KevinJohnsen

Just finished up the 2 day course of Blacksmithing 1 at Tiller's International, near Kalamazoo Mi. REALLY enjoyed the class, highly recommended! They know how to get ya going! That, and they make a homemade lunch for you as part of the class, as a rather plus size guy, that was quite important too. ;) First project was to take 3/8" square bar, make it into round stock and then make it round and forge it into a solid ring. I messed up and made my weld too long, so was a lot harder to get it to weld properly, but got it to work anyway. Then we made decorative hooks. The next day we took some high carbon steel and made cold chisel's and then heat treated and tempered them. And last project was a spoon for flux. I worked quicker then everyone else in class, so in my extra time I was making extra hooks or helping others. Was great fun, learned a LOT. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38674-tillers-international-blacksmithing-class-projects/

I paid $9.99 for my Kindle version, looks like it's on sale now for $8.26, better grab it while it's hot. :) Or free under Kindle unlimited.

That is an exceptionally good point Frosty, young kids to have a tendency to ask brutally honest questions sometimes, enough to really take you off guard sometimes. We ALL need that. With what SJS brought up also, it brings to mind an exceptionally good book I read last spring, that talks about thinking patterns like confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance. Two things everyone struggles with, even if they never realize it. The book was called "Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts" By Carol Tavris. That book was a page turner, I highly recommend it!

Yea, that pileup and fireworks semi pileup in Michigan. Is an hour up the road from me. Good fun. We have a pileup in the area nearly every year. Lake effect snow bands are a beast. Can be clear sky sunny and within a half mile it can be total white out heavy snow. But from my time in Alaska. Even folks up there are not immune to bad driving. :) Many a year on the first snow of the year and the freeway heading south into Anchorage is a mass graveyard of pickups and SUV's on their roofs. I swear that one year there was an upside down 4x4 every quarter mile for 50 miles.

Wow. This is stunning me. Truly. I mentioned at my job about me working to get into blacksmithing. One of the other machinist took me aside. "My granddaddy was a blacksmith, let me tell you all about hammering." Uh, ... I am going to learn the hofi method. "Na, all you need is to hold the very end of the handle really really firmly and yada yada yada" tuned him out at this point. I'm not even a blacksmith yet and people that have zero working knowledge of blacksmithing are already telling me how it all works because someone from their childhood was "one of the best blacksmiths IN THE WORLD" Seriously???? I don't see myself doing this in public once I actually am doing blacksmithing. My tolerance level for derpy comments is low.

My membership only went out last week. Don't know if I will receive a January newsletter.

I desperately miss it. Not so much these days, but a few years ago I was to the point of thinking of packing a backpack early one spring, and saying screw everything in my life and just walking away from everything and everyone and walking north. No car to track and trace me with, going mostly cross country till I was into Canada then walking back home to Alaska. Figured it would take me 3-4 months to make it. Not quite as angry and desperate now, mostly because I am no longer bankrupt with zero cash. Probably would drive now. :)

I really REALLY miss Alaska. :( Leaving Alaska was BR FAR the biggest mistake of my life. And now I am stuck down south in Michigan here, HATE IT. But due to family issues I am stuck with no way to return for now. Numbers may be numbers, and wind chill is king, but when it's -45F out every day for the entire month of November and the sun never crests the mountain to your south for over a month, numbers do count somewhat. :) -40's does quite interesting things, like Ice covered roads are no longer slick, even solid thick ice on a road that is -45F has nearly as much traction as dry roads. Although the rubber in your tire is so hard that you will have flat spots on all your tires where they were sitting on the ground all night. For several miles till they work themselves round again. My only "facilities" were an outhouse, and let me tell ya, you do NOT read the newspaper when your on the seat, at -40F it develops a great urgency to finish quick. :)

What time of day are you looking for folks to start showing up?

1) Kevin Johnsen 2) SW of Kalamazoo Michigan USA by a half hour. 3) None yet. CNC machinist as my day job. 4) Now, by getting a nice large cash christmas gift and blowing the entire wad on a 360 pound Anvil 5) 360 Pound Peter Wright anvil made in approx 1910 6) In process of designing in my head my first forge. Firebox will be 1/2" thick plate steel welded up. 7) Several people, some I have only talked through by email, but they plan to help me in person when possible! 8) This is a longer one for me. When I was growing up, all through my years from when I started to walk till I moved away from home, I went to the local antique engine show every summer. There was a guy with a small blacksmith shop there. I would spend hours every day hanging on the fence (when I was little at least, just leaning against it when I was older) watching him make all kinds of artsy stuff. I loved the smell of the burning coal, loved how he hammered and bent the metal. I looked forward to that every year. 9) Well, as my "shop" only contains an anvil and piles of scrap steel now, will have to go with the anvil. :) 10, 11, 12) I'm just a dub newbie, no advice I have of any value to anyone.

Hey Michiganders! Just beginning to get into blacksmithing. I am just a short ways south west of Kalamazoo. Sent off a membership application to MABA last week. Joined Tillers International and signed up for a 2 day course, Blacksmithing 1, there. I bought a 360 pound peter wright anvil, but have no other tools at all. Do have the materials to make a forge, but not started making it yet, still in the thinking / planning stage. Probably have some decent steel scraps I could make tools out of if I had tools to make them with. :) I will be looking to buy some things this coming spring after I get my forge project more completed. Also had a very nice guy in Kalamazoo said he was willing to help show me some stuff on weekends occasionally, so that's really cool!

I bought my first anvil this christmas off Craigslist. 360 pound peter wright! (3-0-24) marked on it. She's a beast! Made a short video of it before my camera died of low battery and cold. (was 10F [-12C] with a 30mph [~50kmh] wind) She does have some minor damage, but nothing that is going to be a problem I don't think.