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Ted, It's only taken me 3 years part time and picking larger and larger/more detailed objects to forge to get back to this point within the last few weeks.. I need to forge more often for me to use the larger hammers. Once enough is not enough. I've been able to get out and forge several larger items so the forging time adds up.. It really makes all the difference.

JHCC I love the big hammer.. What she weigh.. I ended up with the 9lbs for about 2hrs on the hardie.. I was tired after the fact.. i now know I can swing the 6lbs for at least 5hrs though..

I don't know what your shop is like or the layout.. I think that is the reason why most old shops had at least one door that opened to the outside.. Well, at least country shops.. Well that for shoeing and wagon repairs too. I think today we forget what it means to be a general jobber.. Year before last I was forging out in the trailer on a -13 f day.. I was thinking I'd love to have a wood stove or at least some sort of heat source.. Light is easy.. I just open the doors.. Its funny me saying this because there were many shops that were in the cellar of the buildings and many journals had articles on supplying good lighting to the smiths shop. This lead me to believe they were poorly lit. In a perfect world.. Everything would be what ever I wanted it to be in that moment.. I'm still waiting for my creativeness to catch up with that.. Billy.. I try to forge nearly everything I can as this shortens finish work.. I love that heart hook.. I'm going to stash that design in the back pocket.. . Just another info thing.. If I can finish forge and my last heats are burnishing.. I can go right to BLO or wax or which ever finish I choose. All items that are not going to be hardened or used for eating are left as near their naturally forged state as possible and try to have them finished without clean up.. Took me a few years to realize just how much faster it is to forge to finish.

You did a great job on punch the eye.. Keeping the wrought iron from splitting that close to the end is tough. Did you cut the grain first?

Love the grain.. whats the weight and was was your bar original starting size.. I love seeing upset wrought iron.. I'm always intrigues by which way the grain flow changes.

Thats kind of you to say.. I was just going over the list of things I have made in the last year.. I can only think of 3 things I have made that I have not filed.. Forge clean, files fast to finish.. Forged harshly, files slowly to finish. the work you produce inspires.. There are some pretty good newer smiths I find inspiration from.. Really helps me to up my game. BillyBones last Heart hook was one such item. anyhooo, there are a bunch of you guys..

Billy, Love all of it.. Love the work and it looks even which can be tough on the legs for twirls and hearts. I've made this suggestion to others.. Put a chamfer on items that are left square cornered unless you want or need the square corner.. It imparts a more finished look and lends a softeness to being touched. If the heart hook has knocked down corners then I appolgize.. I just can't see them from here.. Your welcome.. I'm so glad your able to use the information.. This is such a huge enjoyment to see. It makes it all worth it. Love the bow.. Long bow? Do you find birch offers good pull ratio for length? I imagine the fiberglass helps with consistency. Are the rings spaced enough to be easy to get one layer and easy enough to feather? CGL.. I am so biased to forging inside, I built a trailer.. Which was a huge labor.. Not of love but of self preservation. I have worked at demos for many, many years and at outside venues.. I can tell you that when you first start it might be fun or enticing since it's easier with no stack to draw smoke away, but when you are working hard at the forge and using a coal forge you would feel different.. I have on more than one occasion be completely covered in black from soot and smoke blown at me over the course of an 8hr demo. A Gas forge the biggest thing is to get rid of the heat.. But forging outside for many is a problem and is addressed with metal color differences, smoke/soot, these 2 are the biggest, but if you are using a gas forge the smoke and soot won't be your problem only the metal color.. When I first started doing demos I could not forge weld and when I was in my normal shop I noticed that I couldn't forge weld there either.. The next year I kept practicing and when the summer demos came up I could forge weld nearly every time and this was still in bright day light.. Back in the shop I still could not forge weld consistently.. I soon figured out (6months) that it was because of the light in the shop vs outside.. Once i started to raise the temperature inside the shop, the welds became more consistent.

All it takes is a little bit of file work.. Just doing a little filing hides all sorts of sins..

OC, If it ain't working sometimes ya just gotta change gears.. With that new hammer and forge you have going you can start with monster stock and your arm won't get tired at all..

So here is the the latest forging in the form of a Hot cut for the Refflinghaus.. Shes 5160 and mild steel. the toes are mild. The photo of the shorter one in front of the new one is for comparison of 30 years of wear.

Old Crew.. Well done on all of it.. Now you have heat, power hammer, anvil, vise and I'm sure a few hand hammers.. You are now unstoppable. You might need belt dressing or the sheeves might not be clean enough.. Not sure if your hammer has factory linkage but many times the hammers were ran by the same person and they tuned the hammer engagement for the type of work they did.. If your looking to have that light feather touch it can be kinda tough with mechanical hammers unless setup "JUST" right as they have a tendency to be go, no go in action.. Being bumped or surged slightly and lightly with a very light touch for one hit and such slow starts. There was a discussion I had read some years back that talked about this very factor and involved 4 gents talking about different aspects of control and the way different makers addressed the issue with deft touch and full on boogie. there was a book that talked about the right amount of slack in the belt etc, etc.. I don't believe there is a spring tension adjustment on your hammer.. So the only adjustment is the throw or height adjustment. All of the mechanical hammers that use the toggle links are supposed to be adjusted so the toggles are not slackened thru the movement.. So the hammer still has snap and the head is not resting on the metal being worked for to long a time. Not sure if I am explaining it in a way that makes sense.

Nice thing about etching is it can be done anytime.

I love nearly all creatures.. spiders, centpedes etc, etc. Don't both me in the least.. I love to watch them.. We actually have blackwidows up here which weird.. I stumbled on them one summer while out walking around.. The things that leave me with creeping skin are": Ticks, leeches and lice..

Hey, thats pretty awesome.. Well done. There are a few videos on forging finial. (pronounced Fin-E-el) I don't have any videos on it alone but the peening video shows how to move metal only in one direction. the hinge video does show forging a Finial but there are so many examples and shapes.

I use about 3/8" X 5/8" and then have one that is nearly 1" long and maybe 5/8" high. I think for many 3 sizes hit the mark depending.. I started using mine back in the 80's after noticing someone used a rectangular one. So made mine in the shape of an anvil. With all my initials in it but you can only really see the JP. I have been most impressed with makers marks that mimic the people.. In other words the makers mark mimics their flow or artistic perspective based on who they are.. I find these to flow or keep in context what the person is about.. On facebook "Axe and Anvil" has a great one.. "Nick Rossi" has a very good one.. Blackbear forge has a good one.. I picked the anvil originally because I have a sarcastic streak and thought I was being cute.. (IE it was original as I had seen no others using an anvil with initials in it as a displacement stamp).. and it was fairly easy to make.. Today on the other hand there are a number using an anvil. Knowing what I know now. I think using ones name or even a First name and surname or just surname with first name initial is important and in some nice writing. I've seen some really old blacksmith tools that were well made and each piece was stamped with the guys name.. they look like they were blacksmith school items or the guy served an apprenticeship where the master did not want him to leave.. The items were all well forged, filed and heat treated and with a black oxide finish.. Beautiful work. The largest problem with the stamp is is has to be applied while the item is hot.. If working on knives or something like that it is hard to apply in an appropriate way that will work without distorting the item and loosing width or thickness.