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Cool pendants, oly. What a great use for old screws. Pic 2, bottom pendant would make convincing antelope horns. I made a lizard from an old 1/2 inch bolt. Those skink lizards are pretty skinny so you don't need much body mass. The head is only slightly upset. Legs are not right but this was just a trial run; the next will be better. Also tried making my snake heads a bit less friendly looking. This one is a taipan. Means business.

+2 to Das' s comment. I've tried a few owl openers but that one is in a class of its own. Those eyes are perfect. May we see the tooling used?

I have used charcoal exclusively for many years, and I have never paid a red cent for it. Just some time and effort to go and collect it. That may not apply to you, as we don't know where you are. But if cost is your primary concern, go with the cheaper charcoal - it works fine.

I think it's too nice a thing just to languish by your fireplace. That old beauty is crying out for work!!

Weld some spines on and make an echidna.

Ice anvils!! I knew our resident inventor Brasso would think of something. Not easy to do in any detail, but these little guys would be a hit after a hot day at a hammer-in. A nice refreshing drink with an anvil ice cube.

G'day Dale, I saw some TV coverage of the remembrance ceremony. Very moving. That tree looks spectacular. Cheers from the tropical north.

Summer is damage time for us. Tragedy here in Queensland. Only three weeks ago people were praying for rain after years of drought. Rain came.. and came.. and came. Devastation on a scale never seen here before. 300 000 head of cattle lost. A sea of water hundreds of kilometres wide has just wiped out livelihoods of graziers in North West Qld. I know a lot of those station people from my previous work as a teacher with School of the Air. Lovely, hard-working rural families. My heart goes out to them. https://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/news/north-west-floods-devastate-landholders/news-story/c3a38e8d634346b94fab3861105b9655

Finally got round to attaching those old bed bits to a back board. They were scrap pieces from some old Victorian era wrought iron beds.

I'm not much good at this movie taking, but here's a try from my phone. The dancing girl is made from some old pliers, a bicycle sprocket, a spring and some other bits. She pirouettes on an old motor from our air conditioner which was struck by lightning. It has a very smooth action. She sits on our deck table now and when we walk past, a flick on the skirt will keep her spinning for a while. Hope this video works: IMG_1773.MOV

Well, you could forge a bottle opener. Good for a drink after a harrowing experience.

Don't know what sort of steel they are but they weld easily. Great for scrap art - bird beaks/claws, scorpion legs, etc. I have made punches from them, but there's better steel about for that.

Old vs New. I get asked just about every day whether the old anvils are better than new ones. I am non committal in my reply, just sayin' that my old Kohlswa is good quality and we like it because it is old and fits nicely in our historic setting. I show them the 95% ball bearing return and there are gasps of astonishment. But I do add that you can buy new anvils today that are high quality and some that are not so good. Make your choice according to your wallet. Among the usual questions, I got one the other day I have never heard before. A lady asked if the blacksmith in the early days worked long hours every day, as many did, would he wear out an anvil? Didn't quite know how to answer that one.

Yes, the big lizards are loving it. Townsville is just about through the worst of it now, but the clean-up will take a long long time. My son was lucky - his house was surrounded by a sea of water, but none inside. And no crocs.

Ted, thanks for the pic of the punch and the info on its use. I use the ball end of a small ball peen hammer, applied straight down. I can see how your angled approach adds a bit more mass.

Ted, those are really classy openers. The lifting tabs are so neat. Would you care to show us the punch you use to achieve that? And if that is 'goofing around' your serious work must be awesome!

Aha! Thanks for the info about those sickle bar mower blades. We do have a few sickle bar mowers, but they are vintage types. I have used many of the long points they have as bird beaks. I think Das as used them for that too. But the ones in the picture must be the modern equivalent. We have no modern sickle bar mowers (I googled them) so I don't know how these finished up in a pile of vintage scrap.

Das, those sickle bar things will make good wings on another bird. They weld quite easily too. And I can hear those curlews wailing as I write this. They love rainy nights. Massive flooding in Townsville at present. It even made the BBC news in Britain I'm told. Frosty, this is the first one I've made trying to make it look like a curlew. I've done others with the stones that look more like fat storks. Maybe I should find some smooth black basalt rocks and make some crows. Stone the crows … or something.

I have used a few stones in sculptures, but I thought I would try to make one that looked like a stone-curlew. We get these on our property all the time and they especially like wet weather when they dance around in the rain with tails up and necks outstretched like mad things. They like to freeze and squint their eyes at you if approached, hence the tank screw eye. Wanted to keep things as simple as possible. Head/neck is one half of multigrip pliers. Feet are a bit exaggerated for stability. In retrospect I should have welded a big blob at the bend in the legs, as stone-curlews are often referred to as thick-knees. They are quite endearing things, although they have an unholy scream at night.

Heavy rain. Cleaned up some piles of old scrap and found a bunch of these things. They are obviously cutting edges for something as they are razor sharp. Spark test indicated very high carbon. I reckon overlapped like the ones on the right, they would make convincing bird wings/tails. And they polish up well too. Golf tee to indicate size. Any idea what they are?

OK, forged or welded, whatever. I have tried forging frogs a couple of times with limited success. This one is an attempt at a green tree frog (big head, slender body) and the starting stock was an old railway fish plate bolt about 100mm long. The skirt on the head of the bolt is peened back and flattened, and the threaded section split to forge the back legs. Had to weld a bit of light rebar on for the stumpy front legs. This is a first try using the bolt; I can see where it needs improvement and I think I can do better next time. Anyone else given it a go?

Finished off making this long-legged bird thing today. I call them crazy birds because they have a quizzical look. I like to be able to see the makings - my old fence pliers for the head, garden fork crest, speed brace neck, pulley block body, horse shoe wings, some old wrought bar for the legs and U bolt and bolts for the feet. His beak has the look of a jabiru stork so I forged a small snake from threaded rod for his catch. The head rotates on the handle of the speed bar.

Don't know about Cajun, Frosty, but croc burgers are on the menu in a number of places around Cairns. Haven't tried it myself. Probably tastes ''just like chicken'.

Still extremely wet here. You know it's monsoonal when this happens: https://au.news.yahoo.com/man-shocked-find-crocodile-speed-bump-driving-home-night-053739561.html

And some young people have become so reliant on calculators that common sense has gone on holiday. I remember a few years ago when calculators first came into use and we went into a jewellery shop to buy a crystal on display in the window for $60. The shop advertised a 1/3 off sale. The young assistant punched the calculator to figure out that we were to pay $40. And she was perplexed because the answer came up as $40.02. She had been instructed to use -33% to calculate the discount.