Jackdawg

I have the 3lb version. Cost me about $70 at the local hardware big box here in Australia (for my daughter to give to my on my birthday last year). Had it for about 8 months. Needed very little work on the face / peen to clean it up, I love the hammer, particularly the wide straight peen. It is definitely my go to 3lber. I thought I would be getting rid of the handle fairly early and going to wood, but it is just fine as it is. Just dont "hook" hot metal with the hammer to move it in to place, melts the handle pretty quick!

Any power in there? If so first thing I would do is get an industrial fan to blow clean air over your work area. Second, looks like some sort of window to the right in that last photo, build Frosty's suggested chimney up and turn right and go out of there (need some height of stack outside to keep the draw working). Going up through an existing asbestos roof not a great idea. Best to leave that well alone. If nothing else, get rid of all that timber inside the window frame to at least let some natural ventilation happen. Toss the coal / coke and use charcoal if you can get no other relief. A lost less stinky fumes.

I don't believe anyone ever totally gets rid of the black dog, but you do learn to cope with its visits and techniques to hold it at bay / send it away quicker. Sadly surviving can tend to make you a harder person, whether that is part of the coping mechanism or some part of you is just burned out I don't know. I wish you well on your journey.

Waterside in Melbourne sell them.

I have the 3lb version. It is by far my favourite hammer in that size. Cost me $70 though here in Oz. I to just smoothed off the face, and the straight peen is a great size, far to many peens are to narrow for my taste. When I bought it I just assumed I would tire of the synthetic handle and get around to putting a wood one in it at some stage, but I love it, nice and comfortable.

there are a couple of pommy blacksmiths that specialise in this recreating historical stuff, have you had a look around you tube?

You see it here in Australia, people paying more money for flogged out old "name" anvils, than what good quality new ones cost. Same with post vises, second hand worn out units, often with parts missing, going for way more than you can buy a new one for.

A few of my favourite things

Is there more coming? your post just seems to stop. I understand your country has very lenient bankruptcy laws, so I don't know exactly what your remedies might be - but here I would immediately be going to debt collection, indeed your company should have done so when the invoices came up to 3 months overdue. They should have also attempted to reclaim the work if at all possible. But $50k is enough of a debt to force the wind up of a company that doesn't pay here, get court orders to seize property and assets. Although more than likely you will find yourself just one small unsecured creditor among a long list, and lucky to get a cent on the dollar.

Yes - Our Govt set them up off shore about 10 years ago(maybe longer), closed the on shore ones. Bit like the US sending their political prisoners to Guantanamo - get them away from the local courts authority. Pretty despicable in my opinion, bu tI suspect I am in the minority. But it has stopped the flow of people trying to come here by boat, giving the Govt big PR wins in the papers etc. Albeit most of the illegal immigrants here have always just stepped of planes on some sort of tourist visa and just never left.

So your saying your border patrol has setup stations within the country on major roads? IE not at the actual borders? I thought that was the land of the free!

thanks for the tip, will give it a go.

yeah, just a tub of dirt..... lots of work gone in to that, looks like it will work well.

I make my rivets as I need them as it is almost impossible to buy steel rivets here in Australia, sometimes they show up on ebay as old new stock, but no one sells or stocks them new these days. I am told there are a couple of specialty stores that will make them for you down south, but they do not sell online, and I am not in the market for a minimum 1000 order anyway. Yes your process will work, Your block needs to be about the right depth for the length of rivet you need. Likely they will deform slightly so you might have to hit them out from the bottom, try cooling all of the metal except the very end you wish to deform. Some people make a split block that comes apart to release the rivet easily. My biggest bug bear is getting the head even remotely centred over the shaft. I have been thinking about making a set of dies to make rivets to go in one of those "smithing machines" , but I don't need that many rivets, it is just an idle thought I have on the rare occasions I might need to make half a dozen or so. If it is not particularly load bearing and will be visible, I have been experimenting with using copper and brass rivets. Gives a nice visual effect, and those you can buy here! recently bought a lot of aluminium ones to experiment with as well, not tried them yet though.

I have an old CV shaft I keep next to my quench tank. When I am going to harden something I heat the old shaft up to a nice red and drop it in the tank before I start. As long as your oil has not solidified, something similar should be all you need. I don't know what will happen if your oil has congealed, never gets cold enough here to do that, but it might there if your using a vegetable oil or similar.

he is lovely looking mutt! Sounds like he is prone to mying around on the lounge rather than chasing cats though.

go with Europe the norse / scandinavian area culture, make a nice big viking axe, or a nice big crusaders sword if you want to go english / french culture.!

I like this idea a lot! Tools would then be suitable for just about any sized hole. What do you use for wedging in place, wood or metal wedge? Could probably even use an elastic strap and hook....

If your buying 1 pair, I would go with wolf jaw tongs. Still my main go to tongs if I am not using a specific set made for a specific job. If your going to be mainly knife making, when you get setup, aspire to make a set of box jaw tongs to fit your main stock size. when you get a little better, there are specific designs for wrap around tip blade tongs, give it a go. (Box jaw are limited in the stock they hold, the blade makers tongs are fairly universal in stock size they can grip)

what about the age old tradition of using bird cage wire as reinforcing? Would that work in this sort of application?.

I would call any sort of forge fully contained. Flames do not leave extremities of the forge pot for charcoal, coal or coke use, same for gas units. No different than a gas stove top.

I made mine form scrap bits of flat steel, scrounged odds and sods that were lying around, used bits of angle iron at the top rather than welding on a flat rim.

yeah, she was originally built to burn charcoal /wood, and sit in a skeleton frame, first go she wasn't deep enough, hence the higher sides which worked a treat. I have since moved to coke, so the extra depth I added is redundant now, it doesn't annoy me, so I have not cut it off - yet! No doubt with it now sitting in the tray it wont be long before I go and get the angle grinder!. Or perhaps I just might make another pot and put this old girl in the shed, we get periodic coke shortages here, so no doubt I'll be back to burning charcoal / wood sooner rather than later!

Charles R Stevens is correct about younger members possibly not knowing what a newspaper is, or worse, it might cause frustration, the few newspapers that are left around here have gone to a colour print and now use paper that burns quite poorly! Not really suitable for starting fires. One of the members of my blacksmith club still has a old style free community newspaper delivered in his area that burns well, he is always offering them around to those of us less blessed, who only get the "glossy wont burn" versions!

she is a monster!