Johannes

Saint Eloy is indeed the patron saint of blacksmiths and all athor metal workers alike, it also the patron saint of the militair. Around here we celebrate st-eloi, the blacksmithing guild of flanders holds festivity's with demonstrations, food and ofcourse our superior belgian beer. Smith's used to go out and not come home untill they needed help walking straight. My grandfather used to only go out and really party on st-eloy. But normally one should also attend a mass for the saint in the morning. you can find more about the hapening this year at :Index sorry guy's its in dutch but under: 2007 > st Eloy > "vastgelecht op de gevoelige plaat" you can find allot of pictures. Witch brings me to something to reply on something Ice Czar said; yes St-Eloy is celebrated in french speaking regions, but not only, also in some dutch, german, french speaking. Flanders is NOT a french speaking region but we do celebrate st-eloy!!! Ghent is a dutch speaking CITY in Flanders, Flanders Is the dutch speaking part of Belgium, Belgium is a kingdom with a french, a Dutch, and a small German speaking parts, Brusselts is the country's capital witch has a population that speaks a mixture of french and Dutch, Brussels is ofthen called the capital of Europe. And it is an udisputed fact that belgium has the most diffrend kinds of- en the best beers, In the WORLD! :-) just wanted to set thing straight :-) greetings, PS :Yes we also have the best chocolates an waffels! and if you like blondes probably the most beautifull women to ;-P PPS; my English is not as bad as it looks, I'm a dislectic, hope you understand.

I would first start a theoratical course about metals, aloys working tempratures carbon grades... next I would give some art history and then some aplied to blacksmithing art history (design architecture armory ...) Then i would have a course in shapes constructions and 3d design. afther this a theoratical on the forge, the tools, the techniques. when this is over I would give a theoratical and a practical aboud saftey and have everrybody take a mandatory first aid course. Then we would go to the shop and start the basic techniques over and over again until your boddy knows them, after this, where aboud 2 years in course now, we would start advanced techniques and projects as discribed above. The course would end with a verbal theoratical exam, a mandatory work piece, and a free work piece (masterpiece). it would be a 3 year course.. or am I overdoing it?

I have been making welking sticks for over 10 years, mostly out of rams horn and antler, Never thought of smithing one, in my opinion it would be te heavy and have a poor ballance, I like the looks of your's thow, how is the weight and ballance?

you gys over in the US have don't know how good you have it, over here in belgium its much harder to come by good steel for free or at scrap prices. But if I do find something, its usually good quality steel. johannes

really like this blade. how did you came about the handle material? Johannes

good Idea for a rotatin vise stand Aprentice man, but i don't think I'm gonna break up my shop floor for it..(seeing its solid concrete) maybe one could the same within a concred block (maybe cast in half an oil drum?)

I'm Making a stand for a cooking book for my sister this year.

Has ennyone ever tryed etching it out? I gues a bullet varnich, some carvings, and a strong acid.. hydrochloratic sulperic accid (sorry don't really know what is is in english so i improvise :-) ) and then work it down in layers, heat tread after..? just an idea, I'm gonna try it one of these days..

hi thomas, i would be doing allot of horse shoe making, and allot of smal interior work, so i gues it has to be lang enough..?

Well guys to be honest I consider myself to be a novice smith,.. My grandfather was a son of a 3th generation farrier and all around black smith, he learned the trade helping his father, but after the war he went to study electro mechanics, and never worked as a blacksmith professionally, but he did do allot of things for himself and family, just using a railroad track and a blow torch and an arch welder. When i (his only grandson was young he taught me allot of thing about electronics, metal working, masonry, would working and a bit of general life's lessons, I had always had an interest in blacksmithing, and he promised me to teach me once he he retired, so we could build or own little shop together, the year before his retirement he got cancer, and was gone withing 6 months.. I grew up living a fair part of my youth with my grandparents (man and dad where still building their house, which took way to long, because grandpa did almost everything his self and on his own), not a day passes that I don't think about him and miss him like xxxx... When I was 17 I caught interest in blacksmithing again, I did allot of reading on the net, bought a bunch of books and make me a small fire with a piece of plate and some fire bricks I had laying around. I wanted to take classes in it but my parents didn't approve of it because it would hold no financial future for me, I insisted, an did some workshop's here and there. Soon after I went to university, I chose to study Product design, because I would tech me allot about design, shaping, materials, techniques, industry, and commerce.. I wanted to be the best smith I could. I studied 5 years and got my masters, and did an extra year in presentation techniques and got a teaching degree. But blacksmithing kind of got to the back ground (no time no money and to much hot girls and design party's). After a graduated I got back into it, read more and stared to do some simple thing on my piece of railroad, now 2 years later, I'm build my own smithy with a big masonry forge and I'm looking to by a big anvil. I'm also taking a 2 year part time class for a degree a a farrier, and taking lessons in artistic smithing, I have made a little bit of a name for my self as a wood subculture, and now want to try to combine sculpturing and blacksmithing... where it goes.. I plan to make smithing (a lot of farrier work, because it pays better, and we don not have enough of them around here) my full time profession within 6 years, so I can quit my day jobs as art history teacher and as product designer. I hope smithing will be a part of the rest of my life, and I hope I meet allot of people to learn from, because I need to learn allot!, and that's a never ending process.

I'm currently building my now smithy, It 'l contain a masonary forge at own design (with a haevvy cast iron flor en 3 fire centers witch I can control, seperatly, or olnly use 1 for normal work), I'm going to make a masonary tub, with a sheet metal inner mantle that I can take out to clean. I'm not really shure to how big i schould make this, how manny liters (yes liters, I'm European, Belgium has the best beers in the world, if you visit our litle country, stop by my smithy, we'l have some trapist's (beers brewed by monks) ), would you gys advise me? (my old one from my "make do" forge was a 10 liter galvanised bucked. greetings from Belgium (mmn feel like a good beer now..)

what would it cost to ship that to belgium? :-)

I agree With mende, poland would be a good place to look or Czech rep. they have a verry good blacksmithing tradition, my old blacksmithing teacher used to go there to by custom cast iron fire pots

If the crack is 3d and more than 8cm deep,... I sugest making a coffee table out of it, it wil never be really good again, unless you can reforge it.