Daswulf

I know there are people out there that collect barbed wire.

My mother went through knee surgery successfully twice I'm sure Sheila has great odds.

Prayers for her and a speedy and full recovery.

The wing idea is cool. Something with a light behind it would be cool. Fish shapes. Cut to desired shapes it would make great fill pieces in sculptures. Say maybe a birds chest. cut the shape, heat in the forge and dish it on a stump to get the contour. You could cut some and forge a border and make a flat standing fire screen. Or square fire surround. They might be less springy and easier to manipulate if you heated them in a bonfire. ( just posted then saw Thomas just mentioned this) Were it me, I would stock up on it and know it's there for when an idea strikes.

Some air tools stop more abruptly unlike when an electric grinder winds down. The more abrupt stop could help to kick the retainer nut free. I have had 3" roloc grinding discs fly off the arbor pad on my small angle die grinder. That's usually when I change the arbor on those.

Very sorry for the loss of your friend and a blacksmith. Sounds like he was a great guy. Keep his memory and teachings alive.

If the grinder does fall and it had a grinding or cutoff wheel on it make sure you check it and or replace it. You don't want one of those exploding at high speed.

Love the look of it 58er.

Start a small kindling fire first with the blower on low get that going then add the coal over top slowly building up the air blast. That's what I did with it.

That's a nice looking free anvil! If the motor has the tag on it you could try looking it up and see if it will work with a dimmer.

NoName, I don't know why I called it a paddle. I believe you are correct with "air gate". Mine is just paddle shaped.

Those are some nice handles. Great job getting your daughter learning a great cool skill. A friend of mine is pretty meticulous and took his desalt grinders apart to check them and was telling me how the grease they use flings off of the teeth of the gears where it's needed. I honestly forget what he used to improve it.

I have in mind larger fish/ dragon scales and parts for birds. I'm sure other uses would come to mind as needed.

many easy ways to do that as well.

Theo, use what you can. I'm pretty sure we just wanna see it. keep up the awesome work. it is both fun to see and inspirational to others.

I'm confused, are you going for a block hardy tool or a fuller? first pic looks like you have a bottom fuller of sorts but second pic is a hardy block/"swage", call it what you will but it looks like a hardy block as I know it. Hmmm... this may be where that terminology thing comes in. Help!

Sounds like anthracite coal. bituminous would be easier to work with but you can forge with what you have. From what I can see it looks like a table would be helpful to hold extra fuel to be raked in as needed. blower looks like an old 24 volt I have, Or my Dayton 110V. You could make a paddle cover for the air inlet out of sheet metal to adjust the amount of air going in. The one shown on my blower in the pic slides over the opening to restrict the flow as needed.

Well he purchased poorly if it sounds like a "rock crusher" but the blower is pretty much the heart/ Breath of any forge.other then that you just have a fire.

There are so many uses for knives, forks and spoons Aus, that's a good one. I buy all I can find when the price is right.

If you want to give it some scale you need to hammer some hot steel on it. nice anvil.

Hmm.. think a steel guitar would hold up better. Arkham, I love the look of that forge. After reading What Jim Coke said about the blower I would double check that if I were you.

Maybe that's why he suggested fenders to protect from the hot steel instead of ruining the Les Paul. I sure wouldn't want to burn up my Ibanez guitars.

Very nice looking knife. The pattern is really attention grabbing and fun to look at.

I would be slightly concerned about how close that hole is to the end. It could possibly dip there after a good bit of use. Other then that what JHCC gave you good advise.

Welcome! You will find that whatever forge or anvil you choose can be set up to how You need it. Please do post your progress. We love stories and pictures.