Joel OF

Like getting tools into the building to transform a farm barn into a workshop! Uneven floors are their enemy then I take it?

Hi folks, does anyone have any experience of using a manual forklift a.k.a manual stacker? I'm considering moving into a workshop where there won't be anyone else around to help with lifting heavy work or unloading awkward deliveries like 2m x 1m sheets of thick plate off the delivery lorry so I'm going to need an alternative to a forklift, which I can't afford. Any pros/cons people have experienced would be great as even the cheapest seem to be about £700. They generally seem to be rated to about 1000kg - 1500kg lift capacity. Cheers

Cheers all, great info. I'll go down the route of fabricating a new water cooled system as suggested...when I get the time! By the by, regarding blowers (as they got mentioned), I currently use a bouncy castle blower with a sliding gate to choke off the hurricane. Anyone know how these compare in electricity usage against "proper" blowers, e.g the new ones they list in the back of BABA magazine? From memory they're about £175 and are advertised as economical to run. (2nd hand eBay bouncy castle blower, £40). I'm in a shared workshop a.t.m where I don't really get charged for electricity but as I'm hoping to move into a solo space soon I'll quickly become more frugal.

Blimey I didn't expect that. The wet tue hole is 25mm so I guessed the same for a dry tue. I'll go with the wet tue consensus as the fabricator I work next to will have all relevent scrap & it sounds like a tried and tested method. Cheers all.

Well it seems the cast tue has well and truly danced its last tango as the crack runs from the top, over the tip of the cone, and into the inside. My local small steel yard has huge chunk of 120mm diameter (near enough 5 inches) solid round bar. I asked how much they'd charge for a 400mm length of it (approx 16"), they said £20 which seems pretty cheap to me. For the sake of simplicity I'm thinking I might just buy some of that and make it into a dry tue by putting a 25mm (1 inch) hole length ways through the middle. I can't see that burning up in any great hurry.

Cheer folks. I've got the ball rolling on some other potential places so onwards and upwards. Nice looking gaff Colleen. I'd go for it, it looks like it'll be a nice place to work in - I think a nice environment is quite important.

Thanks so much for all your help folks but unfortunately the NIMBY has won and the workshop has fallen through on the grounds that the hammering is too loud. I hope you don't feel like I've wasted your time, your info will no doubt come in use at a later date. Needless to say I'm completely gutted but in a sickly sweet sentimental kind of way I think it's also a sad day for blacksmithing in general because the estate's idea was to develop that spot into a craft workshop corner and if you can't have "the king of all crafts" there, then no wonder it's a dying trade.

Great video. As an ex drummer I've often thought about making percussion gadgets. Death metal drummer Derek Roddy (ex Hate Eternal, Nile etc) used to hit some stacks of thin flat bar with an aux bass drum pedal to create a "nice" grinding crash.

My success rate with bending forks isn't great & scrolling isn't really my favourite job (though I'm getting better at it) so anything that makes my life easier is a plus. I like the tongs for their simplicity as they have a predetermined shape. Use them the "right way" round to close up flats or the "wrong way" round to open up curves that are too tight. You don't need to hold the scroll either, you can just lay it on the ground. My first pair of these were actually some small tongs I made to hold bowls without marking the edges (as flat tongs do) & I grabbed them in a hurry to close up a small flat spot on a scroll, they did the job well so I made more of varying sizes.

Jig made by hand/eye/hammer/swearing. Got several of these to do for some fabricator mates, made to their sadistic design. The inside of the largest scrolls starts off on the middle scroll jig up to a certain point, after that I move onto another jig I made for the outer rings of the scroll. These tongs are really helpful at blending in those little lumps and bumps where one jig ends and the next begins.

Ha! We're arranging a noise test - I'm going to take along a grinder & my 1.5cwt anvil next week to make a racket and see how offended they are.

Hi folks, just thought I'd share a few pics of some useful tongs I made for removing flats in scrolls. I've made a few pairs of these to varying sizes so between them I'm pretty well covered against unsightly flats that creep in. I expect these are old hat and I'm reinventing the steel but hey ho. Use and abuse as you see fit.

​The plan is they're going to restore the whole building to suit me - concrete floor, redo the walls, insulate and fireproof the walls, setup an electricity supply so I can have an electrician come along and site all the lights, sockets etc to suit me. I've emailed the estate manager saying we need to talk about this a.s.a.p and that if I'm paying rent to run a business there I can't be told I've got to stop work whenever it suits the neighbours. I've also suggested we do some noise tests - I take along a grinder and make a racket and do the same with my small anvil (the one I can lift on my own) so this cottage tenant can see how much noise carries. I've become matey with another cottage tenant who lives way over on the other side of the estate (I gave him a 1-2-1 blacksmithing lesson) and he said all that wood goes through a very noisy chipper which is run every few days or so and when it's running it's going all day. The main estate house is somehow powered off the mulch they chip so it's a constant thing and there's an estate team regularly out with chainsaws, tenant farmer with machinery etc. Hopefully it's just crossed wires but it's not worth taking a chance on.

Cool, is this the one you said they were really attentive to the sound and mic'd your shoes? I'll prize myself away from the snooker to have a butchers!

Haven't gotten round to a stamp yet. If I did stamp my work I'd probably just stamp my initials. I should get my act together with that sort of thing but this gate is tucked away up a private road etc so if anyone sees it the owners will be there anyway.

Well it seems the estate manager has conceeded that a concrete floor at the forging/fabricating end of the workshop would be beneficial so the steels in the floor aren't required anymore, though they do sound great I think I'd be pushing my luck. At the weekend I got down to the workshop site to take some pics of my wing of the building. I mainly aimed my camera towards of that end of the building I just mentioned, in that zone there's an area of approx 6m x 4m without any tie beams in the way and there's very good roof height. It really does seem to be 1 step forward 2 steps back with this place, there's cottages on the estate that are rented out and when I popped down I happened to meet the tenant of the cottage that's closest to the workshop, his cottage is approx 65m away (measured on Google Earth). Seems like another conversation with estate manager is now needed regarding noise as he's got some interesting ideas about me quietening down when he wants to be in his garden.

Thanks for all your pointers with this folks, I took your advice on board and included more bracing - all with the client's prior approval of course. I'm self taught and only been smithing for a little over 2 years so this was a fantastic learning curve. There's parts I'm happy with and parts I slightly wince at. If I had to do it again I'd definitely redesign the subframe so I didn't have to create so much bracing from the climbing shoots. I'm happy to say the clients are delighted with the finished result though the clients wanted me to make the gate first then install posts to suit so I haven't got any pics of the gate in situ. These pics are of it in the workshop when I got it back from the zinc spraying firm. I took these pics before treating the gate in any way but after taking them I sprayed some clear laquer on some areas and lightly burnished some other areas in an effort to make the colour change at different rates, to increase the "organic" look. I'm a stick welder and I don't have a MIG welder or a gas torch...now I desperately want both. (If the pics come out on the wrong orientation can a moderator spin them around so they're right? No matter what I try some pics always upload wonky).

Thanks for the replies folks. After no having heard back from the farrier for a few days he rang earlier to say he didn't want as much as £200 for it & I can have it for £75. I told you he was a good guy. To be honest £200 was more than I felt comfortable with but as he's been so good to me already I thought I should repay him. Needless to say I don't feel so nervous about the project now & having a bit on an experiment. I found a good size hood for £60 at a salvage yard too so if that works out that'll save me some material & hours too!

I can't think of any examples off the top of my head but whenever I see products named "Soho" I always think the word must have a 2nd meaning because why would you name something so ordinary after an area of London that specializes in "gentlemen's entertainment"? Bethersden I meant actually. That's been bugging me and I couldn't think why. The heel hardy on my anvil is not tapered, the one nearer the bick taper down to a round hole underneath. Both start out fraction differnet sizes, the bick end one is smaller and conveniently takes 30mm tube for hardy shanks without any wobble. I think the point of having 2 hardies so you can forge 2 little bowls & weld hardy shanks onto them then put savory nibbles in one & sweets in the other, then you never have to stop for lunch.

Yep, haha. I'm on my phone a.t.m so I can't see your location - are you aware of Mather and Smith down the road in Hothfield? I only just discovered them the other day. Apparantly they're one of the oldest foundries in the country.

Cheers folks. No clue on it's rarerity. I expect that if you were allowed to rummage around some of the old local dockyards near to me you'd find a good few anvils of similar dimensions, probably some PWs too, but PWs with 2 hardies? Je ne sais pas...

There's a salvage yard near me that often has anvils & some other blacksmithing odds and ends for sale, needless to say the smaller anvils that can be lifted by the DFLs (down from London) and put into the back of their spotlessly clean BMW 4x4s sell for stupid money, but the bigger anvils the yard has go for a more sensible price because they're too big for Notting Hill gardens. Ages ago I spotted this big mother smothered in thick black paint and thought it'd be nice to have an anvil that size one day and left it as pie in the sky. At the weekend I thought I'd go back and have another nosey about and saw it was still there. From the feet, chamfered hardy holes and relatively thin heel I guessed it could be a Peter Wright but I'm no anvil expert and the paint was too redicliously thick to see any markings through. Remember the old paint is what sells these things to most people so I daren't pick at it (too much without being seen). This salvage yard just so happens to be en route back from the blasting and zinc flame spraying firm I use and today I took a gate along for treating...and then thought well I could use a little treating too. £280 delivered. After a light dusting with a wire wheel on the grinder enough paint was cleaned off enough to read some faded Peter Wright marks and 3 - 2 - 23. In new money I make that 188 kg, 415 lbs. Minimal deformation of the face and generally decent edges. Table = 5, 1/2 wide, heel to tip of the bick = 3 feet. The pic of my exisiting 1, 1/2 CWT Brookes anvil on top of the new Peter Wright doesn't even do the size difference justice. The real clincher for me was that the hardy holes are nearly exactly the same size as the hardy hole on my Brookes anvil so I'll be able to use all the hardy tools I've already made to fit my Brookes anvil in the new Peter Wright with just minimal tweaking. Joking aside I think this will be a great asset, not just an indulgence.

​Sorry, my OP was rubbish for detail! The shed he's been storing it in had a leaking roof which he didn't realise until recently so that's caused the hood/sheet to rust, and as far as I know that's also the cause of the rusted/cracked tue.

​Yeah I don't know why I didn't take any, maybe because it was tucked into a slightly awkward corner of a shed. I'm sure I'll go see it again soon to discuss and I'll take some pics then.

Hi folks, I'm curious for people's opinons on this ramble... I'm tempted to buy a water cooled side blast forge from a local farrier, approx dimensions 80cm x 80cm, it needs a lot of repair work and he doesn't know how much he wants for it so told me to make him an offer. Parts that need repair = some of the hearth sheet, the hood, a little bit of lightweight angle iron in the hearth, nuts and bolts, but for me most concerning is the water cooled tue which has a small crack and is leaking. Parts that are ok = galv back bosh, cast brackets that support the bosh, legs and main angle iron framework made from approx 50 x 6mm, cast back plate. I've suggested that I take away the cast tue so that me and the fabricator I work next to can have a go at welding it, if that works I'll give him £200 for the rest. If the cast repair weld doesn't work then it's not for me as new tues are expensive and the rest of the repair work is generally a big repair job that I expect will take 2 days + £200 for materials. I see used water cooled side blast forge on eBay / BABA now and then for approx £500 ...but they're a long drive away and will need collecting. New water cooled side blast forges made from mild steel to similar dimensions are £1,100 delivered. What do people think about cast welding the tue? The tue is the thing that makes me most unsure about the situation because I don't know how well the weld will stand up over time. It's a tricky one because he's a lovely guy and very very generous - he's already sold me a decent twin burner gas forge for £200, given me about 30 decent rasps and an old rounding hammer (small chip on the flat face) so I really don't want to offend him with a silly offer or come across as really harsh for something that he's still got a bit of sentimental attachment to.,,on the other hand I'm not made of money, far from it. Penny for your thoughts...