Irondragon Forge ClayWorks

As of yesterday, it was $1.49 a gallon here, just went up from $1.29.

Not to nit pick, but you do realize a cudgel is a short club, quite different from a bo staff

Welcome aboard, we won't remember Ohio once leaving this thread. Hence the suggestion to put your general location in your profile. This thread will help you get the best out of the forum. READ THIS FIRST I'm afraid if you fire proof your forge you won't get the steel very hot.

I think the best way to deaden the ring is to set the base in cheap calking compound.

"If a good blade you would win you must forge thick and grind thin"

Justin, you just keep at it. You have made more neat stuff in the last year, than I have in the past thirty years.

I would think installing a 50A 220V outlet would be the better choice, why limit the welder to 20A.

I would definitely go with the 40 pound tank for a single tank install. If I remember a 30 pound tank holds 8 gallons of propane, while a 40 pound holds almost 10 gallons. The 40 pound has more expansion room so it freezes up less but is still portable. The other option would be 2 30 pounders connected with a manifold.

Good looking Moai.

Have you been through this section? Just skim through the posts and open the one's that seem interesting. You may see some folks close to you there. https://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/91-smelting-melting-foundry-and-casting/

I can tell you what not to use. One that has a red line at 2000° F and goes to 2200°, mine melted over 2000°.

It looks a lot like a Vulcan to me. They cast the weight in the front foot on many anvils and the hardened faceplate looks thin, which is also a Vulcan trait. Tap it lightly around the faceplate with a small hammer if it doesn't ring but has a thwap sound that would reinforce my thinking. Still it is a usable anvil. I believe Badger's and Mousehole's do ring like a bell.

Good job on the stand and getting the anvil & mill. I would mount the anvil on edge with the 14 in under the hammer & stock, it will have a very good sweet spot and plenty of surface to play around with.

That would work very well too.

They are not obsolete in my shop. I have three in service all set up with different wheels for what ever I need. For other needs, I use the angle grinders (3) 4 1/2 in. a 7 in and another 9 in. set up with different wheels grinding, cut off, flap. I also have a large sandstone powered wet grinder for finish work. Gee, it looks like I'm lazy and don't want to change wheels very often. Not to mention a large selection of hand files.

He never said which unit he was in but did tell a couple of funny stories about The Rough Riders and Teddy Roosevelt. I got the impression he was a "horse solider" (his term). When I told him my grandfather served with Pershing in the Mexican expedition, he had nothing but praise for the General. He also taught me a life long lesson about honesty. I was 13 or 14 at the time and paper boys would collect the subscription fee weekly from customers. He said that money was on the table to take what you need. He said I won't know how much you took, but you will. It is a lesson that has stayed with me my whole life and I never took more than the right amount, which was 75 cents if I remember,

I can hot punch a hole a lot faster than getting a drill and setting up the dill press.

Good looking, the rivet came out nice, much better than the first several I made.

I did that for a couple of years, but it was an old Plymouth and my older brother was the driver. We made quick work of a paper route with about a hundred customers. One of our customers was an old black gentleman in his 90's and almost blind. He could read the headlines but not the story. When the route was finished, I would ride my bicycle to his house and read the stories to him that he was interested in. He would tell me stories about his service in the Spanish American war. It broke my heart when he passed away. Thanks for prompting that memory, I haven't thought about him in decades.

I would say the tank is almost empty & freezing up, the frost line is usually at the top of the liquid. You can put in a tub of water to keep it from freezing.

Token or copper was the term used. here is an interesting article about them, again mostly dealing with Canada and colonial American tokens. https://coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/Blacksmith.intro.html Because that token has "Welcome" on it I still think it is a commemorative coin.

I find that my power hammer is detrimental to forge welding billets. To get good at forge welding is how to get to Carnegie Hall, practice, practice, practice.

What I remember about the coins is back in the day blacksmiths used them as a form of their own currency, that folks could use to pay for work.

I would say because of the depiction of a Blacksmith, it has something to do with the trade.

It would also help if you put your general location in your profile, old coins found in the UK are generally different than ones from Australia, The US, the Middle East etc. It looks like some sort of commemorative coin to me. Wonder if it is an earlier version of the Alabama Forge Council? Like the Alabama Blacksmith Association. Here is an interesting Wikipedia article about Blacksmith Tokens (mostly from Canada) I remember hearing about them a long time ago but can't recall where. Thanks for posting this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacksmith_token