Dabbsterinn

i agree with frosty there, i have a söderfors dannemora myself, 120 lbs though, best anvil that I've ever used, im willing to bet that you won't be disappointed with it. like frosty said, just mind the edges, not only will they chip, the chips also fly off at really high speed and they're really sharp, a friend of mine got hit in the neck after his hammer chipped, nasty wound

yea i think that's alright

good idea Dave, i had a similar idea in mind for another type of this kind of a necklace, i'll be trying to make one tomorrow or the day after, will update with pics, thank you for your time to write this up, it did help

I've been warming up by making these necklaces for the past few days, wonderful things to make, all done over the edge of the anvil. these are a common sight at viking markets here in iceland atleast i included a video of how i do the curves, i've done it before with tongs and this method is a whole lot faster, atleast for me im aware of that i was using the wrong size of tongs at the beginning, i changed to a better size after dropping it a few times here's the video of how i shape them

yesterday i figured i't give this skull thing a try, was going for something akin to the punisher logo. SS is a whole lot harder to forge than i ever anticipated, but i did get the job done and now i have a rough idea on how to do this, i'll definately be making more of these

well, i did what i could and appearantly there is a sea-fishing tournament the same weekend so i won't be able to go, i really hope this becomes an annual thing or something.

get one of the magnets from hard disk drives, they're pretty small but one held up a 6-7 lb axle without problems and you better hope you won't get two stuck together, the edges chip before they come apart

yup, happened to my old one, good thing it was about time for me to get a new one, from now on i'll be carrying mine in my pocket at all times. i think it is possible to carefully disassemble the phone and somehow blow the dust out, my first idea is one of those computer dust thingies

thank you for your input tommy, i was just gonna go regular working height, 98 cm/ about 3 feet for me, from floor to the firepot of course, i'll measure it out and increase/decrease that height with aim of your suggestion

i'll either weld on longer legs on my forge or make a new one, i don't really want the hood any lower, if it would be any lower i'd constantly be bumping into it, thank you for the suggestion

I can assure you that the chimney works as it should, i've lit the forge a few times and im still alive, admittedly it didn't move ALL the smoke out but i think lighting a newspaper opening in the chimney should get some draft started, either way it doesn't really smoke all that much, not at all actually once i've got the fire well on its way, you see the fire in some picture, that's an unusual amount of flame though but it's because i was burning some woodchips with it, leftovers from a failed attempt at starting it but if you're concerned about oxygen, then i keep the doors a good bit open while forging, unless there's a crazy storm blowing into the smithy, then i'll probably just stay at home. there's also a good hole besides the chimney that you don't seein the pictures, there are also holes here and there where it's just rusted through, so any gasses that rise have a way out. yet for safety reasons, i'll be finding myself a Co² measuring thingy, or something alike, canary bird if all else fails :D, but until then, which will be soon, i'll evacuate the area as soon as i notice something being off, feeling sleepy, heavy breathing, nausea and any other things that might be the result of CO poisoning, or internal suffocation, i'll try to get a video of the chimney in action if i go there today

I think handles are a personal preference, so i'll just be sharing my opinion and if anyone wants to comment on it he/she is welcome to do so I make all my knife handles from branches, start by getting a branch (after removing the bark and letting it dry) that feels a little bit too big for your hand, that opens up the option for some modification and make it more ergonomic i do this mostly because I don't want to buy hardwood or anything like that, i prefer working with what i can get myself for as little money as i can, if you can get some nice maple, hickory,ebony or anything like that, i suggest you do that instead what i do, sure it may take more work but im pretty sure it would turn out better (sidenote: I've been warned about using oak for handles, i was told that oak and sweat produces cyanide which eats up the skin on your hands, i have no proof of this other than word of mouth from some guy) i hope anything i said here helped

hm, sounds like a swiss army pipe lighter to me, if you'd add the tampering thing (for one who's made 5 pipes, i know very little about smoking and don't even do it myself)

i actually have no idea, i was just watching there, i'll see if i can't pry some information from my uncle who owns it, maybe take it for a spin if i can scrounge up some stuff for a damascus billet i edited the first video a bit, it should be brighter now

so i, being the knife lover that i am, made three knives during the festival first off i made this small butter/cheese knife in the elf lady style then later on i made this small skinning knife i suppose i can call it fun fact, this was a part of the course on how to case harden things, it's made out of mild steel but it should be at around 0,7% carbon content, about 3-4mm into the surface we estimated, i'll put a nice rosewood handle on that with brass fittings once i get that nice knifemaking book in my hands, i hope there's a part on handlemaking in there then comes my favourite one yet, the one i'll probably mess up with a grinder next weekend im trying to make something along the lines of a lapinleuku, more commonly known as a Sami hunting knife, and im currently debating wether i should go with a reindeer antler handle or a birch handle, opinions anyone?

the day before the tournament, i realized that i didn't have a tong for holding round stock smaller than 12-15mm round stock so i decided to take on this long overdue project and made myself this pretty pair of short reined tongs that hold 8mm round and will also hold flat stock pretty well, it's very nice for holding knives by the tang i had a bit of a problem with the rivet, first when i thought i was done the parts were a bit wiggly to the sides, so i popped it back in the forge and whacked the rivet better down, turns out i did it a bit too well and it was so well stuck together that i had to put the reins on the horn of the anvil pointing up and wedge it down on the horn, but it eventually came loose and i could hit it with a bit of WD-40 and it works like a charm now, no moving side to side, just up and down i prefer short and thick reins like this for a few reasons, one is that i can move it infront of my body and still stand close to the anvil, other is that i feel like i have a better grip on it if i have the reins thick like that, if anyone knows/thinks otherwise, do tell me, im always open for suggestions and advice

So as some here might know, the smithy here has had a Demoor powerhammer in the corner, without a motor and some other things, but good news to everyone who is saddened by those words, it now has a motor and those other things, only problem is the wheel on the motor is too small so it's hitting too fast, but that will be fixed very soon when we get a hold on a new wheel first time turning it on and here's a damascus billet being welded with it. (action starts at 3:15)

Today 12 Icelandic smiths tested their skills to see who could make the best door knocker in 3 hours the winner was the amazing Beate Stormo with astonishing symmetry (third one from the right) second was Ingvar Matthiasson with the out-of-the-box thinking stone knocker (sixth from the right) and in third place was Óskar Yngling Birgisson with beauty through simplicity (eight from the right) I don't know in what place I was, but I was told that all of the judges agreed on that I had the most complicated piece and I may not have been in the top three but I at least thoroughly enjoyed the three hours I spent there, with all those fantastic people, and I also got a pretty sweet dragon door knocker here's the whole piece, i might add that this is my first time making something with this many components the striking plate, top view of a double bick anvil, the hardy hole is a bit off center but i just say that it's at least on the piece. I was in a hurry to get this over with because the time was running out the knocker, something along the lines of a Thor's hammer but to me it's more like just an ordinary hammer, the handle is this big on purpose, to give it some mass and weight without being awkwardly long the ring that it hangs from is nothing very special, i'll probably re-do it next time im at the smithy, originally i wanted to make it out of brass but as it turns out i couldn't find my brass rod that i have somewhere lying around now for my favourite piece, the dragon that holds the hammer, this is actually only my second time making a dragon head like that, i made one yesterday just as a practice piece a better view of the chisel work, i did have a slight run-in with a thing called too much heat there, but to me it gives the piece an interesting texture, just a personal opinion here's the dragon's spine, i think that part turned out best now for the last section of the piece, that one was really a big pain for me, no tong i had or could find would fit it nicely and it was just annoying to scroll and work with, and not to mention to get that thing to hold the head up here's the way i held the dragon head up to the piece, it was originally supposed to reach all the way back down to the piece but time and a hole too big didn't allow so this may not be as i wanted it, nor extremely beautiful, but I'm very happy with and i think it's a success to have managed to make this with only a year or two experience under my belt and i was also working in a very confined space, behind three forges all running at full blast, i barely had enough room to turn around and the anvil was some Chinese light-weight double bick deeply marked dead soft thing with neither a hardy or a pritchel, i used a really big nail header (im talking inner diameter of more than an inch) as a hole for pushing the punch through i think it proves that you don't really need a fancy, completely flat, straight edged söderfors/peter wright/ fisher/Vulcan/whatever, to make something pretty (i can't deny though that having one of those would have helped a whole lot the competitors along with the judges, John Simpkins, Michael Maasing and Jon Olofsson

I have two stories like that first one was when i was working at the shipyard, painting bottom plates for industrial freezers, really heavy things, 3m x 1m of that stock that looks like [ with a thick sheet metal plate in the bottom i was done with my 5th one and had to hoist it up onto the ones that were drying, we were two working there, i was using the crane and guiding one end while he guided the other. I had my hand on the side of it and i, being the smart person as i always am, held onto the end of the plate and was looking up at the crane, turns out i didn't have it quite high enough so when i moved it forward my fingers were in the way, fortunately for me my co-worker spotted that and yelled at me so i barely felt the pressure on my fingers, but it was so close the fingertips of my glove were caught between and i pulled my glove off on that second one is blacksmith related and our foul enemy, the galvanized metal so i was up in my smithy, just finished with my sinking tool, decided to give it a spin and fetched my 3mm plate that i got from my dad, appearantly he either wasn't aware that it was galvanized or took the wrong plate, he knew perfectly what galv can do to ya from first hand experience so seeing how i don't have a massive ball peen or a massive arm, i decided to heat the plate up, as soon as i saw a tiny bright yellow spot developing i knew what was happening, quickly covered my nose and mouth with my elbow, threw it in the slack tub, opened the door as much as i could and walked over to the porch and sat down there for 15 minutes or so it was blowing a bit and i had an outdoor smithy with one door and a container (which is now my current smithy) on one side and the house on the other, and the wind was so that it blew straight through with the door open i consider myself really lucky to have made the mistake of heating a small nail once and by doing that knowing what burning galv looks and smells like, i also thank everone here who have told me and everyone else how badly galv can mess you up, and as for those who know what happened to Jim Wilson, they really know what it can do and he was also one reason why i knew to get out FAST and ventilate the area well