Lou L

Not a problem. I enjoyed looking. Beautiful vise for sure.

I found a J. Warden & Sons anvil maker in Warwickshire in the 1864 copy of the Williams Manufacturers Directory. Google books has loads of those old English directories. https://books.google.com/books?id=GPQNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA475&lpg=PA475&dq=warden+anvil+maker+england&source=bl&ots=fF9fG-mtQs&sig=XKAfXPOe5c2dKrxIOfKJ5AJ66kE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjch-HwhLTcAhVCSN8KHaCnA80Q6AEwF3oECAEQAQ

Thanks all, I have them to my friend on Friday and he was overjoyed. Apparently I did better than he expected. I'll take it. I'm relatively peeps considering they are my first knives. Now I have the time to finish the San Mai taco you made for me, Jennifer. I have a cold shut to figure out. You told me to work it near welding heat and I did... But the lip at the edge of the mild steel proceed too much. I have a plan though.

Wow, that’s certainly the hard way to do it. I struggled getting even heat on those 16.5” knives for heat treating and I have my forge set up to create a long narrow trench style fire. Kudos to you! Lou

Welcome aboard Moly. I’m curious to hear more about how one gets employed as a blacksmith. I’d love to hear more about how you came to become an apprentice. It sounds like it could be a story that I’d right up our alley. As per usual, allow me to direct you to the must see thread for new members: Read This First Lou

That’s an enviable shop. Congrats!

I’m impressed by it all. Most of all, though, I wanted to get a look at that coke fire you had going. That was a huge heat you had on that stock! Awesome work, thanks for sharing.

A good drift for hammer eyes is definitely on my short list. I’m so behind on making tooling which is strange because that is my favorite part.

Thomas said it best...your prices are too low for certain. In my neck of the woods you could make a year’s wages selling that beautiful furniture and people would get in a bidding war.

I don’t think it could hurt your anvil if someone already did the damage. I’d just suggest you do the research to make sure you’re friend is able to get everything just right. Blues man was kind enough to give you your first point of data. You may want to grind out the areas where the bad weld should were made. If it was the wrong rod it will keep on cracking despite the new welds. I know Morrell Metalsmiths does an annual anvil repair workshop every year for the New England Blacksmiths. You should inquire Tom find out if a similar workshop occurs in your area as well. Once it is done correctly you will have a top notch anvil. Good luck, Lou

I so look forward to your posts. Something about your work appeals to me. It is rustic and elegant.

Easy enough to get!

I can’t even begin to imagine how to start that. My chances of getting all those punched holes to line up would be at Powerball proportions. Beautiful.

That’s MUCH better. I already checked for magnetic north and tested the burner for continuity to verify.

Here’s the little hammer JHCC and I worked on yesterday. In reality, he worked on it and I missed with the sledge hammer. Decided to make it into a two sided fullering hammer with two different radiuses. Been wanting a leaf making hammer for a while.

I mean, seriously, did anyone pay attention to the details in my pictures? A can of beans? Who gets size perspective for an object in a photo with a can of beans?

It would be interesting to know how wide the blades can open...and how heavy it is. It certainly doesn’t look like it is for overhead use. It seems to me that a saw would outperform that thing on wood but I’m not sure if it has the mechanical advantage to make it’s was through metal.

I’m sorry, I guess my picture was at a bad angle and you couldn’t see the gas fixture. I took another for clarity. Now it should be obvious that the flames shouldn’t be coming out of the “T” but they still are.

I’m as close to done as I’m going to get. My biggest gripe with this entire process has been the impossibility of evenly grinding the blade. I own no tool that can grind those angles. So the areas around the base of the blades have minor but glaring differences in thickness. If I polished to a mirror finish they would create a funhouse mirror effect. I should have kept a notebook on the project to log all of the things I’ve learned in this process. The biggest lesson was mental. I learned that, if I keep my head focused and just get to work, I can accomplish more than I think. I had many moments of doubt thinking I wouldn’t produce anything remotely worthy of being called a knife. These at least earn entry level designation...I hope. My buddy told me he expects highly imperfect work and it’s what he wants. I wish I was aware of his this low bar from the get go.... The handles are only roughed out and ready for his artistic expression. Each was meant to be slightly different but share most of the DNA with the lot. I experimented with handle lengths and hole sizes for different sized people. I also settled on keeping the oblong finger hole. The tighter angles actually made the first one easier to spin...and my buddy wanted them to spin.

Okay, I tried following the directions to the letter but I didn’t have exactly the right materials. I feel like the slight differences in materials shouldn’t make a difference but when I try to fire up the burner it just burps out a lazy flame like a lighter would. Suggestions would be welcome. Oh, I placed a can of beans next to the burner for size comparison. Curmudgeon bait!

I think that, if the air can be throttled, it will be highly capable. You could have a small fire to make leaves and such or crank it up and heat up and entire scroll or weld a big billet. That forge will teach some fire management for sure.

But Thomas, I distinctly remember you saying that Billy Merritt was of such skill that gates would accidentally weld shut when he walked by and coins in his pocket would create mokume gane at random. He isn’t a fair example!

Not sure why he made it, but Brent Bailey just recently posted a picture of the 50# cross peen he made. Not sure if the link will work. It isn’t sitting next to his 4.5# cross peen. It worked! Lou

I assume it is universally understood that people learn best by doing. It is also true that they learn better by teaching. However, sooner or later, anyone who reaches a high level in a skill will find themselves mired in theory. They may have derived it on their own or learned it from someone else, but it will be the same information. I don’t understand why people seem to think that practice Andy theory are mutually exclusive. People can learn by doing AND be educated in theory at the same time. It happens in good classrooms of all levels every day. It’s what “new math” is all about (much to the ire of most American adults). They have kids play with numbers in a variety of way so that they can figure out number relationships on their own. The goal is that students can intuitively understand the standard formulas we were all taught without having been shown them. I remember being on the job site building offices and the guys I worked with loved to find fault in the “books smart” designers and engineers and rant about how their experience trumped anything the engineers could do....if the engineers knew how to swing a hammer they just might not make stupid designs...blah blah blah. But they all got in their cars and drove home and it wasn’t their mechanic who designed and made a 2 ton hunk of steel that could accelerate to ridiculous speeds and still be safe to operate. How do they know whether or not that engineer is a machinist, welder or blacksmith as well....or that the guy next to them has multiple college degrees and is better at the job than they are? People tend to oversimplify.

We have the same problem in CT. Apparently years ago a person was crushed in a scrapyard and a law was passed that people couldn’t walk through scrapyards. I love how politicians pass laws to save people from one in a million freak accidents but can’t look at the obvious stuff.... Anyway, scrapyards went nuts at first. Years later the law was revoked but insurance companies jumped in and made it too expensive for scrapyards to allow us in. take the others’ advice and go to the source for big chunks of steel. But don’t stop hunting for that anvil by asking every person you talk to. If you are willing to wait until you get the better equipment before you start smithing then there is nothing wrong with being patient and saving your money.