Frosty

Been seeing prices like that up here for decades, sorry you guys are catching up. On the other hand, what you see are asking prices, what are they getting? Anvils are like any other commodity, there's asking and the going prices. If the going price is that high it's because that's what the market will bear so a person might want to think about what they're charging for forged goods. Another factor to think about is how many new guys we get here almost every day and how many are looking for an anvil and kit. With so many folk looking the going price will go up and asking will go up by multiples. After all What the kid's are selling are ANTIQUES look how old they are a REAL blacksmith used it! I just came from the first garage sale on the season and saw a couple old fishing reels on sale as antique and I have older in the basement. Some buyers will consider age a valid factor and blacksmiths are going to have to compete. Such is the supply and demand market. Sure, I could've bought a brand new 3/4 ton, 4x4 Chevy pickup for around $12,000 Cir. 1980-83 but I was earning $7.50/hr+/- and I was a skilled employee. The dollar is an abstract representation of the value of a person's time. If you want a more realistic perspective try calculating how many hours you'd have to work to buy a given thing. Frosty The Lucky.

​Maybe the next time I get a pedi. I'll post pics, that'll teach ya! Frosty The Lucky.

Wow, I didn't realize how many posts are made a day and am now a couple weeks late replying. <sigh> Go ahead, I've been blamed for far worse than convincing someone a good tool is a GOOD tool. Heck I thought your web handle meant you were already another Soderfors fan. You must've been seeing the future, that's IT you're Physic, you have PDQ! Deb won't let me shave so I'll just think about how a fine blade feels on my face. <sigh> Frosty The Lucky.

Nice blades. I like things made to use more so than things made to be pretty. The simple utilitarian appeals to me. I'm not saying pretty blades aren't lesser tools, I just have a closer connection to tools that look like what they are. Frosty The Lucky.

He and the family are still in our prayers here Dave. Home is a good place to be. Be well brother, we're with you. Frosty The Lucky.

4" of Kaowool is a little much and you'll find it stays put better if you use 1" and more wraps. I've never used Mizzou but I'm not clear on what you want to do with it. Are you making a hard inner liner or just using it to coat the Kaowool? Those are two very different things. If you're just washing the Kaowool you'll be ahead to use a proper kiln wash. Thin coats of Mizzou will heat check and spall. If you're making a hard inner liner I had really good luck by casting between sonotubes, round concrete forms. I used sonotubes that nested with a 3/4" gap and rammed the refractory between them. The next day I just pealed the outer tube off and a day after that burned the inner one out. I wrapped it with 2 layers of 1" 8lb. Kaowool and had to bind it tight with news paper (like a ring compressor) to get it in the forge shell. I just let the paper stay in place it wasn't bothering anything. I already drilled the hole for the burner so it was only a matter of sacrificing a garage sale hole saw to drill through the hard liner while it was still green. I gave it a couple days with a light bulb in it to dry and lit my first fire for about 10 minutes, let it cool and it was ready to work. This was before I knew about ITC-100 but the refractory was Pyramid Super, air set. It's a 4,000f (working and 4,700f peak) high phosphate plastic (rammable) refractory so is immune to flux damage and way exceeds the max temp an air propane burner can produce so it didn't need a wash. It's about 25 years old by now and there's no sags, no flux holes or other damage worth mentioning. I just don't use it much anymore. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice, I like it, it'll make a good wedding gift if I don't have a request. what's the size? Frosty The Lucky.

JIm: Carnuba is food safe, it's what they use for the shiny coating on pills so they go down easy. You might have to exercise your Googlefu but pure carnuba is available and makes a very hard finish. Frosty The Lucky.

Maybe roll the fridge into the bathroom and use a laptop, Charles? Uh . . . Oh nevermind, that's just tooooo easy. Frosty The Lucky.

Good to hear from you again Les. Isn't it a sweet thing to get a shop up and running? A power hammer is a joy, my arm sings a happy song every time I turn one on. Frosty The Lucky.

Coat hooks are good beginner projects for all the reasons above. Recently I've had a couple youngsters who've never used hand tools at all so I had to give them projects to build basic hammering skills. Nails are good for this though it drove them both crazy when I made them make the header first. <evil grin> Nails can be small and don't take much time, some folk here do them in one heat, I don't. First draw a uniform taper to a point, then cut and head. It's pretty much as simple as it sounds but simple in principle is often complex or just difficult in practice. Heading can be a wooly bugger to get an even straight head. I call it good training. You'll want to do a little forging to shape your header so it'll lay flat over the prichel hole. A little dome facing up helps shape the head and don't forget punching the hole, it needs to come through from the underside so the hole tapers wider as the nail narrows. This keeps the nail from jamming in the hole and becoming a fixture. Another champion beginner project is tongs. You'll always need tongs, it's really hard to have too many pairs and they're just good training. Keep an eye open at yard/garage/rummage/etc. sales for things like punches and chisels if for nothing else good stock. Allen wrenches are also very good stock. Ball pein hammers make all kinds of good smithing tools. You need to make some tools, to make the tools you'll use to make . . . stuff. The blacksmith makes the tools all other trades require, it's what makes it the King of Trades. Frosty The Lucky.

OUCH Billy! Been there had doc fish chips out of my eyes a couple times and I had eye protection on. Glasses and shield the second time. What got me the second time was not being careful enough taking the shield off, a chip caught under the band fell out when I removed the shield. It of course fell straight down between my eyebrow and safety glasses to bounce once off the lens and into my eye. From then on I close my eyes before removing any head gear, bend forward and give my hair a good finger ruffle, brush my eye brows and sometimes wash my face before opening them again. I discovered just going to the head and doing the whole routine over the sink showed me how much junk falls out when I remove the shield, less so a welding cap but the safety glasses seem to delight in catching crud against my eyebrows. Whatever a body does do NOT blow anything off you with the air hose!! Frosty The Lucky.

You must be right Ian, I was blinded by the antique glare. Those are really tiny welds, were they made with a miget welder? Yes, you're right of course, my gems have been hidden by my prosperity for a while. Just like my belt. Frosty The Lucky.

A shear doesn't need nor want any more bevel than gives it a little relief. Just enough it doesn't sit flat on the blades is plenty. IIRC 83-85* was a good bevel for metal shears, placed high edges facing of course. If you can sharpen grader edge it's the cheap stuff but probably good enough. I've found just cleaning up a good smooth torch cut tends to go through grinding disks at an alarming rate unless done at red heat. Then again I salvaged Vascowear from work and the stuff has a lot of tungsten carbide in the 150pt. high alloy steel matrix so it wouldn't just grind off on pavement. For most things it's more trouble than it's worth. Frosty The Lucky.

Oooooh! Let the bidding begin. Step back innocent bystanders don't get caught in the crush! Seriously though I think $18.99 is a fair price though I wouldn't haul it off for less. Frosty The Lucky.

One thing I've learned some time ago is, people who say you CAN'T do a thing, like weld with . . . really mean THEY can't or more probably just don't know how and are embarrassed to admit it. You CAN weld with charcoal briquettes but it's not as easy. You have to break them up to peanut size or too much air gets past them and oxidizes the joint. The binder used makes a difference: coal is fine, as is "polymer" or wood pulp or another is white (Elmer's) glue. Clay binder isn't good and tends to make clinker. Briquettes are made from the powdered remains from making wood alcohol so Henry Ford discovered if it's compressed with a binder it comes out little bricks you can cook with. This was IIRC around WWI when fuel was getting to be hard to find and torpedoes needed something that didn't need as much oxy as gasoline. Anyway, there are a lot of better solid fuels than briquettes but they WILL work if needs must. Forge welding is simple if you follow the steps. Match the join, Clean clean clean, (the shinier the better) flux lightly and bring to temp. Solid but NOT hard blows to set the weld. We can talk about pattern later if you're welding wide joints. After the setting weld test by laying one side against the anvil for 15-20 seconds to cool and examine the joint. If one side is a different color than the other with a sharp divide the weld didn't set. Brush, reflux, reheat and set again. After it passes the test, brush flux, reheat and "refine" the weld. Repeat the refine weld and try forging across the joint to see if it'll shear. If it doesn't shear it's good to go. Frosty The Lucky.

I can see you're going to fit in here famously well Tony. Next time you get around a welding supply ask them for the: Lincoln, Miller, Hobart, etc. welding manual they used to be give away texts though I don't know about now. Get connected to your local blacksmithing organization, I'd be very surprised if there aren't a number of professional welders who'd be willing to give you some tips if not just teach you the basics. Whatever you do, don't be a stranger around here. Frosty The Lucky.

One last little mistake to remark about there Tony, none of this went for nothing. I used to have all my "designs" saved in notebooks. You just never know when something that's a terrible idea for task A will work treat for task W or I was getting too confident in my ability to outsmart the laws of physics. Information is information and believe it or not some of the most valuable are the "don't do it THAT way!!!" ones. You also got practice cutting, welding, bolting, etc.ing etc.ing. It's all good, skills you'll use your whole life. Mechanical drawing is a very valuable craft, not only can you make a living at it but with a little experience doing things you'll be able to make most of the build mistakes on paper first. I'm never without a tablet of graph paper to brainstorm ideas on. It's also good for transferring drawings from the CAD to the workbench or sitting at a coffee shop table making a potential customer's ideas into something that'll work. Frosty The Lucky.

​Oh that is just DIRTY mean Matei! I wonder where I can find some cork. <evil grin> Frosty The Lucky.

I have to second Arftist, scrap that design and start over. This one has too many design flaws to fix and they're catastrophic failures on short fuses. I THINK that's a dead horse but let me know if it needs more beating. The easiest tilt bed ATV trailer I know if uses the axel as the bed pivot. The tongue is basically a straight bar from the hitch to the axle. The trailer frame and bed use the wheels as the hinge so there is NO hinge weak point. As the frame drops to horizontal or haul position it slots over the tow bar and pins providing the hips that prevent it torquing sideways. Well, okay there IS a hinge pin but it's at the end of the tow bar and consists of a single heavy pin at the center of the axle and is only under stress when towing. The bed's weight and any side motions are all riding on the wheels as it dumps so the hinge pin can wobble and not be stressed. This will cut the weight of the trailer better than in half. Remove the bed hinge as a weak point. Make it EASY to dump and seat to haul. Safer still, the pinch point is under the center of the trailer, a person would have to TRY to get pinched and seeing as the easiest way to dump it is to stand on the rear corner you ain't going to be under a loaded trailer. If you get yourself pinched laying the empty down you need to find safer things to do. Oh yeah, the unladen balance point is less than 1' forward of the axle to provide adequate tongue weight without squatting the ATV down. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Will, 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. Wish I could help with your question but I left So.Cal 43 years ago and I hear a thing or two changed without even asking me. Frosty The Lucky.

I don't know about the interior Bryan but try asking a heating and mechanical company. They usually have a good handle on who supplies what, sheet metal wise. Failing that call Greer tank. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Bass, 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. Nice old bridge anvil, good to get started with and after you get connected with the local blacksmithing org. you might find someone willing to trade a more appropriate general blacksmith's anvil for it. All you need for now though is a HOT fire, a smooth faced hammer and something to heat and beat. Frosty The Lucky.

​Sorry I probably came on too strongly . . . again. I only wanted to point out that in your eagerness to help someone you were only slightly more knowledgeable yourself. Don't sweat it and don't let me stop you from helping people however you can. I know I've opened my mouth when I should've kept quiet too many times to count. I post so much because I LIKE helping where I can but have made the mistake of offering advice when I wasn't that much advanced over the person asking. I've stopped offering any non-forge welding advice since discovering things have change more than I thought since I practiced the craft regularly. I find myself starting to type and realize I may not know what I'm talking about anymore. Frosty The Lucky.