notownkid

Growing up working on the farm 10 degrees was the cut off for working out cutting wood as my uncle was concerned for the oxen not us. the rest of the chores went on at any Temp including -35 one morning working on the manure wagon. 50 above is a nice day in VT to work outside esp. if you have a fire going. But the outhouse was brisk at -25 I can tell you. That was 10 yrs. ago when building our new house and living in the basement. Everything is relative!

This Christmas I'd like a concrete floor for my new dedicated 100 % Blacksmith shop being built this week. I found money for the building lacking $$ for a floor at this Joyous time of year. I'll worry about insulation next year, please Santa a Floor, might need a few more pair of reindeer to haul it, you can even bring it a few days late!

My suggestion is to Join New England Blacksmiths, I did a few years ago and have learned a lot from them. They have 3 days meetings around NE somewhere each spring and fall with guest instructors, worth every penny. There is usually used equipment there to purchase and leads on where to find more. It is near impossible to spend 3 days with 75 other smiths and not learn something of value. Listen and ask questions, keep what might work for you, lets the rest slide off your back like water off a duck. But at the end of the day do it your way and you will learn soon enough what works and doesn't and make running changes to your plans. Take to heart what is being told you as it is all given from experience and trying to save you time and $$$$$$$. I too am without a scrap yard to visit so I have a good friend who delivers for a NAPA auto parts store and he is on the lookout for scrap for me at repair shops. If he delivers new Coil Springs, Tie rods for trucks, leaf springs, he asks about the old one, a lot of the time he gets them. Good Luck, remember Smiths mean well but aren't public speaking people and have rough edges.

You would do good to research what is needed as far as the inspection goes and requirements/codes. I use to be a Fire Chief and my experience with Inspectors was if they didn't know the answer or requirement they would make it up and run with it. Also you can ask 4 inspectors the same question and get at least 3 different answers. We had a plumbing inspector tell us the vent in our new Firehouse was installed wrong and when we questioned him about it he said it was in fact Code the way we did it BUT he didn't like the code so wanted it his way, after calling the State the CODE WON! You will end up with an ABC Dry Chemical Exting. before you get done and hope you don't have to use it. Be sure everyone in your shop has training in the use of Exting. as they may need to save you. I've seen people add foam concentrate to the old Pressure Water ones as well, no credit for them but they work great. Love to see the face of the officials when you tell them you want to "tap" into the gas main. Again check in advance so you know what the codes are. Our divers filled their Scuba tanks on the same compressor we used for SBCA fire tanks. We had a Fire Insurance Inspector tell us it wasn't safe to have spare SBCA Tanks setting on a Radiant Heated Floor as it might cause them to burst from over heating! Not sure what planet he was from but a call to his company sent him back there. Good Luck

Only the guy who made it knows for sure. Jig for something he was going to make a lot of, nice craftsmanship

I stumbled onto one recently while talking with two guys in a small engine repair shop. I had worked with them a few years go and I was telling them I was building a new blacksmith shop. One said he had a hand crank blower thingy in his basement was I interested. Yup, nice 400, got it for a song didn't even have to dance. You just never know where stuff shows up. A friend was delivering lumber to another friend of mine and in conversation my name came up and my new shop, I ended up with a nice home made small forge with a very nice blower on it. Ask a friendly delivery guy to keep an eye out for you, I delivered fuel oil and gas way back and you got to see all the good stuff out behind peoples houses and garages.

Permit wise it's every place for itself. In our area it's anything with a roof needs a permit. I just had to get one for a 4' x 4' smokehouse as it had a roof, and I moved it from another state where it didn't need a permit because it didn't have a foundation. High Temp Permatex Ultra Grey Silicone is good for 2000 degrees, have used it on pellet stove door seals and race car header bolts should work for you. Nice shop to start with, if you burn it there a plenty more pallets around, good for you on the design. Shouldn't build up too much smoke inside. First one I worked in had a roof nailed to an Elm Tree, no sides and about 1/2 that size. We worked fast in the winter when we needed to make something and as the youngest I had to go start the forge.

If you are interested in Photos of blacksmith shops in America, 1880-1940's there are many at the Library of Congress, Photo Section. as they say a picture is worth a 1000 words.

We use 30 Gal. SS barrels to store Maple Syrup in between the time it's drawn off the evaporator and is packaged for Retail sale and sometimes we sell wholesale in 30 gal lots. Look up Maple Syrup Supplies and there are a few places that offer them on the internet. Not the easiest to find in Texas.

My father always said "It costs money to go to school" I'm sure you all have been "Educated" this way a time or two, so let the guy do his thing and be happy he has the ability to Build Something he can use instead of Purchasing everything like the majority of the helpless people today. Go for it CC don't worry about a few negative folks. Enjoy it when it's done.

I agree on the windows, my new shop is getting 5 windows plus a glass in the passage door. I figure I'll be in a closed box soon enough. Also after being in the fire service for 25+ years I put a second door in the back wall, not all fires will start by the forge and I want a second option for egress other than up front. The compressor intake from outside is a good idea as cooler air, which you have 1/2 the year in PA, compresses faster and better than warm air of the shop. Be sure to drain on the way out every night esp. in humid weather. Very nice shop best of luck with it, and enjoy. 1000's out here in smithing land would love to have it.

Our Farms names are Forgotten Farms and Forgotten Farms Too (200 miles apart)but that was just going to be too long esp. since Forgotten Farms is being sold and we are moving to Too full time .and where the new shop is going to be built. FF Too is in the Valley of the Kedron which unlike the bible is pronounced Keedron and the brook runs in front of the farm. There are a number of businesses that start with Kedron Valley whatever so we decided to leave out that part. Those who know me laugh over the bible part. Kedron Forge was decided on as we can tell who is local by how they pronounce it. Also considered North Flowing Forge as the Kedron does in fact flow North but figured few would understand it. This the last move next time will be in an Urn Loved all the info on the names and agree with who ever cautioned about registering the names with the state, here in VT you also have to get a sales tax # and file reports and put up with the Tax Inspector when they come asking for their money. I figure the only things I make are Smoke, Noise, Mistakes , and Scrap, shouldn't be a Tax on that. I figuring on a sign in the shop, "We Make New Scrap out of Old Scrap" that's Recycling at it's finest. Blacksmiths, America's First Full Time Recyclers. Keep up the stories folks love them Dale J

I was offered a "Nice Shape" 6" post vise recently from a hobby shop selling out to go South. Usual story "Perfect" etc. asking $165.00. Saw one this spring at a tailgate event they want $650 for. Any thoughts on the value of a "Nice shape" 6"?

In our area of VT, NH and CT there is a stone dust product also known as Driveway pack that when rolled a little and used for a while becomes almost as hard as Pavement. The towns use it for town roads and works great. The other thing is they grind up the old pavement on the roads and usually dump it somewhere. They are suppose to reuse it but it doesn't seem to happen all that often.. If you can get a load of that and get it spread on a nice HOT day it will also set up and become very hard again. We used that in an equipment repair yard where we had to run around with track vehicles and worked fine,

Glenn on the third page of this topic you showed a vise less the leg and a different clamp system. I'm new to this sight but it sounds a whole lot like a vise from a Military "Traveling Forge" of the Civil War era and later as long as they had horses and mules. The description in the book "Blacksmith's Traveling Forge" by Karl Orndorff says " The Tongue vise appeared nearly Identical to a Blacksmiths post vise the only difference being the post has been replaces by a sturdy "Clamping Device". It was mounted on the Chassis of the forge near the anvil. No real good picture of one of these in use, there is a decent line drawing of one on pages 124-125. Sounds about right. Anyone interested in the History of Blacksmithing this is an interesting book. Dale

Research, Research, Research. Before spending $$$/LLL on material to make items that may have frequent flyer miles before they sell, go and look to sell what others are selling or are not selling. We love to make things that we like to see or like to make but we are not doing the buying. The Best Smith/Craftsman is generally the Poorest Business Person. I vote for the Pokers! Candles are expensive, generally come in glass jars(in the US) and without candles holders are less than useful.

Right place Right time and the right question will also work. My son was having breakfast & talking with a local Farrier in the back of a country store in VT recently son asked farrier if he knew where he could get an anvil as he knew I wanted to use mine on the weekend. Local Farrier knew an old 84 yr old farrier selling everything. I'm told about 11pm that night they were unloading a truck load of equipment, gas forge, anvil, tongues and a 55 gal drum of used horse shoes, tools and lord knows what else into my garage. Interesting that my first job at 10 was cranking the blower on a forge for this young farrier's grandfather at a local livery stables. Best part is my son now 44 has gotten the Smithing fever like me and we are about to build a new blacksmith shop just for smithing together. (I think I'm paying but worth every penny/Dollar) Word is out and everyone is on the lookout for tools for us, helps to be in a very small town.

Agree with LastRonin, share your good luck with someone in need who doesn't have the luck. See how good it makes you feel.

my 213# PW face looks the same as your pic. If you can afford it BUY it before someone else does.

Had a friend that went to an "outing for smiths" suppose to be a wet day so he took his new pop up canopy with nice folding metal frame. he got his fire ripping hot and all he came home with was his folding frame his canopy had melted/burned stunk up the whole place. Hasn't been invited back since.

My first experience at the forge was under a roof made of 2 2x6s nailed to a big old Elm tree behind the livery stable I worked at, when I was 10. My job was to crank the handle while they made replacement parts for carriages used in restorations. Later I summered with a Standardbred racing stable in VT, we had a rivet gorge we used for shoeing and repairs, we also cooked our Steaks on it for Sunday dinner. Now building my first Shop just for Blacksmithing where everything can be under 1 roof, IF I can remember where it is all stored. Had my shop forge set up in an old milkhouse attached to our large barn, things got a little warm in there so the little lady suggested I build an independent shop away from all other buildings.

Nice to know they are available at a better price than I saw.

I saw somewhere recently that you can purchase the complete set of DVD's of al the shows, Approx. $160 if I remember right, Amazon.com maybe??????

Williamsburg is fun, we were there shortly after the New Blacksmith Shop was opened. We had been there the year before when they were just starting the foundation. We watched the progress every day on the Web cam they have on the sight, quite interesting, including them putting Radiant Heat in the Concrete floor under the bricks! Plenty of Iron work all around the place to see and study. A good camera, extra batteries, spare memory card needed. And Click away! Unless your 30 you can't see all in one day, we try 2-3 when we get there but it's 500 miles for us to get there. There a number of forges there besides the shop. X the gunsmith shop with back to back forges in separate rooms, also the wheelwright shop where the Smiths were operating out of when they built the new shop.

Since 1992 I have been involved with two new structures with radiant Heat and it's the only way to go. We did a Firestation in '92 in Vermont and none have been built since in our area without radiant. We also built a new house in '03 in Vermont with radiant and when we finished part of the basement we glued down 2x6 onto the floor and ram set near support posts that we knew didn't have tubing, worked good so far. The big red power hammer in the picture might concern me, only because I've heard of heavy vibrating machines causing broken tubes?? Haven't seen it personally just heard?? Good Luck with your shop looks great. Notownkid