dablacksmith

ya should be good!

horshoe nail rings. tavern /wagon puzzles.old fasioned toy was a wagon tire (steel ring) and a stick roll it and keep it going using just the stick.flint and steel kit for the older ones .cant think of any others right now...

try L brand coal and coke company...i buy from them every year or 2 they ship palatised bags of coke to me ... i really like it burns clean hot and lasts a long time!

10-200$ really hard to give a price ...a nice 6 inch could go for 4-500$ on ebay ... ive paid as little as 10 bucks for a 4in but it had the post cut down...ide ck locally and see whats available... and you never know what kind of deal you will find!

champion started making electric blowers fairly early somwhere around 1900 or so i have a champion add from 1909 thats shows a electric blower so ... how early did the blacksmith shop have electricity?ide figure shortly after...

most of them dont seem to be safe to me... i would make one using a piece of strap that lays on top of mantle .. make it long and rivet hooks that hang over ... add weight to keep the whole thing from falling over if the stuff in the stockings get heavy...good luck

i use cloth aprons in the shop mostly to protect my clothes .. i never have shoed a horse so i really dont need the protection of leather .. also find leather to be warm around here were warm enuf ive burned um a few times but it keeps me from burning my shirt!

if a fool will pay that price then he has too much money and needs to spend it.... it is too bad that they think they will actually get someone to pay that price tho. ive seen stuff like that on craigs list .. one item has been on sale there for over two years at the same really high price and gets renewed every week or so...if i could get that kind of prices for my tools ide sell um in a heartbeat!

I'm not sure what horrible things have caused such caution with the wire wheels, I use mine every day, buffer mounted and grinder cup versions ( I do prefer the twisted cups for the grinder ) I can touch and brush against mine without gloves and it hardly does anything to my skin, I would fear a belt sander more than any wheel. Also the finish you get from taking a piece to the wheel hot can be very nice and scale wont stand for more than a second.
Even for getting into hard to reach places I use them:


Edit: I do keep my safety glasses on from the walk over from the anvil though I have only ever been hit in the legs with random slag~

tumble most of it... wire wheel is kinda dangerous to use (i consider it the most dangerous thing in the shop) as tou can fling things with um and the handheld wire cups can eat you!(dont ask how i know)..the tumbler is a required tool if your doing a lot of items and even if your not they are handy...

probably too hard you didnt temper it at high enough temp ... file steel is generally a fairly high carbon content and probably what is happening is its so hard that when you get to a fine edge it breaks leaving a ragged edge.. with out being able to look at it its hard to tell tho ..i have pretty much quit using old files for blades and instead i use um to make the edge of a tomahawk . good luck

ive seen a tool that uses a lathe bit to scrape it in... it works and is fairly easy to get a straight cut..

another option is to forge some blocks .... if you know anyone with a bigger hammer or press it is possable to forge shapes into fairly thick material (say 2 in or so) stock in oval and even spoon shapes . ive used several of these with a shank welded on to fit into hearty hole and they work well...just a thought...

that is a real nice sign! i like ot and its portable so you can take it to shows !

kinda personal thing but in my opinion it depends on what you make ... if your getting it hot and beating on it to shape its blacksmithing. If you are cutting drilling welding machineing it to shape your a fabricator. Bolth have there place ...

that was neat! it really shows tho that skill does make a difference ...the chair he made took wayyyyyy to long ... the show dosent say how many days it took but i can tell it was a long time .. a interesting show ..

looks more like a slit drift... at least that is what i would use it for..think forging hammer heads...

ok the idea is not to hold oil in the gearbox.... its a lube with a couple squirts of oil once a day type of thing.. and as to why not ball bearings everywhere? cause bushings were cheaper!might have been modified by a user who wore out the bushings,,, good luck

ya well my opinion on this subject is they have no idea what they are asking...most want to make a sword cause they cant afford a good one...and they think they will get by"cheaper" by making one .....and it will only take a "few hours" if i only "had the tools "... i have taken to sending them to the local knife maker that teaches... let him figure out how to tell the guy how tough it is to make a nice sword...i have started to explain the prosess a bit tho ... And let um know that fore every 15 minutes of forging its usually 2-3 hrs of grinding and finish work minimum... also kinda get tired of the "can i be your aprentice" types also the are really asking can i come over to your shop waste some of your time for a few hours till i get my project done then you will never see me again....oho and i will work for free! ha! sorry will stop the rant now......

on that particular piece i would use a square rivet and punch square holes to keep everything from moving and not staying lined up...as far as the rounded head there are tools you can buy or you could make one ... but making your own rivets is pretty much a waste of time for anything that isnt a one off..historically i havnt checked on when they were available mas produced but willing to bet it was early . probably 1750-1790 era or earlier...you could probably make um similar to the way nails were made....

a piece of work from a blacksmith they admire.....for example i injoyed takeing classes From Pieter Ross so i would injoy a piece he made just to look at and admire... just a thought ... cause any tool he wanted by now is super expencive or he already has it...

ive done a ton of demos ... keep it small and quick .. nails,hooks, leafs i you can do um quick and keep talking ... let um ask questions ... but keep um at lest a 5 feet from anvil ..(i use ropes or fireirons as a barrier)..and try to make it fun! btw aprenticeship could start as young as 10 AND LASTED 7 YEARS! so get um thinking..

there are tools to make holes ... a whitney punch is my prefered method tho the dont quite go back to the civil war era ...you could make a holder that holds the punch inline with the hole to use for punching .. it is something that was done ... good luck!

you might check with the nwba for members nearby ... the more help the better ... also a lot of people will want to use the shop once you have one ... you need to setup a way to keep any tools from being destroyed /walking away... I think its a good idea and would help if i was nearby ... are you going to the western states conference ? if you are see you there...

ide have um plasma cut from 1/8 sheet then finish as needed... it really depends on what the customer wants... was he looking for hand forged? maybee forge um from 1/4 sq?