K. Bryan Morgan

I don't know what's going on, but for some reason the quote function doesn't work for me anymore. Ok so anyway, Yes its very fun when we find blacksmithing tools anywhere for a decent price. I'm going to pick the little anvil up today. I figure 75# is perfect for smaller items. I'll post picks of course as soon as I get it close to my camera. There are a few smiths up here and I know of a new gentleman in Fox. I was talking to him here on the forum. I can't find the thread at this second though. Ain't that always the way it goes? Haven't met him yet but I sure plan to. Hope yer keeping yourselves warm. Its a bitter cold day today here, but for us -18 is almost shirt sleeve weather. :P

Woke up this morning to -40 and right now its about -30. So fires on full in the woodstove. :D Went out to a friends for a local knife makers meeting I've been going to for a couple of years. We sit around and swap tales. And do demo's sometimes. Tonight was how to attach a handle night. We did have a good time. One of the members got a couple of anvils up here from the lower 48 and I am going to buy the 75ish lb one. I have wanted a smaller anvil and people just want stupid money up here for them. Anyway as soon as I get him $200 its mine. I thought it was a good price for an anvil that size here in the hinterlands of the Great Land. I'll post pics as soon as I get it. He also got a "Made In Sweden" anvil "cast steel 101 lbs". That's what was written on it. I think its a Kohlswa. He's keeping it for a traveling anvil.

Most likely Etsy.

Hey there, those are excellent. I'm sure your wife will love them. Happy hammering,

Great to hear your working that hammer and getting into the shop. Just to cold here in the interior to get to work yet. I did get part of a car spring hammered into a kinda knife shaped lookin thingy when the temps got up to 25 a couple of weeks ago. But that's pretty much all I've been able to do since before my surgery. Really looking forward to break up and getting hammering for real.

Frosty is so right. I got buried under one of those car port shelters a few years ago. My stepson and I were working on knocking the snow off it and I had just turn to him and said, "Be careful or we're gonna knock it down." Half a second later I was buried. Had such a big snow load on it, it drove me to the ground like a tent peg. Didn't do my knee, which was already super messed up, any good. Took a neighbor and him about 30 minutes to get me out. Ours ended up in the dump come spring.

That's why I like my domed one. No cleaning needed usually. The clinkers just fall off. Once in a while one will be come lodged in a slot but its just a matter of forcing it through or prying it out with my poker. Easy peazy.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/34624-78/ I use slots for my tuyere. And most of the commercially available that I've seen use slots of some sort too.

There have been some very interesting comments on here that teach a lot. I don't have any practical knowledge on this subject but I do have some experience with a light weight anvil. A couple of years ago I made an axe on a 25 pound anvil with a 2.6 pound hammer as the main forging hammer. The work went smoothly and Jake and I experienced no issues with anvil or hammer weight. With in a few hours, spread over several days, we had a nice camp axe. The weight of the hammer, in my mind, was more important than the weight of the anvil. I know this is anecdotal evidence, but my experience none the less.

I had no idea either until a friend told me. That size fire pot is great for large things, I can tell your gonna have fun. Happy forging!

Those are wonderfully whimsical, I love them. Well done sir!

Hey Jeff, I get my coal from Alaska Feed on College Rd, its right by the fair grounds. Its good coal for forging. The owner gets it for his dad who founded Alaska Feed and is also a blacksmith. I have been using it for 5 years and it works very well. I haven't used Healy coal as yet but know some people who have and they even weld with it. So its all about what your willing to do. The last time I got some coal it was $34.99 for 50 lbs. I still have about 175 lbs left from my last buy. But, I know here at North Pole Gravel you can get a ton of Healy Coal for $120 - $140 somewhere in that range. It has high sulfur but will get the job done.

Hey Ice, I use blacksmiths coal, and a shop vac with a dimmer switch, the kind you buy for the living room lamp, slider type and just go for it. It goes from 0 to more than I need at the push of a thumb. Usually I use a moderate, this is subjective of course, blast and have no problems at all. One thing I adopted from a very knowledgeable smith, the late Grant Sarver, is a domed tuyere, the clinker falls right off and doesn't block my air flow at all. In his version he took an end cap for a bit of black iron pipe and drilled a 7/8 inch hole in it. Mine is a vent cap for an underground fuel tank and ground slits into it. It works very, very well. Again being cast its durable and easy to replace. It will wear out eventually. Its about the only wear I have in the whole system. But lasting more than 5 years now I consider that cost minimal.

Its a break drum. I've been using one for years and no wear at all. Cast steel is pretty durable stuff. You don't need refractory. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/34624-78/ This was taking in 09 and other than some rust it looks exactly the same.

How the heck did I miss this? Hope you had a great one.

A very Merry Christmas to one and all. 45 below but warm inside.

I forge down to about 20f after that it gets just too uncomfortable for me. 50f would be a dream for us this time of year. Heck we hit -40f last week for a couple of days.

Well come on up and stay a while. You could always bring Pocket. Heck we have plenty of company for her.

Chena hot springs is the closest by far. Its a very nice drive and they have been repairing the road on a regular basis for frost heaves so its in good repair. Or was last time I was there in summer. Renee tells me there are accommodations at Manley Hot Springs but I don't remember exactly what they are. Chena Hot Springs uses Geothermal exclusively and is completely off the grid. Its a pretty tricked up system and works very well. A couple of days ago we hit -40 f but it warmed back up into the mid single digits. Which is shirt sleeve weather for us. :P Certainly understand what you mean by getting sitters for the critters. Gotta keep the babies warm and fed.

Yes we did. It was off for about two and a half days. Not a huge imposition but a hassle none the less. The winter bad weather keeps coming though. We had another winter weather watch today. Blizzard conditions. But that may miss us as its more for the higher elevations and mountain passes. I sure hope so. We would love to host you any time. Come on up and we can do something together in my tiny little shop. (compared to yours of course). We do have some nice things here to see and do and its always fun when family and friends are here. Bed available anytime.

http://www.abana.org/resources/education/chf.shtml Here are 26 pdf lessons from ABANA. A very good way to get started.

I hope so too my friend. How about central Alaska run amok? I can do that fairly well. Well limp amok maybe better. :D I'm healing well from my knee surgery and hope to be forging soon. But I will promise you right now that we will get together and forge. I just can't say when that will be. Living in the interior has its good sides and its bad. One of the bad things is being so far from friends.

This is no longer true. I bought one of the last Chinese imports that Incandescent Ironworks made four years ago. They are all made in the USA out of an " alloy (that) has a very large proportion of chrome and nickel, with smaller proportions of molybdenum and manganese. This same alloy was originally designed specifically to tolerate the extreme shock and abrasion experienced by the liner plates in rock crushers. It is an air-hardening steel, and does not require quenching. Heat treatment involves only tempering, so the hardness (HRC 52) extends through the full thickness of the anvil." From their website. Even though I have one of The Chinese versions I'm very happy with it. I would recommend this anvil to anyone. The company is very good to work with and more than willing to arrange shipping. Which for someone who lives in Alaska is a must have. They did a great job and saved me a bundle on shipping.

Hopefully one of the guys down your way will pipe in soon. I'm a good distance away and can't go to meetings often. Its been a few years. Hope to though. Frosty has the inside track on this stuff. After all, he's president for life. :D

You left something out in chat until later in the conversation.... that this process needs to be repeated competently one hundred times. I still do not see that in this thread. Since you want to sell these. Which means you need to do this somewhere between 200 and 500 times depending on how many you place in each gang punch. When you leave important information out, expect inexact results.