lordcaradoc

I got to see the new Pappa Rhino's at the NWBA Spring conference this last weekend and they are deffinitely on my wish list.

Steve brought them and did work on them all weekend, plus a spare to let us try them out. Good ring and great rebound.

Now, I just gotta figure out a way to raise the funds. Maybe a kickstarter campaign. :D

Regards,
Tim

I think the quote that killed the show for me (I watched it again last night before deleting it) was describing Uri's hammer as weighing ten pounds. I knew at that point that it was mostly fluff and not blacksmithing for the two hours. I'm with John McPherson, Meh.

So, did anyone else see this History Channel show last weekend?

I happened across it and it shows Jesse James of Custom Motorcycle fame going to to Israel to study blacksmithing with Uri Hofi then come home to Texas to build a custom bike from an old Midge Racer motor.

I DVR'd it, only lost a few minutes at the beginning.

I did find this video of Jesse in his smithy making a bottle opener for a news lady: http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/jesse-james-blacksmith-13522615 but I can't find the any video of the show itself.

Regards,
Tim

Sounds nice, looking forward to pictures. :D

I have a formula a friend posted to You Tube about. Its 2 parts Beeswax, 2 parts turpentine and one part boiled linseed oil.

Here's the video: Beeswax Coating for Metalsmiths

I use an old crock pot myself as it is easily self contained and keep it in a tin I got from Goodwill.

Regards,
Tim

Nice. Check the bottom of the cast cookware, if it's marked 'Wagner' or 'Griswold' then they are both highly collectable and to the right person they'll bring a nice price. The cherry will make some nice handles. Good for you. Whatcha gonna do with the digital stuff from the treadmill?

Today, I went to pick up a free working treadmill I found on Craigslist. Being older, I plan on eventually cannibalising it for the motor and speed control on a 2x72 knife grinder. While I was there, I found they had been cleaning out their shop getting ready to move and there was a treasure trove of other things they gave me as well.


Treadmill
Splitting maul
Axe
two splitting wedges
Pick head
Three Fire Extinguishers (two that work and the third that might be rechargable)
A small table saw with a broken table (the motor is still good.)
A campfire cooking set (toasting fork, stand and pot rest)
a big heavy-duty bench vise
an iron casting ladle
a cast-iron griddle
a cast iron casserole dish (?) I've never seen one of these before
A large saw blade
a small bullet level
various small blocks of mild steel (I think) and a short chunck of 2”x4” tubing
a cherry stair tread and another block of cherry.

Those are really nice Dave. :D

That is so cool. You are right, why didn't we think of this before? :blink:

Now now gentlemen, he just finished getting things 'organized' give it a few weeks to get back to normal. I clean my shop at least twice a year, sort of the broken clock theory, only on an annual basis.

Keith, I applaud your motivation. Not to get the shop organized, any fool can avoid work with that excuse, but to make the wife happy. "happy wife..happy life" indeed and I bet this will soften her up for your next large tool purchase too.

Regards,
Tim
Who spends less time in the shop than I'd like, but most of that is keeping my Wife and Daughter happy and its all worth it. :rolleyes:

Slowly I going through all my stored up treasures, more stuff than I can ever take with me, and I found a large hoard of brass and copper. I used to attempt to make knives so I bought all this thick copper and brass at my favorite salvage yard for cheap. I guess I can try and make jewelry out of it. I just remembered that the thick sheet brass went into several lock plates for muzzel loading rifles and pistols, wonder if I still have the skill for that kind of work. Not as many folk seem to be building blackpowder guns these days, they all go buy the fancy ones from named companies now. Most days I just hurt to bad to have the ability to sit for hours and fit the sear to the trigger and the hammer and frizzen to the pan, it's a lot of work to make a good lock and then fit it to the stock and make all of that hardware for the stock and fit the barrel, they're otogon not round. No, I not going there again, wonder where all those chisles are? Way too much stuff!

Ganman,

Another good piece of advise that I haven't see here yet is to tell everybody you know that you are getting into Blacksmithing. Don't ask for stuff, necessarily, just let them know how enthused you are to be doing this and it will amaze you how quickly things will fall out of barns on your front step, or somebody's Grandfather was a smith and there might be some tools in the barn you could have or buy cheap.

Also, and this is a help to many of us, go edit your profile to show at least the town and province you are in. It could lead to meeting other blacksmiths in your area who can help a great deal.

Regards,
Tim

Went to the local scrap/metal dealer this weekend. I picked up a couple 20' sticks of round stock 3/8" & 1/2", a 24" length of 1" square for hardy tools and they had a slab of surplus brass just over 1/4" thick that weighs 13 lbs. I don't think I'll be needing knife furniture metal any time soon. It should work really well for many different applications.

Regards,
Tim

Anyway, don't knock it too much, Its all I have atm!

Don't tease, it is just my first until I build up the funds to get a real anvil, I made my entire shop in a semester of advanced welding at school. The face of the anvil is a wear plate from a payloader. The base and middle part are beams that held up an awning in front of my high school. The horn was donated to me from my shop teacher, because he had an extra one to spare. It is easily over 100#, and does what I need it to for now !

No, FISHER did not serial number their anvils. They dated 'most' of them between 1880 and 1942. Before and after, and some during did not have dates. Manufacture date is also obtained by looking at the logo or lack of one, and the style.

Do not take off any more of the paint. It looks factory original.

What do you want to know?

Wow, thanks for the I.D. Now I gotta go see what info I can find. Any pointers for nailing it down more specifically?

Regards,
Tim

All I know about my anvil is that it was an "Army" anvil. No ring, but the rebound is fantastic. I know it's cast as the 100 on one foot is raised. It also has bolt hole projections on opposite corners of the base. Right now, I am using an old Civil Defense water storage can filled with sand and the avil is bolted to a chunk of plywood to keep it floating on top.



I can't really find any other markings on it.

Regards,
Tim

Well, I'm finally getting back into the habit of swinging a hammer and boy are my skills feeling rusty. I was able to make a couple very useful things and now I need to go brush up on my hammer technique. Both for the moving of metal efficiently and for the soreness I felt.

Over the last couple weeks, I finished a handle for my wire brush and a Froe from an old broken leaf spring.




Any critiques and advice are welcome.

Regards,
Tim

P.S. - if any want more pics of my finally set up shop, let me know.

Doug,

You can also modify store bought hammers. And by store bought, I include all the hammers you can find in pawn shops and flee markets and even at the scrap yard as heads.

I have a three pound sledge I picked up at Harbor Freight a couple years ago when I was starting out. It had two sorta round, flat faces with bad finishes. One side I used a flap-disk in my angle grinder (slower stock removal to keep the face cooler) and made a rounding hammer out of it. I also cleaned up the other face. I recently rehafted it too as the Chinese manufacturing process only has wood about 2/3 of the way through the head and then they epoxy the rest.

I use that and my cross peen hammer from Sears and even that needs some work. My next goal is to find some ball peen hammers to work with and over time, I would love to make my own, but work with what you got.

Heck, I just watched a very cool video by Brian Brazeal on Youtube about making tongs and his hammer (of course he made it himself) was like a very shallow straight peen, so I am thinking of making something like that too and maybe squaring the other face of one of those Chinese made sledge hammers again.

Best regards,
Tim

Those items are *exactly* what the label says they are "Carpenters striking knives". Very common before cheap pencils abounded and actually make a great line for many projects as you are actually starting the cut right on the line. Many old items will still bear witness to their use in places not generally visible to the owner.

Remember that burning the building to collect the nails was outlawed in VA IIRC.

TJ's smithy: You may be confusing this with Thomas Jefferson's Nailery; where some of his slaves produced nails for sale. He wrote up a complete business plan for it that is still included in his collected writings including how many nails of what types which slaves could be expected to produce. It's a valuable resource on the economics of period nail making!

OH but don't ya know they scraped the building for the nails Actually, I hope they did save those nails(probably not). Wes

I can assure you the smiths had no say in how the building came down, I know they don't like to see modern equipment come into there historical town. They are not Luddites, just serious about portraying there historical time frame. The building on site that came down was not quit historically right, also was vary rotten. The new building will be much nicer and most closer to the original building. A large amount of research has be done by Ken Shworts, the master of the shop on what the original building was like. Also a tinsmiths shop will be built next door! I am vary exsited about the new shop.

Here is a press release .pdf on their reconstruction.

http://www.history.org/Foundation/newsroom/2011PressKit/pdf/Anderson%20Armory%20backgrounder.pdf

I. T. has succeded in making their profession indispensable. I don't even want to ask what CAD means, since I have not even mastered posting pics on IFI, I will stay at the forge and make what I want to.