, handles/ears will be started from 5/16 inch mild steel bar, and the cups part will probably be 16 guage mild steel. Dimensions will vary, but all will probably have a black vegetable oil finish and be based on the same kind of vessel. The first one might take a few weekends for me to get to know what I'm doing. But I'll have the full size drawing of each kantharos right next to my forge and anvil while I work which will cut down on futzing around considerably Below are some examples of original greek ceramic kantharos styles. I'll do the rounder style first. Happy Hammering, Archie

That sounds very cool! please post pikkies! :D

I figured out the problem about 2 weeks ago. My blower had a choke on the intake for air regulation which strained the motor, plus it has had vegetable oil accidentally spilled on it, and had fallen into a bucket of muddy water, and was generally clogged inside and out motor casing and fans, with oil based dirt. I scrubbed this out of every nook and cranny of the blower and motor, and now it works beautifully. The problem was that the intake and dirt caused the motor to strain, and the switch in the fusebox would flip to off becauyse it couldn't handle the strain, but now it works fine. I now need the builders to give me back my drill which, along with my circular saw and leather/kevlar forge gloves they have taken without my permission (to protect their hands when cutting down a tree, come on!) and they aren't giving them back. I need the drill to put a valve on the outtake of the blower so I can regulate the air without the strain on the motor.

Armour is not only held with only sandard rivets in holes though. Sometimes there is a leather strip which runs down the inside of a series of articulated lames and each lame is riveted to the strap, which addsflexibility. Or the hole the rivet is placed in is a long rectangle, so the loosely set rivet (with a washer on the inside peened end) can swivel up and down,this is, for example, used on gauntlet wrists. armouring is more difficult than some other blacksmithing "categories" and could be say, a specialty, like how you can in some games be a magician who is specialized in making illusions or in making things dissapear or something, maybe blacksmiths could specialize in armouring once they are at a higher level?

Armouring is an extremely specialized form of blacksmithing. As in you don't really do tons of forming on the anvil except maybe for flattening an ingot of steel into a small sheet, or more likely for pushing out the iron/steel/bronze/copper (depends on culture and time period) sheet out from the inside to get some depth and shape quickly under your belt. Then you refine trhe shapes with a hammer like the one pictured below to cram the metal around a variety of stakes in a variety of places and to aggressively push and pull the metal to where you need it, like the brow on an archer's sallet helmet needs to be thick, but the back end of the helmet doesn't need much metal so can be pulled out thin. Stakes used back in the day ranged from T shaped stakes to mushroom stakes with round tops to saddle shaped stakes to stakes shaped like the rough shape of a particular helmet. Articulated lames and such were worked in small flat anvilly like things from the inside or over the pipe stakes, and flutes (ridges for decoration and rigidity) were laid from the outside mostly. Also some forming work was also done cold. Lames and tassets and such. Once forming is done there is a stage called bougeing where high and low spots are evened out either on a stake, or a small anvil, and then planishing which smooths out the hammermarks on the surface and slightly work hardening the piece if you won't heat treat it. This also means much less work with grinding and polishing.(Judging from the insides of many pieces, a fair amount of grinding was probably done to the outside on big wheels, because the insides are quite beaten up) planishing is done by putting the piece over a ball stake and whacking with a mirror polished perfectly flat faced hammer on the tiny dpot where the workpiece's inside and the ball connect. It takes a long time as every tiny bit of the piece has to be toushed to the ball stake and given a solid whack. This doesn't alter the shape of the piece, just smooths the surface. Here's a bunch of pictures of various stakes and a hammer or two and some 16th century woodcuts of european armourers from all over the internet including Thaden armoury, and Age of Armour (not affiliated with them at all) also, ask around at armourarchive.org on the forums. There's a bunch of people wot know lots about raising and far more about the history than I do. Good luck! oh, also, you might want to be able to turn around your steel on the stake keeping a sideon view in the game, with a steady hammer beat which you raise up and down with your mouse, and then click a left or right arrow to rotate the piece around the stake a certain amount (say, an eight of a full circle turn)

Your angle could change from side on when drawing out to bird's eye view for the bevels, then side on with the piece vertical of pommel upsetting, or whichever angle suits what you are doing. Once you are satisfied with how you drew out the bar or whichever stage you are on, you could click a "next stage" button and go from there. You could also have the piece getting cooler as you go, so you have a repeatable "reheating stage" which you can do when and however many times you want.

Tmone, about your first post with hammering, you might want to have armour pieces heated in only selected places at one time, and then dished lightly from the inside on an anvil, then choose your stake (tinman stake, T stake, composite ox tungued stake, ball stake) and then raise it with the appropriate hammers. You don't forge armour only on the anvil, this would also help with the visual process of showing armour being forged.

also, in the whole potions and alchemy thing, you need to be able to make various fluxes, so some kind of borax, wood ash mixes, and other more aggressive fluxes. And also, you need to be able to heat the metal up to different temps. I used to play computer games and too often in the games and movies the "smith" is just forging at a dull red, or they quench and continue beating on black metal (shame on them, they will wet the bed for pounding cold metal!) Oh! more ideas: You also need to have various fuels like different woods, charcoal of different woods, different veins of coal, and dried corn, and manure. You should try at least once each fuel you plan to put in, and the different fluxes and heats. Merry Forging!

My smallest is 8-10 ounces or so, and my next smallest is 2.5 or so (which I use most often), so I need to get me some in betweens!

The electricity is very old. I've pushed the reset button several times, and it worked great for 30 seconds, then stopped. It may be that when I last tried, my blower was so crudded up with a mix of oil and dirt that it was hard to turn, also I had a choke on the input, which strained the motor a bit, and also the input was facing upwards so the impeller was weighing down on the motor. I have removed the input choke,and taken the blower apart and washed it with boiling water and heavy duty dishsoap, and scrubbed it with a toothbrush and scraped it with my finger behind a paper towel, and there in't a speck of dirt-grease (imagine oil based dirt, not water based) on the casing, impeller or inside the motor where there was a lot. It has had oil spilled on it a couple times and I sometimes douse my fires with water, and my lining is dirt, and the muddy water would often flow through the oily blower and motor which is where all of the greasedirt came from. Unsurprisingly it had 2 days worth of intense cleaning due. Now it is as spiffy and shiny and smooth as butter, and I will not abuse it at all, lest it rebel again. :-)

I reset the switch and it didn't work, so I'll have to replace the fuse I'm guessing, and I can only get to the hardware store in a few days. My parents and brother suggested that I build a bellows, they think I'll get tendonitis from a hand crank. I don't have much room for a bellows though, nor do I have the materials. I'll think of something.

Hello. The elctricity in the section of my house where my forge is has just blown. Since I use a small electric blower this means I can neither forge, nor use the grinder. It has been a week and I have been unable to make or do anything metaly, and am therefore going insane. I have scrubbed my blower top do bottom, and cleaned the motor, made a light anvil with a hardy hole, but I can't use anything because I don't have elctricity. Is there any way I could convert my little blower to a hand crank system? I have an old bike which will be thrown out soon, could I somehow use parts from that? Thanks, Archie

It is indeed an angry mind that turns something to a weapon. But some believe rightly that by outlawing some objects more suited to harm, lives will be saved. One thing I don't get is why it is posession of them at home banned, not just carrying them in your car or in public.

Hello. I just had a driving lesson with my ol' gaffer, and took the opportunity to pull over by a railroad crossing near my school where, by the light of my headlamps I spied a small pile of those wotsits they stick the spikes into and put sleepers on top of. (Big rectangle of 3/4 or 1 inch thick plate with a ridge on either end and square holes for the railroad spikes) Anyhow, they have been there rusting long after all the masses of too much construction material was cleared away 2 months ago, having sat there for 2 years before anyone bothered to move/use them somewhere else, so I looked in my mirror, indicated, covered the brake, and pulled over (automatics are too easy, I prefer the family purple jeep with pink lightning bolts on the sides, it's a stickshift) Then I put the car into park, pulled up the handbrake, and nipped out and put one of them metal wotsits in the backseat, and put my foot down on the brake, put 'er into drive, looked in my mirrors, indicated and pulled out and headed home. (This whole time dad was rolling his eyes and clearly thinking "oh goodness, what's this latest symptom of the blacksmith's bug? ooh look a big chunk of metal, surprise surprise...") THE POINT of this post for those as want :-) Now I'm home safe with the railroad thing. It would probably make a good big striking surface. How d'you reckon I do this? I have a pile of spikes from Penland along the coal train route, shall I get a big lump of lumber and spike it on top? Any other ideas? Thanks, Archie

a very big bottle opener? it does look like it could pop tires off a wheel fairly easily, maybe that?

Not in my experience. I wear those big earmuff things whenever I'm forging, and it really helps with noise. Earplugs work too. My humble opinion on the subject of heats: If you're getting the metal to orange or yellow heat, or just when it moves easily under the hammer, it is hot enough. It is much easier to move metal screaming hot IMHO (yellow heats move steel like butter), and once you're at a dull red heat, you might as well keep that heat in the steel and shove it back in the fire to heat up. If you beat that metal, it won't move much, so you might as well save your energy and spend the time and use the heat in the metal to help get you to orange or yellow when it will move eaier. You will save energy this way I have found. Happy Hammering, Archie

larger orifice with more fuel and air burning to make more heat go into the forge. I'm no expert though, you should really look at Ron Reill's gas forge pages. Forge and Burner Design Page #1

I'm no gas forge expert, but it looks to me like you need a much larger burner, or a much smaller forge box/body/whatever. You need to have them matched in size so that the refractory on the walls glows. Then you will be able to get decent heats. Also, when you make the chamber much smaller, open up the back wall a bit to allow for your work to be slid through to head the middles of longer bars. And, a cylindrical forge body would mean that the forge heats quicker/much more evenly and that you don't waste fuel and btus heating the corner s and that huge space beneath your piece there etc. so my $0.02 Smaller cylindrical forge chamber. ALSO: google Ron Reill gas forges, he has tons of info on gas forge design and fabrication etc. take a long look at all his pages.

Thanks for the comments everyone. You're right Chris, the bird bath is very similar, the twist is what does it, with the bowl on top, methinks. The viney, organic style of ironwork is my favorite.

Hello. Today I just sent out the piece which I've been working on for the past few weeks, ever since I got back from Israel, for a local exhibition of projects done by people on the trip. This is a choppy few photos from the second session of forging through the finished project. It doesn't show the hours of assembly, sculpting, silver raising and embossing, glassblowing, rock selecting, painting, or design, and the pictures are not very good, but they show the stem/supports being made and then the finishing process, and finished product. I celebrated being done by forging a big new armour stake, and starting to forge my new bike helmet. P.S. Glenn, I'm really sorry about the number of pictures, if you need I can chop a good number off. Photos are not a problem. Post as many as you wish here or in the gallery

I can get 50 pound acks of corn for about 15 bucks from Agway (agricultural and gardening store where I get feed for my chickens) and it comes stored in heavy paper bags, when I used to feed them on corn and feed I just bunged the sacks in the basement, closed the door and was fine.