ironrosefarms

Maybe you could get someone to cast an aluminum replica and convince the owner it is a very rare anti gravity anvil that has the power to be fully metal but only feel like 1/3 the weight! Then offer to trade him his common heavy iron anvil if he gives you $100 to make up the difference... LOL, ok probably won't work but, what if it did? Removing evil grin and returning to normal peaceable self... James

Guess what I got back today... he brought the spear by and asked if I could straighten it out. His teenage son "borrowed" it and threw it at a oak tree. Just as a Roman spear was intended to do it bent between the blade and the socket. So I fired up the OA warmed it up and brought it back straight. I think Jr. is in a bit of trouble as his dad seemed a bit mad and made the boy give me $10. I probably would have done it once at no charge, but dad insisted... I almost bet Jr. won't be touching the spear again...

That is the biggest reason I want to build a shop. When I don't have to lug everything out into the yard, I could easily come home after working all night and slip out to the shop to beat the fire out of something for a while before going into the family. Right now it takes at least 45 minutes to set up not including building the fire and at least that long to pack it all back away, so I seldom get to go to Dr. Anvil so early in the morning, thus I usually come in the house a grump... I can only imagine how much better it would be for the family life if serene was the norm of my walking in the door...

Welcome from a fellow Hoosier...

As I was cruising around their site I believe I found a way to shut them down without much of a fight on our part... On one of their pages they list Microsoft as a member of a joint venture in their IT certification. I believe this is a trademark infringement plain and simple, so I contacted Microsoft corporate offices concerning this issue. In my experience Microsoft takes any infringement pretty seriously...

You have been a busy boy! New shop, tearing down the old forge... Keep us posted, maybe it will prod me to get busier???

A shop in the round, love it! Can't wait to see more pictures especially inside after you get everything arranged...

We have a couple of those collectors in our area. They will pay $5 a pound for even poor condition anvils. The one that will sell is $8 a pound for a sway back broken anvil. The one I know has over 1000 anvils and buys anything that comes along. Considering the concern that many here have stated about the possibility of some one taking our tools for the insanely high scrap price, you have to wonder about someone who leaves such a large chunk in such easy view?

James, sorry if I seemed to be suggesting different building supplies for your shop. I was just trying to throw out an idea for the rest of us not fortunate enough to have such an awesome historical lumber supply. I am more than a little jealous right now as you are well ahead of me on your build...

I found a tutorial on making carving tools with hack saw blades or clock spring that I found to be pretty good. Scroll carving tools from hacksaw blades The guy uses a propane torch for all his heating but goes through making a jig for different gouges, normalizing, hardening, and heat treating. Even how he makes his handles I'll have to see what I have laying around in the way of blades that I can test this with... James

blafen, that is exactly what our church did. We built a portable skate park that we set up every other week during the nice weather seasons. What is amazing is the "kid" type vandalism that we was experiencing has stopped because the kids who frequent our park look out for us and stop the problem. The other side of it is we have doubled our youth group numbers on the off Wednesdays and tripled on the Wednesdays we set the park up. The park runs from 5pm to 6:30, then youth service from 6:30 till 8pm. Reaching out to these kids has been one of the best things we have done for the youth of our community. As for a rail design that would discourage skaters short rails do well for this. Keeping each section at 2 foot or so makes for a hard way to ride. James

The customer originally refused to allow me to put a pin hole in it, however when I explained how dangerous it was to have that spear above his head I finally convinced him. So after I took the pictures I drilled a hole and slipped a small but effective pin in place. I wish I had gotten up a hour earlier that day... I could have finished it up before he got to my place without having to convince him it needed to be safe... James

Well, i got out my snips and started cutting. OUCH!!! I then got my calipers out and measured this stuff. .04" I got 5 sets of circles cut for roses, just got to cut petals on the circles then the stipples and leaves then get to the forge. I've not made roses using the circles before (always the "russian" style though I always called it a ribbon rose) I also have never forged any stainless, so this should be fun... I still have 3/4 of the sheet remaining for other projects or roses if my hand recovers from the first cutting. Since I forge out of doors it might take a while as they are calling for rain here until at least Wednesday... Anyone forge weld stainless?

Well, after doing some research and such for what a Roman spear should look like, the guy wanting it came up with a new picture and stated he wanted it like this... So I obliged him and he is happy as can be. Here is a couple pictures. Made from 1/2" bar of mild steel, the only big disappointment I have is the socket line is angled but the customer liked it that way??? Spear tip to bottom of the socket is just a tad over 18" total length with handle 7 foot.

The problem I have rann into here is "collectors", we have two guys in the area that are known as anvil collectors. One of the two will sell, so when I was anvil-less I went to him. If the anvils he wanted to sell me was horses I could have had the privilege of burying the old sway back nag for about $6 per pound. Any decent anvil was $8 to $12 per pound... Both these guys are willing to pay $4 or 5 per pound even for worn out anvils at auction and they won't keep their hands off vises either... this kills the new guys trying to find tools. When I was at that guys 'shop' 15 years ago he claimed he had well over 1000 anvils.

James, I love it. It is nearly identical to what I have sketched out. I have 10 large maple logs on my trailer and I am trying to get in touch with a guy that has a portable saw mill to slab out the logs for the siding. He has cut wood for me before but just can't seem to catch up with him. I was really hoping to have a building up before hunting season gets started... not looking likely... I have most of my upright posts so far, the local electric company puts their broken poles in a yard and so long as you sign in and out of the yard you can take what you want free of charge, the only real catch is if you cut it you still have to take the whole thing. These make great corner posts for fencing as well. Contact your local electric company and see what they do with their old posts, it might prove to be a cheap and sturdy start to the shop of your dreams!

I think a question to be asked is will more than one of the four forges be lit at the same time? If not you could have a gate or door to close off the unused sections. But if it is possible that 2, 3 or 4 forges will be lit at the same time you will have to consider how much chimney will be required to draw with multiple openings to go into one chimney. I have a friend that has 3 wood stoves in his home, all 3 go to one brick chimney. however inside that chimney is three separate pipes so each pipe has it's own draft. James

It does look like a lot of work, but I have to give them big time kudo's to the fact they got off their tail ends and tried. I'm still mulling over the concept and ho humming around about building one. Really the thing I think causing it to be so much work though is the cable, if they could get a linkage to replace that cable it might be a decent set up???

In the process of looking at doing some silver wire inlay on some wood Silver inlay thread I would like to make the tools for the job. Since the inlay project I have in mind will have some very tight scrolls, I need to make some gouges and chisels to make these lines smoothly to get the desired effect. Thus far the closest thing I have made to a blade is a spear and it required no heat treatment due to it's intended use. So this brings me to ask the blade smiths 1 what steels should I be considering for wood carving chisels and gouges? 2 with the steel that you suggest, best heat treating methods? 3 what have I forgotten to ask and what is the answer? Thanks James

At the restaurant I worked when in high school we rolled the meat out with a rolling pin on top of waxed paper then cut the patties with either a knife (square patties) or a large soup can for round. Worked very well and we could put out a bunch of patties in a short time frame.

My sincere thanks to your dad and your family for serving our nation. I pray daily for our troops and will add your dad and his family to the list of those I name individually. James

As I was searching for further answers on this subject I found this tutorial that is very well presented. Silver Inlay Tutorial I also found several places that suggested making home made tools for this out of hacksaw blades or band saw blades. I would also recommend the sharpening tutorial to anyone who makes or uses wood carving tools. I am great at sharpening just about anything but gouges, the technique of using the metal bar to control the angle is awesome. Enjoy

Thank you Jerry

If I lived a bit closer I'd tell ya forget the anvil and I'd take the worry off your hands. I need a couple more anvils as I have three of my kids who are giving the forge a try. I don't like trying to raise and lower my 250 pound anvils to kid height... $200 for a 150 pounder would be a good enough price for me... Heck I have a hammer coming that weighs in at 2.75 pounds that is costing $125 plus $10 shipping... If we will pay nearly $50.00 per pound for a hammer, $1.33 per pound for an anvil doesn't sound too bad. James

I have to wonder about a standard fireplace? Is that a free standing fire? I would have to think that some company out there would be willing to take your money and allow you to have a working forge as a hobby. I agree it is time to shop around...