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Hello all, 

I live near Los Angeles, CA, and I was wondering if there's a good supplier of bituminous coal, ideally within a few hours drive, but I'd have it shipped if need be. And if you don't know, is there some directory or list I could find suppliers in?

Keep your thumb off the hammer handle :)

Oh, and hitting too hard rather than trying to get control. I'm still only a couple years into smithing, but early I found that I'd try to hit too hard and miss the work...

Can't wait to see it!

Hey all, I was thinking of ordering some wrought iron. I have a gas forge, and it welds mild and high carbon well. I've heard wrought iron likes really high temps, especially for welding. My question is, can I weld it? (and can I weld it to HC for a laminate knife) And if not, should I forge it at welding temps or just normal temps?

Thanks all :)

Mitch

Wow! The bottom right one is my favorite, I just love the lines!

One question though- How do you make the beards on some of them so big? Did you upset the edge area?

Great video, I plan on making an axe/hawk like that sometime.

Think you may have hit a bit too hard on the weld, I'm no expert myself though. But you want light overlapping hits for welding...

Very nice... Do you have The Backyard Blacksmith by Lorelei Sims? I was just thinking, it looks like one of the projects in there :)

On a similar topic, can kitty litter be used for annealing, like instead of vermiculite? (seems like it would have good insulating properties)

Another useful aspect I can see is the great mass under the hardy in the German pattern. This way you can upset a hardy tool into the hole without fear of breaking the anvil.

Hey all,

I have an old Trenton made ACME anvil, around 190 lbs. I like it, but having used a couple of German double horn anvils, I like those a lot better. I really like the flat horn for doing isolated work, and the hardy/ pritchel placement is handy IMO.

The only advantage to a London pattern I can think of is the step, and that can be easily remedied by a hardy block (which most people have) or a swage block (which not everyone has).


So, what style do you prefer and why?

Well, that's a great idea about having a stereo. I may do that!

I tend to like industrial, some kinds of metal, rock, even some swing/ electro-swing music :P

I find that earbuds which are designed to block out ambient noise do a pretty good job as hearing protection (provided you have a silenced/ quiet anvil), so I listen to music while I forge sometimes.
Just curious if anyone else does.

Mitch

A $9000 dollar purchase (is that right?) with no pictures? Seems legit...

Wow, I've always wondered how this was done!

I'll give it a try, but I don't have a bandsaw, so this can be tedious.

Aaaah! Sorry about the massive size of some of them.

If someone can tell me how to resize the pictures that would be fantastic.

For anyone viewing this though, you can right click, "open in new tab" on the pictures, and that will let you see a good picture.

Some stuff I have made. I tend to only post on here if I have a big group of stuff, I don't like starting a topic for just one project... So! Here goes!

Draw knife, leaf key rings, flint strikers, nails, wall hooks, a knife, and some handled tools and tongs.

Enjoy!

I think you could grind that mushroomed bit off and just use it, but it might be hard to isolate/ neck steel with such edges.

I've used Aldo (New Jersey Steel Baron) and he is great!

MOMPY, that is layers of birch bark, and the ends are Olive. Yes, they are all forged, I use a propane forge made by Chile forge. The second to last just has the tang cut a bit shorter than the handle, and I epoxied it in.

I like that primitive meets tactical style! Very nice.

Cool!

Sorry about the size! Anyone know how I can fix that?

Some knives I've made recently.

The one fourth down is made of cable damascus.

Gourmet anvil stand, LOL! Very nice work.

He is cute and ferocious looking at the same time, I love it :D