Davor

Walking by it every day made me like it more and more. The old cracked wood makes it feel as it has been there for years. So I made a full brace and cutout the silhouette.

I like it.

I've made a sign hanger for my shop and sign. The sign is temporary till I come up with something better, just wanted something to hang. Please post your signs and hangers also.

Not doing much work, so here is my shop. On the left side is an unfinished forge chimney and I have a vice outside for cutting long stock or if I must do a lot of grinding. The doors are made so I can have them opened but the dogs can't get inside. On the right side is my fine bench, where I can sit and write, draw, do leather work, assemble fine things. On the left side is my crude bench, where I can weld and grind and pound on, it is higher so I can stand and work. The small shop has its limitations on the size of things I can make but on the other hand everything is right there, it is cozy and it gets so warm in the winter I can sit in my t-shirt.

On 1/31/2021 at 2:30 PM, Frosty said:

I LIKE IT! The holder is a wonderful addition, consider it adopted.

Seriously, thanks you for the idea.

Glad to help. Thanks’ guys.

Just a little split cross.

Nice save. Good work

On 1/11/2021 at 4:07 PM, ThomasPowers said:

Note however that you will need to learn to forge before worrying about making pattern welded damascus and so the forge you start on may not be the one you use for welding billets. It's a lot like learning to drive before entering a Formula 1 race; you probably wouldn't use the same car for both tasks...

Listen to this man. You will try you will fail and get discouraged and abandon a very nice hobby.

Learn to walk before you run. Meaning you have to build up your skill, with fire and hammer. It all looks simple when someone else is doing it. I haven’t tried forge welding yet I don’t think I’m ready.

Looks great, I love it.

I guess I will be upgrading my forge blower sooner that I thought. No idea what it is from, but it works.

Nice work and a nice story to accompany it.

The hands are a lot bigger than I thought.

That is outstanding. I would like to see more in the process pictures, how you start, what are the steps to the finished product.

Soak your handles in the linseed oil, at least a whole day. In the pictures is a knife I made about six or seven years ago and it didn’t shrink a bit. I soak it in linseed oil and then I polish it with bees wax. It is interesting because it is cut across the grain and not with the grain. Just wood from the shed maybe dried for a year possibly less.

With a hidden tang you don't need to use rivets. Just use a good glue, two components glue is rock hard when dry, use a leather spacer between the guard and handle and you need a way to clamp it together till it dries. Couple of long bolts and two wood boards will do the trick. I haven't made knifes in a long time but I have made a few and you don't need fancy equipment to do them. First leather I used was from an old shoe, the one in the picture is from a coil spring, coin, leather, horn, leather and a piece of oak. Leather spacers help to hide the imperfections.

In the book Practical Blacksmithing author writes how he repaired anvil horns by making a dovetail joint.

That looks like a milling machine in the background.

From personal experience and looking at this forum, it is a piece of advice we all or most of us have already used. Anvils are expensive, so we use anvil shaped objects, not because anvil aren't useful but it is hard to justify their usefulness if you are using it for couple of hours a week, hence they are not useful to you. But as we start to forge more often, than we decide to buy the best we can afford.

More anvil videos please. Small and large. Making them or just talking about them. 

I burn charcoal in it, it is the most accessible to me.

Not forging because my little shop is occupied with a different project. So here is my forge. The table is old riveted together, my grandmothers uncle bought the table, bellows and anvil in 1938, unfortunately he was killed by the Nacis in WW2. So my grandparents bought it all from his widow. We still have it all, but I took just the table for now. The fire was side blast with the firepot made from clay. I put a cast firepot in it. The hood is made so I can easily take parts of it off or the whole hood. It is enclosed for my piece of mind, so I can close it and leave without worrying about fire hazard.

Welcome Kyle. I also have a single speed blower (that I should upgrade, the bouncy castle blower is a great they are designed to run for hours) but the solution is from: DF-in the shop youtube channel. It is a valve system that does not obstruct the air flow. It works for me I am very pleased with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLWupoLgOEs&list=FLVyDqFFEGLOBOwPoKrmco0w&index=3&t=115s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epBHOViClBs&list=FLVyDqFFEGLOBOwPoKrmco0w&index=2&t=234s

No forging for a while. Rebuilding the engine from my vintage CZ 175/477 year 1972

I had no Idea Skoda made anvils. Now I’m envious because it is a beautiful anvil and because it is a Skoda.

Thought I would try one also.

I guess I didn’t express myself correctly, I was thinking about wall scribe (hope that’s what it’s called).

https://i.stack.imgur.com/JkLKh.jpg

7 hours ago, Jarntagforge said:

I read lots and lots of comments here and I didn't notice a general discussion about tripods vs 4-legged stands.

I decided to make three-legged stand because three legs always contact the ground, no mater how uneven, I can get really close to it with my feet under it. It takes quite a bit of force to topple it, I tried it, also I poured concrete in the legs (because of the thin wall pipes used) so the stand has a bit of mass to.