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I Forge Iron

glen56

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Posts posted by glen56

  1. the gun doc is right,always preserve a piece of the past,an old mate of mine did restoration work on Norfolk island of the coast of Australia in the eighties,it was notorious in history for being a convict island and not a lot of convicts survived,he bought back some amazing nails forged by convict smiths,these plus others proudly displayed on a board,never forget the past

  2. always had my anvil height at text book level,but after a while came to the thought that raising the height was the thing for sure ,only thing i found was miss cued shots sent the hammer way back, always tilt my head out of direct smack zone (found that wearing my seeing  glasses helped a bit)but to new folk ,the hammer transmits the energy you put in,can get relaxed when doing repetitive hitting ,just something to keep in mind

  3. yes,one of mine ,a big fellah as well was stripped of thread to tighten it up, got the stick welder out then ground it back with the angle grinder ,going fine after 25 years,amazing what can come back

  4. they way I make charcoal is using a clamped lid 44 gal or 200 litre drum ,put the drum with holes punched in the base ,half inch holes will do ,put the drum on a few rocks about 2 inches off the ground , 30 or so holes in the base ,I burn hardwood ,iron bark or spotted gum ,find the tougher the wood the longer it and better it goes ,but wood is wood ,cut it to about foot long split lengths pack it into the drum and start the fire on top ,depending  on where you are (qld Australia here),at about 1 and a half hours wack the lid on ,clamp it and knock it off the rock base ,with a shovel seal the base with dirt ,best charcoal you can do ,cheers ,bloody good xmas and all

  5. good point mate ,iv'e raised the height of my anvil away from the standard (lots of folk do this ,mainly to look after my back ,hunching who needs it )the main thing to be aware of is that exact demo ,be very aware that a hammer will smack you fare between the peepers in a millie second ,i tilt my head for that reason,the odd miss will send the hammer over the shoulder (not that i miss many times,ahemm,,ahh somtimes)seeya ,glen

  6. yes lot of good advice above ,things effecting me are lumps forming in the hammer hand (not painful maybe the onset of arthrites,maybe not )mainly shoulder probs ,bought up all anvils and swage blocks to save bending the back ,learnt to tilt the head in case of a big miss strike ,hammers go over past in a millie second ,anybody heard of the use of krill oil as an aid against arthries ,glen

  7. gday frank,yes this book is as you say not the be all and end all of blacksmith books but was one that i must replace as it was left to me by a mentor and good old boy,yes the horse shoe is renowned for catching luck all over the world(even found a few for a couple from thailand last week who send them over to relo's to hang in front of there houses),mate very impressive work ,shame were so far apart would love to do 1 of your courses,(not haveing an aussie holliday any time soon) ,cheers mate ,glen

  8. good to hear from you dave,got on to the amazon site and found it,its called the village blacksmith by aldren watson,will try and grab the blacksmith's cookbook as well,great site no idea there so many books on smithing,thanks,glen

  9. lost a good blacksmithing book ,was left to me by a good old mate ,it was an hand illistrated book maybe back in the seventies,but loved this book,cant for the life remember the name but its the only blacksmithing book that mentions a blacksmith is the only person that can hang a horseshoe upside down to put luck into an anvil,cheers ,glen

  10. drewy,recon i would of course get the folks out first if not to big a shake and we were all in good nic,books, have a small amount of ion idriess books ,not sure how far this mans works went(as far as world sales ) but inspired me as a young child, would run with an arm load of these,glen

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