jayco

And then walk BACK.

This game is a LARK!!

DARN the bad luck!

Hello jkeller...Is the connecting pipe supposed to help support the blower? I have a blower of about the same model, but mine is leg mounted.That one little bolt supporting the blower.....is it enough?
These old blowers are made from cast iron and kinda fragile. Wouldn't want it to fall and BREAK!
I don't know the design of these kind of forges,but lots of guys on this site know about them.
If the mounting for your blower is o k,you might just use a soup can or two with the ends cut out for piping....tin snips,even duct tape will work a foot or so away from the forge.
Good LUCK!
James

Years ago,when I first brought my anvil into the shop,It occurred to me that I had to decide which way to turn it. Turning the horn to the right just seemed 'right' to me for some reason. (I'm right handed.) The big chip was already broken out of the face when I got It. Maybe that had something to do with my choice.....I don't remember.
Anyway,the missing chip and my turning it to the right has not affected it's usefullness for me. :Sometimes I work from the other side.
James

Welcome, jkeller.......This is a large site with tons of information and lots of friendly folks to help you. Take your time......look around......ENJOY!
If you have any questions,.....just ask.

The little Champion blower in the first pic is the one I use nearly all the time(often with a little electric fan as a 'helper'). I've looked, but I can't find any model numbers on it.

The blower in the second pic was given to me by a retired well driller from Ashland Kentucky. I think it was used for reshaping drilling bits with a forge. It's belt driven and puts out a lot of air. I don't use it often, but it sure comes in handy for big jobs. I just use a washing machine motor and v-belt to power it.

Hello, Mandoro......I use charcoal quite a bit and make my own from whatever wood happens to be handy. If the charcoal is good and dry, I think it's easier to light than coal. It takes wet charcoal a day or two to dry out,by the way. It's very absorbent.

I start a charcoal fire much as I do a coal fire.

I use a match to light one or two balled up sheets of newspaper, a handful of pencil-sized wood kindling sticks, rake in charcoal from the sides of your forge or just sprinkle some on top of the burning kindling. I try to turn the air on gradually,since charcoal is light. A strong air blast will blow your newspaper,kindling, and charcoal right out of the forge.

My charcoal is usually in 1/2 inch to 1 inch pieces. It just comes out like that. But it's a good size for use in the forge.

Just so you know the scale of what your looking at, that little forge is only 12 inches across.

Guys, I doubt that I invented anything with this lil' fan idea; My original idea was to use a hair dryer,but I could never get it mounted the way I wanted it. Maybe, a LOT of duct tape might have done the trick.A hair dryer would give you two or three speeds to chose from........

Aaron,the fan I use is a one speed deal.....I don't even have an on/off switch on mine.There are all kinds of possibilities for variable speeds; heat -sensitive switches to turn the fan on or off according to temperature and your needs. If you come up with an idea on this, please let us know. I'm always looking for new ideas myself.

Ted,keeping the fire just a little hotter also gets rid of that wafting bit of smoke that appears when the fire gets low. I know you have to avoid as much smoke as possible,......hope this helps!

Here's a trick I use that works for me. I found this little fan at the flea market(an eletronics cooling fan, I think). it's only 4 inches across and has a low air output. Not enough to power a large forge, but just right to give the fire a good boost.

I hang it by some wire over the air intake of my little handcrank Champion and it gives some of the advantages of having an electric blower.

It keeps the fire going when I'm at the anvil.....and if I need a larger fire or welding heat, I just crank the blower handle.

Anyone else ever try something like this?

Any suggestions for improvements are apprieciated.

Quite nice!! Congratulations!!

If you decide to make your own tongs,don't put the rivet in until you get the fit you want. I say this from experience.I recently made a pair of scrolling tongs.....thought it would be easy to adjust the jaws after riveting. Well, I WAS WRONG!
I finally had to grind off the rivet and do some reshaping. As the tongs were not closing properly, they needed a little file work on the inside of the pivots. This was impossible with the rivet in place.
The lesson I learned? I now use a threaded screw(or small bolt) and a nut to test my tongs and how they work.If something needs tweakng,it's easy to take them back apart.
Then put the rivet in place.

Very nice work Apprentice Man!

Yeah, I leave the blacksnakes alone. They don't hurt anybody.They do startle me a little when I run on to them unexpected though.
Our local wildlife biologist says 'if you get rid of all the harmless snakes, you just make more room(habitat) for the poisonous ones.'
The neighbors know about the snakes........come to think of it.....I haven't had any human visitors to my shop for quite a while!

I had a surprise visitor to the shop this morning.......a 4 ft. blacksnake! He was crawling amongst the rafters. I just happened to look up........

No,I'm not a bladesmith, but here are some blades I am familiar with. These fall in the catagory of "other sharp things".

I suspect the farm tools of 100years ago might have been the battle weapons of 500 years ago.

The first picture is my uncle's old corn knife......It was used extensively in the 1930's I've been told.Wooden handle with 5 steel pins. Blade is about 22 inches long. It's factory made. Before mechanical corn pickers were common,these knives were used to cut the corn stalks at harvest time.

The other picture is of a tobacco 'tomahawk' and spear used in the harvest of burley tobacco. The tomahawk is used to cut the plant just above the ground ;The spear (a hollow steel cone with a needle-sharp point) is placed on a tobacco 'stick' (think...slender 4 ft.tomato stake). The spear is used to puncture the stalk from the side. 6 plants can be placed on one stick this way. The spear is moved to the next stick. (Someone who is really good at this can cut 1000 sticks or6000 plants per day.)

I made this tomahawk years ago from a piece of old cross-cut saw blade. The hawk is 24 nches long and very light. Less than a lb.

I just thought these might be interesting to share.

I had some really dirty charcoal I wanted to clean up. I tried sifting the dirt and rocks out, but I had mixed results......just didn't work very well. I remembered blueprint BP0450 (it's about using a bucket of water to "settle out" rocks and dirt and clean up dirty coal). The charcoal I was cleaning had a lot of nails,dirt, and rocksmixed in it. Well to make a long story short,it works for charcoal TOO! BP0450 Clean Coal
Here's a before and after picture:

Ironwood commonly grows around creeks here in Kentucky. It is tough stuff! Just as the experts said, it is dense, hard, and heavy. I've made mauls from it, but no other tool handles.

I rive (or split) a lot of my handles for hammers,mattocks,axes,etc, with a froe using an ironwood maul (made like a club) to drive the froe into the piece of wood stock I'm splitting. Using a hammer for this would soon ruin a froe. My froe is leaf spring, and this maul has struck the back side of it thousands of times.As you can see,much wood has been eaten away.

For "riving", I look for wood with a good straight 'longitudinal' grain (running the length of the log). Straight, limbless sections of oak,hickory,and ash are my favorites for handles. Sassafras and walnut rive easily too,but are not good choices for handle material.

See Blueprints
BP0418 Froe
BP0447 How to make a Froe

This old hammer is the victim of another kind of abuse....mushrooming.

I have another just like this one.....that is not mushroomed.

I suspect the steel in this one has been softened or "annealed" by being placed in a fire to burn out the wood still left in the eye after the handle had broken.This was a common practice with farmersyears ago.

I could heat treat this one, but I think I'll leave it as is for now.
It's sort of turning into a flatter!

I wish I had clean shop.It would be so much better to be able to find what I need,rather than thinking,"Now where did I put that?........." I'm a 'pack rat'. If there was a prize for messy shops, I'd win,hands down! There is literally 'a path' to my forge. I can see my bench grinder.......but I can't get to it to use it! Good thing I can still find my angle grinder!I really must do better.........and I plan to......one of these days! I cant realy describe it in words,so here's a pic showing the doorway to my shop.

Thanks for the info Richard! 8 months ago, I had never used a computer;I had never typed anything. I'm learning as I go........A 51 year old newbie!:)

How can I put links in the chat room? I can "click and drag"-----"copy and paste",----I can resize photos-----"address my photos",----but how do I get a "clickable" link? This is nothing major----I'd just like to show pics of old tools----things like that. Getting my computer skills(little bit at a time)-------any help GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!:confused:

The recent warm(actually hot)weather of mid-June has brought out all the summer critters. For me, the most noticeable of these are snakes.Here on the farm,we've seen several blacksnakes and watersnakes.Seeing them doesn't bother me so much,but their appearance serves as a remender to watch out for the poisonous snake varieties we also have; rattlesnakes and coppperheads.The rattlesnakes are actually pretty rare here,but the copperheads are quite common. One hot summer day about two years ago,I was rummaging through the scrap pile behind my shop;looking for a piece of 1 in. pipe I needed for a project.By the way,there's a lot of rusty stuff,coal,weeds, and what-have-you back there It's a mess! After some looking,I finally located the piece of pipe I needed. I started to reach for it,when out of the corner of my eye I saw something MOVE! Less than two feet away from the pipe lay a copperhead! Fortunately, I didn't finish that reach,because they can strike two feet when they want to.He was just lying there under some rusty rod and pipe. This was the first time I ever saw one in the scrap pile. Copperheads are notorious for their ability to blend into their environment.They are all but invisable in dry, brown leaves on the forest floor.Their dull,mottled markings of light and dark brown on their backs makes for perfect camoflage.In short, the also look just like rusty iron!They're not very large snakes;most are 30 inches or less in length. But they are quite poisonous! A bite from one of these snakes can be a serious medical matter.
Years ago, my aunt was bitten on the hand while picking strawberries.Within minutes, she had went into shock and had to be rushed to the hospital.She was given anti-venom, but still had to stay in the hospital for nearly two weeks.She was not quite well for several months. Now 81,she recalls the incident as The sickest I ever was in my life.
So if you live in snake country(a lot of us do),be careful around those piles of rocks,old boards,old logs,junk yards,etc.Snakes like to hide under stuff and often give no warning of their presence. Be CAREFUL!
Incidentally,the snake I saw quickly disapeared under the scrap pile.I haven't seen him since. He's probably still there....somewhere! James Flannery

my thumbnails won't "click---I'm doing something wrong--I just know it!--HELP!!!


Post your image to the IForgeIron Gallery then view the image you want to post. Right click on that image from the gallery. Copy the BOTTOM URL from the pop up box. Now return to the forum and paste that URL into the lower box on the "manage attachments" section of your post and click the lower "upload" button. Click the "manage attachments" button again and repeat as needed for more images to be added. When your finished you must scroll up and click on "submit" to add or submit the post to the forum.

What is this exactly? I have 2 of these my uncle brought home from work in the early 1960's. He worked at the old C&O railroad car shops(blacksmith shop) in Raceland Kentucky. I improvised a hardy& small horn and used both as anvils for many years.I still use them as upsetting/swaging blocks. They are 10in.x16in. x10in. in height and weigh about 70 lbs.Anyone know how they were used?