iron woodrow

as above- different strokes for different folks. i am not right.... neither are you.... let people make their own mind up..... on what they think is safe for them, and whether they trust their hammer skills. we provide information, not rules. thankyou for your input on the subject. i have always believed in making nails in one heat though.... sorry i don't have youtube video skills....

it would be C sharp or C flat. it cannot have more than one resonance unless something is seriously wrong (especially the 6 required to make a guitar chord! or even the three required to make a triad chord)- i am guessing your musician friend is a guitarist?

WHOO! hammer!

pix? we need vids!

phil the southern out house. library of pong-gress best place to do "paper work" or fill out a "log book" you can even "log onto the inter webs" from there :unsure:

my wife does piano tuning and teaching and repair. i personally think that is an unusual trade.... there are possibly fewer piano tuners than blacksmiths. i don't see an ITUNEPIANO forum. :P i am also into steam engines, and driving trains. keeping trade traditions alive is so important, and i am glad there are so many of you who feel the same way.

ps. the anvil (which way?) horse has bolted, the gate has been closed, and it has lived out its' long and happy life. can we not feed it to the dog? or at least bury it? i fear its' swollen corpse will burst if it is flogged any more.... :rolleyes:

i would love to know where you blokes get your multiple razor sharp toothed 2500rpm cut off hardies from! :blink: mine just sits there and i have to put a job on it and hit! no (for you safety over engineering fellows), i do not leave it there for all eternity, i just leave it in if i am going to use it for a particular process. i.e. forging nails. the idea of forging the nail, and then reaching down, picking up the hardy, then putting it into the anvil, using it once, and then putting it back in its naughty corner, for EVERY NAIL, is simply ludicrous. and to those who swear by doing that, i ask you: what is your main profession? mine is not blacksmithing, at the moment, sure, but i have done smithing for a living in the past, and i plan to do it again in the near future, and such inefficiencies, all because i do not trust myself to not hit my hand on an inanimate (and stationary) object, are simply inexcusable. i may as well extinguish my forge for fear of sustaining 3rd or 4th degree burns. i mean- there it is, the least safe thing in the smithy- the hot thing you have to REMEMBER NOT TO TOUCH. armchair and hobby smiths can bubble wrap what they want, but in the real world of making a living, time is money, and efficiency is key. you work around hazards, and remain vigilant. i have more chance of cutting off my finger when i am slicing a ham. logically and statistically. sorry if i ruffled a few feathers..... but can we get back to talking about REAL BLACKSMITHING???? (oh and NS, it is a single step- it does not need a rail. and if a man decides to remove a safety feature that has been legally supplied with a power tool, he cannot be surprised if something goes wrong)

haha, brilliant :D

i believe they were looking at daniel greenes' work.

i have a front step at my house. i have never needed to paint it yellow. i have never needed to turn it into a ramp. i step over it, because it is there. even when i am tired, i step over it. if i am drunk, i may trip over it, but i don't forge drunk. just saying ;)

the brain is the most important tool we possess. to teach people to use it wisely is our goal as teachers. to teach people to fear things just because they are different to what we "heard an old bloke say once" is not what i am about. bubble wrapping and telling people "this is the way" is what this thread in particular is about. there IS NO RIGHT WAY to have your anvil facing. it is about what works. THERE IS NO RIGHT WAY when it comes to cutoff hardy tools. it is about whether you trust yourself as a smith, and also about WHAT WORKS FOR YOU. someone once said- i think someone on this forum has it as their signature "do not build a box, that way you do not have to think outside the box" ;) there are fundamentals to learn, sure, but there are a lot of people out there that take the teachers word as gospel. "my grampa told me to always remove the hardy" "the master smith i learned from told me to always have the horn to the right" "thumbs up, not down" these are all boxes we are placing upon others, and not teaching them to think outside. sure a warning of "make sure you remember the hardy is there" or "if you think you may miss the mark, or don't trust your strike, take it out" is more appropriate than a blanket "REMOVE THE HARDY AT ALL COSTS" approach. my advice: the safest thing in the smithy, or in any work place, is comfort and confidence. if you are uncomfortable and sore, you are doing it wrong, and rethink what you are doing. if you think you could do it better or more efficiently another way, try it and see! you might be pleasantly surprised! (discomfort and pain is not to be mistaken from "the burn" of your muscles working.....) an unwise man once said "no one, however smart, however well educated, however experienced, is the suppository of all wisdom" tony abbott australian prime minister 2013 to the inexperienced, in whatever country you are in, please do your research, here and elsewhere, and read between the lines. taking one mans (or womans) word on a subject as the ultimate truth does nothing but make YOU a subject yourself.

how does one lose a finger on a cut off hardy that is left in? you would have to be swinging wild and all over the place to even come close to hitting your hand on the hardy! and when you know it is there, you work around it. my hand, when holding the hammer is rarely over the anvil face, and rarer still is it over the hardy hole.... if it worries someone that much, surely painting it yellow would cover all workplace health and safety requirements..... :p bottom line is- don't put beans in your ears. my 250 arched window anvil has the hardy hole at the horn end, and my others are london pattern, so i work around all sides and directions.

cutie! my girls would love that <3

i would have come up today, but i was on the trail of some steam ploughing engines reputed to be dumped in the johnstone river....

hey james, I'm in gordonvale, i like your philosophy, and live by the same. i hope we don't tread on each others rusty toes ;) woody.

looks like a nice james leffell return flue boiler. i can't wait until i can find the time to come up for a squizz and a yarn. i haven't been in that neck of the woods for 5 years.

it has a rear brake, but the pull rope is not attached. that would make hill descents a bit easier, but it is only a leather or wooden "spoon" rubbing on the rear wheel

nah not cast, it would be useless in that application. it is important to remember that there was a time in the not to distant past where hammer marks in forged parts were seen as a sign of poor quality. very nicely forged, and as stated before, very likely to have been welded up, then forged

netherton ironworks produced wrought iron stamped with their different grades. best,best best , treble best http://www.academia.edu/334374/Extra_Special_Best_Best_Black_Country_iron_puddling_and_wrought_iron_manufacture_in_the_nineteenth_century

I have a 5cwt Massey in the yard just hanging around, casual like! One day... you have a massey in the yard!?? put it in man! before SPAM (Society for the Prevention of Abuse to Masseys) take it from you!

solid frame too, imagine the weight! no tubular frames in the bone shaker days! i have one of those on my forging bucket list.... :blink:

other smiths are the most unusual things i get..... ;) any other critters are just normal compared to them!

you would have to do a vee prep to make sure you get full penetration on the weld, but even then, you would find that the dissimilar metals of the head and the shank would want to crack apart. you would also need to make sure you did not harden and temper the repurposed hammer, because a stray blow would be like hitting two hammers together.... very dangerous.

BIG stock, all day, and reaching into big furnaces requires gloves, no matter how much of a MAN you are. no gloves for hand work, but welding gloves for big power hammer and big furnace for sure. otoh, shirts are for sissys ;)