tomhw

Too many videos have too much useless talk.  The lack of blabber of some of the old pre-war videos is a pleasure for me.

Try to keep track of your time on the lathe, if you have any other interests.  For iron workers lathes are more seductive than video games are for kids. 

Measured with a micrometer, marked with chalk, cut with an axe.

Most impressive.  Well done. 

Learn from your mistakes and failures.  I have had several moves since beginning this craft and have a sadly abrieviated pile of screw-ups.  I still have a few examples of what not to do.   Failure is a stern teacher.  I have round-punched eye-tools (hot cuts, punches, and drifts) punched and drifted with round tools.  The sides are too thin for heavy hammer work.  I still have a few other examples of good ideas and poor tool selection or application.  These failures have been useful for me.  I expect to make many more embarrassments before I cannot lift my hammer.

A well balanced body and mind is good.  It requires diligence over one's life time.

The product of a blacksmith is an iron or steel object, produced to a high standard, that satisfies the customer's demands.

Clay the pan, if you must.  I prefer Grout mixed with a minimum of water.  Keep clay and cement out of the fire pot, it becomes clinker.  Cast Iron forge parts are consumable.  Replace them as needed.

Rush Limbaugh

My buddy called me and asked, "want some coal?".  :o  YES!  He brought it too me.  Too all you guy's that find those $20 hay buddens  :P .  I'm guessing about 500lbs, one cart full had already made it around to the shop.  I'll have to put him a thank you together.

The yellowish material suggests the presents of sulpher in the rock

.    Supher contamination may cause problems for blacksmiths.  It may well be useful but there are problems with corrosion and welding that you must learn to work with.

The only time I had carpal tunnel problems was when I was a rod buster- worked with rebar in construction.  I had no feeling from elbow to finger tips on my right arm.  It got better after several months of not twisting wire.

If I had a power hammer I'd use it.

Rex,

Fire clay or fire brick are unnecessary for the table. A properly maintained fire will never get the the bed hot enough to damage it.

I use mortar mix to level my forge table.  I use just enough water for a good mix- uniformly damp, not wet.  This mix can withstand the the wide and sudden changes of heat and humidity.  I also applied 1/8" of (red) automotive high temperature silicone to the outside of the cast iron fire pot where it contacts the concrete, to reduce the stress of expansion and contracion of the dissimilar materials.  This regime will last for years of work.  Do not line the fire pot with anything.  It will just make clinkers.

This is fluid dynamics.  I did a 30 second search and found this:  http://www.claychimneypots.com/

Convert it to sheet metal tubes.  The ratios are right.

A couple of decades ago my wife had a relative who ran a calcining plant near Lake charles, Louisiana.  I got several pickup truck loads of petrolium coke.  It was in large chunks- fist, to head, sized.  It was hard to light so I made a lighter-pine fire first and then added coke to it.  The fire was very hot but tended to spread to the whole fire pot. 

The coke burned hot enough to melt five pounds of bronze to cast a bell clapper for a large Mexican bell.  That said, making reliable forge welds was difficult; possibly due to the high sulfer content.   I would use it today if it was available at Walmart at not too much more than Royal Oak lump charcoal prices.

Are you really interested?  If you are then make a commitment that compells you to dillagence and sacrofice.  Buy the best that you can afford to spend and make it worth it. 

My father-in-law told me that he once dropped a quarter down the hole in the out house.  It was not worth going after so then he threw in a silver dollar.....

Try belt  buckels.  All kinds. 

I bought a piece of leather online that was long enough to cover my body throat to foot and hip to hip.  I trimed enough to allow free arm movement, and placed gromets for a neck band and hook, and a waist band and hook.  It cost less than $35 last year when I made it.

You have all of the information you need now.  Turn of the computer, light a fire, and and go to work.  Fail and go again, and again, and...... This is how self tought works.  You will have a slow, dense course in elementary fire maintainance.  

I found a few old men who greatly shortened my elementry schooling.  Seek out old men who know what you do not know and want to know.  Listen.

nice one.  I enjoy others' stories, as well as sharing mine. 

My first intro was at a renfair somewhere around central NJ (lakewood) when I was a senior in high school.  I talked with the female apprentice who was cleaning up the "shop" at the fair while her master was at lunch.  I passed on an invite to talk with the master about apprenticeship in his shop in toledo, spain (young and dumb and afraid to leave home)

After I was newly married (still married to the same beautiful woman going on 21 years, and parents of 10 indigenous children), we went to a little mountain fair in "little" washington VA and actually swung a hammer on steel for the first time.  The smith said I was a "natural" and should try it out, but I didn't (again).

Well God was evidently involved with all these attempts, because about 8 or 9 years ago, I moved my family down to a little town just south of Raleigh NC.  A year later my in-laws followed us and retired onto a small 15-acre piece of what used to be some families farm.  Their retirement place was about 4 acres cleared and the rest was hilly brambles and woods with all kinds of junk pushed into the woods.  One day, I was walking around in their woods and stubbed my toe on the "toe" of a little 75-lb no name anvil.  Just the toe was sticking up, and I dug the anvil out with a pocket knife.  Low and behold, buried right next to the anvil was a 4-inch, 40-lb leg vice missing the spring.  minimal rust and fully operational.  nothing else was within 20 feet.  believe me, I checked on my hands and knees.  Well I brought the anvil and vice up to the house (about a 1/4 mile away, but those things practially floated the whole way) and showed them to my Father in Law.  He said he didn't want 'em and my wife said "God had to dump them on you to make you get the hint".  I have been happily banging ever since, any chance I can get.

Those faitful things aroze from the earth?  You must be destined to be King of the Blacksmiths!  Well done, indeed.  Keep at it.  it is a worthy endevor.  The unseen hand moves ever forward....

Hi all

 

Was given this anvil a good few years ago from a guy that said my father had loaned it to him many years earlier. This was a few years after my father had died so it was nice the guy looked me up to return it. My father was born in 1909 and was a self taught engineer/

mechanic and ran a small workshop on one of the islands up here doing repairs and fabrication etc, so no real idea how he came by it.

Any ideas or thoughts on it would be very interesting to me because of the connection to my father. Only mark I can see is the '8' Hopefully here are some pics with the baby Brooks.

Thanks for looking

Michael

 

Anvil 004.JPGAnvil 012.JPGAnvil 017.JPG

It is a good anvil.  I admire thick waisted English anvils.  My Hay Budden is so narrow at the waist that the sweet spot is limited to about one third of the face.  More importantly, my father never owned it.  Enjoy it.

Got some heavy square tubing, angle irona and traded for this 55" saw blade today. Its .182 thick on the edge and close to .225 in the center..Did a little testing on it..i think its something like 1080+nickle..

Does it have carbide incerts?  If so you can sell the carbide and use the rest of the for blades, tools, gardening tools, shears, and other hardened things.

Making mistakes is part of learning.  Save your failures in the scrap pile.  As you grow you will see in your scrap pile what you should work on.  Eventually your successes will exceed your failures.  Failure teaches the wise craftsman, but a master teaches best.

Failure is the second-best teacher.  Submitting to a master craftsmen is much better and faster for your education than self-taught attempts.

Istill have some of my first failures. They are embarising, but many of my failures have not survived the several moves that I have made sence.  If you can find a master blacksmith submit to the mysteries and exicutions of the craft.

You are more important than your anvil.

I was the 10,000 indentured servants ha ha. Im just beginning to build my evil empire, its starting with my forge.

It worked for me.

Wasn't the ancient Egyptian way to get space-men to use their space craft to levitate stuff?  Well done anyway.

I have a set of lettering punches, each is 1/4 inch square and 2 1/2 inches long.

 

I would like to make some kind of holder that will allow me to see where I am positioning it prior to striking with a hammer.

 

Vice grips or tongs don't work well because you can't easily see where you are positioning the punch.

 

A quarter inch square hole about an inch or an inch and a half deep in the end of a short piece of bar stock would be fine.

 

A friction fit would be fine, so I can change which punch is mounted in the handle.

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.  

I am confused.  Punching letters does not seem like punching a deep hole.  Letters can be punched cold.  Deep holes is another thing.