Frostfly

I think I'd be REALLY nervous using motor oil. All sorts of fun stuff go in to those. Used cooking oil will prolly keep your lungs in better shape. Bacteria is a bad weekend, Heavy metals are forever.

first question. Are leg vise and post Vise Interchangable? I hear both terms and I'm not sure if i'm using them correctly.

second part. I've found a leg vise in my area and i'm gonna go take a look at it tomorrow. From the pictures it looks pretty good and all the parts seem to be there. Weighs in at around 35 pounds. What do I need to look for to tell if this item is in good shape?

Thanks for the help

I usually work in an open garage door, and use natural light. I have to say I base the ammount of light more on my mood then on what I'm trying to do. When it gets to dim I get depressed. Ok i'm just a big softy :)

I'm gonna bet that scientists also believe that injecting infectious agents into your blood stream is BAD. There are lot of germs you can pick up from trash that can KILL you. there is nothing about gloves that are "over Sterilized" Frankly I find what you posted to be Incredibly dangerous advise. Using bleach to sterilize your house is one thing. Telling people that germs in a dumpster aren't dangerous is something else.

looks great! Always nice to have family involved.

Oh...thank you for just making my day! I'd love to sign up for a class in Portland.

Needed some good news too, Sounds like my Main supplier for my store was in the path of the recent tornados in Arkansas.

Retail...I sell forged home decor and furniture on the waterfront in Portland oregon. I figured out a long time ago I'll never be more then an average artist (lack of focus) so I figured I'd find another way to enjoy and promote blacksmithing.

Seems kinda a false comparison to compare a 25# to a 100#(or bigger in the case of 60kg) hammer. Also wouldn't the quality/repair/age of each machine matter. I think declaring something best requires answers to a lot more varibles.

well the pallet strapping is the stuff that my local steel yard uses...so I'm guessing it's pretty decent. They just have a gob of it laying around in the scrap yard. I'll test it as soon as my new forge is up and running. thanks for the info.

does anyone know what kinda steel you get in the 1" wide pallet strapping? I've found a source, but I'd like to know what I'm getting into. (strapping and bandsaw blades )

You'll find IRNSRGN's Helve hammer design in the blueprints BP0063 Helve Hammer. There is also a pic of a difrent one in one of the "show me your XXX" threads in this forum.


Another question. Motor speed. I'm guessing you want a slower-ish motor. Could you get a faster motor and gear/pulley it down? would that let you get away with a bit smaller engine?

Bleh, didn't even think to search for that. thanks!

I keep looking at all the plans and built power hammers of various flavors and there is one thing I can't figure out. How big a motor do you use? is there a guide line for hammer weight vs HP? I'd love to build one (helve hammer I think) but I dont' wanna just take a random guess at the motor size.

Airline tickets to see go see my girlfriend at college. :-)

If you are making armor you might try looking over at
The Armour Archive :: Index

Very knowledgeable group of people, lots of info about armor around in that site and some info on construction.

You could also check,
Living History Library (Powered by Invision Power Board)
It's a bit newer, but I've been fairly impressed by the quality of information I've seen.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/considering-retail-3219/

Looks like I'm coming at it from the oposite side of the spectrum

to cover a few of the questions that have been asked of me,

Yes I'm thinking wholesale, Consignment is not what I have in mind.

as for what I'm interested in, at first I'd want a wind range, From coat hooks and inexpensive items up to fairly ornate and large items(fireplace sets,candelabras). The location I have picked out is in a very affluent area, but I'm not exactly sure what will be most popular. I'm thinking items in the 25-100 doller range will be the winners. of course I plan on covering as many price points as I can deceide are reasonable.

Again, this is something VERY early in the planning stages (next step:funding!). Thank you all for your input so far.

I'm considering Opening a Retail store that will stock some Hand Forged Items, I'm curious in you folks Imput in regards to how Possible it would be to keep this kind of store stocked. I"m guessing I need to sell something like 600+ peices a month to stay profitable and a great deal more then that around christmas time. I'd like to keep them all hand made and american(canadian would be acceptable) made. I know just enough about blacksmithing to have burned myself several times and taken the hair off my arms, but I'm a bit better versed in retail. Questions:

Would a single shop(assuming an average small shop) be able to put out this kind of quantity, or would I be best off looking for several shops to provide diffrent items?

I know many of the people who make the kinds of items I'm interested in already sell them retail themselves, would these type of people be willing to sell to a retail outlet for a discounted price for bulk orders? (i hope so, but I'm not sure what kind of profit margins they might have)

Anyone out there that would have some intrest in being a supplier for me?

Sorry for any vagueness, this idea is on the extream early edge of consideration. I'm looking for ideas to put a plan together, not quite to the plan stage yet

Thanks all for your help!

I'm fairly new to Blacksmithing, but I did buy one of their anvils after a fair ammount of research. I like it. the shape is about what I wanted, the price was what i was willing to pay. (and the looks I got getting it delivered to my workplace was fun) I got a smallish one 114 pounds i think. From what I've heard they seem to do well on the smaller sizes, but have some quality control issues on the bigger anvils. This is all hersey mind you, I don't have any data to back up my input.

If your gonna buy a small one, i'd say go for it, but remember it's prolly more of a Starter anvil then a long term (10+ year) type investment. it's almost always true you get what you pay for.

I scrounged mine out of the dumpster behind a heating/cooling place.

I've been looking around for a good junk/scrap yard and all I can find are Car junk. I know I can get some good bits off them but I was hoping to find a junk yard like Glenn talked about in Blueprint BP0244. Does anyone know of a junk yard like this in the Portland Oregon area? or with in a reasonable drive (3-4 hours) or know where I would look to find one?

Thanks for the link Larry, i've pretty much designed my forge from your site (someday i'll acutally get it finished). I built my own 5 gallon bucket tho. My problem with it wasn't the lack of information, it was that I was lacking in the basics of understanding how the plumbing works. Plumbing has long been the bane of my exsistance. I've found I can do anything, but plumbing.

I think I got it all worked out now, using information from prolly a dozen diffrent sources. Maybe I'll write up a dummies guide to gas forges someday (i've got the dummie part down pat)


I"m short a blower (maybe this weekend) and the lining for the forge and a place to put it (prolly gonna get a Harbor freight cart). I should be a pretty neat little forge if I can do everything i want with it. It's been quite a quest to build it as most of the skills required are ones I either didn't have to start with or have had to knock a decade of rust off of. Thanks to everyone for the help!

I'm trying to get one with a bit more CFM I'm planning an air curtain design to keep the dragon breath safely away from my face

I didn't think the draft inducers would work. thanks for the confirmation.

dishing into the end of a stump of some sort works well, but I wouldn't use a ball peen unless you are looking for a textured surface, find a cheap 2 or 3 pound hammer (i use a driller's hammer) and grind one surface to a smooth radius (like half a sphere) use that to dish with (the process is called dishing) the larger radius on the hammer makes the surfaces stay much smoother.

the other way to do this is a process called raising, I'm not an expert on that check on anvilfire  for a description on that.

Cuz I'm compleatly lost trying to figure out what I need. I'm not all that knowledgable about anything electrical and i'm getting numbers overload.