Johannes

keep hitting, Mende!! I know the feeling of the black boogers, when i come home from class i have them to (we have 14 people forging a 8 forges, with huge hoods and electrical powerd drafd, but when the fires get started it's still a mess, especially because allot of the les experienced students (including myself, until someone explained me) open u the air gate way to mutch you can't really blame them, because we have only 2.5 hours time to finsh our stuf up, so we wand our heats as fast as possible), it sucks ! but thomas is right you should fix that problem long-canser is not a funny thing...

my new shop is ganno be to small, but its all the space i have availebel, but i 'm thinking of ideas to save space, like hanging stock to the roof with a pully etc..

most farriers anvill these days are fairly light, some even have cast aluminum boddy's with a steel upperbody and face. I would not advise one of those for general smithing work. the clip on the the side of a farriers anvil is meant to "pul a clip" on a shoe, (a toe clip or side clips). the turning cams are used to adjust the last bend, in the end of a horse shoe, to adjust, not to actually turn them, thats done over the horn, also a hinde shoe has to often have a straightnend out partion in the quarter of the toe, to do this you need a narrow flat surface, that why some farriers anvils have a narrowed heel, or a second or flatend horn. remember that perfectly fitting a shoe is millimeter work. some farriers prefere softer anvils, like the O'Dwyer anvils with are cast in SG-iron, witch only have a 24 rockwell hardness, (they are dustibuted by mustad) this is mostely done for sound reduction end to make clod forming work "stick" to the envil better. I no fan of this, and most farriers i know don't eiter, but their all people who do more warm shoeing and less cold shoeing. kind regards

hey mike, I like the idea, but is there a specific reason to chose may 24 as the date?

Mnn i have to pour a refrectio

thats an interesting ID, i know peole some times stick rusty nails in the ground for the same reason, so i gues it shoud work with scale to..

mind you guys i'm in belgium, so they probebly use some diferent grade for rr-spikes.. not sure thow, and sending them over here would be a bit expensive i gues, but thanks for the offer!, I'm curently experementing with old cutting blades from thermoplastic molding frames (i work for a thermo forming compagny, so we have allot of the stuff), their to thin for most purpousses, but when my new forge is finished I'mgonna try making a billed out of them. if i find a good one, I'l do some tests on a local rr-spike, so we can compare. sad to hear about the tree.. it always hurts me to when one of those of natures wonders has to be put down.., but its nice to see that you kept some of it and put it to good use!

nice stand, but arn't you worried with fire risks? i tend not to have annything that burn in the shop, all the wood is coverd with thin sheet metal. ensurance policy's are pretty strickt around here i guess

an old hamer will do fine to pete, mind you she's chinese, so a small hamer would be enough :D

must agree with frosty! its almost like Larry is setting us up to get kicked off, so manny open goals.. and we'r not not allowed to kick the ball... how rude! ;-) Extreemly nice anvil !! i'd sell my mother in law for a piece of steel like that!.. well.. actually thats no reference ;-)

i was wondering, what does everybody do with their waste? i'm talking about ; ashes wasted/burned/dirty quenchants waste etching chemicals .... doe annybody use a fume filter in their smithy? what do you do with the wast (water?) of a systhem like that?

wOW Jerry , nice flintlock!! and the hawk is verry nice to! good work! to bad we can't get those rr spikes around here (the ones they use here are way to soft for something like that)

I'm pretty sure it aplies almost to 200 y back, and in some cases allot further, it is true that in 1400 there where specialised blacksmiths, armourers,blade smiths, farriers.. but they would be in service of nobles, who had them on site, and payed well for these master craftsmen. in the villages, and for the common man, the blacksmith was the same guy whoe also shoe'd your horse (if you where even able to affort one to help you plow the farm) , fixed or sharpend your knife, and made the hinges for your front door (and in some area's the guy you went to to expell bad spirits... but thats an athor story).

Genaraly i agree with what thomas and metal mangeler said, a blacksmith in the old day's did both, and it does take some serious knowlegde of blacksmithing to be a good farrier, speciallty in the old day's when there weren't factory made shoe's around. These day's allot of "so called" farrieres only use factory shoes, and have never really forged a piece of iron in their lifes, those arn't worth the title of farrier in my opinion. I'm studying to be a farrier, its a 2 years course, and we are expected to learn how to make or own shoe's and how to forge allot of athor items we ourselfs as farriers or that or customer the horse owner might need. but i must disagree with thomas, on some pionts, first here in belgium, in the old days all farriers where blacksmiths, because of most work they did was shoeing farm horses, so they didn't have anny work in winter (cause the horses would be let out without shoes), in in the winter they did verious blacksmithing work, they had to do ornamental work, both olso functional and tools.. a good farrier is also a good blacksmith, but not nesecarry visa versa... thats what my grandfather used to say.. and about the german master smith trowing his hammer if you would ask him to shoe a horse.. well that would depend on the region.. it might be the case if you would ask a smith in sollingen, but most defenedly not when asked one in more mountaines or rural area's.. and belive u me, those guy's are masters to, by all means!

althow I agree with allot Jake is saying, and with his general sentiment towards this isue, I must differ on some points. In modernday designing methods one cooperates material en technique specific paremeters, for example ; Jake tell's us he can draw things he can not forge, but true yearss of experiene he can estimate what he can and can't draw. But in the right modeling software i can set my line's so thats they will have the same stifenes en bending property's as metal on a givin temprature, so i would only be able to draw what i can actually forge.. this is by now means a replacement foor experience, but it is a usefull tool, just like the hamer u 'r all using. on the software topic, scetch up is a nice piece of software, its easy verry, acceable to plug ins and best of all its for free... but ... its now where near a full scale modeling package. there are some opensource packages out there witch all have theire strong and weak points. I myself use rhinoceros, its not free, but not to expencive either, its works verry wel and verry fast.

Mnn if it is a sand mold cast and you deliver a woden 'stacked mdf model yourself, the one of casting shouldn't be that expensive.

Purely on the design I would prefere the TFS, it had a better horn and is better using its material, but that just a personal opinion. Also what firebug said is greath, Mr. Hofi's anvil's are fantastic! and may be worth waiting for. Also one of my all times favorites is Alfred Haberman's anvils (i'm saving up for one of those), but i don't know if you can get them in the us.

at the risk of sounding like a nag.... you yanks shouldn't complain, your gass prices are still ridiculous in comparence to ours, but than again y'al drive gasoline swalowing trucks and stuff.. ok sorry for the clich

"..anvil & dating question.." mmn whear a nice suit, put un some good colone, some flowers would be nice to, dinner maybe a movie.. and afterwourd if your verrry lucky.. you just might... get to hammer on your anvil Althow I don't understand why you would be wanting to be dating an anvil in the first place.. a love of blacksmithing is ok,.. but your pushing it to far!!! sorry guy's its friday, I just couldn't resist :rolleyes:

hey guys see the "lol at the end of my last post..? lighten up :-) I'm just kidding around seriously, Glenn is a blessing for us all! and the site is greath!! and believe me when i think some picture wouldn't be suitable for this forum, I wouldn't post it, allot of youngsters around here, and its all aboud blacksmiting and metal working ... I have made some nude sculptures in the past, in wood, and I plan an making some in the near futere out of metal, but there semi abstracted art, probably not something annybody would take offence in, at least not around here in europe.. in the us.. well.; if heard' story's of us city's whou band clasical and renesance art exebitions because there was "nudity" in there (something like saying michelangelo's david is offencive or something.. :-s) so maybe I'm not alway's on that wavelength.. but i gues you guys around here all are intelligent enough to know the difirence between art and plain out nudity, i have faith in that :-) if seen some wonderfull works of art around here so there is a good feeling toward the escence of it. and that my dear lady's and gentlemen is my 2 cents :-) (i actually learnd that expression here :-) )

but i'm still curios to what he did :-D mmmmn.. hypthaticly speaking.. if I was to blacksmidt a sclupture of a naked human figure , showing its intimate parts.. and post that picture.. whould that be a voialation? or wouldn't it??? i'm just wondering... because it would be an art object, and it would be blacksmited... a thin line to walk upon... :-) lol

if annything eslse fails, use womens day cream (facial moisturisng cream), its not cheap, but works wonders

mmn smells like censurship to me.. big brother is watching you!

thats a greath book btw, a real good source of info

could it be that its, "brace yourself", Not american? :p