George N. M.

Two aphorisms about running your own business: "You will always work harder and longer for yourself than you ever would for any boss." and "If you work for yourself you wake up every morning unemployed." Running your own business can be emotionally and financially satisfying but it takes a LOT of work and stress. And, unfortunately, blacksmithing is not a skill that is in as much demand as, say, plumbing, construction trades, medicine, truck driving, law, etc.. There is always room at the top, e.g. Alexandr, but few have that level of skill. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I will say that the recent postings on this thread are much more accurate and informative than the 2006 postings. I don't know if the IFIers are more knowledgable and more articulate but whatever it is IMO it is a good thing. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Do you have any idea where they were mining the tin for bronze? GNM

TW, you re one of the few folk here who support themselves with your skill and craft at small engine repair. I have question: How much of your time is taken up by "business" type things like bookkeeping, ordering, paying bills, dealing with employee paperwork (when you have 1 or more employees), taxes, etc. versus actually working on engines? 50/50? 30/70? It has been my experience that many folk who start a business have no idea how much of their time will be taken up by the "business" side of the operation and it turns out that they are not very good at it and end up either ignoring it or not doing it well and that is a major contributor to small business failures. Thanks. GNM

Dear Kooky, Just a passing comment but I have found the IFI folk to be some of the friendliest and most generous and sympathetic people I have encountered in a long, interesting and varied life. Throughout this thread I have not seen anything seriously disresoectful, patronizing, unkind, or rude. Sometimes we all may phrase something inartfully with no malice intended but I have seen nothing mean. If I have missed something offensive please point it out to me. That said, some of us have been around this bad old world a lot longer than you have and if we see or hear something that we know will lead someone down a dead end or be outright dangerous we can be very firm in trying to warn someone off something that will waste their time and money and risk their life or health. No apologies for that. I honestly do not see what you have taken offense at or why you may be offended. You seem to have painted everyone who has replied to your original and subsequent posts as some species of troll who are looking for someone to bring down. I have seen much more helpful suggetions and guidance than anything else. I would bet a dollar or a beverage that there are no "creepers" here. And while discussions of religion are prohibited here by the terms of service I would bet that there is a higher percentage of practicing Christians or otherwise spiritual folk here than you will find on most places. Good luck and fair winds to you on your journey. If you feel that you don't fit in with this group, well, so be it. Our collective personality may strike sparks off of your individual personality. That is the way of the world. It may be us or, equally oprobable, it may be you. Vaya con Dios. "By hammer and hand all arets do stand."

Interesting thread but some of the posters were pretty unsure, if not down right wrong, about the history of the peopling of the Americas and Native American history. I was interested to see that the only survivor of that thread who is still with us is Thomas. I hope that he will be here for at least another 15+ years. Since smelting matal from ore, particularly iron, is a pretty advanced technique it was a lot easier to get pre-smelted metal from the Europeans. Around here you see examples of iron arrowheads cut from wagon tires or barrel bands. There was also no mention of the Old Copper Culture which made copper implements from native copper from the Lake Superior area. Various copper items, decorative and utilitarian were traded as far as the mound building cultures in OK, OH. and the Mississippi Valley. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

If it looks stupid but works it isn't stupid. Possibly dangerous and inefficient but not stupid. GNM

Alex: Congratulations on completing your sextuple decade. You look good. In a few years your grand daughter's parents are going to have to start stringing barbed wire around their house to keep the boys away. The food looks very good. What do you do with the flame? Warm up the already cooked cold food on forks, sort of like fondue? I assume this is a Russian birthday tradition, like a western birthday cake. Madelynn asks what are the types of food shown. I have to tell you that we really enjoy seeing the photos of St. Petersburg, your life, and your work. It really helps to keep perspective and is a good balance for us to the news from further south of you. G&M

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. If you put your genral location in your profile we will be able to give better answers to your questions. A surprising number of answers are geography dependant. From what I can tell from the photos that looks like a good usable anvil. How much does it weigh? To tell how good it is you need to do a bounce test. Drop a ball bearing of about 1/2" to 1" diameter from 10" above the anvil and see how high it bounces using a ruler. Anything around 80-90% is very good, 60-70% is OK and 50% or less is pretty poor. I wouldn't buy anything that had a rebund of less than about 60%. Also, do NOT do any grinding or polishing on the face of the anvil. Use will polish it up. Anvils have a plate of tool steel on the face and sometimes it is pretty thin. Anything that removes any portion of the face is a BAD thing. Could you take and post a better photo of the logo on the side and any other marking aon the anvil, please? "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Yeah, kids really change the equation. Once you have a child you have a moral and legal commitment for 18 years. Martha and I hadn't planned on starting a family but we were a little casual about not starting a family. 31 years later I am really glad it happened. And, yes, like almost everyone else, I had relationships that would have been a disaster if we had gotten married. I am very lucky that I have hit the relationship home run twice in my life. So many folk never make it to first base. Lots of strike outs and pop flys. Das, if you can provide the best environment for your girls and help them to grow up to be good and happy women you are a success. GNM

Frosty, broken bituminous coal is 53.35 cubic feet/ton. So, a bunker 5'x5' would hold one ton of coal stacked 1.4' deep. I agree that you'd have to do a LOT of forging to go through that much coal. But, on the other hand, it doesn't go bad if it is out of the weather. There are times when we buy a lifetime supply of something. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

We used to say in law school, which largely uses the Socratic Method is that it assumes that all teachers are Socrates (or Thomas) and all students are Aristotle. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Mothman, super quench is great for mild/low carbon steel but is too aggressive for higher carbon steel. If you use it for high C metal you risk cracking and breaking when you quench. What happens is that some of the steel, usually the thinner parts, cools and is brittle while the thicker parts are still hot and contracting. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

A similar sentiment is expressed in the quote, "The dogs bark, but the caravan travels on." "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

J, I very rarely use the quote function. If I want to address what I'm saying to a specific person, rather than the entire audience, I just use a name/handle as I did at the beginning of this sentence. BTW, TPAAAT is the "Thomas Powers Applied Anvil Acquisition Technique" and consists of asking nearly every living human being you encounter if they know of any anvils you might be able to get. It works surprisingly well and is applicable to all kinds of things. You almost always have better results than Craigslist, want ads, auction sites, etc.. IFI is a pretty unique community, in my experience. We have folk of all genders, ages from early teens to late 70s, education from HS dropouts to advanced degrees, blacksmithing experience from total newbies to folk who have been doing it for decades, hobbiests and professionals, and just about any variable. Wisely, controversial subjects such as politics, religion, sex, etc. are prohibited. If sure that the community's opinions on those are as far ranging as everything else. However those topics tend to split and fracture a group rather than pull them together. Also, language is strictly G rated. Never say anything you would need to explain to a 10 year old daughter or grand daughter.

FYI, Australia produces about 90% of the amount of coal, annually, that the US does. Much of it is exported to Asia. Both the US and Australia each produce about 6% of the world's coal production (China produces 50%). "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I would contact ABANA to query them about the quilt, makers, sponsors, purchaser, etc.. And, I would try locating the makers via Spokeo, particularly if you could find their 1988 locations and approximate ages (the youngest would probably be in at least their mid-50s now). Also, someone might want to buy it and donate it to ABANA to be raffled a second time if and when they ever have a conference again. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

You may want to back off on the quote feature. You don't need highlight an entire post, just what seems relevant. Otherwise you are taking up band width. Some of the folk here have dial up or equivalent and have to pay by how much data is received. So, less is better. In my case, if you are responding to what I said, about all you need to do is say, "George, ..." rather than quote my who post. This is a conversation. You don't have to repeat back everything someone said before you respond. Propane and solid fuel forges each have their advantages. For some things one does the job better than others. You may want to try some of each out if you have to have just one. This might be where getting into a blacksmithing organization my have an advantage. There is a fine line and difficulty in deciding on which side of the line something is when deciding if something is a resource or just junk. This was an issue when I was a County Attorney and we would get complaints about a particular property getting junky. Folk would say, "That's not junk! That;s my stuff. I moved to the country so that I could have my stuff!" We tried strike a balance. I remember telling one guy that a stack of limbs and logs were not firewood until it was cut, split, and stacked. And we didn't have a problem with someone having a project car. It was the 3 or 4 parters which were feeding the project that were the problem. And, of course it had to visible from the public road to be considered a problem for the county. Some people built a fence or a pole barn to keep their stuff out of sight. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

This is just off the top of my head and misty memories but I believe that it is from a collection of humorous drawings of various trades fitted out as "one man bands" that was done in the late 17th or early 18th centuries. Thomas may have a more accurate citation. GNM

Coke is a better fuel than coal in an urban area because it produces little or no smoke and odor. You mayget a bit when starting the fire with wood and/or coal but once the fire is started, no smoke. A properly tended coal fire can have minimal smoke but coke produces less since the volitiles have already been driven off. That said, a coke fire is fussier than a coal fire because you have to keep some blast air going to it and have to plan your work accordingly. For example, if you are at your bench doing something you have to turn around and give the blower a couple of turns every few minutes if you are planning to go back to forging when you are done with the bench work. With a coke fire you can go into the house to get something cold to drink or relieve yourself and be back in time to add some air. With a coal fire you can go have lunch and then fan up the fire again with no problem. On the other hand, there are some folk who like the smell of coal smoke. I've had the coal forge at demonstrations and had older folk come up and say they haven't smelled that odor in many years and it reminds them of their childhood. Truth about the inflation in price of blacksmithing related "antiques" but sometimes you find something otherwise unavailable. And sometimes the seller does not know what they have. It's probably better to have something available and expensive than unavailable. When I was at the place on Central there wasn't much I needed or wanted but it was unusual to see that much in one place. When you enter there are 2 large rooms, left and right. The blacksmithing booth was in the right room (towards Central Ave.) about in the middle of the room, IIRC. This was a couple of years ago and the seller may or may not still be there. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Thomas, just think of it as projectile lubricant. GNM

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. Yes, making your own tongs is cheaper but the kits from Ken's save you a lot of time for not much expense. If your time is worth anything to you it is probably cheaper to buy the blanks and go from there. Even if you don't attend events of a blacksmithing group the newsletters which usually have various projects in them are valuable. Also, there may be videos and book available from their library. What part of Albuquerque are you in? My step daughter and grandaughter and some friends are in the NE quadrant. If you are in an urban area you may want to think about a coke or charcoal solid fuel forge. A treadle hammer may be an alternative to a power hammer. The sound and vibration of a power hammer may be the most intrusive of what you are doing for the neighbors. As of a couple years ago (the last time we visited Albuquerque, pre-covid) there was a booth carrying various blacksmithing items at the Specialty Antiques Mall, 4516 Central Ave SE (old US 66). They had a pair of titanium tongs which I thought about because of the light weight but $100 was too rich for my blood. Again, welcome aboard. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

As hard as it is to let out furry family members go I have always felt that taking them to the vet when they are old and sick with no hope of anything better is the last gift we can give them. I figure that they will all be waiting on the other end of the rainbow bridge and asking what took me so long and did I bring treats. Also, on the other side they can carch the red dot, and it is delicious. Out thoughts are with you. George and Madelynn