CrazyGoatLady

LOL! You are correct sir! We do have an anvil. I should have added that we went to a junk store Saturday and the guy told us his boss has a couple of anvils. He was going to see if he wanted to part with one. I am supposed to go check tomorrow. I have no idea what they may be or what shape. Or if he even wants to. Thought it was worth looking into. If I may ask a question? Should I take a hammer with me to tap it with? I don't have a ball bearing. If we don't get another one, say a London pattern, I'm just happy we have one. It would be nice at a good price though. Thank you for your time and the above suggestions for a horn. That looks really good!

Charles and Frosy Thank you for your input. The marshmallow and cooking analogies put it perfectly for me to understand. I think Thomas Powers is right about too much air and not enough fuel. We are using a blow dryer for an air source. Pointed downwards with an LB conduit Frosty suggested. As far as the fuel, I probably don't let Tommie build it big enough. I have been broke so many times in my life that I freak out about hating to waste things. I need to lighten up I think. I watched a Brian Brazael video on tapering and got a copy of The Complete Modern Blacksmith by Alexander G. Weygers at the recommendation of Mr. Powers. I couldn't figure out how to pull a taper out until the video and book. Thanks for telling me how to scroll a piece. I was trying to work that out then I started fearing I was going to burn it, and I stopped to help him with nail header he is working on. We don't have a horn currently anyway. We are using a RR track anvil. Maybe have a lead on an anvil. I will find out tomorrow! Thank you so much!

No thank God, we are well north from all the flooding. Help is pouring in from everywhere for those who were affected. I hope they can get back on their feet quickly. Enjoy your trip to the US. I have never been to either of those cities. Would love to go to Nashville especially. Be careful in your travels and happy reading on IFI!

Good morning from Texas! It is 6 25 am here.Welcome to I Forge Iron! As a new kid on the block myself I can tell you you won't find a better place to help you learn the art of blacksmithing. The folks here want to see you succeed and are very generous with their knowledge and time. My advice is to read and read some some more. The information available is enormous. Enjoy your journey and hope your day is good!

Thank you Mr. Powers. Yes sir. Fire management is taking a little bit to learn. Every time we work, I am trying to see where things need improvement. BUT it will get there! More fun is on my agenda! Thank you for your advice. It is greatly appreciated and will be put into practice.

Been a few days since I have posted anything. It's been a busy week, but we did manage to get some forge time in! Three evenings in a row no less.Tommie is packing to leave out again in the morning... Anyway I thought I would post my first few practice pieces. Not so great, but every time I get to work, it gets more comfortable. The last picture is a plant hanger I made for my mother- in-law for her birthday. I still have to clean it up. It took WAY longer to finish than it should have. Started out pretty quick and I was pretty happy about that. Then I turned to do the other end and it kept getting out of whack. It's still not perfectly straight; but I stopped because I was afraid I was going to burn the end up. It is made from a two foot long 3/8" round bar. The others are 1/2" round. All I know is I LOVE doing this! Any advice or critiques welcome. Thank you. Sorry the first picture is the plant hanger. Pictures didn't load right.

ausfire Thank you for trying it. And I am glad you can still use it as a ram instead. I appreciate your time and effort! Look forward to your future posts as it gives me something to aspire to along with the other wonderful art I see on this forum. Thanks again!

JHCC I should of been more clear about that. I meant that those two scrapyards have all those materials. That is where we bought a section of RR track for an anvil. Good advice none the less. Thank you. ThomasPowers We had a real good scrap place pretty close to us, but they are closed to the public now. Last time we went there, we had to be issued a card. I am not sure why, but it wasn't long after that they closed to the public. Bummer.

Yes Frosty is good at explaining stuff. There are a few scrapyards around here but they are kind of iffy in what they have. I have read about people having a hard time finding RR spikes and such. In a town about 15 miles from us there are two scrapyards directly across the street from each other located right on a railroad crossing. The train station is about a block or two down. They have tons of spikes, track, and track plates. Problem is, they don't seem to have a whole lot of other usable stuff. We used to buy our brass for reloading there, but it seems like they don't have much except 9mm. Use to you could find a large range of calibres. If we can ever make it there, we will take you up on scrapyard treasure hunt!

Agree on all the above...and right on about the duct tape. The world would probably quit revolving without it! I use it on a VERY regular basis

Thank you for the great advice! I appreciate you taking time to help me out. That actually helps a lot in deciding what to use and we love scrap yards! We started out a little too ambitious and got stuff we were advised was probably a little much for beginners. We bought a few pieces of stuff from a steel yard that was much easier. Hopefully we can make a trip to the scrap yard this week and have a better eye on what to look for. Thanks again

littleblacksmith I wondered about you. I wasn't sure if you and yours were in the line of fire or not. Glad to hear y'all are ok. Wow, that is a lot of rain. Be safe. ThomasPowers You made it out in the nick of time! Glad you are ok! You can never have enough WD40... C-1Tool Steel Thankful your kinfolks are safe! What a great blessing. JHCC I wondered about nursing homes and hospitals. How they handle that. So glad your folks are ok! We are close to the Oklahoma border. We have sunny skies here. Seems odd that the weather is so horrible in another part of my state. We also need to pray for Louisiana as it hitting them now as well.

Thank you for the compliments on my boy and thank you for the suggestions for steel. Glen suggested I get some modeling clay and practice on that beforehand. I will do that and then hopefully be able to quickly learn and go to work on the steel you recommend! I want to take my time and learn to do things right though. Everybody wants to go from 0 to 60 and make knives and complicated things right off the bat, and I confess I had the same idea until we found IFI. I love it here and all the helpful and supportive people of this community help me to know that there are still good people in the world. Yes, I suppose they do resemble a ribbon. I never thought of it that way. They grow straight out from their heads and then begin to curve down then outward if that makes sense. Thank you. We are fine here. We are only about 30 miles from the Oklahoma border so we are well away from the devastation that is taking place. Now it is sending torrential rain into Louisiana as well. My heart is heavy for all those people. They are saying it is some of the worst flooding in American history. I hope and pray it will end soon

WayneCoe I apologize. I did not mean to not spell out your whole handle. You have earned your name sir!

Oh yeah disbudding is probably ideal. I just love the look of their horns and most of our fence is horn proof. There is one section that isn't though and my little buck is the only one who ever gets stuck in there. That is going to be remedied soon though. I keep eyes in the back of my head for them. Nobody ever gets me on purpose but accidents happen and you have to be careful. I have taught my boys to be gentlemen. My herd is an odd mix. My father-in-law raises goats and that's where mine came from. I sort of assisted in a birth of one once and then I decided I wanted him. So he wethered him and gave him to me. Then I decided he didn't need to be alone, so he got a friend and so on and so on...I have a breeding pair besides the wether. I sell or trade the kids. I adopted the little boy so now the problem is I have two intact bucks. So the boys are going to get there own pen away from the girls. More controlled breeding that way as well. My oldest doe is probably due in December and I don't like that at all. That's about the time it decides to snow around here. I wish he would let us keep a horse. But I am thankful he let's us run goats and we have a rabbitry as well. I love being surrounded by animals. I would LOVE to have an Appaloosa. When I was little I tried real hard to convince my Dad we needed to adopt a mustang. After all it was only 200 dollars! Not realizing we didn't have that kind of money and a tiny back yard in the city! Oh well...someday. I By the way, Tommie will be home tomorrow! Hopefully we can get our chores done quickly and get to forging!

WayneCoe I went to your website. Beautiful work, sir. I am just starting out and I can only hope to be anywhere near the level of so many folks on this forum. We don't have anyone in this area to learn from. Most of what we(my husband and I) have learned has come from pouring through the massive information from talented folks like yourself. We have been working on the basics like fire management ( charcoal forge) and hammer control. I am trying to refrain from asking questions but I do have one if y'all don't mind? What would be the best steel to try to start out on when I feel ready to try animal heads? I am sure there are things I need to learn in between. I know you need to learn to crawl before you walk. Even with all the head knowledge I have gained here, it is still hard to know what steps to take next. Any help would be greatly appreciated and thank you for your time.

Just a note to ask about keeping our neighbors in southeast Texas in our hearts and prayers. Thank you

That is really nice JHCC! Beats the heck out of the plastic cup I use

Yes. I can't see where grazing of the two is much different. I think he is full of "you know what" and he just don't like horses. A friend who was going through rough times had some mules and a horse that we were going to keep for him and went to fix our fence accordingly and got told no for the reason stated. It kind of crushed me. I love to ride and it would have been great. But even more reason to buy our own place. Land is crazy expensive in this area ironically because it is the big middle of horse country.

Thank you for your response! An elephant head would be spectacular. I can only hope to attain a small portion of your talent. I am posting some pictures of my buck. If you need better ones, I can get more. I don't have any help at the moment to hold his head! Older bucks will have longer, curvier ones but hopefully this will give you a good idea.

Charles R. Stevens I like her baby! I have a lap goat also. Actually two. But one is way too big to get in my lap. Doesn't stop him from trying though. Tommie says the big buck is HIS baby. I just let him think that The smaller buck is a bottle baby. His mother rejected him at birth so he has been with me ever since. He definitely views me as Mama. I know you are a horseman. I would LOVE to have horses. But we rent this land and the owner is a cattleman and won't let me have a horse because he says they tear up the ground. I had thought on becoming a farrier a few years ago. Then I injured my knee to the point where walking was kind of iffy at times. I didn't think I could physically handle it. I'm not old, but I'm not a spring chicken either. So I am happy that we are persuing becoming blacksmiths.

Frosty My does are all big mouths. Especially at dinner time. I am sure everyone can hear them from a mile away! And yes, they are intelligent and affectionate. Very loyal also. Beware the horns! Particularly when a big buck is in the mood for love... I have three dogs. Not necessarily guard dogs although one is very sensitive to when a goat(especially a baby) is not feeling good. I talked to ausfire about making goat horns instead of Rams horns. I want to learn to make animal heads and since goats are a big part of me, I figured goat heads would be a cool thing for me to do. I want to be able to acquire a wide range of black smithing skills. But I seem to be really drawn to the artistic aspects in particular.

ausfire I am a big fan of your work. I am very new at this, so I have not acquired the skills for it. I WILL learn how and I have often wondered about making goat horns instead of ram horns. Also, I wonder if you could do a beard on a goat or ram or whatever critter you choose that has one? Looking at your Longhorns and your moose lets me know it is possible to do whatever your imagination can think of. Thank you for the inspiration. On a side note, I guess you take it for granted when you see something a lot. I am in Texas in the country and you can't drive very far without seeing longhorn cattle. In fact, the pasture behind ours has a mixed herd and there are three or four Longhorns that I see everyday. Beautiful creatures. If you want to see another breed of cattle with big horns, look up images of a Watusi. I don't know how they even hold their heads up! There are couple that live right down the road from us.

Thank you for the invite! Same goes here. I think you are about three hours from us

Thank you so much Frosty and littleblacksmith! Frosty...yes sir I have goats. Boer. I only have five right now. I sold a pretty red buck here a little while back. They are my babies and act more like dogs than goats. We only have about an acre so I don't run very many. When we get the land we want, the plan is for a whole lot more! Maybe Nubians for milk and a separate herd from my pets for meat. And yes it seems I am more controlled and he can wail on it! We have only gotten to fire up the forge together a couple times. He works two on and one off usually. Sometimes more. He works like a crazy person when he is home to try and get everything that needs done. We have not made anything yet. Mostly getting a feel for it. I went solo for the first time and I don't think my fire was hot enough. I LOVE a good pun. I have been known to make a few( bad) ones! Tommie is the joke teller. He always comes home with something new! Sorry for the long post...I even hit submit on accident. littleblacksmith Thank you for the welcome! I have been reading here long enough to see you are an outstanding young man. Most folks your age wouldn't know what hard work was if it slapped them in the face. You are to be commended and I am sure your parents are proud of you. I hope to be a good smith. It would be another step toward self reliance and I would like to be able to eventually maybe be able to sell some things to supplement our income. I would also like to make gifts that would be both beautiful and functional.