Johannes

it depends on the material you made it from, if your forge is made of sheet or cast iron, it'l just get rusty, and thus wearout quiker, if you'v used clay, firebrick, refrectionary concrete or something of the kind, you should watch out when lightning it wen the stone is wet,(steam presure of the absorbed water may cause it to crack or even explode, so be carefull to make sure its always nice and dry), same goes for freezing. regards!

how does it work out as a quenchant? ;)

he has gone over to the dark side... but what did you expect... just kidding Mende, My fantasy shop would be in a gigantic cave with a river streming true, or perhaps a source. It would have ore in every stone, and also a litle lava shaft, with i can controll with tone valves (witch ar powerd with a watter mill on the river. I wouldnt need bellows cause there be shafts trueout the mountan, taht come together in the smithy, to geive me a controllebal yet powerfull air blast, I'd have a pile of mystic meteorites lying around for magical steel, in the entrance of the cave the would be a terrase where a couple of reformed sucubus and some nimf give me cool drinks and massages. I'd ride to work on a unichorn everyday and on a lower level of the mountain cave there would be living a dragon who'd give me wise advise and a drop of his blood when i need to forge extra powerfull weapons.I'd only work for kings , and i would be famous for my crusade against evil Romainian child slaying smiths :-D, oh yeah and my anvil would made of wood engraved with magical runes to make it harder than steel and more fire resistant than vulcanic rock, and my hammers would be made out of water, molded with my own chacra to a steel hard mass when i work with them... (why not trow some jappanese fantasy in there to :-) )so i would not have anny fysical hammer in the shop exept for one magical sledge donated to me by thor himself out of grathitude for helping him out taming some berserg valcurys... let me see.. mnn oh yeah and I'd have a miniature Glenn apearing on my shoulder now and then as my morral conscience :-D

we have this flemish vocal folk group here in belgium who have a song caled "t'smitje" witch means "the smithy" (as in the person, and not the workshop), its about a blacksmith working his trade, daydreaming of going out and finding himself a woman.. ans o on, you can listen to it here; YouTube - 't Smidje - Laïs and this is a google translate of the lyrics (its nor really complete, because the song is in old flemish, and google trans only know propper dutch, but still it gives you a general idea) translation: Dutch Wie wil horen een historie Al van ene jonge smid Die verbrand had zijn memorie Daaglijks bij het vuur verhit Was ik nog, nog met mijnen hamer Was ik nog met geweld op mijn aambeld 'k Geef den bras van al dat smeden Ik ga naar de Franse zwier 'k Wil mij tot den trouw begeven Nooit een schoner vrouw gezien Was ik nog, nog met mijnen hamer Was ik nog met geweld op mijn aambeld 't Is de schoonste van de vrouwen Maar nooit was er zo'n serpent Nooit kan zij haar bakkes houden Nooit is zij eens wel content Was ik nog, nog met mijnen hamer Was ik nog met geweld op mijn aambeld Nooit mag ik een pintje drinken Nooit mag ik eens vrolijk zijn Nooit kan ik iemand beschinken Met een glaasje bier of wijn Was ik nog, nog met mijnen hamer Was ik nog met geweld op mijn aambeld 'k Geef den bras van al dat trouwen Werd ik maar eens weduwnaar 'k Zou mij in een hoeksken houden En mij stellen uit gevaar Was ik nog, nog met mijnen hamer Was ik nog met geweld op mijn aambeld Was ik nog, nog met mijnen hamer Was ik nog met geweld op mijn aambeld English Who wants to hear a history All of one young blacksmith Those burned had been pleading Daaglijks by the fire heats Was I still, even with mines hammer Was I still violently on my aambeld 'k Give den bras of all that forging I ga to the French panache 'k Want me to den faith gone Never seen a woman cleaner Was I still, even with mines hammer Was I still violently on my aambeld "It's the cleanest of the women But never was there such a serpent Never could she keep her bakkes Never once have they been content Was I still, even with mines hammer Was I still violently on my aambeld Never could I drink a pint Never could I have a cheerful Never do you beschinken With a glass of beer or wine Was I still, even with mines hammer Was I still violently on my aambeld 'k Give den bras of all that marry Was I just widower 'k would keep me in a hoeksken And make me from danger Was I still, even with mines hammer Was I still violently on my aambeld Was I still, even with mines hammer Was I still violently on my aambeld;)

want to make a case here for us dislectics!!! stop with the leaving letters out! its hard enough as it is for us! (espacially those of us who arn't native english speakers ;-) )

KYBOy, i'd love some of your welding knowledge!, mine is slim.. :-s Me, my greath grandfather was a 5th generation blacksmith, my grandfather learned the craft as a young man, but after WO2 never practiced it, when i was a kid he told me he was gonna teach me , since there was again a small market growing for artisanal work.. but he died of cancer before he could teach me mutch, i grew playing with wood, metal, horn .; al kinds of material, went to to university and dit a master in product design, tok some welding clases and learned how to operate a lathe, now at 26 am once again a part tilme student, doing a 2 year course to be a farrier, and practicing blacksmithing on my own, but visiting allot of smiths in the area, to learn wat ever i can, my dream is to become a full time blacksmith/farrier (in the old days those where one and the same person in the villigas around here) in 4 years from now, until then i'l keep practicing at it, and keep paying the bills with product design work, and teaching art history.

unless you have a huge forge and a small crane of some kind, and a couple of guys with sledges, and lots of forge welding experience.... unless all of that be the case.. i would do as Rich advises

mnn, ten hammers your smithy must smell greath :D

I'l generally not a fan of brake drums either (and i have used one) but thats a matter of personal preference, to me their to small, but sticking them in a big metal table might help allot. What everyboddy here said id verry true, use what you have, or have acces to, and start from there. I f you can find an old sidewalk drain pot somewhere, theire heavvy cast iron, and about the perfect shape... or a piece of industrial big diameter high presure tubing, , cut a piece lengthwise an put a tyre in, or a cast iron cilinder lid from an old tractor engine.... just be creative, go to the junk yard or the old metal merchand.. and figure out for yourself, but, read some of the books first, so you'l have a keen understanding what your suppost to be looking for. Also, if you don't have acces to a welder, by all means get some, my first welding post was a big heavy rusty thing, verry mechanical en noisy stickwelder, but it penetrates deeper than most modern welders, and, i'v got it for free! look around ask around you can often by these old school oold heavy buzzing boxes for a few dollars. I still use mine allot! and find someone to teach you the basics with it.

hey there youngster, I would like to welcome you, your in for quite the ride, blacksmithing will enhance your life and your ability to sole problems. For a forge, I'm no fan of brakedrum forges, there are simpeler and better alternatives in my opinion, but it works if you don't have annything else, you mentioned a sink? whatkind of? cast iron? plate a drain sink?..? What everyboddy said about reading the right books is verry true, The Complete Modern Blacksmith by Alexander G. Weygers is indeed a greath source of information, but also, The Art of Blacksmithing (Hardcover)by Alex W. Bealer, A Blacksmithing Primer: A Course in Basic and Intermediate Blacksmithing and ofcourse all the blue prints on this site.. absorbe as much as you can and don't mind your english mine is much much worse

its tru that the smaler the hart of your fire, the less fuel you consume, but this isn't equally true for the entire forge, cause if your forge is to small you can't stack up anny coal, and thus have no heat containing layer (or insulating pile if you wish) so if your forge gets to smal, in relation to your fire hart (pot) your fuel consumption may actually rise.. thats just my idea

concerning brake drum forges, you might wanne read what this guys has to say... i tend to agree with him on most parts.. Brake Drum Forges I'm building a new forge at the moment, but its a bigger thing wit masonary work and a large industrial mold fram, and a heavy cast iron drain sink as a fire hart. pictures will be posted soon

thank you Hofi, I'm gonna look up if i can free up those days, in witch case I'l contact Mr angle. kind regards Johannes

Hi, Matt, i'v been looking foor building plans for a good sliding gate, but I don't lake the idea of making it in wood... does annybody have anny plans for one in anny metal?

post some pictures after the trip would ya!? for the sake of us pour slobs with less spare time and monny to travel ;-) By the way Hofi; where in Germany and Holand are you ? annywhere close to the belgian border? anny openings in the classes? :-D or else, if you wanna do some beer tastings of belgian beer, let me know ;-)

Cliff carrol are well known farriers anvils, theire verry good to work with for farriers work, in fact i'm looking to buy one (still in doubt between a cliff carrol or a blue devil), they are made to be mobile for the modern farrier, thats way they are light, they are made not to hard, beacuse of this (a thin boddy, in to hard steel would be to bridle , horn might brake) also, because they lack boddy, they have a tendency to heat up quicly when used for general blacksmithing work (mutch more hopt iron on them then for farriers work) , so an older one might have become softer over time because of this (if its been used for athor work than horse shoeing). so that might be a problem with this one.. besides that, greath find! greeting, Johannes

heil to you man!, the fantasy put into it.. the craftsmanship... the speldit fencing work.. your one of my new idols :-) must be a greath patron to work for, someone who's openminded enough to let you make something like that.. hope to get some of those to some day...

if its good quality cast iron, i'm not sure, but i think you don't really need to line it

etch of the galvanasation usio salphether acid, than make some damast out of it?

I try to make post of the tool i use myself, i plan on building a set of great bellows and turn of my noisy old vacuum cleaner/blower, I mostly try to use scrap material, i get for free or a scrap weight prices, try to burn the coal slowly and be patient in heating the iron up, not to burn to much unneeded coal. regards, johannes

indeed, you got my atention aprentice.....!

ow, my bad, .. thnx frosty.. i'l refrain from trowing stuff in there from now on, exept maybe some salt and a drop of blood for good luck ;-)

all you need now is a box of matches to light the forge, and off you go.. i started of with an ald stove a bbq blower and an old sledge for anvil.. so your way ahead alreddy ;-)

call here betty, and bertha if she's really big ;-)

nice flatter, what wheigth does he have?