unkle spike

I have mainly cheap HF hammers that I dressed the faces on, except for my favorite hammer, a Dancing Frog Forge hammer from Richard Thiebeau here on Iforge. I bought a 2 pound hammer at HF for 3.99 a couple of weeks ago. Last count I have 13 hammers of all sorts, and paid under 10 for almost all of them.

I don't wear a safety mask, but I am always concious of the amount of smoke in the shop, I have a large fan to bring fresh air in, and keep the doors propped no matter the weather. Search Iforge for "coal suppliers", if I remember right there are coal suppliers in the Atlanta area.

This was posted already, in a couple of threads, if you use the search button on top you could have found it...... sorry I had to....

C Reiss Coal Co 111 W Mason St, Green Bay, WI (920) 436-7600 ‎

I found De Frost, in Alaska, don't know how to get the right one on here.....

I use Rust Oleum Crystal Clear, dries quick and no discoloration. Walmart has it.

Horns are generally used for forming round objects like rings. Using a bick or hardie tool is common, I have made many hardie tools of different sizes for different things. The horn being a cone makes it harder to make rounds in flat or square stock as it tend to want to take on the conical shape of the horn. Anvil horns vary from Duck billed (Harbor Freight) to more perfect cone shapes. Most shops may also have a Floor Cone mandrel for this purpose. Welcome to Iforge.

Welcome to the forum and back to forging. I used to live in Wisconsin, moved to East TN 9 years ago. I have been through your area a few times. Badger Cheese Hut....

Philip, That sounds like defect that needs professional work. PM me, and I will give you my address, that way I can fix it, and send it back to you after extensive testing.

Dale, Perhaps if the shoulder is too bad they can pour your tinnies in a bowl and you can lap them up like a dog?

Welcome to the forum, a ton of useful information here. If you click on "User CP" and put your location, you may find a friend or two in the area to help with meeting information, and give you a heads up on equipment specials in your area.

Dale? Excited? News to me..... :)

One thing I noticed in my cheapness.....cheap dies and taps don't work for crap. I am in the process of replacing my Harbor Freight taps and dies, the difference between them and good ones is amazing.

I can't count the number of times I have been thinking of You and Deb throughout the day....and saying a prayer each time. Get well soon......

I do demo's and last Saturday two young (6 years or so) boys sat and quizzed me about "could you make that". Was a bit annoying. Somewhere on Iforge someone told me a great answer for "my Grandpa was a blacksmith", "do you have any of his tools?" That usually quiets them down, or if they do have any, can lead to an interesting conversation. Some people are just rude, and you can't change that. I hammered out 4 RR Spike Knives just to sell to tourists, I thought they would wear out from handling on Saturday, they are not sharp, and won't be on the table. Only one person asked if they could pick one up, the rest grabbed them and proceeded to wave them around in fake combat moves. One teenager asked if he could test it as a throwing knife.....I did manage to sell one, so that is fine, nothing ventured nothing lost.

Jr. I would take your brains over my dumb luck anytime... :)

Prayers for Frosty, I noticed him missing from the introduction posts.

If you could figure out what radius the staircase arc is at, you could use a nail, a piece of string tied to a pencil to "draw" it out full scale. Without seeing the layout it is hard to come up with a fast and true method.... Where is Jr. Strasil when we need him....?

Found this information in my head I use anthracite, I get it free from the neighbors old coal shed. I ball up 2 sheets of newspaper, and leave a "tail" on it, I light the tail and put it in the firepot, with my air turned on real low I bank coal up around it. Once the whole paper is pretty much burning, I gently toss some of the finer coal on top. I sprinkle water on the outside of the pile, so it does not burn until pushed into the fire. It can be a bugger to keep lit, what I do if I am going to be doing something else for a bit is toss some larger golf ball sized chunks of green coal in it, turn the fan on for a bit until it lights, then shut the fan off. You need to keep a bigger heap going with anthracite, it doesn't like to stay lit. Once lit though, I get plenty of heat. It will coke, and saving some of the coke to start the next fire gives you less smoke to deal with on startup.

Center Punch : a small punch used to create small craters in metal, so drill bits can dance around the rim, causing the user to punch again, until the tip is dull, then having to regrind the tip, and repunch the crater deeper. This tool is also a master of disguise and specialist at workshop "hide and seek", they ALL come out when a new Center Punch is purchased to greet the newcomer, only to hide again after the "new guy" joins in the game and hide with them. They prefer dark crevases under benches or in any crack suitable to hide them. They do have the ability to fly to these crevases when struck with a hammer.

Will keep them in our prayers.

"You can put a lot of lace on a Hog, but it is still a Hog". I have the 110lber, fine for what you pay for it, but not like comparing a Yugo with a BMW, they both have their places.

I could shell a hard boiled egg with mine....and go one better. I can shell AND make Egg Salad at the same time, just put a squirt of mayo on the dies before I start. :)

I "Cheat", I use a veining chisel for the center vein, then a Chisel hammer for the side veins. The hammer I bought from Harbor Freight, it has sharp edges on both ends similar to a welders chipping hammer. I use this for the center vein: Veining chisel holder - Blacksmith Photo Gallery

Nice score....