Dabbsterinn

recently i learned two things 1) i can make a knife really sharp 2)im not a really smart man So it went down something like this, i just finished sharpening my new, shining Bowie knife (pics on their way, still figuring out how to work the camera) when i decided to give it a swing to see how well it chops but seeing how my smithy is located, there's pretty much nothing i could chop, except dandelions that grow like crazy on the field, so i picked one up, held it in my left hand and chopped away, that went pretty smooth and so i continued, 5-6 heavily mutilated dandelions later, somehow my common sense died with the dandelions and i nearly took the tip of my middle finger off, there was no pain really, just the quick "well, that's unfortunate" and walked back to my smithy, there i slapped some toilet paper and duct tape on that because i bleed like im in a Quentin Tarantino movie, then i was just tinkering with things in my smithy, putting tools back where they should be for a few minutes until my bro in law could drive me home, there i got some band-aids on it and then it started to hurt a bit, all of this is not really that bad, I've had far worse wounds than that and fixed with less but the real kicker was, that the next day at 6:00 i was competing in a sea fishing tournament, now as everyone here knows, the sea is salty, that doesn't really feel nice on a nice, deep gash in the fingertip, so i had it pretty well wrapped in band-aids then i was not really smart again and forgot to take it off until just earlier today, then it had been 3 days with it on, and oh dear, it looked like i don't know what, you know how your skin turns after being in water for a while?, like that, just a whole lot worse, it's fine now though and it's healed pretty well what I aim trying to say here, keep your off-hand about as far away from the knife as you can, i could have evaded pretty much all of my scars on my left hand if i had done that

I really hope that the smiths didn't write the description for the page after seeing this http://gyazo.com/b4cf16a9b121fa38a43ec6efb927305f

that's one beautiful axe, the shape kinda reminds me of those used in the Vikings show on History and some axes that i've seen in re-enactment groups and the scratching on it is just astonishing

well, if you really wanted to beef up your left arm, i guess you could make massive double lung bellows out of some 5mm sheet metal, you'll save some electricity and it should be useful for the forge (first i thought of this as a joke, but after a while, this actually would be a nice idea, maybe not 5mm though, more as 2,5 or 2, or aluminium even, and some clear plastic tarp would look neat, now I'll wait for someone smart to tell me why that won't work)

one thing I'll be trying to make a habit, always bring a snack, it really makes a huge difference on my mood even if im just slightly hungry and one of those fast boiling kettles too, warm tea would be fantastic in the cold winter months

some of mine is "always do better than I did last" and one that my engineering teacher told the entire class "always use the options of the brain" basically think well about what you're going to do, don't just muscle it through

i bet this would make a really interesting pattern on a ring, if you'd chisel the whole way around while it's flat and then bend it I'll borrow this technique next time im at the forge and if i post it here I'll of course credit this idea to you

this certainly looks like something that could serve you well, atleast from my point of view, there probably are some other people with other opinions. one thing that's a bit of a habit of mine to do with coal, i work a lot with some not so good coal, bituminous i think or something, has tar and sulphur in it so it smokes pretty bad if you add it too fast, i don't have the same problem with coke and charcoal probably won't do the same what i like to do is to have a nice pile of coal lined up around the firepot, slowly "cooking" them until they are coke i think, that's atleast how coke has been explained to me so thats why i like to have enough space on both sides and behind the firepot, also helps if you are working with a long straight piece and you don't want to have a tall fire but that's just my peculiar habits, take the advice if you want if you make another one. also a rheostat (heavy duty dimmer) or some kind of a valve to control the airflow can save you a whole lot of coal, good habit to close the airflow while there's nothing in the fire

Decent speakers i guess would be on the top of the non-essential stuff, I need metal in my ears to work the metal in my hands, also makes for a nice way of keeping rhythm when hammering

so the local smithy was open today, good to finally work with a roof over your head and some friends to chat with while digging through the stock pile, this thing here is the result of that not the prettiest one in the world, but to me, the beauty is in how well it works, maybe i'll slap a few twists and a scroll end on it though, if im bored enough at some point here's the whole thing the jaws, they were a bit tricky to get, took a while of thinking then i decided just to do it somehow and hope for the best i twisted the jaws a bit so they wouldn't align with the reins, for easier handling

i don't really know about the price of propane, but i think you have to rent tanks or something and that costs quite a bit if i remember correctly, and the group is called Íslenskir Eldsmiðir we pretty much only speak icelandic there but sometimes we post in both languages

you can weld some small stock, i think square would work best, over the hole, I've seen some forges made like that, you don't have to worry about them melting, seeing how the airflow should keep them from melting, or you could get a plate, thickness of your choice, i'd go with 5mm or so that fits over the hole and get busy with a drill

would also be nice to have a crucible to pour the water(or orange juice for colour effect) into the ice tray, (my imagination got triggered too)

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one thing that worries me a bit, it might be a good idea to get the paint off the buckets before firing up, it probably gives off some nasty fumes when burning off

well, blacksmithing isn't really a popular sport/industry/whatever it's classified as here in iceland, but if you know someone in iceland who can let you use their forge, then only things you might want to bring are your own tools, take a look at my travel tool kit for a guideline if you want,('?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>) but if you're going to set up a small place to forge here yourself, then a stake anvil and maybe a forge too if you can for fuel, here you just don't walk into the hardware shop and pick up a bag of coke, there's one place, Elkem, that has a lot of green coal i think, maybe you can talk to someone there and get permission to get a bucket of it

coal and charcoal mostly, I only know of two people here that have made gas forges, if you're interested in a viking age-ish forge you can come to akranes if there's anything happening in the museum, good chance that the smithy will be open then, the icelandic blacksmithing association also usually shows up on menningarnótt (culture night) which is held the first saturday after 18th of august, not in september but if you're coming here early you could catch it about the material, if you know the right people then it's no problem, i suggest you try to find fabrication shops, maybe you can get something there, atleast some advice on where to look for stuff

How are you planning on putting the plate on?, I can tell you from first hand experience that stick welding a plate on it won't work, I've tried it and it was just horrible, so unless you plan on forge welding it on there, going by the size of it it seems possible, you could also take it to a welding shop along with some refreshments and maybe someone can hard face it (cover the face of it with a hard facing welding rod, that's at least how i understand it). but a hard top plate isn't necessary, my first anvil was dead soft, my 4,4 lb hammer fell pretty much dead on it, agreed, not the best, but it worked, most of the work I've posted here was made on that anvil anyways, i wish you luck on obtaining this, it's a better idea than a granite anvil or casting your own XD

I'd guess that you'd have bolt tongs that fit in the fuller on the side, you could also just make a handle for that by wrapping some 5mm round around the fuller and twisting that into a nice handle size

that's exactly the kind of answer i was looking for, excellent metaphor too Im going there today, I'll take lots of pictures of it and maybe clean some more paint off it

well, if you do visit, there is a decent smithy in Akranes, there's a tournament there 29th of May to 1st of June if you're visiting then, I'll try to be there

the pictures are in the anvil section of the gallery, i'll be taking a closer look at how to get the pictures on the post tomorrow, when im well rested and thinking clearly