David Einhorn

Welcome to the forum.

Here is how I make bellows valves. The valve is basically a piece of baler belting from the local farm store with felt glued to one side and a block of wood glued to the other side. One end of the belting is screwed to the board and acts as the hinge. A short length of dog leash from the local discount store acts to limit how far the valve opens. I limit the opening of the valve to about 40 to 45 degrees. Traditionally leather was used for the flap and the strip that limits the opening. The block of wood keeps the belting flat and provides enough weight to provide a quick snap shutting the valve. The belting does not rot and is unlikely to wear out in my lifetime. I used the same valve construction in my wheeled Civil War era Traveling Forge, as well as the recent semi-portable forge that was inspired by a picture of a Civil War era Naval Forge. I used the second bellows on the semi-portable side blast forge at the local museum last weekend and by over-pumping it if not careful, enough air was blown into the forge to blow the coal up and out of the forge pan. The top and bottom boards for the bellows shown, are only 40 inches long.

I have made a 2' b 2' frame out of 2 by 4s and covered it with 1/4" hardware cloth. This creates a screen that you can use to clean and separate the clinkers from the coke. After you have wet the coke/coal remnants down in a bucket, and the stuff has dried, you will spread some of it on the screen and the clinker will be easier to see as the clinker will likely rust a bit and the brown of the rust will be seen. Shaking the screen will sift out the ashes. Separate out the clinker and put the usable coal and coke in another bucket, repeat until everything is separated out. On another note, cleaning out your forge after use can help prolong the life of your forge. Wetting the coal/coke and leaving the mess in the forge, if I am not mistaken, will leach acid onto the forge and hasten the corrosion process.

For interest and price, it also makes a difference whether the coke was created from Anthracite or Bituminous coal. Many if not most blacksmiths prefer Bituminous coal and coke from Bituminous coal.

Since you are only making two rectangular holes, simply make them the way knifemakers make rectangular holes in the guards of knives. Drill a series of holes, then cut out with a jewelers saw, and finish file smooth the rectangular holes with needle files. Knifemakers make a lot of rectangular holes so seeing how they make them is my suggestion.

If a minor pays cash on delivery, would anyone be reluctant to sell to him? I'm not a business expert and certainly not an expert on taxes or the law, but around here it seems that one gets a sales tax number when you start doing business. Also, I don't know about Memphis, but I have opened wholesale accounts and purchased from companies without providing my tax number. It seems that the economy is sufficient motivator to do business especially for cash. Also, at least one wholesaler in Maryland will not accept Pennsylvania tax numbers but will still sell to anyone that walks in the door at the wholesale price in return for payment at the counter.

Also some local farm show complexes and fair grounds have leather worker's conventions and shows where you can acquire leather sides, bellies and backs at wholesale. Sometimes near the end of the show the dealers will discount their wares even further.

Reminds me of a joke that I can't repeat here.

Very interesting. Yes, we used to have horses and my wife explained to me that the difference in their excretion smell was due to their being vegetarians. I wonder if I could find someone at a historical reenactment that would follow the horses around and collect a jug or two. ;-)

Good question. The bend can be round, but It tends to be easier to taper a square bar than a round one. The common practice to taper the end of a round bar would be to square up that end of a round bar, then taper that end, then forge that end to octagonal, then forge back to round. On one of my benches I have a hold-down with a round bend.

Excellent! Sounds like a great opportunity.

Actually you don't have to use any leather. You can use: canvas, or canvas coated with Tool Dip, or an old tarp that was impregnated with that brown stuff, or a well driller's tarp, or used rubber roofing, anything cloth-like that will hold air. You don't even have to use hinges if you don't want to, instead of metal hinges you can use leather scraps, or farmer's bailer belting, or anything that is strong and flexible. Some people have used roofing nails instead of bellows nails. Make a list and ask around, you might find that folks you know might have a usable used truck tarp and/or painter's canvas drop cloth you can use, as well as nails, wood and a short length of pipe for the nozzle. P.M. me with an email address to send you a copy of the instructions. The file is large because of the images, so it might not be transmittable by email especially if your email account limits file size. I need to work on the instructions to make it better before I am comfortable in publishing it to the world. At its current stage, certain individuals may be inclined to verbally beat me like a dead mule harnessed to their overloaded wagon.

The sometimes pop up on EBAy, but they are not difficult to make with a few basic tools and some basic woodworking skills. I have documented the steps in making a bellows with step-by-step photographs and explanations on my book's FaceBook page in case you want to give it a try.

No name is somewhat the exception. Buffalo, Potts, and Champion are very common in Pennsylvania and they all cast their names into their equipment. Potts would cast their name into the blower and not necessarily the forge or tuyer. So if it was made by Potts or another company that only put their name on the attached blower, that would explain the lack of name on the forge. Any chance you can find the blower that came with the forge?

I avoid reporters like the plague. My last encounter with one resulted in a really bad experience. I was researching resources and advertising for a proposed new community center. Rather than reporting that the group was in negotiations over using a vacant school building, the reporter wrote that a community center was definitely moving into the building. Needless to say, the superintendent of that school system exploded. Bye bye community center.

Somewhere I have a bee catch box that I made from instructions from a beekeeping course I took in Maryland a few decades ago. Following the instructions from the instructor/Maryland-bee-inspector I acquired an old metal canister from a vacuum cleaner at a junk store, cleaned and painted it, then installed a queen excluder in the lid so that a queen could not exit. Now all you have to do is scoop up bees into the canister until you find the queen. Once the queen in in the canister, put the lid on, and all the other bees will follow. Since the workers are all full of honey they are not inclined to sting. Any suggestions on finding good nucs or bee packages?

Do you mean Line Shaft? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_shaft

While you technically don't need a firepot, having a firepot especially a very nice firepot can make life easier and reduce frustration. With reduced frustration a smith is less likely to give up blacksmithing. My advice is to locate a blacksmithing group near you, if possible take a few courses, and use coal forges that belong to other people so that you can find out what type of forge arrangement fits your needs and style of working. Over the past 39 years I have seen a *lot* of people come and go from blacksmithing. So far a big part of my theory about this turnover in membership is frustration and folks reaching what they consider to be their limits. The solution that I recommend is to strategize to reduce frustration though instruction and decent equipment, and find and attempt projects that you consider a bit beyond your skill level. Compared to a minimalistic forge fire, an excellently managed neutral welding heat forge fire can reduce work time on a project from hours to minutes. Excellent firepots are available from companies such as Centaurforge www.centaurforge.com/ Kayne and Son https://www.blacksmi...nd_Ash_Dum.xml/ and from other suppliers and even blacksmithing guilds

So to summarize you could use: leather, fake leather, plain cotton canvas, heavy canvas tarp material, canvas coated with "tool dip", or rubber roofing material. You can also find a material called "bellows cloth" used in musical instruments, but it is very expensive.

Thomas makes a great point. Also, form follows function. How you use it and what you use it for are considerations. A bladed item will have different properties and balance depending on whether the main function is cutting wood, throwing, ceremonial smoking pipe, or hand-to-hand combat.

Go for it, please post pictures when you are done.

We have hive parts, some of which I made, but we are afraid to have hives again due to the frequency of hive collapse around here.

Excellent job, thank you for sharing.

Excellent, thank you for sharing.

Gun bluing is great stuff, so I agree with that recommendation.