Marcus Hopfinger

A friend of mine told me he had a "cast iron forge" that I could have. My son and I went to pick it up from my friend only to find that the only part that is cast iron is the blower that is rusted solid. This thing is heavy and took all three of us pushing and levering to get it into the back of my pickup. I am now wondering if I should just try to remove the blower (not sure what type of blower this is...they had an old coffee can with some flexible pipe on the top connecting it to a hole at the back of the concrete table) and try to get that functioning or just consider it an interesting piece of history. I am also tempted to salvage the steel in the frame work and break up the concrete and get rid of it...then there is a part of me that thinks I should find a spot to do some outdoor forging, hook a hair drier to the port in back and try using it. I am not sure about the concrete. I have seen how a torch can spall concrete and not sure what a hot fire would do. Suggestions?

On ‎3‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 6:02 PM, jukejoint said:

has there been any master blades smiths on the show excluding the judge

I believe Ray Kirk from season one is a Master Smith. http://www.rakerknives.com/ which makes it surprising he didn't make it to the final round.

My first and so far only anvil. My wife gave it to me for my birthday just over a week ago. Not sure what it is. I wire brushed it up a bit this weekend but can find now markings other than "100" under the horn on the base. I had also posted this in "it followed me home", sorry for doubling up, and BIGGUNDOCTOR thought it looks a bit like a Vulcan...

I came home to find my wife had gotten me a birthday gift. Two legs on the forge need some work but I was able to move the parts underneath. I am not sure what make the anvil is. The only markings I can find are a 100 on the base under the horn. Any help in identifying would be appreciated. The gentleman she acquired them from had the anvil stored outside so there is a bit of lichen for me to clean up.

Don't forget Lorelei Sims. One of the first, if not the first, blacksmithing books I read was written by her. http://www.blacksmithchic.com/

my deepest sympathy and prayers.

Prayers from South Dakota.

Congratulations!

Welcome, or should I say willkommen, back from Basic and AIT! Enjoy your time in Germany. I was only there a couple times for Warfighter training exercises or in transit to and from Iraq and saw very little of the country but what I did see was magnificent. I have a couple old college (ROTC) buddies that have been stationed over there for quite some time and love it.

Add some prayers from South Dakota

I like it and will have to make one myself....think my wife would notice a flower pot hanger gone missing?:rolleyes:

This shop wasn't shutting down.
Actually the machine shop was being re-opened after more than 4 years.
The teacher was just getting rid of some steel that was scrap and or he couldn't use.
He even shared with me a bit of his saved stock (around 10 - 10' lengths).

That is good to hear.

With the discussion of vocational classes being cut it reminded me of a webcomic I saw linked in the forums here about a year ago however after spending about an hour searching for it I was unable to find the post. If anyone else remembers that and can find the post please post a link to the old forum posting. Thanks.

Hopefully they were just clearing out some "clutter" and not closing the program down. In the late 1990s I was a shop teacher in a small town and taught drafting, woodworking and welding. When I decided to move on they decided to not replace me, the shop teacher, since they were part of a consortium of school districts that shared mobile vocational classrooms that went from school to school each semester teaching cooking, ag, small engine repair....there was one metal working unit as well. They figured this was enough although a student would only get one chance to take a specific subject once during their high school years....if it didn't work into your schedule that year you were out of luck. What did they do with my shop? They decided to make it into the art classroom. :(

Prayers from a South Dakota OIF veteran.

Prayers from South Dakota for Missouri and Alabama as well...

Voted for ya. Hope you win!

This has lots of useful information in it! I have PDFs of scans of the original Ordinance documents but they are very had to read David has put the information into easily read tables that will be far more useful. I really like the paint color information that he has included. He has the paint formula used by the National Park Service to paint cannon carriages so a reenactor can take the information to the paint vendor and get an authentic match not just a "that kind of looks like the right color" match. Much good information on forges correct to the Civil War. He covers everything from permanent forges to field expedient forges used by General Shermans army complete with documentation (very important when doing an authentic impression). If you do historical blacksmithing demonstrations, especially of the mid-1800s, this book will be a huge help in getting things done correctly. Thanks for writing this David.

My condolences and prayers.

My copy just showed up today. Just paging through it looks fantastic! I can't wait to dig through it at my leisure this weekend.

Prayers from South Dakota

Prayers from South Dakota

Prayers from South Dakota

It would be great to see photos of each step as you make a pair.

Thanks for sharing the photos of the finished product.

Yes, have a blessed and Merry Christmas everyone.

Great to hear he is home safe and sound...now your Christmas will be all the merrier.