Ulric

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Blacksmith-Forge-8-Blower-turns-freely-/110558380579?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0 No screws to hold body together, no handle/crank hard and couples 'paddles' look like they were patched, jb weld or epoxy maybe? ...but with shipping, 50$

40 something from Spring Texas, I've always had an interest in 'old' and 'different' things and the DIY thing. Started trying to repair & clean out my grandfathers barn, and stumbled on some old farm tools, which rekindled some interest in smithing, off to google I went and here I am. Doing some family research at the same time, found out the family patriach had been a smith, prior to immigrating to the states in the 1840's, and that one of his sons had taken up the trade. Unfortunately it seems the smithy was torn down early/mid 1900's, my grand father having vague memories of working the bellows. ...going to try to build a charcoal based forge out of a 25 gal drum, similar to the Lively's wash-tub design using local sources. Ie: Clay dug from my small retention pond. Using charcoal due to the availability of wood. Plenty of pine & oak after storms, to the point that we've got more than we can do anything with.

It's in good condition... http://houston.craigslist.org/atq/1832042452.html Hand crank blowers seem to run about 150, if you an find them, most I've stumbled across involve a 250+ mile drive.

Trying the lively adobe mix, with using a higher clay/ash slip as a surface coat... though now im kicking round the idea of busting up a couple old toilet tanks and letting the pieces tumble around in my cement mixer for awhile and adding that to the slip.

Check around, stumbled one day on a link to a form in which u can request permission to access railroad property. It might be possible to get a contact #, or process for purchasing small pieces of rail etc.