RyanErnst

These look good, and way better than mine.

well thanks for the info, i'll try a smaller pot never needed the one as big as i got i just figured if i needed it i mightaswell have it but i can easily make changes, and ill just have to make alot more charcoal when i can again and stockpile as much of it as i can it's not exactly hard to do its just annoying but worth it specialy since i have no other means of fuels around here besides berqquets and i really dont want to go to those, as far as blowers go im just useing a hair dryer constantly messing with it finding the perfect air volume, so now i know this has been bugging me for awhile thanks again

okay well... never really seeing anything in-use first hand or told about it, i was simply wondering how fast the average charcoal forge blows through the fuel, it seems im putting more in every other heat and i blew through a weeks worth of work for charcoal alot faster than i'd like to, i dont have any pictures or anything but im just wondering some things i could do to help or if anythings even wrong to begin with, my firepots about 4 inches deep, about 6 inches long and about 4 inches wide, or mabye it's just the charcoal, i dont know but thanks in advance to answer my little newbie question :P

thanks john! thats just what i was looking for, good examples and lots of them, that will definatly help me out :D

unfortunately i never thought of them as a hold down device for a large peice of metal for more metal to roll on that metal, i seen them as oppertunity more than anything, and from reading alot of peoples posts on these, you either love or hate them, in my opinion metal is metal and no one should be picky considering the circumstances of what we do, some shapes, sizes, and kinds of metals may be better for particular things but we work with metal because we enjoy it or at one point in time enjoyd something about it or most of us anyway, we alter and work the metal to what we want so i don't think we should take any metal for granted, its all metal its all smithing it's all enjoyable and fun and thats what alot of us do it for, i know for a fact thats what i do it for but again, this is just my opinion and only doing this for a year im sorry if i seem rude on the subject im not trying to be, but back to the questions at hand, i was wondering if they had enough mass and strength to make a deacent hammer?, just a thought i kinda want a lighter one for my smaller items i like to make thats suitable for blacksmithing.

thanks for all the posts, also nice work and the tongs seem like a great idea i've had in my face and didnt even realise it was there, i should make some of them ;o

ok well i know someone that has set me up with.....lots...of spikes and being the new blacksmith i am they are glowing with potential but, bringing the potential out? i only have few ideas, now i know you can make alot of things from spikes but being new and haveing no help on thoughts of uses, i wanted to see how big a list of things i can make out of them with, i'm not asking how well they are for this and that, i just want to know what can be done with them regardless of poor quality of the finished product, it is one of the only few metals i can obtain without any hassle and for right now is about the only thing i got to work with so if i can get any thoughts or info on anything spike related please drop a post. :)

those are awesome sauce, i particularly like the flowers.

haha so i talked to my freind today aswell and he said in 2 months on my birthday we can go to some places and i can pick out a anvil and he'll get it for me, this is amazing its all happening so fast!

thank you! i cant wait to start rolling that ball , i'll get as many pictures as i can, it might be a couple weeks till i get it but i just cant wait, the only thing i'll need now is a leg vise, but i can easily get one of those from making things, if i can ever find anyone that would buy them, i think i'm getting quite lucky with this, a anvil i bought years ago i just happen to have when i start, a small vise i got years ago i just happen to have when i start, ability to mass-produce charcoal right off the bat, now this. it has been quite a expirience for me in many ways and thanks to all your guyses help and posts on these forums i'll get to keep getting them i aprciate it very much this is a life long dream and it's actually comeing true, i had no idea it would actually go this way, anyway thanks again and good luck all .

so i told someone today about my blacksmithing and he thought that was just awesome and he knows someone who would make anything for him welding/metal wise and said if i got him some plans for a forge he could get one for me and lots of scraps aswell, barely starting and already getting such things "if it happens" well im just very excited and cant believe it :D

very nice! way better than my pile of hooks haha, thanks for shareing!

out of the months i have been useing this forum i have never seen a introduction thread get hot posted, i feel special now haha, i also have a question idk if i should put it here, i mightaswell but im in need of some hot cut hardys and mabye a few other mounted tools but the problem is i dont have a hardy hole i was wondering if some of you guys had a few substitutions to share with me and i dont really have room to use normal chisels so i need to grow a extra arm or come up with a solution that i can do myself, thanks

the famous frosty and his wisdom posts in my thread i am honourd :3, and what/where is twisp? ;o and i pass through kettle falls every few days that would be amazing if i can get someone that close to help and your forge sounds kinda like mine except atm im useing a fan and a coffe can to direct air into it however today i just got a old hair dryer so im gonna try to find out how to attache that tomorrow.

yes i'm kinda staying away from rebar now, however i can get it just about everywhere for free, its a readily available metal and i'll use it if i got nothing left but i'm not one of those few rebar fans that are hangin around :3 and yes im looking into forges and designs a bit, and looking out for anything i can use as a table instead of the wood one i made that ended up charing from lack of a good surface hah just more fuel i guess after i repair it again and come up with other random pointless things to keep it working again for another good week, within the next couple weeks im gonna be seeing where my 30$ can get me i dont know what im looking for exactly i just know i gotta find something that's better than what i have and can use with my lack of tooling and thanks for the pdf. "once it's done loading, dial up is just awesome" i'll probably need some sort of liner i cant exactly go get thick sheets of metal and make a proffesional forge like its just another day, the only problem im haveing troubles with "in my stockpile of plans" is how to attache a tuyre effectivly but i still got alot of research to do and gathering of resources. and yes i know how berqquets work and i'm sure if i ever meet him he'll like it wayyyy better, and seeing as my budget is extreamly the opposite of extreme im hopeing i can mabye do something with that, as there is no hope for going out and getting anything i need that is "perfect" right then and there with no effort at all anyway im draging this post on far longer than it needs to be yet again, thanks and good luck with all your...uhmm blacksmithing stuff :3

i'll have to do that then and see if i can get a copy, and i dont know to many people nor do i talk to a whole lot but i throw that out there every chance i get, and i just realised that anvil would probably work better if i flipped it upsidedown and used the feet, thats how bad it is, but im not a anvil pro so im probably wrong :3 i'll get a picture of it one day, its one of the smallest anvils i ever seen that was a actual anvil, but anyway thanks for the info i'll try to put it to good use

thanks for the info, i know a mechanic actually hes got loads of jumk laying around, getting my hands on it however...who knows and a couple days ago i found my small mechanists vise i just now put it on a big ol stump next to my poor wrecked anvil it's not something i want to use to much though it weighs probably around 5-6 lbs give or take and thanks im kinda a safety freak when i do things that could....hurt.. i am missing a apron however that and a new air source is the first on my list, and its gonna get too dry out pritty soon so im pritty much done for the summer but that just gives me more time to gather/save/make supplies and read up some more now that i know i like it, and wether i havent made much i have messed with rebar alot, it has its uses but i dont like working with it most the time, making tongs with some was a nightmare or mabye it was just my tools or way of doing it or both, and as far as finding other blacksmiths in my area thanks i never thought of doing that i'll have to try picking up a coal trail and try to find one i know for a fact theres some around here theyre just sneaky, and actually my freind knows a bladesmith, hes somewhat new to it aswell but im gonna try to get ahold of him eventually anythings better than nothing and he surely knows more than i do, and i need to learn alittle bit about metal some more, i ended up hacksawing for 3 hours then i realised it was cast iron so that was dissapointing :3, and sorry for my poor grammar if you havent noticed it isn't the greatest, and thanks for another thing i never thought of doing trades with my charcoal, i'll have to be sure to make alot this upcomeing winter once i find a place to put it, im runing out of metal buckets and berrels and i dont really want to dump it somewhere on the ground, specialy if you said it can self-ignite ;o, but theres no easy at-hand fuel around here so im sure they will pounce on my offers :3 that guy my freind knows uses berqquets so this is almost a score if we ever have a chat, the hardest part for me will be to obtain the stuff for a forge, i have one right now but its made with thin scraps and a old toyota disk break it was only a temporary build to see if i like this and its not totally worthless it wont last long but that little fan blowin on it gets it to a brighter orange, so far i've made 7 different forges and all have worked the same so im just gonna save up some money and try to get a good pot welded up and some sort of stand for it, im hopeing i'll have everything i need within this summer but it wont be a walk in the park, while my location has its advantages it has alot of disadvantages, but i intend on doing whatever it takes, no i know is very supportive about it, but im not about to give up something i been wanting to do all my short life and dreamed about for years when i finally have the chance of doing so, so far theres not a single thing i dislike about it i love the history, the impact it had, the beating the heat the fun the scroungeing and making its just wonderful and relaxing and such a change, being in the middle of nowhere theres not a whole lot i can do bymyself anymore that gives me any interest, but i suppose i said enough now i could go on and on about things all day, thanks for everything with the short few things you said and advise im more open and on the lookout for things and just that much more commited .

hey hyde, i too am young and just starting blacksmithing i probably got a better leap in it that alot of people but i did loads of reasearch and piled my stuff up over a year but without this forums 80% of it wouldent have been done, you came to the right place these people on here are wonderful and full of knowledge and just like you i to am an old soul have fun smithing and and starting it can be a long process but make the best of it, theres nothing i dislike about smithing its great but then again i've only smithed for about a month so what would i know :3

thank you, that should help i been useing it about the size of 3-4 walnuts besides when it burns down a bit :3

thats quite alot of coal you get how long does that last before you need more?, and that sounds interesting i never thought of beatin a bag with a hammer to make better fuel :3, oh and i kinda gotta another question if one would be so kind, as i use charcoal it's generaly made in prity large chunks well how big do i want these chunks before i fire them up? im sure it differs to some exctent depending what im doing but in general whats a best average fuel size for charcoal, or anything of the sort

thanks for the info, i use charcoal but im gonna have to look more into these then i thought, i didn't know you could use corn either that sounds kinda strange, and currently i like doing small ornamental work so i dont need better specifics then mabye a bladesmith but im sure ill make some of those too for awhile i just want to keep trying new things as i havent done a whole lot. anyway thanks again sorry to take up all your guys' more interesting thread space =p

everywhere i go im looking out for blacksmithing related things i dont get to go to spokane to often however mabye once a year or so but if i ever go again im sure i can find something if whoever takes me is willing to help me on that. i know there are blacksmiths around here, theres lots of equipment to be had for it at some junk stores and other places around here, loads of anvils, blowers things like that its just all so expensive ;o but i still have yet to find anyone else doing it but im gonna keep an eye out cause i would really prefer getting help and or advice from someone in person, im beginning to get quite a eye for things normal people wouldent take a second look at hah the other day i was with my freind and i told him to stop the car all excited as i was, then i pull a big rod of rebar out and im looking at it like gold "i hate rebar" and hes just sighing and shakeing his head like i was nuts

sorry if this is blazed everywhere i never really seen anything on this but i have a question, now isnt there coal forges and then forges for other fuels? my question is would charcoal or another fuel work in a coal forge or vise versa, does it matter what the forge is if it works and what is the difference between the two, i've seen quite a few but i dont know the differences, when i make a new one i want it to work the best it can, thanks in advance

there are a few ranches around here and a a farm or two i will have to check in someday, for a fuel source i made berrels and berrels of my own charcoal theres no stores anywhere around here where i can obtain anything other than berqquets but i can always get some orderd, however the stuff i made is working great and i can mass produce it in the winter. thanks for the advice also, greatly appreciated.

thanks i'll have to keep that in mind but actually i do have a anvil that and a cross peen is the only two things i have that wasent scraped or subtituted, i got it about 4 years ago, it's not exactly pritty it has welds all over it that need grinded down or something and its broke off from the hardy hole and the edges are horrible and half of the legs are missing but it works nonetheless and its probably better than some things, however im not sure what kind it is or how heavy it is but i plan on replaceing my anvil as soon as i get the other tools i need its slow going but thats all part of starting