AndersMJ

Not allowing yourself to make mistakes. It's human nature to make mistakes. When you make a mistake in my book, (which is inevitable) you learn that you should do it differently another time. Trying to do everything perfectly the first time and from then on, everytime is just not gonna do anyone any good. Surgeons make mistakes on humans - it's not the end of the world if a blacksmith does it on a piece of steel...

One shouldn't be chipping at the slag though, but rather raking it. Chipping away at it will most likely cause dents in the weld.

Anders...holding your arm close to your body is the proper way to prevent elbow injury, bursitis and several other annoying problems. If you exchange proper form for a heavier hammer, that could be the result. Once proper form is established in muscle memory, your arm strengthens and heavier hammers come naturally, without lifting your shoulder. How do you think a blacksmith gets... "muscles in his brawny arms as strong as iron bands" ?,...not by lifting his shoulder he doesn't !

Ok then. :)

Just because some old guy told you to stick a newspaper under your arm doesn't mean he was right!

Think about it like this.....

You have muscle groups all over your body. The fine flexors in the forearm. The bicep and tricep in the upper arm. And the Deltoids in the shoulder (specifically, the anterior, medial and posterior).

By trying to hold the newspaper under your arm, you are isolating the deltoid from the task. Why? What did you gain from removing a large muscle group from job? The anterior and medial deltoid are designed to help raise the arm up and down.

I was told by an old boilermaker at my school who apparently had done some anvil work too, that you should place a rolled up newspaper in your armpit and when hammering it should stay there. Which in practice means you'd have to lift the hammer with either a wrist motion, an elbow motion, or a combination.

There's even room for a toolbox on the shelf underneath the table.

I see. I'm all for use of hand tools btw so I'm glad to see that.

No worries mate. ;) There must be a lot of hammer marks on the blade after you've hammered it into shape? Do you just use a flatter to make it more plain looking? Or a flap disk or what? Thanks for showing this, much appreciated since my interest lies especially with knives, axes and tools.

That is a beautiful piece, the lines are carefully crafted. Could you do a video on how you make something like that from block of steel to finished hawk? And if not that, perhaps a series of images?

Does anyone know? It's priced at around 650 bucks and it says in the text it's 80-100 kgs.

http://www.guloggrat...images=1#images

I've been wearing clogs for about 20 years. I wear this model:

Rubber sole and heel with kevlar toe. It's my most comfortable footwear to date, I even wear them when shopping for groceries. Many people here in Denmark wear them, especially here in southern Jutland, farmers especially.

I've bookmarked this thread. Very inspiring indeed.

Being "overly safe" means that you don't have to keep on worrying about something; but can get on and do stuff!

Thanks for all the replies to everyone. Like I wrote I am gonna get a CO detector for sure.

I guess it's safe to say that if all the smoke is going out then the CO is too?

That's way cool. This is just the type of knife I like, scandi/sami style. No. 2,3,5 and 6 that is. :) The last one is especially cool, it would make a good utility/bird and trout sort of blade.

I think a person can learn something from all smiths around the world, no matter if it's in a high tech shop or a Nepalese kami forging kukris on a piece of RR track. (I bet he could teach most western world smiths a thing or two and vice versa).

What is the size of the building and how tall of side walls?

Haha too clean. It doesn't look like the typical blacksmith shop with metal and tools everywhere no, but I'm pretty confined to that corner so it's limited how much I can actually stuff in there. Thing is my dad and I were cleaning up the barn completely.

I plan to make smaller ornamental pieces to start with and then progressing to knives and axes later. No wrought iron gates here right now hehe.

basically things that doesn't require heat treating. Just normalize and done.

Thanks for the quick responses both of you. Just realised, I wrote 'carbon dioxide alarm'. Should have read 'carbon monoxide alarm'. :)

I'm almost done with my chimney and all that. The three things to look out for is 1) carbon monoxide, 2) carbon dioxide and 3) smoke, as far as I can read. The carbon dioxide I reckon will be no problem because my shop is so ventilated by small holes everywhere and I plan to keep the sliding door half open.

My question now is, the smoke and carbon monoxide is supposed to leave through the chimney... Since the carbon monoxide is odorless and invisible it is what have me most worried. Is it in the smoke or what, cause if it is I guess it's safe to say that if ALL the smoke leaves, then the CO does too...?

Also I plan to buy a carbon dioxide alarm for the shop before lighting for the first time. Does it matter where this is placed?

Hope someone can shed some light on this.

Wow...no junk, I mean, stock, parts, test pieces and metal that will become useful someday. Enjoy the space and lack of clutter, that'll change.

I think it's also worth to consider that just because you purchase something for a relatively high price, doesn't mean it's actually more expensive. It might last a lot longer and be of better quality than something cheaper.

The height of the forge table is about 32". I'm not at my parents right now and can't remember the exact dimensions but an estimate would be 28" x 36". It's quite heavy for one man but doable if need be. I plan to just place some bricks on either side of the fire pot to contain the coal. And then remove them if I need to place some iron through the hearth.