RBrown

Gota love ebay. Yes shills happen and yes more than likely most of your most successful ebay sellers use shills or have used shills. I know a few that sell on ebay and they use shills all the time. Ebay has rules but has no interest in enforcing them unless you have concrete proof. Even if you do have the proof its still a shot in the dark if they will enforce them. Not only are there shills there are allot of people that just bid up items to mess up the system. I have seen allot of items used with a winning bid much larger than what you could go down the road and buy it new for from the highest priced place you could find. Only time i buy from ebay is buy it nows and at a price plus shipping im willing to pay and if there is not at least $20 or more savings i will buy it local preferably form an independent location.

If you cant afford better then by all means purchase harbor freight and other imports. Just don't expect them to last past there warranty. Iv got a few hf products that have to my surprise lasted quite a while infarct I am surprised every time i turn them on and they still work. now my welding equipment is something different i have an old century buzz box that i have had and abused for years it even sat outside under a tarp for a long time when i didn't have a shop to put it in still works almost 20 years latter. Plasma cutter is a small esab absolutely love it got it as a reman unit. Just picked up one of those cheap hf mig welders did some horse trading guy needed something i had and i kinda felt sorry for him so i let him trade me that thing for what i had and didn't need. For what i use it for just tacking things together quickly it works fine but i don't expect it to turn on the next time i plug it in. You definetly get what you pay for.

Find a tree growing the right size for an anvil stand cut tree with trunk at right size to put anvil on and build shop around it.
Im only half way joking i have one in my shop lol.

bowling, darts and pool when i have some time just got back into bowling something i can do with the wife and kids. Darts and pool just when me and my wife can find some one to watch 3 kids at one time. dosnt happen offten.

I received this in my email today.

PHILIP SIMMONS

Master Blacksmith

(1912

Went looking for bowling balls to make vice holders like the one that was on the bp the other night and lucked up on a bunch at a thrift store. I picked one up but wife thought it was to pretty for me to cut up and we went back and bought 12 of them. Picked out 2 light ones for the kids to use and me and wife picked out ones we liked the feel of to use. not a bad haul the balls only cost us $1 each and bags cost the same.

you cant see the flub on the sheath when making the holes for the thread i came out on the edge at one place and the back side stiching looks perty bad just another learning curve to figure out. the stitching is tight i dont for see it coming loose any time soon but its one of those things.

didnt make the handel i orderd some on line didnt have time to make a handel for camping trip i intend to eventualy make my own handels for high end hawks but for spike hawks and such im just gona order them quicker and easyer for me.

I upset the end of the spike to about 5/8 square then i slit it for the eye. i close the slit back up then start working on the hawk end once i got it shaped the way i wanted i drifted the eye. after that filing and grinding to final shape. I hardend it in a batch of supper quench it holds an edge fairley well. next one i do im going to split the end and forgeweld a bit of good high carbon steel in it and heat treat the end based on what high carbon i use.

yea i did the sheath some of the things on the sheath didnt turn out the way i wanted but i havent been playing with leather that long.

Got around to maiking one while i was at the trackrock hammerin

waded up news paper ball in the bottem enought to burn for a little bit. small peices of wood work well to. Pine cones work grate only take a couple and you will have a fire in no time.

Light any of the above and start putting a little air to the fire as you crank rake your coal in if you have coke left over from your last fire put it on first then rake your fresh coal on

not that i know of but if you contact bmyers647@comcast.net im shure he would ask about it at the meeting i wont be there he probly will though

Friend of mine has one its a nice little hammer works good takes up verry little space. Takes a little geting used to iv used his you just have to learn to use it to get the right amount of power you want for what you are wanting to do.

i got mine from Larkin Refractory i got a 1x24in x25ft and a cement to watter down and coat it with for about $80 he deliverd to my hotel room when i was down in atlanta for the blade show last year. nice guy and prices were good dont know how much it would cost for shipping though. wouldnt hurt to contact them to fine out.

You can even scedual back to back classes at John C. Campbell there was a guy there think he stayed over a month taking each class as they came

There not hard to build. I built mine from pictures and scrap does it work perfect no but it works. you could look at the ollie hammer - Blacksmith Photo Gallery doesnt get much simpler than that. i intend to build one simmilar to that one at some point.

We all see the pics and theres lots of information on making a hawk but what about the forgotten part the handle. Round handles would be easy enough if you have a lath but what about the tear drop shaped ones. How do you go about making them? Iv ran a number of ideas around in my head but not sure how feasible they would be.

i use galvanized just not close to the fire its fare enough away it dosnt burn the the galvanizing. you gont want it to close and the galvanizing start to burn off gives off some nasty unhealthy stuff

From what i can tell with the pics your fire in first pick is to spread out need to get it more concentrated. use a watter can to wet the coal down a little to keep the fire concentrated to center of fire pot. (this is something that takes practice) do not use to much watter you are just trying to control the conbustion of your fule and keep the fire managed and not so spread out.
from the 2nd pick that forge needs a good cleaning you need to sift your coake and coal get out all the ash and then seperate the clinker out. if your fire is dirty and full of clinker and ash it will rob you of heat by preventing air form coming through depending on your coal you can expect to clean out your firepot at least every couple hours to remove clinker and such if your fast enough no need to relight it just pull the glowing coal back in and crank.
make shure your air pipe is clear with no obstructions and ash dump is empty if it hasnt been cleand out in a while run a rod down into the ashdump with it open coal ash and clinker down there ill get solid and not drop just by opening it. if it gets to full it will also clog your air pipe.

I get mine from

Grace Fuel Co Inc
1490 Merrimon Av
Asheville, NC 28804
(828) 252-6401

Its small but cokes up good ash and klinker isnt bad you can eather get it by the truck load or the bag truck load is allot cheaper i recomend calling ahead they some times run out.

reading information here is a good place to start and also finding a local blacksmith organization in your area then if money is no object buy a few tools if money is a problem scrounge scroung scroung. locate all your local scrap metal places and machine shops and metal fabrication shops and ask if you can get drops or scrap from them.

they more than likely order there products in bulk and then cut it down to consumer level size. Allot of small businesses do that.

Depends allot on condition and price. even if its in horable shape if its cheep enough id buy it never know what you might be able to use it for or parts off it for.

I answerd the pole on how old i am not how old i feel, and i feel allot older than i am lol