ThomasPowers

Funny thing fires...I forged in a falling down detached garage built in the 1930's for 14 years, coal, charcoal, gas; poured molten metal, forge brazed and enameled, *never* had a fire. Less than a year after I moved to NM I hear that the garage burned down at my old place... My new shop has *ZERO* wood in it's construction, all concrete and steel and 2 sheets fiberglass at the end farthest from the forges. Thomas

If you plan to do any forge welding you might invest in a plexiglass welding screen. Another trick is to put yourself between the anvil and the audience for the weld and act as a human shield. Thomas

Think outside of the boxstore! We used to get our chunk charcoal from a roofing supply place; turns out that old style roofers preferred to heat their soldering coppers in a charcoal fired heater up on the roof top. (Columbus, OH) Chunk charcoal gets hot enough to burn the steel and so hot enough to forge with---the first couple of thousand years of the iron age (and all the early medieval pattern welded swords and wootz) used charcoal as the fuel. If it's not hot enough for you you are doing it wrong. (Charcoal does profit from a forge designed to use it...) Thomas

Not being as young as I once was I really try to do my loading and driving the *previous* night (and unloading as well if it's a secure site) So I can start the day with a good breakfast and then get onto the demo. Loading, driving, unloading, Demo, loading, driving, unloading (my previous shop was in an area that was *not* secure so everything had to be locked in the shop!) Gets to be too much like work! Thomas

Treat the face on your anvil like it was solid gold---a bit of polishing is OK but you would be throwing away money if you started grinding it thinner! Peter Wrights did forge weld on a piece of tool steel, in fact the earlier ones may have *several* pieces welded on side by side---sometimes wear will show this. They also dressed the sides so the weld doesn't show as much as on some brands. If you really need the *flat* for some reason, save the grinding money and spend it buying a chunk of toolsteel like an old drop forge die and use it for the "flat" anvil and the PW for the rest. Thomas

Note how many of the kaowool lined forges you see are round? In them you don't glue the kaowool you just arch it and stuff it in and it holds itself in place. I have seen folks weld stainless wire to the roof of forgesd and stick it through the kaowool and tie it in place too. Thomas

You don't need a bolt there; a headed shaft with a mortoise for a cross wedge would work fine, no tap and die needed---I've had one vise done this way and another with the shaft rivited in place. One vise was pretty out of lining up so I removed the original bolt and heat shrunk and rivited a plug for the hole and re-drilled it to line up, works a treat now... Thomas

Fisher anvils go "thud" when you hammer on them instead of "TING TING TING"; this is because they were made by taking a thick slab of tool steel and casting the body of the anvil onto it out of cast iron. My main using anvil is a fisher and I use it in a smallish sheet metal building with no problem. My demo anvil is an Arm&Hammer and it's "TING" helps lure people over to see what's going on Generally speaking the less you do to an anvil the better. *All* anvils have a hardened face of limited thickness so you want to reduce that the least ammount as possible. I fould go over the face with a sanding disk on an angle grinder to remove the rust and see if it needed any more work. NOTE: you don't *need* the face to be flat, just smooth; many people have ruined anvils trying to grind or mill the face flat when it was perfectly usable with a sway in it as it came. (In knifemaking a bit of a sway is helpfull as you need to go just a tad past flat when straightening a blade so it will spring back to straight.) Thomas

Columbus OH had an ordinance banning any activity that produced fumes or smoke detectable over the property line; *except* there was an exception for cooking or heating... I forged in the inner city for about 15 years; had problemjs with 1 neighbor who called the fire department on me about 4 times---funny thing it was always when I was using my smoker for cooking. I heard from a friend that they were told that another false alarm would result in a large fine... My next door neighbor grew up with a coal furnace and told me the smell always reminded her of her childhood and would I please forge more often... I was shut down one time in Fort Smith AR because I let the time get away from me. When the police showed up I stopped immediately; apologized profusely, and spent the next half hour discussing knife forging with them... Using a gas forge and a Fisher anvil woul;d sure make it hard for them to notice you---just fire up a leaf blower if they complain about the noise... Thomas

Some glasses are more prone to spalling than others, you want a "soft" glass and adding borax does *not* help. I did some enamelling using my forge as a heat source---when I learned that a terracotta flower pot will *melt* in a forge fire and tried a bunch of different glasses from a stained glass worker, They all spalled badly what finally worked for me was a broken brake lens from a 30's??? truck---found it in a spoil pile along the river. It worked great for enamelling a knife guard I was working on. Foils behind gems to give them a bit more sparkle is an old technique; Benvenuto Cellini mentions them and the textured backings to the Sutton Hoo work I would count too. I was lucky in that the beads already had the foil built in so to speak. I will have to try slumping the glass sometime but I really liked the beady-eyed look... Thomas

Actually on my little dragon candle holder I used a red seed bead for each eye, my wife has a bunch with a "foil inner layer" that makes them glow in the light. I didn't slump them but just glued them in place. Thomas

Simple dragon heads are pretty fast and easy---with practice and you can get the kids involved "naming" it, choosing which eyepunch to use---I have a prick punch for the pupils but I also have a very small star drill that makes "sleeping" or "in love" dragon eye pupils; etc. The can be made into simple S hooks if wanted. I usually finish with plain paraffin wax, food safe and makes the piece feel smoother as the scale is a bit rough. Thomas

You're *late*. They sold one at the last NM Tech Auction that was set up for powered use. Nice looking too; I didn't stick around for it as things were out of my price range and I had a scrap dealer willing to sell me some 1" plate for a treadle hammer base out of the stuff he bought next door. (Prices were much better than new; just $20 a week doesn't go far...) Thomas

I'd break it down into 1: Figure out what you want to do (design) 2: scrounge the materials needed 3: Heat&beat 4: finish (filing wirebrushing painting, etc) 5: repeat "Traditional" is a very loaded term in smithing---traditional to when? 1930's, 1830's, 1030's, 30's, -30's, -1030's ???? Generally the term is used for stuff that does not use arc or OA welding but rather mass manipulation, forge welding, collaring, riviting, mortoise and tennon, etc joinery *BUT* the material commonly used for smithing nowdays, mild steels or A36 only dates to the last half of the 19th century with the commercialization of the Bessemer and open hearth processes. Prior to that Wrought Iron was actually made from a material that was called "Wrought iron"---just like today your bed and bath linens are actually made from cotton---but they used to be made from linen! Real wrought iron is difficult to find nowdays and not too many smiths do much work in it. One of the current smithing memes is the Neo-Tribals who try to bring smithing back to it's earliest roots---some even using stones for anvils and forges based on the simple "hole in the ground" there are a couple of Neo-Tribal forums out there. Gotta go Thomas

Weld some heavy walled pipe into the corner and slide the "horn" through that and wedge it securely. Thomas

Sounds like an adaptor or two would help---spray paint them different colours so you know which one is for the 1" shanks, the 1.5" shanks, etc. Thomas

Looks "anvil shaped" to me---just not "London Pattern" Thomas

If you do a spring helve paint it up to look like one of those "drinking birds" ... Thomas

C in a triangle is Columbian, made in Cleveland OH. They are often found with the "angle iron and U bolt" mounting bracket with the company logo on the bracket as well. I have heard rumours of a postvise book somewhat like "Anvils in America" in process but have not heard of a date for it yet. You can get a lot more out of your vise stand if it's set up so you are standing on the bottom plate so your weight is part of the deal. My portable vise stand is a 55 gal drum with a piece of 2x12 trimmed to fit and mounted across the top on the inside of the open end by lag bolts. Fill with water and you have 400+ pounds holding the vise in place. drain through the side bung hole and you can pick up the barrel with one hand to move it (with the vise dismounted) Note dropping a piece into the barrel is not fun in the winter... Thomas

Basic rules: *ASK* if you are nice you can often get stuff with no hassles *CHECK* those dumpsters/trash piles might just have something good this time *TAKE* never expect something to be there when you come back (basic tools & gloves & a tarp for dirty stuff in the vehicle at all times) *EXPLORE* rivers in old industrial parts of town can be a steel mine...be safe though! *TALK* that old geezer who wants to talk your ear off---well it turns out he worked for an anvil manufacturer and tells of there being a row of anvils alongside the river bank when they closed the plant down (true tale!). A fellow selling oily car parts howdy'd me at a fleamarket. I didn't need car parts but it turns out his uncle wanted to sell an anvil---515# Fisher in mint condition for $350 *THINK* what businesses might have good stuff or come across good stuff---that knife made from a RR spike might be paid for in anvils when you make it for a scrap/junk dealer *NEATNESS* leave the area nicer than when you arrive encourages businesses to call you to haul off good stuff to "neaten up" *SAFETY* gloves, boots even a hard hat comes in handy to let the owners not worry about you hurting yourself and sueing them...watch out for cars when you stop alongside the road for roadkill iron. and lastly *CONSTANT VIGILANCE* I once ended up getting a 125# Peter Wright anvil and a 6" post vise cause I noticed the vise leaning against a barn while doing a test drive on a car we were buying... I always ask folks with "barn junk" at the fleamarket about the heavy stuff they didn't bring...I spotted a keg down in the ditch near a RR crossing on the way to a smithing meeting---2/3 full of new HC spikes they were not willing to haul it back up the hill when they cleaned up after redoing the crossing---we were. Coming back from a Dr's visit the summer I had pneumonia I got my wife to stop the car and let me pick up the sledgehammer alongside the road---took me 1/2 and hour to catch my breath. Thomas

Well yeah she's dead; but my great grandmother lived out on the farm and milked a small herd of cows and preferred to use her wood stove to cook on into her 90's. I don't think she would fight---just use her shotgun... Thomas

I was going to say that of course I looked like a blacksmith and so does Dorthy---she just looks like a much better looking one...My beard is getting to the length where I should probably start boraxing it if I don't want it forge trimmed. The oddest smith I have ever met was the one that used to come to SOFA meeings in a jaguar, most tend toward rather more "earthy" looking vehicles. Thomas My Mother's grandfather was a smith in Cedarville AR USA.

Hmm looks like my backyard... (actually the trinity site is about an hour's drive away) Thomas

Now Weygers showed how he made a collector to feed the smoke back into the inlet of his blower, more for smoke reduction than use of it as a power source. It was in "The Modern Blacksmith" IIRC and so should be in "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" Thomas

Not tolerating a lot of chemicals very well I've used a medieval method, at night get a shallow pan and fill with water and put a lit candle in the center of it; the fleas will jump toward the light and drown---a little dishsoap helps reduce the surface tension. Worked well in the house. (described in "The Goodwife of Paris")