Countryboy39067

I'm still in "build mode" with my smithy. I'm mounting my bench grinder, post vise, and buffer on 6"x6" timbers sunk into the floor. I had to fill the floor area with red clay sand due to the shop being added on to an existing structure as a lean-to. Later I will add a few inches of pea gravel after I set all the post and wall it up. End result will be a 15'x20 lean-to with forge, anvil, buffer, bench grinder, belt grinder, post vise, drill press, table saw, band saw, woodworking bench and sink with hot and cold water. Best of luck building!!

Anybody have any idea where someone like me that lives in central Mississippi can go to get a ton of coal per trip. I'm willing to travel to surrounding states.

Thanks for the replys!! I've been collecting a lot of coil springs from sofas and mattresses. I'm thinking of starting on a vine wrapped wall grate but not before I try making the curtain rods. I'm going for the rustic log cabin look so I'm surely addicted to the right hobby. Thanks again fellow smiths.

It all depends on how far you want to go with it. Just be careful, it's addicting. Too late.... I'm addicted and loving it! Lol

My girlfriend suggested I start smithing items to decorate my bare walled house. What the best book out there for home decor projects?

At the factory I work at the cardboard crusher is within 20 yards. Thanks for the idea!!!

Mine is 22" in dia. It's built from the core of sheet metal rolls a local company uses. I'm not limited on the size of fire I build and even with a small fire it rips the smoke up the stack!!

It's not his fault, he's from Texas bless his heart....lol

At the hunting camp this winter a friend made the comment we needed a fire poker. I went home that after noon and whipped one out. I handed it to him the next morning and his reply startled me. "It needed to be longer with a hook on the end!!!" and as a good friend that I am I replied, "You know where I hide the key to the shop.....I'm going hunting!!!" My fire poker is doing a swell job.......

The last trip I made (about 18 months ago), for a few hours of my time, I brought home 1.5 tons of some of the best known blacksmith coal for under $200. Where might this coal supplier of yours be located??

My brother-in-law taught me a great lesson many years ago. There is cheap then there is inexpensive. Cheap breaks after the first use. Inexpensive is a good deal on a quality product. Just thought I'd share that.

Well said!

As a factory worker, former military, blacksmithing hobbyist, and practitioner of four different martial art styles I can tell you the difference. Yes it may keep your heart rate elevated but probably not at the target rate calculated by age, weight, etc. Forging at the rate needed to stay at the target heart rate by just hammering would set your rotator cuff on fire!! Lol. Forge for fun and make something cool as a way to shatter life's chains on us. Happy forging!!!

(350 cc BSA rear wheel - don't ask) . Awe man that's a great machine!!! Ive been riding and racing KTM's since 1998

I work at a wire harness plant running a Komax wire cutting machine. That gave me an idea. Rollers take any memory out of the wire prior to entering the machine. Why couldn't one build a wire straightener to speed the "straightening" of the spring steel wire coils? Wire that up in a bundle, flux and twist. Voilà!! Spring steel twisted cable knife billet.

From a Reid engine? Reid oilfield pump engine? Looks like the grandfather to a heat proof compression nut. Former F-15E Strike Eagle mechanic myself.

This stuff is a nightmare!! I think I'll oil it good and leave it for my great, great, great grand kids to shoot holes through them with their lazer guns and make wind chimes!!!

I was gonna ask if that would work. I'm thinking of replacing strands of plowshare cable with the coils just to see what kind of pattern will show up. My family and friends are getting tired of my " hey what a gonna do with that metal" question. I need new friends!!!

I'll add that to my bookshelf. Thanks Bart!

Lol!! Addicted to blacksmithing and learning from other blacksmiths!!

I'm just a country boy that lives in zipcode 39067. Living loud and loving Jesus in Ethel, Mississippi!!

Wolf is it a teaching or story book. I've hear lots about Paw Paw but never this book.

Guys, I finally realized how hooked I was when I was replacing my old bed for a new one this week. As I dragged it donw my hall I noticed what was behind the fragile material covering the bottom of the mattress box spring. Such beautiful close grain 1x2 wood strips and 3/16 spring steal wire coils!! Oh what the future holds for what I thought was useless. Any ideas fellas?

Thanks! I just heated up the tips and hammered them out to the original shape, let them cool to black heat, and dunked them in water. Like you I'm only using them as a method to remove dislodged soil from the hole not dig the hole solo. It's unreal how rocky the soil is here in Ethel, Mississippi!!! Thanks again.

Hello people!! Happy New Year. I was out digging some post holes today and grabbed a set of diggers left by the previous owners of my land. The diggers bent on the first attempt!! The edges on each blade "curled". It seems to me that they may have been sharpened and overheated in the process. My question is what kind of metal are posthole diggers and shovels made from and how to temper them.