Michael

Love the eye slits, breathing holes on the helms.  Well done !

That's brilliant!

I collect, restore and use old hand tools to build furniture and toys.  It was the need for a lathe tool that got me into smithing. Treadle lathe is currently in use working on a tip and turn tripod table. Got a '03 Velocipede scroll saw (think tractor seat and bike pedals in cast iron with pinstriping) that gets used for toymaking. I sharpen my handsaws and use planes, brace and bits and just about every other hand powered tool for woodworking. Only the 1948 bandsaw (Darra-James) and the big Atlas drill press draw power in my woodshop.

With the heel facing away from me, the cut off in the hardy is out of the range of my hammer hand. I'm working over the face with the horn under my hammer hand. Had it the other way, horn to the left and was constantly concerned about moving the hot cut to avoid an injury.

Just recently swapped my 103 lb PW on its stump so the horn is to the right. Another smith (a former farrier) showed me how you can leave the cut off hardy in the anvil while making nails, it does save time.

Nothing I've made has been sold to anyone, but for the hanging projects that are up around the house/yard/shop, I'll strip the zinc off of 1/4 inch bolt  or lag (depending on what is hanging where) with either vinegar or citric acid, toss them in the gas forge to get the heads nice and hot, clamp the threads in the vise with the copper jaw liners and quickly hammer the head, just enough to leave about half the thickness of the original hex head, but texturing the top of the bolt or lag. The bit of hex is usually enough for a socket or wrench to grab, but the look is forged and the same finish as the work.-

This is as small as I've ever been able to go. The knot on my key ring. Multiple attempts to form a ring on the end kept burning up the steel till I gave up, drilled a hole and ran a split ring thru it. I did get a rare chance to use my 1 lb straight peen though.

When I added a jacobs chuck to my old Buffalo Forge #65, I pulled the shaft and chuck from a trashed breast drill, had the shaft machined down as others have suggested, and to avoid losing any travel distance by the additon of the chuck, I swapped out the bog standard 1 inch pipe that the post drill table slid on for a longer section. The new pipe was an additional 6 inches long (IIRC the chuck stole about 3 inches) and fit into the round boss at the bottom of the post drill casting and the small base casting on the other end. Had to cut a longer 2x4 that the post drill is mounted on to accomodate the new length.

All that said, I've never had a need for the sort of deep drilling situation the longer pipe allows for. a 1/2 inch hole in an inch thick plate is the most involved post drilling I've had to do, so far, and I could have done that with the set up as it was, even with the jacobs chuck.

sorry for the multiple responses, keyboard got stuck.

No, it doesn't get much better than that.  Hope some of those fit your hardy hole.

Congrudgulations!

No, it doesn't get much better than that.  Hope some of those fit your hardy hole.

Congrudgulations!

No, it doesn't get much better than that.  Hope some of those fit your hardy hole.

Congrudgulations!

I learned this method of testing for wrought iron from Daniel Miller, a smith from one of the Carolinas during a CBA demo.  It's a good way of testing for wrought in situ.  When you see an old building being demolished, a hacksaw and hammer under the seat of the truck let you check out if it's worth hauling that rusty old scrap back to the shop. (Seriously, its always worth it, even if not WI)

I've had similar delaminating issues with this material, usually from working too cold.

I tried all sorts of contraptions to hold the ever growing set of smithing tools and finally settled on the old standby blacksmiths tool table that you see in Richardson and other old books. A central table in metal, or I suppose thick wood, with racks around the perimeter to hold hammers, set tools and tongs. 

This old design has a lot to recommend it, easy rearrangement as new tools are bought or made, space underneath for infrequently used tools.  Punches and drifts are in a block with holes in it, the recessed, central table top catches stuff tossed in the general direction without falling off the edge.

Perhaps not ideal for your shop situation, but a narrower, longer version might do.

Please post pics of whatever you come up with to store your tools.  New ideas are always welcome.

This is what wrought iron looks like, half in round bar from an old grain silo.  You did the correct test, cut halfway, bend to breaking.

I forged with charcoal for years and a watering can was essential to controlling the fire and not burning thru too much fuel too quickly. Switching to coal I find I use the watering can a lot less, but still need to control the fire and often times cool off the end of what I'm working on. especially if the piece is in a long, soaking heat.

Ambitious first project, 4 foot hinges!  The finish work came out very well.  Nicely done!

Took a weekend course with Brian in April out here on the Left Coast, and we just grazed on some of what you learned in a 5 day. Congratulations on your successes. Looks like a lot of fun.

That shop in Branson is starting to look very familiar with all the posts.

You didn't do too bad for your $80, almost every peice of metal you can get your hands on can find itself a use in a smithy (as my flea market buddies roll their eyes)

Nippers can be modified into a specific tong to hold the head of a RR spike.

I've used a 2 lb cross peen for many years, only just recently moved up to a 3 lb hammer for general hand work. 3 pounder is a bit much for making nails, I pull out a 2 or 2.5 lb ball peen for use with the nail header

No, I meant the cubicle hooks, though Office Space has bit of a cult following around here. The red stapler is currently chained to the wall in the copy room.

When a printer here was due to be trashed (stripped plastic gears, years out of warrenty) we took turns nudging it, by tiny increments, towards the end of the table, the person who pushed it over the edge, smashing on the tile floor, had to buy lunch.  Sort of like office JENGA.

Though the site boss did mention noticing that more and more folks were getting hand forged cubicle hooks to hang their coats/laptop bags on...  I'd be here all night if the border crossing didn't shut down.

Cool, Please post a pic or two of these, I'm always trying to find ways of inducing hand forged iron work into the cubicle enviornment.

I've met Tim at a bunch of CBA events, real nice guy. He was striking for Peter Ross at a demo a while back.  Shawn Lovell and Jim Austin are right nearby as well.

I usually start a forging session with a couple three nails to get warmed up, make sure everything is where I need it and the forge is hot enough. Some really rough nails have been produced, then I toss them towards the large speaker magnet on a corner of the vise table and get to work.

Well, the magnet wasn't holding them anymore, the newest nails just bounced off the top of a pile so I pulled them all off, stuck them in large tuna can went back to work.

Later on, as the forge was cooling down, started counting and sorting by size and ugliness,

102 Nails, or your average apprentice's work output before breakfast!  Probably another 2 or 3 dozen in use around the shop and the smithy, so not really a stellar output in close to a decade of lazy shadetree smithing, But the last one, in the top of the egg crate isn't half bad.

a little heavy for smithing tongs, a little short for sort of tongs that were used to move rail.  Specific to some clip or retainer, maybe a part on a coupling, those are all sorts of odd shapes.  To a real Railroad Junkie, they are probably a common as dirt *blurfl*, like nippers are to smiths.