civilwarblacksmith

The blade looks nice. I figured it would be mild steel as most of the shoes I have work with are. They make decent bait knives for fisherman as the edge doesn't get alot of stress work.

Post a picture of it. Also put it on a grinder and do a spark test. Get a lot of crows feet in the sparks and its probably tool steel.

That is a gorgeous knife.

My fisher does have them. It is a 120lb and dates about 1900-1

football...

If you go to Ace, They do have other brands of hardwood charcoal. Also if you are buying in bulk they will probably give you a discounted price. They do carry Cowboy brand but also carry frontier brand. Frontier comes in larger size bags.

Did you use concrete nails or #16 horseshoe nails? I've seen Bill make them with the horseshoe nails. He also does the heart pendant with them also.

These were the candle holders Divermike saw. I made these a couple of years ago using 1/2" square splitting the bottom at about 5" tapered and formed into a heart shaped base. The top was split just long long enough to spread out and wrap around the insulator. Don't wrap hot. I learned the hard way twice. Form the arms that will wrap the insulator so that you can push it in. The author Vance Moore was visiting me at my shop in Maryland and did an article on me and the cowboy hat maker. It was featured in the Bituminous bits for Alabama Forge Council and also in The Upset for the Mississippi Forge Council. The insulators work great for votives as well as tapers.

I used the pritchel hole also, but found that I was working too far toward the anvil not giving me aot of the visible part to work.

Look real nice. My wife would have grabbed it up too.

Don't go away disappointed, Horseshoe knives are still quite a novelty like rail road spike knives. They can also be a good learning experience for making knives.

I have stapled a chain onto my stump and drape it over the heel of the anvil. Place a hook on other end that can be placed in any chainlink. Make the hook like a saddle stirrup so you can put your foot through it in order to put pressure on the part. This setup will comform to the part on the anvil and allow you to have plenty of room for working.

They look great. You should sell alot of those. Another design you might be able to do with that is the Pheonix, alittle more flowy on wings and tail.

Nothin' like a drunken Celt

I would be willing to show you into the realm of blacksmithing. I have a small shop that is located in Union Mills, Maryland which is roughly about 3 hours from Philadelphia. It is a small shop at a 1797 Grist Mill and Tannery. The tooling and any equipment is not modern by any means as the latest piece is an 1880 drill press. You can even get some hands on in order to know what it is that the simulation needs to look for through your eyes. You can contact me through my web site at The Civil War Blacksmith

Mine burns more of an orange also. When I first got mine, I kept trying to get this blue flame. Spent more time messin with the heater than hammering. Now I just crank it up and light it. Works fine.