George N. M.

OK, this is a beginner question from an old smith but how and for what purpose do you use the round, square, and rectangular holes in the face of a swage block?  I have never been in a situation where I looked at my swage block and said, "Aha, that round/square/rectangular hole is just what I need for the project I'm working on!"  Maybe it's the sort of things I make don't require this sort of thing.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Dear Frosty and others,

The fairly new (last 15-20 years) coagulants available for wound treatment in places that sell 1st aid equipment (I got mine at REI) are really good at stopping bleeding.  The military has started using them with very good success.  They work better than the old direct pressure technique.  I keep mine in my 1st aid kit because I am on a blood thinner and don't clot up as fast as I used to.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I'm not at all sure that I agree with Rockstar regarding not using the word "forge" in your name.  Despite other folk using it for other purposes it still means a place where hot iron and  steel is hammered into objects.  There are only a few synonyms such as smithy, ironworks, or, even, blacksmith shop.  If you don't like "forge" Cedar Crest Blacksmith Shop would easily convey what you do.

Rockstar does make a point about the commonest definition of "forge" being false or bogus.  Once, when I was back in Chicago and going through the phone book my mother asked me what I was looking for.  I told her "forging tools" and she went ballistic thinking I was pursuing nefarious ends.  It took me a bit to convince her that my context "forging" meant honest iron working.

All that said, I've done business as Westmarch Forge for the last 40 years or so.

Dear Twogun,

If you live in an urban or suburban area you may find it difficult to find a bulk propane supplier.  About all you may be able to find locally are exchange places for 20 pound BBQ tanks which tend to be pretty expensive when compared to having your own tank filled at a bulk supplier.  The exchange places often charge twice to triple the cost per unit of fuel.  If you are in an urban area you may have to travel to an outlying location to find a bulk supplier.  It is in rural areas where there is not a natural gas supply that people use bulk propane.

As Mikey pointed out there may be local regulations regarding storage and use of flammable gases.  Usually these don't kick in until you have a significant quantity on hand.  A couple 20# BBQ tanks are unlikely to trigger problems but you should check with your local building department and fire code enforcement office (often the fire department but sometimes a different office).

My experience has been that 20# tanks are on the small side to run a forge.  They freeze up and the temperature of the propane drops below it's vapor point.  You can either have 2 or 3 tanks and switch them out when the first starts to lose pressure or set the tank in a tub of water to act as a heat sink or use something to keep the tank warm.  (I was once in a North Dakota January where we had to wrap the 40# propane tanks with electrical heat tape and fiberglass insulation to keep our heater running when it got to -25 degrees F or so out).

Also, I second Mikey's caution about checking to make sure that having compressed flammable gas on hand does not void your home owner's or renter's insurance or violate your lease or rental agreement of condo or home owners association or subdivision covenants.  There are a lot of land mines out there and it is good to learn where they are.  Most of us have stepped on one or more of them some time in the past and are sadder and wiser for the experience.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand." 

I second the suggestion of talking with the neighbors before doing much mitigation work, even if you do not know them well.  I once had an elderly neighbor who I feared would be bothered by coal smoke and when I ran into her she told me that she loved smelling the smoke from the forge because it reminded her of when she was a girl and her family's kitchen range was coal burning.  You never know until you ask.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Also, it depends on why you are building the fence.  What are you trying to keep in or out?  If it is aesthetic, to keep an ugly view in or out, all you need is something opaque and will be structurally sound.  If it is for security, to keep people or animals in or out, you have other considerations.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Dear Frosty,

It appears that there is a U shaped piece of sheet metal that goes over the end of each barrel hoop that has rivet going through the U shaped piece, the end of the metal barrel hoop and the wood of the barrel stave along the edge of the vertical cut.  I hope that makes sense.  I haven't noticed if the ends are secured to the staves in any manner.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I have been seeing half barrels split length wise and am wondering if those would be better for a slack tub than the usual half barrels cut longitudinally.  They are sold as planters and have an included base so that they don't roll over. They also have additional clamps to compensate for the barrel hoops being cut.   I'm thinking that the extra length might be handy.  Any thoughts?

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand"

Thomas,

I think that it would depend on the size of the shop.  A small village might have a one man shop just as it has been down the ages and an itinerant smith might only have himself or temporary local help to rely on.  With a local farm boy assistant the Celtic equivalent of "When I nod my head hit it." could have become a reality.

What was your traveling billet made of?

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Les,

I envy you being able to recover your grandfather's and uncle's forges.  It will make your heart happy to be following up the karma and spirit they put into them.

I was 7 when my grandfather who was a hunter, fisherman, and general outdoorsman died of a heart attack while pumping up his air mattress on a duck hunting trip.  Neither my father or my uncle were outdoor guys and I was a little boy living on the south side of Chicago.  So, my grandmother sold all his guns.  I grew up to move to Wyoming and became my grandfather's grandson.  I would pay a lot to be able to hunt with one of my grandfather's rifles or shotguns and be able to pass them on to my son.

I'm not really a touchy-feely kind of guy but every now and then when everything is going well and the metal is moving just right and the project is going exactly how I planned I feel a kinship with all the smiths who have gone before, all the way back to the bronze age.  It feels like they are looking over my shoulder with approval. 

One of the cool things about blacksmithing is that the basic techniques have changed so little over the centuries and millennia.  A Celtic smith of 500 BC and I couldn't understand a word of each others language but pretty quickly we could work in each others shop.  I'd have to learn how to use his hand bellows and charcoal fuel and he'd have to learn how to handle a crank blower and a coal/coke fire but other than that we'd do just fine.

Good luck and I think that you will find that smithing will be something you really enjoy and will be a very positive way to spend your retirement.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

The legal term of art is "judgment proof."

Dear Slag,

In all the cases that I have read regarding costs the Appellate Courts have used the "American Rule/British Rule" terminology.  "The law of costs" may be a more precise term of art but the shorthand commonly used in my experience has been" American Rule/British Rule."  That said, I have seen judges depart from the American Rule and award attorney's fees as well as costs if they find that a case or a motion or other conduct was frivolous and groundless.  I have seen these awarded against both the litigant and the attorney.

My point for the general IFI readership is that legal/court costs can be an overlooked consideration in decisions regarding legal matters.'  Sometimes a person is in an absolutely correct legal position and may decide not to litigate because the costs in time and money would be too high when compared with the amount and likelihood of recovery.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

The largest consideration for deciding on legal action, insurance, copy rights, etc. is how much skin do you have in the game.  It has to be worth your while to pursue any of these. As Anvil points out, every hour spent on legal considerations is an hour not spent at the forge.  As an attorney and a blacksmith it is probably a closer call for me as to which is more fun.  Most people would not choose to be away from their shop.  Also, you have to decide if you are spending time and resources protecting or pursuing something that is worth it to you.  Very often the answer is that the game is not worth the candle.

Another thing to consider is that in most cases the US courts follow the "American Rule" where in litigation each party pays its own fees and legal expenses.  There are a few situations where the law allows for the  "British Rule" where the losing party pays, in addition to any damages, the winning party's attorney's fees.  The commonest of these situations is a civil rights case where the Plaintiff might only be granted nominal damages (like one dollar) but the losing party, usually a governmental entity, has to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Plaintiff's legal fees.  In private cases the legal costs are a big piece of the Plaintiff's skin in the game and a large part of the decision of whether to litigate or not.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

One of the problems is parallel evolution.  That is, one smith has an idea of how to make an item and a second smith has a very similar idea of how to make the same type of item.  As David stated there are only so many ways to make many particular items.  In my example the second smith is not pirating the first smith's design because he was in ignorance of it and there were only a limited number of ways to make the item. 

This is why in copyright and patent law there has to be some sort of publication of an idea to prove that a person had it first.  If someone came up with the idea of a light bulb 10 years before Thomas Edison but just did it as an exercise and didn't do anything else with it he couldn't have claimed that Edison was pirating his idea or design.  If a smith has a unique idea or design and wants to protect it he should file a copyright on it.  This is particularly true if the design is unique and is making him or her money and anyone else doing it would diminish his or her income.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I've had some good good success using very fine grained sand as a flux.  It does melt at a higher temperature than borax but is a bit more viscous once it has melted.  My only problem is that the outcrop of sandstone that it was weathering out from when I gathered it years ago now has a Jiffy Lube built on top of it.  I may have to walk the outcrop ridge to see if I can find another location.  I think most beach sand or sand from the big box store for sand boxes would be too coarse.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Dear Sargent First Class Snuffy,

A classic blacksmith quote:  "Yes, I know I'm on fire, just let me finish this weld."

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

A few years ago I was in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans, LA and came across this monument.  An interesting an sculptural use of an anvil shaped object.  My hat is for scale on the 4th photo.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Thomas:  Your comment about getting an anvil hot enough to boil tea water reminds me of an old saw that if your anvil is cool enough for you to sit on/lean against when you eat lunch you haven't been working hard enough through the morning.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I was driving on the eastern edge of Cheyenne, Wyoming and spotted this.  It appears to be in the yard of a shop.  There are no signs and there are a few other sculpture type objects scattered around.  No one appeared to be around.  I took one photo and then realized it was moving.  It is  weather vane!  It may be a comment on Wyoming's winds that you would think of an anvil as a weather vane.

I would estimate the size as about 5 feet from base to table and about 10-12 feet from horn to heel.  It appears to be made of heavy sheet metal or plate and even hollow it must weigh at least several hundred pounds.

Has anyone ever seen a larger anvil shaped object?

I measured it on Google Earth and it showed it to be about 16 feet long.  I may have underestimated the size.

Rojaws,

The 2 qualities an anvil or any other "hitter against." has to have are:  A. hard enough that it won't dent when you hit it (that's why here in the US Harbor Freight 45# cast iron anvils are a waste of money, they dent up quickly) and B. heavy enough that it will not move around when you hit it and waste energy.  I have always heard that about 100 pounds is the minimum for most blacksmithing.  That said you can compensate for a lighter anvil by mounting it on a heavier stand.  A 50# anvil on a 150# base should work very well.

Thomas makes a point about per capita anvils in the US 100+ years ago but also most homesteaders and farmers had an anvil and forge to do small repair work and avoid having to take a day or so to go to the blacksmith in town.  A small blacksmithing set up was as common as gas or arc welders are today on farms.  A turn of the 20th century Sears or Montgomery Ward catalog had complete blacksmithing set ups (forge, anvil, tongs, hammers, files, vice, etc.) for what today strikes us as extremely cheap but which, at the time, was a significant investment.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Many of the towns and cities which were founded or expanded in the late 19th century often have streets named after Civil War generals or other prominent politicians of the day such as Grant, Sherman, and Lincoln.  Also, Presidents who were assassinated get streets named after them, e.g. Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy.  Sometimes local pioneers figure prominently.

Since the mid-20th century developers have named streets either to promote sales or after themselves or their family.  I think there is a list where they choose one name from each column.  It may look like something like this:

A                         B                      C

Lake                   View               Street

Mountain          Vista               Drive

Glen                   Meadow         Lane

Meadow           Shadow          Circle

Woods              Grove              Path

Dell                    Glen                Avenue

River                  Woods           Boulevard

I happen to live on Mountain Shadow Lane in a development which was established in the 60s and 70s.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Frosty,

Your comments about fun in work reminds me of my father who could never understand why I wanted to leave Chicago because that was where the biggest paychecks were.  He could never understand that there was more in Wyoming that I wanted besides a paycheck.  I have been very fortunate in that I have always had jobs that I enjoyed doing in places I enjoyed living.  My days have ranged from OK to pretty darned good.  Unfortunately, many people are in jobs where their days range from pretty crappy to OK.  If OK is as good as it ever gets IMO it's time to be looking elsewhere.  I think that fun and enjoyment in your work is a major factor in choosing what you will be doing.  Yes, it has to support you economically but that is only the base line to which you add the other factors.  Life is too short to spend it doing something which you do not enjoy or is at least tolerable.

That said, there are lots of things that people enjoy which will not support them.  My son would love a job which paid him to play video games but that is pretty unrealistic.  Fortunately, he has found a college major (aviation) which he has found to be his passion and love (after video games).  It looks like he will never work a day in his life because he will enjoy "going to the office" every day.

I do agree with you that once you have to support yourself with something like blacksmithing and it takes on the responsibility of a job and that pressure can easily take out the enjoyment which was there as a hobby which did not have to pay for itself plus supporting you.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Rockstar, 

The butte/mesa analogy may have resonated for me or Thomas because of our geology backgrounds (also because we live in butte and mesa country).  Maybe not so much for ordinary folks but who knows.

Much of what you have said on this and other threads is a good example of how business requires a whole different toolbox of skills than any craft or profession no matter on what scale a person is operating.  We have all seen people who are good at their profession or craft but who are really bad at and have no training in business skills.  People like that, when they strike out on their own often go back to working for a wage or salary because they do not like and are not good at what it takes to run a business.  They are happy doing their craft or profession and not as happy having to do all the business stuff.  Some of it is training and experience but often it is personality.  The stereotype of a creative person who can create wonderful and beautiful objects but is not very good at dealing with the more worldly aspects of life has a basis in fact.  It is not always true but to a greater or lesser extent can often be recognized.  I've known brilliant attorneys who are great in a courtroom but if it were raining soup they would go outside with a fork.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Dear Rockstar,

To take your buttes and mesas analogy a bit further and to introduce some active geomorphology, the outside economic forces may be analogized to erosion by wind or water.  Sometimes you are on a butte (think of being in a soft shale bad lands) and a big gully washer thunderstorm washes your butte away under your feet and you are back down in the valley and have to climb another butte or mesa to escape the mud and flood waters.  That is what happened to me in the early 80s when the bottom fell out of my career as a geologist.  I didn't want to go to work for Burger King or 7-11.  So, I went to law school which provided a career which has supported my family and I since.  It was during that transition that I supported myself as a black smith.  I didn't make much more than unemployment would have paid but it felt better.

There are lots more land forms which you could work into your analogy such as a hogback ridge, usually steep on one side and more gently sloping on the other (the Devil's Backbone near Loveland is an extreme example, less extreme are the hogback ridges between Loveland and the mouth of Big Thompson Canyon) or a questa, similar to a hogback but with a more gentle slope on one side.  Also, a closed basin from which water cannot drain away and it is uphill in all directions may have an economic/business analog.

George (A recovering geologist*)

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

* Geology is something from which you never completely recover from or are completely cured.  The first step to partial recovery is to admit you have a problem ("My name is George and I'm a geologist.  I've gone 27 days without hitting a rock with a hammer or making a map." [cheers].

I'll just mention this in case someone isn't aware of it but all US pennies minted since 1982 (with the exception of some collector strikes) are zinc with a thin copper plating (97.5% Zn, 2.5% Cu by weight).  If you are going to use a coupe of pennies to get a copper melt started you'll have to go through you penny jar or change drawer to find a couple that are more than 37 years old.  BTW, even prior to 1982 pennies had 5% zinc in them but that probably would not make any difference for this usage.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."