David Einhorn

Quill Pens How to Cut Quill Pens from Feathers

Check out winter rated white lithium grease designed for Marine use.

People hammering on a piece of metal and hitting the anvil at the same time they hit the piece they are working on! Or missing the piece entirely and hitting the anvil.

An S-hook, many many years ago back in the stone-age, sharing a single coal forge with a bunch of other students. I also remember that I burned my hand pretty good too. We only had vise grips to hold the iron, an old hair blower blowing air into a length of black-pipe. A slit in the cap on the pipe served as the air-source.

I suggest purchasing a decent hammer. Avoid using hammers that have round faces like ball-peen hammers as they will leave dents in everything you do, thus leading to bad habits. If you can afford a Hofi hammer, buy one. Your hammer is your most important purchase. You can always use a flat chunk of steel for an anvil, and a metal pan with black-pipe, a slit cut in a pipe cap, and an old hair blower as your forge. For other hammers, find a smith to help you finish the face and edges of the hammer. Your number one goal is hammer control, and number two is learning to properly control a coal fire. It saddens me to see people throwing green coal on the center of a fire as a habit, not controlling the coking of the coal, and working on advanced projects rather than developing good habits. Work near the edge of your anvil so that if you miss what you are aiming for, your hammer bounces off the anvil rather than damaging the anvil's face. Personally I don't see much merit of a person working on advanced projects if they can't keep their hammers from damaging the anvil and other equipment they are using. Lately, I have been seeing a lot of people damaging anvils, and a lot of green smoke. My recent favorite is watching three gentlemen using sledge hammers on a project at the local guild's building... over the tail of the anvil.... on metal that was too cold.... While at another forge someone else was pouring a bucket of green coal on the center of a fire and filling the building with green smoke.... And the guild has banned using *any* water to control the coal fires in the forges. While at another forge, someone is hunched low over a long piece of metal that he is making into a sword, making little dinky dink hits to iron and anvil. .... but hey, look at all the wonderful advanced projects they are doing! In my humble opinion it is better to use welded firepots if a teaching group is afraid of beginners breaking the cast iron firepots, rather than banning the learning of properly managing a coal fire with water, etc. But that is just my opinion.

I used bearings intended for use in a bicycle steering column to replace the bearings in a Champion 400 blower years ago. If you have a bearing dealer in your local you could remove one of them and take it there to match it for a replacement. Our area used to have two bearing suppliers, but I don't know if either still exists. If you put your location in your profile on this forum, then someone local to your area might be able to tell you what supplier in your area has what you are looking for.

You can purchase "plain finish" (unplated) fasteners from Fastenal.com and reforge the heads. They also sell slot-headed screws, and square headed bolts and square nuts.

I made a 2' by 2' angle iron table with a steel plate for the top and mounted two vises on it. It has a plywood shelf for stuff, two racks for hardies or handled tools, and a metal bar between two legs that can be used with a hand-truck to move it if necessary. This setup weighs over 250 pounds so I have not had any problems with it moving while in use. A piece of angle iron extends from table leg with a short piece of pipe welded to the top of the angle iron. The leg sits in the piece of pipe. Some processes require the use of multiple jigs, or a vise and a jig. Having multiple vises reduces the number of times you may need to change the setup of your vise(s). A piece of square tubing with nuts welded to it, seen to the left of the table, allows me to use tooling that fits in the tubing. I personally like the layout of the shop in Williamsburg, for its vises. Every workstation has a vise, so there are vises wherever you might need one. In my humble opinion, a better option than moving a vise around.

Back in the stone-age when I was involved in sports we watched ourselves in mirrors and also used videotape to monitor and refine movement. Have you tried either forging in front of a mirror or filming yourself?

If you want to get her something for Christmas on blacksmithing you can purchase a copy of "New Edge of the Anvil: A Resource Book for the Blacksmith (Paperback)" by Jack Andrews from most book dealers or online from Amazon.com. It is one of many good books that are available. You can also get her a year's membership in the local blacksmithing guild by locating the nearest guild at [ABANA] Affiliate List And if you want to purchase her tools you can purchase: - Cross peen hammer, preferably in my opinion, a Hofi hammer - several wolf jaw tongs of several sizes - an anvil (the bigger the better) - a coal or gas forge (gas forge will probably work out better in the kitchen) - cut off hardie that fits the anvil - and other tools as strike your fancy These tools and lots of great books are available from the various vendors found at: [ABANA] Links

I am sorry for your loss. It is very nice that you made the cross. If you need a grief counselor there are likely some in your area. If your doctor or minister does not know one, you might find one through your local MHMR office. Best wishes. P.S. : I googled your town and found http://www.amyalvarado.com/ who apparently does grief counseling according to her web site.

My humble understanding is that the leg serves to transfer the resulting forces from pounding into the floor rather than the bracket attaching the vise to the table. The leg allows you to take advantage of the compression strength of the leg rather than depend on the shear strength of the mounting bracket parts.

Hot, cold, chisel, hot set, cold set.... as you can see there are various names for basically the same thing. Hot cutting handled chisels tend to be thinner than the cold variety, preferences vary. Here is version on EBay that is a pretty well photographed example of what I would consider heads that are a bit thick for two hot cuts. The reason that hot cuts have a curve to the edge is so that you can "walk" the hot cut along a line and have one continuous cut. Without the curved edge, it is more difficult to have one continuous clean cut. NICE! HUGE VINTAGE BLACKSMITH CUTTER HAMMER HEAD TOOL - eBay (item 120344565193 end time Dec-10-08 20:48:01 PST)

Not to mention the other potential long term benefits of high temperature burning and welding of nickel: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/zinc-cadmium-hydrogen-fluoride-other-toxic-compounds-8515/

I built my shop with 12 foot to the bottom of the trusses so that I can cut 20 foot stock in half and stack it vertically at a slight angle in vertical racks. I put wood lofts at the one end of the shop, like those in a wheelwright's shop, so that at that end of the building the ceiling is 8ft with about 3ft high area in the lofts. I installed halogen lights as banks of lights so that I can vary the amount of light. I framed the windows the same 38in width as doors so that if I need to add on to the building, those windows can be converted to doors by simply removing the sills. I framed extra windows and marked where they are inside the building, so that if I need more windows I just have to remove those sections of plywood. I installed garage doors, at both front and back of the building, and 4 walk-through doors, so that I can vary the amount of air and conditions from indoor type environment to the equivalent of being outside with the wind blowing through my hair.

Welding is when you have two pieces of similar material with a similar range of melting point. Soldering is when one of the materials has sufficiently different enough melting point that only one of the two materials melt.

While I might purchase Craftsman wrenches and hammers I will never purchase another electric tool from Sears. When we got our first house I purchased a set of tools for it consisting of one of their more expensive table saws, electric drill, scroll saw, and circular saw. The circular saw and the electric drill shot out sparks from day one and died at the end of the one year warantee period. Both the table saw and the scroll saw were almost unusable because the fences and guides would come loose and not stay in place during use. Also, the two slots in the table saw's top were not parallel, so that you could not slide jigs in the slots. When I went back to Sears their attitude was to go $%@& myself. A few months ago I took a Craftsman socket wrench back and they gave me a non-Craftsman socket wrench that does not look or feel well made. I replaced those tools with commercial grade tools from suppliers other than Sears and have not had trouble in the 26 years or more since. I would never recommend purchasing electric tools from Sears. Absolutely never!

Here are two more free books online at Welcome to Lost Crafts... Modern Blacksmithing: Rational Horse Shoeing and Wagon Making by JG Holmstrom 1901 Farm Blacksmithing by JM Drew St Paul Publishing Company 1918

"smack'em together." If you hit the stack too hard the pieces will simply bounce apart. The idea is to tap on the stack when the surfaces become liquid so that the pieces stick together.

I have a buffalo forge, and I found the buffalo bracket that mounts the blower to the side of that forge. My preference is to mount a blower on a stand next to the forge, but either way is possible. For blowers my preference is Champion blowers.

I have a Champion speed control somewhere in the shop and once looked inside. As far as I can tell, not being an engineer, it looks like a rheostat. My advice is to go to a company that sells motors and motor controllers and inquire about a rheostat that matches your motor. Maybe they will even have an appropriate rheostat that will also fit inside the Champion metal housing.

A really big power hammer nicely installed on a well constructed base. A bigger anvil. A chimney for the shop and another for the house. An eye doctor that doesn't miss "rust" when he is grinding a fragment out of your cornea. (we might have to try again) A really good face shield.

It looks great! The best thing to do would be to test it with a hat and see if over time the hat retains it's shape. The hook reminds me of harness hooks that we have in the barn and basement. You might want to try a double row of horseshoe shaped supports so that with cross pieces connecting the two (like a harness hook) so that the hat is supported over a wider area (so as to not distort the hat).

I keep my wedding ring in my wallet. I avoid wearing rings or wrist-watches. I find the feel of them extremely uncomfortable, and on one occasion a car salesman held onto my hand using a ring to prevent me from easily getting my hand back. Needless to say, he did not make a car sale!

I always look for the specification codes on the grinding discs I purchase. If there is no code then I assume that the disc is cheap junk and not worth purchasing. I have been informed that the codes are "industry standard codes". My preference is code A24N for fast stock removal. In case there is interest here are some of the relevant codes for steel: Specification Application ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A24R......General purpose wheel for heavy working conditions. Long life, good stock removal. Used for Iron, Steel, normal ferrous metals A24N......General purpose wheel for normal working conditions. High stock removal. Used for Iron, Stainless Steel. Z-A24R....Zirconium abrasive wheel special designed for extremely tough applications. Has long life and high stock removal. Used for Iron, Stainless Steel, Forgings. A46N......Special Wheel for aluminum and nonferrous metals. Used for Aluminum and other nonferrous metals. I found this information at: www.franks-supply.com