Roastbeef

Awesome, great character, if I was receiving them as a gift I would be amazed, well done.

Pretty awsome work! I will never throw away another bandsaw blade!

Wow, amazing work. You could find an old tractor rear wheel center for the bath if you want. A lot of hard work has gone into that, well done!

Nice work:)

love it!

Great finish love the notch's on the blade, Phil

I like making bottle openers, they get a lot of use in our house, well done.

can taste the cider already, well done, I love the attention to detail, good luck with the cider.

Fantastic work, nicely finished, well done.

Really nice work, bravo!

Hey, great work, scales on his back too.

Brilliant work, I must get back on the forge, thanks for showing us. Phil

Hi, I live in France and these sort of hammers seem to be readily available for sale second hand at around 1000 to 1500 Euros (about 1200 to 1750 dollars). I have never seen one in action, or even up close, just seen them on internet auction sites. Has anyone any experience in using one ? Cheers Phil

Hi Guys, I really fancy getting hold of some bronze to work with. I like to make belt buckles, candle holders etc etc, so I guess I am looking for some 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch bar. I am in France so I think most of you won't be able to help with recommending suppliers, but my questions are: What type of bronze should I be asking for ? Do you work it cold or from the forge ? Is it expensive? What type of rods do you use for welding it ? Thanks in advance for your replies :) Phil

I don't know what to say !! fantastic vision you have - truly amazing - I will never again throw away a single bolt or broken spanner in the vain hope that I may be able to produce something like this one day! Love this forum Phil

I love your fish man !! how do you get the bluing effect? Phil

I guess you can forge weld although I have not tried yet, the burners have a stainless steel bezel welded on the end, they do get really hot and this may be a problem in the future. The air is adjusted by a simple 1/2 inch tap, air is supplied by a blower that I had for a paint spraying system.

Here are some pictures of my first forge, it was a process of trial and error - so here is the process I went through, and how I ended up with this design. Firstly the burner, using some 1/2 inch galve water pipe that I had lying around, I made my first venturi burner. This worked well but there was not enough heat, so I made another and put the two side by side. The venturi burners were not very efficient in the forge, there was a lot of un-burnt gas coming out of the forge opening - probably because I the burners were not getting enough air. Also the forge was too big, I had made it two bricks high. So I cut it down to just one brick high ( as in the photo's) and did away with the venturi system and connected a forced air supply. WOW this worked GREAT. The forge works really well, the heat is fantastic, I get almost a white heat, also I can "tune" the burners by controlling the air input and gas supply, I can regulate the heat for a "eco" mode or turn it up for max heat. Lighting it is a bit tricky, I normally throw in a lighted rag or tissue and then firstly turn on the gas - this lights up the workshop !, then I slowly introduce the air.

Your work is fantastic, I can see (as a newbee) the time these pieces must have taken - well done Phil

I'm going to give that a try this weekend - looks great - thanks for sharing 99

Hi Yves, the village is called "Gasques" roughly between Agen and Montauban.