Duncan M

Well it seems like winter is here so I'm a bit late for that, but hopefully I'll have all the tin on tomorrow. Today me and my Dad did all of the collar ties and started on strapping. Tomorrow I have a couple of friends coming out to help and we should be able to get all of the strapping and tin on.

Today I got all the rafters up. I don't have pictures but will get some on the weekend.

I plan on positioning the strapping so that it lines up with the old holes. Any holes that can't get screws will be filled with silicone. I'm planning on milling one inch boards for siding.

last week a friend brought over a pile of used tin that he had from a building that he disassembled, and it looks like It should be enough to do my roof. Today I was cutting rafters for the roof and got all 24 done. next weekend I am hoping to get a few friends out for a work bee. If all does well we should be able to get the rafters up and the tin on in a day. I agree Frosty, having the mini excavator sure is nice. Sadly my dad took it back home a few days ago, so I'll have to do all the rest by hand.

I have started to assemble my shop. It is a 16x20 timber frame that I have been working on throughout the summer. I milled all the timbers on a small bandsaw mill and have been working on the frame the last few weekends. On Sunday, I began to assemble the frame with my dad and a friend. everything went pretty smoothly and a few more hours work should have the frame finished. next up I have to start on the roof.

I bought my first post vises the other day. there was someone selling blacksmithing equipment on Kijiji in Alberta. It was a great deal so me and my dad drove 13 hours return to pick it all up. Along with a few blowers and post drills I got three leg vises. The front one was tuned up by the guy I bought them from and works well. The next one works but is missing the spring and wedges for the mount. the back one was siezed at the pivot point. After much WD-40 and some falling wedges I finally got it moving. I continued working the jaw back and forth and It now pivots smoothly. they all are 3 3/4" wide and have good screws.

Imagine how much I'd have, 10' of 2" stock would be about 640 feet of 1/4". that's a lot of hook. that's my plan, I just thought that I'd see what ideas people had. good to know about the sawzall. Do you think that it's worth having a soft hammer. Thanks for all the great Ideas. ~Duncan

Recently I was at a mine which had lots of scrap metal. The owners told me that I could take whatever i wanted so I took a look around. I got a few different chunks of plate and other stuff, but my best find was a chunk of 2" square stock. It is about 10' long and I believe that It is mild steel. any forging would be done by hand and I would probably cut it with an angle grinder or sawzall, I could hot cut it to. I thought that I could make some nice axes with it. any Ideas would be great. ~Duncan

The clinker that I get sounds similar, it comes out as a large mass but is very brittle afterwards. as for the price of this coal it's free other than the cost to get there. there is a pile of coal that the mine allows you to take from. that report sounds quite similar to the way this coal behaves in the forge, and it's interesting to know that there is very little anthracite in BC. As for the coke, I believe that the individual pieces of coal may turn to coke but it doesn't clump together into larger Pieces of coke.

Hi everyone, and thanks for the replies. Steve, I have tried the coal again and the flames aren't to big a deal. I am fairly certain that the coal isn't soaked in fuel. It doesn't seem to form coke even if I get it wet. before using this coal I was using coal that came from Thak iron works in Ontario. i enjoyed forging with that coal but sadly the shipping costs from Ontario to British Columbia. Thak sells an 80lbs bag of bituminous coal for 80$ cdn but with shipping it doubles the price. the coal seems to vary in size from rice sized to walnut size. I understand that size has nothing to do with the type of coal , but wonder if there is a size that you find preferable? As I have said the coal comes from a mine outside of Princeton in southern British Columbia. I don't recall the name of the mine But can find out. the coal definitely appears glassy, some pieces more than others but I can also see the layers in many chunks. It could be possible that I have a mix of both anthracite and bituminous. After forging with it for 6 or 8 hours I have decided that I don't mind using it. The biggest down fall is the fact that I creates many clinkers and I have to pull a large one out of the bottom of my fire pot every half hour or forty five minuets. If I don't find an alternative I think I'll probably get a load as it seems to do the trick. I can post pics if you me to. ~Duncan

Today I tried some coal that a friend picked up for me from a coal mine in Princeton BC. I do not know what type of coal it is so I wanted to see how it burns. The fresh coal creates a great deal of smoke and large flames. the smoke was expected but the flames that it created were much larger than I'm used to. the coal didn't seem to form any coke as it burned so I assumed that it was anthracite. It easily got half inch square stock to a yellow heat and started to melt the metal when I wasn't paying attention. I left the fire with no airflow for a few minuets and it was still burning when I came back. After about 45 minuets of forging I realized that there was a large clinker in the bottom of the fire pot. Using my poker i pulled it out. the clinker was about 4" in diameter and 1 1/2 " thick and quite light. I added more coal and continued forging for another 15 minuets. I use a hand crank blower and a home built forge. If anyone knows what type of coal I have It would be good to know. Also do you think that It would be worth getting a pickup load of the stuff.

Originally I was thinking Bowron river blacksmithing named after the river that I live by. After reading all the stories behind shop names I realized that perhaps I shouldn't name the forge after a place. Now I'm thinking black spruce forge. Duncan

Hey Frosty, the age doesn't really matter, I was just curious. It's neat to Know the history of my tools. The screw runs smoothly but the crack you see runs right through the vise. Someone must have been pounding on it and snapped the vise from the base plate. now the base plate is welded onto 3/8 plate and the rest of the vise can be bolted to the plate. If attached to the plate, the vise runs smoothly. the jaws are in rough shape but they line up nicely. If I wanted removable jaws I would need to re drill the pre existing holes which are filled up. I don't think thats necessary at this point. I appreciate the advice on hight also. I am curently forging outside with my anvil, blower, and a smaller vise given to me by the same guy mounted on large rounds of wood. I may want to shorten my vise stump. thomas, I am not sure about indias patents, I may have to check it out. thanks for the replies.

Hello everyone, I am new here and thought that I would introduce myself first. My name is Duncan Macdonald and I live in wells, a small town in central British Colombia, Canada. I am 17 and have recently built myself a coal forge. over the past few years I have slowly been acquiring tools for blacksmithing. Recently I was given a large bench vise and was looking to find the background on this vise. I have done some searches on the internet but can find no info on the vise. Hopefully these images help. All the writing on the vise is shown in the pictures. at some point in time the vise cracked. one portion is welded to a baseplate and the other chunk can be bolted to the plate to hold it in place. any info you have would be great, thanks Duncan