anvil

lol, he best me to it! 4" US = 4' Aussie. :)

lol,,, clunker ball! who is that dub? I've got pretty good hammer control, but my keyboard skills challenge the best spell checkers there are.

it a truely looks like a centaur forge firepot. you can see the shaft thru the clinker ball on the 3rd pic down. if it is a centaur forge firepot, there will be a hole thru it and the shaft and ball are easily changed. you may have to drill out the screw that holds them together and recap. all in all, it looks worth it for the firepit and blower, assuming the blower works.

.. thanks for the warning!

You owe me a danged cup of half snorted coffee!!

Lol, actually I've never heard of an associated name! I've seen articles on making and using them, but no name my feeble mind can remember. perhaps just generically in the extended collection of guillotine type tools. Actually your name is great. May it rule forever.. Oh, before you get too famous, can I get an autographed custom made and numbered swing arm fuller?

the advice I give people who are beyond beginner and want to "get serious" is to buy a good firepot setup that includes a clunker ball, cash dump and tuyre. Centaur Forge is a good place to start looking. A table to set it in can be anything from simple to sublime. Check their setups out. It will give you a good reference point to start from.

Thomas, thanks. I'd never heard it called that before. If I'd of given it a moment's thought I could have figured it out. Lol, it's about as good of a descriptive name as guillotine.

You have the best reason for your making your springs. Because you want to. I saw where you were from. My Grandfather was from there, and my Grandmother was Croat. Quite the combination. I worked in Prague in '87 with a blacksmith. If I remember correctly, the Gypsies can solve your coal and steel needs. If I could, I'd go to your country and find a Smith to spend some time with, and see your countryries beautiful iron.

Thus the proper answer. I can't understand any reason to use case hardened mild steel for a spring. the availability of high carbon steels is just too easy to come by from flea markets to dealers. And the best reason? well imagine using a substandard steel with a less than millimeter thick layer of an unknown amount of carbon impregnated steel standing between you and an angry charging bear,,, I'd rather use a rr spike. Spring steel should be a 1095 high carbon steel. I have an armload of potato planter belt that's 3/8" round. this acts like 1095 and I treat it as such. Thus I water quench to harden. It makes excellent springs. Tom Bredlow recommend flashing gun springs in corn oil to get the correct temper. I believe he flashes it 3 times. If you don't know who he is, he was an early ABANA person and did 7 gates for the National Cathedral. He is from Tucson. A great video, and the one that inspired me long ago. I am pretty certain that Wallace Gussler did not use case hardened wrought iron for springs. I do have this vid in my collection but have not watched it in a while, so this is from memory,, forewarned. He did case harden other items. He would not have used mild steel that did not exist in the period Williamsburg represents. And lest we forget, if you don't know the temp of melted lead, or a way of maintaining this temp, you ar in the dark. And, case hardening takes a bit more time than an hour or so in an oxygen free environment. From memory, seems it is 4 plus hours.

Stoned castle vs rock fort? You must realize that in Colorado, and now Canada, this has a whole different meaning!! And it's legal.

very interesting, and reinforces the need for definitions. What pops into my mind for a blind tenon is a situation that the length of parent stock, think picket or stretcher with a tenon integral on each end cannot fit into the space. Thus, the solution is a blind tenon, a stud applied thru the top of the mortise and secured one way or another into a hole in the picket/stretcher. Then the "blind" tenon can be headed over and, in the case of a railing, the rivet head detail is not interrupted. check out the joinery I used here. The tenons are not peened over. This is a roller for a stand. the roller is 3/4" round sleeved with 1" tubing. There is 1 forged tenon and 1 "blind" tenon on the other side. The roller assembly fits in easily and I do not have to stress the roller frame. because I use a "starting" tap, and a bottoming tap, the threaded stud is screwed in and fully bottoms out. Thus heading the tenons is quick and will last indefinitely, and the sleeve will be free to spin. There may be other solutions to this problem, but I've not come across any better to date. I've considered Thomas's solution of stock removal but in a small hole, a chisel won't work. And to wallow out with a drill bit would wallow out the top which adds far too many other unacceptable problems that must be delt with. The use of a dremel type tool may work, but certainly would not be quicker than running a tap thru twice. And without a doubt the cost and longevity of two taps and and a tap wrench are far exceed clear of any power tool within my experience. However, this thread has brought forth another viable option and that is a split stud and a wedge. And that's exciting! For what it's worth, I made a series of shop stands that are all hand forged with the joinery left obvious to show the "story", not to leave one wondering how it was done. Thus my tenons are left proud and my welds are obvious.

Thomas, Thanks for the explanation and pics. As for loss of energy whilst forging on the end of the horn, I do no forging on the end of the horn. I use it to turn scrolls.

Thanks, I'll watch them all.

Have you got a link handy to this vid? I meant to ask in the above post as well but I cannot concieve how a non thru mortise is made wider at the bottom either in wood or iron. I had this conversation with Francise Whitaker about blind tenons and his solution was the one I layed out above. It came up because I was curious about a reverse tapered hole. He a actually did not answer me about that, instead did a verbal with a bottoming tap. That was such a clean and simple solution that I've never run into a situation where a bottoming tap didn't work. He also turned me onto gun taps. And the gent above is right on. Once you have used a gun tap in a thru hole, you will never go back. An excellent use of this decorative rivets. Grab the slugs from an ironworker. They have a nice dimpled and centered divit on the bottom. Drill this out, use a gun tap and thread the hole. I always counter sink the visable side slightly, or chisel/file the surface of the hole slightly out of round to ensure the shaft won't unscrew, then thread in a stud and either peen it flush or head it and you have an instant decorative rivet or screw. Oh, dont forget to detail the surface as you want.

Interesting thread, he, he,, Thomas, I've no clue how blind tenons are done in woodworking. I can imagine a slit and wedge setup where you slit the bottom of the tenon and I sort a wedge. drive it Into the hole and the wedge spreads the tenon. that may work with iron as well. Also what's a reverse taper hole? Sounds like its wider at the bottom than the top. How do you do that quick and dirty? I e a friend, long distance friend, who uses a hot tenon upset into a straight sided hole for a blind tenon and swears they stay tight. I've never seen it in person and am skeptical. hot iron shrinks so it seems that no matter the upset, when it cools it must shrink. I can conceive it bending a bit and jamming but in a hand rail it seems that over time it would loosen up. I don't really have any idea how they were done back in the day, but I do know using a tapered tap and a bottoming tap is reasonably fast and works well. Lol, if you have ever spent much time on an armstrong powered post drill, you will quickly learn why blacksmiths prefer a punched hole to a drilled one. A slit and drifted hole makes a stronger hole because you do not lose any material around the eye. A punched hole removes about the same amount of material as a drilled one and is far quicker to make if you are using a hand powered drill of any type. Add a powered line shaft of any sort and the equation changes.

the real question is what the heck is a swing arm fuller? Thomas, that's a new one on me.

thanks guys, now I finally understand what proper tools, proper SETUP, proper job actually means! and everybody knows ya cant use concrete in Australia because it slumps up, not down. I'm goiig back to my cave.

Marc1, I do appreciate your sarcasm and get great pleasure out of it. Trust this, there have been many times in my life that if I wasn't the focus of my own cheap entertainment, I would have had nothing to laugh at. Nor do I care how you perceive me. What I do know is no one will ever preceive me as a nopie. You know, "nope, you cant _____" So there lies the difference. My purpose is to pass on my experiences, encourage with pics of my work and stress that you can. I cant argue with your business model. I don't accept your conclusions. Simply stated, Its production vs commission. And pounds per hour vs hours per pound is the same thing. And you believe production Trumps commission. Thus production is for those who want to make money, and comission work is for flakes who live in la la la land. Am I correct? Well I'm here to tell you it's a beautiful view from up here In la la la land. And there is plenty of work for all. But here's the irony of this monologue between the two of us. JHCC posted a great video of stone hammers and stone anvils in use. His intent was to inform. When you mentioned it, its purpose was a bit of sarcasm. No problem. But here is the irony. The man who narrated the video is Tom Joyce. He is without a doubt one of the most highly thought of traditional architectural blacksmith of our era. World renown, to say the least. And I'm privileged to call him friend, I've worked both with him and worked for him. I've attended his demonstrations and even spent the night at his house and had some memoriable midnight forging sessions. And you use this man's video as a sarcastic dig on we who work by comission. Well done, good sir Thomas, you are correct about shops of the past, but you must be aware that since the reemergence of our craft in the mid '70's, predominately working shops are one man operations, no matter the tooling used. As for idealism. Let me use fantasy as idealism. synonyms. The first time that fantasy and reality clash, and that can be any time from the first horse, first time striking hot iron, or sometime in the future, something happens. One may just up and quit. One may, for whatever personal reasons, begin to add contemporary tools to your process. A grinder, a welder, a torch, a scroll jig or whatever, or a passion for these basic primordal tools begins to emerge. I remember vividly that very moment and that passion has continued to grow to this very day. I'm 72 and it is an adventure of a lifetime,,, and the next chapter began three weeks ago. Next week my temporary shop, 18'×20', goes up on my new paid for 20 acres So, preach your "nopieism and enjoy your business conclusions because what it truly boils down to is "if it's good enough for you", that's all that matters.

and there is the key. "most of the time it does not". You are correct. But the reason is "smith" specific. I'll never critique anyone for their reasons to choose to not. They are all correct. However, I'm far more interested in those, and their work, who choose to do. Another present day truth is that there are far more working successful traditional architectural Smith's today than when I started full time back In the '80's. Your statement applies to all crafts and creative endeavors. Think of musicians, concert pianists, anything. And yet there are many who do not fail. Bill Gates said "think outside the box". The implied meaning here is that it's far safer to remain in the box. Basically you have given the most common reason for not pursuing our craft, or anything for that matter as a full time business. "most of the time it does not".

you are probably right. I can't remember. and just to let you know, I've purchased a new piece of ground.. my new shop is going up as we speak, and my books will be unpacked soon. Your basket in a basket will be my first play piece Cant wait to give it a try!

HAHAH,,, spilled my coffee!! Well with all that power equipment, you best be moving tons per week. Seriously, think about it. Simply said, if i spend 6-8 months on say 800# of iron on a set of gates or railings, and i make the money i want, I know that the more time i put into this 800#, The more possible money i will make. thus i invest max time into minimal iron. Or here the formula is hours per pound. And yet, hypothetically speaking, if a fab shop could only move 800# in the same time, they would go broke. The other two have that same choice, but more times than not, the less time you spend on your product and maximize your output, the better chance you have to make the money that satisfies you. Thus the formula is Pounds per hour And thats the reason we cannot truly compare each other. Our business models are complete opposites. Lol, i cant tell you how cool it is when someone steals your mig, and you only notice its loss 2 years later!!

He is not doing much smithing anymore. I anxiously await his return. And, no doubt, parts are hard to find.