jayco

Fdisk, welcome to Iforgeiron! There's a lot of information on this site about everything, 'Metal'. The 'search' feature at the top of the page can be used to find that information. You can do searches on 'leaf spring', ' temper', annealing, etc, and get specific info. I don't get results on every search, but when I choose the proper 'terminology' I usually get 'hits'. If one search term , or set of words doesn't yield results, I just try another. Also, being semi-retired, I can identify with the 'fixed income' part of your above post. Luckily for me, I can scrounge or make most of my forges, tools, etc. without spending that ever scarce 'cash'! ( The scrounging becomes part of the fun.......just look at the 'It followed me home' thread) Enjoy! James Flannery

Joe, welcome to Iforgeiron! Now, you can join all the rest of us who are fascinated with the endless ways hot metal can be shaped into useful and beautiful things. By the way, please use the 'User C P' thing at the top of the page and place your general location with your posts. It helps us keep track of where folks are in the world. Who knows.....you might have neighbors who are blacksmiths! Keep enjoying!

I use coal and charcoal........occasionally I experiment with wood.

Glenn, deer are shy creatures........I think they were waiting for the guy with the camera to leave so they could try out the swing set!

Chris, your new shop is looking good! I've been working on my shop and thought I'd take a look at your progress. You will enjoy having a warm dry place for your tools and yourself.....it makes the work much easier having a good place to do the work. You've probably discovered the same thing I discovered a couple months ago.....that building a new shop is a lot of fun.....but also.....a lot of work! Do you remember being in the chat room a while back? ( I think there were about six of us....all of us building new shops! Maybe it has to do with winter coming on.......and needing a place to work on those cold January days......... Hope you get that roof on.......and good luck with the new shop! James flannery

I haven't done a lot of aluminum casting, so I am no expert by any means, but here's a couple things I learned from experience. If you melt aluminum in some kind of ladle and plan to move it and pour it in a mold, be sure you keep the handle and your hands above the level of the ladle. A little slosh of molten metal that gets on the edge of the ladle will run downhill. In other words, it will run down the handle to your hands.......and you don't want that! I also learned that when you empty the ladle into the mold, keep the pouring distance as short as possible, best to put the lip of the ladle right on the edge of the mold Molten metal, when poured, splatters in all directions! I even melted some soda cans once, but I found that to be a poor way to get aluminum. By the time you melt the little thin cans and rack off the 'dross', there isn't much left Of course you also get that nasty smell of burning paint and burnt sugar.....not pleasant! There are so many unexpected things that can happen with molten metals........I think that's what makes metal casting so dangerous. At the least, I would recommend that anyone who has never done any metal casting before should practice moving the ladle around with only water in it....just to get used to the movements. When you can move the ladle around and not spill a drop....and do that consistantly, then you might be ready to try with metal. (Be sure the ladle is bone dry before using to melt metal) One fumble or missed step is all it takes to create a terrible accident.

Johannes, I've never heard of taxus........maybe it doesn't grow in the U. S.? Can you please describe the wood?

Justin, welcome to Iforgeiron! There's a great section on the 'home' page ( or front ) page called "Getting Started". Just follow the links.......lots of good information there. Do a search on the '55 forge'........there's a bottom blast version and a side blast version. Both are easy to make and inexpensive. If you have any questions, just ask..... Enjoy!

There's a pawn shop near where I live that has files, rasps, odd wrenches,battered hammers, etc in the back of the shop. I'm guessing that some folks pawn entire tool boxes full of tools(maybe whole truckloads), and never come back to reclaim them. The rasps ,screw drivers, etc, are priced separately and sometimes can be had reasonably.

Promotive,I used the 'search' at the top of the page. I typed in "small items to sell" and I also tried "demo items". I got lots of hits on both searches. there's lots of info about small demo items in several different threads. Hope this helps!

I got a post set and the post vise mounted yesterday.I even made a little tool tray to mount on the post.....a place to put tongs,hammers, small tools,etc. I even got my old bench grinder with the heavy frame carted from the old shop to the new. All the major tools are now in the shop. Oh, there is still much to do.......battening, adding lights where I need them,shelving and hangers for tools.........but as of now, I have a working shop! Due to my being really cheap and having a deep resource pile, ( I've been saving up stuff for many years), the total costs have been minimal. $209 for the metal roofing and screws to install it . Everything else, I had on hand. About the metal roofing,.......if you're not picky about colors, you can get a considerable discount on price.....so what if half the roof is beige and half is light green! The new shop, the new layout, and the new forge are a pleasure to use and much better than what I had before. A big THANK YOU to all the members of IFI for helping with this project. I used ideas I got from folks in the chat room,ideas that came from threads in the forums, searched in the archives, and studied pictures in the gallery to formulate the design of the new shop. In short, Iforgeiron.........WORKS! You study some pictures, read some threads, ask a few questions.....(that's what I did) and you go to the shop knowing more than you did before. How cool is that!? Again, thank you........ James Flannery

Well, I got the side draft flue installed today. It worked really well dispite the fact that I only had 8 ft. of 10in. pipe for the vertical part. The horizontal section is the casing from an old pressure washer. 10in. x10in. x 30in. It all fit together surprisingly well. I'm now on the lookout for a couple sections of 10 in. pipe to add height to the stack. It worked well enough today, a clear weather, high pressure sort of day.........but I'm not sure how it will be on rainy , low pressure days. We will see. I now have power to the shop, and lights. Moved my main anvil in.....gotta set a post for the post vise. I've done a little trial forging in the new shop, but I'm resisting the urge to bring all my tongs,hammers,chisels,hardy tools, and other assorted smithing 'stuff' in until I have proper hangers or shelving to store stuff. That's what the problem was with the old shop.....no organization! Here are some pics.......(there are more in the gallery) The work.......continues! James

Smokey Rick, welcome to Iforgeiron. About uploading pictures: I find that I can upload small (640 x 480 ) pictures to the forum by clicking on 'Go Advanced' and using the 'Manage Attachments' box to upload directly from my computer. With larger pictures, I upload them to the IFI Gallery . You can then link to them or copy and paste into the forum. The Gallery automatically resizes images.........Hope that helps!

Jason, it might not be 'period correct', but you might use a section of heavy woven tie down strap for belting........the kind you find on ratchet straps. Another alternative would be to stitch,rivet,or glue one or two old leather clothing belts together.....the kind that holds up your pants, I have a belt drive blower that I use a washing machine motor and an old car 'fan belt', or 'v' belt to run it....It works well enough.

Hibjib,there isn't a lot of blacksmithing jargon used in my area. Of course it could be because there aren't any smiths in my neighborhood except for me. When I question older folks about the local history of blacksmithing, I encounter an absence of information. The one term that often comes up is "beating out" something.....as in beating out the edge of a hoe, axe ,or mattock. What we would call 'drawing out a taper'. Even the word blacksmith is mostly missing from the local vocabulary. Folks will say, "He had a shop", or "He made stuff on an anvil" The funny thing is......when you mention a 'shop' to older folks, they always mean a 'blacksmith's shop'.........not a tire shop.....not a sewing shop..... But, they never use the word "Blacksmith"! By the way, that's a great avatar pic.....I know that guy!

I can remember several years ago when the wire frame election signs first gained popularity around here. It seemed that every candidate for every office had a sign at every intersection. That's a lot of signs! The funny thing is.....for the first few years they were used .........no one picked them up......In fact, the county and state mowing crews ran their bushhogs right over them after the elections were over. After a certain amount of time, folks started complaining of the 'trash' problem. Kentucky has a program called " Adopt a Highway". ( in other words..you volunteer to pick up the trash along a certain section of highway. My father-in-law adopted a couple of sections, and I wound up helping him a few times. Needless to say, I now have plenty of the election sign wire in my resource pile! Now, the candidates come back after the elections and pick up their signs ( at least most of them). They discovered that it was just good "PR" to do so.....

Turinsbane,welcome to Iforgeiron! Where are you located? Please go to the top of the page and click on the 'user CP' and add your general location to your profile. You never know, there might be other blacksmiths in your area. We also love pictures.....pics of shops....pics of tools....pics of your work, etc. If you have any questions, just ask.... Enjoy!

Bart, that is nice work! James

Sometimes a deep forge can be handy.....sometimes they can be difficult to use. It depends on what you're forging. My old wheel forge is 20 in. across and 10 in. deep. Real handy for deep fires, but unhandy for shallow fires and small work. The notches are 4 in. wide and nearly 6 in. deep. Cutting the notches with an arc welder was the most difficult part of turning this wheel into a forge. This forge is currently disassembled.....I'm experimenting with a flat, table type forge.

Noah,welcome to Iforgeiron! The 'Getting Started' section on the home page has lots of good information. Just follow the links. Blacksmithing groups in Washington state? NWBA Blacksmith

Bart, welcome to Iforgeiron! There's plenty of material to read on IFI........enough to keep you busy until your ankle is healed. Besides.......there's more new material added every day! Being a boy near a blacksmith's shop and finding a bunch of smithing tools.....both are fortunate events. By the way.......we love to see pictures! If you have any questions,just ask........ Enjoy!

Welder19, I don't have the side draft flue set up yet. What you see in the pics is just a piece of 10in. Stove pipe laying on the forge table. When I get everything set up, I will post more pics.

Pat, welcome to Iforgeiron! If you do mostly blades, as you say,....you might want to check out the Friday night 'Knife chat' at 10:00 P.M. There's always a bunch of bladesmiths there. If you have any questions, just ask. Enjoy!

Selden, welcome to Iforgeiron! Where in Ky are you located? I'm in Greenup county, and there are more smiths scattered about the state. This is a large site with lots of information and friendly folks. If you have questions.......just ask. Enjoy! James

I got the forge set up and of course....had to try it! The forge table is 40 x 36 in.........with 8 x10 in. rectangular fire pot. Haven't got the side draft flue in yet, so I used charcoal (less smoke)! Here are some pics.......more in my 'New Shop' album in the gallery.. I haven't moved the anvil,post vise,tools,stock, or anything else yet. There is still much to do!