ThomasPowers

I thought folks did that by parking them down along the border with Mexico?

Ouch; I have arthritis in my hips and I expect I will be using a walking stick the first couple of days at Q-S and leaning heavily on "Vitamin I". Glad you were able to get into the Dr, they want 3-4 months lead time out here.

Not in the shop yet; went into town to get some fittings for my Quad-State shade structure and have lunch with my wife. (Noticing that I seem the one planning on bringing stuff to make a more comfortable camp for Q-S. I guess it's a factor of being 30+ years older than the other smiths travelling with me...I learned over the years that the more comfortable I am in camp; the more fun I seen to have at events!)

Also without location is that canadian dollars, australian dollars, singapore dollars? World Wide Web and folks from over 100 different countries have participated here. Fisher Norris, good brand, should be a quiet anvil. However if you are just getting into smithing an improvised anvil might suit you to get started. At my local scrapyard a 50# improvised anvil would run you US$10...

CO detectors not CO2! Takes a heck of a lot more CO2 to cause problems; while CO will build up in your body.

How do people get rid of stuff non of the heirs have an interest in where you are at? I've been to several "blacksmiths only" estate sales where the local blacksmithing group sells off the equipment for a Widow. We tend to make sure that they get a fair price and they don't have to deal with the emotional overhead while they are in mourning. (Or put outrageous prices on everything so nothing sells and it has to be done over!)

I've speculated that the rather common flattening of anvil bicks that is seen may be due to 1 "OUCH" too many. The smith flattening the offending bick with a hammer afterwards.

Weygers mentions using coals taken from his fireplace and doused to use in his "paint can and irrigation pipe" forge.

Yes there have also been discussions of red rubber balls on bicks before here.

Hardy Hole size seems to be correlated with anvil size; example: I have 3 large anvils with 1.5" hardy holes; however around 1" is the most common size for anvils I have found here in the USA; though 7/8" and 3/4" I have also seen. For my large Fisher with two 1.5" hardy holes I have made a drop in adapter from nesting square tubing that allows me to use 1" hardy tooling in it.

Not too big the body is about 40" x 40" (outside) and 7.5-8" deep (inside). Here's a bad pic---stuff got moved outside when I was having electricity put in and hasn't made it back of away yet... It came with an electric blower bolted to the underside of the bed.

Have you looked at what vintagemachinery.org has under their mfgindex for Peck Stow & Wilcox? Most folks that do hobby work don't need a full stake plate and can work off of individual stake holders that are still made and sold fairly reasonably. Schools and University programs are probably the high dollar buyers these days.

Ahhh folks have been making charcoal the direct way in a hole in the ground for thousands of years.

And want you to be safely away from it when it goes boom! I don't think a black powder log splitter would be cost effective; but sounds like a lot of fun! Hmmm now you got me thinking of making some splitting wedges from truck axle that would fit down the barrel of my falconette....

Stop by and I can give you some pointers.

I've stumbled on one "extra" pressure gas cylinder; it's walls are about double the thickness of a "regular" cylinder. For some reason I kept that one's base for a dishing form. I'm dot sure why as a regular tank's works just fine and when I need to do heavy pounding I do it hot anyway.

New price is quite high; I got mine at the scrapyard in mint condition for 20 USCents a pound. Not much blacksmithing use but armouring, silver smithing, tin knocking, etc. will be drooling over it.

It was using a volkswagon beetle hood as the original down draft hood was missing. Found it in Oklahoma City back in the early 1980's.

I have a Champion RR forge that the previous owner accidentally burnt a section of RR rail in two in it. Nicest large one I've seen was a professional smith who had theirs lined with firebrick set in clay that met the cutouts in the forge pot. Billy is trying to figure a way to get it from me; but I can't hitchhike with it to get to his place...

Scrapyard was closed for the Holiday; so we returned to my shop and I did a bit of work on my Champion powerhammer while a friend did an incised twist S hook in the gasser. Later I checked out an OLD motor. Rated 1 hp continuous duty and weighed about 100 pounds. It has a flat belt pulley on it I hoped would fit my 1.5 hp motor; but the shaft size was different. OTOH the motor started up and ran nicely and I pumped some oil in the motor's oilers. The old motors tend to have more torque since they are so much larger than the new ones.

Don't forget to break the edges where a tent's rope would ride in the peg.

High Carbon steels are much harder to forge than mild steels, problems with them burning from too hot and cracking from too cold and harder under the hammer. You may want to pick them up for FUTURE use; but I would NOT suggest using them for beginner projects designed to be made from mild steel!

There is a description of a charcoal kiln in Foxfire #9; I's probably go with a ground clamp if I was making it for use.

Old farming disks were good heat treatable steel and a lot thicker than most saw blades. Have they thought of making a chisel for a pneumatic "gun"? (New disks may be an odd alloy we can't work very well.)

Be a week until the Fair starts; but I'll take some pics when I go up. In general we don't get too fancy for demos; I've been asked to stop doing forge welds as we don't have audience screens, (I'd do them standing between the anvil and the crowd as a human shield.)