Charles R. Stevens

He'a hardheaded enugh to make a smith. All kidding aside, many mistakes have been made repeatably. Most of us try to head them off at the pass, as we have been there and done that. A few of the folks here teach, and they can see the mistakes your going to make befor you even light the fire. Try to be patient with us, and we'll try and be patient with you. As to rail, make a large hot set, and go to town. Lots of good steel. After you forge up that 8' of rail you'll look like one of those Hollywood smiths ;-)

Yard sales, swapmeets, dog trades etc. also if your going to be a smith, might as well learn to forge them. Spring steel is the common choice. As we forge many of our own tools, recycling worn, damaged and broken tools make good materials for us.

Arkie I think you might look at magnetic oil pan heaters, block heaters work in fluid. Might work in your slack tub.

This is my portable setup. Ugly but functional.

BM, Glad to hear you knee is healing.

It effects how long the steel stays hot. Certainly -40 could make things a bit brittle.

J Y, I'd just forge my socket from the knob. Them one would have a gaff. If its a finished item, and the egg shaped knob leads me to think it is. I think it's a hook for handling something, not shaped right for a hay hook, but a butchers gaff comes to mind.

J, I am proud of you. I have less than a decade on you, but for the better part of 5 decades I have struggeled with type II by polar illness and ADD. Ad to that PTSD, a bit if obsessiveness, and en ex with a persanality disorder, as well as a step-daughter witht he same and another with CP. I long ago learned the lesson you did today. Forgive yourself for letting your flustrations get the better of you. From now, forward you have the opertunity to be a better man.

22" might cause some draw problems. I'd look into the small drums that greas comes in, their about 12", you can cut the drums, so you have a sheat of steel (running a heavy pick up or tractor over the ribs will solve that problem) then role the sheet the other way. It will give you a tube 10-11" and 5-6'. Unless the stack is UL rated I think code is going to want it 3" from the wall. They are going to want a ceramic themble or double (even triple wall) trew the wall. Might be less trouble to go threw the roof, besides single wall outside in cold weather can sea ritually hamper draw.

I'll have to start saving my shekels. If you find your self transiting Ok and come up from the south west corner, hang a left at Chickasha and we'll feed ya and put you up for the night.

Thommas, hats off to your wife. Linda spins lace weight yarn, of an "exeptable quality". If your wife is only twice as skilled and half as dedicated I'm impressed. That said I have no doubt Linda would be at least as exited to sit beside your wife and spin as I would be to share a fire with you. Now if one could only find the time and money for such endevers.

Rich, you, Steve and Thomas are among my faverite members. I'm sure a large part due to you all being "curmudgeons" as much as your skill, common sence and wisdom. Not to say that there aren't several others I am more than happy to see their bylines. Be you grounchy, grumbly, direct, and even rude selves. If others can't take "no your doing it wrong" or don't do it that way you might get hurt" then I'm sorry, but every one can't be right.

Gozintas look like a good reason for post anvils to make a come back.

So what do we have for anti fog? Glasses, safty glasses, goggles, shields, welding helmets...

Lol, I watch Linda weave, I help her keep the equipment running or manufacture a tool for her. I do a bit of weaving but as of yet that's it. I suspect Thommas and his better half are a better bet.

Thommas, any woman that will put up with likes of you and I, is deffinantly worth keeping happy. Might want to go a head and move her friends wheel to the top of the honey do list. Might not want to let Linda know your wife teaches spinning.

Don't remind me, I just replaced the hooks on an old flax wheel for her (new leather barrings,pins in half the spokes and a brass bushing). Now I'm looking at an old Irish wheel. Looks like all it needs is to replace a pin for one spoke.

I know I'm in trouble when Linda prefaces any conversation with "your a blacksmith right?" I must admit she keeps me pushing the envolope of my skills.

I've seen a retort made of a double barrel stove kit. With a 30 g clamp top inserted in the top barrel. I think it was linked from an earlier thread to a black powder sight. Apparently the lower temps makes better charcoal.

I feel your pain, Thommas. 11 wool sheep and Linda still buys wool. Truth is, despite becoming a fair spinning wheel mechanic it's relaxing to watch her spin.

Over on pounding out the bits, Markewits posted a comparison of coal, charcoal and propane. If I remember right, coal and charcoal are pretty comparable, pound for pound. But charcoal is only half as dense. So same weight, same fuel value and temp, just twice the volume. Propane didn't get as hot, but had more BTU's per pound but still hot enough to to melt steel. Price per BTU was on the side of coal, but if your making charcoal yourself...

I have two different stands, one light one for my 75# anvil (the one I carry on the truck) in witch I used 2" tubing. And 1 1/2 x 1/4" angle. I built a box of angel to support laminated 2x stock, to witch I mount the anvil. The front leg, under the horn extends just about the length of the horn. The other two match its angle and form an equilateral triangle the other anvil is mounted to a laminated oak stump my dad built me. It was to short so again I built an angle iron box and mounted tree legs. I have rubber pads on the feet to help fight creap as my anvils aren't bolted down. Oh, as a side note. Glenn suggested to me to place a 1/2 board on the anvil and give it a whack. ( some one else used aluminum, just recently) if you get a half moon to the fare side of the anvil raise it, or you get one to the near side lower it. Different hammers, and thicknesses of stock can effect this this. Glenn even suggested standing on a mat for thicker stock.

A copy of readers digest, back to basics. Some 35 years ago. Dad had taught me to gas weld, and I knew he wold ring my neck if I used the torch , so I jacked moms hairdryer and some Kingsford. Piddled for about a month, and like most kids lost interest. Then low and behold I find myself in a horseshoing school in Oklahoma 10 yeas ago.

Longer would be better (more mass) but as Thommas is fond of pointing out a 4" block of steel is a fair approximation of an anvil used by smiths from the beginning of the Iron Age. So yes a 10" piece of 4" would work nicely. 4140 will work pretty well, often smiths make hammers and anvil tooling from it. If you use a square, you can grind different radiuses on the edges to use as fullers (leave one sharp). Build a bick (broken over the road truck axle) and your in business.

Let us not forget the "self appointed expert" see it all the time on the net, some one offers his/her (often wrong) opinion as the truth. Any time you search the net for info you read everything you can find, often fallowing up at the library. Here, it's not such a problem, more than one way to skin a cat, but if its bad information it's exposed in no uncertain turms.