Island_Forger

5 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Just remember that there were far more anvil in cities than in the country! Yes per square mile *lots* more.  Shoot HB's were made in Brooklyn; how many folks who worked there had one at home?   Finding them is the problem and hence the TPAAAT method.

(every factory in the old days had a forge as part of the maintenance department and depending on the type of factory may had a large forging set up. I know of a glass factory that had a large powerhammer and my great uncles in law worked in a sugar refinery in Kansas City area that still used their smithing equipment.  Every train repair place and even old auto repair places had smithing set ups, I picked up an anvil from an old plumbing and HVAC place once in the city! *Hospitals* had anvils---I've talked to an orthopedic smith who worked at one in Columbus Ohio during WWII last I heard his anvil was still down in the sub basements according to a Janitor I asked.  I moved before I was able to try to get it...)

TPAAAT i read the sticky such a good idea lol and i didnt even know anything about the whole factory thing. Theo invited me to his shop since hes literally 20 mins from me im gonna pick his brain and see what he knows and start there. as an update for now until i find a replacement a  11" piece of rr track will do fine  thanks again everyone for the help 

Hey Thats Hot..

  that looks good ive got the same exact setup except for my table is a lawn mower gutted stripped and flipped upside down, im trying to be as frugal as possible lol  

On 5/22/2017 at 11:02 AM, ThomasPowers said:

You know our members in Iceland, Hawaii ot Norfolk Island are probably envious at how close you are to so much smithing stuff and you have bridges linking you to "the mainland"!  Yet they manage to smith.

yea a little digging around and a few more weeks and i should be done i could only imagine if i was in a more rural area or say more distant lol 

On May 20, 2017 at 2:08 PM, Frosty said:

I don't know how many are living on your island but there are a few anyway. Iforge has a lot of NY and NYC blacksmiths in the gang and the smithing organization that claims your neighborhood as territory is listed in the regional organizations section on the Iforge opening page, scroll down it's there. Honest. 

Thanks for that i didnt even think to search since its such a small island and For now my goal is to master the basic stuff. i really love middle eastern and scottish influenced stuff so in that direction once im good enough.  

On May 20, 2017 at 4:52 PM, Tubalcain2 said:

Way back when, my family own a ferry service to Staten island. never been myself, though.

That's awesome you should take a trip its a pleasant little island lol 

Thank you all for the advice. Just and update im using a rotor im going to place it inside the body of lawn mower i flipped upside down makes a great table/tray for free!! Its almost done ill show you guys the finished product

1 hour ago, Glenn said:

You building a side blast or a bottom forge? What fuel do you plan on using?

For bottom blast use a piece of plate cut to the inside diameter of the drum, and make a hole to fit your air pipe. You can use the lug bolt holes to bolt the plate in place or the drum to a stand.

I strongly suggest you make a ring from flat bar to fit the groove on the drum and then weld a piece of light weight plate to the ring to make a table that fits on top of the drum. Gives the fire a little more depth, keeps the fuel from falling out of the drum, and gives a place for any extra fuel while forging. With the table top you can then make a really deep fire when needed.

You may want to visit the solid fuel forge section on the site to get other ideas on using the drum to build a forge.

so i work a a Jeep ram dodge dealer. spoke with the parts manager and he gave me a sightly used rotor cause hes awesome and  thats a little bit smaller then the drum only about 4 inches deep ill  post some pictures of it in a little bit but i think i might just go with the rotor not as deep 

i believe ill be building a bottom forge and coke or coal its pretty available for me as for the depth the drum is super deep can fit my hole hand in length wise probably 4 or 5 in deep should i still go with the table. thank you for this though im probably going to resort to the cutting a fitted piece and using the lug bolt holes to bolt it to a stand like you suggested

hello everyone and thanks in advance for any advice. I am building a brake drum forge now i have a brake drum from an old truck (dont ask why) and my only issue is filling the hole in the bottom on a smaller drum a 2 in floor flange works fine this would need a 4 in one min and i just cant seem to find one in my area any ideas on how i can go about converting this old drum into a coal forge

Hello all my name is Lennie i'm 23 years old and i've always loved blacksmithing. It all started when i was younger i  was watching a farrier shoe a horse in South Carolina with my dad, and was captivated by the smith at work. Now old enough and stable enough (financially) to start Smithing myself. I love the site there's so much information so thanks all for that. i'm just getting my shop set up in my yard. curious if there's any other smiths locally NYC is pretty big maybe i can pop in to someones shop maybe even get some ideas and tips from a more seasoned smith once again thanks again