Nobody Special

Easy to grow too. Dig a shallow ditch, cut a fruit to the desired number of trees, toss in the ditch, bury, and then burn a safe zone around it every year to keep them from overgrowing the entire neighborhood. One about eight miles wide should almost do it. Fair warning, as tough as the wood is, the root structure is lousy. Don't plant one close to a house you want to keep.

One I wrote a few months ago. You get an ungodly amount of time sitting in the siding working on the trains and reading is against the rules. (except for the rulebooks) Writing though... What is an anvil, that we are so mindful of it? It toils not, neither does it spin. Its only job to stand, to resist, to endure, And to meet each strike undaunted, “By hammer and hand, all works do stand.” No praises sung, nor wanted. Conceived in fire, it takes what each smith gives, Starting life the way that we do, The first touch to greet us at birth, a blow. To prepare us for all the ones to follow. But when hammer and hand and works wear out, grow still, The anvil does not follow. What’s old is useless, as all men say, (Ask Ulysses, he knew rust to be a sin), And so they must find new life you see, As tractor weights, as antiques, and failing all else, As rail or rod or sheet steel, or the weapon of cartoon rabbits. Or rest half buried and forgotten, It soon becomes a habit. No anvil in myth ever brought luck to the smith. Dwarves robbed, Wayland and mighty Vulcan lame, and wearing cuckold’s horns, I hear even Sauron came to a bad end, Though tell the truth he was a jeweler. The Hittite was known for ironwork, Where are those fallen rulers? Say not as iron sharpens iron, Whose idea that? I use a stone. But as iron shapes iron and tool makes tool, makes tool, The world makes us all, man and woman, And we shape each other by strength, and shape, and endurance, And sheer persistence of being, each according to our own ends. Else what’s an anvil for?

Clinker. You can forge with anthracite. It's a pain, but you can. The big things are a. It takes a lot of air to light and to keep going. b. It's much more difficult to light. c. Clinker kills the fire fast. d. Because it uses more air, it usually burns much faster than bituminious, and hot. It's easy to burn up your work if you're not careful. You can't really turn the air down to allow slow soaks at lower temps with as much finesse. It also oxidizes the steel faster, more scale. e. It has a nasty tendency to go out the second the air is cut off. f. Some anthracite will spit chunks of coal at you as it heats up and splits. g. Since it doesn't coke, you can't build your little cavern for heating or welding. You have several complaints about bituminous that sound like fire management issues. A well managed bituminous fire with metallurgical grade coal should be very clean, and have very little smoke, outside of the initial lighting, some of which can be avoided by using coke from the previous fire during lighting. I would suspect that you are getting too much or too little air, and not allowing dampened coal to coke on the outside edges before moving to the center. I find it usually burns at maybe half the rate of anthracite, making it financially about the same if not cheaper to burn.

You just beat me to the pun... A young hobbiest filled with delight, Brought an ASO home one dark night, "Hey that's not what it seems, Don't you see this here seam? Cast iron and you can't make it Wright." There was a young girl with a swage, Who had all the young smiths in a rage, Until the day she was seen, Discussing one's peen, Story short, they now are engaged.

The worse they are, eh? There once was a blacksmith quite soused, no? Who once inquired of his spouse, "Yo," "Honey, which of my tools, Do I resemble as a rule?" Her reply, "You're kind of a Mousehole."

It may or may not be worth that. I probably wouldn't bother with one they wouldn't let me check for rebound and weight, and the labor bit of unloading it is well, words I can't use on here, but it's roughly mud colored, related to the south end of a northbound horse, and good for the crops. Agree that a decent one that size might well be worth that, and that pics and location would help.

One thing poplar is used a lot for is soundboards in pianos (spruce too).

Simply put, molten aluminum eats steel. The first, easiest, and safest method is don't use a steel crucible. The real deal is cheap enough, although you may have to shop a bit online. (nooooo.....please don't make me look at buying metal working tools online!) They go about 10 or 12 bucks on fleabay. Second is use something with thick walls, watch your melting temps, and replace often. You'll still get scale inclusions in your stuff. And I'm also guessing you didn't read the Dave Gingery books yet. Because he suggested a third method, sounds like what you're looking for, which was mixing a little fireclay and water, sloshing it around the inside, pour it out, let dry, repeat, heat slowly to bake it on. Something like that. Well worth picking up. Good read. Do you have somebody experienced teaching you? It's worlds safer and a lot faster.

Back when I started playing w metal, I decided casting would be easier and I wouldn't need any pesky classes. I did maybe 100 or more melts over time, survived (somehow), and here are some of the things I learned about. 1. Zinc fume poisoning. 2. Tin cans make lousy crucibles. 3. Some canisters have brazed in bottoms 4. Always allow for crucible failure. 5. Crucible failure in the furnace is a pain to clean up if you don't have a drain. 6. If you have a drain, be careful what it's over. 7. Crucible failure outside of the furnace HURTS. 8. Molten metal can bounce a long ways. 9. And will inevitably find something that melts or burns - skin, rubber gas lines, garden hoses, the bottom of your shoes (click click click when you walk.) 10. Always shield rubber gas lines, and for preference, don't use them. 11. With propane always use a good regulator. 12. Terra cotta pots should not be involved in any kind of furnace. 13. Concrete doesn't do so hot either. 14. Even the "refractory mix" on backyardmetalcasting. 15. Spalling cement can hurt. 16. Steam explosions in improperly packed furnaces. 17. Steam explosions in the crucible. 18. Steam explosions in the mold. 19. Water in the mold, good and bad. Mostly bad. 20. Preheating crucibles. 21. Preheating stock. 21. Making green sand. 22. Porosity issues from not making green sand properly 23. What the heck a vent and gate were. 24. Charcoal briquettes are no good for casting. 25. Porosity issues doing lost foam. 26. About four wrong ways to make a propane burner, and one and a half right ones. 27. Propane burners don't behave the same in a furnace as out. 28. Plinths and how to use them. 29. Making crucibles yourself is hard. 30. And refractory mixes REALLY don't work well. 31. Skip it and buy crucibles. 32. Mulling and such - apparently important. 33. So is a parting compound. 34. Wood continues to char long after you want it to, even when you pour low temp metals into it, no matter what you read on the net. 35. Flux is important. 36. Especially with copper. 37. You can also get zinc poisoning from brass. 38. Milk does NOT help. 39. Some types of metal suck for casting. 40. Those aluminum cans for example. 41. Wear eye protection. 42. And leather topped shoes. 43. And long sleeves. 44. Made of natural fibers (oops). 45. Muffin pan ingots are stupid. 46. And get stuck in the pan. 47. Those pans may have liners that melt. And then I also picked up a few things about safety, PPE, and a couple of technical bits about casting. But the most important thing I learned? This would have been a heck of a lot cheaper and safer to learn from a class or an experienced friend. The internet and the literature helped, but I was lucky as umm, heck that there were no long lasting serious injuries. Lots of little pointy owie ones though.

I've got it's smaller twin, including the tiny hole in the feet, and the only stamping I can read on it is ENGLAND.

What der frog said. Pretty pretty. Wire wheel with a non-knotted brush and a little wd-40 and put it to work.

No clue on the maker. A "dog's head" cutlery hammer. Good for blademaking, and I've heard of using them to work on saw blades. They always feel a little funny to me with all that weight forward, but a lot of people love them.

I second the vote on coil spring. I've seen a few "repaired" that way before, and this one has homemade Frankenstein written all over it. That said, might still be a decent vise with a little repair and removal of the weird bits.

Well, I assume you'd run into the same issue you have with the smaller cables with the tiny threads, oxidation preventing a good weld. You could seal the cannister, but isn't the usual warning not to completely seal because it might explode when struck?

I usually only get a few etsy sales a month. Some hoofpicks, bottle openers, spike knives, hooks, things like that. The market is so flooded w the same kind of things that it's hard to even get people to your page, although it improves a little when you keep adding new ads. What's worse, is a lot of the hobbiests drive down prices by unloading their stuff for far less than it's worth, because it's not important to them, or because it is and sales = approval. I'm making a little money there, but I'm not sure it's where I would focus my attention. One thing I have noticed though, if you get someone in and you make them happy, a lot of time they'll spread word of mouth or send you a message asking for something again later. I try to include a business card and a letter with everything that sells on there.

Talk to technicus joe. He's on here some hangs out on most of the FB blacksmithing sites as Joey Van der Steeg; pretty decent subject matter expert on the Peddinghauses and such. He can spot the knockoffs a mile away.

Think it might have been a saw maker's, might be one with the head and heel broke off. Either way, not a bridge. Pic's a little small. Kinda rough shape, faceplate's banged up pretty good and missing part of the hardface. I'd pass.

Aesthetics, that end is supposed to be a wax scorer, and makes it look vaguely harpoon like. On a lot of them I do, that bit is raised a good bit more and tapers down behind it so it sticks out. You can then flip it over and use it to scratch the wax on your "Vintage" beer or Makers Mark before peeling it off.. There's a guy that makes similar ones on the craft beer sites, but he's backed up something like a year or more on orders, and I kept having people come to me and ask if I could make one like his. I wasn't willing to do exact copies, but I modified it some, and they sell well. The only pieces that really put me in an ethical dilemma. His idea is cool, and sort of original, so it bothers me a little, but I don't feel guilty doing my version of a bulldog bottle opener or a bill epps style dragonfly, as long as it's my version, not just copies of somebody else's work. I dunno, but they sell faster than anything else I make.

Don't do serious work without money up front. Don't let your messy personal life stop you from forging. Do enjoy yourself. Do be safe. Do do the voodoo that you do so well. Don't engage with morons, you won't convince them, and you'll vex the moron. Also, thou shalt not throw the hammer, remember what happened the last time.

Run over to FB and ask Joey van der Steeg. He'll know.

Sometimes a good ear, or a good woman (or whatever you're into). Sometimes something physical that lets you disengage, for me that's running. Sometimes something that engages you wholly, in a different direction. Playing music works well for that. Sometimes just time. I've looked in the bottom of the bottle. While alcohol is a solution, it ain't the solution...with very, very rare exceptions. And sometimes it's the 90 percent perspiration and a willingness to screw things up before I get it right.

About .45 kilograms?

If ya don't like a pint's a lb, the world around, Frosty... Came in the railyard with some Mexican Kansas City Engines the other day (don't ask, I haven't figured it out either), and the main tower asked for a fuel reading. So I tie up a couple of handbrakes, go look, and tell them the first engine has xxxx many thousand liters and the second has yyyy many liters. Long pause..... The tower, where they have computers, and calculators, and google... - "ummm, how much is that in gallons?" Me - Well, my electronic devices are turned off and stored in an out of reach compartment in accordance with company policy and the FRA rules, but a liter's kissing cousins to a quart, so if you'll divide by four...." "Oh. Ummm, okay."