philip in china

m brothers- just my quirky sense of humour. Of course I took no offence. Our blacksmithing group here owes Jock a huge debt of gratitude for all his excellent advice. He is a mensch as far as I am concerned and I want everybody to know that. As are loads of the guys who use this site more than AF. I use both because being in China I have loads of spare time to look at both. If you look at some of the sites which are frequented by... well I probably can't use the word- but it rhymes with Sri Lanka... you will see them squabbling amongst themselves like a bunch of chorus girls. I am a blacksmith and I, for one, don't start talking tough over the internet. Both sites are doing a great job and I am hugely grateful to them both for what they do. So come on! Let's have a moritorium on carping about each other. Go out and get something red hot and hammer it. There is still my offer of a free anvil for those who agree with me. That is a genuine offer. No BS.

So what is the problem with China?

There is a 150 pound one. It is cast. 1" hardy hole. No prirchel but one could be drilled easily enough. It is less that a year old.

I am in China. Would Mono Sodium Glutomate work in place of salt? That is what everybody here uses in food.

Re the use of sawdust am I getting this right? The idea is that the sawdust actually burns and thereby leaves small empty pockets or pockets containing charcoal which due to it's lack of mass increases the thermal insulation properties of the monolith. Please let me know if I am wrong! I am looking for a good insulator for round my cupola.

Jnr, Are we back to the bigger the better (within obvious limits)? I suppose if a motor is not working hard it will work better. (I know I do).

Not sure if they can follow a drawing but I could find out easily enough! I will let the site know. Nothing will happen now for a few weeks though as Chinese new year is upon us so the whole place just closes. Maybe I should wait until my wife is out here. She can translate but that puts her in a position of too much power.

What do you have in your workshop? That makes a lot of difference to what sort of floor you need. I believe in working out what is needed and then adding quite a bit more on top. Nobody I ever knew was sorry for putting down a cement floor 2" thicker than needed but plenty were sorry for going too thin and having to rip it all up again! Why not try just working a little in there and seeing what you need and where you want things?

As some of you know I have the shop in China and am building one at my house in Bulgaria. If I can make a swage block or two that I like here I will get them copied in something lightweight like resin and take the resin blocks to Bulgaria and get them cast there as well. I am making it in cement because for the mark 1 it is easy to get some offcuts of pipe, angle etc. and cast the cement round them. My woodworking skills are best described as rudimentary!

I am trying to make a swage block. If I make a pattern in cement I can then get it cast. Does anybody have designs or photos of a good swage block please so I can copy them?

I need oxy acet of my own. I can sometimes borrow or get work cut for me but my own rig is the next big purchase.

What penetrating oil are you using? Not a good idea to leave things soaking in some brands. I am not sure about US brands but somebody here will be. Did you try the warm, used engine oil? It absolutely cannot harm.

I pick the brains of the smiths here mercilessly. I am a qualified accountant and accountancy graduate. If anybody needs a bit of help with business or pricing by all means PM me and I will see if I can help. I have plenty of spare time these days!

Should have mentioned. The slogan is "Nothing we make will ever break".

The only western named department store in Dujiangyan is called Trustmart so I simply removed the first letter for my name. It seems to work. I also have my slogan which really sort of means that if you can pick it up it is probably not one of my products which tend to be somewhat robust. Sean out here says I do everything too heavy but that is only professional jealousy on his part.

For what it is worth I use a British made London pattern anvil weighing in at 2:2:0. It is on a stump but to hold it in place I have a couple of pieces of 20mm plate profiled to match the base of the anvil and the circumference of the stump. With the anvil being as big as it is I don't need any extra mass but a plate at the base of the anvil sure is useful for upsetting and doing other heavy work. Maybe an oversized plate would be useful for just that and save some heavy use of the small anvil. Anybody want a free anvil by the way? You would have to collect it.

Thank you for your input. They are illegal in UK as well. I have never quite understood the logic. If you are stabbed with a switchblade are you somehow more dead than with an ordinary lock knife? I don't make knives so it was just a purely hypothetical question. I think they are legal here. Certainly they are widely sold.

How does a switchblade action work?

There is an old Lincoln Continental here (probably 15 to 20 years old). It has done a lot of work and one of the springs has snapped. My boss is going to replace the spring. I have told him he should replace all 4 of course. Needless to say I have a home for the old springs! What steel would old Lincoln springs be made of? I want to make a rack of punches, drifts, chisels etc. and hoped to use these springs.

The point about the outside air is really obvious............. once you mentioned it. I would never have thought of it myself though!

How do you rate the 9Kg one piece An Yang. I can get one here new for US$2,300 which seems like a good price to me. I think I would have to make a stand for it though as I don't fancy working in a full squat position like the Chinese do!

I understand that Uri Hofi has suggested a number of improvements to the An Yang hammers made here in China. Has anybody seen the products subse quent to the modifications? Are they a lot better? I am seriously considering a power hammerand being in China wouldn't really look any further than An Yang.

Pulleys as well? More swages. this just gets better and better.

I have a diagram of a clinker breaker on my other computer. I will try to remember to send it to you. (The diagram not the computer). I have a masonry forge almost exactly like the one you describe. I had to make the fire pot etc. in a tremendous hurry so did not actually put a CB in mine and I have never felt the need for one. It is basically a steel Toblerone which you can rotate with a handle.

That has certainly given me a lot to think about. Maybe just an open fireplace with a brick chimney would be a lot less trouble. That might be the way to go initially! Then I could use my time making fire dogs, log box, tools etc. The house fire and carbon monoxide poisoning aspects of it are what worry me most. Here in rural China there are no regulations for anything like this so I would probably abide by the US or British codes. Please keep the ideas coming!