jayco

What's really scary is that he could probably do that on an anvil as well as a beam! Few people have that kind of coordination!

My BULKmight cause me to fall.

Tompon:An inking pad used in lithographic printing. 1913-websters'

I try to keep my anvil fairly level,though I never go to the trouble to actually get a 'level' out to check it.If my round punch tends to roll off the side or end of the anvil, it might be time to re-level a bit. That's the short answer. When I asked myself "Why would anyone want their anvil tilted one way or another?" ,it occurred to me that there might be sound reasons for tilting the anvil in certain situations. (I realy hadn't thought about this until I read this thread). A specialist who uses the horn a lot might want the horn upturned a little to help him both see and hammer under the horn. Let's say.....perhaps a bladesmith wants to keep a portion of the anvil cool and wet(with water) but needs a dry section also for drawing a taper. Tilting the anvil and making the low side the wet side allows the high side to remain dry. At my skill level, I have not done these things....and yeah...I'm sticking my neck out! But I do believe there are possibilities for a tilted anvil. Two strikers.....hammering something wedge-shaped like an axe or cutter-stalk or froe......each standing on opposite sides of the anvil.....might be able to strike more squarely if the anvil is set in a 'compensating tilt'. But then again I could be wrong.......I was just thinking out loud! James

Newbiesmith.........Is there an ash dump on your forge? I studied the picture you posted ,but I couldn't tell for sure. If you don't,ash and cinders will stop up your air inlet pipe after one or two short fires. Without building a fire at all,.....turn your blower on and check if there is air coming up through the fire pot. By the way, be carefull about using the 'lighter fluid' thing to start your fire. there are lots of safer ways to build a fire. Light a couple balled up sheets of newspaper....add a handfull of dry sticks....give it a minute or so to catch up ......turn on some air....gradually add some coal. That's how I do it most of the time. Good Luck! Happy smithing. James

A chicken is a FOWL.

In olden times, the blacksmith was believed to hold an almost mystical power over the four elements.....earth,air,fire, and water. All you have to do is look in the IFI Gallery to see that that spirit is still alive today. James

A great holiday.....EASTER!

Just drink MILK!

Quite a FEAT!

Try reading Henry David Thoreau's "Walden". Not only is it a great American book with chapters on all kinds of subjects, he also has much to say about being 'alone' but not 'lonely' while he lived in his cabin for two years and two months.His unique perspectives are absolutely uplifting! James

Welcome trentinistefano! That is a beautiful knife!

It seems some charcoal users have problems with 'fleas' and some don't. I 've used charcoal off and on for years, and I've seen the same thing.I make all my own charcoal from hardwoods and also softwoods( mainly pine) .And some of my charcoal makes 'fleas'! This may be related to HOW the charcoal is made. Some where in his posts,Frosty explains that there are three different ways to make charcoal. Direct: where you just burn the wood Semi-direct: build fire in container,add wood,put lid in place to stop air from entering container Indirect: wood is placed in almost sealed container,heated externally Look up Frosty's post......he explains much better than I do. Most often, I just burn wood, then extinguish with a water hose......few fleas I also use the semi-direct and indirect methods at times too. With these 'sealed container ' methods, sometimes when remove the lid, there is cresoate...pinetar?...or other gooey stuff attached to the lid itself. I'm just guessing, but perhaps there's a wide temperature range in which charcoal can be made. (With the container methods being a cooler burn which doesn't burn up all the volitiles.) I haven't been scientific enough to draw any hard conclusions from this, but it's worth thinking about. I have noticed that these different cooking methods produce charcoals which appear and burn differeintly in the forge. So here's the question.......does all this have any bearing on the performance of the charcoal when smithing? James

We used to mark logs with KEEL.

I should run FASTER!

Frosty...I haven't been able to talk to my neighbor these past few days to find out exactly how he applied the bentonite, but I know he only used a small tiller and hand tools to mix with. I observed that much. We have predominately clay soils around here anyway. I think his pond would have started holding water in a few months even without the bentonite. Most of the farmers here have ponds that hold water. They never used any bentonite. Probably why I had not heard of it being used for stopping leaks. With autumn coming on soon here, my new neighbor wanted to hurry up the process, I'm sure. James

Does bad butter really get BITTER?

Even spray your FEET!

Frosty....he has about a foot of water in the pond. A bull dozer and a track hoe were both used to dig the pond.One side,(the leaky side),was raised and filled.....and packed as best they could. My neighbor spreads the bentonite on the inside of the wall........some in the water itself......the rest on the dry bank. He waters the clay in with a garden hose. I never knew about the unique properties of bentonite before now! Thanks Frosty!!

Frosty......he's pouring the clay on the inside of his pond.....trying to seal seeps from the inside. If it ever rains here,(we're in a drought), I guess we'll see if it works! James

My shop is more than a hundred yards from the house and I work alone most of the time. This might be a good time to run a phone line out there or use the little 2-way radios we got for Christmas a couple years ago. I guess anything would be better than just hoping they would come looking for me around suppertime!

My neighbor is using bag after bag of bentonite clay .......trying to seal seeps and leaks in his new farm pond. I have no idea whether that works or not, but he's getting it from a local "Southern States" dealer. (a farm supply store). James

First of all....welcome to I F I Newbiesmith! I started out smithing on a more or less square block of of iron. You can do a lot of work on a block of iron if you set your mind to it. In fact, I used this as my anvil for almost 5 years, I think. I got an old London Pattern anvil.....a Peter Wright. The funny thing is....I still use the iron block quite a bit! James

Every poet has to have......a POEM!

Thanks for posting those pics Brian! I wanted to go to Quad State,but I was too busy on the farm. It looks like I missed a real good time! Maybe next year! James