Dan C

Had truck problems myself and since the 55 Chevy is my daily driver it's the priority so I can go to work. She's been back on the road for 4 months after having been garaged for 16 years so still working bugs out. That and work n family don't cooperate either. Good luck this weekend, hope you get some hammer time.

Up to this point my smithing work has consisted of making bottle openers, gardening tools and other small hand forged items. I have done welding for friends on their fences, frame modifications on my truck, a very large firepit for a church on a kid's Eagle project and numerous other small projects, but avoid doing something I think I could be held liable for. As most of you are accustomed to, I got the following request for a service I don't offer and this would be a first time for me. My concern is what's the liability risk involved? I don't carry business insurance as I only do smithing work in my spare time. "Hi, we are wanting to find someone to make a very simple wrought iron handrail for a narrow set of steps going up to a small bathroom in a studio. We need someone to place the area we would screw into the wall to align with the studs as nothing commercially available looks quite right or offers any charm. Is this something you could make? We want it to be about 36 - 42 inches long and only about 3 inches from the wall. We would want to have three fasteners to attach to the studs." Searching online for Texas residential handrailing code I found the following: "Handrails are allowed to project into the clear width of the stairs but shall not reduce the width to any less than 27″ if the handrail is installed on both sides. (31 1/2″ if handrail is installed on one side only)." If this is something I should pass on please let me know and if someone else in Central Texas is better suited for the job, PM me and I'll pass on the customer's request to you.

I found out it's Black Horse Ironworks, Curt Schreiber doing the demo.

Based on my experience with rebar and the time it's going to take to forge a set of tongs, I'd spend the little extra money and buy mild steel instead. The tools I've made out of rebar that are put under any tension quickly broke and that's not something you want to happen when handling red hot steel. It's not only inconvenient when they break, it can be very dangerous. The only thing I trust rebar now for is a firerake or poker, and steak flippers. Just read another posting regarding rebar for tongs, maybe I'm off target based on the responses there, but the ones I made broke at the jaw.

I saw on craigslist, Dec. 7th in Schertz, TX there's a Christmas fair w/ various vendors and a blacksmith demonstration. Just wondering who might be going to this. With constant family events it's hard for me to make any of the Balcones Forge ABANA meetings, but I might be able to drag my wife to this one.

Sweet, thank you for the detailed description! A skinning/hunting knife that my dad has had for 40+ years (and I used to profile some of mine with) has the exact same look.

Very nice, love the look! What's the cold blue n bleach method?

Hi Thomas. I was thinking a line would show because the steel from the spike and the file are going to be a different hardness. Not so?

It's taken me awhile to finish the knife and hawks I was making in this thread, but am finally doing so. Reading other threads and this one about hamon lines, it seems that I would be able to have one appear since the cutting edge is an old file forge welded into an HC railroad spike and the line is caused by the difference in hardness between the two steels right? Anyway I'll give this a shot and post pictures when I get them finished.

How does tacking with an ARC welder differ? I've used my arc to do the above, if it's tool steel preheating the metals first.

Christmas is coming up and there's a recent thread on making ornaments, most of which require the above mentioned skills. As worst you'll make a bunch of ornaments, gain some skill and be able to give away what you make as presents. At best you can sell some of them to friends and use the money to buy tools or classes that you might need. Fantastic thread btw, I've been smithing for a little over a year. The spare cash has helped, but as Mark said, if I was dependent on it my family and I would starve. My experience this year was initially I sold most of everything I made, but now the small market I was selling to is saturated and so I'm selling far less. Fortunately it's just supplemental and for fun.

I'd also like to add an OA setup in order to spot heat, brazing & cutting, but before I do so I plan on attending a class on how to safely use the equipment.

Nothing like using tools that you made yourself and that's a nice one. The only knives I ever use are the ones I made. Not only for the sense of satisfaction but because I know they're sharpest and hold an edge better than store bought.

Could you do a socket like on spear, assuming you provided enough material?

Great gift or sale ideas, glad this thread got resurrected. I know what I'm going to be doing in my spare time! How about 6" s-hooks with a twist in the middle that you can hang tinsel or very small balls on?

Semper Fi Brother in Arms. Thank you for your service. Dan, USMC '88-'96, 0331

Thank you for sharing that video Glenn. As sad as it is to think about what's been lost, it's fortunate that the forging & making of these axes was captured on film. A real treasure! At least when we fire our forges and put hammer to steel, at least in some part we're keeping that memory alive.

Ian's retort model looks like it'd do the trick. There's some youtube videos in that thread of similar type retorts. '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> I've been busy on other projects so haven't had a chance to build his type. That and my neighbors haven't complained about the simple retort I'm using which works, but puts out lots of smoke.

Don't forget about pawn shops. I seem to have better luck there than at flea markets & garage sales from when people pawn their tool boxes. The worn and assorted tool steel items get put in the junk bins. Only once have I had to walk from a shop empty handed because they wouldn't deal. Most of the time they are happy to just get rid of stuff for pennies. Catch is you don't know what the steel is, depending on what you're making you don't know how to properly heat treat it.

Not smithing related, but I overheard a woman ask a gas station attendant what would happen if she didn't put gas in her car and would it hurt it. He just smiled and replied "no maam it won't hurt the car, nothing at all will happen" I would've loved to have seen her reaction the first time she ran out of gas.

This video is in sync with what David R. said to do. It's tempting to try.

Mine sits on display in the garage. I'm sure it'd be interesting to restore and light, but after an experience with a grease fire long ago and what I've read onlin,e that's were it's going to stay. Tempting to disable it somehow to make sure anyone it might get passed down to does something dumb with it. When I first inherited it, I was tempted to do something with it.

She's a real beauty! I've seen anvils on CL in Central Texas advertised for more than your talking. I'd start no less than $4 a lb. or higher. You can always come down in price.

Initially I tried it with the single leg under the horn. It felt just as stable. Then I saw someone who put the two legs in front or under the horn so I tried that and liked it better. Whether standing behind the anvil is right or not I don't know but seems comfortable to me and this way I'm straddling the one leg.

I filled my legs with sand, additional weight and supposedly helps to cut down on vibration/noise. I decided on having the horn over the two legs as I frequently stand behind the anvil. At least on mine I could change how it's mounted if I want to try it differently. I think if you search the forum there's a thread titled "show us your anvil stand". Lots of different ideas there you might find interesting.