Wroughton

Sing-j,

You probably have quite a scrap pile with a family history like that. That's a great start for your smithing adventure. Dig out any

heavy and flat iron for odd anvils. You may have heavy slides or rails from dead drill rigs? You could make quite a flat fabrication table. Any conical cutter heads? Good for truing up rings. I'm fairly drooling over what you might have in the pile. 

Deron does have it rough staring at the Crazy's. Much like you have it bad with the Snowys ; ).

When I was very young (single digits) I watched my uncle and grandfather maintain and shoe the family horses and mules every other weekend. 

I gotcha now Wroughton, I can see bozo having a still somewhat high concentration or still feel like it. I don't know why thats just bozeman for you. I've heard of the Sore Elbow Forge in bozo, and havn't heard of Ben Lund over by Fort Benton same with Deron Johnson at Big Timber. I know theres the Bar Mill Iron Forge in Big Timber and I've looked at their portfolio of the items and projects that group has done and its awesome! Heres a link to their website if anybody wants to look at their portfolio http://barmillironforge.com/?pageID=361338 The NRBA needs to get more younger people to get interested. I've started to find out with my generation when you tell my generation that you do blacksmithing they think it sounds just like a giant snorefest. I feel like if younger people, my generation, had more of an oppurtunity to at least try out blacksmithing they'd realize it's more then just hitting red hot iron in between an anvil and a hammer, and find a real enjoyment out of this art.

Sing-J,

Deron used to work at Bar Mill Iron Forge and has struck out on his own with Crazy Mountain Forge. He's crazy ; ) and he gets to stare at the Crazy Mountains all day long. He was responsible for some of the work you've seen on that portfolio and he is a F. Turley graduate. Ben's a farmer smith that likes to bring old equipment back to life, and he almost always has a little giant ph in some state of repair. Ben and his wife put a lot of time and effort into keeping the NRBA moving along in the last decade.

The NRBA isn't perfect and has suffered from the generational problems you've mentioned (like any club or group). 

The shared knowledge and the great visiting smith's that we've had as instructors over the years have been amazing. Striking and making sledge heads and hardy tools with Tom Clark was illuminating to say the least. 

In the 1890's my great grandfather and great uncle were sent from the orphanage to apprentice in a blacksmith shop in Superior, Montana. It wasn't an over active interest in working metal or the forge that drove them there but rather the world of the day. When they were old enough to strike out on their own, they went over the mountains to Idaho and my great grandfather went to work in the woods and my uncle became a machinist. 

This is the major difference of the blacksmith world of the past to what we have now for a smithing culture. We may not have a smith for every 100 people but most everyone that works with a forge wants  and wanted to be there. 

It's now your job to recruit your generation here in the mountain west. ; )

And, lastly, if you don't think the next generation is looking at the anvil you need to do a search on the "Young Smiths" here. 

When you sink to the level of painting your steelhead flies with Walmart glow in the dark puffy paint then you have a problem. BFN, I think you're on your way. Flash on your camera works really good for charging the glow in the paint.  

I like the hobby and craft stores for supplies much better than the fly shops. Oh the portions!

Belt buckle. I put it in there. Wax. argh. Sorry Nick.

Lousy, as in, at times it feels like there's a blacksmith behind every shop door.

Not even close but it can feel like it.

Call it....a high working smith density?

And, that was 10 years ago. Things have changed a bit. 

Last time I checked I was a member in good standing with the NRBA. 

It's been a while since I've attended a conference and our local

hammer-ins have dwindled.

Ben Lund is around Fort Benton, Sore Elbow Forge (Tom Holcombe) in north eastern Bozo.

Deron Johnson in Big Timber.

Here's a link to the NRBA page http://www.hallowellco.com/nrba.htm 

Greetings Sing-J,

You guys had it worse than we did in the western end of the state. It probably won't be the last cold blast of the season. I only burned up 5 cords of wood in 4 days keeping a "ring of survival" around the barrel stove. The stove is a heavy round drum 4' x 6' so it slurps wood like the Cookie Monster eats cookies. I had to torch my power hammer with the weed burner for 15 minutes before it would even think about running right. It sits about 6 feet from the stove right now. I had opened up the ports to get the oil flowing and after it warmed up it had oil GUSHING out of every orifice. 

You're fairly close (In Montana terms) to a number of professional smiths. The Bozeman/Big Timber area is lousy with them. I'm sure there are a couple in your area but I'm drawing a blank for a Lewistown NRBA member. I'm sure you can scare up a smith or two.

Join the NRBA, see the world!

Not really, that's the Navy, but the NRBA will open your eyes and make sure that sickness you're carrying festers into a full blown obsession. 

Vaughn, 

You'd cringe, laugh and wail at how far I run at the moment from forge to PH. Because of the cold my power hammer is now sitting over a wood floor so It can be closer to the stove. I don't trust an errant fire brick or hot cut off to not catch the floor on fire so I keep the forge over concrete.

I was embarrassed the other day to find myself running from the forge to the hammer while watching yellow turn to orange and start to head to red before I even struck a blow. An exercise in how not to do it, but I managed.

Hey Nick,

You were going to go with linseed and beeswax. If you want black and rough then use some old dirty beeswax and get the metal too hot so it boils the beeswax to smoke. I keep doing this until it cools enough to quit burning the wax. Usually goes really black and durable. I get my wax from the dregs of bee keeper wax so it's already darker than most. The iron doesn't care if a couple of dead bees, woody debris and other things are in there. 

Welcome Robert. 

Glad you're working iron again.

You'll find many wonders on this site. 

Most of them will pertain to metal in differing degrees.

Crazy Ivan,

the older timers used to call plate by weight instead of dimension.

1/4" plate (1/4" x 12" x 12") was 10 lb. plate and so on. 

Thinking "in weight" was automatic.

Dodge, 

As for the obvious that Donnie just pointed out.

The old file keeps working after the electric file runs out of power and grinding wheels.

Hard to turn a grinder into a knife after its dead.

Harder still to turn a burnt up grinding disc into a knife. 

I thought I was the smart guy with golf ball handles.

Real and fake wine corks work excellent as handles on the smaller, delicate files.

I'm abusive (mostly to clutter) and rarely oil unless I happen to file something that's oily.

It gathers filings when they should be falling away. 

My smallest files get the best care with their own resting spot either in a hole in a block of

wood or stuck to a chef's knife magnet block. The rest are protected in varying degrees

until the big boys that get scattered around like clubs. They have 4 inch ends from old

hammer handles burnt onto the tang. 

An acid etch and a file card can make your old file feel younger. 

Greetings Forborg,

I'm to your south a bit but not too far. 

I don't think you'll have any problem finding info or friends here.

Ask what their budget for the project is, and that will give you an idea whether or not you can afford to take it on.

 

 

I was asked once if I was a used car salesman when I asked what the budget is. I'm a little quick to anger at times like this and this multi millionaire wasn't happy with my response in front of the architect and builder. 

For anything more than piecework it's still the most important thing to ask. If they can't afford it, OR, they think that you, as a smith, should work for car washing wages then there isn't any point in talking anymore. It helps if the "professionals"  you work with understand this also. 

As DSW stated, we put hammer marks on now so the average eye can spot that the metal is worked. Out here in the wild west, HEAVY fire scale

is the look of choice for rustic wares. Open up the air blast and cook 1/16" of scale onto everything which would make most smith's want to cry.

It goes against my nature to fake up my metal. I'd rather be welding but the scaly jobs pay well. 

JO, UNIQUE is the word. 

Brian,

I have this problem with my atmospheric or self aspirating burners. After the forge gets up to heat it can start, as you say, "huffing".

I have a much bigger problem with this in smaller forges. I can usually regulate by adjusting my oxygen supply and/or cracking or opening up 

one end of the forge. I have open ended forges for running long stock through for texturing. Letting a smaller fire box "breathe" a little usually does the trick. 

Also, I happened on a forge a couple of years ago that was a good fit for a medium size that I could definitely use. It had an atmospheric burner

that other than having a "bell" at the intake instead of a cone, was basically identical to my other burners. I couldn't hardly make it work. As you described earlier, it ran well until it got up to heat and then started huffing. I figured out real quick why the guy wanted to get rid of his forge. I grabbed

one of my burners off of one of my other forges with the cone end and while it didn't run great (no huffing through the whole range of the oxygen supply) it worked well enough to melt steel. The firebox for this forge is just a tad too small for the larger burner sizes used and runs very well with my smallest forge burner though it's none too fast heating up. 

I would guess you suffer from one or all of these problems.

1) Too small of a fire box relative to burner size

2) Crappy burner

Try swaging a piece of round or square thin wall tubing into a cone shape on your anvil horn for your burner. They can also be formed in a hydraulic press. If you have to weld the cone onto a tube then make sure your inside seam is as smooth as possible to allow for the intake air to come in straight and uninterrupted as possible. 

Bryce,

For sharing that,

you and your bag are welcome in my shop anytime.

You're not far off Dave! 

I can't call this a favorite read but it'll open your eyes as to what your predecessors muddled through. 

The Blacksmith's History by A. Tucket (What Smithy Workers Gave Trade Unionism)

A history of blacksmiths and their ilk in the UK getting run over by the man AND the industrial revolution. 

I think we might have it easy. 

Dave,

I see parts of my market philosophy in John and Jim's words. For most of us, our neighbors are not our clients. Catering to your neighbor can

mean a study in frustration and wasted time due to the "instant gratification" mentality as mentioned by Jim. Not to say that some of the upper crust doesn't suffer from this problem from time to time. While disposable $10K + UTV's and flat screen TV's that will be dead in a couple years are bought hand over fist for every garage and every room, the investment of heirloom quality work is not on the radar for most of the american public. I don't think this is actually a divergence from the past. In the past only the wealthy could commission anything more than a garden gate from a competent metal shop. There are several ways to become a great smith but wealthy people make them (enable them?) faster than any other. 

As John said, you may do great work but don't wait to be discovered, depending on what kind of work you most enjoy doing, get your name out there. Architects, designers and their ilk can be distant and hard to engage so real samples and a well put together portfolio will/can do the talking for you. Prepare your portfolio and make samples,samples,samples. Also be prepared to never see them again so label and mark them well. 

Farce-itects and catalog buyers are different than architects and designers.

Know the difference. 

If they want to compare cheap foreign knock offs to your work in any category (quality, delivery time line, etc.) or generally try to half price your bids/estimates then walk quickly and don't look back. Beginning to bargain for your lively hood with someone that doesn't respect your work is a waste of your valuable time. 

If your more of the speculative smith, gallery Co-ops with artists in other media are a great way to sell your wares, especially if you have

a democratic disposition.  Hand made shows and fairs are also your realm if you make product to sell. Not all are created equal, and very

few are consistent in public exposure over the long run. Hoping for a good show is different than doing your due diligence. Networking with other smiths and artisans about shows AND architects and designers can save you huge amounts of time/money. 

If you're this smith then be PROLIFIC. The bank will usually loan 80% on finished goods, $50 items stack up quickly in production. 

And believe it or not, when I started to babble along on this thread I didn't realize it was my businesses 10 year anniversary today. 

I've survived (read: too stupid to quit and a very, very understanding wife) by being diversified and not relying on any one or two jobs to keep the business in positive cash flow. I haven't sold my plasma or blood yet, but a sad truth it is, on average, a welder can make you more money than your forge. 

Hunt the fat wallet.

Don't pass up a quick welding/fab job that walks in your door. This is classified as a windfall and shouldn't be sneered at. 
Know your market and your peers in other media in your area. Be involved. Supporting artisans in the metal trades AND other media is a great 

way to be introduced to qualified and vetted clients. 

Do pass on encounters with people that want to bargain. Working for less takes you out of the market and you can potentially not be around or available when a real "patron" comes along. 

I have the same oil problem with 55 lb Stryker. I don't like the 10wt fix. I spend more time controlling oil feed once the hammer warms up than I do forging.

Last winter I kept an infrared spot lamp pointed at the hammer base. Put it on a timer that turned on a couple of hours before work. I've imagineered a foam box to fit over the hammer to keep it warm at night with a small incandescent bulb. Not built yet but at the rate we're going this fall it's coming soon. 

 Very nice. 

Matt,

Kudos, you're getting away with techniques that are usually doomed for failure (according to the experts).

Especially using recycled materials that have to be worked into shape. 

I too like the contrast of copper and nickel silver.

An electric kiln with digital controller will take some of the guess work out. 

holding at heat (or not), can be important. As you noted with your grinding, copper and some of it's alloys 

transfer heat quickly so "soaking" may be a detriment at times. 

You've had your claps for sure Nick but that's not going to keep me from chiming in too.

Locksational! 

What Frank T. said. You can decide whether it's too much of an anvil for you and your purposes. If it's a deal and you have the scratch to pony up for it I fail to understand why we're not looking at a picture of it in the back of your truck. Part of running a profitable smithy is evaluating potential new (to you) equipment for use or resale. 

4" and under is junk for mild steel.  Which I take to one local yard that lets me trade straight across for weight.  Hilariously, the gate keeper swore off the previous 12 pak deal and waves us in with a big smile.  

Wrought Iron.....oooooo.

WI nibletts of any size is spared and I keeps it unders me pillow. 

Also, 

"Live by the pile, die by the pile" An old weld shop foreman gave me that one. I don't think he lived near the shop. 

Here's some pile porn. 

Interesting to think of all that anchor chain sitting up forward, whenever we would weigh anchor it always amazed me at how much of it there was that went below decks, lot of tonnage there. Nice design problem for the naval architects to solve to keep the ship in trim.

Ye old chain locker. My first dory (500ft +) had three. It's chain was approximately 2 1/2' per link. 

AS-18 USS Orion med moored in Santo Stefano, Sardinia, Italy

As described approximately 75lbs.  

Thanks George, 

The pocket is centered in the waist. Its the capsule shaped depression. It's mottled coloration and crust made it hard to photo and the flash just washed everything out. 

The depression is about 3 " tall and is tapered into the anvil from the top resulting in a roundish dish about 1 1/4" in diameter at the bottom of what I'm describing as the pocket. It seems to be obviously be for upsetting  but I would still like to identify it. 

Using TPAAAT.

Probably 150lbs. What's the pocket for? Upsetting? Anyone with an idea of maker?

That's concrete sprayed all over it. The "pocket" is about 1 1/4" in diameter at the bottom with rounded corners. 

  It's hard to see but there's a clip horn.