newlad

I wish it was on sky tv in the UK we watch it here in France but not yet a linkto the programme is www.gactr.uga.edu/tv/forge/ Iv sent the guy a Email to see if there are any plans to air it in the UK and also sent a link to www.blacksmithforum.com to him as the forum was not on his huge link page

It is so amazing the power of the internet that was a good bit of detective work I am so glad that all of you safe no doubt there will be some terrible stories that come from this awful dissaster later on, but at least the blacksmiths have the right qualifications to help their local communities help get things back to normal

My prayers are with anyone that is anywere near the awful huricane that I have seen on the TV take care all in the USA

I have just found the new blueprints lots of them and I am going to look at every one of them, they will be a big help to me thanks a lot to all

Winston churchhill on both American and Englih sides of his family Richard Sears was the son of a blacksmith President Dwight D Eisenhower was the desendant of Iron workers Thomas Jefferson had a nail manufactory George Washington it is reported took great interest in the working of his smithy at mount Vermon Richard the Lion heart is said to have spent a great deal of vtime working in his armorers smithy Lois 16th had a personal shop at verssailes The list goes on to mention a lot more Not my information but found on page 4 of "THE ART OF BLACKSMITHING" Alex J Bealer

Hello Looks like the only naughty young man thats played wrong with knives was me then, My dad was in the forces and when we came back from singapore he brought some Koockerys (no idea of the spelling) and I used to take tham to the woods and throw them in trees they used to bounce out and go all over the place .untill I got caught that is I suppose that because I was not allowed to touch them I wanted them even more which is a good reason to teach kids the right way Anyway after working hard at my forge going through the basics I thought I would treat myself and make knife out of a old file I got it hot and started to beat it to a knive type shape, about the third heat it just fell in two so I thought a small knife would be more practical for me to make untill that broke as well and it was to small to try to make a very small knive so I decided to leave knive building to those that know and built another set of tongs Its all that I seem to able to make

Come on guys It was a bad atempt at humour turning a damascus knife into a railroad spike I was hoping to lead it to a discussion on knifes and blacksmithing slowly not to anoy anyone because whilst doing my theory learning I have sifting through loads of blacksmith sites and about half of them make knives and some even swords. What I can not understnd is how come there are so many knives around do people loose them or are there people out there that collect hundreds of them and swords why would anyone want a sword you should not use it to chop firewood and one more thing while I am talking piffle Is it right to encourage young people to make knives like young archie on this forum if I had a young son I would be a little worried about that I think he should be making boring things like tool sets for fires and the suchlike maybe it is that in the UK we are only allowed to touch a knife on boyscout camp under stict supervission of a older person The only thing I can think is that the old smiths are hoping that by getting young lads interested in fun projects they hope to slowly steer the youngsters into more formal pure blacksmithing at a later date

Hello I found some old knives in a drawer with funny pattens on the blades I wondered if it is possible to make them into railroad spikes as I have allways wanted one thanks RIK

Im been a little quiet recently because Iv been on the forge tuning it in and I am pleased to say after getting pretty low Im on top of the world and can start dreaming of getting there I pulled the fire bricks out from the left and the right of the pot I made some bigger tuyere plates so when I slot them into the old upside down pyramid they effectively made the pot more shallow so my pot is only 2 inchs at the front and back but at the sides it is four allowing me to put long pieces of metal eg tongs I also won a very old metal vacume cleaner from a french garage sale With the old forge I could not work in the middle but the new one is great I knew it was getting hotter because whilst working on some tongs I did my usual count to ten to pull the bar out in order to draw it out when I saw that that the top part of the jaws were missing .melted away I was very happy and have made four sets of tongs the first took a week the second 3 hours and then I made some small ones in 20 minutes My next job is to start making some tools for the hardy the ones I bought in the UK from the auction are all to wide to go in and are the sort of shapes that I wont need for a while I am thinking of making some sort of holder for the tools set in a piece of scrap with just a hardy hole big enough for the tools Thanks for the help guys next task is to follow the recent post on forge welding now I can get the sparkling heat I will let you know

can I ask a dumb question please. What do you do with road kill kangaroos?

Thanks for the link http://www.lucianaveryblacksmith.com/smithing.htm its just what I need I have watched all the videos several times and I hope it will improve my very very basic skills I dont suppose there is any more streaming videos or can anyone recomend a video top but as I need a little help being out in the sticks I can not a blacksmiths course so have to learn by myself and Im struggling especially on heating any part of the metal except the end as everytime I pull the work out of the forge it rips the fire to bits cheers RIK

Thanks guys I thought I think I have read that much on the internet and in books that I have saturated my brain so much that I can not remember what I have read so I will look at the firepot again and will read up on the basics of lighting the fire I am going to try not to light it today but to study and mess with the pot can I just ask what would you think is an avarage size fot the firepot on a small forge like mine 2ft 10 by 2ft 10 and how deep should it be including the firebicks ie the total depth as I suspect that most of heat is lower in the pot that what I need I noticed the bar would heat up very quickly when I held it in the pot but when I wanted to draw the bar out and had to put the bar through the fire it took a lot longer to heat up chears Rik Grant me patience but hurry up about it

Just come back from my first forging session apart from the one day course I went on last year .I fired my little baby up and atempted to make some tongs I spent about three hours forging and managed to make half a set I was a bit sad at first because I think I made the fire pot too deep with the fire bricks it comes to nearly 7 inches and all the heat seemed to be at the bottom of the pot it was easy to make the ends of the tongs but to draw out the handles the bar did not get hot enough so I emptyed the pot and chucked a couple of fire bricks in and put the coals back in it was still slow and I was getting a little downhearted but I pushed the fire back with more firebricks and after about an hour the fire started to give a better heat but it was a lot harder than I imagined anyway I persevered and slowly got there I respect you guys even more now I allways thought it would easier than it was but it was very hard never mind I have plenty of enthusiasm and I learnt a lot today I wondered how long it normally takes a forge to warm up to normal operational heat I wondered how to put the fire out I made a big booboo today by pouring water on it .The water filled the tuyere pipe up went down the vacume pipe and filled the vac cleaner up with water which was live but turned off with the varable switch so it might have caused a big problem but I was lucky I guess next time I will place the cleaner higher than the forge

Well I have built a forge at least that is what I call it I picked up a bit of scrap half as wide as needed but twice as long and with a ugly snail track it was welded together I built the fire box out of some heavy cast iron drain pipe and welded my home made box on it I was lucky that in my shed was a vacume cleaner missus told me throw away but I kept it hidden and luck would have it the machine had a varable dial on it and a seperate hole in it so it would blow and not suck and then if fate were on my side the hose pushed snuggly jnto my pipe which I had welded on to the firebox .I have made a flap on the box but have not finished the counter weight to keep it shut so I have just wedged it in true bodge style I managed to find the name of the blacksmiths coal in France "charbon de forge" and there is a supplyer two minutes from were I live I tell you are going that smooth that I am begining to worry Iv put some pictures of my first small forge on myimage 1 http://www.yourimg.com/?page=05/213/10/1.jpg The scrap plate twice as long but half as wide 2 http://www.yourimg.com/?page=05/213/10/2.jpg with a bit of practice I will learn to weld better 3 http://www.yourimg.com/?page=05/213/10/4.jpg the pot and pipe 4 http://www.yourimg.com/?page=05/213/10/5.jpg Ready to weld onto the base after drilling eight holes in the bottom for the air 5 http://www.yourimg.com/?page=05/213/10/6.jpg slapped together I dont know whether to fire cement the fire bricks in because it has got a bit heavy to move and as I have not built a chiminey I am going to fire it up straight away I have got some steel so I can build some tongs I have read so much theory but now I need to hit some metal thanks for all the help I will let you know how it goes by the way the forge has cost me total in euros which are similar to dollars 30 euros and about twenty welding rods and ten cutting discs that I allready had so it is a budget build

Told a friend that I am building a forge and intend on learning some blacksmith techniques and he said to me that it did not suprise him as I have always looked like a blacksmith I thought at first this was a compliment then I started thinking . Do all you guys look like blacksmiths ? Also found out from my mother that my fathers grandfather was a blacksmith I take this to be a good omen and now feel that I have a "blacksmith gene" all these thoughts and I have only spent one day on a forge in yorkshire I harassed the blacksmithto let me come on the course as it was my last chance before coming to France so he put me on the small portable forge that he used for show work it did not have a chimney and was a bit wobbly but I enjoyed the day so much that I now must have my own

Thanks I have changed the design again and bought some angle iron today The plate I was going to use for the base was in the garden and went to get it today it is so heavy I could not lift it on its side by myself so had to use another from the french scrap yard and found a advantage in not speaking the language the guy could not understand what I wanted so alowed me to wonder at my leisure the normally prohibited scrapyard I spotted lots of useful things including a base I am fixing it tomorow to my fire box and maybe starting on the legs I imagine about three and a half high might do but if this is not correct please tell me as your knowledge helps me through as I do not have a forge that I can go and see yet although I have heard that there is one run by a french guy about 12 mile away .I need to try to locate some blacksmith coal and cannot find the right terms in french to ask for I dont suppose some one could tell me what are the qualities of the coal so I might try to locate some ie how does it differ from normal house coal and failing that can I use coke as I know the name for that one last qestion when I start making the legs tomorow I wondered if the forge would be more stable if the legs were slightly splayed out or would this get in the way when I get to use the forge I also thought perhaps keep the front legs straight with the front of the forge but splayed out slighly away from the sides annd the back ones splayed both side and out from the forge as well or is it better to keep them all the same size as the base of the forge thanks a lot RIK

Thanks for the infomation I built a firebox today I worked out the average from the different infomation you gave me Im glad I posted because my tuyere was as big as the whole bottom of the firebox so Iv changed it now I am thinking of building the base out of stones and cement as there is a lot hanging around the garden they are not big but they should do the job Im building the forge outside the garage and then Im going to build a covered roof over it I have to go the electric driven air as I have a old vacume and a couple of air blowers from some wall units and monet being a little tight I have to try to use what I can I have designed (in my head so it might not work) a physical adjustment for the blower in which the air leaves a pipe that has a adjustable flap on it when open Im hoping all the air will leave by the easiest route for it but I am a little concerned that it might create a vacume and pull the hot air the wrong way down the tuyere has anyone any experience of this cheers Rik

Hello there this is my first post on a forum .Iv moved from the UK to france with my mother and the wife I have a lot of time on my hands as there is not a lot of work here for a non french speaker and having worked hard in the UK I figure on having a year off . Before I left England I took a one day course in blacksmithing and realy enjoyed it so I could not believe it when I went to an auction to get rid of some stuff prior to moving and a anvil with about twenty tools came up and I bought the lot for 70 quid along with a few welders and some grinders I worked out all I needed was a forge which Im building now I have built the tuyer and an airpipe with a hinged gate at the bottom I wondered how big and how many holes to drill in the tuyer allso I am building a fire box around it How deep and what dimensions should it be I am thinking of the forge top being about three foot square as I have a plate about that size in the garden and should I line the plate with fire bricks and if I do How much deeper should the fire box be than the bed of the forge .please forgive me for the questions I am eager to build the next stage but looking at the plans on the internet I can not see any exact sizes and only ever seeing a forge once in my life I can not work the sizes out Thanks a lot what I like about this forum is on one page there is a young chap building a forge out of nothing whilst the next page a picture of a massive perpose built workshop brand new and yet you guys all talk on a level with each other cheers RIK