anvil

there are many reasons to do most anything. if you are new to smithing, it pays big dividends in the long run to make these rings wo jigs. turning 24 rings over the horn and making them come out actually round is a great opportunity to develop your eyehand coordination. it will make complex scrolls on into the future way eadier. as for time/money, just chalk up thetime to education expenses, ya gots to learn somehow.

the top one could be a sole knife, used to pare away a horses sole, at least one, if not both of the rings out of flat stock in edge could be hub bands, the one on the far left w hook could be to hold light chain and prrhaps a buckle. beside it, the one that sorts looks like s piece of tubing could go on,hopefully the right term,the end of the hames. a couple of square washers on the right, the large round "washer" could go under a clevis pin, the flat piece in the center sorta looks like a step, but its pretty buried. that's my guesses.

You can tell the quality of a blacksmith by the quality of his scrap pile. If its yellow its mellow If its red its dead

yup, just like its opposite, when things in life seem to take forever, it becomes a rather long. drawn. out. experience. ;) the real question to both these terms is just what came first, the chicken or the egg.

all ya got to do is heat it and beat it. if you are going to make a tool, and live with it, might as well make it pretty.

Great topic. I do believe this makes the main point in my post. There are as many ways to become the Smith you choose to be as there are Smiths! If your passion and challenge is traditional joinery then go for it! If your passion and challenge is a mix of contemporary and traditional joinery, then go for it. I also believe that for a Craftsman of any sort to attempt to emulate modern production is cost prohibitive,and the opposite holds as true. Also, let your work please you first and formost. After all that's the primary reason they are knocking on your door. In my opinion, you will never truly be satisfied with your work, and neither will your clients if you don't hold this thought first and formost. Like a really good man once told me, if you don't, all you will have is peanutbutter. You do know what peanutbutter is, right? It ain't peanuts, and it ain't butter, its peanutbutter. And finally, I have some of my first pieces in use in my shop to the day. Coyote Ugly they are! However I am as proud pf them as my pieces done today. I do know the blood, sweat, and tears that went into them. Without them I would not Be Here Now.

hmmm actually since he has no heat, wont do homework,was told it can't be hardened,perhaps the proper answer to his question is " you can stick it in oil,brine, or anything you want, including a turkey, and all will do an equally good job". figured the last since we are just past Thanksgiving.

Good topic. Got a day or so for my elaboration? The general public's perception. that's a loaded question. The general public that goes to crafts fairs, etc has a perception of forged iron from what they see via cheap imports and mass produced stuff with stamped in peen marks. For this market, no matter your level of craftsmanship, your joinery and skill level will be perceived but will be only a minor factor in value. If this is your market, keep your ball peen sharp and "give em petertracks". On the other hand if you use this avenue as your intro level and consider time spent here as your own self-imposed apprenticeship,limit "texture", stress finish, max hammer control, push your craftsmanship above all, and educate your clients, in the long run this will pay off in spades. If you choose to max the $ value of this market you will do ok, but it will be cost ineffective to focus on "refining your details". The pathway to architectural comissions will also be much harder to attain. Please do understand that "back in the day" there was a reason for a ~7~ year apprenticeship. That reason has not changed. The other market, those willing to pay top $ for max quality. Peen marks get you the door, no you will never see the door. When asked if I will put peen marks on a piece and make it look "handforged", my reply is " did you ever see a trim carpenter put "petertracks" on his moldings? Whelp I don't put them in my iron either". This market(quality,not quantity) is not educated as to what fine iron is any more than the other. However they are very aware of what's readily avalable, and they don't want it! I believe there is a subjective "feel" that goes into craftsmanship. This perception/feel is there in both markets. The architectural/art/craftsmanship market absolutely wants top value for their money. If you can educate these people to the details-mortis&tennon,collars,rivits, forgewelds,applied texture(as opposed to peenmarks),champfered edges, finish,and unique transitions, you got the job no matter your "name". Whew, not sure if this is what you are looking for. You as a fledgling craftsman have "perceived" a majorly important client type detail here. This creats pathway choices for you. Its almost a "catch22", but not quite. It is a fact that the "quality" market will not at this time, beat a path to your door. Also, the "quantity" market will not pay for the skills you may not have now and Have to have for the other. So you must choose your pathway. In truth, both are great choices. Just recognize the fork in the road. So what's the answer? Welp, each finds his own way. My way was to stress my learning,stress technique 'til it came easy, and pay for my education by pricing my early stuff to fit the market of the moment no matter my time spent or techniques used. Interestingly enough, about 7 years into the deal, I began getting intro level architectural work. And I had a great enough command of techniques that I began to make reasonable money vs time spent per job. Hope this helps

in my first shop I used 4 good quality rr ties and bolted thru w/ all thread. then two perpendicular. underneath. bury to suit. there is enough for my 25 LG and my treadle hammer side by side. this is a great combo. top & bottom fuller on treadle to define the transition, step to lg & draw out to length, step back to anvil and finish. 1" sq bar oneheat,, sweet. my second platform,I had some nice ponderosa logs. used my chainsaw and alaskan mill and milled my timbers. joinery was hand forged carriage bolts & forged washers that were drop from old jobs. Hardware was all countersunk as were the bases for both hammers. very satisfying.

for me, where and how hard to hit are the smiths job, the striker follows suit. I don't want to confuse the poor guy!

absolutely beautiful!

if you can forge a rt angle, you can do any angle. the process is the same. there are a number of ways to forge -an angle- all require an upset, as Glen said. some upset first, I upset whilst forging my angle. my formula is 12 the thickness added to each side of the bend. this works for most any angle. i check this each forging-both sides of the bend. i made a simple angle finder, set my angle and check it each heat. this way i can forge any angle to length quickly. i can do this totally in the forge and teach it that way. however these are really nice to do with a torch. i make my initial bend in the forge, then refine with a "localized heat" with my torch. sweet. By adding 12 the thickness of material to each side for the upset gives a small radius to the inside. if you want a larger radius, just increase the amount for upset from 12 to say 34 the thickness of material. it adds a cool design element for your bag of tricks.

another way to calculate and forge what you need. first; often start with larger parent stock than what you may think you need. 1- calculate the area of the oval, you have all the data. 2- determine what size drillbit is equal to or slightly less than the area of the oval 3- make a tapered drift and match area to shape where drift is at max deapth. 4- your parent stock needs be dia of drill bit + 2x thickness of wall of your tool or greater for final finish and polishing. 5- drill, then heat stock, insert. drift and lightly forge to the shape of drift. drive drift in to mark for final sizing of the ID Note: when forging shape you are moving material to the oval shape, not thinning the walks of the tool. referring. to -4- above, your actual diameter of parent stock should be large enough that you can remove material and sharpen your cutting edges. if tou do it this way you should be right on every time and not distress your cutters. instead of using the drift to move the material out, you are using it to match two shapes of a given area at a particular cross section. thus no sttess or distress of the thin cutters.

my signals are simple and basic. 2 hits on the anvil means a "attention" or "get ready to strike". whilst striking, one single blow on anvil, beside the workpiece means "finish this blow and remain ready" I instruct my strikers to watch my hammer and strike where on the piece that I do. if I use a "normal" blow, strike normal --harder or softer by me, follow suit. if I use my hammer as a fuller - face of hammer not parallel w anvil face - match my hammer angle. this includes full fave, half face, and edge to edge blows. it doesn't take long for me to learn my striker, no matter his skill level, and to teach a new striker what hard,soft,normal means. usually throttling down his enthusiasm to conserv his energy. I also make sure he holds and swings the hammer as I want him to, even experienced smiths. this is a safety issue with me. I can see his physical form as I watch my iron, so can control both, and not let him control anything but where and how to apply his hammerface on my iron. I stress making blows uniform in force and duration, just like a power hammer, but not as fast. on normal blows, let the hammer rebound work for you and bring it back to the vertical. this sets the basic rhythm. whether you strike harder or softer, the rhythm is constant. the rhythm is always set by the smith. there is a real tendency for one new to striking to speed up the rhythm. so be aware of this. sorry, but I felt that just "signals" could creat problems, so put down the "whole enchilada".it all goes together.

I had to laugh at myself when I read the title to this thread. I'm 66 yo, been running rivits a long time--- he wants to convert me to what? lol

very cool. ;)

back in the '80's I knew of a traditional smith who specialized in hand forged doll house iron. he did gates, railings, hardware etc. all working stuff. I once did a firescreen for a nursery in a house. it was a perspective drawing executed in iron. at the focal point was a gate about 5" tall, and to scale. initially I hinged and latched it, but thought better of this and finished it non working. all was tennoned and collared. very fun.

turps thins out the beeswax and linseed oil. my recipe is 50/50 linseed and turps. per qusrt about a walnut to gokfball size beeswax. this is not a paste consistency, but a liquid. I've mixed wo turps and at times w/o beeswax. but my preference is my formulaabove. seems to go on hot with a more consistent color. also even when done hot no turps seems to leave a linseed film and sometimes a sticky feeling after the iron cools that is not there otherwise. I do clean with alcohol when cool and buff in a carnuba based furniture polish. the alcohol wipe does not remive the beeswax feel or smell, which is good.

hey, guys, cut him some slack. if he had our experience, he would have secured his anvil,if his anvil were secured,he would not have been looking for a new anvil, if he hadn't been looking for a new anvil he wouldn't have stumbled on this once in a lifetime score. just another example of that great ole addage,,," god smiles on fools and blacksmiths", and without question, I definitely fit the catagory for both :) . it is important to secure your anvil, and there are many sutable ways to do this. my way is to do this: trace the foot onto your wood stump, chisel this put to deeper than the foot, fill about half with fine sand. level the sand and set yer anvil on top. the sand is easy to level with a submarine level, and deadens the ring of yer anvil. congrats on your great score.

I use short sections of seamless pipe. I roll the top edges of the pipe outwards to form a lip and weld a crossbar on the bottom to clamp in my post vice. I have these in various diametérs from 1/2" to 6". I have two forged to teardrop shapes that was for a one off job that I now use for compound curves. very quick to make and easy on the budget. unlike commercial dapping blocks, you can have an unlimited # of radius from the pipe avalable. as for durability, I've not worn any out in 20 years or so. I once made large candle cups hot this way using a milling ball with welded "skirt" around it for a top tool and 4" pipe made as above, in a hydrolic press using 3/8" rounds. I think the rounds were 6" dia. took longer to make the rounds than to forge to final shape. good luck

I suggest making them as using tongs right from the get go. make them and use them to make your next pair. that's practice with benefits. they get easier the more you make. I have and use still, my first pair of tongs. they show me where I came from and later ones show me where I am. your own hand made tools are a true joy and the satisfaction out of using them on other projects is what its all about. your first days in the shop are the perfect time to begin this great journey.

the first thing I noticed was how up the trunk he started his cut. I did not watch the whole vid.

Well, you could forge weld them. Just use rockwool for flux,,, ;) Make sure you grind the rockwool, and of course, rockwool comes from hydraulic rams.

Awesome vid. Is it possible to get a copy of this? Its like watching Kuhn and Schmilier come to life. All over the edge of the anvil, no hammer marks, no flatspots. Thanks

Dang, now we'r both in trouble! I've spent most of my time wsst of Colorado Springs. Came to the 4-corners area 4 years ago. Been getting coal at Hesperus and decided on Mancos to reroot. Love it here.