ThomasPowers

First heat:loose uneven twist second heat tightens twist and a squirt gun can help even it out Propane forges with their long heat really help with evenness

You researched for weeks but the top item I got when I googled "blacksmith organization" was the ABANA homepage; makes one feel that this newfangled son of multivac might be good for something someday! We got up a group to carpool to the SOFA meetings from Columbus OH; about a 2 hour drive; but we made it longer stopping at a fleamarket on the way each month; splitting the cost of gas helped too! In general it makes sense to ask folks near where you are where to find stuff rather than those folks in England, South Africa, Australia, etc...shoot when I was last in a coal mine in Wales they wouldn't let me take home any "samples"...

what's the nearest ABANA chapter to you and what did they say when you asked about coal sources?

On the other hand if you are fishing in the dark with someone not able or willing to lift the anvil on a scale it will least get you in the "small, medium or large ballpark" Though I would like to see what the formula says for Pep's 750# West anvil...

Still need to state units to be used as that doesn't work out the same way using angstroms and is different for mm, cm,m which is what most of the people in the world use.

look up spark testing

Sounds like quite heavy stock for a quite small forge. Remember that the steel is conducting heat out of the forge too. I often cut stock at "orange" with no issue. How sharp an angle is your hardy? I go for quite sharp angles and roll the stock and whomp it on each side and generally can get through stuff in one heat.

riveted is the way 99+% of european medieval and renaissance mail was made too.

a visit to the dump or scrapyard is *ALWAYS* in order!

Let me provide an example of what can be done: I needed to expand my smithy so I started scrounging stuff *before* it was time to start: the uprights were utility poles---my local electrical coop gives the ones they pull out to it's members---so I got on that list and received 2 40' long poles that had been in the ground *10* years---they were along the train track and it was widened for two lines. Cut in half they were 4 poles that I sank 5' in the ground and trimmed for a 10' side wall. The sides were metal roofing that I got from a coworker who had it replaced after a massive hail storm. The roof was over runs from replacing the metal roofs on the local schools after that storm. I had a friend that got the job "cleaning up the site" after the roofer's were done. I did *buy* two quite old metal trusses on craigslist and the purlins and self drilling and tapping metal screws an a sheet of fiberglass roofing to make skylights. Another friend had a manipulator---4WD fork lift and set the poles for me Another friend sold me 2 10' wide roll up doors for the ends So for a very small cash outlay I added on a 20'x30' section to my shop---sand and gravel floor from the local arroyo.

damaged fork lift tine, broken rail car coupler, chunk of dozer scrap; shoot I've bought real anvils for less than US$100!

Because they were relatively cheap, heavily promoted and offered a buying on time plan for smiths Nowadays it's because they are easier to get parts for; or to find

It's an "engraver's vise". First one I saw used a drill press vise mounted to the ball with the jaws drilled for pins to hold odd shaped items---saw it back in the 1980's...

Considering that I saw a knife welded up out of lathe swarf (can of course), you can probably do a scrapmascus that way.

Remember that *one* forge will not do everything well---if at all. Even owning a half dozen forges I've had to dig a trench forge in my backyard for a particular project before. So customize your first forge to do what you will be starting out doing! Worry about a bigger forge later.

DRAW FILING! Low tech, cheap; does wonders getting a nice blade. Forge in bevels so it doesn't look like a steel bar with an edge crudely put on. Handles generally are too clunky on new maker's knives. Pare it down! Remember handles can be removed and replaced at will.

And don't forget that in a melt what you put in may NOT be what comes out unless you can control heat and atmosphere very closely!

S7 would make a great drill bit---just like Titanium would make great car bodies---seen many Ti bodied cars? In manufacturing the "best" is quite often subsumed by "the cheapest that will do"

I've worked with folks that were much more severely challenged than you; one I believe was a thalidomide victim and another legally blind. As mentioned it's the intent and will that makes the difference. (The thalidomide guy's girlfriend came up to me later and told me that he was almost crying with joy when he came back to their camp---everyone else was trying to "protect him"; I was the first person who said---"If you want to do it we'll find a way!" The blind fellow was much more difficult as he had no hammer control...)

it's marked as a 136# anvil a nice bump over a "100# anvil" so was that $125 or $170? Either way a great price for that PW!

Funny you should mention this....My new job has me baching it in a rental house snug in a suburban neighborhood, no smithing! However my new church has 5 acres of land surround by farm fields (St Lukes in the Cotton Patch) and my pastor and his wife want to learn to smith and have invited me to set up out there....First forging went well and I've sourced the materials and tools for the next item they wanted to make... I had one of my students smith while he was living in a college dorm----one of the BBQ grills chained out behind the dorm to the fence was really a propane forge in disguise...

How about doing some things with a historical flair to them? Ill one of the Antique Ironwork books and leaf through it until you see something you feel you can handle

If you want metal to make knives and tooling from; automotive coil springs can usually be found cheap or free and are a MUCH superior metal to rebar. (I get mine free or for 20 cents a pound at the scrap yard. When my mechanic doesn't try to load me down with a pickup load for free) I work in Mexico 5 days a week and I would be GREATLY surprised if there was only a single source for rebar!

It's fame was that in Scotland a consenting couple could "marry" themselves by reciting their vows in a public location before witnesses. Unlike England where a license was required and parental permission for under age (under 21) persons. So Gretna Green was the first village over the border along a main posting road and the Blacksmith Shop was a central "public" place with built in witnesses and *that* is why it was famous... Much like kids too young to marry in one state in the USA eloping to another that allowed them to marry.

Unlike Pokemon you do not have to collect them all! The Caplet is pretty distinctive for trentons though IIRC some do show up in Arm and Hammer's suggesting that the two shops sometimes shared stock when one was in need and the other had a surplus.