Tom Lumpkins

Welcome to the club. I know you'll find good info here and meet alot of good people on here ....

Welcome to the Club Wil.. Yes the infor is here...

Welcome to the site, There's a lot good info on here..

Jeremiah , I hope you make the trip, Life is to fast, I remember a old guy told me when I was young, The older you get the faster time goes by, I will soon be fifty years old , And I'll tell you them last 29 years have flown by. The man that told me that was like a father to me and he gave me my first job working at a service station, He wasn't a blacksmith, He ran a service station. But he was a man full of wisdom.
Plan a day to see the Old feller and make the trip, Never can tell he might take a liking to you. And hook you up with tools and a few tricks of the trade. Regardless, You'll be glad you made the trip..

I wonder how the interview went. I bet Iron Surgeon could tell you some stories..
**I also wonder Who's the oldest blacksmith on I Forge Iron.**

Welcome to the site, You all will like it here, There's a lot of knowledge and experience here, And they don't mind sharing the info..Also be sure and check out the chat room. On Friday nites they have a Knife chat and you don't want to miss that...that is a Awesome shed you have built, how much time and if you don't mind me asking , I was wonder what one like that would cost, was this your first experience with laying stones..Looking forward to seeing more of your work..Tom

Being new at this, I am trying to make some tools. a have made a couple pairs of tongs. they didn't turn out to good, But they work. Now I am trying to make a hardy cut tool, I got it just about done, My big Problem is time, I don't have much spare time because of my job..{truck driver}
What kind of project are you working on. thanks Tom

Good Job, And thanks for sharing with us..

That is awesome. Thanks for sharing with us..and keep up the good work..

I ware the frame type and I have the problem with the sweat getting in the eye's..

This is how I learned to weld rings from Frank Turley. Forget about round until it's welded. Scarf the ends at an angle. Bend into a U. Bend the arms of the U at 45 deg so the scarfs overlap properly (this is why the scarfs are angled). Flux heat and weld on the face of the anvil. Clean up the weld on the horn. Then work the welded piece into a ring and true up on a cone if you have one.

Those were good, Thanks for sharing them with us...

I'll get me one of these books soon as I get the cash flow , flowing again. Plus theres a couple more books I want to get. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this book with us..

And I thought I was the only one that don't have time. I drive a big truck for a living and I have been off work for about three weeks, My Appendex went sour and I had to have surgery on the road and got put in the hospital up in Elizabethtown,Ky. I am back to about 90 % and will be back in THE ROLLING PRISON on Monday. I'm not looking forward to it , but Man has to do ,What man has to do. I will normaly get home late friday nites or saturday morning, Then have to leave back out on Sunday morning, So I can relate with you about not having anytime. Sometimes you just have to Sqeeze in the time. I wish you well, I know everything will work it self out for you....Tom

I just wanted to say thanks to Irnsrgn aka Jr Strasil And all the other's that put the blue prints together. ...Tom

I am grateful for the knowledge you guys have shared with me and intend to pass it on to my sons and hopefully grandchildren when that day comes. I would like to even pass a little back up to my dad

Looks good, Thanks for sharing with us...

Great story, I'm glad you got to beat on that metal. I know there's lots of people on here that have stories to share.Keep um coming..

Welcome to the Site Tapley

Thanks for all the great advice, I got one done today, But it was so darn hot , I said the heck with it and came in and got under the AC, I'll be back out there in the morning, I'm going to give Maddogs method a try,,Thanks Tom

Today I guess I'm going to try my luck at making rings, I tried before and didn't have any luck getting the metal to forge together, So We'll give it another try and see what happens. going to try and make them outta 3/8s Rod..

My thoughts and prayer's go out to you and your family, And when I need to place on order, I'll be sending Business your way. I'm going to add your site to my fav's...

Looks good, thanks for sharing with us..

Thats a good one Glenn, LOL....Mom looks like she is pretty comfortable...LOL

KYBOy, i'd love some of your welding knowledge!, mine is slim.. :-s

Me, my greath grandfather was a 5th generation blacksmith, my grandfather learned the craft as a young man, but after WO2 never practiced it, when i was a kid he told me he was gonna teach me , since there was again a small market growing for artisanal work.. but he died of cancer before he could teach me mutch, i grew playing with wood, metal, horn .; al kinds of material, went to to university and dit a master in product design, tok some welding clases and learned how to operate a lathe, now at 26 am once again a part tilme student, doing a 2 year course to be a farrier, and practicing blacksmithing on my own, but visiting allot of smiths in the area, to learn wat ever i can, my dream is to become a full time blacksmith/farrier (in the old days those where one and the same person in the villigas around here) in 4 years from now, until then i'l keep practicing at it, and keep paying the bills with product design work, and teaching art history.

My great grandfather was the smith in a small Arkansas hill town; but I didn't find this out till years after I started smithing.

I grew up with a fascination with arms and armour (remember whittling palm frond swords back when I was 11 or 12); but never thought I could make such things myself until I was encouraged by the SCA back in 1978. So I made my first maille shirt and found a copy of Weygers "The Modern Blacksmith".

My first forge was set up in 1980 or 1981---I usually use 1981 as my starting date. I still have the first knife like object I forged---hidden carefully away so I don't hear it laughing at me so much...I should reforge it and call it my Twice Forged Knife and serial it 000...

In 1983 the oil patch crashed and spent a year apprenticed to a professional swordmaker, Tom Maringer, 6 days a week in the shop, 2 meals a day with the family, no pay and anything I made on my own, He set the price on and took the shop cut right off the top.

It was a great experience for me; but really showed me how an apprentice does not help the bottom line in a one man shop until *after* a long training period. After my year was up I got married and had to find a "real job" to support a family and gradually worked my way up to where it could support my hobby too.

Lived for 15 years in Columbus OH and so had SOFA *and* really great fleamarkets in the blacksmith's happy hunting grounds. (Not to mention Pennsic and becoming part of the iron smelting team running a bloomery there).

That job evaporated and now I'm out in NM with my first built from scratch smithy and save for the scarcity of good scrounge loving it.

Temp in the 90's with *4%* humidity yesterday!

I grew up in Father's metal spinning and machine shop. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting on the ways behind the tailstock playing race car with the adjustment wheel while he spun. It was Dad's version of baby sitting.

I can still feel the difference between the red, gold, silver or gray cars, how each one sounded under the tool, how the lathe vibrated how the motor worked.

You can say my feel for metal was beaten into my head through my butt as a very young child. We moved from there before I was four. The attached pic is either the daylight basement or attached garage of one of the next places we lived.

As you can imagine I "got" to work in Dad's shop as soon as I could get around without hurting myself too badly, about eight. I started out wiping and oiling machinery, sweeping came a little later, it was kind of dangerous for a little kid with all the cuttings on the floor.

Free time was spent working for Dad and school centered around metal shop, drafting and such. I was burned out on precision work before I was 10.

At about that time I was wanting to play with fire and hit things and living in S. Cal. there's no way a kid could play with fire and not get in trouble. BUT if you're blacksmithing you HAVE to play with fire so I started pretending to blacksmith.

Father discouraged me from smithing, kept telling me to learn a paying trade. I still hadn't convinced him it was for fun when I was in my 40's.

I still loved the feel of having my way with metal but being able to do it intuitively, by feel and eye rather than die and instrument was like cool water in the desert.

After a number of years I had a fairly decent home made set up I played with occasionally. Then in 72 I moved to Alaska and left it behind, not that much to leave, no regrets.

I'd lived here a few years and got a job that took me into the field for most of the year and I couldn't bring myself to drink myself into oblivion after work like a proper driller so along with reading I started playing with hot iron in the campfires.

After a couple years of that I welded up a rail anvil and brought a pair of tongs, my blast was a Coleman InflateAll and a piece of pipe.

Shortly after that I put the word out and a friend's neighbor, a retiring farrier, sold me my first "real" anvil a 125lb. Sodorfors #5 Sorceress and a pallet of tongs. She's still my favorite, a face so hard a file will skate so you have to be careful not to mis and hit an edge, that's probably why it's still ruler flat and virtually undamaged. There are a couple tiny chips but that's it, the previous two owners didn't even cut on the step.

I've been doing smithing as a hobby with the occasional detour into a paying commission for a good 45 years now and enjoying it immensely.

I basically started out pretending to be a blacksmith, had fun so I continued. After a while people started thinking I WAS a blacksmith so if I didn't want to be found out as a fraud I had to keep pretending.

And here I am!

Frosty

I have always hung on to things of old so to speak.I have enjoyed blackpowder hunting and studying crafts of old,I have been a welder for six years the modern equipment is great but does have limitations lose of power etc.I started driving a bus and spotted a forge sitting in someones back yard.After work I went to the house and ask the old gentleman if he was interested in selling it.I explained to him I knew nothing about blacksmithing but would like to learn.I remember the look on his face when he told me no one was interested in that stuff anymore.I told him I was and wanted to learn all I could.He told me he had been smithing for forty years and would teach me all he knew.Well that was the start he has given me a dozen books to read and shared much knowledge as well as helped me aquire the equip.needed.I have just started forging this year and wish I had time to do more but I have a lot to learn and I have been lucky to not only forge steel but a friendship with someone willing to pass on the knowledge of a trade to keep it alive.Thanks Chet!

When I was about 6 years old I sat in the pick up and watched as my dad and a couple other guys clean out my great grandpa's garage of all the "junk" metal. My great grandpa had worked as a blacksmith for a couple local mines doing all sorts of repairs of tools, chain, carts, hitches, wagons, rails, and what ever else. I have one picture of him several years after he had retired, sitting in his big overstuffed arm chair with a cigar hanging out his mouth and a long handled 5 pound sledge being held straight out level from his shoulder, he passed away a couple months later which was about 3 years before I was born. So I never seen him use the tools or hear his stories but watching my dad and three other big guys struggle while putting his old anvil into the back of my dad's truck and being told by my great grandmother that my great grandpa had moved it by himself when he brought it home was an awesome picture in a young lad's mind. I have no idea how much that old anvil weighed was but I remember it was about 3 foot long on top and that when the pointy end poked dad in the gut it makes him cuss. I also will never forget the answer I got when I asked if I could have some of those old tools... "It's nothing but old worthless junk son"

Advance a few years, I and my wife was standing talking to a reenactor smith and after sharing my story with him, he offered me the hammer. I took ahold and that was my first day of learning the basics of this addicting craft. I worked at that village for several years until the man I was working with was pressured into allowing 5-6 young boys all in at once to learn how to beat on metal. They all only had one thought and that was to make a knife or sword. This in itself wouldn't be a bad thing but the shop was crowded with two people working make it 7 or 8 and it wasn't do-able... the second time a piece of hot metal came swinging and burnt my arm and caught my shirt afire I knew it was time to move on and make room for others.

I had continued doing some work for a few reenactors from a couple different time periods and outfitting a new cabin with some custom cooking and fireplace items, a couple festivals and such. Mostly just just worked as I found the time. 2 years ago I was hit on my motorcycle by an SUV. Kept me from working metal (and a lot of other things) until just recently... So now I am once again working myself up to being able to work at the forge again. My wife ever encouraging me to smith, she has requested a bathroom makeover, including iron towel bars and TP roll holder etc...

James