Dan Crabtree

I feel really weak after reading all of your post but never the less here is what I do, I turn the Crabtree Forge into the Crabtree Wind Tunnel. Our shop has two ceiling fans and both of them are always running and then a strong eletric fan is mounted on the wall next to the forge. I wear a bandana like a head band and that helps alot with sweat in the eyes. I dont take heat very well although most year I end up having to help with the bailing and I must say that is one of the hardest jobs under then sun < pun intended. But I guess since I cant take the heat very well I make up for it with loving the cold. It can be 20 degrees outside and Ill be as comfortable as could be. I live in IL, right now its about 90-100 degrees with high humidity. But if you get some fans around ya and plenty of fluids I can manage.

Im 15 yrs old as some of you may or may not know. Ive been blacksmithing just as a hobby for the last year or so but im ussally in the shop 5 days a week or more, No strict religion to what i do. You may walk in my shop and find me making a crossbow one day come back a few days later and im making an iron card table. I did a show not to long ago and sold stuff I made in the last two months. The show was very small but i brought in 425 dollars. Well, being as im 15 half of it has been spent on stupid stuff,girls,ect. but the rest is going into the shop. I make ALOT of steak turners, a few bbq tools, and roses. Right now im trying my hand at making a crossbow but dont plan on me ever doing that again its a pain haha. Summer has slowed me down a bit but im learning to deal with it. One of my friends was complaining because I made more in one month selling stuff than he did working at Mc Donalds. My family is actually pushing my to carry out blacksmithing as a career. Thats just my little story.

Bruce, not to be rude but I would suggest learning the a bit of the other areas of the trade and not just one. I dont mean dont try to persue all of them at once as a career but while its still a hobby learn them because they will probally be useful, Learning heat treating from making knives is very useful when making custom tooling that you may need for decorative jobs. But I agree very much with not trying to be a full time Knifemaker/Gunsmith/Ornamental Blacksmith/Traditional Blacksmith If you want to be full time, im just guessing here I really have no personal experice, but I would stick with just one of those.

found this surfing around, gives some good pictures of wraping and some riviting. http://www.blacksmith.co.za/gates.htm

What methods can be used to put together railings and gates? Is it unorthodox to use a MIG welder? What kind of other fasteners could one use? I was resently ran across someone who wanted a small railing job but I had to turn it down because I didnt know how to attach the bars.

One of the most simplistic forges around is the 55 gallon drum forge. All you need is the bottom of a 55 gallon drum, about 4 inches of it or so and a steel pipe, airsorce and a few other small things. Im sure Glenn can send you a link to the blueprint of it. Welcome to the club.

im game. just get together a size of the leaves and style so we dont have a tree with 100s of differnt leaves. This would be a great tribute to a great mans life.

Crabtree Forge.... bet no one can figure that one out. Im so creative.

Alright, first off just quit, there are too many Dans coming around. I was here first... almost.... maybe.... lol just playing with ya.

Now for that anvil, It will "work" if you can move metal on it. But you will most likley just wear yourself out. Look for a section of railroad track. I used RR track for a while. Go to a scrap yard and look around for a nice hunk of steel atleast 4x4 it should work for light forging as well. An anvil is actually just a glorified hunk of steel, sure they tend to work better than a normal hunk of steel that you would find but be creative. Check auctions for anvils. you never know you might find a steal.

two days ago at school another student bent a paperclip into a U shape and stuck it into the electric outlet for $2 :shock: . Yes, two dollars. Sparks flew everywhere and it burnt his fingers. Hes the same age as me. Ive know not to stick anything thats not supose to go in the outlet forever. But I spent my elementry grades in a rural farm school. Are we forgetting to teach people the basics ( and this is the most common sense thing that everyone should know)? or are we just getting dumber. And lets also take this time to remember that water and electricity dont mix, and sticking things in the outlets that aren't supose to go in the outlets is a bad idea. Please tell me if i should go over the abc's :D

I have access to only 3 wagon wheels atm. But they are cheap and always at auctions.

Yah, wrought iron does some odd things when you try and work it too cold. If I had a power hammer it would probally be my primary material. Its too much work to hammer down a wagon wheel to 1/4 or so by hand but I love how soft it is and easy to work while hot.

our shop is made concrete floor and tin walls, I was told by another smith to never pour water into your fire pot to put out the fire because it can cause the cast iron pot to crack. Although Im not doing this method anymore, not as much because of the fire hazard reasons but because of the fire quality. I couldnt get a good forge weld at all yesterday. I think that this might be contributing to it as mentioned.

Well, Im going to share one of my tricks so I hope I get to hear some of yours. Im experimenting with how im shutting down the forge, I wait till im ready to close down the shop then I put 2 good sized scoops of fresh green coal on the fire. sprinkle about 1/3 a can of water on it give the blower a little crank and walk out the door. Came back the next day, about 1 of the scoops was burnt up, Give the blower a light crank and keep cranking a bit harder each time, ashes will blow out then you will see some red glowing coal, a few more cranks and you got a good fire going, takes about 2 mins to start my fire in the morning and its ready for work. Im still trying to figure out if this is economical or if im just wasting coal, but i might be willing to sacrafice a scoop of coal for 15 minutes of my life. Although I do enjoy starting a fire.

NOTICE: leaving a fire unattended is dangerous. I dont recommend it, Just assume I stay up all night and sit in the shop and wait for the next day.

Also I usually shut down at 9:30 PM and get to the shop after school at 4:00 PM each day. Yah im pretty addicted, i dont think theres been a week where I haven't been in the shop at least for 3 days. Im usually there everyday unless I'm out with some friends or whatever.

Today was one of them days, I go into the shop and the fire is still burning from last night, ill post the method I use to do that in another subject. But I get started and I hammered an old wrought iron wagon wheel rim into 1/4 bar, by hand, Im poor so I dont have a power hammer. Then I started making steak turner out of it. I made a careless mistake and cut it off too short so now I have a handle and half what i need for the rest of it, just then a friend walks in the shop and im thinking great! Ill have someone to hold the mild steel rod I need to weld onto it. well he never worked in a blacksmith shop before and i pulled the sparkling rod out of the fire and it freaked him out and he didnt know what to do so I had to re heat it, then after I reheated I started the weld, it felt like it took, I Lift it up and it falls in two on the way back to the forge, so then I figure o well Ill cheat and MIG weld it, I do that and start to forge down the weld, go figure, I mash it down too much. Then I go to weld in a filler, the welder was too hot and burnt the rod in 2, I said some times ya gotta know when to just drop it so I quenched it and set it on the welding table. Then I took some rods to make a braided handle, I start it get to the final twist and one of the rods breaks and ruins the whole handle. Then I figure well Ill take this WI handle and make some J hooks out of it, ive made plenty and have them down pat. I start it and then after a few swings the fibers split all over the thing. I tried to weld em back together but no luck there. Must have had a dirty fire today. Then as im cleaning up the shop I look over at a billet I never finished. It was 8 hacksaw blades, 1 roller chain, and some cable, My concious kicks in and says are you sure you want to do that? its been a bad day and you have alot of time in that billet? do you really wanna risk screwing it up? ( kinda scary I actually heard a voice in my head haha) Well I find myself throwing the billet in the fire. start forging out a blade, turned out nice, Ground down with an angle grinder because it was late and I wanted to get a preview of the etch.... It looks great... First time I fought the bad day and it ended in my favor... So how about we hear some of your bad day experiences.

Ive used a post hole digger.... Other than that im still a youngster..... guess thats not TOO bad concidering im 15. Haha.

After browsing around for awhile I noticed some pretty nice looking hawks and axes around. How do you finish your axes? I currently just leave forge scale on them or wire wheel. What method do you use? Ive seen some polished once, Would I use an angle grinder and sandpaper for this? Im not use to polishing anything other than knives.

Also where is a good place to buy hammer/axe/hawk handles? or would I be better off making my own. Im pretty cheap and all the hammer handles I bought from the hardware store cant last for more than a month or so. An online dealer would be great if you know one.

Maybe we should get some pictures up of our messy and not so messy shops. I would but im still looking for the cable that connects this camera to the computer, its burried somewhere in the moving boxes.

If i drilled 2 holes one would have to be capped off being as the pipe bowl has to run into it unless I wanted a choke on it and im sure the police would take to kindly to a pipe with choke on it being sold at craft fairs if you catch my drift. The handle is about 17 in. long.

I made a pipe axe a few days ago out of a peice of piping, fullered it down, drifted a hole and forge welded down the rest for the blade, Put a handle on it drilled a hole from the bowl to the top of the handle, brought it home, that night some people where over and it was sitting on the bar in our living room, And a few of the people over I had no idea who they where, well next morning I cant find the axe anywhere, im assuming someone took it being as I have searched the entire house. Its a shame that someone would do such a thing to something that someone worked so hard on to make, but their loss now being as that was my first one and I made a second one today and it turned out much better. Anyway, I would like to have the hole in the handle go out the bottom. Anyone know how I could drill such a long hole? Also if you dont have a clue about what im talking about how to make one I could look into doing a blueprint on one, its a very interesting peice and ive heard that they where made out of gun barrels so its not too inacurate fr0m a historical standpoint.

Sorry for rambling so much and for any spelling errors its late and im tired. Thanks for the help.

So how clean is your shop or work area?

What type of junk have you welded up and made a neat damascus knife? Ive done chainsaw blades, roller chains, and cable.

Well, being as that we play with fire, figured this would be a fun and serious topic. What have you all lit on fire on accident?

plans for project, 2 sweaters, broom, pant leg, and shirt that was in a toolbox. The time I lit my plans and 2 sweaters was at the local monthly hammer in, It was the 2nd time I was ever there.... :oops: