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I was just kidding about the blueprints. !!!!!!!!

Thanks Blueprint----what is that????

Thanks Guys This was just a few. I made 250 of those for a house down in Oregon. That was a lot. I make them with the flypress.

Gray hair is a sign of wisdom. Thats why power hammers come into wise blacksmiths shops

here are few different plates I have done and joist hangers out of 1/4" plate. The bigger plates are 1/2" plate. I love the relief it gives and they stand out nice. The corner brackets are 1 3/8" solid bar 3' long. The T plate is 27" long

I use a home built Hossfeld and use it a lot. Have used it for about 16 yrs and have built quite a few tools for it. I made 2 signs out of 1/2"X4" flatbar bent on the flat. It was a bit of work, did a good job though. I have tools for making rings out of up to 3/4" round material hot rolled. I have another 1 I bought, not sure what it is called that I use for sharp bends and whatever else the Hossfeld doesn't do well. The Hossfeld is very versatile from my experience. I will get a picture and send it along. Here are the signs I did with the hossfeld

Here is some info on what a grader blade is made of, not sure if it will mean anything to you. Here it is Grader blade with casting/insert assembly on leading edge - Patent 4715450

I am not sure what you mean by airborne problems with refractory. I use Plicast31 and according to their MSDS sheet their is no problem. I don't use KaoWool because of its fragility. I don't use ceramic refractory and so not sure what the problem is. Once it is cured their is not much to fly around from the Plicast31. Here is a link to their MSDS sheets. I used to use hard refractory and it takes a lot more propane to heat up and keep hot, when you put a bunch of metal in it just sucks the heat out of the forge and takes linger to heat up. PLIBRICO: The Leader in Monolithic Refractories

How come you don't use a insulating refractory? Just wondering.

Springs used to be recurved and a lot of old blacksmith shops had a form to see when the spring was back to its original bend. When you hammer a piece of metal on 1 side all the time it will curve in that direction. They used to take the springs off a car, take them apart and hammer them on one side until the proper curve was attained according to the form. That is why when you are forging a knife you hammer the same amount on both sides of the blade so when you harden it, it won't get a curve to it. If you take any piece of flat bar you can curve or straighten it this way. Make sure where you are hitting with the hammer is on the anvil so it is a nice solid hit and it will curve into your hammer.

Here is a chest I put the ironwork on a few years ago. It is cedar and was built by someone else, then he brought it to me and I put the iron on it

I know you will lose quite a bit if you just pile it up and burn it. That is why the charcoal burners put a 24 hr watch on the pile of wood for a week or 2 for the size of piles they used to do. You can't let it get away or you have ash and that doesn't work very good in a forge. In the retort you lose none of what you put in the retort. You just lose what you used to heat it with.

It wouldn't work if it hung from the hook. It hangs from the 2 rods out each side and the bottom is pulled up to fill the top section. There is a divider in the center that the 2 pins are on. The top section is clear and the weight of it comes down to push the air out the tube in the end. The pulling of the chain lifts the bottom, fills the top and the top comes down on its own and that way their is a steady supply of air for the forge. Their are flap valves to direct the air the right way through. It might be real, hard to tell without getting right up close. Someone has made a table out of it though.

Here is a book on retorts for making charcoal. I got this info before it was in book form. Here is the book name and author. It is very simple and it works real good. Used my retort for about a year before I found a good source of coal. Amazon.com: Making Charcoal: The Retort Method: Books: William C. Neel

This web link is how I made charcoal when I first started smithing. It works real good, if you can get good coal from centaur forge then what are you thinking of making charcoal for? Good smithing coal is so much superior to charcoal. You will burn up a lot of charcoal compared to coal. Charcoal is much better than bad coal though. If you are going to blacksmith full time, and use charcoal, then you should find someone to make your charcoal for you, cause you will spend a lot of time making charcoal.