tulsavw

Frosty -- I definitely had to put my work back in the fire by the time I got done laughing. That whole group was dying laughing. It was pretty funny! Kids say the darndest things.

Double-checked the link's operation -- I did notice that the video takes about 5 seconds to get going for some reason (on my computer and network, at least), but the video window should appear right under the smaller text that reads "Kids Return To Frontier Days At Will Rogers Ranch In Oologah." -- You click on that and the video begins. There's just a few short shots of me working, in between the other clips. I tested it with my Macbook running Chrome browser, my iPhone, and my Android OS work phone and it worked on all of them. Sorry I'm not a whole lot of help with computer stuff!

One of my friends, who works for the Will Rogers Museum and Memorial in Claremore OK, asked me to come out to the museum's annual "Frontier Days" kids camp to do some sessions with some children where I would demonstrate some basic blacksmithing and talk a little bit about the purpose a blacksmith would serve on a 19th century homestead. We did all of this at the Dog Iron Ranch where Will Rogers' birthplace house a big oak timber-framed barn sit, overlooking Oologah Lake. I came out early and got set up by about 7am, getting my forge fired about and getting started to make sure I would be good and warmed up by the time the kids and sponsors came around... well, I guess due to the smell of the coal, that did NOT take long. I had four groups come through (25 kids each) with several sponsors per group, and I had roughly 20 minutes or so with them. It seemed that none of them knew any blacksmiths (except for a couple of boys whose father is a blacksmith and a member of Saltfork Craftsmen Artist Blacksmith Association -- the Oklahoma guild.) Interest in the short demo was high and the response was great. I'm fairly sure most kids like seeing fire no matter what, but I was suprised how interested the kids were in hot steel. That was really neat. Here's a little clip from Tulsa's Channel 6 news, where one of their photojournalists came out and filmed a little bit -- he was a really cool guy, too. Anyways, it sure was fun to get to share something new with kids and see them so interested in it all. Many of them left the exhibit saying they planned on becoming blacksmiths immediately! There is probably 4 or 5 shots of me working in video clip. Here's the clip Edit: Oh yes -- I forgot to mention the classic moment when a girl, no older than 5, follows my advice to be careful around the forge to avoid burns with the question: "Is that what happened to your hair?" I had to laugh at that one.

Oh, and @L Smith -- all Hackberries are "good" until the decide to split down the middle of the trunk and one half lands on the wife's car. :)

Hey guys -- sorry I'm just now seeing this. I'll upload the plans/layout as soon as I get back to my computer. @D H B -- PM me your number or a way I can find you on FB or something. I'm tied up with work and disc golf for a few weeks but I'd be glad to have you over if you want to take a look.

That's super cool and looks nice, to boot. Did your hand get a little warm for a second there?? :)

Hello everyone. I bought a Champion 400 blower from a gentleman about an hour away the other day. I've been using a gas forge for a couple of years and have been wanting to get a solid fuel forge, so over the last 6 months or so, I've been buying parts here and there to build one. I had a chance to use a hand-cranked blower at Ed Brazeal's house a few months ago, and since then, I've been watching for one to pop up on Craigslist. The other day, this one popped up (picture from the ad): The gentleman was asking $160 and said it was in good working condition (without a stand), so worried that it may be a long time before I come across another one for sale, I snatched it up. There are a lot of antique/junk stores where I live but you almost never come across blacksmithing equipment (let alone, at a reasonable price) besides the occasional tongs. Here's a picture I took of it when I got home: So, not yet having what I've bought for my coal forge assembled yet, I decided to try it out with what I had laying around. I gathered up some nut-sized charcoal left over from dumping the ash from my firepit. It wasn't enough to get much of a fire going, but once I lit some tinder to get it going, it took off. I duct taped a piece of 2" square tube to the end of the blower and with the whole thing laying on the ground, I cranked the blower to get a nice little fire going on my gravel driveway. Nothing too impressive, but the impression that I took away is that with very little in the way of traditional equipment, you can get a makeshift forge going quickly. Sorry for the crummy night time shot, but this is the whole temporary setup with the fire going at the end of my "tuyere": I put a 3/4" bolt right at the end of the tube and after a few minutes, I was able to get it up to red heat. By then, the little charcoal pile I had was just not enough to get it any hotter. Here's a picture up close of the fire: Anyways, I'll stick to my gas forge until I get everything assembled and get some coal to burn, but like I said earlier, it was pretty interesting to see how little it takes to actually get a good hot fire going. Maybe I'll toy around with it a little bit this weekend.

Just wanted to comment on the original pictures of the early Fisher anvil -- I'll preface this with the fact that I have a few other smaller anvils with good working edges and in generally good shape. In light of that anvil only having one good edge, I would be tempted to overlook that for a little lower price, at least for the size, good horn and (1) edge, and the tools. As a matter of fact, if you caught me on the right payday, I might be the sucker that would pay asking price. Its just a matter of opinion for me, but I like the shape of it, it seems to have better mass under the bick and heel than my Hay Budden or Trenton (both 100ish lbs.), and Fishers are hard to come by in OK, at least as far as I can tell. Let alone an anvil that old. I'm not saying I think you should have bought it, but if it was presented to me, I would be have bought it.

Wanted to upload a few pictures of my barn as it stands right now. Over the weekend, we made a trip back to Lowes for more SDST screws for the roof and the final few sheets we would require. I grabbed a couple of 2x4s to run span the rails vertically on both ends (short sides) of the structure. That has sturdied up the whole building quite a bit for now. From experience, I know that it will not be truly 100% solid until I get siding on it. Speaking of siding, the place that I was going to be 1x6 oak boards (green) said that they sold out of the original stuff that I had heard about (161 8' boards for $100) and that the current bundle they were offering was $300. As much as I feel like this guy is trying to scam me, that unfortunately seems like the cheapest option STILL, if only by $100 or so. It isn't much more to step to plywood, tin, or hardy board for that matter. So, in summary, I was glad to get the roof put on. We went ahead and tacked up some 4 mil plastic sheeting to hopefully keep the elements off the framing a little for now. I can also go ahead and get my tools in there now, too, which is definitely a plus.

Where part of Oklahoma are ya from? I'm up a few miles north of Tulsa. I started a topic on this subforum recently ("Progress On My New 12x16 Shop/Pole Barn"), too. Learning that this game gets expensive at any size of shop!

Robert Yates -- Thanks and God bless you. With regard to building something with my father, I thought the same thing yesterday. It's good to be able to have common interests with him and to be able to build something like this. ThomasPowers -- I'll consider that. I was actually considering framing in and cutting out (the siding) to make a large window that flips up to open on each end (north and south) to facilitate airflow during the summer. Especially since I it will get so hot under that tin roof. Just remembered that I do have some good young hackberry trees that will make some good shade during after noon.

njanvilman -- 1. Purlins were the big "what if" question on this build. We looked at 5/4, 1x4 PT (which we ultimately ended up using), and 2x4 were considered, as well. As much as I dislike being constrained by budget, I opted for the 1x4x10' as they were less than $5 per board. I'm hoping this will help keep my costs below $1,000. They're on 24" centers. 2.) That galvalum stuff is nice looking! Lowes had one style of it, but I've seen numerous profiles available locally. Yet another part I wish I didn't have to cut corners on, cost wise. 3.) As you can see in the pictures, I have plenty of short scrap. Guess I'll be finding places to add it in! Thanks for the good pointer! HWoolridge -- Thanks for the kind words. We typically use concrete as insurance and go heavy on the small diameter hole with tamping. At least on my projects. My dad is very opinionated on this topic. With regard to outgrowing the footprint of the shop soon, I hopefully have made proper accommodations to be able to expand either way. My goal here was to build as big of building as I could right now, and I certainly did that. Hopefully my 2 year old can grow while being fed on ramen noodles (joking.) If I have to make this shed into the first bent of a longer run, it will work. If I have to make this shed into a side shed of a barn, it will also be okay. L Smith -- I've made accommodations to be able to frame out north and south windows (of the large variety) to help facilitate good airflow. Good to hear other people making use of that!

njanvilman -- Shame I just read about this double bubble insulation, right as I am putting my last two sheets of tin on the main part of the roof. I've never seen that before but that sounds like something I'll be thinking about while I'm baking in the shop this summer. I'll have to swing back by the roofing/siding section of Lowes when I go back tomorrow, if not just to see if they carry that stuff, for future reference. Anyways, thanks for the good pointer; I'll remember it next time me and my dad build a pole barn. notownkid -- I sure hope my daughter takes an interest in occasional manual labor! The hospital you're talking about is St. Francis (I was born there and so was my daughter). Unfortunately, I've been in that ER a few times, as well. OSU is a good school. Anyways, took just a few pictures today. We wanted to get all of the roofing put on today, and we got pretty close, but we'll have to finish it tomorrow. Today was a big ticket day at Lowes with buying the tin and 1x4s for the roof ($372, with a couple of other items). On deals like that, I prefer to use my Lowes credit card, because they offer a 6 months/no interest deal on purchases that high, and I do an automatic payment on that. The card has an otherwise outrageous interest rate. Here's a picture of my dad trimming the 4x4 posts down. Below is a picture of the corrugated galvanized tin roof. Because sheet metal is so expensive, I chose to go with this product, although it is flimsy, cheap crap. We put lots and lots of self drilling self tapping screws in it. Picking up tools for the evening. We got a lot done today despite it being a nasty, muddy mess outside.

From OK to BC: Thanks for the question and the kind words! Around here, we've always set posts in holes at 24" (whether fence posts or for pole barns) without issues from rotting or heaving. My cousin (nextdoor neighbor) has a 30'x60' barn with posts set the same way with no issues, built 29 years ago. So put simply, we continue to set posts in a manner that has proven successful here (so far) and obviously without any reason to change, we haven't adjusted. Now granted, my cousins dad (across the street) has a big oak barn built by some local Amish people who built a ~36" tall "stem wall" out of cinder block where the sill plate is mounted to the top of the cinder block wall, and they all say we should expect it to last across generations which I deduce (from details I don't list here) to span past 125 years. Of course, their timber framed posts that DO go into the ground are at least 16" across the cross section (where they go into the ground), so I'm sure they will rot to center after my own life. Whew! I could go on a tangent about how long I could guess differently treated timbers will last!

Glenn -- thanks for the advice. I'll have to at least cover the roofing with some white PVA primer as insurance as inexpensive as it is. I do expect this little building to get toasty as early as late spring. Also, since I'll be running 110v service to this building, I'll plan to use my shop fans as well. They move air well. My chimneys (for my wood stove and coal forge) will go through the walls. I have some tentative plans for their exact locations, but I prefer not to nail those plans down until I absolutely have everything laid out where I want it, so those will be installed in the near future. With regard to plans for expansion, the general plan is to make due with this structure until further expansion is required, at which point this structure will be used as a side shed for the center section of a barn. We've built other barns this way and it has been extremely convenient. I don't see that necessity popping up any time soon, but I prefer to be prepared as much as possible and for that I have no qualms about letting that shape the structure that we're building, so long as I'm content with its appearance for now.

Indeed! Cool weather here (25-40 degrees F) is well suited to climbing, sawing (manually), and moving materials. And as we say in our family, "There's no such thing as being cold, there's only being unprepared."

Thanks for the advice! I was actually doing a little bit of eyeballing on how I will install some soffet vents, if it is convenient. Once the siding is up, I will begin working fold-down ventilation ways into the equation on the north and south walls. I can already tell this place is going to get hot this summer, although I have nestled it well among some 20+ year old hackberrys on the south and west sides. I looked up your location one time out of curiosity and noticed that Bradley is just a few miles west of Lindsay; I go there often for work. I actually ate at the Pizza Hut on the west side of town for lunch recently. Cheers [How do I call you? Charles, Chuck, Mr. Stevens?] EDIT: Mr. Stevens -- I just realized I may have misunderstood the premise of the question about ventilation at the roof. Anyways, I understand now, and yes, ventilating the shop will be an point of interest now, if not by summer for sure.

Hey Guys, In the better interest of procuring a little more comfortable working quarters, I decided to start spending some of my "fun money" on materials to build a little 12'x16" pole barn to get some shelter over my setup. I've been blacksmithing for a few years (maybe 2.5 or so), and living with Oklahoma weather, I was definitely interested in investing in something that would make it more practical to work when I want, regardless of weather. So, having a few days off from work for the Christmas/New Year holidays, I decided to spend some time with my dad building this barn. I live on some family land a little north of Tulsa, OK, and my dad is an experienced barn builder who loves projects like these. We've been having a great time building this shop so far! This is a picture of the spot that I began building my pole barn on. For the last year, it has pretty much just been home to a few broken down riding lawn mowers and a car that I haven't driven in a couple of years. I took this picture a few minutes after I started scraping the grass off the "pad", then I remembered to take a picture. The slope that I'm building on is a little steeper than ideal, but I did the best I could with the equipment I have available (CAT 304.5 mini excavator). What I couldn't fix, would be addressed with the limestone cuttings (we usually refer to them as "tailings") to level the floor. I went ahead and staked off a 12'x16' shape, although it has actually been used more as a guide to keep the building square. So far so good. Started digging post holes with a digging bar and post hole diggers. There is something to be said for the relaxation that is found in manually digging post holes. I did a lot of this after work at night. Having a work light (and close enough proximity to electric with a 50' extension cord) was helpful. I drew up a plan using Google SketchUp (to make sure the proportions would look good) and worked out a list of materials to buy. I received some Lowes gift cards for Christmas, so I bought lumber there. We hauled the lumber out to the truck and loaded it up, then my dad started laughing. I said, "What's so funny?" He says, "I guess you better go back in and by some concrete." I guess remembering in the parking lot was better than remembering at home. Starting to shag lumber out to the pad; getting the posts set up in their holes. Traditionally, building barns and fences, we've set the posts in wet concrete the best we can, then tie them in with rails. Solely for the purpose of trying something new, we dumped half 80 lb bags of concrete into the holes, set them plumb, and tied them in. This seemed to work well. After that, we tamped the dry concrete down and put water in the holes. An "exciting" shot of us setting the posts. That grumpy ol' redneck makes a heck of a model. Using my uncle's tractor to pick up some limestone tailings that he bought to aerate his soil. I traded him some work (fed his sheep and re-fueled this tractor). I came out good on the deal -- he's a good guy. Tailing floor put down and raked. I thought it would set up a little more firm, but no big deal. It will be a step above working on hardened gravel, either way. I also went ahead and put up the mid rail (before watering the concrete in and tamping). The nearest side (broad side) would be removed and replaced with 2x4's cut to length on either side of the 8' door. Another picture of some more completed framing. My daughter just turned two and she has been a real joy to the family. When she comes outside, work temporarily stops so her and "Pappy" (my dad) can play for a little while. She was fairly intrigued by the floor material, which she ran back and forward on (inside of the footprint of the framing) and exclaimed "Funny!" Getting a little further into the framing. The roof was a "learn as you go" sort of thing for me, although that isn't how I prefer to learn. I've built many structures with my dad, but every one is a unique experience. Last picture of the day. We'll get back to work on the upper framing tomorrow, then hopefully it will be time to get siding and roofing on. I'll be using 1x6 oak siding (from a local mill -- cheap at $100 for a 160 piece bundle of 8'-12' boards), then regular galvanized corrugated 12' sheet metal for the roof. Thanks for reading!

BMUS -- You're making me nostalgic for your ornerier days on r/blacksmith!

Good stuff! Enjoyed the jumps from heat to heat... that can make a technical video much more watchable. Make some more!

Okay. Well, I can see that the expensive result that I'm seeing as the "cheapest" option must be the product of online quoting. I'll stop into the post office this week and see what my local rates are. Again: many thanks -- especially for those of you that are using USPS, as that seems to be the factor that will salvage this idea. Have a good weekend.

Thanks for the replies and helpful information. After checking rates, USPS and FedEx seem like expensive options, but I'm having understanding why the cheapest option (in USPS's case) is 2 Day Priority, when I selected nothing about shipping speed. I would think they would be the cheapest method, too, but their lowest priced option that I could find is nearly $50 to ship a 3 lbs tong shapes tube. FedEx's price was just as high, and it also seemed to assume that I needed to get the tongs to their destination in a hurry (using Charleston, SC) as the test destination. UPS was the most reasonable, and almost so to the extent that made me think the prior two price checks were skewed. UPS was only $15 from Tulsa to Charleston. Anyways, it's starting to look like I might just put the whole bundle of tongs I don't want on CL, apologize to the people who inquired about shipping, and move along. Thanks very much for your help!

@DSW -- Thanks so much for the good information.

Good Evening Everyone, Last weekend, I purchased a 72 piece lot of blacksmith tongs at a local auction. Several people online have asked me if I would be interested in selling them some of the tongs that I'm not interested in keeping, which I am totally interested in doing, if not to at least help recoup the money I spent on the lot. I plan to have the buyer pay for shipping, and therein lies my dilemma. Have any of you ever sold tongs or small tooling (drifts, chisels, etc.) over the internet and shipped them to people? If so, do you remember what shipping service you used and which was the most economical to use? I know that may be asking a lot to recall for those of you who haven't shipped any tools that way recently, but for those of you that have, could you help me out with some advice? Most of the tongs I have are between 16" and 24". I know that USPS has a flat-rate shipping program (just thought of that one -- I'll see if I can dig up some pricing there). That seems like that might be one of the more cost effective options, considering several people said they would be interested in purchasing multiple pairs. I hope I posted this in the right forum -- I thought about posting in tools, but I figured that seeing as how this question is more about shipping, this might be a more appropriate venue. In summary, can anyone recommend a shipping service or cost effective shipping option?

Went to an auction about an hour a way from my house this weekend. I heard that there would be a coal forge with a blower, several sets of tongs, and a few post vises up for grabs. The forge and blower went for $475 (it was about 4'x4'), the vises (both 4" Iron City -- one missing its bracket) went for $50 a piece. I bought all the tongs for $350. All of the tongs came in two ammo boxes. There was a handful of nippers that with the lot... I'll probably sell them, if I can. Three bottom tools (two round swages and one hardie), three top tools (one set hammer, one top round swage head, and some weird type of hot cut), two cold chisels, and some other various small tools came with them, as well. I was also able to buy a nice square punch (wood-handled top tool). My dad was with me -- he counted 72 pairs of tongs.