Leah

For building racks and such, I use 7018. If I am going to forge the weld, I have had good luck with 6013 blending in after I heat and beat it. Sometimes, I tack two pieces together with 1/16" 6013 then flux and forgeweld them together. Of course, I only resort to this after I have tried the "drop-the-tongs weld" at least three times. Sometimes I stick it the first time, sometimes I stick it with Miller.

Ron, there is a pretty active blacksmith group in Harrison, Arkansas. They are a nice bunch of guys. I think (but don't quote me on this) they sell coal to members at their meetings. You can call their president, Tom Upton in Rodgers, at number removed . His email is email removed.
You can go to the ABANA chapter site to find a link to them.

Tom, Casey and the rest of your family are on my prayer list.

My husband "kidnapped" my 25# Little Giant and drove 13 hours (one way) to take it to Sid at Little Giant. He had Sid pour new bearings, install a new set of combination dies and add a brake. All I have to do now is bolt it down, build a guard and wire it up. Sid told him the hammer had been well maintained and was in very good shape, now it is like new.

Merry Christmas everybody.

Welcome Larry. It sounds like you are off to a great start. A poker, rake and shovel were the first tools my teacher had me make when I first started.

Welcome Fred. I too have a neighbor who loves to smell my coal smoke. He says it reminds him of riding the train when he was a little boy.

Darn, Woody, you beat me to it. I thought I had finally been the first to figure one of these out.

Welcome Acier, there are a few of us girls that hang out around here. It is good to see another one. You will find the folks here more than willing to help in any way they can.

Angela, thank you for sharing your father's story with us. Have you ever thought about dusting off his tools and using them yourself? It sure is a lot of fun to play in the fire. There are a lot of women blacksmiths doing some beautiful work.

Those are great films. Thank you for sharing those links.

I love looking at old books like these, thanks.

Thanks for the link, Jr. Good safety information there.

Harold and his family are in my prayers.

Very nice!

Thanks, these are great. I have never tried this with my camera, it is something I need to do.

It is good to hear from you, Ian. I really like your ride.

My shop is a steel building that I had a company (here in Louisiana) put up. I have two windows on the north wall and a roll up door on the south wall. I had them put a 3' square exhaust fan at the top of the east wall and I have a ridge vent that I can open or close. The fan is has louvers that blow open when the fan starts and is at the top of a 10' wall. This set up has worked very well for me.

That is such an beautiful knife. I just love looking at it.

That is one good looking knife.

Great news, Elkdoc.

I will keep your aunt in my prayers.

Wow! Thank you, Jr.

I live smack dab in the middle of town with all our tiny yards back to back and side by side. We can't build open fires inside the city limits. I figured it must be OK to build one in my forge because everyone builds a fire to BBQ with. I have never had anyone complain about the smoke. Once, a new neighbor did come over to see why I had built a fire in my "wood burning heater" in July. He said he thought he was seeing things when he the smoke started rising from the flue. I made him a steak turner and he went away happy. I have to admit, I worry that someday the fire department will come and tell me to put the fire out, because I am not 100% sure that I am legal. I have a big fire extinguisher by the door and my flue is tripple wall, maybe seeing something like that will help my case if they are ever called. I just kinda adopted the "don't ask, don't tell" mentality.

Thank you. I never did know how that was done.