Frosty

Nick only needs to make another base and it's a primo plate stand. Well whatever you call those things to hold the fancy plates up to display on shelves and mantle pieces. Making a heart is harder than it looks isn't it? Then one heart it'll snap into place and it becomes easy. Good team guys, keep it up. Frosty The Lucky.

And here you're expressing a symptom that might hold you back. You have a piecce of equipment you KNOW doesn't work well, is inefficient and costs WAY too much to use but you STILL want to try and make it work. Sure, you can MAKE anything "work" but you'll be much farther ahead here and in life when you recognize when it's time to move on. Except for attaching truck wheels to axles and spindles I've only discovered one thing a truck drum is good for. They make outstanding buried anchors though not as good as almost any automotive steel wheel. I will admit I've yet to make my semi brake drum "pot bellied" stove and I THINK those'd be DE bomb. Then again I'm wrong often enough I'm not surprised anymore. Back on point, if you just throw together a functional charcoal forge for now and improve your skills at the anvil you'll start learning what you really need in a forge and better still you can sell your mistakes, use the money to buy tools, materials and such. Sooner or later you'll probably find a patron who'll pay you to do something that truck drum forge is perfect for. Or maybe BBQ lunch on it for the employees on holidays. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Ken, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. If you have access to a scrap yard that will sell to you you're a lucky dog, all the ones near me are single buyer contract and face litigation if they sell me anything. You might try contacting the companies generating the scrap you like if there's a consistent shape/type you like. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. That's an intimidating looking scooter there, cool aesthetic, goes with your IFI handle. I get the feeling you're going to fit right in. Frosty The Lucky.

That's a fine shop and you'll be tweaking it as long as you're using it. I wouldn't mow the floor though, fences and a couple lambs will keep it all nicely manicured and . . . Lamb Mmmmmm. I have recipes I'll be happy to share. Frosty The Lucky.

Aw phsaw Bryan. I don't know about the invaluable thing I'm just passing things along I picked up from others. Frosty The Lucky.

Way to score points with the Mother in Law TJ!! Beautiful knife but where are the other 310 pins? Frosty The Lucky.

How many dogs do you have and do they all eat charcoal? A pair of dogs might just be playing keep away from each other but if there are a few and they're all eating it you might want to take a look at what's in their food. Dogs drink from the muddy water for the minerals, clean water is just water. I don't know what a dog might find good about charcoal but it won't hurt them. Heck I've known people who chew it out of the camp fire, not burning just fresh. I'd go with Charles's advice, he has the right of it. Frosty The Lucky.

I was thinking of making a foot back scratcher, maybe a double, both left feet of course. Frosty The Lucky.

Things usually start moving around 9:00-9:30am. We usually do club business after lunch. I'm bringing the basic tools to make a T burner though it's not a burner clinic. I recently posted illustrated directions here and on the club email list. I'll run through it at Jims so guys can what's the tricky parts and how easy it really is. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Vaden, glad to have you. Plunder and pillage must've been good judging by the smiles on your faces. Ah and those Scottish lasses. Looking good guys, which is you? Frosty The Lucky.

I don't know. The hammer would only be light if you're forging that size stock too cool and it seemed slow for the straight forward drawing they were doing. Personally I would be making the shafts two at a time. Rough forge one shank, then the shoulders and pins, then the far shank and part the double shaft from the parent stock. Finish form with tongs and part the pins. The cradle is easy enough to just forge but I don't know why such heavy steel for it, the finished cradle is no where near 3/8" x 1". Yeah guys I'm critiquing a process I've never done myself. Not so different from everybody with a "better" idea for an old job. Eh? Frosty The Lucky.

Over strikes are telling you you need better hammer control, practice. Over strikes are pretty rare blacksmithing, occasionally a new guy will miss a top tool but hitting the top tool's handle with the striking hammer is usually a GOOD lesson. Of course Eastwing makes a pretty full line of smooth faced hammers and the new plastic handles are pretty bullet proof and provide decent shock abatement. I teach guys how to prevent shock damage to their hands, elbows, etc. by showing them how to hold a hammer so it wont conduct to your hand. Tongs are a different matter, you have to squeeze them as hard as you have to. Miss a blow and hit the tongs is an A#1 aim better lesson. This isn't a tool problem, it's the user's. Frosty The Lucky.

What struck me was how heavy the stock they started with. Maybe it was just my eye but it looked they were trimming way more parent stock than was in the lock. Frosty The Lucky.

There's also a problem getting folk willing to be officers, once in you're pres. sec. treas. etc. till you stop coming. It has to be a really large membership to maintain continuity over the years. Heck, look how hard ABANA is always looking for people to serve on the board. ABANA changes cyclically too, sometimes significantly. Frosty The Lucky.

Close but not quite Dave, Fruit trees have roots Around them, the roots themselves aren't so round. I'd say something clever but I'm pretty tapped out on root puns. Frosty The Lucky.

That was indeed the case on one visit. Like I couldn't look at a piece in his show case and make one? Sure it'd probably have taken me a few to get up to speed but you only have to look at a finished product to devise a way to make one like it. I never challenge someone in their own shop I even keep my ideas to myself unless asked. I only want to look around maybe talk, not get in the way. Frosty The Lucky.

Are the two pieces of steel in the fire being heated or are they part of the forge? If they're something like and irons they're just venting and absorbing heat, cooling the fire. If you're heating them to forge they're too high in the fire, well above the sweet spot at the top of the fireball Glenn refers to. Glenn is right, deeper fuel more air. The steel needs to be high enough in the fire that all the oxy has been consumed but not above the sweet spot. If you're getting high yellow they you're getting welding hot. There's more to forge welding than just getting it hot. There are a lot of posts from guys who forge weld regularly archived here. It's a good place to read, you'll probably fin your answers but if you don't you'll have a broader information base and ask better questions. That isn't a bad looking forge, not the best by a long shot but not bad at all. I'd use it, no problem. Frosty The Lucky.

I was going to suggest a hand but that darned Stan beat me to it. Nice back scratcher Stan. Another coolish thought would be a forged stick with a fork at the end. Sticks make great back scratchers you know I've been using them all my life. Wouldn't be hard to fit a leaf into the piece you know. Wax, something simple and common say Johnson's paste wax. It's pretty non irritating seeing it's used on furniture and floors all around the world. I'd use Trewax but it might not be something your Dad would have on hand if his scratcher needed a touch up in a few years. Next time you're talking about forging leaves be sure to tell him you're not making real leaves, you're forging them. It's art if you've ever watched Bob Ross you've heard him say he's "representing" trees, grass, mountains, clouds, etc. etc. All we have to do is get close and the viewer's mind will fill in the missing pieces and ignore the mistakes. It's only when you get folk who practice the given craft they start noticing the details like hammer marks, weird veins, etc. Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks for the video, I love seeing stuff like this. Frosty The Lucky.

There've been time I've wondered that very thing myself. Frosty The Lucky.

Without pretending professional experience I can say a couple hopefully not irrelevant things. To open to the public, what do you have in mind. A storefront/showroom? OR are you thinking of opening the shop? The first probably means an employee or working two schedules: sales and production. The second is a HUGE kettle of worms if you're allowing the public to enter your production area. No number, color or volume of warning signs will: keep people from messing with things, Or mitigate your legal liability when they do. It's been probably 25-30 years since I visited a blacksmith shop, showroom in the Tacoma I think area. Their solution was a sales staff in a separate sales room. The production area was in a section of the old factory building with separate access viewable through thick Lexan windows. And that was more of a demonstration area rather than production section. The couple times I've visited successful blacksmith shops and was allowed into the work area, all work stopped and the owner stuck to me like glue and remained nervous the whole time. Frosty The Lucky.

NO, NOT wood! If you've ever made or looked at a percussion instrument say triangle you'll notice it's mounted on leather or . . . WOOD. Wood won't damp the vibrations (SOUND) and you want to damp the sound. You would do better (Literally) gluing rocks to the web. Unbolt that thing and use the wide flange (you're calling I Beam) for something else. Coupling the anvil to the wide flange better will increase it's ability to resonate making it louder. If you've ever touched a cymbal, triangle, etc. while it's ringing you've experienced a damped reverberation. That's what you need to do, disrupt the resonance. Just taking it off that wood stand and sitting it on bare concrete or dirt will help. Remove it from the wooden stand, find a wooden box it will fit inside with a little room. Block it to your working height and fill the box with sand or dirt. If you lean or JB Weld different lengths of rebar against DIFFERENT heights of the web before you fill it with dirt it will help. Frosty The Lucky.

I'm all about curiosity's sake and files are great tools there are so many different kinds. Frosty The Lucky.