Drako11

Wow thats great!!! Did you just bend the rasp into a cylindrical shape for the body, and made the head and tail solid?

Thanks Svarog this looks great! : )

So can I heat the item up in the forge evenly, brush it with a wire brush, then brush on a coat of vegetable oil or do I need to put vegetable oil on and bake it in an oven??

My parents and grandparents never blacksmithed, my great-grandpa did, but I never got to meet him unfortunately. Wish I had! I got interested when I saw a video of a kid making RR Spike knives with a forge made from a grill. I had always been interested in smithing, but I hadn't realized it was that easy to get into! Anyways I started out making knives out of RR Spikes, if you have a Rail Road near you they are easy to get and I learned a good bit about just moving metal with them. A lot of people say, OH NO DON'T START ON KNIVES!!! I actually found it pretty simple, albeit my knives are not the quality of more experienced smiths, but they are servicable and I learned a lot from making them as I mentioned. : ) Good luck with your endeavour!!

How do I keep finished products from rusting? Everything I make even with stainless after a day or so when it is produced it will start getting rust on it. Is there some kind of oil treatment or something I must do to it?

Oh ok I had no idea! lol : ) I guess what I was trying to say was the aluminum of the grill doesn't get hot enough to melt, at least I have had no problems. So you would be fine not covering the sides of the grill with cement as long as it is aluminum, cast iron might be fine as well I think.

Ah great!! Thanks for the pictures guys! That looks like exactly what I have! Unfortunately I didn't get the blower/ash dump part with it :' ( I can see the holes where it attaches, but no blower. I don't know how hard that is going to be to find, I hope I can get one, this seems like a really neat forge. : )

My first forge was made from a grill lined with a Portland Cement/sand mixture. Although I have found because all the cement crumbled off the sides that it really wasn't needed. The grill is aluminum I believe and doesn't get hot enough to melt or even glow. The cement is useful for setting the pipe in the bottom of the grill though. A little suggestion if you try this setup only put holes on one side I found it works much better to keep your coal or charcoal piled to one side. You can then even cut off one end of the grill, living a little lip, and you can then stick longer stock in it. EDIT:What type of forge you build really depends on what type of fuel you have readily available to you. If you can't obtain charcoal or coal easily you will want to make a gasser. However if you can obtain charcoal, coal, or can even make your own charcoal then a solid fuel forge is what I prefer. It's just something about tending the fire, the smell, keeping it just right....ahhh...its heart warming. lol Anyways if you use coal, it will work much better in a shallow forge, kind of like double edge's. Charcoal will work well in just about any forge I believe, but I have found coal works better in a shallow forge. Well that's then end of my expertise, I wish you well on your quest! : D

Thanks Frosty! : ) I'm gonna try again today to make a ring.

That sounds really REALLY neat! I would love to see it!!! Better yet I WANT one! If you post pics I will definitely be trying to re-create it or to find one to buy. : P

Ohhh!! Interesting, I just assumed with the handle it was a pump bellows forge. So when you crank the handle, it must get the wheel spinning to spin the blower??

Had a post up recently telling everyone about a great deal I made exchanging work for three old blowers. Got a little Buffalo Company Blower, on a stand, that works, but doesn't seem to blow to strongly. A Champion Lancaster, almost like new, without a stand that blows great. (Any ideas how to make a good sturdy stand for this?) Finally a big, geared, Champion Lancaster that has a stand, and everything is moving fine, except it is missing a little gear that allows that handle to spin the fan. So my little request is if anyone knows where I can get a gear for this or has a gear for this they are willing to trade or sell I would greatly appreciate a PM! : ) (You can see in the picture of the gear box where the little gear is missing between the two big gears.) I also broke two bolts that hold the face plate of the blower on if you have or know where to get any of those, PM! lol Also going to put up some pics of a working table I got in the deal as well.

Went swimming today down at a little swimming hole near my house. Went poking around and found an abandoned house, after a little more scrounging found an old rotting wagon basically two axles with a bit of wood clinging to them. Anyways ended up with these bits of good metal.

Was fooling around today, actually meant to make a ring after some I had seen on here, but ended up making necklace pendents. Funny how that works!! Made them from some bits of stainless I had laying around. Anyways here you go, sorry the pictures are kind of fuzzy, couldn't get the metal to stop glaring.

Hey Everyone, I recently obtained this old hand pump bellows forge I believe it is. I have no idea what brand it is, it may be home made I haven't been able to find any markings. But I want to restore it, and maybe use it. So I was wondering is anyone knows what this is supposed to look like complete with bellows and all, and if you do, do you have a picture of it? Also the gear pulley system, (I'll post pics of it) is stuck any ideas of how I can loosen it? I've tried a ton of penetrating spray, but no luck yet. Anyways here are the pictures.