John B

If you have to hit a hammer, make sure the piece hitting it is softer than the hammer face otherwise chips will fly, use a copper, nylon, lead or fibre mallet.

Hi Ollie, sorry I have not got back to you before, but try books by Peter Parkinson, David Hawkins, and others. Look on BABA's website under books and contact Maggie Price she may be able to help you select suitable books for reference, many of these are available to look at at BABA forge ins, at least you can see what they have to offer you.

The website with the books on has been removed, and there is apparently no intention to reintroduce them. It used to be hosted by the countryside agency which seems to have disappeared and replaced by natural England. It would appear to be another victim of the current financial crisis, or part of some other political game. Whilst seaching for a link/contact to request if they could be reinstated or handed over to be hosted by our own Blacksmiths Guild, it would appear that the Minister for Education, and the countryside agency have disappeared into the reorganised political scene here in the UK. We wil keep pursuing this issue.

I was under the impression that carbide tips were a sintered material ie powder put under extreme heat and formed by ressure into required shape. Anyone know different?

Cool! Is there any particular reason you underslung the axle?

I don't know about American Hornbeam, but here in the UK, Hornbeam was a preferred wood for making an anvil stump base

Hi Wade, welcome to the forum, you should have got my pm to you about this position

I have an old cement mixer that I removed the mixing baffles from, I chuck in a couple of handfuls of sandblasting grit (or sand or pebbles depending on finish required) then put in the forged bits, Fit a lid to the mouth of the mixer (two discs of ply one larger than the open end, to fit over the barrel, one smaller to fit into the mouth of the barrel) secure these together with screws, than I made three clips to hold the discs in place, fit these to pevent dust going all over the shop, then let it roll, a little experience will let you know how long to leave the items in.

Any fuel that will get the steel red hot will work

Whenever you are forging the top side you hit always moves more than the underside. Fact of life and physics.

Hi Dax, the Guild of Wrought Ironwork Craftsmen of Wessex (now the Blacksmiths Guild) has been promoting the blacksmiths traditional craft, and passing on the traditional skills for the best part of 50 years now. Originally founded by a group of Devon, Cornwall and Dorset based 'smiths we now continue this work at Westpoint. see our link on the groups section on this forum. Be careful using a cobblers last for an anvil, as a lot of them were made from cast iron and may break easily if used as an anvil. We have some blacksmiths stakes on sale at Westpoint if you are interested. There will be a course on making various twists there this coming weekend (Feb 21,22) if you would lie to drop in and take a look. There is also other tooling on offer. Good luck with your hobby

Hi Dave, cutting capacity 50mm x 10mm should be no problem I have a "small" bench shear marked up for cutting up to 2" x 1/2" There is a larger shear on a stand that would need bolting down to something solid for sale a Westpoint.

Hi Dave, Got some bench shears on offer at Westpoint. Or we can arrange to cut some off for you on the saw there, just sold the mechancal hacksaw sorry.

Why not use the beak of the anvil for fullering down? Use with a round face hammer, draw down even quicker, and a smoother finish to flatter down

I am told this item has now ben sold

Make a couple of L shaped clamps, the inside length of the base of the L to be the same height as the thickness of the vise base, the other side of the L being long enough to have a slot or hole cut through to enable a nut and bolt to pass through, and use these as clamps to secure the vice to the table. If that makes sense? For smaller items I secure a bar across rear of the table to prevent the workpiece spinning

They do spin glass, a molten glob stuck on a pole, (Check those for technical terminology, but they will give you an idea of the preparation) rotated by hand and formed to shape with various tools to give bowls or jug shapes

Thanks for that Frosty, obviously they are not like glassblower tools

Nice, Looks a long walk to the anvil though, if you are moving the blower then moving the anvil would make it a nice compact setup and give a bit more free space for other things.

Hi Frosty, Please define or show what you call scissor tools and how you use them, Are they same as glassblowers tool but heavier?

You could run that off your solar panel too, maybe.

Wind vanes, preferably should be balanced, No need for ball bearings or other engineered bearings, a forged/hardened point in a socket will work well for many, many years, this could be inside to fit inside the vane (If three dimensional), or into the support structure. To assist balancing, forge a heavy arrowhead on the 'light' end, and always ensure the bulk of the vane is to the rear of the pivot axis.

The Westpoint Forge uses one blower to service 12 forges, its housed in a seperate building and so noise level in forge is low. Each forge has its own slide valve arrangement and tue iron diametes vary from 11/4" down to 7/8" There has never been a problem with lack of air even when all 12 are being worked hard as when on the damascus courses.

Me too, but it would be a use for it

Use it to light your coke / coal/ charcoal forge