Elemental Metal Creations

I paid $15 for my 5" Indian Chief - complete and in excellent condition. If I thought I could get this for the bracket I would be making me a new one!

This is on the St. Louis CL
http://stlouis.craig...2707528918.html
And he is serious!

If yoy are going to use charcoal you need a deeper fire. I have a brake drum forge and was not real happy with it burning charcoal, it worked but not as well as I thought it should. I cut 2 pieces of 3" angle iron to fit in the drum and put bricks on top of them to give me a deeper fire and it works much better. I now have a fire about 4" wide. 8" long and 8" deep.

Thanks for the thoughts.I don't have the cash right now but wanted to see what you guys thought. Been out of work for a while now, jobs are harder to find around here than good anvils! I have been looking for a while and most of what I find are pretty beat up or wayyyyy overpriced. I saw a 150 pounder that the guy was asking $650 for. I found some at a used tool store north of here but before I could get there a man drove 300 mi. from Tenn. and bought 4 anvils and 3 vices from him. all he had left was a 50lb no name anvil that the wife bought me, it has a big ding in the face from someone using chisels on it. This one is at the Family center in Farmington, I will save some money and keep an eye on it.
Thanks again.

I was in a farm and ranch store the other day and saw a used anvil for sale $350. The staff couldn't tell me anything about it. i was there again today and took a good look at it. it is a Lakeside (hay-budden?) 107 lb sn 151xxx, i don't remember the last 3 #. The face is dead flat ,the edges are in good shape, and the table and horn are clean. I believe that it has been there for a while. Sorry no pic's. didn't have a camera with me and I think they would frown on me running around taking pictures in the store. What do you think, is it worth the money?

cool idea, I have a broken fork somewhere. i will have to put it to good use.

I salvaged a foot control off an old sewing machine and hooked it up to a blow dryer. Infinite speed control and hi/low range. It works great.

Fortunately I live in the country, 15 mi. to town, 1 mi. to the only "live in"neighbor. All others live in other countys or states, about 1000 acres with 8 full time residents, no zoning laws. I can do anything I want. I used to live in town, had the cops called 3 times when remodling working between 8 & 9 pm. Real pain in the XXX! I know how you feel.

I just preformed this operation on my brake drum forge. It works great but the brake drum sticks up about an inch so I am going to clay the drum to bring the table up to the level of the drake drum. my question is, can I use plan morter mix for this? I have some that has been sitting in closed buckets for about 2 years waiting for a use.

If you need time away from the wife use charcoal, break it up and hammer away. If you want together time go with gas.

Bean pot or dutch oven? Heck if we are looking at low cost readily available cast iron, why not? Phil

Two words, MY WIFE, she collects cast iron cookware. If I used a dutch oven or bean pot for a forge I would be cooking my own meals for at least a year. YUCK!

This is the most helpful thread on tool making that I have read yet! Many thanks to all. When I get my forge set up again (tring some different ideas) I will be making some tools.

Plus the keg won't rust out!

Where in the midwest are you? I know of 1 about 150# in Farmington Mo, no name that he wants over $600 for. There are some good deals on St. Louis ,Mo. CL if you have the cash, which I don't have.:-(

Dennis, these look really cool. Dana thanks for posting the link, I have made a lot of stuff out of old nails but never thought of doing it cold. You both gave me a lot of ideas, something I can do when I feel the need to pound metal but don't have enough time to fire the forge.
I made a letter opener in about 10-15 min out of a 20 penny nail this evening. Not bad for a first try. It won't let me post pics, I keep getting error 500. No heating or annealing, did everything cold, including twisting.

This is my cast iron bell that I am thinking about using for a charcoal fire pot.

The firepot would be 7" deep, 4-1/2" across the bottom, 14" across the top. It is about 3/8 " thick. Would this make a good charcoal firepot?
The last pic shows it as lopsided but it isn't I don't know what happened.

@ territorialmillworks
thanks for starting this, I was thinking about asking this question myself as I don't think my brakedrum forge is really deep enough for charcoal, it's only about 3-1/2".
@Tom Powers
can you give us a better idea than deep and narrow? what size would be best? I have a cast iron bell that I was thinking about, it is about 10" deep and 10"-12"in dia. at the opening. I will try to get some pics tomorrow.
Thanks for any ideas.

Looks good I really like the copper rivets.

More pics

The first close-up is the one marked Hubbard Special Alloy (on the left in all pics). The second is the one on the right in all pics, I believe that this one was hand forged.

I fired the forge tonight with a different batch of charcoal and it behaved like it should, went through the old batch and found some rocks and dirt. Think I'll build a steel lined charcoal pit.

Thanks for the info everyone, These were not made in the same shop unless they were made a long time apart. The one marked Hubbard special alloy (on the left) was machine made or drop forged and has grinding marks on the sides like many drop forged sledge hammers. It is very symmetrical The other one is not quite symmetrical, the bevels on the sides of the hammer face aren't even
and the sides of the tapers have a ripple look to them. I will post some close ups tomorrow eve.

Portable tripod beater,

pics please.

I picked these up a while back for $5 each. Im I correct in thinking that they are cold cuts? The edge doesn't seem sharp enough to be for hot work.

One has Hubbard special alloy stamped in it. The one on the right looks like it might have been hand forged.

Use roumd stock sized to fit in the hole you punch or drill, flatten or peen both ends hot or cold as suits. Search for making tongs on IFI, there is a lot of info here!

I am going to be in the Hot springs area next week for a couple of days and was curious if anyone knows of any blacksmith shops in the area?