Bentiron1946

Frosty, You mean to tell me we're supposed to be organized?

Cell phone, two keys(one to house and other to car), wallet and lots of lint. Always lots of lint. More lint then money, hardly ever any money. How I ask does that happen?:confused:

A few years ago I bought a Jim Keith cross peen hammer in New Mexico and Jim asked me if he could demo any thing for me as he is a former national champion ferrier. So I asked him to make a draft horse shoe. It took him less then six minuets to make it form bar stock. He apologized for taking so long as he was out of shape. He said at the nationals you would never know what they would give you to shoe in the final round, anything from a Shetland to Clydesdale and the year he won he had both. He markets a great line of hammers and anvils. The hammers he makes in his own shop.

Undoubtedly destined for the Smithsonian, a rare example of the iron casters art. Sure is a complex thingamajig for some use or another. I suggest just sitting it on a shelf and when you have idle time on your hands contemplating it's possible use.:rolleyes:

Nett, Your right, they are burglar bars. I guess even over there they have thieves. Still better then looking at straight lines.

I was just looking at that. Same here, just a bit far.

That is beautiful work. Did you make the tools yourself? I like the windows of your shop. Not everyday one sees leaded glass windows in a shop. Thanks for the pictures.

I was just outside thinking about that. Neither of my sons are into tools or the use of their hands except to play computer games. The farthest thing from their minds are my tools so I ask my youngest(19) what he would do with them when I was gone. I wasn't surprised by his answer, disheartened yes but surprised no. He is going to sell the hand tools on Ebay and the big ones on Craigslist. My wife thinks that that is fine. So I got to thinking that may I would find an aspiring young smith and give them to him. I have many tools for jewelry, bronze casting and blacksmithing. I have spent the last forty years gathering these tools and I just don't want them sold off to some undeserving person or collector and the proceeds spent on some blasted computer game that will be played for a week or two.

Some of our neighbors are having to go back to Canada after almost twelve years because he doesn't have a job. He just invest in America. He develops raw land into subdivisions. That is he puts up the money for others to do that. He lends money to small time developers that up until a few months ago were the type that would build ten to twenty houses. He also has rental house but not what the government considers a job. Pays his taxes, all of them, supports little league and goes to church, pays all his own medical bills but is not deemed worthy to stay here any longer. Has to go back to Canada and apply for citizenship. Seems he has no job title that is necessary for the USA right now. Go figure, I guess he can't ride a mower. That is one of the prices of 9/11.

If you want to see some interesting discussion on power hammers, albeit, light weight ones go to MetalMeet as they build a multitude of them for shaping sheet metal but many of the ideas will work for heavy stuff too.

My only hope is that if someone buys it for garden decoration they stub their toes on it many, many times:D.

Sure is funny to watch a Turkey Vulture eat a snake. You would think they would just up and swallow it whole but no they eat it down to the back bone, ribs and skin then leave. Must not like ribs all that much.:D

Have you finished your castings yet? If not you may want to try the lost foam method. Instead of wax you use Styrofoam or urethane foam. Then invest it just like the wax but instead of burning it out you direct pour the metal on the foam and have an instant burn out. Stinks like crazy but it works. I have cast some small parts for modelers of ships and planes with this method using pewter and zinc.

WOW! Heads and tails. That is a nice small swage block.

I like that trailer jack idea and if you a nice neighborhood and can leave it outside you can always put a portable doghouse on top of it and make your forge look like a BBQ so it blends in with what it ain't.

Don't feel like the Lone Range. I got a bad back and just can't stand at the anvil like I used to either. I think I would keep the big boy and try to come up with a way to move it. Nothing is sweeter then forging on good sized anvil. Mobility problems and a big anvil are not impossible to over come. With my pinched nerves I have been looking at building a small power hammer so I don't have to swing a hammer so much. Treadle hammers are out since I now only have one good leg to stand on so I guess that's why God gave us brains so we don't have to use our backs so much.

Here a link to a hammer set up that uses a large scaling hammer Maybe it will help.

Nice coin, but isn't this just a little risque having some blacksmith forging just what only heaven knows and burning just what while bare butt naked on a family friendly forum?;)

I check out eBay once a week to see if there are any unusual hammers and today there were three power hammers up for sale. One 25# LG and two others that I had not seen before. One that I found interesting was a Cracker Jack. It seemed to have one big problem though, someone had welded the bottom die in place. I can't remember the name of the third hammer but it looked to be good sized. Might be worth looking at.

Some use rebar to weld to the billet for forge welding operations but not for actual knives. Rebar is used by some for decorative purpose only such as fence pickets or the such. I used to make spear points for my son when he was small but that's all.

Your a metalsmith, fabricate it! Just a little something to do in your spare time.LOL

It sure is a lot of metal moving around at one time. I guess the double spring is necessary to because of the rigid helve arm. Hydraulic motor? I would never have thought of that. I saw some video of guys forge welding using hydraulic presses which looked strange to me but it sure worked. I thought the anvils were nice too but I'm not sure I would use them for a power hammer. I would have a better use for them.

I was cruising You Tube and found this fellows take on the power hammer. Enjoy. YouTube - IRON MAN BLADES PROCESSING CYCLE, YouTube - IRON MAN - The big hammer and YouTube - IRON MAN - BIG GUST HAMMER . I like the counter balanced hammer he uses on the billet too. It looks like he is using an air motor on the power hammer but I couldn't be sure.

I looked up "silver sand" and it is any sand that is free of impurities such as "iron oxides that give sand the brown or yellowish colors". So I guess that it could be just regular sand that has been polished and washed or it could be ground from a quartz material. I have used regular play sand in making melting furnaces before with out any problems.

Well now that is a very strange question as it depends on the time of day and the day of the week and if the wife is in the room or not. If I with just me in the room it is classical. If it my wife in the room it is contemporary Christian. If I'm forging or making jewelry I like things lie the Stones or Cash. Nelson, Beatles, but not no way Whelk, Can't stand that stuff. Like to sing hymns in the shower, like to listen to folk songs on long trips. Don't like techno or death-head music like my son likes but he listens to some stuff that ain't half bad like Regina Spektor at least ways he recent stuff. So what do I listen to? Depends.