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I Forge Iron

BlackCrowMetalsmith

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  • Website URL
    http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6055640

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  • Location
    Portland, OR
  • Interests
    Blacksmithing, bronze casting, jewelry, gardening, fermenting everything...country life in the city.
  • Occupation
    Trying not to relegate my dreams to hobbies...
  1. I just talked to someone who has an anvil for sale about an hour's drive away, and I'm trying to figure out if I want to make the drive or not. They said the sides have multiple layers of paint, and all they can make out is what they believe to be a 9 on each front foot, and "RET PP" on the side. Unfortunately, no pics. I'm stumped, any ideas on what it could be, or any good questions to ask before I go down there? I'm waiting for a call back, and the only other thing I can think of asking right now is whether the markings are cast or forged. Thanks!
  2. BENCH VISE: A device used to remove unnecessary skin from the knuckles while operating a hacksaw. SLACK TUB: A vessel of water used to trick you into thinking something is not hot anymore. Also used for cracking high carbon steel and warping knife blades. COAL FORGE: Just another name for a high-temperature incinerator, commonly used to burn up projects just before completion. CLAW HAMMER: The preferred tool for removing fingernails from your non-dominant hand. JEWELER'S SAW: A tool used to securely hold small saw blades while you snap them in half. BUFFER: A tool used to regularly test the operator's reaction time. It is also used to hide pieces of jewelry, so that you've got something to look forward to next time you clean the shop.
  3. You can just take a half-pint mason jar and poke a hole through the lid for a wick, then fill it with lamp oil or alcohol. Poke the hole through from the underside to prevent the wick from slipping back in.
  4. As some have said above, blacksmithing has a limited market in our disposable economy. If you want to sustain yourself with your smithing skills, find other areas in which they apply. I'm a blacksmith, but I'm also a metalworker
  5. My advice is tangential to your question, but here it is: Don't go into debt. That's it...not to the bank, the army, or a family member. Live within your means, and if smithing for a living is your dream then go for it, but don't owe anything to anyone until you're really, really sure that it's what you want to do. I'm young, but I already know a number of people sucked into the cycle of debt, and some others on their way there. This goes as much for college loans as business-related ones. I've seen too many people regret taking out student loans five or ten years down the road, when they're stuck working a job they hate because they have no choice but to pay bank a bank. If you just build your business as you can, the worst that could ever happen is you'll end up with nothing, but at least you won't owe any more to someone else.
  6. Yeah, that's where I go in Portland. If you check out there website, it looks like there's a location in southern CA, about 40 minutes from you. They also sell castable refractory, kaowool (or inswool, whatever...), etc. My place is really friendly, and every time I go I ask for a "sample" pack of the kaowool. They always give me these things they call modules for free, which are basically about 8-12 6"x12"ish rectangles of the blanket form. I built a furnace that can melt 30 pounds of bronze or iron and by the time it was done, I'd gotten enough of the stuff for free that I was able to add a nice insulating layer outside of the refractory for no extra cost.
  7. I just called Embree and asked about providing my own vector graphic. The woman I spoke to told me that the main setup cost for them is making the template for the engraver, so it wouldn't be any cheaper. Thanks for the offer though Richard.
  8. Congrats! (now this message is 10+ words...up to spec.)
  9. If someone is doing something I believe is wrong on some sort of fundamental level, it makes no difference to me how hard they've worked...
  10. Hey, do you do castings also? I'm into bronze casting as well as smithing, and was just wondering because of your avatar (I think that's what the little photo is called...). Dan

  11. Here are some, but I've got no idea as to the quality. Blacksmiths Depot
  12. Being in the city there's not much in the way of smithing equipment at yard and estate sales...lately I've tried driving out to the country on a few Saturday mornings, but no real luck yet. Most of my stuff I've either built myself or has come from craigslist. Usually it's the mislabeled or vague listings ("old vice"). Here's something cool though: you can really speed up your craigslist searching by searching for multiple terms at once, including misspellings. For example: ['anvil' 'anvel' 'forge' 'vise' 'vice' 'tongs'] etc. If you enter it just like that, sans brackets, it will return search results for listings containing any, not all, of the search terms....if you accidentally miss an apostrophe you confuse it though. Double check it and then save your list as an email to yourself, so after that you can just copy and paste it...this way it only takes you about 20 seconds to search for everything you're looking for.
  13. Should the shank that goes in the hardie hole be carbon steel, or will mild steel do? I've got a 2" axle that I'm thinking about cutting to make the shapes I want, and then welding a piece of square bar to the bottom of each. Also, if my hardie hole is 1", should I use 7/8" bar, or get 1" bar and trim it just a little...my anvil didn't come with any tooling, and I'm unsure of how tight the fit should be. Thanks!
  14. I bought a 150 pound Vulcan for $400 this year. That seems to be around the average dollar/pound ratio for my area, and the anvil is in near mint condition.
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