J W Bennett

Frosty, Good work by a good man. John

I don't know anything about the diamond back forges, Can you post some pictures and have you tried to contact the manufacturer? Not much help, John

This has nothing to do with blacksmithing but I was headed to breakfast this morning and caught the sun just coming up at the bridgeton bridge. It was about 27 degrees out and the mist was rising off of raccon creek. Took these pictures and just thought I would share. John

My main forging station has a gas and a coal forge standing side by side. Then going around counterclockwise the power hammer, the 165# anvil, a 5" post vise with it's own stand, Swedge block with stand, small heavy layout table with another 5" post vise, 303# anvil and then a qeunch tank made from an old beer keg back next to the coal forge. The oil quench tank and the wood box with sand are tucked under the gas forge stand.everything is with in a step and a half ....close at hand. both anvils the layout table, the vise stand and both forges have lots of rails,brackets, pockets to hang hammers, hardies,tongs, swages and various other implements of destruction. I hate not having what I need handy when I finally decide to do something;) Also this is an arrangement that is very fluid depending on current needs. John

Use them for awhile, think about what works and what doesn't. Take that knowledge and make another pair. Welcome to the world of smithing, you can never be good enough! John

I have it, with Glenns permission I will send it to you on PDF, John

The best discription of leaf making I have read is in the best of the bits, you start from the center and work your way out with the pein of the hammer. like anything it takes a few to understand the movement of the metal. You have to decide once you have done a few dozen what you like. I switch between chiseled veins and hammered viens on a regular basis depending on what I am doing. John

Unicorn Forge, There are blueprints on how to make blueprints. If you go to the top of this page and click on blueprints it will take you to the blueprint index. Take the time to look through them. Most are photo's and words not drawings. If I had to draw the ones I have done they probably wouldn't be there (I'm not a sketch artist). If you look through them you will notice some are real short and some are real long. Take whatever time you need to describe what you are doing. I have not submitted any recently becuse I don't see them getting posted anymore. They seem to have lost 300 or so. once I see them getting posted again I will start submitting them again. At the rate they say they are doing them every week it's no wonder they're behind. It would be great to get them posted and if there's anything I or we can do to help make that happen let us know Glenn. I know we are all thirsting for the knowledge contained in those un posted blueprints John

Archie, This past year A local farrier and I had the pleasure of teaching the local 4H blacksmithing program. I can honestly say it was as much a learning experience for me as it was them. They ask questions that I never asked myself, sometimes I had the answers sometimes I didn't. I did not "make up" answers if I didn't not know I would find the answer by the next meeting. I did a forge welding demo for them and forged 3 chain links and welded them. The welds held but I wasn't happy with the quality of the 3 links. I started practacing forging and welding at least 3 chain links at every demo I do and then forging a fourth link and welding them to the main chain that I started with. The chain is now over 10' long. The only way to get better is to practice. I teach basics and am still learning the basics, You know more than you think you do but not as much as you wish you knew. If you could learn it all then were would the challenge come from. I have yet to be around other smiths and not learn something. John

I'm with Rob, drill'em or punch'em, rivet'em and tune'em and see how they work. Then you'll know what to do to make the next pair even better. John

The local abana chapter has a fella that set out to see what all he could make out of a spike. He made grill samplers, cheese cutters, trolls, door knockers, hinges, swans...on and on. I haven't been to a meeting in over a year but he was up to like 50 something items from spikes then. John

Had some "me" time at the forge the last couple of days and since we needed some more tongs for the 4H program this coming year I made 2 more sets of poztongs consisting of 1/4",5/16",3/8" and 1/2" poztongs. I followed the steps in the AFC best of the bits which is basicly the same as on the AFC web site and put the fullers on the side it says to and used a torch to isolate the heat. I have more trouble splitting the bits than I do anything else but thats just me. I started with 16" of 1/4"x1" so my reins would be a bit longer because we use propane forges for the majority of the classes. I have 2 more sets to make. It takes me about 30 min a pair more or less(usually more even with a power hammer for the reins). Here are some pictures of the finished sets. I still need to stamp 4 pair with the size and my initials. These are my favorite tongs for holding small round and square stock. John

Propane and coal in that order JOHN

I have a rack full of hammers and then some. All shapes and sizes but I am down to about three I use consistently. I have a haberman that I really like and use 80% of the time. I have a rounding hammer I use probably 10% and a swedish hammer that I use to move metal and I use it about 5%. The rest I use various sizes and styles for oddball things. I also have various sizes of ball piens I use for punch and chisel work. John

Jason, I recently bought a complete Vulcan fire pot with ash dump and clinker breaker from centaur forge. I am happy with the quality and the service was good. Shipping and all it was right at $200.00. It bolted right on to the buffalo forge I bought it for. In the past I have also made my own forge and firepot out of plate and sch 40 pipe. I still use that forge and it has held up well. I'm from north of Terre Haute, If I can help you in any way let me know. John

Greast Job Richard, John

Sounds like an accident waiting for an injury to join it to me:o