FYORRG

Wow, Thanks a bunch! With Hephaiston, plus the Ypres event, there is not much time to look around. Rouen sounds like the spot!

I am planning a trip to Europe to coincide with the Ypres 2016 event. Has anybody any suggestions places of interest for wrought ironwork? I'm thinking a stroll through Prague will yield many sights. Any suggestions will help. between France and the Baltics all the way down to Milan. Thanks in advance!

Right now I've got clinker-rich bituminous(I think?) coal. It comes mostly in fines than in chunks. It clinkers up bad in just a few heats of 1" thick bar. I've been attracted to the idea of a side-blast forge. Is this practical with my fines? I would think that it would coke up just fine and I'd just keep feeding in the green coal. I think the sideblast concept will help me work longer before having to clean out clinker. But it seems to me that cleaning out clinker would be more difficult than in my bottom blast setup.

Thank you all for your time! Yes. Of course the budget at hand prohibits the hot-dip. The zinc complicates the equation quite a bit so I reckon simpler is better. Powder coating seems a sound way to go. I can see this working a whole lot. But the copper rivet in the mild steel hole is still in contact... Perhaps some powder coating of the rivets will help to some degree? I'm wondering how well that will hold up when setting the rivet. Thanks for all your input. Very helpful to a guy who's only done interior work.

Having read about galvanic action in Peter Parkinson's Architectural Forgework, has caused me to think closely about how I will be doing an awning for a client. The awning is basically a copper sheet riveted to mild steel bars. I'm wondering if the nobler "copper" will concentrate the corrosion to the mild steel rivets causing them to rust out in no time. So now... I'm thinking copper rivets to fasten the copper to the steel. Now, I theorize that the galvanic action will spread out over the bars in a similar fashion to a copper rivet spreading the rust over the area of sheet steel. Now another question comes to mind, will the combined mass of the copper rivets and sheet make for a harsher life for the steel brackets? So now I'm thinking it needs galvanizing to insulate it from the copper, and then i can rivet it cold, being careful not to tarnish the zinc coating. This takes me to another point. The client wants the copper awning to patina naturally. Will the zinc affect this? Is there any preparation necessary to facilitate a natural greenish patina? Or will it potentially be quite different than what he expects? Any thoughts would meet great welcome from here at Pike Lake Forge :)

Nowadays things are different but in the past a blacksmith was more what's described under "a drift in thoughts", second paragraph. http://islandblacksmith.ca/2011/05/a-call-for-submissions/

I know components of forges can be CSA approved, but what I'm wondering is: are any forges out there csa approved as a unit? ,K

The fire official came to consult with us about the space. He recalls there being forge in his elementary school when he was in grade five! He seems to have a positive attitude about the project. So they want me to have a ULC/CSA approved forge installed. I called N.C. tools about this and they said the components used are approved but the unit as a whole is not. Anyone know of any forges that are approved? @BobL: The power-failure safety feature is a bonus. Thanks for the idea!