jamisarrius

Hello all, I was hoping the collective expertise here may be able to help. I have been asked by a medieval reenactor if I could forge a waffle iron in the style of the manuscript attached. Essentially tongs with a waffle iron on one end but I'm stumped trying to think up a way to make the irons so they seal, allow a 'honeycomb' waffle shape that historical records describe and doesn't weight a ton. All thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for more replies. I've now updated my loacation, and I'm afraid I wont be able to make your display. This rig is intended for a living history display. Suggesting to the croud that the local smith's workspace would have been comandeered at any possible point as opposed having the fore thought to have the backup of a small rig in place appears to be out of the spirit of the event. One thing I am wondering. If the Vikings had developed stakes that have a horn would it be reasonable to say that while the Normans wouldn't have had a horn as they look now they could at least have had a rounded edge?

Thanks HWooldridge for the links, I quite like the look of the stump set with various forms. It looks very workable. Another thanks to Dave Budd I can see I underestimating the level of craft in the time period. I don't suppose you have any images or more specific refferences of the clay tuyere to give me an idea of proportions.

Hello there, I was wondering if any of the fine crowd here could help me in establishing what the rig of a smith would look like who was following a Norman army around in 12th century Britain. I imagine the most probable answer is that the anvil is going to be an iron or stone block set into the ground. While the forge is a hole in the ground with air supplied via a small set of bellows. The problem is that you can't always dig holes in the ground and with it being Britain you're not guaranteed the ground will be dry anyway. So could anyone help me come up with a reasonable period extrapolation of a rig where possible with some period reffernce to its use? Thanks to those who take the time to read and a bigger thanks in advance to those who answer.

Hello there, Well it's been a while since I have posted so I think it's about time I gave an update on the various things that have followed me home. A 30lb anvil, 100lb anvil, 112lb anvil. 3 machinists vices 30mm, 100mm and 200mm jaw lengths. A metal sheer. 6 scroll swage tools 3 T stakes about 10 other hardy hole tools 15+ pairs of tongs 25+ hammers, a few really nice ones but most will be reshaped at one point or another a large selection of files and other tools thar are sitting waiting for me having space to sort them. I started to take pictures but it was getting to be far too much and was taking too much time. I also started to build a forge our of a 25 gallon steel drum but have still to find a blower so can't take that any further yet, building one out of bicycle parts was mentioned a while back and I've been considering that. But the question is, what do you all think? Oh and I will add that I have been lucky enough to find several people who after hearing about a genuine interest in an unusual hobby have either had something lying round or have known someone who could help and as a result of that the total cost to me has been a fair few miles in travel and

I'll add a Merry christmas from Scotland, and a great Hogmanay when it comes.

I'm going to have to agree with the get on the street on the tools front, just last week I walked into university and one of the technitians said "you're the guy wanting to do the amrour..." from that I quickly got offered as many 25L drums as I could want, all the scrap steel from the department and 2 furnaces that they were throwing out. If they'd known me 2 weeks earlier I would have got an anvil however that was scrapped I keep kicking myself over that but when word gets out there are a lot of people who are willing to help people with ambition.

Hello there, Let me be the first to say a sword isn't a good place to start, and with that said don't be disheartened. I'm new to Blacksmithing as well and I can say from experience getting the tools you need to get yourself going is easy. Check out the BluePrints on this site for forge designs most can be built out of materials that readily come to hand. Once you have the forge sorted somethign to hammer with and something to hammer on (doesn't need to be an anvil it can be a piece of steel bar providing it's thick enough and anchored well) and you're ready to go. Now where do you want to go... if you only want to do blades then I recommend you maybe try making a knife only using material removal, you don't even need any of the above tools to do that althoguh the forge could be handy for treating the finished knife but if you want to get into blacksmithing propper then think in terms of smithing trinkets S-hooks appear to be the favourite but you get the idea. More importantly, have fun!

Thanks all for the replies, I hadn't considered a corner of an existing workshop but for various reasons I couldn't smith regularly enough to feel right occupying space. A farmers outbuilding may be an option and I'll ask once I know the area a bit more. I like the thought of combined although on the budget I have I'm going to have to settle for using my vice to clamp one of my flat stakes in place hoping that will be sturdy enough. I was intending to aquire a big cunk of hard wood around 2ft by 1.5ft by 1.5ft and building a dish in for basic cold metal dishing, altering it to allow the anvil to be placed securly on it ans secure the vice to it, each on a separate surface so that one block can be used for every purpose just by rotating it. And I will get back to you all over the next few months with pictures of the solutions, I can already see this is going to be a steep learning curve.

Thanks for the responses so far I'm slightly more confident that it could be feasible already. I'm starting to think I used the wrong term when I said jewler's anvil, the one I have is 14lb although I do have another but it is around 100lb so not suitable for being moved. I'm hoping to use charcoal as I figure that with making a retort which a friend has volunteered to be stored in their garden would give a ready supply And I'm hoping to be making shield parts, helmets, buckles, axes, spears, knives, etc. Generally re-enactment equipment. Thanks again for replies.

Hello there, I've recently decided that I'm going to join the blacksmithing community so I've decided to set up my own wee workspace and that is where the problem is. I currently live close to the centre of Edinburgh and the only reason I have a garden is because the railway line has to be a certain distance away from the apartments so this isn't really an potion as I would have to make sure forging would be ok with 48 separate apartments. Instead I've decided to build a portable forge, use my jewlers anvil and mount the lot on a trailer adjusted to go on a bicylce as I can't drive so that whenever I plan to forge I go for about a 40 minute cycle to the edge of edinburgh to a field somewhere to work. What I was really wondering before I embarked on building all this is whether or not this minimal forge set up would allow me to forge small items effectively and allow me to work without any hasstle from whoever wishes to cause it? Thanks for replies in advance.