anvil

you have more options with 20' lengths, not to mention the cut fee. with a pickup you have many options. be creative.

is it home yet? and a third vote for an atf/acetone soak

We learned quick how to get rid of the "goaty" taste. After straining and covered with cheese cloth we let it sit on the counter for an hour or so. Along with no billys, it worked great and we fooled many who claimed they could tell the difference between goats and cows milk. As for cream, i learned,alas, a few years ago from a other goat lady that cream would rise, even from nubians, by pouring it into a shallow pan like a cooky sheet and setting it in the fridge over night. Also our yogurt was never thin. It was always firm with a creme layer on the top. I cant add more here as my wife did this, not me. The cheese was great. It had a tendency to attract a blue mold wich then became a roquefort tasting cheese to die for!

Those were the days, my friend, to quote an old song. We raised goats on our small corner of the rocky mountains. We had nubians and we had a milk, cheese,yogurt business. The yogurt was to die for. It always had a layer of cream on the top. We raised paints and quarter horses and had a stud I kept from a good mare. He was the last in a line of three colts from a good quarter horse mare i bought whilst in the navy. Our dogs were malamuts. A companied by persian kitties. Of course chickens, geese, and rabbits. Lest I forget along with this melange we raised two beautiful daughters as well. We lived on the edge of Colorado's largest national forest. Needless to say our daughters dissapeared most of the day,,, but we never worried about them. With good horses, great dogs, and occasionally a persian kitty or so,, they were always in good company. My business was shoeing horses. Lots of fall trades for a side of beef and pork. Fall was a busy time canning and butchering the male babies. Cant beat chavon. We never messed with a billy. For many reasons, as mentioned above, we preferred to breed to an outside billy. With all the critters, you might say we had liters of litters! As cute as baby goaties are, its hard to beat malamute puppies! When I swopped hats from farrier to blacksmith, or should i say from nocona cowboy work boots to redwing insulated steel toes,,, I tried to get a loan to go to Turley Forge. Alas, no luck! Well our grey silver female malamute and our black and white "Diab" male stepped up and had a huge litter of 14 pups!. Timing was perfect. We ended up with 14 very happy new malamute owners/friends and an excellent six weeks in Sante Fe at Franks school. Thats called creative financing! Thanks for this thread,,, It was an idyllic time, never to be forgotten.

Very true. I have two examples of that. Many old locks have very cool decoration inside the box, such as springs with animal heds on one end and the tail at the other. The second was far less dramatic. I had a customer out in the Tarryall's. Whilst waiting for a check, I walked around and pied an old buckboard. The wood box etc was mostly gone and the "running gear" iron was visible. This iron would be normally covered by the wood. I think the part I was looking at was the 5th wheel, and associated parts. The first thing I noticed was that all these hidden parts had chamfered edges. It was a good lesson Lol, Im sure he did it because he knew someone like me would notice his attention to detail.

If that were my anvil, Id have to name it "The Squatting Pig".

Lol, you nailed it,,, but you owe me a coffee drenched keyboard,,,

it's never too soon to start a good scrap pile.

I had an interesting experience with this video, safety issues aside. I first let my um, er, strong prejudice for traditional techniques rule and I quickly turned it off. A CnC plasma setup just doesn't ring my chimes. I then changed my mind and decided to watch it. What I see is a smith very well versed in the traditional tools of our craft. I then saw him apply the main difference in forging potential today vs the past. Largely that is the massive power that is available to Smith's today. I then saw him traditionally forge this rosette made from heavy material. Alas, this part was minimised. There was only one hint and that was a long chisel he used to detail the veins/leaf. Do note the design of the working end. Then he followed this up with far too much grinder that implied that the beautiful forged details were produced by a side grinder. A side grinder just can't match the detail of that chisel. I don't believe this was meant to deceive. It was more of a FIF type of editing deal. He then went thru the process of closed die forging to do a contemporary mass produced piece that matched the look/esthetic of the original forging. And this he did very well! He then spent a fair amount of time creating the third dimension traditionally by hammer in hand. However, in my opinion, the time spent with the hand chisel prolly was somewhere in the neighborhood of the time spent doing the final forging, and close to the time done with the closed dies used by the power hammer. So I'm not convinced that the time saved with closed die forging is much of an economic saving in this case considering the cost of the tools. A good blacksmith once said to me that sometimes running at 7200 rpm just makes you think you are working faster. This video is a close call on that. But it does show a good use of harnessing the power we have avalable today in our shops. All in all a good watch.

I met an old farrier/blacksmith in the Gunnison valley. Every time I was in the area I stopped by and we "hunkered down" for a bit. He gave me a round faced crosspeen he had made. A few years later I was using it and a crack developed in the crosspeen. A few weeks later or so, I learned he was forging lightning bolts in the sky. Turns out his passing was the day the crack materialized. Ive always wondered if their was a connection. I still use the hammer, but not the peen end.

The answer to your question is yes, you need to temper. And there is a proper temper needed for this steel for your job. speaking generally, you may not want the temper to be the hardest, you may want a temper more suited for wear resistance. Again generally, and i use this for O1, the hardest temper(light straw) is used for wood tools, not for removing steel. If its too hard, your tool will chip

No matter the cause, you have a problem. Either its under warranty or you have a repair to do. grind the face down until the crack is gone, then file out the sharp edges on the corner crack. You may have to take the face down to the bottom of the chip in the first pic. This may mean you will need to re-heat treat the face. With a bit of luck, the crack is not deep and you will only need to dress the corner chip.

Sorry for the delay. Between a month long house guest and a shop build, time is going by on an already too short of a summer. I reviewed my post and truly can't see where you got this. However, Heres my perspective on it. "aim at what you can hit". This adds to our ongoing discussion concerning craftsmen. It truly applies to the trades. Framers,Roofers, Drywall< etc and all the rest. All that is required is to do your job within the parameters of the bid. This includes meeting the time, material, and dollar bids you have made. And, doing it at a skill level that the next crews dont have to do too many modifications to accomplish their job. You know. the concrete guys never get anything plumb and square enough! However this concept creates a dead end for a craftsman. You will end up in mediocrity and those clients who want the best will continue to allude you. Thus, again this is good advice for many "Jobs", but not for all. "more businesses go out of business because of the bad jobs they won, than any number of good jobs they lost". I tend to agree with this, with the understanding that "good and bad" must be defined. Do understand that one definition does not fit all. "Be selective about who you work for.". Lol i cant agree more. To elaborate, there are far more general contractors and construction companies out there that tend to put "the Crafts" into the same light as you, than those who use these same craftsmen as needed to further satisfy the wants/needs of their clients. The former rarely work out very well. The latter are worth their weight in gold. Alas, too often the learning experience to separate the wheat from the chaff is part of the trip. Again, another bit of advice that perpetuates mediocrity and prevents growth and challenge. It also, as above, limits your clientèle. I nearly always include in my designs elements, techniques, and concepts that I want to learn. To minimize those ramifications i always make a full size sample as part of my design process. This always includes my personal "challenges". This solves two problems you have mentioned. Each of equal importance. The first is I can figure out the tooling and process for these challenges and second my client sees EXACTLY what and why they are getting for their money. Thus there is NEVER any dishonesty between client and craftsmen . And you know as well as I do,,, just what "shortcuts and mistakes" are hidden behind that finished drywall in conventional construction. One of the few people I worked for as a welder had a personal ethic,, " if the inspectors dont catch it, its good!" Me too. Its far easier to do this when so much can be hidden by drywall. Case in point,,, A contractor of note had a favorite scam. After the insulation was inspected and passed (final framing inspection?) he pulled the to code insulation and substituted it for substandard, then finished the building"to code". " I've met quite a few ethically weak people who are experts at explaining why their dishonest "techniques" are necessary". Just curious, do you consider such techniques as mortise and tenons, collars, etc to be in this category of dishonest techniques? Personally the concept of these being dishonest necessary techniques has never been an issue. A full size sample showing just what you are getting solves that every time. It then becomes an aesthetic choice that is totally up to the client. Me too. Its far easier to do this when so much can be hidden by drywall. Case in point,,, A contractor of note had a favorite scam. After the insulation was inspected and passed (final framing inspection?) he pulled the to code insulation and substituted it for substandard, then finished the building"to code". " I've met quite a few ethically weak people who are experts at explaining why their dishonest "techniques" are necessary". Just curious, do you consider such techniques as mortise and tenons, collars, etc to be in this category of dishonest techniques? Personally the concept of these being dishonest necessary techniques has never been an issue. A full size sample showing just what you are getting solves that every time. It then becomes an aesthetic choice that is totally up to the client. Again, another bit of advice that perpetuates mediocrity and prevents growth and challenge. It also, as above, limits your clientèle. I nearly always include in my designs elements, techniques, and concepts that I want to learn. To minimize those ramifications i always make a full size sample as part of my design process. This always includes my personal "challenges". This solves two problems you have mentioned. Each of equal importance. The first is I can figure out the tooling and process for these challenges and second my client sees EXACTLY what and why they are getting for their money. Thus there is NEVER any dishonesty between client and craftsmen . And you know as well as I do,,, just what "shortcuts and mistakes" are hidden behind that finished drywall in conventional construction. One of the few people I worked for as a welder had a personal ethic,, " if the inspectors dont catch it, its good!"

Altho this applies primarily to being an employee, It also applies to the self employed. Be your own worst critic. Tear each finished job apart mentally and find both your strengths and weaknesses. Recognize that there are no weaknesses. These are just techniques better used in a different application. Study others work as well as every other source from old iron, books, workshops, Understand your medium and develop a personal ethic to define this medium. Recognize the fine line between evolving this ethic and compromising it for any reason. Once you understand this, chose wisely to enhance the moment. This is the hard one.

Im in the southwest as well. Im sitting at the end of a ridge on a knoll of 'Mancos Shale". Even the Anazazi stayed away from this stuff. But I love it!

Im not sure if i made it clear. So just in case. Its not filing. Its using the narrow end opposite the handle and using it like a scraper. No effect on the finish. However, I do kiss my iron with a hot rasp and a file somewhere on most of my work. It creates just a touch of bright work here and there as a nice subtle contrast to the "basic black".

You can use other things to remove scale than a brush. I use, along with a brush, my hot rasp. Not the teeth, but the end of the rasp. Give it a slight radius and sharpen the end. It is cheap and in fact will last literally forever. I actually use this far more than a brush.

Practice. I suggest the Beatmore technique. thats,,, beat more iron.

Nice Job!

I prefer air dry, leave in whatever that things is called that you put wet dishes in and use as needed.

actually, to me it sounds like you have all the knowledge you need to give it a go. All you need now is a bit of hands on to answer your questions.

Well, mine is to! But theres hope. Also, i make a sample piece as part of my bid, and I keep these. After a while, they start to look pretty good on the walls.

Jen, you are absolutely right on. First, and to repeat, your business advice is top notch,,, If, and I stress, If you want a roll in conventional construction. It does not apply to one who chooses to follow the path of a traditional architectural smith. I do not believe that social media works if your goal is gates, railings, or ironing a house completely. It is a way if your goal is to compete with every foreign importer of, say, "S" hooks and you want to make 1000 items a week at a buck a piece wholesale. You must understand that these two concepts, conventional vs craft come from two different birds, and you are mixing up their eggs. Again, with much respect, this seems to be an underlying opinion of yours twards craftsmen. I dont understand it. Certainly from Francis Whitaker to Thomas Latane and many points in between, We are not in the habit of "nerding" out anything. Unless, of course, you think that dedicating your life to anything is a "nerds" choice. "It virtually never is". Sorry, but it Always is. Thats is most likely the one singular selling point of our work. As for the oft spoken concept that we are a nitch market and the assumption from this being there is not enough work to support a lifestyle. This is one of those "check yer premise" type of statements. The reason being that no matter how small a nitch "Traditional Architectural Blacksmithing" may be, Ive never come across one out of work. Simply said and a Whitaker quote,, "there's plenty of room at the top". Meaning there are not enough of us to fill the nitch. Its a wide open market. Again, I praise your business acumen. However it does not apply to craftwork. The first step to success as any type of craftsman is to start thinking out of the conventional box. Choose any conventional details that will help, but you must find your own way. The pathway is tough, dirty, physically taxing and the failure rate is high, But,semi-serious- if you dont quit and stay in one place long enough, you Will succeed! Thomas, I repeat, a traditional smith is simply one who makes his or her living betwixt hammer and anvil. This is my definition. It is simple, concise and to the point. And removes all the intellectual egotism from the equation. This post is not meant to offend anyone. Its my opinion and i have dedicated my life to standing behind and living the above. You might say,,, Im "showing off" just what i am with the hope that my experiences will give a passionate new guy, or part timer or anyone the courage to push the envelope a bit harder purely and simply to just follow your dreams. There are no reruns, control alt delete is not valid, and the OS you have is all you get.

nice looking building. a little hand forged hardware would set it off nice!

Heres a other point of view, and im at that point as well, so its not a talk the talk kinda thing. Theres a few threads here asking those esotheric questions such as "why are you a blacksmith". And the answers span the whole philosophical spectrum Consider this: whats the first thing you, or anybody else, sees when coming up to your shop? The shop of course. Its a nice place to express to one and all, just what your work is all about.