Ferrous Beuler

I run Marvel Mystery Oil in my Champion 400. You could use ATF just as well. I find a thin oil is better than a thick oil. When I first got it I cleaned the innards and it made a world of difference. It was loaded with old gunky buildup and had no "glide" to speak of. Clean as a whistle and full of MMO it runs like a Champion, Ha! You could use ATF, as I said, with likely the same results. You want a thin oil (lots of it) that splashes around well, not thick and sticky that will just gum things up and slow you down.

I too need a replacement bronze gear, anybody have a spare one? BTW~ That blower was designed by a 17 year old who founded the Champion company.

Check with these guys~ http://www.nysdb.org/regions/niagara/ Good luck!

Stumbled across this YouTube video actually while looking at other things but this happened to come up. Just an observation, the part from 2:26 to 2:40 shows the smith using a small treadle/helve hammer situated very close to his anvil and fire which is brought into position when needed and swings out of the way when not. I thought that was a neat bit of kit. O.K. so here's why I posted this video and my question~ In the segment from 3:30 to 4:58 the smith and striker are shown working at their forge and they have a door on the fire which encloses it when the fire is not being tended or stock is not being admitted/retrieved. Why would there be a door to enclose the fire? Is this perhaps simply to shield them from the heat because they are in very close proximity to a rather large forge fire or is there more to it? Does it offer some benefit in controlling the atmosphere of the fire? [media=]

This one was free. When a friend divorced she got the house in the city and he got the cottage at the lake. This was one of his ex wife's lawn ornaments at the cottage. "You want that old thing? It's all yours, just get it out of my sight because I'm tired of people tripping over it"! #114 American Wrought by Hay Budden.

Scored this at a barn sale in 2001 for $65. #269, make unknown, could be P.W. or possibly Boker.

O.K. I'm clueless so please fill me in here as to the advantages of such a design in a vice. Is it because a standard leg vice has a pivot point below the jaws and the jaws meet when closing on an arc and so not horizontal to each other and less than 90 degrees when holding the work but this type would have jaws that meet up flat to each other at 90 degrees the way a bench vice/machinist's vice does?

I like that "firepot". Actually I like that is is something not often seen, a departure from the "pot" or "duck's nest". The long V configuration would lend itself well to applications where a heat taken along a length of stock was advantageous, especially if both ends were open. Versatile. With the usual firepot you have one central point where the blast is introduced. With a long folded V shaped firepot you could have a series of holes running the whole length to deliver air across the full length of it with holes all the way along the pipe. If you want just a small usual fire a rotating sleeve that would leave just the holes in the middle open would work a charm.

My advice B.F. is to buy it if you have the chance. Even though you are just getting started and may not perceive the need for such a large anvil at this point you should buy it anyway. Anvils of that size do not turn up often and you might not get another chance to buy one that big in the rest of your lifetime. If down the road sometime you decide you don't need one that big you can always sell it and probably at a tidy profit too. If you don't buy it trust me, you will always regret the missed opportunity.

Sorry to hear that story Vaughn. I ran into the same problem once. The wife and I were out driving and she realized we were near the old homestead of her Great Aunt & Uncle in the township of Lima N.Y. She directed me down a certain road so we could have a look as we passed by because she had a lot of memories there from her childhood. Turns out the people who own the place now were sitting out on the front porch which is close to the road so my wife wanted to stop and chat with them. She wanted to snap a picture of the house. As we walked up I immediately noticed an old anvil on a stump right next to the front door and my wife said "that's my uncle's old anvil he used to make horseshoes on for his team he farmed the place with". She was sure of this because she remembered the horseshoe nailed to the side of the stump. There was a pot of flowers perched on top of it. To me it looked to be a Mousehole of about 150 lbs. These people weren't very friendly at all and immediately got up as we approached and said hello to them. The man went right into the house and the woman said rather curtly "we were just leaving and no, I don't want you taking any pictures of the place!" then she too disappeared into the house and slammed the door. Oh well. We got back into my truck and the wife got her picture anyway. Have been back passing by there a time or two since and that anvil is still sitting there wasting away with the flowers on it. Shame.

Before you have a fire in your new forge look up the term "metal fume fever". Very important. DO NOT have that first fire until you do. Galvanized metal causes toxic fumes when heated.

Oh man, I was in a good mood this morning too. That just plain hurts. The only good thing I can see in this is that IFI exists and there will be lots of eyeballs out there keeping on the alert for this stuff. I would keep a close eye on Craigslist and Ebay. Also, if there are any photos of the shop showing this tooling I would include that in flyers with descriptions and see to it that every scrap dealer in all the states and provinces within 1,000 miles has a copy. In fact I would call every single one of them personally on the telephone and speak directly to the owners to ensure everyone is on board and aware of what might be headed their way. These low lifes may sit on this stuff for awhile before trying to unload it. I don't understand why we did away with being broken by the wheel and drawing & quartering, makes no sense to me.

http://www.auctionzip.com/Listings/1377367.html

LOL! Good for you, Stewart! When I was looking for an anvil to get started I talked to an antiques dealer who is big in the business around here. I said "I'm looking for an anvil, do you ever run across those"? He said, "sure, all the time. I don't bother with them because I have a bad back". The moral of the story is if one is at a farm sale, auction, garage sale -ASK- very often there is something there but the folks running the sale might have thought about lugging out that big heavy bit (anvil, vice, swage, etc) from the barn but just didn't have the gumption to do it. Doesn't mean it isn't there if you don't see it out front. ALWAYS ASK! Whenever the wife and I are at a flea market or other sale she is perusing what is on the tables and my eyes are fixed on the ground, under the tables where the heavy stuff is!

KaliGuy talk to DiverMike on this forum. He is in New York and goes down to Costa Rica every year. He might be able to help you out that way.

Pocahontas #3, picked up in bulk in 5 gal buckets, .19 cents per pound. link removed as per TOS If you want a clean fire to weld with try hardwood charcoal.

Me neither! Wonderful lyrics, this man is a great poet.

Thank you for posting that Steve. I don't watch much television so I would have totally missed this if you had not posted it here. Like you said, not the sort of musical style I lean towards but I can certainly recognize talent when I see it. After we lost Luciano Pavarotti I thought I might never hear another tenor of that caliber arise again anytime soon. This kid is it. Wow, just wow! And only 17 years old. Like Susan Boyle who emerged from a similar stage I think this young man will at the very least have a CD released to rousing success and I cannot begin to imagine where he may be in say five years once he is taken under the wing of those properly connected in the music business and his voice is cultivated further. Quite a humble young man. Loved how he put Simon Scowl right in his place with such grace and class too. We will certainly be seeing much more of this young man.

Sweet! That's why I post auction listings when I see anvils in the ads, just trying to help out the newcomers in getting started. When I got interested in blacksmithing it took a year and a half of chickenhawking barn sales and flea markets to find that first anvil.

If you have four good hub skeins I would be very interested in taking them off your hands. :)

Great job! Just to allay any confusion, not getting nit picky. That bit of rail road iron is not a fish plate. It is a tie plate. Tie plate~ http://i01.i.aliimg....d_tie_plate.jpg The tie plate is the part that sits flat on the ballast (rocks) that the wooden tie rests on, one under each rail on each side so each tie has two. This is what pins the rail to the tie with spikes driven through it. Fish plate~ http://upload.wikime...nsylvaniaRR.jpg The fish plate is used to bolt together two sections of rail where they butt up end to end. It is affixed to the side of and spans the two sections of rail. I used to work as a "carknocker" in a railcar repair facility and sometimes had to do track maintenance so I got to know all this useless trivia.

Thanks, Dick. Will do. Looking forward to the hammer-in.

Question~ How does one join the New York State Designer Blacksmiths? Who is the point of contact? (Yes I am a former member, just putting that out there for those who might be interested.) I am rejoining. So that question is for me too! Where do I send the check? Also one more question~ What is the lead time for items presented to the newsletter? I want to advertise an open shop, all welcome each Wednesday night from 5:00 to 10:00