welder19

Well after looking at his website I can say he is a very talented smith and does some beautiful work. welder19

Art without a doubt comes easier to some than others, I an definitely an other, but it doesn't mean that your never gonna be able to create beautiful pieces of work. What I do is read as many books as I can find, watch as many great smiths as posible, wether in person or on video, spend lots of time on IFI, and practice, practice, practice and practice some more, get good at blacksmithing first, once you learn and know how to make things and how to make the metal do what you want it to then the creativeness will start to come naturally and you can start to work on it then. It's just how I've done it and am still doing it and I can tell you that it will work or atleast it has for me, I'm still no artist by any means and likely never really will be but I am becomeing a pretty creative blacksmith. welder19

I have seen a lot of them and have nver seen any that were wrought iron or even forged for that matter, they are cast iron and are the bottom of the barrel iron at that, they were made of whatever junk they had laying around since they were neither structural or cosmetic in nature. About all they are good for is using them for weights for something or toss them in the next load of junk going to the junkyard. welder19

A lot of times the floor models have more power. If the table cranks up and down then most of the time the pipe will have teeth and cannot just be changed out with a longer pipe, but if the table just gets loosend and slid up and down then the pipe can usually be changed out with a longer one to make it a floor model. When I needed to get a new drill press I looked around at used ones and found an old Buffalo, it is a big floor model drill press that had a newer motor on it and was in excellent shape, it is an industrial press and weighs about 400-500 lbs, I paid $300 for it and it beats the heck out of any new drill press that I would have been able to afford. Just something to think about. welder19

Very nice! I love old stone buildings. Very nice view! welder19

Well it's worth something just because it is wrought iron, it could be bought just to use it for the wrought, since it is in such rough condition it wouldn't be such a shame to make it into something else or a lot of something else's. welder19

Very nice!! What type of wood is the handle? welder19

I just use one of them long neck butane lighters, designed for lighting gas grills and stoves. welder19

Very cool! You'll get faster the more you do. Could always send it out to get chrome plated if your gonna make a few, alot of guys just gotta have chrome everything. Me personally, I would paint it to look natural, bone white. welder19

That is an awsome looking blade!! welder19

Most here know who he is, but for those of you who don't I can see who that post may have seemed a bit arrogant. welder19

Welcome! welder19

Welcome to it, you came to the right place to advance in the craft. welder19

The air over hyd. jacks are good as long as it's warm weather, in the cold they tend to take forever and if it's really cold they don't move at all but I see your in FL so you shouldn't have any problems with the cold and in that case I would say go ahead with the air power. welder19

If your going to hotface kao-wool or dura blanket with a refractory cement then you only need a max of 1/2" thickness, any more than that all your doing is lengthening your heat up time which in return is a waste of fuel. If you have the money then ITC-100 is the best route to go. Wether I'm building a furnace or a forge I make my hotface 1/4"-3/8" thick and have no trouble with it holding up. welder19

Looks good Frosty! welder19

They are very handy, my dad has one, not real common though or easy to come by. welder19

I always use a dedicated hammer for hitting tooling, this way I don't get any marks on my forging hammers, punches, chisels, etc. are hard and tend to nick, dent, ding and in general leave marks in your hammer, or they can any way, not worth the risk. welder19

I personally am a firm believer in buying older machines because they were built with so much higher quality an precision than most of the modern equipment and was much more precission. I don't know what that is like in Au. though but here in the states the old machines will long out live the opperator as long as it is not abused. welder19

There are several ways to remove broken bolts but with out knowing ho it's broke it is imposible to tell you the best way to do it, a pic would be best. welder19

There really should be testing to determine ones rank as a blacksmith, there is for nearly every other profession. Years ago, I believe, that the master smith in a shop would draw up papers stating ones classification, apperntice, journeyman, mastersmith, this way if he was to leave and go to another town there was verification of his rank and ability, but I don't think that really goes on anymore. welder19

Just use steel rivets or the easiest route is self drilling screws. welder19

If it looks like a 4th of July sparkler then it is definitely getting too hot, which is what it sounds like anyway. Get yourself some mild steel and start with some simple projects to help you learn about forging and the process involved, but either way be safe and have fun. welder19

There is a dedicated prayer request section, but none the less I will add you to my list. welder19

Sure, for hundreds and hundreds of years that was the only way it could be done and still is a lot today. The only time I machine anything to do with smithing is if I need something to really be precise or if it something that will really save me a lot of time by machining it rather then forge it and I'm pressed for time, but that's just me. welder19