Doug C

Dan, My family and I have you in our thoughts and prayers. Be strong in your faith in God and your love for your wife. God Bless.

Nice looking shop. Always good to see pictures of other peoples shops. Plenty of good ideas to be had.

Thomas Dean is right. The smithy I mentioned is used for teaching most of the time though in the off hours the owners may both be working at the same time. Maybe add a friend or two. This also minimized holes they had to put through the walls or ceilings to one, which happened to already be there. Also with the fan there is never any chance of having a problem with your draft.

Interesting looking handles. Pictures of the door will be nice.

The forge I took classes at has four forges vented through a single stack though there is some sort of central fan that draws the smoke from the forges. There is a control panel that allows you to increase the airflow as you fire up more forges. I don't know if the single stack would have been able to draw four forges at a time without the assistance of the fan. This also allowed there to be a horizontal flue that ran the length of the shop to the chimney at the far end.

500# of coal, pick up 500#'s when I get down to 100#. I have to order a ton to get it delivered. I can hide new hammers from the wife but not a ton of coal.

Frosty, Hope you mend quickly and well.

Per: [1] Stim, R. "Intellectual Property. Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights" West Legal Studies. [2] Black's Law Dictionary 5th ed., (West Publishing, 1979). A personal name can be used as a trademark if the name can be proved to contain "secondary meaning" which translates into 5 years of continued and exclusive use of a mark. lack's Law Dictionary (Fifth Edition) defines the doctrine of secondary meaning for the purpose of trademark law as "[A] ... party through advertising or massive exposure ... [establishing] its trademark in the minds of consumers as an indication of origin from one particular source."

Phil, Nice work. You have a lucky father and son. Looking to adopt? I wouldn't mind a nice knife like those.

Nice score. Thanks for the pictures. Now get to work forging.

Really impressive. Great technique. I like the use of the leaves to make the water fall effect.

I use a chisel. I think the veins it makes look too sharp. I'll probably make grind down an old chisel to be rounded a bit and try to make the viens more organic looking.

I think ThomasPowers has said it right a couple of times. "Try different ways and see what works for you. What works for you is the right way, for you". See what you can find at flea markets or at meets. Try out different styles until you find the one you like. Do what Finnr did and make them till you find what you like.

Glenn, I used the Lead under the anvil because it is what I had in the scrap pile and I had heard it would help deaden the ring. It helps a when I am over the thick mass but not when I am on the horn or heal.

Really nice work. What size hole did you drift for the handle? Was it round or oval?

Jymm, Good Luck. Maybe have someone take some pictures. I would be interested in hearing what types of items you forge during a day of demo. I have been asked by a local museum to do a few demos this fall and need to let them know what I would be forging.

I did the same as Chris, but used 2"X 10", and then ran a strip of 1/8" by 1" around it top and bottom. This gave me a place to hang hammers in each offset without them falling out. I like the basic design but would probably use 2" X 12" lumber next time. I also put some lead flashing from the junk pile under the anvil to quiet it down a bit.

Add me to the list

Frosty, How do you make a multi-lobed leaf? The guy who owns the barn I'm working on is opening a vineyard and he asked if I could forge some items with a grape leaf on them. Still scratching my head on that one. Being new to this I can not see any obvious solutions.

Buddy, What constitutes 'Not Much'? I am hitting a few flea Markets north of Boston tomorrow and can look around for you.

Here is the link to the pictures of Hofi's chimneys http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/forge-chimney-5084/index2.html#post46699

Beautiful work Mike. Good to hear things are on the up swing for you and your wife. I am new enough to the site not to know you but hopefully that will change.

I had someone ask me to make them a Letter Opener with a leaf on the handle so I used the pattern in 'The Backyard Blacksmith' to make it. made 30 bucks. Here is a picture. This made me wonder what was the first item that other folks have sold or been commissioned to do. I imagine that my little letter opener is pretty mundane but we all start somewhere. What was you first sold / commissioned piece?