eric sprado

I make bottle openers from box end wrenches for mechanic friends. 1" seems to work best.

I think some of you are overdoing this. I cut a piece of old trolley track years ago,welded it to my bottom plate and put it to work. 10 years and still hammering.

My #25 LGs always had wood blocks. Lasted for years... My 50# Star hammer has some kind of fiber blocks.Had it for several years with no need to change. It won't get as much work done as a 50# LG but is so much lighter. My old shop is three feet off the ground. I supported it with some base concrete blocks and treated four by fours. Works great and doesn't even shake the floor. At eighty years old I'm not going to tear up floor and pour a giant concrete base.

Hardenig rods,by name, even scare me for anvil repair. Bill Apple from Seattle brings repaired anvils to our NWBA conference each year. He taught me to use 11018 rod. Preheat anvil to 350 using a tempil stick. Don't run long beads: an inch or so at one then move to far end,then the middle etc.. One of the great things about this rod is that it somehow blends in with most anvils . I always tell folks about the repair but is really looks nice. There may be a demo on it at our Northwest Blacksmith Assoc. site. Site crashed a while back but will be up soon.

Trying to edit my "bick" reply? Researched it more and found old English reference to it as "bickern" which still is related to the word Beak. As a former farrier I packed around a#165 Hay Budden. Had it perfect height to slide off my tailgate on to a stand. I kept my horn sharp because I used as a bob punch. I'm the only one I've seen do that but it save picking up another tool.

In my research "bick" evolved from the word "beak". Makes sense to me. A nice fellow in Spokane was making nice double enders with a severely blunted horn. I wound up selling it because a pretty sharp horn tip is important to me..

Funny you brought that up. Several years ago at our Northwest Blacksmith conference we had an incredible blacksmith from Russia for one of our demonstrators . He must have brought his own flux because he simply tossed small amounts of it directly on the fire to our amazement. His welds were on very delicate parts and never failed.

when I served my apprenticeship at Fort Riley Kansas in 1966,we used sand from the Kaw River just outside The Cavalry base at Fort Riley.. It worked fine for me. After I left I switched to 20 Mule Team borax for the next thirty or so years with great success. Sometimes I've had to weld with no flux. While I respect ongoing search for knowledge I think you folks are beating the subject to death. Fire up your forge, use clean meta,l and weld!!

When i served my apprenticeship with the last U.S Cavalry shoeing instructor R.L Richmond in 1965 we used sand from the Kaw River. It was specifically to be from one curve or the other. My eighty year old mind cant remember.

I live on a spring fed creek,have a large garden,lots of game,salmon in the freezer All the stuff the guys in silly "bug out bag" ads want...Don't need to go anywhere in hard times.. Only problem that could arise would be convincing city "bug out boys" that I still shoot straight.. Just got stuff to make charcoal with two barrels but haven't tried it yet... Anybody burning charcoal?

Age showing here.. Way before borium, at Fort Riley we would take sledge hammer to old burned out wood stove parts and braze the chunks to horseshoes for traction... Painstakingly slow BS.. Borium was a godsend....

LOVE it!!! I'm always having to grunt power my swage block on edge to get to the curved divots... what a good idea somebody had..

I'm back after long hiatus. I see we have lost Frank Turley.Fine man. He and I learned shoeing about same time.. I had wonderful experience of serving my apprenticeship with the last U.S.Cavalry shoeing instructor. Sargent R L Richmond at Fort Riley Kansas. I'd like to add just an important thought.. Sarge always said "we are shoeing the horse for the horse and not for the owner". Important concept.. You cannot make steadfast rule for fitting anything to a living creature.. concerning many folks deciding to trim to go barefoot- it shouldn't be an argument.. Again- what does the HORSE need. Sarge and I would go up to the Sandhills in Nebraska and trim many many horses to go barefoot. No need for shoes why use them...

THANKS !!!! I had visions of the lower anvil getting cracked to smitherines.. Funny how all the old mechanical hammers have different rhythm to them.. I ran my first Little Giant in 1967 so I have a feel for them. Took me an hour to get the feel of this Star..It really moves a lot of metal but in a kind of gentler way.. Is that too "woo woo"? It has this nice smooth way.. Yours seems to have a different clutch. Mine is more like an LG. Mine has a built in guard in front.. Actually-I have not seen any two 50# Stars that were exactly the same..Wonder if that led to the demise of this fine hammer outfit.

Just made a nice top die for my 1908 Star from a piece of trolley track... Previous owner had welded old die surface with some sort of hard surfacing and it starting to fly like shrapnel... Only trouble I have with both old and new dies is that they have to be adjusted right down to touching the lower die in order to work..all my other mechanical hammer have at least an inch gap when at rest....Trying leaf spring adjustment next to see if that helps.. any ideas? I just am uncomfortable about lower die getting smacked by top one.