Bentiron1946

It really is hard to fit hammer heads for the long haul here in the desert. With retaliative humidity ranging from 0% to 50% wood gets a real workout in taking on moisture and swelling, then giving it up and shrinking back down, so yeah it's bound to get somewhat loose. If you get a really tight fit when it's dry it will swell up when the humidity goes up till the fibers are crushed and then it will shrink back down and be loose after a heavy day of work. Glenn's suggestion of a soak in a 50/50 mix of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits seems to work pretty well at keeping the balance of moisture in the wood and prolonging the useful life of a hammer handle in just about any climate. However if you are moving from the East Coast to the ultra dry of the Southwest deserts be aware of loose hammer heads, they may not stay together long unless you account for the loss of moisture, 5%RH will really suck it out of you!

Hey, It just ain't the same without you here, so we pray for your healing! Jerry

That's a good one! Vacation at states expense! I have an acquaintance that make expandable sculpture out of steel(thin)plate, welds the seams closed, welds in a valve, then connects it to an air compressor, applies heat to the panels and watches it expand and hopes it doesn't explode. Paints the panels in vivid colors and sells it to unsuspecting collectors, really it kinda nice but I think you want something thicker than what he uses.

Yeah, some of us so old we started out with a big rock for an anvil, another rock for a hammer, then used green branches for tongs, yeah things used to be rough back in the early iron age. Sounds like you're off to a good start. As you get more experience you will be adding more tools, they just seem to sprout from the ground, things like hammers are always coming along, tongs pop up too, I used to buy old chisels and punches, they are easy to modify so they come in handy. Scrap pieces of steel are handy for making tools, so look for dlo tools to make into other tools but if you're wanting to make knives and axes you will need to know what kinds of steels are best for those kinds of tools. Being a smith means that you will become a scrounger of odd bits and pieces of stuff, we waste nothing as it all can be used for something.

I don't know about in AU but here in the US I can buy new tank ends, no danger from propane, a little more expensive but safer, also just a catalog item in most cases. Then there is pipe caps, the big ones, for 24" schedule 40 steel pipe, kind of expensive but perhaps if you went to a scrap yard you could find a section of pipe and cut a cap off. Good stuff that schedule 40 and thick!

Sounds like a plan! Please be careful, it's not that I mind praying for your health and safety, that's a lot better than praying for your family after you pass. Always maintain a well ventilated work space and observer safe working conditions or you could end up with a damaged body and end up in a condition that is unpleasant. Don't ask how I know, it's just too embarrassing!

I got a delicious candy orange.......Now that would be worth trying to get on a regular basis.

The snake could be a blind snake, they inhabit several areas of the country, here in AZ the Desert Coral Snake eats them, they look like earth worms. The coils of the heart are an ancient symbol and if you hammer the rod for the point first and then make the coils last you will have a sharper point for the heart. If you can do a search of Brian Brazeal's work you will find many helpful tips on forging jewelry sized objects. Keep working at it and it will come to you.

Great looking older(ancient like me) anvil! First off DO NOT take a grinding disk to any part of this anvil, that would be a desecration to this fine old anvil, a wire wheel is OK but not a grinding disk. Trust me on this, it is fine the way it is and it sure don't need fixed, it ain't broke. If you ever feel the need to "fix it" in any way start looking for a bigger newer anvil, this one is good the way it is. You can make just about anything you need to as a beginner on it. When you gain more experience and want to do bigger projects where you need to use a 10 pound sledge hammer DON'T!, this light anvil is not made for that heavy work, it is a light duty anvil. This anvil has been around since before the Civil War and all it has done has provided is good quality work for about 160 years so if someone tries to convince you to "fix" it tell them it "ain't broke". OK, that's the end of my sermon now go light off the forge and get some steel hot and forge out something, it's good for the soul!!

You need to be the judge of that depending on how bad you feel, if you feel like you are in respiratory distress don't mess around waiting for an answer here get to the doctor, it could be affecting your heart too. DO NOT screw around with you heart and lungs, they ain't easy to fix you know!

Spit works well too is always close by. I like to saw out things too in copper and silver for jewelry and have found that I can make a sketch, put on my printers scanner and then adjust it for size, print it, then use rubber cement to attach it to the metal. That seems to work well for me. This way I can save the drawing if it turns out well to a thumb drive and resurrect it or modify it for another piece later on. I mostly just use heat to change the color of the copper and use liver of sulfur for silver.

I don't know what to think, looks like a nice anvil except for that raised "M", just don't know what to think of that. Sure doesn't look like an ASO but I've been wrong before. How much did he want for that anvil?

Glad to hear that all went well and that in a year you will be back at the forge, Praise God! Jerry

Photos 4 thru 9 are really dynamic, caught the spirit of the horse, nice an simple, I like them.

Frosty, LA could be Los Alamos too. If I remember my place names correctly it has something to do with cottonwood trees. Little Giants seem to hold up pretty well consider how old they are.

The bees in my house can away any day, Africanized bees are the pits, nasty tempered brutes, stung a rock climber and his dog to death near Tucson, AZ this past month. But yes, bees are certainly more beneficial than an oil refinery, never heard of an oil refinery pollinating and apple orchard now have you? I guess that I have just been cheap, bees wax is expensive and I don't take the time to mix up home brew so I just buy Johnson's Paste Wax. I've used it for years on my bronze castings and it seems to hold up well on them, yeah,I know not quite the standards of the British Museum who I'm told is the inventor of Renaissance Wax to preserve their collections. Next time I need to coat something really large I'll give your formula a try, sounds good.

Yeah, when I started out I tried all kinds of metals and found out that it was best to find a good reliable easy to work with metal and stick with it. Yes, I know it sound boring as all get out but success is wonderful and seeing folk very happy when you hand them a successful pour of their work is very gratifying, more so than experimenting with a bunch of strange and exotic metals that cost more than you can make back on them in twenty years. I stick to the easy ones like silver, brass, silicon bronze,aluminum on occasion and once in awhile rarely nickle bronze(silicon) too, but mostly silicon bronze as it pours about like water it's that easy to work with. Learn to cast silicon bronze well and then branch out, I started with scrap brass and had a very poor success ratio, very frustrating stuff to work with. Do lots of research on any metal you work with, including hazards to your health and then work hard for a successful pour.

There are only 24 hours in a day and 48 horse of work...............Truer words were never spoken and the older you get the truer it gets. I like that first one too, the second one is OK but looks like a shaman in costume dancing, that ain't all bad either you know.

Nice looking anvil! Looks like that front hardy hole did most of the work too. I'm sure most of us have a few tales about anvils not being secured properly. When I got my first I just set it in the back of my 70 GMC and drove off. The first time I had to stop it moved to front of the bed in at 45 miles an hour, a body in motion and all that stuff really does work you know. It's a good thing it hit the back of the bed broadside or I would have been firmly impaled on the horn of an anvil and that would have been a dilemma.

I have seen some original bone knives and they seemed to favor the cannon bone of white tailed(or mule) deer, that's a pretty strong bone and the shape was kinda that of a stiletto.

Nice work on the candle sticks, really like that square twist

I think Frank has hit it square on the head with the WWII production, has all the earmarks of war time production. The screw does look a little on the worn side.

I don't know that I have any knock 'em dead deals but I bought so jewelry making tools from a widow woman, she had the price way too low, so I paid her what they were worth and not what she was asking for them. I'd had for someone to just up and take advantage of my wife when I'm dead and gone. Of course I try to keep her up to date on what my stuff is worth but some couples just don't communicate much after awhile much to their detriment. You know what goes around comes around and to my way of thinking if you screw someone real bad don't feel to bad when it happens to you. Every once in awhile you will run in a smug son of a gun who will treat your suggestions like you're a piece of dog feces on the street of New York City, now them there folk need to be brought down a peg or two, those folk you have my permission to take advantage of, they be in need of a dose of humility.

Those are so pretty they almost ought to go under jewelry!