Jerry W.

Max, Welcome, there are quite a few of us Balcones Forge members in the San Antonio area. Look us up and plan for the trip that Thomas Dean suggested above on Feb. 16th. You will not be disappointed. We don't have our January meeting squared away yet so, keep an eye on the website for details. Jerry

Hello Joel. A great place to start is Balcones Forge. It is a Central Texas Blacksmith Association. A good part of our membership is located in the Austin area. We usually meet on the last Saturday of the month. February 16th we will be meeting in Bryan Texas at Steephollow Forge. This will be the third year that we will have a joint meeting with HABA (Houston Area Blacksmith Association). This year the North Texas Blacksmith Association will join us. This one is well worth the trip. March 22 - 24 we will be fairly close to the Killeen area. We will be having our Bluebonnet Demo just out of Marble Falls Texas. Our demonstrator will be Mark Aspery. You can find us at http://balconesforge.org/ We look forward to meeting you and any others that are interested.

Iron Song, CO should be a constant concern for all of us. CO is picked up by the hemoglobin (the oxygen carrying component of your blood) 210 times more readily than oxygen. There does not have to be a lot of CO in the air if you are in that environment for an extended period of time. I would recommend a trip to the doc just to be safe.

I am going to build myself a striking anvil. I found some mild steel 6in wide by 2in thick. I had two 16in pieces cut. They did not charge me for the cuts. I paid $28.00 for the two pieces. Together, they were 112 lbs. If things work out, I will start on the stand tomorrow.

I picked it up today and it turned out great. Now I will have to find time to make a stand. Looking forward to getting it done. I still haven't figured out this gallery. If I can get it figured out, I will post a pic.

Troy, Come see us in Marble Falls on the 15th. We will be at the shop of William Bastas and he is going to forge a small anvil. This will be a great meeting and demo. There will be many experienced smiths present and they may be able to help you with your issues. Hope to see you there, Jerry

Prayers sent from South Texas.

The steel was $28.00 and it will be $30.00 per hole.

Nice video. I watched it the other day and it has been haunting me ever since. Today, I went to a couple of salvage yards and, at the second one I found a 6ft piece of 2" X 6". I had them cut me two 16" pieces. Being much older and less motivated, I made a few phone calls and dropped them off. I am having the hardy holes cut with a water jet and they will be ready next week. It will be nice to have an anvil dedicated to striking. Thanks for the video and the inspiration. Jerry

Good luck! We had the Balcones Forge October meeting here last Saturday. It was a lot of work getting ready but, in the end, it was a great meeting. We had people showing up before 8:00 in the morning and it was well after dark when the last ones left. It is looking like we may have to do it again.

Another one to consider that I did not see is Gordon Williams out of Peih Tools in Arizona.

As Rich said, you can use a carbide bit. It will take pressure and high rpm on the drill to drill through the hardened steel. You do need to make sure that it does have a metal backing plate. If you do not, the carbide will break as soon as it starts to punch through. When we drill safes to open them, we use this method to drill through the hard plate that protects the lock. Good luck, Jerry

Kevin, There are quite a few very talented smiths in and around the Austin area. Kainon, one of the "Young Smiths" that demoed at the ABANA Conference works in the forge at Zilker Park. Come see us at Balcones Forge. We can be found at http://balconesforge.org/. The members are very sharing with their knowledge and talents. The last Saturday of September we will meet in New Braunfels at Conservation Plaza. Our trade item is a fork. October we will meet just out of the big city of Devine. Looks like this one is going to be an all day event. We will demo a bottle opener and may have a special demonstrator there to forge us a hammer. I am still working on this one. The trade item is a bottle opener. Dues for Balcones Forge is $20.00 or $25.00. This is a family membership. Members are welcome to forge at our meetings where we have an open forge. Our November meeting is in Hunt, Texas and we will have a "Judged Item" at this meeting. There will be a prize for the best goffering iron. After this meeting our next "Judged Item" will be in February when we get together with HABA in Bryan, Texas at the Lee Brothers Shop. This is an event that you do not want to miss. Jeff demoed spurs the last two years so we will be making spurs for February. You won't go wrong by getting together with this bunch. Jerry

James, it is always nice to see your work. Great job. Jerry

Glad to hear it went well. You are in our prayers, Jerry

Make sure that you install them to run in proper direction.

Balcones Forge has received two requests for demonstrators. The first is in Elgin, Texas on September 22, 2012. It will run from 10:00am until 5pm. This will be at the Elgin Music Festival. The second is in Andrews, Texas. This on will be from August 31 to September 2. They had a blacksmith scheduled to demo at the event but, the blacksmith had to cancel. I am told that The Chamber can help out with food, lodging and such. We have members in the Elgin, Texas area but filling the Andrews, Texas event is quite a distance. If anyone is interested in these, please contact me and I will forward the contact information. Jerry

I would try a little dish soap in the water. It will reduce the surface tension of the water. It actually makes the water wetter. Jerry

Thomas, We would have been at the Lee Bros. shop for the weekend had we not already had this planned and reservations made. I really hated to miss it. As far as moving down here. The grandkids won't be moving so we won't either. It would be tough to be that far apart. We did have a good visit and have had a really good trip. Up about 3:00 to head for home. If we don't waste time, it will be about a 13 hour trip. Jerry

Enjoyed the visit today Dennis. We will be leaving early and will be well out of town when the sun comes up. It was nice to end our stay with a visit with another blacksmith. Thanks again, Jerry.

I will be there tomorrow to see you. Looking forward to all of the Heritage Crafts. Jerry

Jim, the first anvil I bought was the 110# Harbor Freight. It is not the best anvil but, it was good for the price. I wish they would carry them again as I would get me at least one more to have set up in my shop for visitors that want to come and try their hand at blacksmithing. This way I can work to preserve my better anvil. Jerry

Sure wish I could be there. This is going to be another memorable event in Bryan. Thanks for what you and Jeff do for the Blacksmith community. Jerry

Don't forget our meeting tomorrow at the Boerne Ag Museum. This will be another great meeting for our knifemakers. After the demo we will have an open forge for members. If you have made any blades, please bring them for 'Show and Tell'. Hope you finished your trammel, Rudy has a great prize for the best one. We are looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. Jerry W.

Yes, we can definately do that. Prayers sent from South Texas. Jerry