Wayne

The wife has relatives out Ontario way, they were saying how the forestry fire fighting budget in Alberta got slashed this past year, grim stuff. Stay safe everyone.

Anyone here near the fires or are you safe?

If you are doing a portable forge, how portable? I have an all metal portable forge that breaks down into base, hood, steel plate that sits in bottom of the hearth and takes a fabricated firepot and to the rear a set of double lunged pear shaped bellows. The base is fixed with carrying handles on each side that double as tong racks. A water cooled bosch is fine but you will have to source the water each time - 13 galls = approx 130lb so the base needs to be strong enough and you have to keep the tank topped up. I am not sure if the chimney would be tall enough to provide any appreciable draw especially in the open air. The hood on my forge is less for smoke and more to provide a wind break - useful if using charcoal and to provide shade over the fire to judge the colours. It closes the back over hangs the entire hearth for the shade and wraps around about one third of the way to support the hood and provide more shelter. The top of the hood is a truncated pyramid in shape as a nod towards a chimney.

I must admit I prefer working alone in the shop, its a ''my space'' so to speak and after a week of shifts at the hospital it is a quiet place for me to de-stress. Added to which, I normally have the local radio on and when a good song comes on NOBODY wants to hear me sing along or see me boogie round the anvil, some times crazy can be good......

Fuller/file two circular grooves, wrap wire round and braze/solder?

Two round bars with a gap between? mark on inside of helmet line of ridge lay upside down on the bars the use a long chisel with rounded end to push metal between the bars.

I am right handed, the anvil has the horn to the left as you look at it and I have the forge to my left at a quarter turn, the tongs in my left hand and hammer in the right, a quarter turn to the right and I am in business. When I am using bellows I pump with my left hand.

Have you looked at the woodwright tv series? One episode is Peter Ross forging diferent holdfasts.

Thomas, Business cards as price tags, I had not thought of that. Do you mind if I pinch the idea?

Split along length through eye giving you parts for two welded axe heads with the eye section part forged for you?

Sorry for double post - blooming system.... The big stuff will probably end up as small anvils / swages or similar. The caulking chisels I will clean and dress then put them back into use while the spanners I will keep and put by for a rainy day.

Thanks The odds N sods I can reforge, the tooling I will put by while I figure what to do with them.

Thanks The odds N sods I can reforge, the tooling I will put by while I figure what to do with them.

Thanks The odds N sods I can reforge, the tooling I will put by while I figure what to do with them.

UK, the spanners and the swages are in the region of 8 - 9 inches long, the large caulking chisel is nearly 14.

No, it is one of a load of big drifts / mandrels that came with the load. The black bit in the photo is the end of my size nines to give you some comparison.

Picked this load up a while ago from an old chap who was a bit of a hoarder. He said it came from a workshop working with steam/traction engines, nail/bolt headers, caulking chisels, spanners and a nice load of rusty bits mostly wrought judging by the grain showing

I have a twenty gallon tank on the back of mine and can get it to a low boil after a full days work

Get well lad, don't rush it and do something stupid

Welcome to the group, Where abouts in Finland, anywhere near Tampere? The wife has relatives out there.

Forgot to ask but the curved top plate, does it locate on anything or is it just held by the peening?

Very nice work, I was going to ask how the spring was affected by the heat but I assume the spring and bolt are added through the top before the small curved plate is peened in place?

Hopefully get to see you this market, every time I get chance to slip away from the stall and nip round you have disappeared somewhere, Wayne

Thanks for the kind words, I did not think to get shots of the back as I was busy wrapping them for shipping but I have a couple more on the go so I will get shots of them. They are going on chests in an educational area they are setting up, along with a curtain pole and a load of tenter hooks for hanging tapestries. As far as pricing it was a bit of a guess and I probably under charged but the folks who commissioned them are regulars who have put a lot of work my way in the past so...... The mechanism is a simple throw bolt held by a P spring which is easier to set up than an S spring and a single ward to make it easier for matching all the keys. The keys are hollow made from a piece of plate cut out and rolled to fit a pin the same size as the pin on the lock. The bow was formed by flattening the end of the shaft and fire welding closed then drawing out bringing round to form the bow and welding back on itself in the fire. Here is another lock I made for a cupboard on another job, for this the lock and nails had to be tin coated which was a pain - more luck than any thing else.

These are part of a recent project for Fountains Abbey - Six working Tudor period chest locks. Three plain square locks and three larger pillow shaped locks. All the locks to be forged from pure iron, each to be slightly different and each lock supplied with one key. Each key must be capable of opening any of the locks.