Jonnytait

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If you build this with the intention of making Damascus billets you will be disappointed. It just wont have the speed. Not a good design for a forging press, as speed would be the most important factor. There really is no 'cheap' or 'budget' design that is going to work very well. Have a look on the forum at presses that have been built from scratch which have been successful forging presses, I don't think you will see a bottle jack in any of them

I bought an anvil from Vaughan's back in 2017. Its the same, soft heel. I spoke to the company about it and they said the same thing, which is that they don't harden the heel. Its really not a problem in my opinion, the face is hard and thats where you are doing all the work for the most part. Use it as it was intended to be used and it will last a life time

Welcome Norsecrafts. I dont know enough about propane forges to comment but that looks dangerous. Im sure someone here will be able to help you out. I would wait for some advice before lighting the forge again. In the meantime you should put your location on your profile. You never know, another member might be close to you and willing to help you out!

Thank you Mod34

Very good Swedish cast steel anvil at a fair price. Nice score. Remember not to grind or sand the face. That anvil is ready to use as is

Cant help you there Frosty, might need to ask MacLeod. No tradition of Gaelic in Shetland Shetland dialect (also variously known as Shetlandic, (broad or auld) Shetland or Shaetlan, and referred to as Modern Shetlandic Scots (MSS) by some linguists) is a dialect of Insular Scots spoken in Shetland, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. It is derived from the Scots dialects brought to Shetland from the end of the fifteenth century by Lowland Scots, mainly from Fife and Lothian, with a degree of Norse influence from the Norn language, which is an extinct North Germanic language

Brilliant video, thanks for sharing. Is that blacksmith called Calum MacLeod? Funny you should post a video of him, I was reading an article about him just the other day, seems like he must have been a very knowledgeable and interesting man. I agree it is interesting to see how others work their peats, different ways of doing it but the same end result. It really is the only fuel that can be locally sourced in the Northern/Western Islands, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if sourcing coal, and even gas becomes either too expensive or just logistically impossible to get in my life tim

pnut - Thanks for the input, that's the kind of thing Im looking for, different ideas etc. MacLeod - Thanks for the info and the story about your father, very interesting stuff! And I like the lamb idea, Im sure the charred peats would give it a special flavour too Our peat casting experience has been much the same as you this year, great drying weather in April so we decided to get them cut early. Has been much better weather then last year anyway! We had all of ours home and dry by mid June. Ah so you call it a Tarisgear. I have read that being used to describe a peat spade

Thanks for the responses guys, I will carry on researching charcoal and update this thread when I give making peat charcoal a shot.

Ah yes, I did come across that thread. Shame the author of the thread never came back. This is a few paragraphs from a book by Alexander Fenton called - The Northern Isles: Orkney and Shetland. 'In spite of a suggestion that there was coal in Fetlar and Unst, smiths had to work their iron with peat charcoal in earlier times. This was made from well-dried peat, of medium density, with no intermixture of earth. A pot measuring 6ft in diameter by 14 in. deep was dug in dry ground, and a layer of peats on their ends was placed in the bottom. About six peats were removed from the centre and

Hello everyone. I'm looking for some advice and information on how to make peat charcoal at home, the best style of forge that would be suited to the use of it, and any other suggestions anyone may have. So far I have done research on how wood charcoal is made which doesn't seem difficult, and that's something I will be doing as well shortly. I can find plenty of info online regarding wood charcoal, but very little about peat charcoal, which is a shame. As far as I am aware, peat was used in the blacksmiths forge for hundreds of years in areas of in areas of Scotland, Ireland and p

Hi Jared, welcome to the forum. Now this is just my opinion, but if I was you I wouldn't buy any of them. Many people will tell you that an older anvil is a better but that's not always the case. I would be looking into buying a new cast steel or cast ductile iron anvil with that budget. Plenty of choices in the USA. For example a brand new cast steel Emerson anvil, 100lb can be had for around $870

I contacted Kohlswa a few months back when I was making a list of current anvil makers and I was told they no longer make anvils, sadly. Although, I still seem to come across European blacksmith supply stores offering the Kohlswa range. Maybe its left over stock, or they just haven't updated their websites, I'm not sure.

As long as it is steel - not cast iron - it will make a perfectly good anvil as it is. No heat treat required. I would build a stand for it and put it to use right away Those edges, or should I say edge looks a little too sharp. It would be a good idea to round some of it off slightly with a sanding disc.