George N. M.

What I started with and still use often, instead of tongs, are vice grips. They were invented by a Dewitt, NE blacksmith about 1910 who was tired of dropping hot iron on his feet. Get the real Vice Grip brand, not the cheap Chinese ones. Also, get the ones that are marked Dewitt, Nebraska. The family owned Vice Grip Company sold out to a Canadian firm some years ago and the Canadians closed the Nebraska plant and moved production to China, cheaper costs, more profit, and blew the economy of a small mid-western town to xxxx and gone. Personally, I refuse to buy the new ones made overseas. As an old geologist, I have to disagree with the notion that air blast has much to do with how much clinker you have to deal with in a coal forge. Clinker is the portion of the coal that is incombustible, also known as ash content. It will vary from coal field to coal field and sometimes between particular seams in an individual field. The best coal for blacksmithing is one that has a good coking ability since that is what we are actually burning. I think that many of the poor experiences that people have had with coal forges result from not using a good coking coal and not understanding how to manage a coal fire. You say that you are a Forged in Fire fan. You will recall how some of the folk have had a very hard time heating their steel when they are required to use a coal forge. Also, if you are setting up your shop in close proximity to neighbors consider using coke instead of coal. It produces little, if any, smoke and odor. However, you have to keep an air blast to it all the time or the fire will die out. You can leave it for a few minutes to go into the house and get a cold beverage or attend to bio needs but if you take time to eat lunch your fire will be out when you return. If you are using an electric blower you may be able to leave it on low. I have just gotten used to having to turn the crank every few minutes if I am working on the bench. PS As an old Viet Nam infantryman on this Memorial Day weekend I will tell you to stay safe and keep your head down. Stay out of harm's way.

This is my first post in 3-4 years but I may have something to contribute to this thread. 30+ years ago I sold a dozen miner's candlesticks to an antique store in Central City, CO for IIRC $10 each. That was a fairly significant order for me then. About a year later I was back in Central City and asked my then girlfriend to go in and see how much they had marked them up for retail. She came back and said that they were all rusted and were priced at about $100 each. She was told that they had been found in a nearby mine and were over 100 years old. I was livid. However, after cooling down I realized that there was little I could do except never sell to that store again. I figured that all the bad karma was on their heads. Today I would report them to the Attorney General's Fraud/Consumer Protection Unit. After that I started adding the year of manufacture in Roman numerals beside my touchmark on miner's candlesticks and anything else that could easily be passed off as antique. There probably isn't as much risk to items sold to an individual but items which are intended for resale may carry with them a temptation for the reseller to maximize his or her profits. Regarding the purported Yellin fireplace tools: Either they are authentic or are an intentional attempt at forgery. They appear to have a high level of skill in production. About all that can be done to authenticate them is to contact experts who are able to look at them and be able to say something like the interior curl on the handles are consistent or not with Sam Yellin's work.