Chris Pook

As of monday evening at 5:30, we got a new blacksmith in the family. My son was born, weighed 7.4lbs, Cornelis and his mom came home today named after my opa, his name for short is Cees pronounced "case" same as my opa. Now that mom is home and off of work, I really need to get the new shop done and back to work... he's a good little bundle of inspiration.

On the Nazel hammers like mine they had a reference line scribed around the TUP at 1" before bottoming out this should be just barely visible coming down out of the guides. This is were their instruction book said to set the hammer. the 1" left inside is a saftey factor. You also need to keep this in mind when redressing dies or changing them. When I rebuilt mine and remachined the dies I set mine at the line then lifted it up a 1/4-1/2" back into the hammer to allow for die dressing over the years. Your hammer may be a bit different but for saftey of the hammer I'd check it out.

i posted a picture of my base somewhere on here, I'll try and find it. The hardest part for you to do will be getting the hammer over top of the anvil. Edit: ok here you go The sand/gravel on the hammer is from my old shop were the base was buried. Mines all bolted together with allthread the bottom being a solid row right across the hammer, this is what the anvil sits on with a pice of 1 1/2"-2" plate between the anvilbase and the wood to help distribut load and to lift the anvil base up for proper die clearances. (theres stop line on the hammer TUP that you must get in the right spot, to low you'll destroy the hammer). The upper row under the hammer is more spread out and bolted down through the bottom row of wood and has a lenght of 1"plat 8" wide running the lenght of the hammer. Becuase of the bolts going down and though I needed to space it with the 2x10's to keep the bolt heads off the floor. This base is 40-50 years old and was ran on an old concrete floor with no signs of cracking in my old shop.

My old forging area was dirt (road base or road mulch is what they call it here) I'd just wet it down once in awhile to keep dust down and it packed solid. In the new shop I went concrete. My new shop is smaller than my old one so I wanted to make sure I could use wheels on carts and machines to move things around. I liked the dirt floor though and after I get things sorted out and the work flow going again I may build a bit of a sandbox for my main forging area.

Another canadian I'm in Langley BC.

I like them. I'm going to have to forge some blades one of these days.

Hofi, that interesting blueprint My family's business uses the same wood for park/city benches, we spell it "IPE" but there are alot fo different names for it. We have lots of offcuts and boards that they can't use for production, but would be great for hammer handles. To bad your so far away and that stuff weighs a ton to ship. I know another fellow who uses it in making competition bows for archery. anyone interested in finding that kind of wood, its used for decks and flooring as well.

nice work, reminds me of a bird bath I made. I really like the tree/vine organic look of that style. you can see the bird bath I made if you want. just click on the picture to get the fullsize pic. Nocturnal Designz - One Of A Kind Artwork - Bird Bath

not really sure what I'll do with mine... I was thinking of using them for hooks to hang stuff on in the new shop, instead of the old round bar.

I just found a mother load of rail spikes just need to pick them all up. Got probably 2 dozen in 5 minutes of walking The just replace a whole bunch of rail ties by the track 5 minutes from my house, only problem is they buried alot of them in the dirt the piled up diggin the holes to slide the new ones in.

The electric lifts get a good deal of weight capacity due to the battery weight being a good counter balance. My 6000lb electric is smaller than my friends 4500lb gaser. My dad has 5 electric 6000lb at his shop I "borrowed" one for the last 5 years. I keep down sizing shops, went from a 5000sq' shop I got a real good deal on...too a 1800sq' the last 2 years and now into my own at home thats 1200sq' but 200' is given to my wife for her studio.

X10 on the airdryer. Wet air will make your life miserable and go through lots of tips.

I have had forklifts in all my shops until now when I'm moving into my new shop. I couldn't bring my forklift to the shop at my house because the drive way isn't paved and its an electric forklift with solid tires. So keep that sorta stuff in mind when buying one. I borrowed an airfilled tire Forklift from a friend but the way his forks lift the boom starts going up right away so when the forks are at 6' the mast is allready hitting my 12' cieling. My own forklift would lift to almost 10' before it hit the cieling. So make sure you think about all that before buying one. Airfilled tires are more versitile on what kind of ground they can drive on, ground needs to be packed down still, or they get stuck. And how the mast works is a concern if cieling height is an issue. And weight capacity is an issue too. figure out what you need, I have 6000lb lift but its a bigger package and takes up more room.

Thats an idea. Thanks.

thats how I normally do it, then I just grout the gap to finish it. theres no room to have the hinges on the inside edge of the archway. I have to make sort of a strap hinge that mounts on the exposed wall besides the archway, so the hinges are opened up flat when the gate is closed and hinge 90 when open.

a bit off topic but about anvils... here's a write up on how they produce the Nimba Anvils. Nimba Anvils - The Making of a Modern Anvil

thats how my friend produces his, was a bit of work getting the heat treating shop to get them just right, once done, though they're an awesome anvil.

Thanks, a good idea, I'll have look into how something like that could work. I may have to off set the pin to the backside of the gate, but it could work. Anymore Ideas out there?

I need to make some hinges for a wooden garden gate, the hinges don't have to be totally forged but I want them to them to be. The gate is getting forged handles, and a bunch of decorative bolts and hammered strapping. The gate hinges are attaching to an arched doorway that is in a cultured stone clad cinderblock wall. So I can't really make any mistakes anchoring the hinges. Due to the irregularites in the arch way some adjustablity in the hinges would be nice, I would like to use a forged strap styled hinge on the gate, but would like an inch of adjustibilty...anyone got any ideas? I was thinking of forging a plate bracket for the wall mount and punching or drilling holes in 2 tabs to allow the use of a threaded rod type gate hanger, which would work but would look to industrial in my eyes. i guess another option would be to go with the strap style hinges and just get it perfect...but future sagging of the gate is a concern, its a tight fit. Thanks Chris

and the steel building guys always seem to have some that were ordered and deposit paid on them but never got picked up deals...so if you go that route phone them before you pour a slab, they may have a building "close" to the size you need

I like it, the oil is a nice finish.

I think the house hold clutter being kept out of the shop is a must do. I told my wife from day one nothing but work related stuff is coming the shop, and that I'd post a sign on the door. I'm using pallet racking for my shelfing picked up a bunch used at an auction for a reasonable amount of $, I then sheathed the shelves in 3/4" and 1" plywood.

I've seen some neat stuff were someone taken a large piece of Ibeam and forged a small flower or something off of one corner looked pretty neat...nature morphing off of an industrial piece of steel. Hardest part would be holding the material.

I'm just trying to finish off my new shop at home, Had to move in before it was ready (my old lease ran out) and its fun building around the machines. Give yourself alot of time to build it. Depending on how your finishing it, and how many of your friends actually show up to help its alot of work. My shop is 24x52 with 12' ceilings (i'd go higher next time) fully drywalled 5/8" and insulated. I've been building mine since the beginning of May, mostly by myself, and its just now getting near completetion. I need to do all the small exterio trim/fascia work and finish the electrical. Mines finished fairly nicely on the outside, Red Cedar trim etc just to help with future resale and keep the neighbours happy. I have the last 12' sectioned off for my wifes photo studio, so my work area is 24'x40' which is a decent size but getting abit squishy now that I have all my machines in there. Build as big as you can...and double the budget you have figured out I could of worked in a smaller space, but wanted at least one open spot for a vehicle with area in front to work on it just in case I need to work on something.

I've made some from 3" x 1/4" flat bar, took a fairly long piece and folded them back and forth it over on itself sorta like a ribbon. heres a picture.... Nocturnal Designz - Accessories - Candelabra ignore the price, I think its unreasnable but back when I did the website it seemed allright.