P. Bedard

Hey everyone. I've been getting more and more interested in tying knots in steel lately. Does anyone know of a good site or book that explains this? I can make a simple, overhand knot but that's about it so far. If anyone has any info on these, I'd very much appreciate it!

Jeremy, The anvil is marked with "pure wrought cast" on the side. That's why we refer to it as cast. Not 100% sure why though since they were clearly forged in two pieces. Hmmm, have to look into that.

I was welding a billet for a damascus blade. I won't keep going on it until the weather improves though (besides, I should have a good working shop this spring) And yeah, they don't have much of an attention span but we do have people that will keep popping back in to check on our progress.

I'll try and get a decent photo and put it in my gallery. It's rough cut timbers and hand chinked (by us). About 10 years ago someone broke into the fort and set the blacksmith's shop on fire using a 5 gallon can of gasoline (we found the can inside). They re-built the roof completely and used an industrial sandblaster to blast away the 2" of soot and expose the unburnt wood underneath. The next year they burned the South Tower. Since then, there is much better security including well hidden cameras.

It is fun but if we stuck to what was done in period, we'd be making nails. That's pretty much it. Oh, they did other things to be certain, but that shop in that fort was primarily a nail making enterprise. Probably get's dull after a while. We tell them that and say we're making other things because we have "guests" like them and we like to show off our skills.

Hey all. I uploaded a short video of me forgewelding at the Blacksmith's shop in Fort Gibraltar during the Festival du Voyageur. It's a privately owned historical fort here in Winnipeg. It's open for 10 days during the festival (that ends Sunday Feb 22) and then again in the summer. It's fully staffed by re-enactors in typical garb of 19th century employees of the North West Company during the height of the fur trade era. YouTube - Forgewelding at the Festival du Voyageur. This isn't my normal shop, this is just something I do every winter. It's fun and we open the fort to school groups during the weekdays. This year I spoke to approximately 11 thousand students over 5 days. My voice is just about gone...

I believe that one is, as Unicorn correctly guessed, a riveting forge. Used all over North America to heat rivets (hence the name) so that they could be peened over hot and then tighten as they shrunk. They're great for weekend meets but not for day to day forging. Enjoy!

ZANG! That looks very nice Mark! I'm definitely buying the one I posted and I have the plans for another one (English made) that I have to get around to making too. So many tools, so little time...

Sorry Mark. The one I have my eye on one The assembled unit, that comes with one set of uncut dies, is $97.00. Not a bad price at all. You'd probably make that money back in the first few jobs.