ladysmith

Amazing the people they let in here. Hi Chris. This is a great site, and you'll learn alot!

Pam

Snow,

Listen to Thomas and Keykeeper. Beyond that, here is what I did when first getting started...Go through the blueprints on this site. When you find something that looks interesting that you think you can understand the directions, try it. If you're like me you'll get lost half way through more often than not. Here's the trick though...keep at it until you figure it out. One of the first things you'll learn is there is no "one right way" to do most blacksmithing. However there are ways that work better and are easier than others.

Another tip is to get comfortable smithing with mild steel before starting on high carbon steel knives. Mild steel is easier to work, and way more forgiving than high carbon steel. Understand how the steel moves when you hit it with different hammers, and at different heat colors. Understand what happens when you leave it in the fire too long or at too high of a temperature. Experiment! Once you understand what happens, and get a few cool projects under your belt, then practice making "knives" out of mild steel. (They make great letter openers.) Read, practice, experiement, and ask plenty of questions, and you'll do well and have a lot more fun.

Pam

Advertise locally outside the usual group newsletter. What we do is interesting enough to merit asking for an article in the newspaper BEFORE the Conference or Hammer-in. There are plenty of local people that would love to learn blacksmithing, but have no idea where to look, and might not realize something so cool could be happening so close to them. Being close cuts the associative costs significantly. Hammer-ins and conferences are a great way to build group membership, which builds future conference membership.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Pam

Elf,

Tell me where in Winchester you live and I'll loan you my 140 lb anvil through the Winter. With my arm, I won't be using it for a while, so you may as well borrow it. I'll be down that way in the next week or so, and can drop it off.

Pam
ladysmith@gmail.com

I used a chunk of rail road rail for years. Rang like crazy!
I used a 140 lb. Russian cast steel anvil for demos after the rr rail.
This year, I used a big sheet metal stake anvil set in part of a car axle for a base.
I have also used a flat heavy chunk of steel beside the fire to use when forge welding.

My feeling is if it works, use it!

Pam

Elfshadow14,

Email me at ladysmith@gmail.com. I get toward Winchester fairly often. I may have a couple of anvils for sale that would be great for knifemaking. I can also put you in contact with some local people.

Pam

I actually like mine a bit higher than recomended. I want to be able to hold the stock with a slightly bent elbow, while standing upright. I want the hammer to contact the stock while my elbow is still slightly bent.

I found than setting my anvil to the "recomended height" caused me to crouch over the anvil, and lift the end of the stock, creating a bend I constantly had to staighten. If the anvil is a bit higher, I stand up straight, and the stock stays flat against the anvil.

Pam

Hi Frosty,

I've read your posts from the "Sandbox" for a couple of years, so I feel as if I know you. (I very rarely post there.)

This is a great place to hang out. Hope you get a chance to wander into the blueprint demo on Tuesdays.

Pam

Dale,

Get well soon mate.

Pam

Dimag,

Get well soon. I wish you the best, and you'll be in my thoughts and prayers.

Pam

Wow!! The best I can get around here is $2.33.

Oh well the world may look up, down, or sideways, but it's how I decide each morning what MY outlook will be that matters.

Pam

I'll certainly keep Ed and his wife in my prayers. Get better and out of the hospital soon.

Pam

I just got back from the doctor's office. I have another surgery scheduled for Thurs Oct. 12th. (had that option or Friday the 13th.) I just can't use my arm with more than 4 pounds of resistance, or lift more than 5 pounds for very long without too much pain...no where near enough to go back to regular work, and certainly not enough for as active a life as I'm use to living.

I'm not happy about needing additional surgery, but at an 85% success rate, it's 85% better than what I'm dealing with now. My comment to the doc was that I wish he'd just checked out that side when he was in before. His comment was he wished he had then too.

I have my paid blacksmith demo scheduled for Oct 21 and 22. I won't even get the stitches out until the 28th. That 2 day demo pays for heating oil for the whole Winter. I'd hate to give that up, but there isn't any way I'll be able to do anything that even resembles blacksmithing.

Being the stubborn person I am, I think I've found a solution. I'm going to try to find someone that wants free, intensive, hands-on lessons for those two days and is willing to set up and tear down. That way I can still get paid for providing a demo. I have a couple of ideas of people that would jump at the chance for free lessons (even from a gimp that won't be able to lift a finger, but is pretty good at teaching verbally).

Wish me luck for both the surgery and demo.

Pam

Aprenticman,

Carlisle is about half an hour south of Harrisburg, PA. When I teach the propane forge class (and they are suprisingly easy to build), I will be teaching in Martinsburg, WV.

I have heard of the Northeast Blacksmith Association, but it is just too far for me. I know there is a blacksmith group somewhere in NJ that has a propane forge building class. Otherwise, there is plenty of information on the internet, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

Pam

I live in a trailer park, and haven't tried to set up a forge here...too many odd neighbors. I did however find a state park that had a wonderful blacksmiths shop...built in 1923 specifically for demos... I play there during the Spring, Summer and Fall (and yes they are saving "my forge" for me next year).

When I lived in WV (before I moved to the trailer park in PA), I had set up with the local craft guild the possibility of teaching very basic blacksmithing. The idea was the first set of classes would be on making simple propane forges , of which each student (limit of 10) would make two...one to keep and one to donate to the guild in leu of class fees (the guild would still pay me for teaching forge building out of grant monies). The guild worked out a deal with the local group that was converting the old train roundhouse to a museum. I would teach class in the old train forges, with the idea that when it was completely converted, I would demo occasionally for them (paid). Win-win all round for everyone! The option is still open when my arm is better. I am a huge fan of local arts and crafts guilds. By virtue of their non-profit status they have access to an amazing amount of financial and local resources.

Anyway, there are a multitude of creative ways to be able to blacksmith in areas that just aren't feasable to set up a forge of any kind.

Pam

The Eagle & The Wolf

There is a great battle that rages inside me.

One side is the soaring eagle. Everything the eagle stands for is good and true and beautiful, and it soars above the clouds. Even though it dips down into the valleys, it lays its eggs on the mountaintops.

The other side of me is the howling wolf. And that raging, howling wolf represents the worst that's in me. He eats upon my downfalls and justifies himself by his presence in the pack.

Who wins this great battle?

The One That I Feed!

Crackers,

As far as anyone can determine, my elbow problem was caused at work rather than blacksmithing. It didn't really start bothering me until after the demo season ended.

I had been using a big leather hammer to pound large pins into the frames of those huge road rollers you see at construction sites. The best they can figure is the constant sideways pounding using a hammer with no rebound, caused my elbow to probably grow a bone spur, which then chipped off. Unfortunately, there were some "gender issues" with my boss that caused me to be a stubborn fool, and ignore the pain to prove I could not only do the same amount of work as anyone on the other shifts, but do more. I'm now paying the price for that foolishness. Fortunately, I got off that line, and now have wonderful supervisors.

The bone spur even as a chip would have been a fairly mild problem, but the doctor's were treating me for a bad case of tendonitis. It took the 4th doctor looking at one of the 1st xrays to see the (suprisingly large) chip. By that point almost 6 months had gone by, and the chip had been tearing up the nerves.

But it seems to be on the mend, and they say that in about 2 months, I'll be able to get off light duty, if not yet get back to blacksmithing. I'll miss the demo season at the park, this year, but should be back at it next year.

While I am stubborn about pretty much everything, I'm not usually that foolish....at least not often...much...lol ;)

ok..pictures...

Pam

Dawn,

All my sympathy and prayers go to you and your family.

Pam

Gosh Leah, you're such a girl!

Be glad you have that excuse...guys making the same squeeky noise sounds so much funnier!

Send me one....the flys and gnats are getting bad this year.

Pam

Leah,

You and your mother are in my prayers. Those memories of him will be a comfort to both of you always.

Pam

As many of you knew, I had surgery on my elbow to take out the chip and fix the nerve.

Long day (~12 hrs), but it seems like it was a success. My arm is now in a cast style brace, wrapped, and in a sling, so I have no idea what it looks like. They gave me the option of general anasthesia or a nerve block. But since they wouldn't let me watch, I opted to sleep through it....then slept the whole way home, and the rest of the night.

The pain is about what it was before. I plan to go back to work Monday, and just type left handed. With luck, this is the start of getting back to blacksmithng.

Thanks all of you who kept me in your prayers,

Pam

BT,

Actually, I'd like to trade the electric blower for a hand crank one. Most of the time I'm blacksmithing, I don't have access to electricity.

Pam

Irn,

Thanks for the information. Yep that must be brazing tongs, as it's flat inside. Makes me wonder how it would work for brazing copper.

Nolano, I can see the loop handled bowled tongs being used to either adjust coal, or to light a pipe. The holes would make it easy to hold over the pipe bowl and light the pipe by sucking air through the pipe. In either case, I suspect you are correct in that they are really rare.

The other two seem to still be sort of mystery tongs. Irn, you may be right about the one, but I just can't picture what you are describing.

Thanks for the education,

Pam

Thanks Nolano. That was one that constantly confused me...was about half convinced it wasn't even a set of tongs.

Pam