Bad Creek Blacksmith

Welcome Pinetar, You would still want a post vise, they are constructed to take the energy of the hammer blows down the leg and spreads out from there. Besides the way a post vise is made you can clamp longer material verticially in it. Most blacksmiths have more than one post vise, depending on the room they have. In your area you have the Western Reserve Blacksmiths a very good group of people.

I told my wife I wasn't getting enough forging time in and was going to take 1 or 2 days a week in the shop. If I could get away with it it would be 24/7 I don't have a problem.... but she does.

What is the best way to shine copper? I made a copper ladle bowl with a hammered finish and I don't want wire brush marks in the finish.

Besides asking about knives and swords they ask do you make horseshoes. I did have a great time and the shop I worked in was built in 1861 and was located in the town I live in. I also got some history on the Blacksmith that owned the shop from some older folks that hung out there as kids. Pretty neat stuff!!

pkranko I signed in as a individual, even had my sons with me. As far as I know this is a single location, the scrap yard is M&K Metals located about 20 miles west of Toledo on Rt.2 and 20A.

This past Teus. and Wed. I got to demo for the County Schools. The County had what they called a Agriculturial Fest for the fourth graders from the area schools. We talked about what a Blacksmith would make for the farmers back in the late 1800's. Then I forged a simple J-hook with a twist and gave it to the teacher to hang in the class room. On Wenseday my son's class came through and I had him helping me at the forge, we had a good time and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Can't wait until next year to do it again.

In Ohio all I had to do is sign a release form to go into the yard to scrounge. Try calling around to private scrap yards to see if you can buy scrap metal from them.

My experience was that there wasn't any codes on forges. So I installed my chimney a little bit like a wood stove and used a 10" floor duct for the chimney. I have a side draft forge but the chimney goes through the ceiling and roof. The only requirerment was a letter from the Fire dept. for the insurance company. Check your building codes for your area.

It is always fun to demo, I demo at the National Threshers Convention, County Fair, and this year Soil and Water puts on what they call Ag days for 4th graders at the Fair grounds and I'll be there to demo. My youngest son is in 4th grade and he doesn't know it but when his class comes in the blacksmith shop he will be making a J-hook.

Brian, Thank you for the knowledge that you have. Please add more pictures of the collar tooling, it is late here and my mind is not functioning as it should. Beutiful work some day I hope to be at that level.

Just a little info, for anyone living or passing through Northwest Ohio, Fulton County Fair is starting Sept. 4-10. Blacksmith Shop will be opened daily stop on in and shoot the breeze. The Fair grounds is on St. Rt. 108 North of Wauseon, Oh. The shop was built in the 1800's and was located in Delta, Oh., it was moved to the Fair grounds in 1978 and has been in use since then. There is two brick side draft forges and one was replaced two years ago.... no foundation under it.

Dennis coal is coming from Kentuckey now and is at $17.00 a 50# bag, they are going through a broker now to get their coal. I have known Dennis's for many years and unless they have just made a trip to get more coal this price is correct. I will call them tomorrow and find out it's a local call for me.

You live in Southern Ohio save your money and in September head to Troy, ohio for SOFA big shin dig and find alot of good tools. Can't make it this year try next year.

I was in the blacksmith shop at the County Fair watching the smiths work, asked one of them how I could learn. He took my name and number called me when the next open forge was in our club, I was hooked. We ended up making a pair of tongs what a great project. I was a carpenter by trade and was sick of wood working and wanted to try some thing new. Need to do some forging before this County Fair and only have a couple of weeks to get it done. My 13 and 9 year old sons smith they started out making j-hooks out of horseshoe nails then j-hooks out of 1/4 in. stock. The 9 yr.old is making arrow heads out of bar stock. Find a club in your area or read books, can't do it if you don't try. Good luck!!!

I was talking to a friend of mine that's a policeman and a farrier about getting a rounding hammer, next thing I know he's handing me one of his. He was on the mounted patrol and the city payed for him to be a Farrier and to shoe their horses and they bought his tools and it was an extra one he had. I also was given two post vises to me. I don't expect people to hand these tools to me, but when they do you really apprecate it.

Walking dog has a nice bp on making bells, I'll try to get a hold of him to post it. They are very nice bells using all different sizes of pipe.

It is a nice building but the cost of operating it would be a burden to anyone. There is a reason why it's standing empty. Yes there is something special in working in an old blacksmith shop, I work in a 1865 shop at Fair time and a couple of other times during the year. Two years ago we had to replace one of the forges and if the brick wasn't donated it still would not be done. I agree with UnicornForge sounds like they want the cake and eat to. Keep us posted if it gets up and running it be a nice place to visit, a little weekend trip for us.

If you don't mind driving 2 hours or more and sometimes less there is Northern Ohio Blacksmiths. In October we meet in Ida, Mi. thats just south of Dundee and you can stop in at Cabela's, even if your not a hunter or fishermen it a great place to visit.

I make small crosses out of 1/4" square, and cut them on a bandsaw, I clamp the peice in some vice grips to save fingers and the peice. Took a few to make it look good. The ones I messed up on just made smaller crosses that way people have a choice of what necklace they want. Another thing I've found out the smaller the work the harder to do. Good luck in the future.

First sentence it should say if you drill, I'm not there to help unless you want to pay my way I could use a vacation.

If we drill the holes after you have the wall up, you have a 100% chance of all the holes lining up through the 1x4 or 2x4 plus the drywall and into the double 2x4's. this is going to be a two person job. Take a scrap piece of plywood cut the angle you want your pipe at, hold the plywood up to the wall and use it for a guide for the drill. Hope this explains it, it work for us and the rack is still there. I'm not bragging here been a carpenter for over 20 years just trying to help out, now its up to you which way you want to do it. Good luck and get that shop done and pound some iron!!!!

Are you talking about having your storage rack sticking out from the wall and not in the wall like in a recessed area? If that is my understanding build every thing like you explained but save some time and headache and drill your holes after every thing is built. You can buy long ship auger bits at Home depot or other store like it. We built a pipe rack at our companies warehouse, but drilled the holes at an angle so things wouldn't roll off. In my shop I just have three shelf bracket lagged to the wall and no problem with the weight.

Thank you Divermike, that's what I was looking for.

Thanks for all the info, our club did a build just before I got into blacksmithing. Our Hammer-In as last weekend with Clay demonstraiting, I was there on saturday only and didn't have a chance to talk with him. I guess I'll just have to look at one already built. I didn't want to cheat Clay out of any money if he had blue prints and/or a copyright on the tire Hammer. Thanks again for all the help.

Please if anyone knows how I can get a set of tire hammer plans let me know.I would greatly appreciate it.