tonyw

rarehistoricalphotos . com is a site worth checking out, for the collections of pictures mostly. The commentary and captions are somewhat lacking at times.

As I recall, there was extra space between the bearings. Not a tight fit at all. My drill has been in storage for a while and I've not used it enough to really be able to tell you how the bearings are holding up...The auto feed mechanism is pretty cool tho.

Yes just scroll down a little on the anvilfire.com homepage

Mikey, have you seen Jock Dempsey's Black Beauty burners over at Anvilfire? They look very classy, but just wondered if you can form an opinion just by looking at the pictures and drawings

Just a tip, If you dip your finger in a mixture of dish soap and water, you can tool a bead of silicone without it sticking to your finger...

If you do a bit of searching on wooden smithy floors, there are some threads that reference the vibrations from the hammering. If your anvil stand is just on the floor, the whole building may bounce, but if you could somehow get the anvil stand on the real ground underneath that would be better. I'm trying to work around this problem as I am trying to design a smithy that will be built on skids. But then again, I'm only 18 so why would you listen to me???

Not trying to be picky, but with that stake stuck in the hardy hole, you may want to be careful that it doesn't get stuck and or do worse things to the anvil if you pound too hard. I don't think they were made to be used in an anvil hardy hole. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong...

Of course.

I believe we still have them at our school. But I don't see how they would work to transfer a sketch?

Interesting. Is the pressed flower shape etched into the steel then?

I have done option 1. Except that after neutralizing, I dried the water off with a hair drier and got clear coat on in the next 60 seconds after it was dry. Have you searched on bladesmithsforum.com?

I believe heat treating can help with bringing out more contrast between the layers, don't know why though....

In general, you shouldn't be satisfied with terrible work, as you said in the second paragraph How will you get better? As Steve said, do your homework and keep practicing!

Some of the neatest knives I have seen!

That is really cool Vaughn! And I forgot to say earlier that like Gergely, I also forged my dishes hot, mainly because I didn't have a SPoA to use as a dishing tool. And RobbieG, I dished my pieces freehand on the anvil. I am fairly new to blacksmithing and the freehand dishing was way easier than I thought it might be.

Here. They are a bit cruder than your perfectly dished bowls, but hey... I hope to make more of these sets. Hopefully I can make them a bit more refined, as I make more of them...

Actually I used a cross-pein on the corners of the square and drew all four corners out, so the resulting shape was a bit more like a star rather than a diamond. I made four little ones like that and then I made a bigger one the same way except that I cut the blank for the bowl so that there was material to draw out and make a handle for your fingers to go through. Of course after I drew out the corners then I dimpled and dished the bowls. If you have trouble visualizing the design tweak I can ask the person who bought the candle-holders to take a picture.

Those bowls look nice. I used your idea of dishing square plate for a candleholder. I tweaked the design a bit and made a set of five candleholders which sold for $60 at our youth charity auction, which I thought wasn't doing too badly for a first attempt. I was unable to get pictures taken before the candleholders were sold, unfortunately.

I asked once about the steel type for a hay fork which was a skid loader attachment. Frosty said it might be 4140.

Thanks for answering my questions, Vaughn.

Vaughn, two questions: Are you working these bowls cold? or hot? Do you dish them on a stump or does the curve come naturally from hammering on the anvil? Thanks a lot, Anthony

Thank you tubalcain2

This anvil has no markings except a "70" cast proud under the horn. The base has a uniform hour-glass indentation. There does seem to be weld line at the waist? Is this anvil cast or not? Please see the pictures. Thanks.

Nice anvil! But PLEASE don't let that angle grinder get any closer to the anvil!!!

I like it a lot!