larrynjr

Congratulations and great work. I'd love to be that good 2 years from now! Of course, if I were about to smith 8 + hours a day for 2 years, I could be. As it is, an hour a day 2 - 3 days a week is about as much as I can sneak in right now! Though I hope to get some extending hammering time in this weekend.

He doesn't read books either, he just stares them down until they give him the information he's seeking.

COOL SAM! Glad to see you back!

Enter "find chuck norris" into Google and click "I'm feeling lucky"

Unknown brand / model, bought on Ebay for $199.50. July 2004

110# Harbor Freight bought Fall 2004, NOT on sale. $89.95

Hi Mike, welcome to the best site on the web! One of our other member's; Farmer Phil live in Honolulu, perhaps the 2 of you could hook up. I've never been to the islands before so I don't know if you 2 are even on the same island!

I generally use 12"x1" x 1/4" flat stock for many of my smaller tongs and 12"x1"x5/8" for medium jaw tongs. There are multiple tong making blue prints here if you look in the first (000's-100's) area. Also if you look at my gallery there is a demo board from the Old Cedar Forge where I've taken courses before that shows the sequence.

Here are pictures of my new TP holder. I haven't been able to get a good view of the stopper, it is a snake head but the focus just won't work!

welcome butterthumbs, read the blueprints and skim the archives for projects and idea and just general interest. This is a great site. Larry

I've not tried that either though I rarely swear while forging, I know talking to the Lord normally makes me feel good. As my pastor says, we are all sinners. The church is not a rest home for saints but a refuge for sinners. There is nothing against drinking in the Bible, only drinking to excess. Christ drank wine and served it at the last supper, turned the water into wine. If drinking alcohol was bad in itself, it seems like He would have served something else.

That looks like a handled fuller to me.

That must be were I read about them.

Unfortunately that weekend is a kid weekend for me and I won't be able to make it to the spring conference. I'm hoping the fall conference will be on a non kid weekend so I can go. Do either of those makers have websites? I've seen something about the making of Kris's anvils before, I forget if it was here or elsewhere though.

I definitely think it would out of my price range if Hofi came with the anvil! Maybe just a one day personal demo visit with each anvil purchase? :D

I would love to see what Hofi's anvil looks like, I'm not sure how long I will wait though. I'd like to have it yesterday! I would think that the biggest drawback to a Hofi anvil would be the shipping to the US. Seems like you'd need a massive quantity to get enough of a break in shipping costs.

Those are some great looking curtain rods Don, I've got my step daughter getting married this summer and I've been looking for a project as a wedding gift. Something like those would be very nice. IF I can do half as well as you have done!

I still have been focusing mostly on tongs and other forge tools but I finished a wall mount toilet paper holder last night that has a leaf for a tail and a snake head for the roll stop. I'm also working on some hardie tools but MIG welding the shank from 1" angle iron then I'll add the desired tool to the shank. Now that I've figured out my welder and have a little more experience, I am enjoying the additional project ability. Also I welded a new stand for my propane forge.

The way that Nimba Anvils puts it on their site, their 450 lb. gladiator costs $5.05 per lb. not much more than the cost of lobster in Maine. The Rat Hole 460 lb. anvil comes to $3.94 a lb. not much more than a gallon of gas here in Wa. and cheaper than Diesel fuel! It's just having to pay for all those pounds of steel at once that makes them expensive.

I had not seen them prior to this. I like the looks of them, the steel quality is great, as is the price. Who owns or has used one?

Being a computer "systems engineer" and not a actual engineer I'm having a hard time understanding exactly what all those figures are telling us. It looks like the H13 gets it hardness rating at a higher temp. then the 8640. It is a "tougher" tool steel. How that effects the overall usability / quality of either anvil is beyond me.

duct tape, the Rat Hole Forge anvils are listed in that chart for comparison.

I found this anvil steel comparison chart created by a P. Michael Main and if I understand it correctly, the TFS anvils are made at least in part with ductile iron (cast iron) where as the Nimba's use 8640 steel. http://www.hybridburners.com/documents/M-Main-on-anvil-steel.pdf No contest and explains the price difference.