JHCC

All of the above, and a few personal things (successful surgeries, good stuff at work, etc). Plus, as a smith, I am particularly happy this year and grateful to my son for pushing me over the edge into restarting a long-neglected hobby and to everyone on this forum for all the support and encouragement and free information. A particular thank you to all the curmudgeons for being curmudgeonly. When you've been out of the loop for so long, getting a serious reality check from people who aren't going to waste their time and yours can be a particular blessing. Now, who is planning to cook their turkey over the forge?

How about attaching horseshoes?

The above links may not work; try this one.

Check out this thread.

Slightly off topic, but when I got interlibrary loan copies of Mark Aspery's books to read while recovering from my recent surgery, I was delighted to find in them the bookplates from the CW library! Who knows who else may have consulted them!

I'm actually thinking pot rack for the cast iron frying pans.

Hmm...now to decide if I want to use the steel or sell them and use the money to buy something else.

John McPherson, that's what I thought at first glance, but they're not quite the same. I'll try to get a better photo later. BIGGUNDOCTOR, that's one of the pit bulls.

Built-in keg! I like!

Not sure what these are, but it's a lot of decent flat bar in there, probably mild steel. Picked up by the side of the road.

It's an anvil.

Surgical tubing or strips of rubber from tire (tyre) inner tubes.

If that third one wants to keep the American flag with him while smithing, just make sure it's natural fiber.

See, you listen to the old farts, and all is well. Wish I'd learned that lesson before building a couple of (in retrospect) pretty stupid coffee-can-mud-and-weed-burner "forges".... Let me know what you find. A work colleague has a son who is going to do a blacksmithing unit at his boarding school in the spring and (being vegan) may balk at leather boots. My great-great-grandfather was Confederate governor of North Carolina, and his father-in-law was a slave patroller. I'm married to a Black woman. Go figure.

For my money, there's no sweat rag like a kaffiyeh.

Getting back to the OP (thank you, John McPherson), there are plenty of videos of experts wearing more than gloves and shades. For example, Brent Bailey wears a full apron in some of his videos, Jim Kramer wears one in everything I've seen him in, and Technicus Joe - Joey van der Steeg even has one video entirely dedicated to why he wears an apron. Also, it's kind of hard to tell what shoes most smiths are wearing in their videos -- it's not a fashion vlog!

KING CLAUDIUS Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? HAMLET At supper. KING CLAUDIUS At supper! where? HAMLET Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that's the end. KING CLAUDIUS Alas, alas! HAMLET A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. KING CLAUDIUS What dost you mean by this? HAMLET Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar

Here's my son, all geared up and ready to strike:

And a forge poker for picking out clinker. (Note the clever use of the existing right-angle bend.)

It only looks like a marlinspike from that angle. It's actually a screwdriver.

A surprising amount of blacksmithing is playing the waiting game. For all the excitement and fast action of working hot metal before it cools, we spend more time than one might expect waiting for metal to anneal or normalize, blades to temper in an oven, and yes, refractory material to dry and cure.

There are two different types of rail anchors on the right hand side of this photo: the squiggly "3" shape and the fat "J" shape.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/9030-intro-to-heat-treating/ is a sticky at the top of the Heat Treating Knives, Blades etc page.

As my old woodworking teacher liked to say, any device designed to combine multiple functions probably won't do any of them very well.

Nice. I've been thinking about redoing my anvil stand, and this gives me some ideas.