George N. M.

John, is the chest going to be something like the Mastermyr chest? G

FYI, the "Pierian Spring" in Pope's poem is the spring of knowledge. My late wife, Martha, had little patience with folk using isolated factoids and often used this quotation.

Too bad that you need to be somewhere warm because it really sounds like you'd fit in well in the Rocky Mountains in general and Wyoming in particular. My wife, Madelynn, is originally from Florida and she and her late husband lived a lot of years in the southern US. When were looking at places to retire and we settled on Laramie and told her that the record high temperature here was 94 degrees and that she'd never see triple digits again she had some difficulty in processing that fact. The summers here are primo and while I have never found the winters to be that hard they can be long. Spring comes late at 7500 feet. Madelynn's folks originally retired from central Florida to western North Carolina (near Murphy) and liked it but it became unfeasible when her mother's health began declining. As far as I can tell and depending what a person wants western NC is much preferable to the hotter and humider eastern portion of the state. Good luck. We took our time and visited a number of places before buying our last home. Do your research and make an informed decision and consider the climate in all 4 seasons.

Chad, if you want to get into armor making a real time sink is a pair of articulated finger gauntlets with 2 rivets at each knuckle and finger joint and don't forget that everything on the other gauntlet is a mirror image of the first. Oh, and make it fluted to add a level of difficulty. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

The asymmetry is very Phantom of the Operay. What gauge metal did you use?

Dogs have owners, cats have staff.

And what a long, strange journey it has been. G

They say "you can't go home again" and it's true. Sometimes there isn't too much change, the guy you went to high school with is now running his father's hardware store and there are still some of the same businesses selling the same things. But sometimes the change is head spinningly dramatic. In my case my old neighborhood on the south side of Chicago changed ethincally and went from being a solid middle class neighborhood to something much lower socio-economically. When I have gone back it's like a neutron bomb went off and took all the people and left just the buildings. It looks very much the same but is now very different. Rapper Kanye West grew up about 2 blocks from where I did (but about 30 years later). Rappers have referred to my old neighborhood as "Terror Town." A very odd mental experience. That said, Chicago stopped being "home" very soon after I left and became just a place where my folks and some of my old friends lived. GNM

Gewoon, when I sell at events I don't haggle. If someone wants me to lower my price I tell them that all I have to sell is my skill and time (of which we all only have a finite amount on this earth) and I price my things based on how long it takes me to make them. If I accept less I am saying that my time is worth less. If they don't want to pay it they can see if they can get exactly the same item at Temu or even the hardware store. Mine is hand made and it is in their hand right here and now. After that I don't think I've ever had someone walk away and they often seem kind of embarrassed for having asked. That said, most Americans are unused to bargaining and aren't good at it. And, like you, I think I charge a fair price and am willing to stick to it. If someone is buying multiples of something, either to use or resell, I may give them a 10% discount. And if someone is buying a lot of items for gifts, etc. when I add it all up I will sometimes knock some off. If a child wants to buy something and doesn't have enough money I will sometimes tell them that what they have is enough. I'd rather see their smile and happiness than have the money. The memory of making a child happy is worth more to me than the cash. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

No, not at all. It was kind of funny. She wasn't hurt and the resemblance to my son, Tommy's, Pokemon character was apt. Dogs probably make better shop critters because cats are more curious and want to investigate everything where dogs are more there for the social interaction and just want to hang out with the hooman and will be happy just to lie down in the corner and watch.

Here is a BBC article on the find with some additional details: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62e36jm4jro

John, the first time you make something that is recognizable, e.g. your first S hook, you are a blacksmith. Then, you can spend the rest of your life becoming a better blacksmith. And once you sell something, even a $1 S hook, you are a professional blacksmith. BTW, you've got to be a little more careful when you have a furry snoopervisor. They don't know that everything in a blacksmith shop is hot, heavy, or sharp and often several of those characteristics. You've got to keep an eye on them and know where they are at all times so that they don't get hurt. I once had a cat who jumped up on the bench when I had a propane torch going and set the tip of her tail on fire. She never felt it because I swatted it out right away but my young son at the time and I then referred to her as Charizard (a Pokemon with a burning tail). "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." G

David, one thing to watch out for when making a trammel hook (ratchenkrake (sp?)) is making it the appropriate size for where it will be used. I have seen ones that need to be on a tripod or cross piece that would have had to be 5-6 feet tall to have the adjustment height above the fire to be actually useful. The other side of the coin is too small for its hanging height. Yours is a nice outcome. Most of the ones I've made have holes in the adjustment half rather than "saw teeth." How long did it take you and do you know how much you will charge for it? GNM

Yes, of course there are sand bars and other fluvial deposits in Kansas and Missouri but the contribution from fresh water mussels and snails is very, very small and the proportion of larger sediments that far cownstream is also small. That said, you can have a local condition like an eroding cliff that contributes larger pieces. The sand blaster should have info on it about what size grit/medium to use. Generally, window screen is too coarse for seiving out all the bits that are too large. I agree that unless a person has a particularly good, clean source of natural sand commercial medium probably makes more sense. 40 years ago I had an outcrop available here near Laramie of very fine, very pure quartz sand that made pretty decent welding flux but today there is an oil change place built over it.

Gewoon, Shaina would have to do some travelling to get sand from a sea beach. She is in Kansas City, Missouri which is close to the geographic center of the United States. It's probably about 1400-1500 km. from her house to the nearest salt water. Good advice for folk in coastal areas though. Anyone using "wild" sand should run it through a screen before using it to separate out anything larger than sand size. G.

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. It sounds like you will fit in very well, you have lots of interests that overlap with folk here. Also, there seems to be a higher percentage of veterans here than in the general population. There is probably a psychology or sociology thesis in studying the correlation between military service and being a "maker" of some sort. Sit down in a comfy chair with a beverage of your choice and spend an hour or two just browsing around on the IFI site. I suggest you may want to look at threads on improvised forges and anvils. There are a lot of good videos on You Tube and some really bad ones too. I like Black Bear Forge, JPL Services (our own Jennifer), Torbjorn Ahman from Sweden, and Christ Centered Ironworks. Some folk like Alec Steele but I find his presentation style kind of annoying but that may just be me. Look into joining a local affiliate of the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America. There is nothing like learning from someone already experienced in the craft to move you along quickly. Yes, you can be self taught. Lots of us have done it but it is not optimum. I started in 1978 with an anvil and forge I bought at an auction, some really nasty coal, some books from the library, and my own mistakes. This was pre-internet and there were no videos available. I didn't meet another smith until 10 or 12 years later. I probably still do some things bass ackwards from not having a teacher/mentor when I started. Good luck and feel free to ask any questions, we love to help beginners. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I tend to agree with Frosty but the real criteria is whether it has a ring or just a kind of dull thud when hit and does it have a decent rebound when you drop a ball bearing on it and see how much it bounces up to the original height from which you dropped it, anything over 70% is good, 60% is acceptable, and under 50% it is a POS and is generally referred to as an ASO (Anvil Shaped Object) and has no use as a tool. If it doesn't have a good rebound, walk away. Some good anvils are quieter than others, so, that is a more general rule but a good ring almost always means a good anvil. 70 lbs. is IMO kind of low weight for a one man shop but you can mitigate that with a heavy stand, e.g. a heavy wooden box filled with sand securely attached to the anvil. In my experience 100# to about 250# is optimum for a 1 man shop. Bigger isn't always better if you need to move something large around. I agree about checking out the threads re improvised anvils. You can do a lot of work on the end of a piece of railroad track and earth moving machinery is basically made out of different shaped anvils. Smiths worked on block anvils for thousands of years and did amazing work before the London Pattern anvils came into use in the 18th century. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Gewoon, it's a big world, every day is a holiday somewhere. G

Here is another one. Real ironwork this time: https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/72486#respond

I won't argue with you. Frosty. It wouldn't surprise me at all. I can see a serious mental debate about whether it would be more valuable to me than the same amount spent on some sort of new tool. Possibly the book and then the tools to make what inspires me from the book. G.

I have been at Rocky Mountain Smiths events where there was a flock of spouses set up with their spinning wheels around the shop door. "Steel-wool" relationships seem to be fairly common. My theory is that people who are "makers" attract similar folk. It can be blacksmithing/fiber arts, woodworking/cooking, etc.. G.

Any idea of what the cost is going to be?

Frosty, cool story. It sounds exactly like what could have happened to Martha and I. I got to know fiber stuff well enough that I could bring home cool stuff and surprise her. My best find was when I was at an auction (I don't recall why I went) and came home with an double treadle/double wheel with an accelerator head that turned out to have been made in the Hudson River Valley about 1810. It has bone or ivory bearings and worked with a quiet hum. Cool to think about all the folk who have used it over the last couple of centuries. The oak treadles have depressions of about half their original thickness where the spinners' feet have worn the oak down. Considering that spinners usually spin barefoot that is a lot of spinning. Even though Martha has been gone 11 years I still have the wheel but I am giving it away to one of our fiber friends soon. G

Here is a link to a cool find in Wiltshire, UK: https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/72455#respond I suspect that the anvil has 2 bases/hardies is so that as one striking surface wears down it can be turned 90 degrees and you get a fresh striking surface. Since the base is square I don't think you could get much use out of it as a horn. The palstave axe dates to the middle bronze age which in the UK is about 1500 BC. So, that anvil was cast 3500 years ago and could still be used today. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Shaina, I particularly like the sketch of the wall sconce. I have noticed that as I've gotten older (although I have probably 30+ years on you) that I'm more sensitive to the cold. I have to put on hats and gloves sooner than I used to and have to wear a heavier coat. I am glad that I have a salamander propane heater in my shop. It has not had a problem bringing it up to a comfortable working temperature when it is in the 20s outside but it kind of struggles when it is in the single digits or lower. You need some kind of "maker" activity for inside when it is too cold to go out to the shop besides drawing. Cooking? Fiber stuff? Wood carving? G