CrazyGoatLady

JHCC, I realized it was one after I typed that

Billy,I can relate! We had some straight line winds come through when my kids were little. Pretty intense rain with green skies. All of a sudden the house sounded like it was going to explode. A large tree right up in front of the hose had broken off at the base of the trunk and ended up through the roof in the kid's room on the back side. It was one of the scariest things I've ever been through. They had been huddled up with us in the living room because they were scared instead of being in their room. Thank God they were. That could have been so bad. Looking back though, we were a spectacle. People were driving by to see the huge upside down tree sticking up out of our house. My husband actually found IFI and told me I should check it out. When I was a kid, fantasy movies were huge and you always saw them pulling out the flaming sword from the roaring fire in the icy mountainside lol. Love those movies. But that always attracted me to the idea. I just loved horses and I thought becoming a farrier would be a good way to combine both

Good ideas George. I have a pair of little bitty scrolling pliers I bet I could use. BLO never even crossed my mind. Great suggestion. I was thinking maybe glossy spray paint although I don't really like spray painting things. Thank you so much. You gave me a better starting point

I have a good friend who's into crocheting, loom weaving, etc. I gifted her a penanular brooch and hairpins I made and she loved them. I want to make her some crochet needles for Christmas. I seached online but only came across two videos of forging them which weren't that great and a suggestion from someone to just use a file. Does anyone have experience making them and how did you do it? Filing would probably be the easier route, but I would like it to have some forge quality to it. Also, what finish do y'all think would be good for one? I'm thinking paste wax or even beeswax might leave a stain on soft materials. I wasn't sure where to post this, so I put it here. I didn't find anything on IFI so please forgive me if there's already information here and I just didn't see it.

Nice looking knife. It makes me think of a zebra. I like it a lot

Nobody, that was about my thoughts is FIF isn't a big deal anymore and some of the greats like Thomas Powers and Glenn are no longer with us. I came into blacksmithing about the time FIF came out, but that was coincidence. I had decided I wanted to be farrier. That didn't pan out, but it led into blacksmithing. I'm glad it did Although anvil prices aren't coming down. The same anvil I bought new just a few years back is now $200 more than it was then. There's a guy on our local craigslist that is selling his entire outfit for $2500. He said it's over $5000 worth and looking at it all, he's probably right. I wonder if FIF was his inspiration. If i had that much cash, I'd buy him out. He's got assume pretty nice stuff JHCC, love the flamingos!

I need to correct that. We don't feed the animals old hay lol. We use the waste hay from them in the gardens and spread out. My typing finger got ahead of my thoughts...

Brazaels videos are straight teaching and they are wonderful. I can't do his style though. I lean toward Mark Aspery kind of forging. Sorry, I'm not very eloquent with words

MeltedSocks, that really blows about your gardens. They sure looked great before that. We use rabbit manure and vermicompost from Black Soldier Fly larvae we get from having rabbits and chickens. Then the larvae go to feed the chickens and the pigs. Symbiotic relationship. Just one of the many things about having critters is the many variations of manure. And old hay that goes to feed the cows and goats and then that goes in my garden and gets spread out in the pasture to feed and cover the grasses. I could go on but I will stop there. In other news, no forging for awhile this evening. It's raining! I'll gladly forgo a session for that

I have 17 goats and 3 cows. Their pasture looks more well maintained than if I mowed and weed eater-d (lol) it. We have to bring in hay now though. Heat and high wind has made the grass sparse. We'll have more next year as we keep up our agroforestry practices

Reading back through your posts Jennifer. About hearing and seeing the hammer blows and seeing body movements. Watching fire management. Being able to see and hear it all gives me a much better sense of what its actually like in a real working smithy. Another great example of being able to hear and see hammer blows to get a sense of how it's being done are Brian Brazael's videos. Softer, harder and the sound it makes making contact with the material and through to the anvil. When his hammer is making that heavy womp and the anvil tone is engaged, I know he's really moving whatever it is he's hitting. You can hear that in your videos too and have the visuals to go along with it.

Good deal Geoffrey! These guys will teach you and they'll help keep you alive to see your golden years

Chad J., nice dirk. Makes me wanna be a knife maker Love your gardening venture. We are just the opposite in our pastures. We are working on silvopasture for MORE grass growing. I woudnt mind if my yards looked like yours though

Maybe it is a difference in age. I find myself getting impatient watching videos these days and I decided to rein that in. If it's something important to learn, I should be able to take the time for it. We are raising our 12 year old nephew and I have become very aware of how kids are used to getting a quick fix on just about everything and we are working on teaching him that not everything in life is instant gratification. Sometimes I come across a video that I think will be super informative to find out it's only 1 or 2 minutes long lol. But you have a point that you can still see what's happening even if it's going a 100 miles an hour. I personally like hearing the rhythm of the hammer in real time and I feel like that in itself is a teaching aide if that makes sense.

Shainarue, thanks. Life circumstances have kept me mentally from blacksmithing for a few years now. I don't get on here much when I'm not because I don't feel I have much to contribute. Frosty says I should anyway and he's right. I let lack of a forge, which I decided was stupid, get in my way. And I ain't gettin' any younger lol. So JABOD it was. It's °104 today, but that's not going stop me doing a little forging this evening after all the other chores are done. Billy, that's a nice looking shepherds hook. Your work is clean and professional looking. I'm envious of your hazelnut tree. Out of all the trees on our land, I have only one pecan and we have a few hickory nut trees. Pecan trees are prevalent here in Texas. Go figure we we buy 12 acres and I have one pecan on the whole property

I'm a little late to this party but wanted to say I liked the video. I like the tracking camera and that you have the close up camera. It's a long video, BUT, I think it helps to give a more realistic expectation. When I first started smithing and watching videos, I had the idea that I had to be super fast and if I wasn't, I must have been doing something wrong. Over time, I started thinking differently thankfully and that was because of real world experience and videos like yours that show the process. I'm with Frosty on the sped up parts of videos. Those are annoying to me. Just edit the whole thing out and dump that high speed tink-tink-tink and the chipmunk voices. Your videos are very instructive and I think you're doing a good job sharing your knowledge Oh and the Swedish guy you're talking about: Just remember "Thunderbear". He says that's what his name means

I mean it from my heart Frosty. The forum has seemed to have slowed down and I'm not sure why. There's so much here to learn and you guys share freely what used to be closely guarded secrets. I miss Thomas and Glenn but I remember so many things from them that I still use today. Thank you to you, Jennifer, George N.M., JHCC, Irondragon, anvil, Olfart, Mikey, Charles R. Stevens, BillyBones, Steve, Swedefiddle, Daswulf, Biggundoctor, Slag, arkie, and so many others. I only cut that list short because this post is getting so long and I don't want to violate any posting rules. Cheers to the whole IFI gang. Y'all are the best of the best

Billy, I think the man had put it up on some kind of skid or trailer type thing. I have to step up into it from a cinder block. Frosty, I definitely pay it forward when I can as well. We are blessed to benefit from your life experiences. I'm sure you've touched more lives than you will ever know

Frosty, you were probably the main contributor in helping Tommie build that stand so you can take some credit. I really love that thing Thank you for your advice about mounting the stand and that would be easy to do. I'll have to get a picture and show you what I mean about the loafing shed. What we'd really like to do is move the shed to the pasture and build a shop in it's place. The previous owner had it there for storage and that's what we've used it for. All my smithing stuff went into it. And I gained a lot of scrap metal and some other goodies from it. Thank you for sharing your time and knowledge and to all others here that have helped me through the years. I could never repay the kindness

Geoffrey, they are just looking out for your well being. It may be better for your health to just get another piece of pipe. I'm sure your grandfather would rather see you be safe in what you're doing and that's what these guys are concerned about

Billy, yes I still have that anvil stand. I'm just not sure how effective it would be on the ground. When I used it before, we had it on concrete and he put metal feet on it. So you think it would work or would I have to put something underneath it? I wonder if it would change the height too much? Opinions welcome from all Seeing if the picture will load. It, nor the anvil is that pretty anymore

Lol yeah man that's right!

JHCC, thank you. I figured there was a thread but you saved me the time. I appreciate you so much

Thank you. I am not familiar with that method but I will look into it. We have about a bajillion trees on the property so I have plenty of material for fuel making. We've cut down probably hundreds and still have only made a dent. Frosty, sorry I didn't see your reply. I was just looking at anvil stands. Refreshing my memory. My set up is just quick and dirty for sure. We sold a little piece of land to a man who is a farrier. I have his number so I could call him for a start. That's why I was thinking since I have access to so much wood, I could just make my own charcoal. The restaurant supply is a good idea. Thank you

Billy, yes sir. It's very temporary. I'm thinking of moving my anvil stand out. I had a good stump but I think it found it's way to the burn pile. That little one in the picture is for my scythe peening anvil. On the other side of the picture, there's a loafing shed that's up off the ground. I was going to use that for a smithy but the floor is very bouncy. I'm saving up for a new gas forge but I decided to build myself a JABOD and do what I can do for now. In the process, I find I really like using solid fuel so I thought I might buy or build a coal forge. No local coal available so I looked at ordering it. $24 for a 50lb. bag and $53 for shipping. Yikes. So what I think I'll do is go ahead and get the gasser since propane is easily available and make a charcoal retort and have the option of either. We are getting a saw mill soon so I want to build a little shop just for my all my stuff Oh and the bathtubs were remnants from the previous owner. He also was a bit of a blacksmith himself and he left me some good stuff including a big machinist vise