inazuma_x

yeah there are fireplaces galore...but you're only allowed to burn stuff if you're preparing food...or heating yourself...ah red-tape...i love it...doing stuff that may be considered artistic or interesting is strictly prohibited though...coz its frivolous creativity and fun...it must be extinguished immediately...before people start smiling... so...what can you do with coal that you cant do with gas?

for sure! you wanna come? GC is pretty close...you living in the burbs? or out in the middle of nowhere? how do you deal with your neighbors?

well...it would seem my neighbor (i know which one) has complained to council for me "incinerating flammable material" in my backyard...otherwise known as running a forge...$1000 fine...she wants a war...she's got one...hope she likes a 2.5m double planked wooden fence obstructing her view of the valley... anyway...i have decided to move into my garage and invest in a gas forge...what's a good one? i've heard they're good but will miss the olde worlde feel of a coal forge :(

make sure to keep the piece out of the oxidation layer ie. try to keep it higher in the coals. also try to keep the thin stuff pointing up rather than down...then the thick stuff will be closer to the heat than the thin stuff... you can also try heating it in stages by taking it out and letting the thin edge cool and then putting it back in...it will gradually build up heat and be evenly soaked rather than the edge being white hot and the thicker bits being almost totally unheated...

doesnt quite roll off the tongue :P

the problem is that there's not much of that in my city. brisbane wasnt really founded until the mid 1800s and the area i live in was a military barracks for most of last century. all of the "old" names are still in use today...Arnell is the name of the street i live on...and where the forge will be located.

thinking of some names for my new forge... 1) Mjollnir's Strike 2) The Lonely Goat Forge 3) Arnell Iron Works (this is location based which i dont mind) what do you guys/gals think?

in my opinion the most sought after is the one you're going to buy next...and the best is simply the one you have :)

there are like 4 bladesmiths in australia that i am aware of...and most of them are about 500km apart each...my grand plan is to make kitchen knives eventually...and try and sell them to a franchise like King Of Knives (a boutique knife chain in AU)...lots of certifications and stuff to be done but even if its just by word of mouth i reckon you could atleast make ends meet... perhaps this doesnt apply in the US though... does it have to be blades? why not making forged furniture to order? sell your wares at a market or something to start with...small things like candle holders and chandeliers and tools etc...then as your renown grows you should get bigger and more lucrative projects...you can make an absolute MINT doing this down my way...

perhaps the building missed you and decided it couldnt live without you that is very true...i am going to be adding a 2000L water tank to the side...24m of roof is quite a large area...perfect for collecting water for the garden and for quenching tasks... already got a 7000L tank attached to the house for the garden and laundry...its usually full :)

yeah the grey panel on the back wall is actually going to be corro just like what Dale R has done. thought it best to have some manner of heat shield there or atleast something to keep any stray sparks from turning my precious smithy into a raging inferno... Aeneas: we dont get much rain here actually. this is the "end" (hopefully) of one of the longest droughts on record. our dams were down to about 17% at their lowest...back to around the 40% mark now, which is pretty good around here the problem with southern queensland is that the weather gods down here seem to take an all or nothing approach...the last drought we had was just before the 2nd biggest flood on record (1974) where the entire city was under water...i live in the hills though so flooding isnt a major issue... most of the houses in queensland have corro roofs so it should be fine to use it for my smithy...

just wondering...do ppl consider it completely idiotic to have a wooden smithy?

the parts that are wood that are right near the furnace itself are going to be clad in corrogated iron so it should shield it from any stray sparks or flames...other than that i am just gonna leave it as plain ol wood...wouldnt have thought it'd be a fire hazard really...the heat is quite localized...but am willing to take that on advisement...do you think its going to be a serious, structure-wide issue? you're probably right though...per capita there are just as many smiths here as in the US...but i think we just dont have the population density to reach critical mass in terms of a blacksmithing community...we're too scattered and so having local societies and groups that get together regularly is difficult...in my experience anyway...this could just be a queensland issue :P

why are you considering using a jig? does it need to be perfectly uniform? if not i'd just free-hand it by bending it alternately side to side on the horn...

yeah is a bit weird...is a dying art down in these parts...which really does suck i know of 3 smiths in my city...and i'm one of them :)

quite right...though it seems the terms are used interchangeably in these parts...hicksville australia but then most ppl dont even know what an anvil is down here... forge1 Audio Help /fɔrdʒ, foʊrdʒ/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[fawrj, fohrj] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation verb, forged, forg

took some pics of my anvil last night. its actually only 230lbs...musta been confused with the kg to lb conversion...300 woulda been nice though oneday perhaps...they're rare as hen's teeth down here i've also attached a 3ds max rendering of my forge to be...the roof and the metal section in the middle of the back wall are all corro iron and the floor is decomposed granite. dimensions (exterior) are 4m by 6m...

thanks for the advice everybody feel slightly more positive now will let y'all know how it goes!

my anvil is a 300lb wilkinson sword anvil (circa 1840) that has seen a fair bit of use over the years...still has many good edges despite having a fairly distinct depression in the middle of the face. i plan to mount it on a 40cm high block of aussie hardwood (probably kwila) though perhaps softwood may be a more sound-dampening option. i would like to take whatever measures possible to make it as quiet as possible. keep those neighbors happy. so if i wrap a chain around it and have it on a wooden block which is sitting on a compacted earth floor and perhaps even a large-ish magnet stuck to the side it should be fairly quiet yes?

wow thats really nice i love this style of ironwork!

yeah thats what i thought...interesting...how effective is it?

like a chain chain ( http://www.ok.gov/okohstest/images/chain.jpg.jpg )? are you guys pulling my leg?

like actually sticking them on the side of the anvil?

smoke shouldnt be a problem. i use coke which seems to produce next to no smoke...i am also looking into sound proofing options too...the floor of my smithy is going to be decomposed granite which is supposed to be quite good for reducing the tuningfork effect that concrete slabs have...how do you use magnets to reduce the ring?

and people tuning their v8s in their garage rumbling, sputtering engines are far better than the clang of creativity i guess... i am considering doing a letter drop on my block...or perhaps offering discounts on my services to neighbors in the immediate vicinity...nothing like bribes to keep people quiet the problem is that keeping up with demand may be a fulltime job :S just to stop them complaining :(