Pault17

Nasty Strine. Neat but nasty. just looking at your clay knot caused cranial pain. And I just learned to tie an overhand in steel. darn

Chaos, I have a 5-gallon can from home depot that used to hold poly-urethane finish for floors. I dumpster dove for it on a construction site where they were finishing the floors in a new home. I did not think of lining the bottom - thanks too Frosty. but it comes with a metal lid. I removed all of the plastic and foam stuff which left me with a relatively tite lid with a 2-inch hole in it. There are also small (2-5 gallon) galvanized trash cans with lids that are less than twenty bux.

Very Cool Michael. nice job on the fork too

I wanted to try something new and cut out a bunch of petal patterns (several new caluses) and cobbled together a rose. didn't even try to put leaves on it. Just showed it to her and smiled.

Hutch, I know how you feel. I am still very much a noobie after a year and a half. I remember staring at the parts for my first gas forge and was almost afraid to put it together. plain failure, fire, explosion, etc. Well after a few weeks and my wife telling me to get off the pot, I did it and have been learning ever since. banging for me is either practice or a nice product (practice that worked:D), and I learn from that too.

Rich, you make a beautiful blade. very nice

Here are my main bangers. The little one I dug out of a hillside. sorry for the nasty edges, I had to grind them down, unless you want everything looking like re-bar. the big is a russian HF special with diagonal hardie. This is one I gave to a neighbor that was interested and wanted to try out banging iron. Hopefully, someday I will get a nice big one, but till them these will do Oh, I was practicing tapering and ended up with a little black(smith) snake. head needs work, but it scared my daughter and mother in law.

Up until now, I have learned from reading books (McRaven, Lorelie Sims, others) playing with clay and cruising the IFI and anvilfire sites. There are a few video clips I have downloaded that I play over and over again. But up until now I just try something out. I have recently joined the local NC ABANA chapter and am waiting on info from them. Maybe I can even find a "real" anvil and stuff. looking forward to it

did they actually bring them up to yellow heat with a barbeque grill? Maybe I can combine the family cookout with the family hammer-in :D

I just finished up this first attempt - although I need to harden (as much as possible, temper (if there is such a thing for a RR knife) and sharpen it. I had no idea where this one was going. I was showing my kid brother how much fun it could be working with RR spikes. This is how it ended up. smack me around and let me know what should come next?

all very cool information. thanks. I currently use straight beeswax rubbed on at a low heat (usually after cooling down from the last brushing to remove scale) and let it cool. I have seen a number of times that some of you will coat it then re-heat. Does this burn things on, create a glaze finish, what??:confused: just trying to learn. on a side note, I finally sent in my application to NCABANA, so now I may be able to actually watch somebody who knows what they are doing and learn. maybe even find a "real" anvil

I too had mentioned safety and daily, but I must clarify. my "shop" is in my garage. I have an "everything done here" work bench and a handy smithing cart/bench that I put together when I built my latest gas forge. I can calw between them pretty freely, and I like to keep that area broom swept on a regular basis. I typically bang iron from like 10 p.m. to about one or two in the morning, when I get to (I have asked all my neighbors if I have bothered them and none even knew that I was banging). Now the tricky part; I have eight children (all mine, no twins, same loving wife) from 2.5 months to 14 yrs. I have four boys in a row from 3 to nine and all of them will gladly get into my cart and beat on any mild-steel wire I have laying about. I bolted a piece of 3/16 steel plate to a little 15-lb cast iron aso from harbor freight just for them to bang on. My wife, who's nickname is martha, would have my tookas if I let them come in with scale dust or metal chunks, so I have to keep it reasonably clean. basically, I have to keep it safe for and from the little ones and clean, so I can find whatever tools they have taken out while I was away.

As needed to keep it safe to work.I usually sweep every time I finish banging or the next day.

Being very much the noobie here, I have fallen in love with my 4.5 inch grinder with really thing cutting discs. I just picked up about 200 lbs of steel from my father in law (80-year old manure spreader buried in the woods and managed to cut everything, including 8 feet of 2-inch axles, into managable short sections. used up 5 discs, but did not take long. eye-wear and ear-wear are a must and a dust mask doesn't hurt (prevent most of the nasty black boogers). You can also pack along a power inverter that you can tap into your car/truck electrical system, if there is no local power supply I have to try out a portable band saw. sounds much quieter

There are so many. just check out the blueprints section of the site. enjoy Oh, and by the way, Welcome to IForgeIron!

JW, Now that my fingers are actually hitting the right keys, I read your poem to my wife and, after a few minutes (she really reflects on things at times) she said that your poem was really good. She has always been the artful one between the two of us, and she said that your poem managed to paint beautiful watercolors in her mind's eye and said to thank you for it. Thank you

JV, I had to copy it out wd read it to my wife. also hang it in my shop. and it does rhyme!;)

You could make some of those little quarter-sized hammers or other lilte jewelry type things for quick cheap sales. love the mini-rose, by the way.

Valentin, I have a small collection of even smaller forges (two modified bean-can forges and one modified "freon-tank" forge). I actually bought a T-rex burner (shorty model) from rex price and will say that it is amazing. In the freon-tank forge, using about 3.5 -4 psi, I regularly work everything up to 1-inch square stock in the bright orange-orange yellow colors I have no doubt that I can reach welding temps easily. and I am using one of his smallest burners. If the money is not a problem, they are most definitely worth checking out. I like banging iron/steel, but I enjoy the building thing too - Sven, thanks for the links. they are really cool

I haven't "sold" anything yet. I have been giving it away, pretty much all to family and close friends. I haven't been able to create a base supply of "sellables" to even think about it. Because almost all of my steel has been found or picked up on the side of the road (still looking for the stray peter wright laying around) my biggest cost is propane.

that is so cool. I can see a little hammer pendant and one of Bill Epps' "$20 dollar" anvils thansk for the link