EtownAndrew

The final attendance was 950 people. I thought it was neat to see the increased numbers of spouses and families that were there in comparison to last year. Wayne Coe, the first thing I saw of you was a sign with your name on a table in your booth. After I recognized your name I looked up to see if I could pick you out and figured you were the only guy with a white beard.in the small crowd of people talking to you.

Well it looks like I missed connecting with most of the Iforgeiron guys that were there. Maybe next year. I did stop and say Hi to Wayne Coe. He is hard to miss. I spent Saturday morning learning about copper smithing. That was interesting since I went into it not really knowing anything about copper smithing. Maybe next year they should have a tin smith.

Thomas, that looks like a pretty good list. I may go and try to find some of those myself. I know that Practical Blacksmithing is available from Google Books as a free download. Or at least I have downloaded it. I just got back from this past weekend's SOFA conference and went through the book stalls looking for history books on blacksmithing. I didn't really find anything that matched what I was looking for.

Much nicer than my first friction folder.

I hope you make it to Quad state. I'll also be there. There will be lots of used tools for sale that should help you get set up.

Going to my dump can be inexpensive. They weigh me when I go in and out. So if I pick up a few things after unloading it can partly cancel out.

You'll want to call around to several and tell them that you would like to buy some scrap steel and ask if you would be able to look around to see if they have some suitable scrap steel. Some let you walk around and some don't.

I went and watched the bean can forge video that you referenced. When I was starting out I tried a similar thing called a "1 brick forge". I couldn't get the metal hot enough in it to do any forging. My main problem may have been that I was using a plumbing torch. I bought a different over the counter Harbor Freight one and had the same result. The guy in the video seems to be able to heat 1/4" round rod but that is not very big for making a knife. So I think that getting a commercial propane torch with enough output may be your biggest challenge. They are normally set to the output needed to melt plumbing solder which is different from what you need. So after trying that route I bought a 3/4" burner that was really more suited to heating up knife size material. I have now used it for a couple years and made many knives. I recently added a second 3/4" burner that I made myself by partially copying the one I bought. That allowed me to more easily heat up all of an 8 or 12" long knife to then quench it for hardening. I run them using a barbecue type propane tank and a regulator and hose that I got from Tractor Supply. The attached pictures show my first test of adding a second burner. The second picture shows the propane tanks and my "brick pile" forge. You only need one tank even though I have three.

Super nice!

As was stated earlier a fire brick works good for a kiln shelf. See attached drawing. kiln.pdf

Can you post a picture of your forge. It has an interesting name and I am wondering if I would recognize it by another name. By the way I use a common hair dryer for my coal forge blower. However, you may want to be more "old time" and make a bellows to go with your forge or find a hand crank blower.

They look nice. Good to see that you smoothed the faces. They were a little rough.

They look nice. Good to see that you smoothed the faces. They were a little rough.

There is a fairly wide range of used big and small tools sold there. So my general thought is that if it is a tool you will get some lookers. If you have small tools, drill bits, screw drivers, etc they can go in boxes or trays for people to rummage through.

DSW is correct. My Lincoln AC stick machine does not have any way of detaching the normal AC stinger and ground cables. So I clamped them to the input on the rectifier. I then needed a ground cable to go from the rectifier to whatever I am welding.

Yes, I was realizing as I tallied up the cost that my best plan would have been to sell my stick welder for $100 and put the money into a regular stick/TIG machine.

On Friday evening I got the last part I needed and finished putting together the accessories that would allow me to do scratch start TIG welding using my stick welder. I was relieved to see that it seems to work since by that point I had spent $410. So this is probably only worth doing if you already have an old stick welder. I see that harbor freight sells a comparable TIG/stick unit minus the gas equipment for $400 on sale. So with adding $200 for the Argon, regulator, and some consumables I could have gone with all new equipment and spent only a couple hundred dollars more. I had done a fair amount of thinking about what welding I wanted to do prior to buying the stick welder a couple years ago. I don't think I made a wrong decision but I have struggled some welding 14 ga metal and I have also fought the slag that stick welding produces. So I think that I will hopefully reduce those issues with the TIG. Anyway I did a small repair job this afternoon using it. I'm can see that I am going to have to retrain myself to not pull all the way away from the weld. I kept on welding and pulling away and then wondering why the puddle was doing some funny bubbling I would then remember to put the gas shield back onto the puddle for a few seconds. I'm also going to have to do some playing around to get a better feel for the right amp setting. Tig conversion cost - Final.pdf

I got there around 7 PM Friday night last year and they had already closed registration for the day and were setting up for opening ceremonies. So this year I'm taking off Friday so I can get there a little after lunch. I'll set up my tent and start looking around at the vendors.

Beautiful!

I'll have to look around for you guys. It would be neat to meet some people in person that I see on IForgeIron.

The SOFA Quadstate 2013 conference registration info was posted today on the group site. http://www.sofablacksmiths.org/conference2013/2013index.htm I have also attached the info. I went last year and have been looking forward to the next one since then. It is September 27-29 in Troy, Ohio. I took a quick look at the seminar leaders and noticed that Brian Brazel will be a presenter who I think I have seen on IForge Iron. I searched through the regional groups a couple times bud didn't find an appropriate group to post this under and so I put it in everything else. At one point I thought there might have been a Kentucky group that I posted under but I don't see it now. 2013 Demonstrators.pdf QS 2013 registration form.pdf General Information.pdf

I like it. That certainly looks like something to put on my list of things to try at some point.

That does look good. I'm a little bit inspired to try again to make a trowel. I have made one that I used yesterday in my garden but it is misshapen and feels uncomfortable. Maybe I'll try again.

I am happy with silence but fairly often I have ear plugs in due to the racket I am making. The variety of music everyone listens to is interesting. We are a diverse group with a common interest.

That is really really good! One of these days I think I may try a sword but I am not there yet! How did you attach the guard and pommel? (I think I got those names right.)