ThomasPowers

I like an independent stand as it allows you to move it around and use it for other things as well. Doesn't tie you down to the one forge. Knowing the details is the background for making suggestions. Or "try to answer the question behind the question".

May your shops all stay warm and dry, may your clinkers be astoundingly small; may you all get time off from the celebrations to go have fun at the forge and may your kids and grandkids show interest in the craft! Merry Christmas Thomas

I've seen that type before; it slid into a fitting that held it. Not to hard to reproduce if you have an arc welder. The big issue is to have it stable while you crank it. Do you plan to mount it to your forge or make a floor stand for it?

Not out here; usually much too dry to even get condensation! (we're almost up to 5.5 inches of precipitation for the *year* so far!) Of course I use massive amounts of ventilation when using a gasser as I like doing knives and so often run reducing and I know about CO!

I guess my dirt floor is a help in that regard. Perfect squareness is not a requirement on the bottom and the top can be adjusted with a router to have a square bottomed pocket that the anvil sits in. (simple cut out shimmed to level and rout the interior...) Actually what I have done for my anvils is: cut a large mine timber in half to make two "stumps" and bolt on handles to make loading them and unloading them easier, take a piece of 6x6 and bolt cross pieces on the base and drill/burn out a hole for my 25# medieval travel anvil, set 2 large anvils on a set of 3 bridge timbers bolted together (6' long so room at both ends for big anvils---found floating in an Ohio stream during a flood), I have 1 three leg metal stand I got in an IITH, and I have a quite large mine timber I hope to bury for my main shop anvil once I get the new extension set up to my liking. I'm still down one stump though as I picked up another teaching anvil... (Oh yes I have two stake anvils mounted in short stumps.)

Think of the "Founding Fathers" of the USA: Pretty beardless. I think that beards came back into fashion with the romantic movement of the 1800's At least by the end of that century there was a massive choice in facial hair available, burnsides, muttonchops, the Muir look, Alexander Graham Bell (young and old), etc. (And I remember having to shave for the Bicentennial parade I was in in colonial costume...) Since the 19th century tends to be where most of the blacksmithing "traditions" date to; it is only fitting that "traditional look" beards are part of that. (of course my interest is more in the 9th century than the 19th these days but beards were big back then too!)

As I recall the colonial time period was more a time of clean shaven and wigs; 19th century was more expressive in what my kids called facial fur...

I've found CP grades to forge much softer than steel and the alloys to be more like forging stainless. As most of what I do does not need alloy Ti I like the CP grades!

Good tools are an investment in your future. If it were me I'd be buying that even if I had to sit on it a year or two. Just like vehicles, grinder makers often have different models. Buying a two door sportscar to haul gravel in because you heard that maker XYZ made good pickups may not work. I'd contact burr king and see what that model was designed for and what fixtures they may sell to convert it to another set up. Shoot if you like appleseed grinds that might work quite well for you.

In general running the supports floor to anvil vertically takes out more bounce in the system than crisscrossing them, see the DC post right above yours for an example; but if you only have short pieces then whatever works is *best*. Crisscross stacking does make it easier to adjust the height to see what works for you too.

Like many things in cold weather some preparation helps a lot. Can you lay a fire in the barrel stove the previous night and then sneak out and light it first thing and go back to the house and eat breakfast or drink coffee, surf the web for an hour or so before going out to the much nicer temperature for the shop? I've just doubled the size of my shop by adding on a "dirty shop" extension and I find that I am *more* likely to go out now as I can leave my stuff set up for working and not have to put everything away to be able to close up and lock down the shop. The time spent not putting away and getting out tools and setting up for an on-going project translates directly into extra productivity that makes me more likely to brave the elements. The dirty shop has a dirt floor open gables and an open vent space down the middle of the roof; but the walls keep the wind off and I haven't had too much snow drift in so far. A scrap piece of plywood to stand on helps the feet stay warm too.

Looks like the contact wheel is the lower one in the pic. A flat platen might be retrofit-able. Why would you not be able to use it when you move? Different power?

Colour perception is different from person to person. You would need to see it in person to know what colour is appropriate especially as digital cameras also skew colours!

I can get real chunk charcoal at the local Walmart here in the USA. Or I can build a fire in my firepit and move hot coals into my forge. You don't have to wait! Real Charcoal is easier to work with than coal or coke too. I tend to start my students on other fuels and then have them "learn" coal after they already know some basic smithing.

You might check for a local boiler repair place and see if they will sell or give their scraps. You might check with a Ceramic supply place and see if they stock any. You might check under refractories in the yellowpages; but note that many places want to sell you a 25' box of kaowool where a 1' section will do you fine for a year or more! I bought my last at Quad-State from a smith who will sell it to others by the foot.

Especially when using a solid fuel forge I start students out with too much stock as 90% of them will not pay attention when I warn them about not paying attention to their material and they end up burning it up. (I warn them twice and let them learn the hard way the third time, then we cut off the bad area and suddenly what was too much stock may now be just enough! Cue old joke about the electric fence and methods of learning...)

"Some folks call him----Tim" Welcome under your own name! I feel that posting under my real name helps remind me that everything I say *is* connected to me. And yes sometimes I am a grouch and sometimes I'm frivolous; but all times I am *me*! Getting a BFA introduced you to an important part of "real" art and that is criticism. Many people do not have the experience of standing there and getting their work critiqued by pro's---it's a valuable experience especially if you learn how to accept the criticism of your work as not a criticism of yourself. I tend to not post "oh pretty" comments; but will sometimes make a suggestion. Hardest for me is when I can see that the work is well done indeed; but the design is "not to my taste". I sometimes post those very words for objects that I would not accept as a gift but others might rave over. So be true to yourself but remember "if you can't say something nice; perhaps it's best to skip that thread..."

May I commend you for trying to find out *first* and for thinking about your Father's situation. It may turn out to be a better move to start a sword acquisition fund and let it build while you are co-housing and be able to buy several *nice* swords later---if it looks like later is not too far in the future...

I sometimes see a mentality that people expect "perfection" before they are willing to start *doing* stuff where I think that getting started ASAP leads to perfection through practice. I tell my Students that a forge is a "consumable" in a blacksmith's shop and if they get going good they will probably go through a number of them in their career (and more of them if they teach! I think 1 class of college students does as much damage to my forge as a year of me working in it by myself!) You've got a nice set up NOW GO GET IT DIRTY!

One method of shallowing it up would be to drop a fake bottom in the firepot with a new tuyere in it. Make it so it lodges a couple of inches higher than the old one is. But more air is most likely the better cure!

Seems like the more you go looking for luck the more you find as compared to sitting at home waiting for luck to find you!

Saturday, Monday, Wednesday were you just loafing on Friday?

Annealing is generally done if you will be drilling or filing on the blade to shape it before heat treat. If not I'd skip the anneal and do the normalization x 3. Save for: if you have to stop working on a blade say overnight (or longer) I'd do an anneal on it so I'd know it was *safe* until I could get back to it...

Back when they were manufacturing anvils like the Vulcan there wasn't too much of a "home market"; they were marketed as a "cheap anvil" for farms, ranches and school use.

You will probably need to mill both pieces as flat as possible first---which may cost more than buying an anvil in decent shape. IIRC Patrick tried that method on one of his first anvils; but was not real happy with the results and went on to another anvil fairly quickly. Patrick you following this? If you have a big slab of tool steel---just use that as an anvil and forget the fuss and bother of trying to bolt it to a base. Remember big hunks of metal has been used as anvils about 10 times longer than the London Pattern anvil has been around and things like the pattern welded swords of Medieval Europe and the Japanese Katana were forged on basic big hunks of metal.