SJS

For 6500$ I would much rather have a small air hammer, the air hammer will have better control and if your a nervous sort you can sneak up on the steel;-) The LG might hit harder, but unless you have a brake on the LG you are gonna have more than afew double strikes when you are trying for one decent hit. With a brake not very often. I think the learning curve is a little steeper on a mechanical hammer. But the mechanicals hit very hard for their weight. It is much easier to get light blows, and single blows out of an air hammer... If all you are doing is drawing out Damascus billets a little LG#25 set at 400bpm is fine, if you like sneaking up on the metal an air hammer is the berries;-)

You can use fancy tool steels, but most industrial smiths stick with simpler steels for struck tools. 4140,1050,5160... So you can use axils, and springs instead of buying new. Depending on where you are there might be a steel supplier who specializes in drops that sells cut pieces of steel.. If you can get videos of conferences from your local group look for ones with Clifton Ralph, Steve Parker, Kurt Farenbach... All flat open die industrial blacksmiths. As far as books Lilico shows some very cool process illustrations of how to forge locomotive parts under a steam hammer;-) gives you a wonderful appreciation for volume.

Another lovely example of where a little foresight and discipline can save you time, and grief, and can even make you money. There have been projects that where free hand artistic pieces, like carving a wizard head that actually looks like a human face... that I haven't been able to reproduce. If I could only remember all the things I have forgotten I could surely fill a couple of books, but I suppose I would just loose them and forget where I put them... :-) Never underestimate the LAZINESS of your own mind, you can forget things so easily. Shop note cards. A bench book. A file folder with elaborate notes and pictures. What ever you call it, do it,and don't be too proud to explain the process like you are an idiot, cause at some point in the future you are likely to be... ;-) If I am as disgustingly normal as I fear I am;-) And for heaven's sake write it out NEATLY so that you can actually read it and tell what it says!!! ;-) Typing up your notes is a good idea, (it also uses a different part of your brain, and makes it more likely you will be able to remember the process, and the details... Kinda like rewriting your notes, and then explaining them to one of your friends in school, then you get a better grade on the test... ;-) Plus it makes it supper easy to teach someone else how to do the project, and you can give it to the editor of your local Blacksmithing group, or set it up here on IFI for all the rest of us to see... And when you haven't made one in 20years, you can rifle through your notes and find the file on that project, and do one just like you used to... Hopefully only BETTER;-) Love any suggestion that helps me become a better smith, plus re-inventing the wheel every time I need one gets old. And the notes are just like a recipe,, you don't have to follow it EXACTLY like Moses carried it down from Mount Sinai, you can use it like a guideline or a suggestion on a good place to start... I plan on being more disciplined in advocating for discipline in others... ;-) and try to be a little more disciplined myself! ;-)

For a large deep table forge with a coal and water reservoir in good condition with the champion 400 blower and a clinker breaker that wasn't burned out I would give 500$. I didn't have the 350$ the last time I saw one available, and haven't seen one since... at all... Not that I have 500$ to rub together right now that isn't already spoken for... :-) No one is making the big cast iron table forges, or the lovely old buffalo down draft forges either, and if you look at what a factory fabricated forge table costs, 500$ is cheap... Supply and Demand vs time, materials, and overhead...

Do I remember correctly that you get a little better draw on the chimney if the opening at the bottom, in this case the bucket was a little smaller than the area of the chimney pipe???

There is no arguing that the band saw is considerably more quiet than either the chop saw, or a dry, or cold saw... But when I am in the shop working by myself, I have the "work tunes" type hearing protection on, so it doesn't bother me anyway;-) You only have to protect the things you would like to keep, and I would like to keep what little hearing I have left...

Good I am glad you were able to catch the problem early enough to keep it from being a chronic issue. Both from a hammer technique, as well as a numbness/physical damage perspective. It is absolutely critical to develop a light grip on the hammer, and allow the hammer to do the work. If you don't you will do damage to yourself, and your tools. Think about the hammer as a missile you are the propellant, and the guidance system, you aim the hammer at what you want to hit, and 'let it go'. You don't want to be there when the energy in the missile is released. You don't want to be holding on tight, when the energy is transferred, because it will feed back up into your arm. Steel handles are AWEFUL, fiberglass handles are generally bad, and wood handles can be good or bad depending. Like you said as you get tired you need to be even more deliberate to have good technique. There are lots of ways to swing a hammer. Uri Hofi's "Ergonomic hammer technique" is a good system especially if you a new, and don't have to retrain yourself. Doug Lockhart has a video, that I haven't seen yet, titled "How to swing a Hammer Like a Girl" that is supposed to help guys learn from the girls how not to mess themselves up. Brian Brazeal has awesome hammer technique, but he mainly teaches about how to use the head of the hammer, not how to hold the hammer and swing it... Lots of good traditions in hammer technique... To get the most out of hand forging bigger stock by yourself, use a bottom fuller and a cross or diagonal pein to match it. If you haven't invested in or made a bottom fuller, you can use the horn, or the edge of the anvil, but that is what a fuller is designed to do... When you focus the energy of your blow on a smaller area you can do more real work. If you can get a striker to help you it is still a good idea to use a top and bottom fuller set, and a set hammer, and a flatter;-) There is a very good reason these were part of the standard kit years ago, and why there were several people working in the shop with the blacksmith...

As for "iron in the hat" just keep a sharp eye out on the drive over for some 'road iron' "the Lord himself will provide a sacrifice..." Good luck and I hope the weather is nice, and we all can travel safely;-)

If you were going to use 1/4x1 why not just bend a foot onto it, and screw it to the deck, or even under the deck...??? I have been thinking a lot about "Functional Fixedness"...

Yep those look pretty nice. I prefer to use claw hammers because they tend to have more meat to them than a ball pein of the same weight. I have always found ballpein hammers to have undersized handles, which if you OCCASIONALLY hit too hard, tend to break... Very annoying;-) Less muscle, better technique;-)

I have done some owl designs on paper, but haven't gotten any done in the shop yet... I was planning on using 1/4" x 1 1/2", and profiling the head, using curved chisels to outline the face, punch the eyes, line the wings, and using butchers to set down around the legs and lower body of the owl...

Probably only 15-20 thousand pounds probably ~2000$ scrap price nice hammer...

The smaller dry saws work fine for tubing, angle, struts, and solid ~1" or less annealed, standard hot rolled or cold rolled. I like them, you just have to make sure its clamped down good and tight, and start the cut right. The abrasive chops saw for hardened steel, stainless or high alloy, and anything else you want to throw at it. The horizontal band saw for thicker sections of steel, 2" square, 6" round, or 7 pieces of 1/4"x2" clamped together... THick sections can also be done on an old power hacksaw, tends to be slow but good...

If you like making tools, and you aren't intimidated by how much work it is, they are actually a really good way to improve your patience, if not your hand forging;-) I personally don't care for the welded on reins. So drawing out by hand and forging a nice long smooth taper is good practice. With good guidance and coaching you can make a nice set of tongs once you have the strength, endurance and hammer control. It is certainly not unattainable

There is a lady with a lovely 285# mousehole with a chunk out of the face and 1/3 of the face around it delaminated. She was told it was worth 600-900$ at least. It made you want to cry seeing such a lovely anvil damaged like that... I told her the truth, if it hadn't been damaged she could have easily gotten 900-1200$ for it, but damaged like it was a buck a pound was generous. She didn't agree. The hardest truth to come to grips with, is the one that is not in your economic best interest. Doesn't change the fact that it is still the truth...

Warm up exercises, are an excellent way to continue to hone a skill and keep it sharp. Nail making, S-hooks, patch knives and even chainlink welding are a great discipline to adopt that helps polish the fundamentals.

Alan is right I have only heard the term "oliver" hammer used to refer to a foot powered hammer. An antique treadle hammer. Some real interesting contraptions;-)

I like using the Kevlar gloves and they tend to be ambidextrous so I use, lefts for hand forging and using struck tools, and both when running the power hammer... I also like the Kevlar sleeves.

Disciplined practice doesn't mean its not still fun. If you have a goal, it is easier to achieve if you have a plan, and all the things you are doing are helping you achieve your goal. A good analogy would be, you think you would like to run a marathon (can say as I would EVER want that but...) so you go out a few weekends and run a mile or two, or you set up a dedicated training regime... Blacksmithing is more satisfying if approach it from a method that gives you the skills to succeed. If you want to be able to make whatever you want, you need to internalize these skills and processes. I call it stocking your mental tool box, if you don't master each process, you are essentially putting shoddy tools in your box, they may or may not get the job done in a pinch. Just like the thread started on "Why make Tongs really nice" well made tools work BETTER, and they are easier on you, and generally a pleasure to use... If you take the time to master each element of hand forging, then you have stocked your mental tool box with well made tools that are sharp and polished. Then it is just a question of working out new and interesting applications of those tools. There is a great deal of difference between 20 years of experience, and 1 year of experience repeated 20 times... I'm not trying to steal anyone's joy here, I am trying to help you focus on HOW to get the most out of your interest in blacksmithing. If you invest in the tools, and pay for classes, and work to get time to play in the forge, but haven't invested in developing yourself, you are sabotaging yourself... It is much more fun when you are good at blacksmithing, when it only takes 1 or 2 tries to get something that you are pleased with. It is fun to see the progress as you are building your mental toolbox, when you need to make 10 S-hooks to get one that looks really nice. It is a lot of fun later when you see a picture of something and just go out an make it, because everything you need is already in your head, and in your hands, and if you have to make a few new physical tools so much the better;-) My son is about to turn 15 and he has played at blacksmithing a bit at hammer ins and doing 4H projects, but I need to think about setting him up so that he can really learn. I think about smithing all the time, how to do it, how to teach it, things I want to make in my oh so copious free time... ;-)

Excellent advise. In the series you can see your progress, and you are working on developing the skills you are focused on. It is so much easier to judge your work when you are comparing apples to apples... Forge work is stimulus and response for me the programing is basically hardwired at this point, I don't look at the hammer, I don't think about the hammer. I watch what the hammer does, and make the next move, and repeat... While you are programing the old lizard brain you have to look at how you are holding the hammer, and think about what you need to do to get the results you want, and watch the steel respond to the hammers blows

Don't FORGE under a red heat, you can planish, and break corners, but don't try to seriously move the stock if it is at red. You loose color around 900 -1000. You want to be starting around a bright orange to yellow for mild steel. Yellow to white for Wrought Iron, and a nice bright orange for any high carbon or high alloy steel that might be hot short, and for the wrought and the tool steel stop at a bright red -dull orange. I have seen a lot of people pull out the steel to start hitting it at temps I try to throw it back in the fire (not always good about that, but I know better;-) You might also be soaking at too high a heat... If you soak the metal too long you will get grain growth and be much more likely to crack things off at a sharp shoulder where there is always a stress riser. You can also run into cracking crumbling problems if the thin stem gets over heated and burned it can crumble and crack... Fire control is a crucial skill to develop, just pay close attention to how hot your getting things. Go gently as you get close to your forging heat, there is a fine line between a nice warm yellow forging heat, and a white sparking I just ruined this piece heat!!! Thinner cross sections get hotter faster learn to locate the thicker part of the stock directly over an air blast in the fire, and keep the thinner sections out of the blast let them soak it up from the larger section... Rebar is better than nothing, but not much;-) cold rolled 1018 tends to be more forgiving and more predicable, not to mention softer at heat. Rebar is generally remelted junk, and tends to be harder to forge and potentially a problem if you quench it... Who knows what alloys and carbon level is in the bar at the point where you are quenching it...

First thing I would do is drench it in a light oil and crank the snot out of it to see if I could loosen the sludge in the gearbox. Maybe the shaft would work back in to its proper place where it wouldn't be clunking? You should keep it oiled all the time anyway. Hopefully you still have it disassembled, try cranking it with the cover off, if it doesn't clunk its rubbing on the cover, and you can put a gasket in and get a bit of clearance;-) If it is clunking on the gear housing you can try tweaking them, or try to get the fins off and shim it out with some washers.

Let people know you are interested, and you are always looking for blacksmithing tools (EVERYONE you meet should know you are looking.) Be friendly and enthusiastic (generally not hard;-). Most of the leads won't pan out, but eventually you will get lucky. Don't sweat the HF anvil, it is better than nothing and it has a hardie hole;-) and if you damage it, it wasn't a valuable heirloom anvil. It is likely that in your area the scrap yards are CLOSED to outside sales, there may be a way to get stuff, but calling the front office isn't it... A steel table doesn't catch fire, and you don't need fire brick. Repurpose things, think outside the box. Don't fall prey to functional fixedness. You could bolt the forge to a handtruck and leave the cylinder on the truck as ballast to keep the forge from overbalancing it. Steel rolling tool cart from HF would work and be cheap... but it would be even cheaper if you found it at Goodwill or a thirft store... You need enough convergent thinking to recognize the rules and enough divergent thinking to know when you can break the rules;-) Build your paradigm, I imagine your good at reading;-) develop a plan and work to build your skills in a disciplined fashion. If you are diligent enough you will get the skills and then tools aren't as much of a limitation... There are no shortcuts, but a good guide can speed your trip, but you still have to put in a lot of work to get where you are going. Have fun

I always encourage young smiths to develop their processes... Practice makes perfect, if you work on developing skills in you mental tool box it helps you realize your dreams. Having the vision to see what you want doesn't get you there without the skill. Skill generally isn't just a gift from God, generally it is acquired through focused determination and practice. Do one, you did it. Do 10, three might look nice. Do 100, 90 will be really nice. Do 1000.... Tapering, shouldering in, veining, punching & drifting, when you get good at these skills it becomes easy to work out new designs or you can look at someone else's work and see how you could do that. It is fun to bounce around doing this and that, and whatever catches your fancy, but taking the time to practice builds your skill set tool box and that expands your capacity!!! Discipline pays off;-) if your in IN I might be able to help... On my phone and the mobile site doesn't give all the info that the full site does:-)

I might be able to make it after all, will depend on weather and money;-)