devon blacksmith

There are a few of these about, I have used one and would think there best for production work and not general smithing as no full force single blows.

Hi we are in Devon near Exeter and we take volunteers.we have a fully equipped 3000 sq ft forge workshop with 5 staff.

In the UK there is a lot of information on traveling smiths, Thay have allways been around but the acounts are from wide spread sources and not easy to research as a single topic.the sensus information has some refrences for the 19 century.

If you have a welder you could fab one up out of some sheet.

looks like the rivet forge might be more common over here in UK.

how well do these stands work with twisting and scrolling?as I am allways looking for a way to have a portable vice that wont fall over.

If you have a forge and a hammer you could adapt a ball peen.

I found it best on the first few pairs to bolt them together first to see where thay snag up.

Blacksmithing is part art part science. if you just work for a master smith you only have to be a good blacksmith if you intend to start your own forge you will have to be good at buisiness as well so some training in this is very important as there are good buiseness men that are not so good at forge work that are successful and some very good smiths that cannot make a liveing on there own, over the years I have trained a few in some of the art of blacksmithing some have gone on to open there own forges some have gone on to full time courses,thing to remember is if it takes 5 of 7 years full time to train with a good smith teaching you ,part time self teaching will take a lot longer. the main question I would ask myself is why then plan around the answer.

I would think if you only intend to use the tool a small amount then use whot u got but if your expecting this tool to do work for you and last find a piece of tool grade steel any old tools or springs around I have tools made from mild for short runs but the more it works the more it neads to be tough (you only get whot you pay for)

any reason that thay have to be leather? most of my flat belts are canvas with brass clips and are painted with a tar to keep them tight.

Hi add me to the list plus a couple of the lads

Be very carefull makeing any lifting gear (eyes hooks etc) in the UK neads to be tested by a goverment office and a test certificate given before any insurance company would cover the liability, most liabilaty insurance will not cover design I would look into this before sending anything incuding designs

Hi I forge 316 stainless and find that if i buff up the work after it does not rust ,I have been told that using a steel hammer I am leaving steel on the top surface of the stainless,uther than that I find it about the same to forge as a high carbon steel.

never had a steel face. It's too old to have had one? how old is that ,when did the old smiths start edging tool, knives, swords ,I thought that it was in the iron age that the adding of hard edeges started,200 to 100 BC Iron period In Europe, birth of the steel. The techniques used to produce steel could be based on iron selection or on carburization. The fire welding technique is used to produce iron weapons with a steel cutting edge. Damascus - History http://damascus.free.fr/f_damas/hist.htm

A hair dryer or a vacuum cleaner,are things I have heard of.

Hi the size of the fire can also affect a weld to small a fire and the steel can oxidize ,the rebar could also have a small range of heat that it will weld at .

I use a lead block and ball pien

How do you tell the age of an anvil?

The type of work we take on varieys,At the moment we have five large (12' by 6') wrought iron windows dating from 1717 ,four large gates two at 15' by 9' two at 6' by 4' that were made in Nurenburg at about 1810 and and a pair of victorean gates from a church that we are restoring,also at the moment we are makeing new railing,handrails,a fire hood and curtain poles and lots of small forged pieces galleries and shows,we work in wrought iron,steel,stainles steel,brass,copper,bronze and lead,the work shop is 3000sq ft we have lots of forging equipment as well as lathes and milling equipment etc etc we do have trainees from time to time we offer work experience and have volunteers. There is only a small amount of are work on the web site the link to my web site is Devon Blacksmiths Meadow Forge

Hi I am looking for a fulltime smith to join my team here in Devon UK anybody intrested ?

The hammer in the first video is a model b with the moving head, I have three of these hammers in daily use over 100cwt per strike 120+ hits per min very usefull hammers The most dangerous part of any workshop is the operator not the tools but I admit thay are a bit wild to look at.

We use sand to line the bottom of our forges untill the dust builds up

On the noise front 4" of sand can stop 100 decibels of sound so a sand bag wall would help stop a lot of noise.

Hi John N would you have a 2cwt massey or similar or parts to build a drop hammer?