arkie

That is mighty kind of you, Glenn. Thoughts and prayers out to family.

A Brian Brazeal 3 lb. rounding hammer. :)

Very nice video. I liked the fast forward approach and very much liked the piano background music...very relaxing. So many videos these days seem to be obsessed with rock or heavy metal which can detract from the topic of the video. I just mute it. It was amazing to watch the knive evolve from a ball bearing. Would have never imagined it. Good work!

Sluicebox and guest_ I've been using one of the HD bathroom fans as well, 60CFM, for nearly two years now. "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking". Mine has the black pipe plumbing and a blast gate (sliding air gate) for air control. I only open it about 1/4 for most forging, sometimes to 1/2 open, rarely wide open.

Joe, that's a great idea...one of those "why didn't I think of that?" ones. Makes me want to go get some scrap from behind the shop and try it out today. I've got a bunch of smaller sizes angle iron and other pieces I had used for some stick welding practice. Not good for much now, but they could be forged into something like 1/2" to 1" thick square bar for future forging. Will be interesting to see how the weld metal stringers blend in with the mild steel angle iron and scraps. Thanks for the tip.

Automotive hand cleaner in the shop, then Dawn liquid dish detergent in the house. Works like a dream.

My anvil is outside and prone to sweating. I usually keep a plastic storage box over it. After a forging session, I just give the face a quick spritz of WD-40, quick wipe with a paper towel and the next time it is rust free and no residue from motor oil or linseed oil. I put the used paper towel wipe with a wad of newspaper the next time I start a fire in the forge...no waste, no rust.

That's why I mentioned it. It happened to me with my first hammer and first forging. I thought I needed to insure a good grip, so I used my hand drill and drilled a few rows of dimples about 1/8" deep all down the lower part of the handle on a 3# cross peen hammer. After about 30 minutes of good, hard hammering, I had BAD blisters on all fingers, thumb and palm!! :( Sanded that sucker smooth, oh yeah!!!!!!!! :rolleyes:

That's just about perfect for a handle....I usually go down to around 120 or so. Everybody has their own taste.

Smooth reins are definitely better. An oval shape does give better control at times. As a sidenote, I have noticed that some beginning smiths want to texture their hammer handles (grooves, dimples, checkerboard, etc.) to get a "better" grip. They usually grind or sand them down smooth very quickly!!!!

Publishers probably have all kinds of printing equipment available. They probably don't just print books alone.

Don't try to carry on a conversation at a critical time when forging. I spent quite a bit of time making my first gooseneck tongs. They (the two halves) turned out great. Friend came over and started a conversation about the time I was ready to rivet them together. Decided to hot rivet, slipped the rivet in the holes, set the tongs in the fire, stood there talking while waiting to bring them up to bright red, OOOOOPS!!!! Quickly pulled the tongs out, had two reins and one jaw. The other jaw was burnt off. Bad words...bad words...bad words.

.....and you can shoot a few baskets if you get bored and need some entertainment!!

Steve, a thought...since you now have a business relationship with your book publisher, maybe they could print up some poster sized charts at a reasonable price.

Very nice chart, Steve. Much better than most I've seen. Thanks for posting. :)

Joel, I recently had a metal carport installed to cover my outside forge, the kind with galvanized square steel posts and galvanized base rails and sheet metal roof. The uprights attach to the base rails by slipping them over a stub about 6" high welded to the rail. The stub/rail weldment looks like it has been sprayed with a sort of galvanized coating that is as shiny as the galvanized coating on the posts and rails. Anyone have an insight as to what coating they might have used? That might be something you could use.

Well, I guess that rules out it being a 120 pounder! :)

rwolfe, those horseshoe openers are kool!! I have a few friends who ride and they would love to pack one of those on the trail with them ;) Might have to borrow your idea and make some up. Hope they come out looking as good as yours!

Happy New Year back to you....fan club, huh? Opens up all kinds of new possibilities. ;)

Jeremy and Jim, thanks for the quick ID on the mystery item!! :) I googled for C & E, farm equipment, etc., etc. on searches for a long time without success. It was amazing that people were bidding on something that seemingly no one knew what it was. Maybe they just wanted it in case it turned out to be something valuable. It looked like some parts might be missing, but who knew. I bet there was some old farmer or blacksmith there who secretly knew it's purpose but wouldn't say. Follow up: Based on your description, I now had a name for it. Googled "antique buffalo forge blower" and shazamm.....lots of pictures popped up exactly like the ones I posted and you two described. IFI rocks!

We were demo'ing at an antique tractor show this past fall and the item pictured was being auctioned off...problem was, no one knew what it was!!!!!!!! :wacko: It's about 4 feet tall. The markings "C&E" might mean something to someone. Looks like some kind of brake or clutch in the small center drum. Anyone have an idea what this is? BTW, Steve and Glenn...the photo uploads worked OK.

Have you tried using Adblock Plus? I use it on IE and Chrome and it helps (some).

It was amazing how much mod work this shop did. The guy at the counter said that I probably wouldn't be able to retrieve any parts from the "scrap bin" since the scrap dealer had been there the day before. Well, when we looked in the bin, which was about 6 ft. x 6 ft. and 4 ft. deep, it was about 3/4 full!! A blacksmith's dream.

Thought I'd pass on a tip for those looking for steel such as coil springs, tie rods, torsion bars, other linkage but are unable to scrounge the salvage yards. (So many salvage places nowdays won't let you pick through the stuff). My son had an idea to hit up some of the bigger offroad mod shops that do conversions from stock Jeeps, Hummers, etc. to high-end off road suspension modifications. We hit up a place in Georgia that did that sort of stuff and when I told them I wasn't a scrapper but just a hobby blacksmith, they said I could get a few parts from their "scrap bin". OMG, you can't believe what I found. LARGE coil springs, tie rods, torsion bars, etc....ALL BRAND NEW, NO RUST, NO MUD, NO NUTTIN'!!!!!! on any of it. Not a scratch one on any of them...paint was unblemished. The parts tag attached to them was spotless clean! They were new takeoffs for suspension upgrades and the vehicles were probably driven directly from the dealer to the offroad shop. The springs were about 1" to 1 1/4" diameter as I recall and the various bars were likewise. New, those parts probably cost in the hundreds of $$. So, go humbly into an off road mod shop and gracefully request a few pieces from their "discard" bin. At least you don't have to clean the rust off!!!

I think it's a latent, hidden desire to play drums..... :wub: