Richard Newby

I use alot of the cheap chinese files and rasps as hard as I am on them, and I can take them when they are completly out of biting capabilities and put them in a large plastic pitcher and fill it up with a gallon of white vinegar from the local market, leave them for four days and pull them and wash them with hot soapy water and baking soda to neutralize the acidity from the vinegar, and they have much more life in them. Your files are probably not near as bad as mine when I do this but you do need to clean them good before doing this otherwise the vinegar will not be able to do it's job. I would also put some form of cover atop the pitcher to cut down on odor and to keep the evaporating vinegar from settling on other metal objects in the work area and starting corrosion. Wes

Hello, As the title reads I am looking for somebody to make me a new hammer, infact a replica of one I already have, as it's my favorite hammer but having bad experiences with hammer making in the past, I've resigned myself to paying someone who is better at it than myself, I'm wanting around 2.5lb in weight.




So if you could help me at all, please get in touch with me.
Thanks for reading.

It's not just me who's having a hard time finding small coke, I know a few Blacksmith firms round me who use the same suppliers as me, but due to very little demand they have stopped supplying.

I had a nightmare of a time getting my usual coke, so I collected some Sunbrite Coke Doubles and stoked up my fire, they worked well and I spent yesterday afternoon making horseshoes, when finished I turned all off as usual and went inside and forget all about it, after work today I went into my workshop to make some shoes for tomorrow and as I opened the door I was hit by the heat, the fire must have blown back up and could have been burning for 24hrs, all the metal panels that the forge is made from are buckled and the coke was burning away like coal, I dug the lot out and dumped it into a bath of water.

So after an exciting couple of hours I'm now back on the internet looking for my usual stuff.