Nobody Special

Lakeside was a brand name for Columbus Forge and Iron, the same brand that made Trentons. Cast steel, not iron, and every bit as good as a Trenton from what I've heard. Nice find. I usually draw down on the far side. Guess Mr. Ruhlen liked his anvils horn left.

Good evening, I've used the 55 gallon drum cut down. It worked pretty well, but I had better luck with a 20-gallon drum set just barely over the fire pot so they more or less side drafted. Automotive places have them sometimes; the chemicals are expensive, but to them the empty drums are just trash. I got a ZEP brake flush drum from one that size once and used it outside for four years before the poor thing rusted out.

Well, still in the gradual rebuild phase and worked today, so didn't have huge amounts of time, but I managed to dig out my little Columbian that got soaked when the ocean came to see us this January. We had about 15 or 16 inches of ocean in our storage area and the poor thing took a soaking, so after a few months it looked fairly horrific with rust and salt stains. Wire wheeled it followed by BLO and it looked so good my other anvils got jealous and wanted some BLO for themselves. Next step, I think, is ditching the coal style set up for a sideblast JABOD more suitable for charcoal.

It can be found, just go casually rummaging around five minutes after you no longer need it, and preferably after you've given up and bought or made a replacement. At least that's how it works in my shop.

I'd say make them shorter, and stick to thin stock if they're going to be hung in a tree. I made a hunch of icicles for a few years and even small ones tended to really pull at all but the firmest of branches. Iron makes lovely ornaments, but it's heavy!

Didn't make anything as pretty as those tools, JLP, but I did get the anvil stands a bit down the road. The glue finally cured, sanded the tops flat, checked them for size, charred 'em, and started on the bands. Forgot how fiddly getting the corners right can be, especially when I wasn't used to charcoal when I did forge. Felt like I went through fuel way faster than coal. Probably doing it wrong, but at least I hit hot steel today.

Cut and glued up some dimensional lumber for a couple of anvil stands. Flattening the top, banding, etc. still to go. I hate waiting for the glue to dry. Dogs are there to hold boards down and for moral support.

I've been absent from blacksmithing and from this site for some time. Found out today that Glenn had passed, and moments ago about Thomas. To their family and friends, I am sorry for their loss, the world was a better place for having met them. I learned a lot from each, and I am sorry to know they're gone. The world is dimmer without them.

Southern Crescents were made in Chattanooga sometime after the Civil War, not sure when. Used to see them in north Georgia. They were basically like a harbor freight version of a fisher norris, even cheaper than a Vulcan; thin steel top, cast iron body. Prone to having big casting voids, lousy rebound, and delamination. Every once in a blue moon you find one in good shape that wasn't made on a Monday or a Friday and it will be terrific, but it's the rare exception, not the rule. Most are in terrible shape.

Osage orange is lovely, good for hammer handles, good for knife scales, great for fence posts if you work it green. Tough as nails when it hardens. Maybe tougher, no fun driving staples into it. Makes a lovely shade tree that's godawful tough on lawnmowers, but don't plant it close to the house, they tend to have shallow root systems.

Well, nothing to show really, didn't do much for the last five years, then got into a conversation with a smith at a "Nordic culture" festival up here on Whidbey Island and went home and got inspired. Tossed a few engine blocks out, cleaned out a carport, moved an old Dodge Dart, modified a fan and got ready to get back into it. I got all my blacksmithing and casting stuff up here from storage in Georgia a few months ago and now I have the itch, the tools, and a place to work. I'm putting together a couple of anvil blocks, may post pictures next week. I missed it, and you guys to boot. Ungodly sorry to hear that Glenn passed.

Good morning, I used to find old mule shoes with big lugs like that sideways across the top, down in Georgia to give them more traction when pulling. I suppose they would be useful for horses too, but all the ones I ever saw were for mules. I ain't a farrier though, and certainly wasn't one a hundred years or so ago when the ones I found were made.

Mostly just seem to run into people that have trouble understanding the value of doing anything by hand yourself. I put in a straw bale garden recently, and it was a seven-day wonder in the neighborhood, especially before I put in the trelliswork for the beans and squash. I've got one neighbor that comes over periodically to tell me that she's checked with county/state agricultural agents and has information on things like square footage for chickens and how to register my beehives. The bees make her extra nervous, so she sometimes asks things like if a bee stings someone in her yard, would she be liable. Apparently, her lawyer told her no, when she also told me all about consulting with him over my bees...sigh. Usually, I can smooth things over with neighbors by giving them a little honey or eggs. This one may require mead or honey jack.

I second chasing and repousse. It's traditional for copper, looks cool, and isn't hard to learn. Casting is too high of a learning curve, especially in copper, and mistakes in casting are painful. It's a blast, but best learned in a class or a group unless you like explaining the funny scars on your legs...like mine. Hot forging copper is fun but runs contrary to what you're used to in iron. It's actually easier most of the time to work it cold and anneal it before it gets too work-hardened and becomes brittle. Finding the balance takes practice. Annealing is completely backwards too. You heat to red hot, then quench. But unlike iron, you have a lot less wiggle room. One of the great joys of forging non-ferrous metals hot is that they can have oxides on the outside that melt at higher temperatures than the metal inside them (looking at you aluminum). Think thin candy shell with a chewy, molten metal center...which you then strike with a hammer. It's deeply unpleasant, in the way that second-degree burns tend to be. Oh yeah, and different alloys forge differently; some bronzes and brasses cast like a dream, but fall apart when you hit them.

You're absolutely right, but this brings to mind an Egyptian bronzeworking apprentice in the shop, talking to his boss. "Oh, that star stuff? Sure you can play with it. Might be useful if you can figure it out; I've never been able to get it to work. Just grab some off the pile of meteorites out back. and make sure Tuesday's supply of chariot ornaments is ready to ship before you start playing, okay?"

Dressing is fantastic. If it's on the face, you can also give up on dressing one smooth again and texture the face to make a hammer you can use to texture surfaces. Be careful how you do so, and in using it. Spalling metal hurts.

Hey, I was way more than seven years old when I wrote that.

Good afternoon, I always save broken pieces of handles whenever possible, and even will pay a buck or so at yard sales. You get a lot of hickory that way. Shovels and axe handles become hammers, broken hammer handles become knife scales, and so on.... I'm not crazy about kiln dried wood, it seems more brittle. Of course that may be because a lot of wood these days isn't "old growth" and doesn't have the same density. Pecan, mentioned above can be tough as nails. Try splitting it green and you'll see what I mean. It laughs at the maul, and I've seen it break a hydraulic splitter. I always waited a minimum of one year, and for preference split it on a day when the temps are well below freezing.

Saw it on Facebook this afternoon, and rang the anvil for him. He helped me a lot when I was getting started.

I've used solutions to plate before, I ran across this when I tossed some harmonicas in a musical instrument sonic cleaning tank, and all the steel bits came out bright pink. I've also got looks similar to the photos above by forging copper plated grounding rods at low temps. Too much heating or beating and you can take the plating off. Not too much, and it just kind of blends them together with a lot of copper on the outer surface and looks cool. I suppose you could forge it close to shape, clean it, do a full plating first with a solution, and then beat the metal enough to take the copper off in places.

Heh heh...haven't played in a while, but still love how many people think of a shield as a strictly defensive weapon. Even if you only bounce one off someone's toes, those things hurt.

Good afternoon, I don't see the characteristic striations, or grain normally associated with wrought iron, especially after long exposure to salt water, although I may not be getting good enough resolution on my screen. And it's not definitive, sufficiently refined wrought iron can be hard to find the grain on. The classic test is to cut a piece most of the way through, bend it over, and then see if the end shows splitting or a grain coming apart a bit. If you like the chain, you may not want to do this, as it's a bit hard on the link in question. If you decide to try this, you may want to look up the test first, to know what it looks like, and how to go about it. And Mr. Powers has beaten me to it...

Jumping it to get the battery going with a stuck key can sometimes set off the anti-theft module in the computer. Then you have to practically recite the Bhagavad Gita backwards while dancing the Tutti Frutti, and balancing a grapefruit on your head before it will turn on. Seriously though, it can be a sequence of actions done over the course of say an hour.

Yardbird Forge. My ex used to keep and sell ungodly numbers of chickens, and occasionally one would get out and do unspeakable things to my anvil. I keep a few now, partly to keep the current wife happy, partly for the eggs, and partly because watching bald eagles bounce off of box wire trying to eat my birds is funny. It doesn't hurt them, but it annoys the heck out of 'em. One actually bent the wire last week trying an assault from above.

Or you could use the ashes to make soap. And that's no lye.