Stephen Olivo

You might find that chip useful in some situations.  I would just leave as is and get some heavy angle iron to use as vice jaw inserts for things that need a sharp corner. After all you are going to wind up pounding hot peices so to pretty of jaws just makes you to overcautious. Looks like a very promising one for a striking vise.  I like the look.  Too bad the screw is missing.  

Welcome to this addictive craft.  :D

I use cold chisels a lot.  For taking out the knuckles in knuckle hinges I lucked into my first hand made caping chisel being made at the perfect angle for them to close nicely without light being seen.  I made it at a 55 degree angle.  Cold chisels often are used to cut plate steel using a sheering cut across the top of vice jaws (think scissors) Your vice jaw offset just happens to work in your favor.  I have a wide array of cold chisels that serve many purposes. I use fully hardened and tempered tools with an annealed 3 lb. sledge hammer.  I have remade many abused cold chisels for my use.    I agree with the above they always seem to be at the wrong angle and to soft for what I do with them.  They can also be used to carve steel in the same way as wood chisels.  everything from big and heavy work to light small engraving work cold chisels find themselves a home.  I am still finding out all the places I like to use cold chisels for.  Soon I am taking a copper in steel inlay class from Thomas Latane and It will be done with chisels.

Nice take.  Its amazing what some people have for sail when you go just to look at an anvil.  If I had more money when i was looking for a second anvil I would have come home with a lot more than I took the trip for.  Its kinda fun to see what else is available when people start talking.  

Though I always cringe at people when they say a nice ring its a misconception/ misinformation that just seems to keep propagating.  Your striking a tuning fork thats all it tells you.  Thin waist thin horn and heal make up your tuning fork.  My lovely 185 lb anvil makes no ring just a simple thunk and has a 80 to 90 percent return.  I love it and my nabors love it.  They rarely know I am forging unless they come out and look over.  Take a hardened ball bearing and a ruler.  Drop the ball bearing from 10 inches and note how much the first bounce reaches.  The ring is actually lost energy that goes into vibrating the heal and horn as in a tuning fork instead of into the peice your working.  It is yet another reason why you should wear hearing protection whenever you forge or strike anything especially on a anvil that rings.  You should also have winding sticks, a strait edge and a square to check an anvil that your looking to buy.

Nice looking bunch of tongs.

Thanks Camero.  

Lovely!!  Love the neck and the little detail between the horns.  Really nice job.  Looks like a very nice cane someone is going to cherish for a long time.  I have one question though at what point did you punch the eyes as they are the only flat part of the whole composition.  Seems like they might have gotten squashed at some point in the forging.  Maybe you just need a deeper impression/eye punch.  But really I am blown away.  Hopefully when I get a chance to make some of my firsts for animal heads they come out as nice as your first one. :D

That is actually what one sword smith used for a long time and then he started experimenting with different ways to get what he deemed to be the more desirable charcoal.  It all depends on what works.  all charcoal works just differently.  The more of the volitiles out seems to be less desirable as you want it turned to fully charcoaled but slowly and with out blasting the wood apart in the process as the volitiles are worth keeping for burning later.  There is some interesting information about what he does  http://www.katanabuilders.com/katanablog/55-gallon-drum-retort/

http://www.katanabuilders.com/katanablog/page/2/

Its like finishing something.  Its done when you decide it is.  They will make charcoal and you can forge with it.  

Your welcome.  And just remember your always welcome back.  Hopefully next time I will actually Have a fire lit in one of my forges and we can play with some hot steel :D

Thanks every body.  Glade all of you enjoyed seeing my work. :D 

Frosty.  What can I say I am a pyro :D  among other things :D  The quiche depends on what I am in the mood for but usually milk, eggs, a mixture of cheeses (swiss, sharp cheddar and whatever was around), broccoli, bacon, Onions (green, yellow, white), fresh chives from my back yard, .... spices as desired.  The crust is flour, rendered bacon fat, tablespoon or so of water.  But one of my favorite things to make is fresh noodles.  eggs and flour.  Mix to a dough, let sit for an hour, then cut into small pieces and using 1 inch diameter wood rod (mines from an old broom with finish removed) roll out flat sheets you can see light through, flour, fold, cut, fluff extra flour off and drop in boiled water mmmm tasty.  Now that my migraine is better in control I am going to make them tomorrow with a nice home made pasta sauce and breaded chicken... MMMM Thanks for making me think of food.  To bad I just ate...:(

Chinobi.  I have been meaning to make beef jerky for a while now.  Just haven't found my way round to it. :D Well the beauty of center finders are that the holes don't have to be perfect.  Easier to do with a divider to check distances.  But you use the center finder once then turn it around and use it again.  If your holes aren't perfect or the cone is a little off to one side on your scribe its ok because you then have two very close lines that you just center punch between. :D   

Well where are you?  I am in robbinsdale.  The guild of metalsmiths is the one.   http://www.metalsmith.org
 Come on by I will be working on some propane forges for the next two days.  If you want to just pm me.  Lots of fun people around here:D
ME  http://ipneto.deviantart.com

Thanks and feel free. I love to see other peoples take on things I have made.  Plus its fun to know you inspired someone else to make something :D  Sharing the knowledge its what keeps us all going. :D

You must have to work that box bellows a lot.  Seems small to me.  I love my box bellows for the control it gives.  The larger the bellows the less work you have to do.  I will suggest a fun simple project like throwing spikes, s hooks, j hooks. I agree find an abana affiliate and you will make your job a thousand times easier.  ABANA also has some good lessons that may help you out.  

Well I was working on stuff lately and realized I don't share much of what I do on the forums I contribute to/am on.  I thought some of this might be interesting to people.  I just got done with putting a bunch of photos with descriptions up in my gallery on deviant art so let me know what you think. http://ipneto.deviantart.com/gallery/

That doesn't put supports out of the question.  the curtain could be put on hooks (open) and the supports to the rail attach on the bottom.  The hooks slide over the supported area with nothing in the way.  If they don't want to see the hooks this connection could be hidden with a decorative plate that sits just in front of the rail so all you see is a curtain hanging down from behind a decorative plate.  

Throwing spikes.  Had I thought/known about them when I was starting its a nice way to start and really fun to use.

http://ipneto.deviantart.com/art/Throwing-spikes-402616487

simple flat tongs

tent spikes.  You can never have to many

I started with lots of s hooks, j hooks,  simple hooks for around the house.  fire tools are always nice to have.  

I use mine straight.  Did some knives lately.  Took about....30 minutes to get a pretty decent etch from it. 

I use muriatic acid for the etchant.  Sold in a good number of stores.  Keep at it. Congrats on your first.  :D

Funny I made one of those lately too.  Nice looking dog.

Looking good.  Can always reform later.  Looks like a good start.

Please :D

Pictures :D

I understand that problem.  I work in my drive way as well.

Ahh if only I could have one of those really heavy ones.  Still at least I have a 185 lb vulcan that I love.  

The first two pictures are of my anvil and the really simple overly heavy hinges I made early in my blacksmithing career and which are still serving me well just as of yesterday and hopefully long into the future.  The rest are of others anvils that I have run across in my time visiting people.  In the background you can see a 400 lb anvil at one of my fellow smiths shops that inspired my anvil.  It moves around like a dream when the wheels are down and sits securely when the wheels are up.  

http://s48.photobucket.com/user/nicrom/library/Ideas%20on%20Mobile%20equipment?sort=6&page=1