Mberghorn

I went on the ABANA site to find the contact info for the CT Blacksmiths Guild and there was two names and numbers buy Mace Vitale was not listed as the President. I guess it's a good thing I didn't call them yet, lol!! Thanks for the info! I'm sending the email now. I can travel that far on weekends that we don't work but unfortunately I don't know if we're working the weekend until Thursday or Friday. Super inconvenient, I know..... Awesome, thanks jlp!!

Awesome, thanks for the info!! Two hours each way is a little far for me to drive during the week. Still, I really appreciate the offer just the same!

I've got the tools that I need but I don't have a place to smith. I built a camper in the back of my truck and I park at Walmart so I think they might get upset if I started hammering away by the loading dock, lol.

Do I get in touch with those groups through the neb page or through here? I'm just starting out. I've done about three and a half years of research, built three forges (two gas and one solid fuel), and I've only made a hand full of small things but nothing major. I've been experimenting with different ways of making tongs lately but I only get to fire up the forge once a month at best. I would like to learn anything that someone is willing to teach me. Experience is better than book-smarts and I'm a hands on learner anyways. If you'd be willing I could venture your way on the weekends that we don't work :-)

I'm working in Stratford at the Sikorsky factory but I don't have a home up here yet. I'm still trying to sell my house in MD so I don't have an address up here to change it to. I went on the NEB website and I'm going through all the great stuff on there now. I had two large medical expenses for my two youngest kids recently so I'm not sure if I'll be able to make the meet but I'm definitely going to try. In the meantime I brought my gas forge (much more portable than my coal forge), my anvil and a few hammers up here and I'm storing it at a co-workers house right now. His girlfriend recently had a baby so he's been busy with that and I don't have ready access to my stuff any more. Congrats and all that and I'm happy for them but it sucks having so much spare time and not being able to get any smithing done. On that note, anyone know of any covered shop space I can use or better yet someone that I can learn from?

Recent transplant to CT here! Anyone know of any smiths that are in my neck of the woods? Looking forward to the meet (it will be my first) but in the meantime I need to get my fix, lol

Frosty I think he's asking the questions to help build a burner for his friend that is at an altitude that is 4,600 ft. higher than he is. Like you mentioned I'm definitely not one to give advice as I'm still learning about them too but the question about burner functionality at higher altitudes does seem like an interesting, albeit easily solvable, question. Of course I could be way off in the way that I read the OP's post too in which case I'll just grab my bowl of popcorn and watch the comments Like frosty said, I'm not the best person to give advice but from what I've gained from my readings the only thing that enlarging an orifice does is help with getting a stable flame, i.e. tuning the burner. If you want a hotter flame then all you need to do is turn up the pressure at the regulator. I'm not the best at putting thoughts to words and having other people understand them so basically what I'm saying is that you'll run the same pressure to get the heat that you want from your burner regardless of orifice size. Frosty has a point though. Before I found this site I had no idea about gas burners other than what I saw on youtube and Pintrest. My first two months of being a member were spent reading through the Burners 101 forum and the Forges 101 forum in the Gas Forges section of IFI and after reading all that stuff (a few times over and taking notes) I GREATLY improved performance on my modified sidearm burners. Also since you have a Mikey burner it might behoove you to snag up a copy of his book Gas Burners for Forges, Furnaces, and Kilns. It's available online for free though you might have to do some digging. There are TONS of pages of information on tuning burners. I'm not sure if I've come across the altitude question but I'm sure that once you have a good grasp on how to do it without taking that into account, you'll be able to do it at altitude. And yes, sometimes trial and error can be the best method as long as you learn from the results. Good luck!

I'm definitely following your progress! I'm starting to build another forge similar to the one you're building in size and I'm going back and forth between using a ribbon burner or two 3/4" Mikey burners so I'm very interested in how yours comes out!

I'm no scientific mastermind but I would assume it would be just the opposite. The larger orifice is still running at the same psi so the pressure remains constant and the volume increases giving you a faster flow into the mixing tube and thus pulling more air into the burner. Also welcome to the forum!! At the risk of stealing Frosty's prewritten statement, if you put your location on your profile you might be surprised how many smiths on here are within visiting distance.

Well they say it's never too late to try something new....

Fair point, Alan. I guess I forgot that a tool's purpose is whatever you can use it for. Like a flat head/pry bar/chisel/scraper/scribe/punch, etc.

There's a video that Glenn shared on the ENORMOUS Tongs thread that shows several smiths working one piece of iron at the same time around the early 1900's and they're all using the same hammer as the bottom one. Wicked cool info about the top maul too!

I too am from the St. Lawrence region, though on the NY side. My home town is about 30 minutes away from the T.I. Bridge.

Well I dare say that my question has been answered and my horizons broadened and for that I thank you all! I find it very interesting that there are still smithing operations in use today that are making things that big (and bigger). It's refreshing to see that not all "old world skills" are dying out!

So that's what that is. I grabbed a couple of these from my grandfather's garage when he passed but since he lived on the coast of Lake Ontario fairly close to Canada, I just figured they were ice breakers.

Yeah no kidding!! I was just thinking that

It wasn't your intent that I was worried would get misconstrued, it was mine. I bust my friends' chops constantly but you guys can't really pick up on that from just my posts among the 40,000+ members this site has, so I wanted to try and clarify what I meant before it got taken in a different context. I can't even fathom what they could possibly be making trying to forge a piece of metal that big! On the plus side I bet once it gets heated up it keeps it's heat pretty well.

Okay, cool. It's kind of hard to read intent online so I just wanted to clarify.

I'm not trying to start a xxxx measuring contest here, lol, I was more or less just looking to see if the tongs I came across were common or not. I like to expand my knowledge whenever I can. Also if you combine all the examples you mentioned I'm willing to bet that "most blacksmiths" fall into the former category rather than the latter. Again, I'm not trying to open up a xxxxxxx match so please don't take offense to my comments. I just don't want to let the thread steer too far from the point of the OP. That being said, You, sir, have some serious tongs there! I'd love to have the space to set up a full time smithy but I'm in the process of moving to start a new job so I have a feeling that I won't be able to turn my hobby into a profession any time soon. Too bad we live on opposite sides of the pond because I'd love to hang out in your shop and learn a few things.

Frosty, that's cool as all get out! You've had one hell of a life, my friend.

I wouldn't really say they were strange either but I've just never come across a pair that big before. (phrasing) After posting this thread I thought about using them to forge hammers with or something of the sort. I've never been fortunate enough to see industrial forging done but man would I love to see that!! Good point! I'm a long ways off from doing work using tongs that big but it is nice to have a bargaining chip or two. Here, here.

After seeing that picture I think I should change the title of this post to mediocre sized tongs, lol.

A budding smith friend of mine picked up two sets of these tongs at an estate sale in Virginia the other day and gave me one. Any idea what tongs this big would have been used for?

Yeah trying to turn a square piece of wood in the first place with out knocking the corners off is just asking for trouble. All you need is one good catch to catch you off guard for that tool to go flying out of your hand and stick in your neck! Although safety is paramount, it's not always the first thought.

Thanks for the in depth explanation Mikey! That'll make installing the nozzles properly on my yet to be built burners a cinch!