tgsmith1

I saw a picture of these tongs on another website, they were made by Jeremy K, I studied the pictures and honestly...I couldn't really see how they worked. Our guild is having it's monthly meeting tomorrow, and the trade item is a pair of tongs, so I figured...what the heck, I didn't get the ring on the end the same as Jeremy's, but I think they came out pretty good, almost tempted to just take an old pair for trade item...ha.

I saw a smithy at a fair of some sort that had his bellows set up so that he could let the children pump them for him...free labor...but he was very good at his demonstrating, and showed them how the bellows affected the fire and so forth. He also had a neat little gadget that he placed a small heated piece of square stock and the children could turn a handle that made a twist in the stock. He'd then hammer out a hook of some sort and cool it then give it to the child that helped him. Pretty neat set up.

Jeff, I went to the local salvage yard and picked up a couple of sheets of 1/4" plate, I took a welding class through the local community continuing education and learned how to properly cut the plate, weld it together to last, the only other outlay was the firepot which I bought the coke firepot from centaur forge. I'll post pictures of the forge this evening when I get home to the computer that has the pictures. I took measurements off a forge they had at the local heritage museum, switched it around a little to make it fit me and my uses, I'm left handed so most of the older forges are set up for righties.

I'm a member of Balcones Forge, in Texas, I've posted your request on our website and will coordinate any leaves made by our members to ship to you from us.

Thanks Tom, as I've come to find out, there is only one type of person more friendly than a blacksmith and that's a blacksmith from Texas. And the same goes for you, if you're down visiting let me know, I'm always happy to sit and talk blacksmithing.

Wulfgar, I obtained a couple of those brake drums, man are they huge, I'd think you could make smaller knives in it with no problem, however you have to make sure you don't lose the blade amongst the coals....I think that was my biggest fear so I opted to make a different type of forge. I'm sure by now you've already found all this out. Tom

LDW, I'm curious about the knife you posted pictures of, on the handle are you using a lathe or are you just grinding it down and finishing it with sand paper? Thanks Tom

Hey Mark, I see we're neighbors, and I probably saw you at the meeting on Sat., if you need a hand with the forge just let me know. I built my coal forge from scratch, 1/4" plate, I took the design from one that was at the Ag museum in Boerne but moved the coal bin to the left side of the forge since I'm left handed. I bought the firepot from centaur. Did you sign up for the classes in November? I think I signed up for the 13th. Hollis, the hammer demo was very impressive...one solid thump and the metal was bent, I was talking with a friend of mine and we both would love to try making a damascus billet with it, talk about a perfect weld. There were quite a few people taking pictures, so I'm sure some will be floating around.

Hello, just found this forum and decided to join, I've been blacksmithing off and on for the past 7 years, I demonstrated at an Agricultural museum in Boerne, Texas for over a year, introducing the wonders of blacksmithing to visitors. I decided I wanted something different in life and decided to go back to school and have just finished my BAS in social psychology. Now that I'm finished I have some free time and want to get back into blacksmithing again. I just became a member of the Balcones Forge here in the greater San Antonio, Tx area and I'm looking forward to meeting and learning from the members of this club. I started out in this fantastic hobby by taking a swordmaking class, what was suppose to be a 6 week course turned into about a 4 month course. The instructor was sitting on a goldmine but wasn't prepared for the response and so many never finished their blades. He also didn't teach us about hardening or tempering so I have a beautiful fantasy sword I made that will never be for anything other than looking at. I've made several knives, and I've made damascus as well. I also turn out some steak turners and bbq forks that folks seem to like. Anyways before I get too long winded, (especially on subjects I enjoy) I'll close with another hello and looking forward to chatting with the others on this forum. Tom