Marc1

i suggest you buy a Nimba Titan ... 120 lb, made in the USA. Or a Refflinghaus model 56 or 56a.

When I admire the dedication required to restore, clean or otherwise make work again this museum pieces, (I am a great fan of the Ford model A) if it comes to drill holes, I wouldn't use those contraptions if you paid me to do so. They are unsafe, slow, large footprint, weight a ton and do the job of a $50 handheld drill ten time slower. I concede they are nice to look at

A search for "listing of blacksmiths" in France contains 4,579 names, with 66 in the region of the Pyrénées-Orientales. Marill is a blacksmith, a job North Americans associate with horseshoes and swords. Marill is not employed at a castle, but rather out of a workshop in modern-day France. Ironwork is his job, art his passion. Like many people in France’s Languedoc-Roussillon region, he has combined the two. In terms of the job sector, Blanc and Jean think there will always be a demand for blacksmiths in this region of France, due to the high number of centuries-old buildings. Modern cities like Paris may not need as many experts in the art of ferronnerie but ancient towns like the medieval city of Carcassonne will always need restoration. “America doesn’t have any 12th century churches,” says Jean. “But we have many of them.” had tp change to a readable size font

Nice job CC, makes it twice as valuable because you made it for your sister It is probably too heavy to be practical but making it with lighter stock now that you made one, will be easy. If you forge a little bump in the pin just in the right place so that it can not slide out too easy, you can make it shorter.

I second the thought that UK has the lowest prices for anvils and that the asking price is way over average if it was in good nick. If it is cracked or damaged in any way. forget it. My personal opinion only. Ask 'the iron dwarf' one long standing member here, that lives in the UK for a lead to an anvil merchant that buys and sells hundreds of the things.

You give the horse coffee?

Close but no cigar. Both from Latin, Tumultus (accent is on the second "u") is a loud noise and Tumulus (accent on the first "u") is a pile of dirt or stones. Yet Tumulus and Tumor are related, and no it is not that tumor sends you under the tumulus, it's that both mean swell.

The above is a simplistic and outdated notion. Languages adopt words from other languages according to geopolitical influences of the time and in a process of hundreds if not thousands of years through usage. That is how languages are formed. Happened back and forward to and from every single language under the sun. latin French and English were used in the 15 century in England for different reason and purposes. Today, English is by far the language that exports massive number of words to other languages rather than adopt them. The merging process of languages today, is rather interesting to observe. It can be fuelled by pretenses of erudition or by plain illiteracy and poor knowledge of the person's own language, either way, the use of an english word or a bastardisation of one into a foreign language becomes common, is used ad libitum by public figures and media, and then adopted officially in their dictionary. If you are interested, and your local TV broadcasts the Philippine news, spend some time and try to listen. when a common person from the street is interviewed, you will understand nothing. Pure Tagalog used. As the social status of the person rises, say they interview a shop owner, then a teacher or a politician, the number of english words used .by the interviewee increases. If you then listen to the president speech, you will understand almost everything. The same if you listen to Maltese news. Goes from 50% arabic and 50% italian to almost all Italian. Language purism is an academic exercise that is also outdated and futile I believe from the 19 century.

Any soap will do, or you can use oil. By the way mosquitos do not "respire" they breathe. They do have a respiratory system, but ... synonyms do not always mean the same

Yes and no. if your muscles are sore after doing a particular activity, it may be a good thing unless it is your lower back muscles. If instead it is your joints that are sore, you are doing something wrong or something you shouldn't do at all. Hand forging is an asymmetrical, repetitive, high impact activity done in a semi stationary position and most of the time without the benefit of a warm up, stretching or light start. Unless you are built like a tank and only use 10% of your strength for forging, you are bound to get sore joint, bad back, elbow or shoulder bursitis and other marvels. You can of course get in shape just by doing your work, however most of the time, it is necessary to do some strength build up that is symmetrical, and endurance or resistance training even if it is 10 minutes a day at home. Any job that requires the repetitive use of one limb over another over and over, needs to be done with care.

The last logo design are nice and I like them. However what I like or dislike, has little to do with what your potential customers may or may not like. When you need a new logo, all you need to do is run a competition among professional logo makers around the world, that will come up with things you never dreamed of and for very little money.

You could attach a worm gear to your vice screw and attach the gear to a small washing machine motor via pulleys. Easy to change the ratio of the pulleys if they are too fast or too slow. Seen some worm gear reducers on ebay us for very cheap, around $30 or so

Absolutely. Emotions play a grand role in the artist production. The mood or otherwise emotions or even emotional imbalance or disturbance produces different kinds of art. Bach was a family man well recognised and paid and his music shows exactly that. Compare with tango music or blues, screaming for help from deeply depressed artist. There are many examples of artist who could only paint if drunk. I remember my most prolific times at writing were when I was in emotional turmoil. Once back on track the muse was gone. Ergo ... art is the expression of emotions and an attempt at others to see or feel it. Craft has little relation with that but I agree that it has nothing to do with what is "better" if art or craft, but rather what is the purpose.

That is a good story. In Japan it is custom to paint or decorate in some way the back of a wardrobe that sits against the wall. As for art vs craft ... what is music? Is it art/ Most people would agree it is. Yet is can serve a very practical purpose to attract customers, to induce people to gamble more, to get couple to dance etc.

Guaranteed to prevent scale to get between your toes.

A real balancing act What about the use of the word balance to refer to a scale? Do you call a scale a balance? That is spanish or italian or french to me, not english.

Some interesting thoughts there George. That is how you price an industrial item in a factory. Prime material + cost of machinery and other expenses required + labour. Maybe you need to redefine what you are selling. When I hate the "progressive" system of taxation where I pay a higher percentage because I have more, rather than everyone paying the same percentage, free market is the perfect area to exercise that sort of concept. Every manufacturer that sells in different markets and countries needs to adjust his prices according to the acquisition power of the average punter. It is the same product but different buyers value it differently. No point being dogmatic here. The definition of price as the intersection of the supply and demand curve is a good indication. Price is not real value, but percieved value. it is how much a person is prepared to pay according to the choices offered to him. And last but not least, when it is difficult to define art vs craft in a sentence, clearly someone making a bottle opener has in mind producing something to open a bottle. A secondary thought may be to make it real nice or unique, but it still a bottle opener. A painter or a sculptor that make something, have the idea to put on canvas or stone their own emotions and transmit them in that way to others. Sure they also can be seen as a practical way to decorate a wall or a garden, but the main aim is something less practical. Emotions are emotions, good or bad. I doubt I would like to own Munch's "The scream" and hang it on a wall ... come to think of it it may be a good investment, but that is another story. It is clearly art and will move good or bad emotions according to who looks at it. I severely dislike it ... sold in 2012 for a cool 120,000,000 The lines are blurred many times ... take a gargoyle for example. Is it art or craft? Did the author have it's practical function in mind, that is to channel rain water, rather than to produce an emotion in the viewer? I don't know, never made a gargoyle before ... come to think of it, I may just make one

Ha ha, all whilst wearing artificially aged blue jeans

Absolutely gate post, gate hinging on the main bearings

To all veterans ... to my dad ... and to his dad ... thank you.

So true! ... reminds me of my architect brother who favours the industrial look just because of his severe left leaning ideas that declare all art as decadent and superfluous. But ... by definition even something built to seem devoid of any artistic value, can be considered artistic just because it does have the effect of producing emotions in those who like it. Perhaps the most famous object in such style is the Eiffel tower. Then ... if you consider who decides the value of object of art, and how they are valued, all bets are off. I would like to be a fly on the wall of a museum 500 years from now, that clean and restore Das' lovely sculptures, and team up to interpret the author's message and meanings ... perhaps an attempt at inducing an industrial look into nature?

Ha ha. At least we have a prototype ... The one thing that intrigues me in that first article is the use of the word "balance" for scale. Rather odd, from the latin, since older scales had to balance a standard weight with the object to be measured. So we lost a few micrograms from the prototype ... mm ... i think we are all entitled to a refund.

I have no doubt that your stand will stand for a long time. Consider the relatively pitiful shock you impart at it by hand after most is absorbed by the anvil, compared to the shock concrete in that size can withstand and you are miles ahead. i would have tried fibre reinforced concrete to get a multidirectional reinforcement as an academic exercise, but with the size steel you used, it seems overkill either way. The only reason folks object to a concrete stand is because it is not done. I would love for you to build a concrete striking anvil with just a thick steel top plate. Oh no! it will crack! Anathema!

Some of the decorative blacksmith or architectural like they are referred to sometimes here, use prefabricated parts to put together large work like balustrades, fences and the likes. The main supplier is a factory in Venice, and the quality is not bad. I bought some of their stuff in the past and it blended with my work OK. It's a compromise that saves some time and if you chose the parts correctly you can do a decent job. One could call it "outsourcing", laziness or cutting corners depending from where you stand. It is just another option if you have access to decent suppliers. The Hebo machine, particularly the one that operates hot, is another consideration that can produce decent quality work and keep a larger operation viable. Having said that, the days of the small blacksmith workshop making utility items is long gone and in my mind the only two avenues seem to be sculptures or blades. Time will tell. We live in interesting times.

I like it ... it looks ... organic