agsolder

A fish plate positioned out of the way on the (dirt) floor but not too far from the forge, I have found, makes a good upsetting block for jumping longish pieces of stock.

As with the vise, be sure to position the trip hammer so long stock can be worked without it running into a wall or a post. And so anything can be worked without you running back and forth and losing heat en route. Jack Andrews has a diagram you might look at in the first edition of The Edge of the Anvil (dunno re: The New Edge) showing his zones of activity around the forge.

jmercier, plain ol' Bill-- Many thanks!!

Plain ol' Bill-- I would be grateful if you would describe what is involved when you "make sure it can pass the brass rod test" before a knife leaves your shop. Try to sever it? How thick a rod? Annealed or work-hardened as from the store? With a hammer? Many thanks!!

If you are going to make knives, it's pretty much like anything else in life, you are going to do it, no matter what. Sad fact is, however, there are lebenty kajillion bladesmiths out there and ... you seen one, you've pretty much seen them all. The workmanship is breathtakingly perfect, the blades cut like Excalibur. Soooo, if you are going to get your name in lights you better have an angle. Your blades are combat tested like Jay Fisher's. They are absolutely, totally perfecto like Bob Terzuola's. Etc, only better. Lotsa luck.

woodtick-- your truck has fallen prey to an entropic surge. Happens all the time around my place. Entropy, the opposite of energy, has done you in. See the Second Law of Thermodynamics-- things are just going plumb to Hell in a handbasket. In plain English, you probably have a build-up of oxidation on the terminals of your battery or between the ground and the chassis. Get a wire brush and see if that is not it. It usually is with my truck.

Jimmy-- thanks for the welcome. I appreciate it. I am near Santa Fe. If you get down this way, yell. FrankW-- I'd been making some gates around that time ('98), feeling guilty about zapping the corners and was interested to note the antique joinery at the corners of the old stuff. Man, those old timers had worked out all manner of fancy shoulders and tenons to handle the strain. Just beautiful work, and clearly visible on the Mullingar gate. Covered in black enamel on the Westport gate-- which despite all the thick paint was disintegrating. Another place to see such joinery is the spectacular permanent ironwork exhibit in the balcony of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Frankw-- Two especially fine old wrought iron gates stick out in memory. One was leaning against the stone wall of an outbuilding next to the parking lot at the Heritage Center or Welcome Center in Mullingar, a plumb gorgeous old beauty, be worth thousands here. Dunno why it was off its hinges. It was pouring rain so I did not give it a microscopic exam. The other was standing across a drive on the grounds of the big estate at Westport, and it was literally crumbling, pieces of it having fallen off and lying on the ground. Some enterprising smith(s) ought to get a grant to travel the island salvaging these relics. What fabulous mortise and tenon joinery the old timers came up with to defeat gravity in the pre-arc welder era!

Nomad, Frankw, 6013-- Muchas gracias! Much appreciate the welcoming messages! Frank-- Man, but I envy you being in Ireland! Have a Guinness for me! Or two, perhaps. Wife and I did a brisk two-week coast-to-coast drive in '98, found some lovely old gates turning to rust, some new ones echoing old styles but made of arc-welded tubing, and precious few smiths, except for the one at Crossmolina Heritage Center--who was German! My family was in and around Ballyhaunis, until the darling Brits decided sending food would damage character.

Thanks for your welcoming note, Dodge!

Anyone grappling with what to tell a young person trying to decide on a vocation, or agonizing over that decision him or herself, would benefit from reading this fine piece about the life of an artisan (that's us, guys) vs. an office worker. The New Atlantis - Shop Class as Soulcraft - Matthew B. Crawford Skip to the last graf if you want the gist of it.

Irnsrgn-- Thanks for your welcoming message!

Thanks, Thomas. I appreciate that!

I am a totally pseudonymous and almost completely make-believe blacksmith, silversmith and general ironbodger who exists only on the Internet, not unlike Cracked Anvil, Goods Inward, Miles Undercut, Juan LeGubrious and others of that ilk who appear now and then on other smiting sites where you may have bumped into us. The key words above are almost make-believe-- like a lot of you, I do my gates, potracks, guard rails, trivets, out of that hard, hard, beautiful steel and jewelry out of silver and brass. I've been to Frank Turley's smiting academy and loved it, all several times through, and to a couple welding schools, too, etc. But like the scoundrels I mentioned, I don't take much of this too seriously. Thanks, Glenn, for allowing me in. Nice 'ere, innit?