George N. M.

Dear Darin, You can start teaching yourself. Many experienced smiths did not have a mentor or classes. We started with a way to get steel hot (a forge), something to hit it with (a hammer), and something to back up the hitting (an anvil). There are good books around and some good Your Tube videos. Do not take everything you see on the internet on faith, though. There are some pretty goofy things out there. Just feeling how the hot metal reacts under your hammer and developing the coordination and muscle memory to hit where you want and how hard is a lot of learning black smithing. Good luck. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Dear Linz, I am assuming that there are You Tube videos of mail making since there are videos of everything else. I will describe how I make nails so that you have an idea of how it works. I don't make nails often because I once took an order for 500 and since then nail making is not fun for me. First, you need a nail header which has one or more square tapered holes in it. (The taper is from the bottom up. That is, the hole is slightly wider at the bottom than the top. This is so the nail is less likely to stick in the header.) The nail header is a separate hand held piece of steel. The nail is made by heating a square piece of stock and then hammering a point on it. This is usually done on the edge of the anvil so that there is a shoulder at the end of the tapered point. Without a shoulder there is a tendency just to hammer the nail through the hole of the header rather than upsetting the head. The nail is then cut off the stock a bit above the shoulder. This is often done with a hot cutter set in the hardie hole. Usually, the nail is not completely cut off so that the nail can be inserted into the header and the rest of the stock can be twisted off leaving the nail in the header with the un-upset head above the header. Then the nail head is flattened down on the header. Finally, the nail is knocked out of the header either by inverting the header and banging it on the edge of the anvil or tapping it out from the bottom with a hammer. If you are good and have the right muscle memory you can do this in one, or at most two, heats. It is harder to describe than actually do. I still think that it is unlikely that the hole in the anvil was intended to be primarily a nail of spike header. ""By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Having a hole in the anvil as a nail header strikes me as impractical rather than a separate tool because of the difficulty in removing the nail after it is headed. Often the nail has to be tapped out of the header from the bottom. It strikes me that this would be difficult if the nail was down in the anvil. Also, just making a hole in the anvil for this purpose would be much more difficult than making a nail header. Occam's Razor would argue that the hole is a pritchel hole or a tool holding site. Also, the hole is round while the roman nails I have seen have all been square (when they were not too rusted to tell the original shape.) Possibly a bit of experimental archaeology is called for. BTW, what is the diameter of the hole? "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I recently came across a variation which may have some of the best of both worlds. They were on the clearance rack at the True Value hardware store for $4.99 each. They are True Value house brand, made in China. Thomas, these would eliminate the problem of having the spring too close to the heat and risking drawing the temper.

It is always a good idea to keep rain and snow away from your coal because besides the problems of trying to burn a wet fuel some types of coal can "slake," that is, deteriorate mechanically into smaller pieces in the presence of water. If you have ever seen an old coal pile it may well have slaked down to fragments the size of pea gravel or smaller. The very first fuel I used in a forge was some nasty old slaked sub-bituminous coal. Very unpleasant. Little coking and lots of burning bits flying around plus lots of clinker. This can be a problem in open pit mines or road cuts which cut through coal seams. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

About 35-40 years ago I came across a guy who had imported a number of swords from Sudan. I bought this one (IIRC I paid about $100). It originally had a typical Sudanese wooden, leather wrapped hilt with a leather disk pommel. I wanted a more European looking sword and removed the Sudanese hilt, drew out the tang a bit and added a disk pommel with the tang riveted on the top of the pommel . Today I would have left it original but I was younger and had different values and priorities. I have always suspected that it is a European blade which was exported to Africa. This is because of the double headed eagle engraved on both sides of the blade. I seriously doubt that a Sudanese craftsman would have used infidel imagery, particularly the Christian cross on the single crown above the eagle. The double headed eagle has been used by various European countries and houses including the Byzantines, the Hapsburg Austrians, and the Russian Romanovs amongst others. The blade is 34" long and the cross guard (I guess Sudanese origin) is 6 1/4". The fuller runs the entire length of the blade. It appears that the eagle has been on the blade for a long time because the engraving is worn off the high parts of the blade on the edge of the fuller. It would take a lot of drawing in an out of a scabbard to wear the steel down. Does anyone have any thoughts on the origin or age of this blade? "By hammer and hand all arts do stand"

The geologic version of the Peter Principle is, "The clods sink to the top." "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

To add a bit to my story illustrating the maintenance issue, the mining operation was connected to a mill which processed and upgraded the ore before it was shipped. There were none of the maintenance problems in the mill operation that were present in the mine. I think that part of the problem was the competence of the management. The company was headquartered and had most of it's operations in the mid-west. I suspect that the Colorado operation was corporate Siberia. If they had a marginal manager that they didn't want to fire, for whatever reason, they would send him to Colorado where the damage he could do to the entire company was minimal compared to him being at one of the larger operations in the mid-west.

Generally, I've had good luck with garage door springs but experiment first. There are some springs that have odd alloys that do not harden well. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Dear Kozzy, You bring up a factor that has always puzzled me, the lack of recognition that maintenance is cheap and repairs/replacement is expensive. I once worked at a series of flourite mines and the managements philosophy regarding machinery was to run it until it breaks then fix it the cheapest way possible and if that wasn't an option buy the cheapest used replacement. If they had had the sense to here a maintenance tech to walk around all day with a grease gun and a wrench their costs would have gone down and the production would have gone up. I worked there just after being on active duty in the US Army where every piece of equipment had a maintenance log and preventive maintenance on everything form your individual weapon on up was a command emphasis. I was too junior to make any changes or even raise the subject but I have seen similar problems since. It always seems counter-intuitive to me. On a smaller scale there can be a similar problem in our shops. Lots of people ignore the need to keep moving parts lubricated. I remember Francis Whittaker requiring that all blowers, etc. be oiled every day before lighting the forge. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

That sounds kind of dusty and is "ag lime" crushed limestone or some sort of powdered lime like quick lime? that sounds like something you should not be breathing into your damp lungs? Where would you buy brick dust?

Dear All, We are moving to Laramie, WY. The new property has a horse barn on it that I plan to use as my blacksmith shop. The building has a 7'x24' finished tack room which I will use as an office, design area, and small scale bench work area. The main part of the building (24'x24') is divided into two 12' square horse stalls and a 12'x24' open area. I plan to use the stalls as storage and the open area as my shop. The open area and the stalls presently have a dirt floor, somewhat level but with some variation. I am trying to decide what to do (if anything) about the floor. All my previous shops have had concrete floors. I got one estimate for putting concrete into the open area of $3,000. I'm starting to feel that for that price I could learn to live with a dirt floor. I'm also thinking of adding something like fine pea gravel to fill up the low spots in the dirt floor. One advantage of a dirt/gravel floor is that if at some future date I want to install a power hammer or other large machine and need to excavate to pour a base it will be easier to dig down rather than having to cut/bust through a concrete floor first. Does anyone have an thoughts or ideas? thanks. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Chapters 50-51 of the Rule of St. Benedict (6th century), with which King Alfred would have been familiar, and which established the rules governing the medieval Benedictine monasteries, instructed that monks who were working in the fields or doing other work at times of prayer were still in communion with God through their work. Basically, "work is prayer." "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Actually, an expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing. A generalist knows less and less about more and more until he knows nothing about everything.

Dear Marc, Wow! This is one of the few times where I have to stop and ask myself "Am I speaking the same language as the other person?" It seems that communication is not happening. And this is someone who, I assume, has the same first language as I do, even though he is in a different hemisphere. I don't think that Ozian and Yank English is that different. We will just have to agree to disagree about whether money and economic success is perceived by most people, consciously or unconsciously, is "good" or "bad." That said, I think we can agree that people will often sabotage themselves and make decisions which, from the outside, are not in their best interests. This, in my opinion, can derive from a lot of factors, psychological, emotional, cultural, etc.. This can occur in relationships. We have all seen people sabotage their own relationships for no cognizable reason. Sometimes they may think on some deep psychological level that "This person is too good for me" or "I'm not good enough for this person" or "I can't live up to this person's expectations." I have seen it happen in educational situations because of cultural reasons. At one time I lived near a US Native American reservation and had a friend who taught on the rez. She told me that there was a strong cultural pressure not to do well in school because if you did you were and "Apple Indian" (Red on the outside, white on the inside.) This, I think we will agree, can happen in economic situations where someone, on some level, for whatever reason, does not want to be as successful as they could be. Besides your postulate of "rich=bad, poor=good" there may be reasons that arise from psychological and social reasons. People with more letters after their name than I have can speak to all the possible reasons but, basically, poor, flawed humans, which we all are, can be their own worst enemies in a lot of areas. And just to bring this discussion back to something nearer to how it all started is that I agree with much of what Exo313 says about the conflicting roles craft, artistry, business, and trade play is a good way to look at the competing demands of any craft or profession. Most of us are a mix of all those and not in equal proportions. The artistic person has to reach to be successful and the business or trade oriented person has to reach to be artistic. None is inherently good or bad but probably some of all are needed to be successful in the world. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I got tired of small people coming to my booth and sadly asking, "Do you have anything for a dollar?" (Probably having been given $1 by their parents to allow them to "shop.") So, I started making mini-swords by flattening double headed construction nails. On some I will drill a hole for a jump ring so that it can be worn as a pendant. Your can also curve the blade to make it look more like a pirate cutlass (or a saber). I have a sign on them saying "$1 for folk 12 years old or under, $2.50 for all others." They can also be given away to anyone you find worthy. If a parent buys something fairly substantial it is nice to throw in a little extra for the small members of the family. All good karma.

Dear Marc1, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to disagree with most of what you say. I do not think that most children in western civilization are taught that the rich are evil or that it is somehow tainted or wrong to earn too much money. Economic success is often admired and held up as a goal to strive for. Look at the adulation in the tabloids or on TV or the internet of the megarich, most of it, IMO, undeserved, but there are people who buy and watch and justify the publishing of this sort. That said, I think most people have an inherent sense of "fairness" and are offended by people making a large amount of money that is not commensurate with their accomplishments. That is why people who are rich by inherited wealth are derided. They are wealthy by accident of birth, not by any accomplishment of their own. I think most people would agree that there is something flawed in our economic system where athletes are paid large sums to play games at an elite level and teachers, first responders, and the military are compensated at much lower levels. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are looked up to by many more people than those who think them villains. Hard core socialists or communists may consider the rich evil and the poor virtuous but in the 21st century in most western societies they are a very small minority. There is a strong belief amongst many people that poverty is the wage of sloth and if the poor would just pull up their socks and get to work they would not be poor any more. The idea of intelligence, culture, lack of opportunity, education, etc. never comes into it. There were many voters in the 2016 US elections who thought that because a candidate was rich and successful he was qualified for high office just because of that. I grew up in a blue collar family and was never taught that it was bad to be too economically successful. My father, who had lived through the depression, could never understand why I would not make getting the highest possible paycheck the highest priority in my life and career choices. To him all else was secondary to the amount of the paycheck. Finally, a sad as it may be, the basic measurement of how successful a person is is based on their economic worth. How happy they are, how good a spouse or parent, how much they have contributed to society only comes into it as secondary factors. If person A has accumulated more dollars, pounds, euros, or yen than person B then- A is considered more successful than B. This discussion has wandered far. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Of course, a generalist is someone who learns less and less about more and more until he knows nothing about everything. It has been my experience that many people in various trades and professions founder on the necessities and economics of business. I have seen this happen to doctors, attorneys, plumbers. blacksmiths, mechanics, etc.. They start out working for someone else who charges $X for their time but they are only paid a fraction of X for their salary or hourly wage. After a while of that they say that they can hang out a shingle and get all of the X for themselves. When they do that they realize that the extra portion of X has to go for rent, insurance, materials, etc.. Also, because they are trained in their craft or profession and that is what they love doing they do not like doing the grunt work of running a business and are not good at it or motivated to do it. And, if they hire anyone to help them they are now a "boss" and have all the paperwork, taxes, and brain damage that brings with it. Pretty soon, even if they are successful they are a business person and are doing little of the craft or profession that they love. Often, they go back to working for someone else so that they do not have all the headaches being a business person brings. They are happy to settle for the fraction of X they are being paid and think it cheap payment not to have to do all that terrible business stuff. That is why I always suggest to anyone on this board who is inquiring about opening a blacksmithing business that they take a very hard look at what running a successful business takes and whether they honestly think they have the skills and temperment to do it. It can be a daunting task and is not for everyone. Don't quit the day job until you are sure you can. Also, many small business people do not understand the necessity of getting at least partially paid up front and end up getting stiffed. Don't deliver until the check clears. If a customer balks at putting down a 50% deposit before work and materials you don't need that job. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Just a couple of thoughts: If you are going to use live steam make sure that you have a long talk with whoever regulates boilers and pressure vessels in your area. In CO it is the state but there may be local regulatory agencies in other areas. This is important for both legal and safety issues. Boiler explosions used to be a fairly common occurrence and not fun ones. Also, if you are running a machine designed for steam power with compressed air think seriously about introducing some water into the system to keep the various glands and packing from drying out. They were designed for a wet environment and may not like a dry source of pressure. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Thomas: True enough but I can get new springs at the hardware store for less than a dollar. Maybe I am just not used to them but tong clips or rings have, on the few times I have tried them, seemed more awkward to use than a vicegrip. It may just be how we learned and what we are used to. I will say that an advantage to tongs is that they never get too hot to the touch. Vicegrips, if they are too close to the fire, need an occasional cooling off in the slack tub. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

As background to my question let me say that I am a self taught smith and never had a master or even another smith to guide me until I had been forging for a dozen or more years. When I started I realized that I needed something to hold metal to keep from burning my hand with transferred heat. So, I went to my tool box and got out a pair of vicegrip pliers. They worked fine and in different sizes were my standard hot metal grabbing tool. It wasn't until I had been blacksmithing for some years that I acquired a pair of tongs. They struck me as working OK but I had to keep pressure on the reins to keep from dropping stuff. Now, I use both depending on the project but I still tend toward locking pliers (vicegrips), particularly for small size pieces of metal. I have been told that locking pliers were invented by a Nebraska smith in the early years of the 20th century who was tired of dropping hot metal. So, what does anyone think about the advantages of using either locking pliers or tongs. It strikes me that tongs with specialized jaws work better for a special shape, e.g. holding the head end of a railroad spike, while locking pliers are better than simple flat jawed tongs for general work. I will give you that tongs allow quicker adjustment of the geometry of holding device and work piece while a locking pliers gives a more positive pressure and less tendency to drop the work piece either by relaxing your grip or knocking it out of the jaws while striking. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

It's pretty hard to date tongs unless you have some sort of context. Tongs haven't changed much in thousands of years. If you can determine that they are wrought iron you can probably say confidently that they are pre-20th century but not much more. Tongs with certain jaw shapes associated with certain uses might be dated to those uses. I always like to put old tools back into use, it seems to me that is the right karma, but if there is a chance of damaging them with repairs or use it is time to honorably retire them "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I have always wanted an anvil shaped helium balloon to fly over my booth at fairs.

So, if I am following Rockstar's logic, and I think he has some very valid points, if you want to sell "Art" to the elite market you should stay with that market and not do mere utilitarian craft. If you have just sold a customer elite "Art" for $Xk you should not be seen selling bottle openers and dinner triangles at the craft fair because it will diminish your reputation in the elite market. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I assume that the sphere was commercially manufactured. Correct? Do you know what its original purpose was or did you just go down to Spheres R Us and get one of the correct diameter?