JKindy

I followed this link from another forum; Lump Charcoal ratings I first used the Cowboy brand, my brother uses it down south for his barbeque. I found that it heats very hot, but burns very quickly! So I went to a couple local stores looking for brands list on the comparison chart for the longest hottest burning lump in my area. I found Meijer had the Frontier brand. So I bought 5 bags. The pieces are very large, too large. LOTS of ash, it looked like it was snowing! Couldn't get a good heat in the forge, the pieces were too big to concentrate the heat. So we put our last bag of Cowboy in. By sprinkling a little water on the top of freshly added lump, it slowed the burn down a lot. Not only that but it created a beehive fire as well. I burned the first piece I had in there due to the fire being so hot so quick. Cowboy brand pieces are just the right size, start very easy, and with some water added to the top, burns for a good amoount of time. By adding the water, we burned one bag in the time we would have burned three without water. And got a hotter fire to boot. I learned about adding water to a coal fire from Backyard Blacksmithing, and thought of trying it on the lump charcoal fire to make it last longer. It worked great! Cowboy brand is hot, small manageable pieces, burns long (with sprinkled water), actually I soak the top layer with a single hole in the bottom of a soup can on a handle, is $7.50 for 10 pounds, is readily available in most areas. Cowboy brand is also available from Kmart as another name. They use lumber cut-offs from flooring. And when its time to cook lunch, shut off the blowwer and add your steak! Jeff

Chuck, Next weekend is a nogo for forging, I will be at my monthly "survival" training. Otherwise we would both be going to the Toledo hammer-in! LOL Are you planning on going to SOFA? I plan on going for the weekend and camping.

Welcome to the forums. I'm new here also. I live in Wyandotte, not far North of you. I have made a charcoal forge from a brake drum, got an electric blower from grainger for $65, works great! If you wanna come play some time let me know. It's set up at my dad's on Grosse Ile, only 5 minutes from my house. I'll be there tomorrow if you'd like to stop by, call me (734) 934-2030. We'll have you going home with a nice hook for the wife/girlfriend or mom or whoever. I have one next to my computer to hold my headphones. Jeff

Wow! What an honor to have such a treasure. That is too cool that your Dad brought it to you.

Very nicely done! Please do show some videos of the first time you fire it up. I would love to see that. Thanks for sharing.

That is fantastic! So much so I want one! Feel like making another? PM me a price, if you want to do another. Jeff

That is very cool. I think I may and try to make one. Thanks for sharing.

Can't remember which site I was on...with their textured lag bolts they recommended using the "Gator Socket". Its that yuppie one socket fits all with the pins that grab the bolt head. seems like it would work well. Since that socket is grabbing whatever it can to turn your bolt.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm...BACON! I use bacon grease on my self made bows to seal the wood. There is a lot of uses for the goodness of bacon!

I am sure more experienced will chime in, but... I use Olive oil on my cast iron pans to season them. That is basically what you are doing. Heat them up, coat with oil, keep them warm for about an hour, then coat them again. When seasoning a new pot or pan I will do this 3-4 times at 400*F. Hope that helps. Jeff

This is what I found to be true. I will flatten the jaws. The work pieces kept wanting to twist on me, I just thought it was the way I was holding them. Thanks for the input.

Not long enough to put many up on here. All the knives my brother and I have made are up on BushcraftUSA.com. Posts unde MIDVM-LFB and Deisel. Thanks for the kind words. And BTW the apron is not mine, it belongs to my brother, I like it other than he screwed up the skull. It looks like an alien now!

They worked great! Very simple twisted end, self riveted. The piping from the blower, still gotta make a hinged ash trap door. Added two half rings around the top to help keep the charcoal in. Started using Lump Charcoal, much better. Logo on the anvil. Vulcan made in 1946, right down the road from where I live. Jeff Kindy

I picked up this little coal bucket today from an Estate Sale for $7. More of a decoration, but it will work and looks good too! Here is my first set of tongs, not very good, but functional. I wanted to see if they would work before I spent too much time on them. I'll refine them later.

Well thanks to RandyT, a friend from another forum who lives near me, I have found another new hobby..Blacksmithing! Eversince he brought his forge and anvil out to the Michigan Bushcrafter's Meet, I have been wanting more. My brother, father and I went to the Pioneer Days two months ago, and got even more of the bug. Always on the lookout for an anvil, I was at the local scrap yard dropping off an old shed. I asked if they had an anvil and lo and behold they did. $150 for a big ol ugly orange hunk of metal. We looked at it, and decided not to get it. Well I went back the next day with a ball pein hammer to check the rebound and look at it closer. I bounced back good, didn't look too bad, so I bought it. On the way out I put it on the scale; 200#'s! Less than $1 / lb! Got it home (dad's), cleaned it up, painted it black and put it on a stump. Well now the ball started rolling down hill. Found a brake drum, after looking for two weeks. The scrappies pick them up faster than I could get to the brake shops. Put it on a 30 gallon drum for starters and hooked it up to the air compressor. A couple of bags of Kingsford ( I know, not a good choice) and we had fire! I t worked for the weekend. Made a couple of hooks and some forge tools. The next weekend I made a stand for it and got an electric blower from Grainger. Since then we have gathered some hammers, an old copper coal bin my Dad gave us and bits and ends.

That is mighty fancy there. I like it a lot! I think I'm going to have to steal your stolen idea! LOL Nice work.

I just paid $150 for a 200# Vulcan that was in much better shape than that one. Keep looking. There has to be better than that out there.

Having been a seme-professional photographer for the last 12 years, I can say a little. 1) Its only been viewed 4 times? can't be right, since all of us at least have looked at it. 2) I looked for a contact to ask your permission, didn't find one from flickr. 3) It is an advertisement for what seems to be a professional site, payment would be expected to use your pic. 4) Compensation would be inorder for the amount of time it has been used, as small as it is, say $100 US would be about what I would charge. With the title you used, no keywords to describe, I would guess the webmaster had been purusing you blacksmithing pics. I would follow the link to the webmaster, mailto:info%40blacksmithing.com.au. They have a copyright symbol at the bottom of their page! So they want their stuff protected. I would contact them, you may be surprised with a check! Jeff

She and your family are in our prayers. Take heart that she has lived a good life, and will be rewarded accordingly in heaven. Jeff

That's gonna be some hard stuff. Lots of carbon in those for wear. They will probably have some other cutt0offs though. Can't hurt to ask.

I came across this forum when I was looking for more information on simple forges. So far this place rocks! Looking forward to learning more. Anyone else from Michigan feel free to contact me if you would like to get together. I am new to the Blacksmithing game, but I have been a Millwright / Welder for the past 15 years. Jeff