Ridgeway Forge Studio

Chad- rabbit mincemeat pie with a rose water simple syrup?

William, welcome to the forum. If you put your location in your profile you’d be amazed at how many of us are close to you and/or would be willing to help. The steel needed for a forge depends on everything. For a gas forge, thickness varies. For a coal forge, thickness varies. For a firepot, thickness varies. why don’t you give some actual criteria for what your end product is supposed to be? You’re sort of asking “what vehicle is best”- it DEPENDS!!!

Yes. Good luck getting it out of your hair and clothes. In a somewhat related story, when I was a college seminarian, a friend asked me to watch his popcorn that he was microwaving. I did not think this was necessary, as most people put popcorn on in the microwave for 2 minutes max. But he had set it to 10 minutes so tha every kernel would pop. he came back after 5 minutes to a bag of popcorn on fire in the microwave, and we jumped into action to take the entire microwave outside before we burned down the building! Now, we saved the building, but the stench of burnt popcorn filled all three floors of the building… This all would have been laughed off, undoubtedly, had that evening not been the annual donor dinner and seminary tour: and the place smelled of burnt corn. We were so deeply worried, but the office manager came to us with an ingenious solution: cups of water with dryer sheets half in the water. About a dozen of these contraptions took every last smell out of the entire building- absolutely amazing. Needless to say, popcorn was banned for about a year after this….

Would you be willing to share a photo of your collar mandrel? I think it’s high time I make several of these, but I struggle for some reason conceptualizing what they are and how they work despite multiple videos or photos. Just hard for my brain to wrap around

A90897 seems to be my read

Shainarue, that’s looking to be an excellent stand. I like the addition of the water holder, but recommend a vertical support then another ring (so it doesn’t bounce off.) other than that, one rather critical thing you are missing… scale. Lots and lots of forge scale!!! Get to hammering and fill everything with that sweet forge scale! seriously, really well done!

That anvil is garbage. Please allow me to dispose of it, free of charge. Just pay postage to….. all jokes aside, very nice anvil. What are you wanting to know, identification wise? The age? The serial number is on the front and there are lists on the internet- perhaps search for that a bit? But if you jut want to show off, we welcome that too!

That sounds like good news. Glad to hear it.

If you’re unconcerned with it being the exact replica, it would not be difficult to make a new U bolt, either from some non galvy all thread or from a piece of round stock that is tapped.

Looks good. I won’t be bicker n about not welding it seriously good work there. I may steal that idea, as I made a small horn that’s too jumpy for my anvil. What do you use them for, mostly? Sockets? also: how does it work compared to an anvil bridge for hard to reach places?

Frosty- (this is going to get confusing!!) that’s a nice looking vise. I had one without the mount for a while. Yours looks great. Are you going to paint it red?

Ah ha! So there may be at least a connection. It’s one of those things that if it isn’t true it ought to be. Swedefiddle, I have one of those billiard tables! Great accoutrement to an otherwise cold and creepy basement.

Not unless you had popcorn you were burning! Popcorn is a specific type of corn which had a hard kernel and a significant internal moisture content. Now, it smells the same as Burning popcorn, so just keep that in mind. i used old cracked corn from the chicken coop. It cokes up like bituminous coal and fused into chunks. Of course, you need to start with some charcoal or something similar so they corn doesn’t jus get poured down the air grate. I found it to get as hot as quick as anything else, but granted this was a decade ago I forged in corn. It’s nest for a party trick. If you ever run across some free feed or cracked corn, give it a try to see how it works.

But think of the jokes one could make! Of course, they wouldn’t be good. Theyd be…. ….. corny

A thin smear of blo on the jaws can’t hurt, especially if you are not forging every day. It’s amazing what flash rusts in a shop even with a little temperature difference. is the Brunswick green related to Brunswick stew??

Didn't the Bible have something about Serif Serpents?

Frosty- you’re right but…. if you use a corn forge the bragging rights are *insane*!!!

That’s a good and serviceable approach. Mine is based on my desire to make the tool, not necessarily what I can make with the tool. last night I tried out my new shop lights for some late night forging. Made a poker that I am deeply dissatisfied with, so it will likely end up an anonymous donation to a clandestine firepit up near one of the overlooks near me. i will remake it, however, as I was my fire tools to match.

Towards the bottom. Corn works like coke. I used it a bit back in the day.

If you're okay replacing it in a few years, bury the stump to the right height. It will be stable and usable until it rots away. I used to use tulip tree (Called tulip poplar, not a true poplar) logs, and those worked fairly well. My current setup is with sawmill cut oak cubes (about $40 for one) They're excellent, and I highly recommend getting something like that, especially if you have a flat floor. These are cut to stand securely.

This made me laugh quite a lot! Brought to mind old looney toons cartoons… The bickern is excellent- and the large one too- making a stump anvil has been my goal for some time now; I’ve got the wrought iron and some of it is preformed for the body of it. one of these days I’ll dedicate some serious time to making it.

John, when you go to tenon that bickern, are you planning to do it at welding temps to fuse it solid? I’ve often wondered if tenoned or welded is more secure for the forces applied to the horns. additionally, what will you do with a knife that small? patrick

There’s a good reason TV trays have lips, same with cafeteria trays- Blacksmithing is not much different. We don’t want things on the floor!

The thigh can seldom tell a 3/8” radius from a 1/8” radius…

Shainarue, something else that came to me about your stand is the useful possibility of adding a lip around the larger plate on top. This would enable you to keep punches or other fiddly bits from rolling off if they are set down. I keep a center punch and my touchmark there so they will never be lost- may not even be a welding project… some superglue could be enough for its application