firebug

I would like to take the time to thank everyone who has replied, even the ones who disagree with me and encourage others to do so as well. Thanks for the honesty! Maybe we can learn something from this.

I plan on doing that. I have the link pulled up right now. I am getting ready to head to the woods and will do it later.

Thanks for you reply Rob. I truly believe that this happened, but, this is only my opinion. Like I stated, to think a bidder who has WON 119 things, knowing that the odds are that they didn't win everthing they bidded on, has bidded 100% of the time with the same seller is too hard to believe. Even if they were a collector, there must have been atleast ONE person who had something they were interested in at least ONE time.

I thought I had edited it within about 5 minutes of posting it and removed all of the references to the company. I just re-read the post and realized one reference was left in. I have since removed it. But, this is my opinion of what possibly happened and I will stick by it. It is not a conspiracy theory. If you think artifical bidding does not happen on Ebay you are fooling yourself. For one person to have bid 100% of the time on more than 119 listings with the same company is almost impossible to believe. Even the one that bid 50% of the time is hard to believe but 100%, ain't happening in my opinion. I will be staying away from bidding on anything on Ebay. I will buy something outright but will no longer bid.

Thanks for the reply jimbob. Now that you mention it I had the EXACT same thing happen to me before I wised up. I was bidding on an anvil and lost it. I got a message from the seller that the winning bidder backed out on the sale and I could now buy it for my high bid. I passed. THAT is how they do it most of the time I bet. If the rigged bid does not elicit a higher bid then they simply contact the REAL highest bidder and sell it to them. I am glad you mentioned that, my memory is going and I am only 46.

That is just it, I did not say that it was happening for sure, it is my opinion that it is. I also said I could be wrong. I can assure you from what I have seen over the years and read on forums I am not the only one to think rigging is going on. I wanted to get some opinions from others on this board and see if maybe anyone else has had any personal experience with this. But after reading your post I removed the real business name and the bidders cannot be identified. Point well taken.

I was bidding on an item I was interested in. It was a cast iron blacksmiting plate that had a blacksmithing scene on it. I will attemp to attach a photo of it. Anyway, I bidded on it and for a time was the high bidder. Eventually though I lost it. After the auction I snooped around to see who bidded on it and how many times they bidded. I discovered that only a few people had bid on it. But what was really interesting is the percentage of total times the other bidders, had bidded on items listed by XYZ( I removed the real name of the company). What this means is out of EVERY BID on EVERY item the bidder had bidded on their entire history of bidding on E-Bay. Example, lets say that an person had been buying on E-Bay for two years and had a percentage of 25% for XYZ. That means that 25% of the time, out of all of his bids, 25% of the time the bids were on items listed by XYZ. That is a lot. So I looked at the percentages and this is what I found. 4***s had won 491 items and had place 25% of all of his bids for XYZ. Another,H***2 had won 320 items and had placed 50% of his bids for XYZ, whoa thats a high percentage. I also found that N***N had won 119 items and had place 100% of his bids with XYZ. HMMMMMM that is odd, out of all of the items listed on E-bay he/she was ONLY interested in things listed by XYZ. Also consider that you will bid multiple times on the same item, that is a lot of bidding. What does this mean to ME, I think there are folks artificially inflating the cost of things on E-Bay by having bogus bids placed on items. I have watched things be relisted before after a very high price won the item. The story is always the sell feel through. Maybe instead, they couldn't get another sucker to outbid the bogus bid and had to eat it. Re-list it with a story and hopefully sell it next time. Can I be wrong, YES, but many of us have noticed crazy prices on stuff on E-Bay. I am also sure that many of the prices are being paid by folks that do not know any better. In my mind though when you see the kind of percentages like stated above you have to consider that artificial bidding is possibly taking place. The plate sold for 321.00 and is about 18" wide and 12" tall.

Can you give an explination of how the handle was forged?

Very nice shovel. I like the way it is attached. Waiting for photos of the dies.

To clarify, I didn't say that it doubled the velocity by allowing the hammer to pivot. I said I would not be surprised if it did. I can see where you would doubt that. That is just a matter of opinion. I am sure one day some type of scientific test will be done to prove or disprove all of this. As far as not swinging your arm, I was discussing hammer blows where you were actually forging out material not planishing. As far as the two fingers are concerned, it is much more than "two fingers". I have stated several times that you strike with your arm as usual using the shoulder, elbow and wrist. But to that equation you add allowing the hammer to pivot between the fingers. The fingers themselves are not doing anything but holding the hammer and allowing it to pivot. This is not the mystical 3 finger death punch you hear about in martial arts. LOL It simply allows the hammer to pivot adding another joint in the swing which creates more velocity in the hammer.

You are right KYBOY. The weight of the hammer is not the most important thing. Swing what you can swing with accuracy. There is no way around it though, the faster the head moves the more work and energy you will get. There is more than one way to get speed. One way is to swing your arm faster. The other way is to somehow make the hammer travel faster without having to increase arm speed. By allowing your hammer to pivot it increases the speed. That is why the handle is short, so it won't strike the anvil face as it pivots. Enjoy this debate it will keep going for a while I am sure.

You are right about accuracy. Look no further than someone who is a professional typist or guitar player. If you could have seen them in the beginning they would have looked almost foolish as they tried to learn. Fast forward 3 or 4 years and they can type like me without looking at the keyboard or play the guitar without looking at the neck. Hammer technique is the same way. IF you practice a certain way and master it you will not waste those swings. One of the most important aspects of the swing is allowing the hammer to pivot just before it strikes the steel. And YES this makes a big difference in the amount of energy imparted into the work. All things being equal, if you swing a hammer of a giving weight and increase the heads velocity you WILL create more energy and work. In order to pivot, the head of the hammer has to move faster than the hand holding it, no doubt about that. It would not pivot if it were not moving faster than the hand, it would simply move at the same speed as the hand. So, since the head is moving faster it must be creating more energy and work than if you had a rigid grip. This is no free lunch. You are doing something, adding another joint or pivot point into the equation, the pivot between the thumb and fingers. You swing the hammer like you normally do and simply allow it to pivot between the thumb and first 2 fingers. Learning to swing a hammer the way Hofi teaches takes time. It took me a while to get it. I took the basic hammer class 3 times and it clicked one day and man it was like FINALLY this is great. I have a relatively small amount of time smithing but have learned a boat load from him. If you think that you can read something on this board or watch a video once, then go out and master the swing in an hour you are wrong. To some that is a turn-off. I know that there is often more than one way to do things. But, there are usually only 1 or 2 BEST ways to do something. I feel like I have found the best way for me, everyone out there needs to find the best way for them. Sometimes what makes something the best way for one person is not what makes it best for another. To me, I don't care how long it took me to master the swing. I was concerned a lot with economy of motion and damage to the body. This method fits me best.

Expand on this please.

Grant, I don't understand this " I tried the finger thing without moving my arm" In order to swing the hammer you have to swing your arm. Swinging the hammer like Hofi teaches involves swinging the arm as usual. You just allow the hammer to pivot in between the fingers. Yes that will increase the velocity and increased velocity equals increased work. There is no way around that. I am not being a smarta$$ in my remark either. I know it is hard to read someone on a chat like this. No insult intended.

I do not disagree with anything you explain in this post. ALL of what happens when a hammer strikes the material is important. As far as the Hofi hammer is concerned it sounds as though it is similar to what you are making. Short and balanced around the eye so that you can tilt the hammer without it twisting in your hand. The edges are well polished so not to scar the material when you use them. I have a #2, #2.75, #3 and want a #5 hand hammer and I use them according to what I am forging. I would never use the #2 pound on 1 inch bar, I would grab the #3 or hit the power hammer. Hofi uses different size hammers as well. But for most of what we do by hand we use the #2.75 or #3 hammers. Here is the point to the way that Hofi teaches his hand hammer technique. There may be others teaching this as well. I think you would agree that hammer weight should be relative to the work you are doing. So it would be up to the smith to select the proper weight hammer for the job. As you said you wouldn't use a #5 pound hammer on 1/4" bar. It is the hammer grip that Hofi teaches that is different from what most teach right now. I am not just talking about using a loose grip. Many teach to hold the hammer losely. Like I have stated before, you hold the hammer losely between your thumb and first 2 fingers and create a pivot point. The hammer pivots like a pindulum. By allowing the hammer to pivot JUST before you strike the steel you SPEED the head up. This increase in speed creates more energy regardless of the weight of the hammer. This is central to the way he teaches, and it works. I would be glad to participate in an experiment to prove or dis-prove it. Where do you live? The U.S.? By holding the hammer with a firm grip the hammer is nothing more than an extension of your arm. The speed is ALMOST limited to the speed of your arm. I believe that is what you are talking about in paragraph 1. You are limited as a human to just how fast you can swing a hemmer. You can speed the hammer head up by employing a longer handle but that is only practicle to a point and also give the hammer more leverage on you which over time can cause a repetative stress injury. I am sure there is someone on here that could actually figure how much the hammer head speeds up when it pivoted between the thumb and 2 fingers. I would not be surprised if the speed at least doubles compared to using a firm grip with the hand fully wrapped around the handle. The hammer is one part of the hand hammer technique, the actual grip is another part of the technique. Lets say that you can swing a #4 pound hammer using a firm, wrapped grip around the hammer. Then someone comes along and shows you how Hofi teaches to swing the hammer. Now you allow the hammer to pivot in your hand to spead the hammer head up and you get more work done in fewer heats. Hofi travels to Germany about twice a year to teach his methods to German Master Smiths. He also has a group come to his shop from Germany. He was made a Master Smith by the Germans and awarded the highest civilian award by the German Government for his inovations in smithing. It costs about $20,000.00 and about 5 years of formal training in a government approved school plus about 6 years as a journeyman to become a Master Smith. You can not own your own blacksmithing business in Germany without being a Master Smith. He must be on to something for Germany, where we got much of our smithing techniques, to be so interested in him. So in the end it is not as much the weight of the hammer as it is the method used to swing it. Within certain limitations you can get more work from a lighter hammer swinging it faster. You must use good judgement in the weight selected for the job at hand. I got to go we will talk some more about this later.

It swivels on 1/2" round bar that is slid into 1/2" pipe. It is welded to the 1/2" round bar and just slides down into the receiver and can be picked up and removed at will. I will use it for putting my flux can on or marking pencils or what ever. It swivels 360 degrees so it will never be in the way. I used it for the first time yesturday and it was great. It is very quiet and as you can see in the photo it SUCKS the smoke right out of the shop. I do not even have to warn the chimney to get it to draw. Like I said earlier I am going to do an article on it with measurements soon.

It is a 12" square. I had a guy build it out of stainless about 6 years ago. The chimney travels 3 feet horizontally then turns 90 degrees vertically for 13 feet. It has taken me that long to find the time to biuld it. I have about 3 days worth of work in it. Since this is my first coal forge that I have built there were times I just stood there and looked at it. I also sweated the details. I will try to do the article in the next few days. I took plenty of photos and have some part numbers and contact number for the fire pot, tuyer, clinker breaker and sliding air gate. It came from Laurel Foundry in MS. It is the best set-up I know of. I know a guy that has been using his for 15 years on a regular basis and it didn't show any signs of giving up the gost anytime soon. The cost for the entire set up, fire pot, tuyre, clinker breaker and air gate is 255.00. May sound expensive but if you can afford it I believe it is well worth it. Especially if you do this for a living.

The first photo the blower is running some. The last two photos the blower is switched off. I am very happy with the results. I am getting ready to start building my new 4 burner gas forge. I have 4 of the T-Rex burners from Hybrid Burners. I will keep ya'll posted.

Thanks Junksmith. I managed to scroung and find a really good deal on the stainless that I used to build the side draft chamber out of. The plate that I used for the top was salvaged also. I took a lot of photos and plan on doing a detailed article on the build with measurments as well as part number from grainger and a contact number for the man who is casting the fire pots. That will add to the growing material for everyone to be able to tap into when they decide to build there own forge.

Well I lit it up today and boy did it pull. Before I lit the coal I lit a small piece of paper and put it inside the chamber and the suction pulled the paper towards the back of the chimney. I knew then that it was going to pull or draft well. I made me a small pile of cardboard from a 12 pack beer carton{I found it beside the road, I didn't drink it} lit it and piled some coal around it and took some photos. This photo was taken within a minute of lighting the fire, it was already pulling hard. No smoke got into the shop.

Good job Dave. You are coming along fast. Was it just something you did or was it for someone in particular?

Well I lit my first fire in my new forge today and boy they don't call it a super sucker for nothing.

Glenn, I have been giving it some thought and I know how I can do this. I will fabricate a vent kind of like a BBQ vent that is adjustable from 0 to almost full open and vent it towards me. I will locate the vent just under the outside perimeter of the forge so I can reach it by hand. I can use a 3" hole saw to drill a hole just before the gate valve that is located ahead of the fire pot. It will act sort of like a pressure relief valve when I close the gate valve at the fire pot to lower the fire in the forge. I will keep ya'll up to date.

This seems to be a good idea. I painted the forge today but can still incorporate this.

First you have a Daddy Blower and he finds a Mommy Blower and the Daddy Blower, well you know the rest of the story. I couldn't resist, sorry for the stupid reply. But that was a good question. I promise not to make a habit out of this.