dennis_hl

Very helpful, thanks.

How'd you go about making four apple trees large enough to serve as the corner posts of a kingsize bed? I'm currently forging out the individual branches and then I'll be welding them together with a torch and forging out the joints. Is there a faster way or pieces of advice that anyone can offer?

I use charcoal. I will use coke when I can get it with out having to pay shipping--i.e. passing by Centaur Forge anyways. The only time I use coal is when I'm doing a public demo--you're not a real blacksmith unless people can smell you.

Why do people use the fuel that they do? I use charcoal due to the fact that it's cheaper for me and its what my forge is built for. I can get 340 lbs of charcoal locally for the same price as 150 lbs of coke delivered.

Very nice. I like the rustic look of them all, but my favorite is the one with the wooden handle. Very nice.

I tried my hand at forging a double edged blade. I guess I don't do things in a small way, it is my largest blade to date, 21.5" I'll post some pix tomorrow. It is straight and the bevel is even, hope it quenches ok :)

It's posted as "Funny Story..."

Ruth, my S.O., has a side business of making and selling earings, and has been selling them to friends and realitives for a while. She uses gold and silver and genstones, and very little glass often from antique jewelry. Reciently she has tried to sell her stuff to the public and has looked to a few local galleries and some gift shops. At one particular gallery there was a sizable display of iron work. Of course this caught my eye and I wander off to have a look, some of the resident artists were reviewing her work to see if it was "acceptable" for their gallery. This is standard practice. As I was wandering around the iron I noticed that a lot of it was welded bent pieces of rebar, yeah it has an interesting texture, and wire and misc car parts and such. The welds were very clean, but I thought much of it could be improved upon with some time at a forge. At one point I heard the potter tell her that her earings were assembled, that she just bought the components and put them together, "we like to see a bit more input from the artist in their artwork, more intimacy with their materials." She asked him if he dug his own clay and made his own glazes, he shot me a dirty look, I stared back at him through a rebar frame with shock absorbers hanging from it. The gallery accepted her work, she declined to show it there. I guess it wasn't up to her standards. God, I love her!

How long did it take you to make, how much did it cost you in fuel, materials, etc? What do you value your time at, no less than min. wage, I hope a lot more. Where I live $10 /hr is really good money, $15 is almost unheard of. I bill at $30 /hr and some smiths that I know think I'm giving my work away. Most of my work is local, and some people have to work for three or more hours to buy somthing from me that takes me an hour to make (I wonder how much thought they give to that when they buy things like the new PS3 and such?). I've seen the artist trap too, "this is my art, it's my baby, you must pay $300 for my welded rebar and wire sculpture, I put my heart and soul into this." That reminds me of a story...

Here are some more pics of the shop. I've made some changes, it has more of a blacksmith shop feel to it. Suggestions and comments sought.


The forge has a blower attatched to it now.


The large tongs are original Quincy mine tongs, the farrier's tong is for size comparison.


My vise stand and some of the tools from the assorted metal pile from earlier pictures.

The sandstone building is my shop at the Quincy mine, the large structure in the background is the No.2 shaft/rockhouse. I've done a bit of work in the shop, it's starting to look a bit more like a "real" shop.

Dennis

My birthday is just around the corner and my girlfriend is looking for suggestions. I can't really think of much of anything that I need or want (she laughed when I suggested a power hammer, she thought I was joking, go figure!) So I suggested a book, which she felt to be a bit more of a reasonable suggestion. But, I'm not sure which one. I know one never really stops learning in our chosen field, but I already know what a hammer is and how to light a fire (use a torch right?), I can make round rod square and square rod round, so I don't think I need anything from the "So you wanna be a blacksmith" section--don't get me wrong on this though, I'm open to suggestions. I think I'd like a picture book showing lots of pictures of household ironwork, ornimental (gates and fences) is fine, but I really like making the funtional stuff. I once saw a book on colonial ironwork and really liked it, are there similar books available for 19th centry items? I've got about a month to decide.

Found out a bit more about the building. Turns out it was built in 1893. The floor has always been a dirt floor, and there was a iron stairway just outside the doors to the shop that at some point will be reinstalled. There was also a rock retaining wall that can be rebuilt if I want (of course no money is available for any of this). I am focusing on the shop itself for now, but I'm generating interest in the community and folks are starting to filter through that have pictures and other info regarding the building that I'm in. The mine's second blacksmith shop (the actual building belongs to Michigan Technological University now, which is where the AE Seaman Mineral Museum will be located--work has now started on the old machine shop) is just within view of my shop if you climb a small hill. I'm also starting to move my iron through the giftshop. There is lots of interest in my miner's candlesticks, but less costly items seem more popular Hooks, key chains, and such.

Now 1850's - 60 = 1790's and probably that shop would *NOT* have been there. I think what you are trying to get at is that things should not all look *new*---a good goal. Replacing the shelves with worn wood ones is a good step. Buying a good wooden bucket to hold drinking water and using a dipper to drink out of it with can impress the tourists
Thomas

Yes, that's what I was getting at. All in all, I'd just like the shop to look as if it were there for a long time. Frankly no one at the mine really seems too interested in portraying any specific time period. Dumping my t-shirt and donning one of my under tunics has gone over very well. I like the suggestion of checking out Lehmans (I've actually visited the store once). I've also gone through and cleaned up quite a bit, a lot of the crud left over from my building projects has been cleared out. It's hard to sweep a dirt floor, but a rake helps. I think perhaps an 1850s shop was a bit ambitious, and may even have been a bit silly, since we take people down the hill to the adit (dates to 1970s, though the shaft, drift, and stope date to the 1860s) using a modern hydrolic cog wheel tram. The shaft house dates to 1908, the steam hoist to 1918, and the building I'm set up in was built no later than 1880. The first perminent blacksmith shop was set up in ca 1865 and was replaced in 1900 with a large--think industrial--shop. Everyone on site reffers to my shop as the village smithy and that may be a more practicle direction for me to take. This is a work in progress and things are bound to change as this things take shape (plus what if someone wants to donate a power hammer, I think I'd be a bit crazy to turn it down, don't you?). As mixed up as I may seem to be in all of this, these posts are very helpful and I'm slowly developing a solid plan--as far as the mine goes they want a blacksmith shop and they really don't seem to concerned about what era that I'm trying to portray. So please keep the suggestions comming, they're helping.

The boom box in the picture is only used when I'm alone after hours--it gets kinda lonely down there when no one else is around to talk to. I built a new anvil stand today. The new one is more my size, the stump was just something to use until I built a new one, you guys were my motivation to do it sooner than later.

I have recieved a donation of a leg vise for the shop, it is a 4-incher, but it will do until I get a bigger one. I also have gotten work that a local heating place is willing to donate the 30' of stove pipe for the hood over the forge. I've also been wearing one of my t-tunics that I've worn to SCA events, it looks better than the t-shirts I've been wearing. Also I've bartered some forge work for some appropriate 19th century "garb." I'm not sure were the notion of the shop representing the 1940s came from, if me I miss spoke. We're trying to represent the 1850s and a frontier copper mining company smithy.

Also, I had my first fellow blacksmith visitor to the forge. I knew something was differnt about the dude as he just watched and didn't ask any questions until the crowd broke as the next underground tour was about to begin. He gave me some input (similar to that here) about the shop design, and perhaps the most helpful being the suggestion to add borax to my slack tub to remove scale from my iron--quench hot and the slag pops off, a nearly shiny piece of metal emerges from the water.

I had some exposure to the wider public over the weekend as our local paper did a feature on me and the shop. Perhaps one of the most noticable things from the pictures was the fact that the white wires for the lights really stick out, my boss is encouraging a change to the wiring situation, which in the past he didn't think was too bad--next I need to work on him and the sewer pipes at the ceiling, but first I need to convice him that he needs to loan me a mine guide for the day so we can go after and stop all the leaks. :}

I think that's about it for the update.

BTW, I have a fire extinguisher for the shop now.

First off, thanks for the adive.

It's funny, I'm blind to junk until I post the pics on line and then I see it and so does everone else.

I'm working on the anvil stand, the stump was rolled down the hill as a temp thing.

As for repainting the anvil, would stripping the paint off and using carbon black be OK?

I like the curtain idea. I'm giving a lot of though to those shelves. It may be possible to move much of the blacksmithing stuff that I'm not using up to the hoist where the tours begin and set up an interpretive display--which would get it out of my way but it would still be easilly accessable to me.

I am addressing the ventilation thing. I open the door at the top of the steps, the result is a strong draft. I'm trying to get that hood over the forge, but 23 plus feet of 10" stove pipe is expensive and that will take some time.

At the moment the ability to move the forge is important, I'm still trying to settle on a floor plan. Brick is an option, but many of the folks who stop by really like the wood box forge and as a result many walk away with the notion that they too could build a forge at home. I really like the set up down in Ishpeming, and it would be cool to get something like that going up here in the Keweenaw.

Again, thanks for the advice, and please keep it coming!
Dennis

This view shows another set of shelves. This one contains mostly machine tools. I'd like to put many of these into accessable storage so if I need them I can get to them, but at the moment they take up a lot of room.



I'm standing at the steps looking towards the doors. Ruth is looking at something on the laptop--see not exactly a proper "frontier" shop!



This is me working at the forge. The picture is taken from where visitors stand, though I think she was a bit closer to me than they would be.

I use coke in the forge and open the door at the top of the steps for ventilation, I'd need to run a 23' tall smoke stack if I were to put a hood over the forge (shorter I guess if I were to use a large blower on the hood to move any smoke).

I'd like this to look like an old shop when we're done, ideally I'd like it to look as if it had been there for 60 years or more. Any suggestions?

Thought I'd post some inside shots of my shop at the mine. We are in the process of setting this up as a "frontier" forge, but it is also my working blacksmith shop so I do get to have some modern conviniences--more than I allow in my home shop I'd like suggestions from folks on how you'd go about laying it out, keeping in mind that I can have up to a dozen or so visitors standing at the door at any given time watching me work. We do not have the fortune of having the original blacksmith shop at our disposal, it is in the process of being turned into a mineral museum--I do not think we own the property where it sits so it was never even an option. However, were were given some of the tools that were still inside when they started clearing out the building, the roof had collapsed and pulled one of the walls down. I have many large tongs (I've had to make the ones I use since the old tongs are large and fused with rust, I've been able to get a few to work again) and a few of the anvil tools, which are pitted with rust. I have been able to salvage some for my use in the shop.

Here is the first photo:


This is a general view of the forge area as I now have it set up. The anvil and forge both face two large doors that open into the shop. Everyone who stands at the doors have a clear view of me working at the anvil.



The second and third shelves from the bottom hold many of the anvil tools and an asorted collection of other "things." I have quite a stack of unwelded links for a rather large chain kind of visable on the bottom shelf. I'd like to eliminate the shelves or move them to the back of the shop. Some of the items I'd like to turn into an interpretive display.



This is a really neat set of steps leading to the floor above me which has ground level access (the building is built into a hill side), now bathrooms, but once the site where carbide was distributed to the miners. One of our old facilities workers used some of the tools off the self as supports for the steps. No anvil tools were harmed in the repair of those steps.

Been working on stock for the gift shop at work. I really enjoy making these. The visitors who stop by the shop after having been on a tour under ground have a pretty good appretiation for these things and the miner's who relied on them for light. This model sells for $65 and is based on one from the Calumet & Hecla Mining Co. (located a few miles north of the Quincy mine, where I work).

Other charcoal burners like myself would *love* more pictures and videos. Looks like a great forge. Does that side blast help with the "fleas" like they say?

Compared to the updraft forge, heck yeah, but you still get sparks. I think the sparks come from the commercial charcoal due to their quenching the burns with water. I do not get much in the way of sparks from charcoal that I've made myself--I've been using tag alder.

While uploading various pix from the digital camera to my laptop the other day I discovered that I had taken a picture of my newer forge (my newest one is at work, I built one for my blacksmith shop at an old copper mine in the Keweenaw, the shop and the mine is open for tours). The newest forge is similar to this one, I'll post pix of it when I take some of the shop.


This is a sideblast forge designed specifically with charcoal fuel in mind. I made this forge from recycled two by fours and scrap ends of 1x6 pine. On the inside it is 18 inches square. The bottom of the forge is lined with one inch of clay with the remainder being filled in with wood ash from the wood stove. I capped the wood ash with 4.5 by 9 inch wood stove fire brick, which created a 9by9 inch fire pot in the center of the forge--being lined with wood ash I can reduce the size of the fire pot to what ever I need, and for the type of work that I do at home I rarely need anything larger than 9 inches. The blast pipe is 3/4" black pipe off of a burn pile that I frequently pick through. The forge is portable and breaks down to fit in the back seat of my car, I lay the shelf over the top of the fire pot to protect it while in transport.

I have used both coal and coke in the forge, but the slag soaks into the lining which then has to be redone every couple of days or so (slag builds up and eventually clogs the blast pipe). Relining isn't that big of a deal, but during the summer months I'm not burning wood so my lining material some what precious during the summer. I built this forge in less than three hours (you can use clay but it will be much heavier and the fire pot will not be adjustable). Any questions or comments?
Dennis

Dennis, I see you are a UP'er. Any chance you are going to the Black Iron Days at Hartwick Pines State Park next month? That is the demo I was refering to in my previous post. LAst year we probably had 50 smiths there.

Bob Harasim

I have not heard about Black Iron Days. I wish to know more!

(I see it's in Grayling, and at the end of August, the same weekend as our county fair. My GF will be in the horse show, it is in my best interest not to miss that! But a farier friend will be doing a hot shoing demo there so there'll be something sorta like blacksmithing going on).

I'm looking for feedback on these. I'm looking for suggestions on improving the aesthetic appeal of my knives. Any issues or other suggestions, please comment. Please be honest, I can take it.

BTW I rushed the photo taking and the digital camera was fighting the overhead green lights and the fact that its dusky outside and its dark in the coffee shop.

Here are a few of mine. I may have posted them here once before.

So, I have several old drill steels laying around, I've made anvil tools and such from them, but I have various short ends in the scrap pile. They seem to harden nicely. Any idea whay kind of steel they are? I've tried searching through google, without any luck. I was wondering about the contrast with 5160 or steel from some old jack hammer bits if I were to weld them up for pattern welding.

Dennis

Dennis with your permission I can use what is there for a BP. Let me know.

Feel free, please.