George N. M.

I second Irondragon. Leave it alone. In its present condition it will not affect its usability very much.

David, are you going to have a thrall to pump the bellows or are you going to do it all yourself?

Just got an IFI private message from someone calling themselves "Yulia" who want to discuss a "business proposition." Obvious scam. Beware. George

It's all subjective and depends on each individual's variables. 1. What can you afford? If you are just starting out and have a limited income from your day job you are going to be restricted to improvised anvils (and some of them can be pretty good) or Harbor Freight or Temu POSs. 2. How much are you willing to invest into the craft? Are you pretty serious that this is going to be a serious commitment of time and money for the foreseeable future. If you are just trying the craft out and there is a possibility that you will lose interest in a year or two then there is no reason to spend for top of the line tools unless you have money to burn. There are a lot of hobbies that take a lot more money to get started in than blacksmithing. For example, 4-wheeling, snowmobiling, boating (I have heard a boat defined as a hole in the water into which you throw money), travelling in a motor home, etc., etc.. 3. If you expect blacksmithing to be a life long skill and enjoyment amatorizing the cost of top end tools over 40 or 50 years comes out to very little cost per year. My first anvil, a 100 pound Arm and Hammer, is still in my shop and occasionally gets used. I paid $25 for it in 1978. That come out to 52 cents per year, pretty small potatoes. And compared to other hobbies what you put into the craft you (or your heirs) will probably be able to get back out when it comes time. On the other hand a snow machine, motor cycle, or motor home will depreciate pretty fast. 4. What kind of anvil do you really need. IMO a single person shop will do just fine with a 100-200 pound anvil. 5. What is the anvil market like in your local area? In the eastern US and the Midwest there are more anvils available because of a higher population and longer history. Here in the Rocky Mountains there are fewer anvils and they tend to go for more per pound. Check eBay, Craig's List, Facebook Marketplace, etc. to get a sense of what fair market value is in your area. 6. I would consider a 100-125 pound Hay-Budden for $400 in good shape (decent edges, good rebound) to be a decent price, not cheap, not too expensive, probably near fair market value. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Chad, what gauge sheet metal do you use for your roses? Thx. G PS You can't be too rich, too thin, or have too many outlets in your shop.

Does anyone know the Frost's mailing address? I'd like to send Deb a sympathy card.

Oh, My God! That is a gut punch! It doesn't happen often but I find myself tearing up. Part of that is that we will never get to meet face to face as we had planned to do at some point. Even when he rambled I really enjoyed what Frosty had to say. A huge hole has been ripped in our community. LIfe goes on but it will not be the same without Frosty. Mark his passing well, my friends, we will not see his like again. I am sure that Thomas Powers was part of the welcoming committee on the other end of the Rainbow Bridge. George

Jr., one of the cool things about this forum is that it is a true world wide forum. We have regular contributors from Europe, Australia, all over the USA, Asia, and occasionally folk from Africa and S. America. And there is a true level of concern when someone is going through a rough patch. A large part of that is due to Glenn's original rule that we just don't discuss controversial stuff like religion and politics and we keep the language at an appropriate tone for a 10 year old little girl. And we have all levels of experience here from Green as grass newbies to Masters who have been doing this for 50+ years. You will see some amazing work. The only dumb question is the one you don't ask. Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

In organizing a shop don't forget that the floor is the largest available horizontal surface. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Also, how weird would it be and what would you think of a person who said, "Everytime I use my shop it is more organized when I leave than when it was when I went in." I find that idea somehow disturbing. It seems somehow contrary to nature. GNM

Firefly, I suggest that you repost this in "Blacksmithing Sayings, Proverbs" and/or "Blacksmithing Gems and Pearls." I think it will be seen more often in the future in one of those threads. Also, the "standard" London Pattern anvil has been around since the 18th century. So, about 250+ years. As you well know, continental European anvil follow a different tradition of shape and pattern. I have seen illustrations of a block anvil with a horn on one side going back to about the mid-middle ages. I have also seen medical illustrations of blacksmith shops with a block anvil and horns or bicks separately mounted (in stumps IIRC) away from the main anvil.

And, as usual, you are correct, Frosty. I guess my neorons were firing properly. But even is I had mistakenly put 2016 on an item it would serve to alert someone that it wasn't "old." So, no harm, no foul.

Asa, Over 40 years ago (early '80s) I sold a dozen miner's candlesticks to a place in Central City. IIRC they paid me about $10 each. At some later point my then girlfriend (later wife) and I were back in Central City and I sent her into the shop to see how much they were selling them for. I expected them to mark them up to $20-25. They had soaked them in salt water to rust them and were saying that they were 100 years old and asking $100-125. I was livid but finally decided that it wasn't my sin or problem. The karma was on them. Of course, I never went back to sell anything else to them. However, now when I make a miner's candlestick I put my touchmark on it and the year in Roman numerals. Arabic numerals would work as well but I don't want to be quite that obvious. Not many folk would recognize my touchmark but most folk could work out that MMXVI is 2026. BTW, you may know that miner's candle sticks are also known as "tommy stickers." They were commonly used for mine lighting from the late 1860s (when paraffin candles became cheap as a byproduct of oil refining) until the advent of carbide lights in the late 1890s and early 1900s. A lot of commercial ones were made in Denver. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Frosty, one of my favorite quotes (Arabic or Persian in origin), particularly regarding underserved criticism and negativity, is, "The dogs bark but the caravan moves on."

How much does it weigh and what kind of wood did you use?

There's an expression: "Scratch Wiltshire, find Rome."

John, what gauge of sheet metal did you start with to raise the boss? Thx, G.

Regarding heat and cold, the Swedes have an expression, "There is no bad weather, only bad clothing." I've heard the same here in Wyoming except "clothing" is replaced with "gear." When working in the cold I have found that the best thing to do is almost constantly be adjusting your layers, adding, subtracting, taking hats off or putting them on, zipping and unzipping, etc.. It can slow down how much work you can do in X amount of time but it is overall more efficient because you can work more comfortably and work longer. Where folk get into trouble is when the get too focused on the job and forget or ignore the clothing adjustments. Back in my geologist days I fantasized about spending a January on the beach. Unfortunately, I wasn't specific enough in my fantasy because I was sent to sit on an oil well outside Beach, North Dakota for the month of January. It never broke zero degrees Fahrenheit the whole month I was there. Typically, it would get up to -10 or so during the day and go down to -20 to -25 at night. We had to wrap heat tape and insulation around the propane tanks so that they would stay liquid and keep the heaters running. When I got back to Laramie and it was in the +20s F. it felt like I didn't need a coat. Laramie was the banana belt by comparison. When you get up on the "high line" in North Dakota and Montana (Glendive, Harvre, Wolf Point, etc.) there isn't anything between you and the North Pole but a 3 wire fence.

Years ago my then girlfriend and I entered the mixed doubles 2 person crosscut saw contest at the Woochoppers' Jamboree in Encampment, Wyoming. We did OK but the champions by a mile were a guy in his 30s and his mother who was in her 60s.

Also, you can use cotton buffing wheels with progressively finer buffing compound (one wheel per type of compound). You can get them up to mirror finish. Or, You can just hit the high points rather than trying to get the whole thing. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

OMG! He's being added immediately! Also his family.

"Ars longa, vita brevis" A loose translation: "So short the life, so long to learn the craft." Originally from Hippocrates.

Completely dry cow chips burn pretty well. Although I've never burned peat I imagine it is similar. Damp or only partially dried chips, not so much. Wood is preferable but out on the plains chips may be all that is available. Sagebrush smells nice when burning but gives a bad taste to anything in an open pot or anything you try to roast on an open flame. Do NOT try to toast your weenies and marshmallows on a sagebrush fire.

Frosty, I suspect that a Dodge City smithy would have been bringing in coal by rail as fuel since it had a rail connection to the east since the time of its founding as a railroad town. Coal would have been imported anyway for the railroad steam engines. And there would not have been any local supply of charcoal on the Great Plains. And the industrial and lighting use of acetylene, which is generated by the reaction of water and calcium carbide, postdates the invention of the electric arc furnace, which is used to produce calcium carbide (CaC2), in 1892. That is why you don't see the use of carbide lights in mines until the late 1890s. Prior to that some sort of candle or oil (real oil, not kerosene) was generally used for mine illumination.

Billy. The History Blog website is a good one for anyone interested in archaeology, etc.. Ot is one of the first things I read when I turn on the computer in the morning. The lady who does it has been putting up a new article almost every day for the last 15 years. Going back in to the past articles is a VERY deep rabbit hole. G

Bull, you can probably get one made at your local tee shirt shop but I doubt that there is one in Westcliffe. Pueblo? Salida? Alamosa? I had one made for Martha, my late wife, that said, "If I am talking you should be taking notes." It was true most of the time. G