David Einhorn

I didn't have to subscribe to the site, as far as I can tell, it just played. Simply amazing. A world class talent for sure.

If you have a five gallon bucket of it you could use it for annealing by sticking your blade or other ironwork into the bucket of scale.

How long is the crack and how deep? Is the crack only in the steel face or does it extend into the body of the anvil?

Every spring I flush mine out. Every fall I add RV non-poisonous anti-freeze.

I remember someone saying that a leg vise is basically an anvil, as such the bigger the vise, the more mass.

This is sadly very true in my humble experience. If I make something for a vendor in Gettysburg, within a few weeks crude poorly made copies will appear in just about every other store in Gettysburg within weeks, and both the store owners and buyers will swear that the copies are more authentic because they are so badly made. Blacksmiths made quality work. It is sad that the public thinks otherwise. Here is how to make a knife. Have a clean anvil surface and hammer face. *Properly* finish the hammer face and edges so that the hammer does not leave marks. This means that the hammer face should be slightly domed, and the edges of the face rounded. Don't overhead the knife blade material. Remove scale with a wire brush while hot, then hammer so as not to hammer the scale into the knife's surface. And especially, *leave enough thickness to the blade" to allow removal of any imperfections. There are a number of excellent books on knifemaking, and JPH wrote three of the best (in my opinion). Get books, read, take courses, and if you really want to have knifemaking your life goal, then consider joining the American Bladesmith Society and learn from them: http://www.americanbladesmith.com/

As folks have said in past threads, be careful of giving copies of your original designs to the customer as he/she can then shop *your* designs around for the cheapest price. Showing your designs on a laptop or a printed version that you don't lend to the customer might be something to consider.

Pictures, pretty please.

Do you plan on hanging bellows for each forge from the ceiling? Bellows are my choice of air source as they are quiet allowing easier conversation with the spectators, and relaxing to use. I am currently working on building the third bellows that I have made in my lifetime. If you run into any difficulties in building bellows I would be happy to share solutions that I learned from building them.

Welcome to the forum and to blacksmithing. Letting us know approximately were you are located will greatly help people provide you with information about resources near to you.

Excellent start for your forge!

I bought one of Mark's book from him, signed through Amazon, and the other book from him, signed, through EBay. Each time Mark kindly contacted me to find out how I wanted each book signed. Apparently he sold/sells books through both web sites, which came in handy in allowing me to spend my Christmas gift-cards on his books. ;-)

A lot of super-great suggestions so far. If you don't need prescription lenses, then a pair of clear plastic safety glasses might be a good bet as they would be obviously modern, but easy for a spectator to ignore.

So far your list seems to focus on introductory material. Now you might wish to start acquiring books on specialty areas, such as "Early American Wrought Iron" by Sonn, or a book on heat treating, or a book on one of the areas of historical information. If you give us an idea of what direction you feel your interests are leading you, then recommendations could be tailored to your interests.

If I remember correctly, in the past discussions on crossbows, forum members declined to provide information on building crossbows due to safety and liability issues.

Previous discussion threads on the topic:

Maybe this might help: Roller Chain – ANSI Standard : http://www.answers.com/topic/roller-chain #40 or 4 divided by 8 = one tooth per 1/2 inch

That looks like it might be s 20th Century U.S. Army blacksmith forge. If you are into historic collectable or even attending early 20th Century military living history, and the forge was in excellent condition, then it would be a good deal for you. There has been previous discussions on 20th century military forges, I don't remember if this one was WWI or WWII.

OK, here I am a few years ago after I took my makeup off... yes this photograph is really me.

Excellent work as always, John!

I hope that this is not too dumb a question, but I have noticed more and more photographic examples of knifes being shared on the forum with rough surfaces and inclusions. Is this the latest trend in finishing knife blades? Maybe some ABS folks can contribute their thoughts. Thank you in advance.

I humbly recommend: Price = (your hourly shop rate) times (number of shop hours spent on it).

Hopefully this drawing will clarify a few points. The drawing shows which direction the valve should open and the limiting strap. The hinges for the valves in a traditional (non-Traveling Forge) need to be at the side towards the nozzle of the bellows. The strap limits how far the valve will open. The openings cut into the spacers above the valves, need to have the opening allow clearance for the valve to open. The upper valve should be far enough away from the bottom valve so that the bottom valve will, in the unlikely worst case situation, rub against the flat bottom of the middle-board and not against the valve opening in the middle-board.

Rivet forges were small portable and usually round forges used in the construction of buildings and other structures to heat up the rivets that held the iron frame of the building together. Their design and intent was to heat rivets thus the difficulty in heating anything much larger than a large rivet.

Shown below are photos that I took about an hour ago. I am using the same opening size and valve parts that I used for my wheeled Traveling Forge. The openings are 7" square as called for in the mid-1800s U.S. Army specifications for the Traveling Forge. For these openings I am using the following parts as shown in the picture on the right: - Two 9" by 10" plywood blocks, 3/4" thick - a 10" wide by 2ft long piece of baler belting from the local farm store - Craft felt (either self sticking or use glue) - an inexpensive dog leash - craft sticks - a couple of screws. - latex gloves As shown on the left. 1) attach the felt to one side of the belting 2) cut the belting to 1ft lengths 3) put on gloves 4) use craft sticks to mix and spread epoxy on wood blocks and attach to other side of each piece of belting 5) put weight on block to hold it firmly in place on belting ----- 6) when glue is cured, use screws to hold end without block to one side of opening, centering the block over the hole 7) use a piece of dog leash as a stop to prevent flap opening more than 45 degrees. Use screws to attach one end of the piece of dog leash to the top of the plywood block, and the other end to a spot in front of the opening, opposite from the screws. Length and location of ends of the piece of dog leash is determined by holding the flap open at 45 degrees. The rubber belting acts as the hinge, and will last for a long long time. The felt quiets the valve and improves the seal. The piece of dog leash limits the opening of the valve to a 45 degree angle so that the flap does not get tangled in anything and the flap/valve responds quickly. The wood blocks serve to both act as weights and to keep the belting flat. This arrangement works extremely nicely on my wheeled Traveling Forge, so I can't recommend it higher.