rokshasa

born into artistry all around, from musicians to sculpters, i picked up the pencil. after many years of creating sketch art ,the "insperation" had left me ,after going into many years of depretion i woke up one day and desided i had to do something more real, something otheres could touch and hold. i turned to the fire of the forge and swing of the hammer on hot iron!! then when i started , famely members i hadn't spoken to in many years came to see me and spoke of my great grand fathers being smiths by trade, not being so close to my famely ...well... ever i never knew that and found it interesting and so i will continue till i can no longer.

most awsome, my great grand-fathers made a living forging anchours back in the day(fishing town) , its great to see pll still making them today!! sounds like it was a very positive experience.

to anneal i use just simple wood ash, never had a problem, matter of fact i annealed a nice sized peace of chaft just the other day :)

for cuttign stock of any kind and even some large chunks i use a "soft" hammer i have 2 i got them with the anvil, they where made so that the hardy wouldn't break, they are heavy so they drive very well and you dont have to worry so much about damage, made with a miled steel chaft welded onto a metal pipe.

i must admit i dont have a swage block nor any type of cone...yet but what i have noticed is the cones point is centered while the anvils bick is not, makes for a more uniform roll i'm "guessing" and well , as far as needing them. you need them when you need them so there good to have.

i live in a small town and i have had the cops come to my smithy door asking some rather iretated questions( no doubt the complainy called many times ) but when i took them in the shop they had a look around and seen what i was doing and had no problems with leaving me to my work and well if the neighbour doesn't like it she should have done a little reserch on her neighbours befor she perchesed the house , besides there used to be 2 smiths in town here not 15 years ago, i see there work evry day.

i woke up one day and felt i had to do something, always having been an artist, pencil and paper just wasn't enough for me i needed something more subtantial, more real, and it came to me , like a flash, the next week it all came togethere with help from freinds like element and famely. now i have somewhat of a well furnished shop and can look forwards to a life time of learning.

hey thanks for the info mark, much better than my clumsy technique. I'll try that out as soon as i can

hey man ,nice pics. got lots of work done looks good. I'm almost done setting up myself just need to pu my chimney up then im done i'll post some pics for yas, generally the same setup as element here

the names Patrick or Pat, my alter ego is rokshasa, been part of the site for a little bit, been blacksmithing for about a year been learnning for about 2, like decor. wrought iron and metal sculpting but the art of smithing is what i love the most, have a little shop in "the little red shed" in the back yard. just got a major upgrade in equipment, past down from an old master "cerile arsenault hail to thee" mush smithing to come lol!!