Mark Ling

Very nice find Chris! I only seem to find parts of the old padlocks like yours. I don't have problems finding ones from the 1940s to present. Man, now I wonder what else could be in that creek! That's also in good shape for being found in water, typically when you first find iron in water you can't even tell what it is until you literally bust off the rust. Littleblacksmith

I had read this, and meant to respond but forgot, thank you Aus for bringing this back to my attention. I looked up mine tags and they look the same as the ones you have found, I think you are right with the identification, especially with that one saying "old eagle mine". Funny story about a crock, (and for you Ausies, no I don't mean a crocodile!). I was bottle digging in an old dump, and I could see what I thought was part of a crock sticking out, so I continued digging, expecting it to be a small part. I kept digging and kept exposing more and more of it, until I could see almost the hole thing (it was laying on it's side) I kept trying to pull it out, but It wouldn't budge! so, I continued digging, but this time more on the ends, and came across a root about the diameter of my wrist. Apparently It had grown straight though it! so, it turned out that the crock wasn't whole, but that just the bottom had been busted out. oh well, it got me excited haha. Thank you Aus! no, I didn't! that was from the edge of our pond, just a water snake, about 4ft long ('bout 1.2 meters, or 1219 mm). That's not the only skins in my room. Got a rattler on my wall, not one that it shedded, or at least not willingly, if you know what I mean...And also a copperhead. I almost got bit by a rattler once (well, actually twice now thinking about it). My brother and I were metal detecting at an old barn from the 40's, and there was a an open door on the side of the barn that we were going to go through instead of going around because of some downed trees, but we saw that there were some wasp nests, and so to not risk getting stung, we decided to go the longer rout, and thank goodness we did. When we rounded the corner of the barn (the front of the barn was open, no wall), I heard the unmistakable sound of a rattler, a sound that will make you (or at least me!) stop in my tracks. It was a large rattler up against the wall that had the door that we would have gone through if there weren't the wasps, and would have stepped right over it, though I'm sure it would let us know that it was there, if you know what I mean. another time I was in a bottle dump in about a 4ft hole, my neck/head about ground level. there was a piece of tin on the edge of the whole, I had been digging there for a few hours, and was bout to head out. I knew I was in an area with rattle snakes, and so I decided to move the piece of tin so that next time there wouldn't be a chance of there being a snake, and since I had been in that hole for a while I figured there wasn't anything under it. Very stupidly I used my hand, lifted the piece of tin up to move it away, and practically dropped it back down when I saw the rattle snake coiled up underneath it. I called my dad and we took care of it. I was very shocked that I didn't get bit, I wouldn't be mad at the snake if I did get bit, because I would have deserved every bit (ha, pun) of it, lifting it up with my hand the way I did. littleblacksmith

What's the results? Littleblacksmith

either way it will be usefull, no doubt about that. Littleblacksmith

oohh, and on that stump, that step out, If it were mine, I would put an upsetting block, it would go perfect there. Littleblacksmtih

I modified what was a right angle pair of scrolling tongs to straight jaw ones, just straitened, cut (after straightening the jaws were about 4" long) and ground the jaws back to a point. Quite satisfied with them, can't wait to try them out! I have been needing a good pair of scrolling tongs since I started smithing 3 years ago. Then, by request of a member on here, I took pictures and put together a quick presentation on how I forge my flower key chains. Littleblacksmith How I Forge a Flower Key Chain.pptx

Das, good silver haul! ooohhh, and that blob top, haven't been able to find one completely intact yet, seems people here liked them for target practice...Just find the tops. The mine tags look also very similar to cow tags, neat finds! I have found cow tags here and 'cause there aren't any mines around I've always figured that's what they were. What does that one say? I also enjoy paper shotgun shells and finding out when they are from, even though most detectorists just through them out. I use this site to help date them, you've probably seen it before. http://www.cartridge-corner.com/shotgun.htm neat penny with the cross Olfart. I started out with a bounty hunter and found a lot of stuff with it, nothing wrong with it. The discrimination is a little bit trickier, but it has it where you dig signals that on a different detector you would pass up, and so you find things that you typically wouldn't. I've found steel but plates off guns, forged iron, gun tools, and other stuff that on other detectors you would just pass up. Littleblacksmith

Hey ya'll been metal detecting for about 5 years off and on, enjoyed it, wanted to see how many others out there metal detect, and are willing to show there finds, including the old hand forged items. I wouldn't say I have a favorite item, too hard to choose. I use an ace 250 and the new garret water proof pin pointer, love both of them. Or if any of ya'll have happened to come across anything old or neat (or both!) than feel free to chime in, always interested to see what others are finding, some of my best finds were with my eyes and not the detector. Sorry for the quality of pictures, lighting in my room isn't the best, and it's dark out so no natural light. I tried taking some pictures of the forge welds but they wouldn't show up, and same with the heads on some rose head nails. most of this stuff is pretty amateur finds, but it keeps me happy. Littleblacksmith

hahaha, hopefully I have learned my lesson! wow, that is a good machine. eventually when I have the extra $$ I would like to get a Garret AT pro. I haven't really had any complaints with the pin pointer though with this one you have to hold down the button to turn it off, before the water proof garret pin pointer I had the black one that wasn't waterproof, and all you had to do was touch it, so it's just taking sometime to get used to. I know what you mean about getting lost in the hunt, one time I was metal detecting next to a house, and it turned out that on the side of the house there was a huge (biggest I've seen so far) yellow jacket nest, and I was focus on metal detecting and so I brushed up against it and got 4 stings to the face haha. At least in the rivers it seems that most of the lighter aluminum floats away, that's one thing I like about river hunting. Auquachiger passes up a lot of good big wrought iron. I remember one time he passed up a almost functioning rivet forge in Alaska, but he didn't know what it was. Littleblacksmith I will start a new thread for metal detecting in the "everything else" part of the forum.

Really like that bull aus! glad I inspired you, cool that someone like me had an effect on someone experienced as you, cool! yup, copper is much different than steel, limited working temps, got to be careful not to melt it, was surprised the horns survived and didn't melt good job! Forged aluminum, If you haven't than I recommend trying it out, it is really easy to move, literally like moving clay, but you can work it colder. Just heat it up till it is hot enough to make wood smoke, then forge. It is a joy to forge. littleblacksmith

Me being someone who does open fire cast iron cooking, I really liked that folding trivet, I haven't seen one like that. would be nice to make one, a dutch oven is already bad enough to carry around in the woods! Littleblacksmith

today was almost similar hahaha. I tried heat treating a small ball pein that I made a while back, a really nice one that even I couldn't find anything wrong with (thats rare haha) and I quenched in oil, thought it was cool, the oil wasn't smoking any, and I dunked it in water, and hear "ting, ting, ting", pull it out, and is covered in cracks, big ones too! you would think I would learn by now....Oh well, can always make a new one, I'm just waiting for one of my hammers to survive heat treating haha. what do you swing? I use a ace 250, and just got a new water proof garret pin pointer, really liking it. the ace 250, from the coil and shaft is all waterproof but the control box isnt, so I can still hunt in water, just got to be careful not to drop it. Metal detecting is fun, as long as you dont just fine beer cans. Its funny though, on bad days when all I find is trash, when I find a wheat penny, Im like wow, this is a really good find, then on good days when finding alot, a wheat penny is just another find. I really enjoy finding the old iron, have quite a few forged single tree peices, alot of forged horse shoes, and forged horse tack and hinges, it's cool looking at it and the forge welds and all. Im sure if I didn't do blacksmithing I would just through out the iron like other Metal detectorist do. Littleblacksmith

did these little key chains today. forged from 1/2x1/8" flat. the brass leaf is from 3/8" round, and the other one that is stainless is from a piece a little thicker than 1/4" round. Littleblacksmith

Thank you! It was 3/4" square, saw a little cut off in my scrap pile and was bored so thought, what the heck. It being such small stock and also mild steel made it really easy to do. I was in a hurry, and so didn't do the nicest forging, so ended up going to the grinder, shaping the ears pointed, and shaping the pein, throwing it back in the forge to even out the look so it looks like it was forged... Yup, metal detector. Most of this was found in the river, though some was found on the banks. Last time I found a lot of lead, and like 5 musket balls, but most of it being older (early 1900's) slugs, some that are kinda neat, and boy, tons of .22 slugs! That time I didn't hardly use the metal detector, just went around to bed rock cracks, stuck my hand down in them, and would literally pull up handfuls of bird shot, .45 slugs, .22 slugs, and everything in between! There is so much lead in that creek, hundreds of lbs I'm sure. Then some of that wrought iron was just surface finds on the bank of a river under an old bridge. Though the square rebar I took a hacksaw and cut it out of a fallen down bridge, while something kept bumping into my foot (think it was a turtle, or hope...), and of course the teeth on the saw were extra fine.... That's not bad for a first time forging, tell your wife she did good. So today wasn't the most successful day, but more of a day of...experimenting (or just an excuse for not doing to well at the forge today lol). I folded and forge weld one of those wrought iron bolts together, and upset it to about 1" square to make a small hammer. I punched the hole, and noticed it was pulling apart, but I figured I could maybe forge weld it back together. Well I did, but then when I went to drift it It majorly came apart, took about 3 hours to get to that point! so back in the scrap pile...Oh well. I have great respect for the smiths that had only Wrought iron to work with back in in the day! I was given some copper cable, about 1/2" diameter, and so just for fun and to see if I could, I tried to stick the end of it together, which the first time went beautifully, and I forge a small leaf out of it. I then cut it off about 3 inches back, and tried to stick it together on that end, then I was going to untwist int, and do sorta a basket twist, but I couldn't get tit to stick together enough! Heat treated a Damascus knife, but after heat treating it revealed a delamination, so not sure If I will be able to save it or not. Had a big hole in my jeans, and a big piece of (hot!) scale went in the hole, and down in my boot in and burned about a quarter sized hole in my new sock and left a big 'ole blister on my foot.. Now to stuff that went well. I found a little piece of 3/8" brass in my scrap pile and forged a little leaf on the 3rd try, the two before that I melted... Forged a stainless steel leaf key chain, first time forging stainless, enjoyed it, I didn't find it as difficult as people say it is. forged a horse shoe heart, modified a ball pein from neighbors trash to a small straight pein hammer for texturing, also finished an over sized bangle, but was good practice. One thing I did like today, was I forged two small bull dog key chains out of 1/8x1/2" flat. Also included pictures of some flowers I forged a while back, they are one piece key chains. Forge a tenon on half inch round, about 1/8" round, but where the tenon meets parent stock it's about 3/16". Take about 5/8" of parent stock, and upset it in a bolster plate (like a rivet head) , then using ball fuller and hallow punch adding the petals and middle part.

I cant even walk in my room safely in the dark with out possibly breaking a toe or cutting a foot open! and for a while I had to be careful not to run into the horn of an anvil...in my room... Littleblacksmith

well this is from a while back, but last Saturday spent part of a day at a couple local rivers searching them. Didn't really find much, found some lead, a couple small musket balls, and did get some nice sized wrought iron. Oh, and something that was cool, was I got a short section of about 3/4" square rebar, pretty old for rebar maybe early 1900's?. Then from a while back also, I had an order for intertwined horse head horse shoe hearts. The other night I had some forge time and knocked out a small little jewelry sized cross pein out of 3/4" square in about 40 minutes, and got it handled tonight, used a mesquite wedge for contrast. Littleblacksmith

Do I see the cupping tool we made in that picture? That's a cool Idea with the rag on wood. Littleblacksmith

I think you did an excellent job on your anvil stand, and really good on the plans. even if the measurements can't work with everyone, it at least give somebody a starting point and idea on what they might need and how to go about constructing it. I would think it would be pretty obvious that the measurements aren't gonna be the same for everybody, and that they will have to put in a little work to figure out what height is right for them. good job, I like the extra space for tools. Littleblacksmith

Yes, bouncy house blower is too much, I used to use one with a coke forge, and it was too much (and coke needs more air than coal too). If you are willing to spend about $80 on a blower I know of on I can PM you the link, its one that I use, and is the quietest but good quality blower that other smiths I know use and have no complaints, eventually I would look into it if I were you, I understand that may be a bit much right now to spend on a blower. But for now a hair dryer will work too, just a simple $5 one(if your feeling like even paying that much, typically can get them for less at yard sales). Or do there suggestions, it's just that a bouncy house blower is really really loud (as I'm sure you already know). I remember when I had it I had to shout to people for them to hear me. Littleblacksmith Admim Note: LBS contacted me and this is a Fasco B24220 115 Volt 135 CFM Centrifugal Blower I will remove the requests for the information via PM from LBS.

man ya'll are making my peice of firewood I use feel bad hahaha...Nice mallet Jasent. Littleblacksmith

Thank's ya'll for the ideas! Yes, not having everything flat does make a difference. I typically have some logs sitting upright on the table with horse shoe hearts hanging on them , and they always want the heart on the stump not the ones sitting flat, even though they are very similar, almost the same. Littleblacksmith

My pineapple twist square center punch, hand fuller, tong clips, and my bolster plate. I'm with JHCC with the hot cut hardy too, I would never hesitate making another one or 5 more hot cuts. Littleblacksmith

Das, and Mr. Coke, I may have to steel that Idea from ya'll if you don't mind! I had never thought of that idea to have a support come out of the pritchel hole, it is so simple. Littleblacksmith

This morning I forged a pair of small flat jaw tongs, a horse shoe heart, and then 'cause later I had a buddy who strikes for me and his daughter coming over to forge a cross necklace (that I had never made before) I decided it might be good to do a little practice one, and it when all right. Then they came and we forged a couple cross necklaces, and he forged a little fishhook bracelet that I was quite impressed with as I hardly helped with it. Littleblacksmith

Thank you BigGunDocter for the information! I know what you mean about things getting hot. yesterday at my fair it was only in the low 90's and things were getting hot. Yes, I share your pet peeve, when buying if it's not priced, and I don't need it, I typically don't ask what the price is I just keep walking. Thanks Joel OF! for the record, I try to stay away from commissions currently, I dont enjoy them as much. good advice. I have noticed It seems to go better if I put out 3 of the same thing rather than 10, also it makes people feel that it is more "unique" if there is less. Littleblacksmith