MarcyOHH

Yes, I call it mine. It looks nice in my hand.

The sketches alone we super helpful and now pictures of the progression as well! Thank you so much, you have no idea how much I appreciate it. I learn the best by seeing and then doing, I can read words all day but without something to visually reference I must admit I'm lost. I would be making a whole lot of things that were once useful steel if it weren't for you.

Hi everyone! Thank you for all the the great ideas, sorry for not responding sooner, I hardly get on an actual computer anymore. I had thought about splitting a bar but for the size I need that would be a HUGE bar. I'm thinking my best option would be to either use sheet metal and then shape it as needed or do all the components seperately as DSW had mentioned. The shamrock is for a trellis so it needs to be kinda large. I will work on some different methods and post how it turns out for everyone. Frosty, I am doing well. I wasn't on much during the winter and early spring months because of work. Boo. I will try to not be a stranger in the forums, but I have become a staple in the chat room.

I wanted to try to forging shamrocks and was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to get a nice looking clover. I have some concepts worked out in my head on how to do it but I know I tend to way overthink things and some advice would be much appreciated and I'd be curious to see the ones you have made. Thanks!

I may have a hard time finding a job in Australia. It's beautiful there though, lived in Perth for 6 months when I was a little girl because my dad had work there.

Oh is that me? Am I the boss?!

I am not opposed to the idea

See no one thought of that before you, I like you!

You can't auction yourself off. But Nick only needs 2 meals a day and nightly chocolate milk and dessert. One meal for him is enough to feed a family of 4 so keep that in mind. Du7ch what are you willing to part with for Nick?

Steve: I'm not sure how he is as a striker but he is a fast learner. He does do dishes and he is a very good cook! Willing to make a trade As long as I am given visitation rights.

I would give up Nick to never be without IFI again.

It was horrible! Worse withdrawal of my life!!!!!

Well welcome aboard, this is a great place to come when looking for help or ideas. Good beginner projects just to get into the swing of things would be hooks. Hammers, get yourself a founding hammer or ball peen or cross peen or straight peen, or rock. Pretty much anything that is hard that you can hit against something else that is hard. (Though I wouldn't use a rock on an anvil that isn't already seriously beat up.) Make sure the hammer isn't too heavy to start off, sure heavy may move metal better but it's also harder to control. Start maybe with a 2# or 2.5# and see how you like it (also how your muscles will like it later). You will be sore, but don't let that stop you! One other thing, make sure to have your anvils on stands, it's also important that they are the right height. A fun way to check the height it to put a piece of wood on the face of the anvil and hit it with the hammer, if the crescent it towards 12 it's too low, if it is towards 6 it is too high. If it is towards 3 or 9 you are holding your hammer incorrectly. You want anvil positioned so that when you hit the wood with the hammer it leaves a full circle indentation.

I am still very new at blacksmithing, but in the experience I have had it has been a creative journey. I always looked at metal working and thought "well that's cool, I wish I could do something like that" but never thought I'd be able to pull it off. Then my boyfriend built a forge and brought home an anvil. I decided to give it a chance, and I haven't looked back since. I have a very creative nature and I can see the finish product in my head before I even start (getting to the end is a different story, but every time I forge is better than the last). Blacksmithing for me is fun, challenging, and a stress reliever.

I'm still pretty new to the world of smithing and this is a very good question. When I first started I stop behind the metal I was working on which would cause me to have to reach to strike the anvil. Though it doesn't matter which side of the anvil you stand on, it is helpful to know where to stand in relation to your work. A much more experienced blacksmith who I had the honor to meet up with a couple weeks ago gave me a very good tip. You want to stand diagonal to the anvil so you are above your work not behind it. Think of it like you are making a triangle between you, the metal you are working on, and the anvil. That should help you out a ton.

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer but I do feel like I should ask, what other things have you tried to forge before this armor? Maybe you should try to get the basics down of how to handle the hammer and how different kinds of metal react with heat and how you need to cool the metal down so it doesn't become brittle and break before you are finished the project. If the metal is too high carbon and you quench it, it will harden and will most likely break with the next heat. There are a lot of things I would love to start making right now that I'm feeling very impatient about starting but I know that without the practice and more so, the understanding of the metals and techniques that I just cannot start those projects yet. The best analogy I can think of is like you sitting down at a piano for the first time and immediately trying to play Fur Elise, the only thing you are going to accomplish is making yourself very frustrated. You may be able to get so far before you have any real issues but with out the basics you can't solve the problems you are ultimately going to run into with forging.

It was a place on M54 (Gera and Birch Run Rd) between Birch Run and Frankenmuth. They had a lot of mislabeled or ridiculously overpriced items there. It was a fun little place to look around though.

Oh xxxx! How'd you find out about that?! They said it was expunged...

That's what he will hope, I may shave it off just because. Haha

Nick would be awfully upset if I had to build the stack, mostly because I would never let him live it down.

This is a habit that I was lucky enough to be told to form early. Though I don't take pictures (which I will start to do now) I do have a notebook in which I take notes, draw sketches. One thing I need to start doing to keeping a notebook near my bed because at night or when I first wake up is when I think about how something will work the most. I lay there taking projects apart in my head to figure out what I need to do, or how I could have done something better. In the beginning this craft is definitely a learning experience.

This sounds like a great idea because Nick and I can be pretty disorganized at times and if we keep photographic record it should be able to keep better track.

Thank goodness cause I'm tired of getting smoked out.

You could just get your wife forging like Nick did with me, then you won't have any more angry stares. Instead she will be angry that you ran out of coal and she will have to wait to smith again.

So I am in Michigan for the week right outside of Flint and we are running low on coal at home. I found a supplier in Flint called Streat Fuel and Storage Company that sells "Blacksmithing Coal" for $25 a bag. I was wonder if anyone has gotten coal from them before and if it is worth the money. How big are the bags and is it a good quality?