petere76

Chance, Using the tebar is not a good idea. It's an unknown and frequently has all sorts of impurities in the mix. You could forge out the billet and have the blade fail because of the unknown content. Just my 2 cents. Peter

I have four anvils in the shop. I was always working with iron but when I got into blacksmithing my buds came through with 3 anvils. One PW at 140 lbs from an old shop in Oakland Maine. Another good friend had an old mill in Mass, he used to recycle Kevlar vests, he proudly delivered a mint condition Hey Buden , 135 lbs. to me one night at our favorite watering hole. Cost was one beer and I had to hump it out of his truck into mine. Another friend had family that worked in a mill in Millinocket Maine. The mill closed and he gave me a 140 lb American when he got divorced. My favorite anvil was a surprise from my wife on Christmas, a PW , 150 lb. I opened her card and it read, look in the back of my car. Sure enough she had gotten me a 1900s vintage anvil from a friend in an old logging town in western Maine. I knew the whole family and they were all in on the Christmas surprise. That's my story. Peter

Wrought has a grain like structure just like you see in the pics above. Easily noticed if you bend it over. I recovered a bunch of scrap from remote logging cabins that were built around 1900. They used iron rod with threaded ends and a turnbuckle to tie the opposing walls together so the roof loading woulden't force them out ward. Primitive truss system. Peter

Western Maine, Eastern Seaboard, above 45 Deg N Lat. snow banks are running about 7 to 9 feet. Makes pulling out onto the road very dicey and exciting. Ambient temp right now is -2 F. Overnight will run to -12 F. Skiing is phenomenal. Working outdoors, not so good. This global warming is a killer. All you guys in the warmer latitudes, enjoy. Peter

Scotty, you the man, thanks for posting the info and the video with Tony. I used to walk up to the engineers union hall on for years. I met Tony.and he told me his story as well as giving me a tour of his shop. We sold the Freemont building some years ago and moved Over to Oakland. The Freemont street offices were torn down for high rise yuppie condos. The neighborhood was always somewhat of an industrial zone but most everone sold out when industry left San Francisco. I do miss the tempo of the old city as opposed to what it has become. Thanks for the posting. Peter

If you have ever visited an old shop that ran a production line, you may have seem a story board of sorts. Starts with the rough stock length and transitions through the isolation and finish forging processes. I saw an old shop in SF that had all manner of storyboards on the wall. The shop still made manhole lifting tools and parts for the old trolley cars in the city. The place was originally run by a German whose daughter married a local guy. The German was a master smith and he taught the young man the trade. The shop is or was a block off Folsom cross street Freemont. It was hidden behind a power substation, a real class act. I meet the young man, he was the last survivor and he got the building declared a historical location. I believe they use the forge occasionally for classes. If you are out there, try to visit when they are open. Peter

Art, To thine own self be true , enjoy the ride. All the best, Peter

Art, What if you make both he railing and the end termination separately and weld to accomodate length? Say you have 20 ft sections of rail already formed and fabricate supports and end configurations to accomodate the specific installation site. Not exactly cut and paste as you say. You seem to have disdain for the method as opposed to the result. In the interest of production, let me quote an old expression. One fellow rides the clutch and the other the brake....they both get around the bend. I tend to find art in the final product as opposed to the process. A product can be welded electrically as well as in a forge. Both welds are serviceable and both can be made to appear identical. Is one better than the other? The process may sooth the purist but art is in the eye of person viewing or using the product. Peter

Gents, In regard the lambs tounge turndown on handrails. Google the subject and there us a wide variety of hand rail endings. Note that some are designed to be welded on, I'll assume they are for the "novices" in the trade that aren't "experts" . I know a lot of shops that do fabricated style assemblies that produce first class work, they are far from novices in any way. Form follows function and blacksmith's have traditionally used the technology that was available to them in their time. My humble 2 cents on the purist argument. Peter

Think lambs toung turndowns on old hand rails. I believe they forged the rail to shape and did the turndown separately and later welded it to the rail for the correct length. A lot of the old churches in New York had these type railings. They do look good with the uprights set in lead in granite steps. Very classy. Peter

Nice work, modern, modular industrial look. If you were looking to deflect real hear as opposed to the gas fire, you would have direct contact heat transfer issues. Peter

Ivan, Correction to my last, Tim Cesneros owns The Forge Works. In Alameda. My apologies for the error. Peter

Ivan, Try to visit with Mr. Greg. Scenores (sp) in Alamedia Ca. He runs a shop (Forge Works) in a building that was part of the Alameda Naval Air Station in Alameda. Great guy, very talented and insightful. His work is amazing. You will enjoy his company, outlook on life and style. Peter

Excellent work Milligan. You are a class act. The piece is well designed, it's functional, it flows anf the joinery is top notch. The client must have been pleased. Peter

I work in Marine engineering, operations, maintenance, repair and management. There is very little creativity in the industry. We build to spec and we repair to spec. We operate to spec. I enjoy the creative process and the reward of a finished product that reflects hand work. The transformation of stock iron to a product involves the mind and the body. The end result fulfills ones desire to create items we use and admire. The look and feel of hand forged iron pleases both the eye of the beholder and the soul of the creator. The feudal Japanese metal smiths used to say, the spirit of the smith is in the tools he creates. Although I am not a feudal smith in Japan, I can and do embrace that philosophy. There is a certain inner peace one archives when we create things. Peter

King archetuarial metals has a full range of pre made components, as does B. Route and co Ltd in the UK and the blacksmith's depot. I believe the Depot has the drip pans you referenced. I always marveled at the metal work in Thailand and Cambodia. All local shops doing the work too. Simple shops putting out great work. Good luck with your repatriation and safe travels. Peter

Alaric, You are going thick to thin. Preheat the thick stock. First pass use 6011, it has good penetration qualities. Pay attention to the corners as the thin will fail at that point. Clean the 6011 pass, grind it down if it's irregular. Finish the welf with 7018. If you have trouble restarting the 7018 use a tap plate or a file to break the hard coating on the end of the rod before you continue, also make sure to clean up where you stopped before you restart. Because you have a strong thick hanger going on a relatively thin base. If you get any flex, consider an angled gusset to strengthen the pice and reduce any flexing. Good luck with the project, post a few pics of the finished product if you can. Peter

I don't have everything on wheels but the majority of the shop equipment is movable. The theory being that I can configure the equipment for different jobs and utilize the maximum floor space. I don't like shops that hem you into small places where you have to wrestle with big pieces. Our layout table is movable. The table supports a leg vise in one of 6 positions as well as other tooling that have the requisite 2 in tubing for mounting. We also use the table for the mag base drill. A lot of times you can't wrestle pieces under the stationary drill presses. The center line of the shop has an overhead 36 ft i beam with chain falls and trolleys. If I can get a truck under the beam we can lift in/out the pieces. I also have a welder-generator in the shop that I can load I to the truck for away games. Flexibility is the key when you lay out the shop. Peter

Nicely done sir. Peter

Glen, Thanks for the video. My great great grandfather (Elliott), was an engineer at that very facility in the 1800s. I believe they made naval cannons at that time. Peter

May Peace be with you Danny, prayers for your friends and family. Peter

Glen, Same thing in our dooryard when it freezes over, we spread the ashes from the wood stove so you don't crash walking to the outbuildings. Works great. We keep a few 5 gallon pails in the shop to anneal tooling overnight. Even at below zero temps the pieces still warm to the touch in the morning, amazing insulation properties. Peter

Matt, Coal is thousands of years old, water is not an issue. Heat is what you need. Start your fire with some sort of high (BTU) heat wood, we use split cedar. Don't bury the fire, surround it with coal. Let the wood get going and use your blower to get the blast heat. Coal takes a while to get going, keep the air flowing, this gives you the most heat. Coke is a coal byproduct that has big BTU content, this is really what you forge with. Your fire burns off the junk in coal and yields coke. The outside edges of your fire are supplying the coke for the hot center. Save the coke from your last fire and use it in your next fire. Experiment a bit and you will have it figured out in short order. Peter

Gentlemen, Old anvils in a modern world. Nostalgia has it place but function always win the race. A lot of the product for sale as an" anvil" are more worthy of historical reference than function. Buyer beware. As blacksmith's we have to look to our own current resources, . Nimba makes anvils, as well as ridged. I regret the lack of product in the market because among other things it' drives up the cost of what's available on the market. There were more anvils available in 1920 than there are now and they we competively market priced. Unfortunately many blacksmith's today have to shop a limited antique marketplace as opposed to a commercial production market, thus the pricing you see on places like eBay. End of rant. Peter