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I made my first socket handled chisel this past week. The steel is from a leaf spring, which hardened quite nicely, and the handle was turned from a chunk of an oak tree I cut down last year. It wasn't perfect, but is quite functional and the new owner was quite pleased.

Thank you for all the compliments! I actually had not considered doing one, as I figured it was too delicate a project for my abilities, but someone offered me enough money to make it worth trying. The person who asked for it did not like it, which was dissapointing, but another person saw it and offered 25% more than the original offer, so it is now with it's new owner. I kind of wanted to hang on to it, with it being my first, but I can buy plenty more steel now!

My first rose, it took a lot longer than I expected!

Thank you all for your input, time to send my son to the scrap yard and see what he can find!

I am currently planning a small blacksmith shop, and I would like to build a power hammer of either the Krusty/Rusty or Tire variety (still undecided, I like the simplicity of the Krusty, but the space savings of the tire hammer is a big draw). My question is about the anvil. My idea is to use 36" of 12"x12" square tube with a .5" wall, with a 36" piece of 1.5" 1045 bar centered and then filled with aluminum and capped with a .5" plate. By my calculations, the overall weight would be roughly 676 lbs (228 for tube, 18 for the bar, 20 for the plate, and 410 for the aluminum) which would allow me to use a 30 lb hammer and still maintain a little better than 20:1 ratio. So do you fine gentlemen think this would work? The idea of the bar in the center is to help absorb some of the force and better distribute it throughout the depth, I was worried that the aluminum alone under the plate would possibly deform with heavy use. The main use for the hammer will be larger tools and eventually pattern welding as well.

While picking up some coal this weekend, I also happened upon a Champion blower. From what I can tell it is the 140 / Eureka model. The issue with it is that the output shaft on the fan has so much play that the fan scrapes and rattles on every rotation. My question is what kind of bearing does this shaft run on and where might I find a suitable replacement?