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Alan DuBoff

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Posts posted by Alan DuBoff

    Beautiful old blower!

    in Blacksmithing, General Discussion

    Posted

    IM back east and I guess that I could be accused of hording things
    I have 22 anvils from 25lb to 560lb / 13 post vises, various styles of hand crank blowers,hand crank post drills,pedal grinders,swage blocks and on and on.
    I just cant help it ( I think it is a genetic default that I have ) I cant seem to let one pass when I find it , especially if it is a decent price.
    I dont do this for a living but I am a proffesional amature.
    Mike
    Mike,

    I wish I was back east, I would be doing the same most likely. :P

    I'm happy with living on the west coast though, so no complaints from me...ok, a small complaint to have more smithy tools is valid, but it's not the end of the world.

    Hello from Alaska:

    in Introduce Yourself

    Posted

    Well Alan, I guess you can add me to the list of galoots you know in Alaska.
    Certainly, Alaska is some mighty fine country, it's just a tad cold for me in the looooonnnnnnng winter. I had to snag a couple pair of socks from my son recentely to wear with the boots I got for smithing...(I rarely wear socks and didn't have any white cotton ones). Sometimes it's good to have a son with close to the same shoe size...(I hope he doesn't steal my boots! :o).
    I've been to Phil's site and that's all I know about Jake the Russian. It doesn't look like Phil's updated his site in a year. I hope he's just been too busy forging things to get around to it.
    I think Jake makes most of the holdfasts these days, and like you I have never met or talked with him online, but Phil mentions him and I recentely saw a pic of his new camp and forge on Phil's blog.
    I've been putting it up ever since. I would've had it closed in before the snow flew this fall except I took a fall off a trailer at work and shattered my left arm. The shop is sitting there roofless till next spring.
    OUCH! I hurt my ankle a while ago moving some heavy machinery...so I sympathize with you. Mine could have been worse also, but it taught me some lessons.;-)

    Anyone that's met Phil is welcome here, not that some loud cantakerous obnoxious person like myself is welcome, but you certainly are!:p

    Beautiful old blower!

    in Blacksmithing, General Discussion

    Posted

    Remember the scrap iron drives of WW2 for the war effort. A lot of the old tools went into ships and armament. I know they did around here. A lot of history went the way of the scrap iron drives.
    Yep, that was unfortunate. In some cases they did make new tools out of them. I have a table saw built in 1944 which weighs about 1600 lbs, most all cast iron. Almost the end of the war (WWII).
    There are many accounts of a complete set of smithing tools dumped from wagons on their way west, along with many antique household goods that were too heavy for the wagons, Food stuffs was more valuable than personal belongings and if you check what was needed for the trip. There wasn't much room for other personal things as there was no resupply point between the starting and destination points. Shipping from the East where all the factories where was also prohibitive. A good source of old tools is old mining communities I think.
    Even to this day, while anvils are not as abundant as they once were, there are more back east, and once again shipping is a deal breaker in many cases. There are folks back east hording some of the anvils. There was a guy on the owwm forums a while back that owns more than 250 anvils...geez, talk about obsession...he also own the rights to the Fisher stuff. His name is Josh Kavett. Kudos to him, he has a complete line of Fisher anvils, from the smallest all the way up to an 800+ lb. monster.

    Beautiful old blower!

    in Blacksmithing, General Discussion

    Posted

    Amen! Some of its out there, but it sure is hard to find. When every I look on eBay it's like 95% east coast...
    It amazes me how much anvils go for, when a decent one is on the west coast. All forging tools in general are less plentiful. But anvils are at a premium without a doubt. I did find an anvil, but it was tired and could use a little work to flatten the top...(will do in time).

    I can't complain about the price though, since it was just over $1/lb which seem pretty unheard of on the west coast.

    Hello from Alaska:

    in Introduce Yourself

    Posted

    Hi Alan:

    Do you have any idea how often I get asked if I know so and so, just because we both live in Alaska? Do you have any idea how big Alaska is? If you could land a jet at Galena airport it'd be about a 1 1/2 hr flight from the closest jet capable airport to my location.

    Funny thing is, I have indeed met Phil, he and his wife stopped by our place a few years ago and we E-mail back and forth on occasion.

    Small world eh?

    Frosty
    Frosty, he happens to be one of the galoots I know up there, and why I asked. His son and DIL just built a kick @$$ log home, and he forged some awesome strap hinges for them...

    Phil forged me some holdfasts (for woodworking) with bass clefs on the leaf, I play upright bass.:rolleyes:

    Do you know Jake the Russian that lives off the grid? He forges a lot also. I don't know Jake, since I don't think he has a computer.:confused::D

    Phil's a good smith, no doubt.

    Again, welcome to IFI, I still have training wheels on my hammer! :p
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