Jerry W.

I have a 50# Moloch and my Bride bought me a Mark In-Line Treadle Hammer as a retirement gift. I think I am going to get the air cylinder for it. She got from Amy at Pieh Tool. Jerry

At one of the Balcones Forge meetings late last year, William Bastas and Henry Stone forged an anvil that came out to about ten pounds. Henry Stone worked as the striker. It was a very impressive demo. Some hammers just wish that they could hit as hard as Henry.

With some sterile gauze and a half dozen cravats, you can bandage just about anything. The cravats work well with splinting, you can improvise on the splints themselves. This would allow you to get somewhere to doctor the wound properly whether that be the hospital, minor emergency clinic or home.

Looks like you can multi-task. Forge and feed the chickens all at the same time....

Either one of them by themselves can wear a person out. Who knows what can happen with the two of them together. It should be great.

Berryhill, Balcones Forge is a Central Texas Blacksmith Association. A lot of our members are from the Austin area and spreads out in all directions from there. We have several knifemakers in the group and they have been hosting meetings and demos for us a couple times a year. Check out Stormcrow on this sight. He has been very generous with his time and talents and we are very thankful for that. The others host at the Boerne Ag. Museum and have demonstrated their process of making pattern welded (damascus) steel using a hydraulic log splitter that they converted into a forging press. Johnny Stout lives close to New Braunfels and in the last few years, he has hosted a couple of meeting for us there in his shop. He can be found at http://www.stoutknives.com/. You can go to http://balconesforge.org/ to find more information if needed. We usually meet on the last Saturday of the month. Our September meeting will be the first weekend of October in Oldenburg. It is a joint meeting with HABA (Houston), North Texas Blacksmith Assoc, LAMA (Louisiana) and Balcones Forge. This event will start on Thursday and run through Sunday. They will be going from "Ore to Axe". They will start with iron ore, produce a bloom and later forge that into and axe. Our October meeting will be on the 26th in Devine, Texas. This will be an all day event with an opportunity for everyone to get in the fire if they want to. Last year AST from this site was present and forgewelded a farriers rasp into a throwing hawk. I am sure that, if we asked nicely, he would do that for us again. If you have any questions, give us a call, we would be happy to get you hooked up with someone that can help you, Jerry

Nice, if you can make it on the 26th of October, be sure to bring some show and tell. We would like to see what you have been doing.

Sorry you weren't able to make it. We do have a few smiths in the group that do it for a living. The majority are hobby smiths. Don't be afraid to attend because of your ability. They are a great bunch and will happily answer any questions that you might have. Make plans to attend the October 26th meeting. I will be hosting in Devine, Texas. It will be an all day event with FOOD, FORGING and did I say FOOD. The weather should be getting cooler and we will have a good time. The demos will revolve around the Frederick Cross. There are a lot of variations and we will have several smiths there to show you how. There will be plenty of open forge time.

Thanks for the Balcones Forge plug Thomas. Kraythe, Balcones Forge is a great group. Many of our members are in the Austin area. We will be meeting this Saturday at 11:00 at the Hays County Barbeque restaurant in San Marcos. Due to the heat, we will not be doing any forging. We will have a membership meeting and following we will have a board meeting. We have Mark Aspery coming back next spring for our Bluebonnet Demo. We usually have workshops during the week prior to the demo. He is requesting that we have ten forges up and running for the forge welding workshop. Developing a plan of action to get these done will be the main topic of our discussion. It would be great to see you there and any one of us would be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Friends and family are always welcome too. Jerry

ChiefCodeX, Glad you were able to come out and spend some time in the fire. Hopefully, the weather will start to cool off one day so that we can spend more time at the forge. Jerry

Looks like you have been working hard. It's too hot to be standing that close to the fire here. Keep up the good work. Jerry

We have you all in our prayers.

A hydraulic press would sure be a fun tool to have in my shop. Some day maybe.....

Prayers coming your way from South Texas.

Very sad news as I start my first day of retirement from the San Antonio Fire Department. Prayers out to the Firefighters that lost their lives, their families, friends and the community that they served. This department lost 20% of their force. Truly a sad day. Jerry

A tough time for their families and the entire community. We will definately keep them in our prayers.

Very nice James. We are looking forward to seeing you and your work on the 29th. Jerry

We will keep you all in our prayers. Jerry

I live about 40 minutes south of downtown San Antonio. We got 3/4" of rain Saturday when SA got 10". I ate lunch with another blacksmith on the north side of SA this afternoon and on their surveillance camera, they had a video of the lady driving off into the water and the car being washed away. It was about 75 yards away. She was one of the fatalities. We are still in need of rain and hoping for more. Hopefully people will stay out of the high water if and when it comes.

I know it will be a trip for you but, Balcones Forge will be meeting on June 29th just southeast of San Antonio. We will be at Stormcrow's shop and he will be using his big hammer and hydraulic press to show us how to make a hammer. There will probably be several from the Austin area coming down. We would be happy to see you there. Jerry

You can always try the salvage yards. There are two on the south side of town. Ashley Salvage and River City Steel. Both good places to scrounge. They are on Roosevelt just inside Loop 410.

Frosty, I really enjoyed the pics. Looks like big footsteps to follow. Jerry

Mudman, I do not personally have one myself but, the Chile Forges are built just north of San Antonio in San Marcos. David is a member of Balcones Forge and there are a lot of the members with his forges. I see them quite ofted at our events and it addition to working very well they seem to hold up to hauling around to the different events. If I were buying a gas forge, from what I have seen, I would definately go with a Chile. Good luck, Jerry

Go to the Balcones Forge Home Page http://balconesforge.org/ and go to Mr. Charles Hummingbird. I have seen some of his and they are really nice. It has been a while since I was in the Gallery but, I think there is a finished one in there. Good luck, Jerry

Eric, we are glad to hear that you are on the mend. I hope that you will be able to hammer soon. Service to our fellow man is a great path. Good luck, Jerry