Frosty

Uh yes Phil you do! Heck, we all need a cookie! Cookie break! As I recall taking the TV antenna down some years ago there was a pretty decent copper ground cable running from it to a ground rod. Frosty The Lucky.

From everything I've read so far it sounds like you have a load of poor coal Trip. Sure it may be bituminus or maybe sub-bituminus which is pretty poor. Regardless it may be from a coal shale seam, good for boiler or power plant use and nothing but clinker stock in a forge. I have a big old batch of shale coal I dug at a local mine a few years ago and from a seam of otherwise superb metallurgical coal. Stuff fooled me like a chump but I got over it, it still looks prime. You've built one good forge so I doubt strongly you've made a significant mistake on this one. Sure there are details where improvement can be made but I'd be surprised as Santa and Mommy that Christmas eve if you'd done something fundamentally wrong. So, before you start rebuilding your forge try picking up some bona fide blacksmithing coal and see how it works. I'm betting you'll be pleasantly surprised. Frosty The Lucky.

Sorry to hear True but I guess something's going to get all of us one day. It picks my mood up some to hear the fusion went well. I'm not surprised the docs don't like the power hammer idea either, too much shock. A press on the other hand aught to be okay. Just do NOT ask the doc! Making furniture and anciliary jewelry is good, no limit to what you can learn in any form of metal work. Frosty The Lucky.

Tell EVERYBODY you know you're looking for an anvil. This is of course the prime tenet of the TPAAAT but it's the most powerful trick there is. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Hotset, glad to have you. We have a goodly contingent from your side of the pond though I'm sure you've noticed. Pics, we love pics so please make an effort to learn to post em, we'll be more than happy to help. Being blacksmiths we can tell you many different ways to post pics or anything else. Frosty The Lucky.

Anhydrous doesn't foam when it reaches 212f and is only a problem if you aren't afixing small pieces before taking a heat. On the occasions I actually need foam free flux I just melt some borax in a small iron ladle I have and dip a bit. Frosty The Lucky.

That's a good one Bruce! While that exact thing hasn't happened to me I've done similar and it's been good for a laugh every time. Thanks for the smile. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice looking shop Daniel, congratulations. It sounds like you have the bases covered on ventilation, still you need a CO alarm, the stuff can be sneaky. How are winters in your neighborhood, got plans for heat? Frosty The Lucky.

This incarnation is a steel stand that's part of the forge itself. The split brick table of the forge is the top of the stand, off to one side is a guide for the lid lift and a bracket for the scissor jack that lifts the lid. Below the table is a shelf to stiffen the legs and be handy. There are two helpers that slide in or our from under the table, part of the helper is level with the table deck and the telescoping long tubes are handy for holding tongs. This pic is an earlier model I have NO idea what or why the small lengths of sq tubing are doing on top of the lid frame, they're not on the current incarnation. The helper rack is reversable, the section with the tongs is level with the table if it's flipped over. Frosty The Lucky.

Palletized sacks are easier to handle and can be fit into nooks and crannies so don't cost quite as much to ship, they're also easier to store on your end. Of course having a 10yd dump truck pull up and drop the load ain't half bad either, it's not like you have to keep it dry. I have fond memories of Ft. Vancouver. I was visiting friends in Silver Lake and we paid the Ft a visit on a living history day (or whatever it's called). I moseyed over to the smithy and only had to chat the guys up for a few minutes before I was taken to the HQ building for period appropriate garb. I had a great time smithing for several hours while my friends wandered around. I don't recall them ever mentioning living history day since. Go figure eh? Frosty The Lucky.

Making your own lightning rod isn't a very good idea for reasons already stated. Using iron rather than copper is even worse. What a proper lightning rod actually does is discharge the potential between earth and upper air, without potential no lightning happens. Using iron means it won't discharge the potential nearly as well so you're a lot MORE likely to be struck and if struck being a poorer conductor means iron or steel is going to get a whole BUNCH hotter. Sounding better all the time eh? Frosty The Lucky.

Ooh! I didn't know you could get bedliner in a rattle can! I love the stuff, my tumbler is lined inside with it, it prevents wear and quiets it down lots. I found that batch in a gallon can and used a roller, left a TEXTURED surface that really helps stuff tumble. As for not bringing a knife to a gunfight. What's important isn't so much what you bring as much as what you can lay hands on in time and what you finish it with. Within about 25' a knife is more dangerous than a pistol unless it's drawn and aimed. My preference for a knife fight is a baseball bat but that's just me. <grin> Good looking knife, not my style but looks good none the less. Excellent backup in a tight spot. Frosty The Lucky.

I too am glad to see more progress pics, this is a grand project and you're doing a grand job on it. Thank you for the update, keep em coming please. Frosty The Lucky.

I don't like to be discouraging but you're a long way from knowing enough to even ask the right questions about a forging press. Heck, as it stands you'd do much better buying a log splitter, making the dies and using it in the off time to split firewood for sale. To be fast enough you need a dual action set up. The ram moves fast till it hits resistance, then it puts the grunt to it. 30tons? Awful darned wimpy for forging, minimum in fact. I could generate more useful force with a long lever and drop weight at the end. Slide the piece between the dies and pull the rope, BANG the weight lands on the lever and you have some big down squashen. Pull the rope again the weight falls on the floor and a spring lifts the lever. NO, I'm not suggesting you build such a gizmo. My most serious suggestion is to learn the craft, heck before you start making blades. Bladesmithing is a pretty specialized arena of blacksmithing. It isn't some super specialized thing but it does require more than your beginner can usually bring to the game. It's a fine goal, nothing at all wrong with wanting to make blades, it's just a lot trickier and demanding than most folk think at first. Don't worry, at 19 you have plenty of time to get it all going for you AND you have this bunch of grimy old farts behind you. With a line up like that how can you fall short? Frosty The Lucky.

Oh DUDE! That is a terrific first knife! Sure it can improve but starting out THERE means yourimproved models will be spectacularly nice blades. Thanks for the pics. Keep them coming please. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Denis, glad to have you. A good way to make it easy to find your way back to a specific location is to put a "shortcut" on your desktop. Simply put the cursor on the little icon thingy on the left side of the address in the address bar above the window you're reading my ramblings in right now. Click, hold the button down drag it to the desktop and let up on the button. Now you have a shortcut button on the desktop all you need to do to get back is double click it and viola! Oh yeah, reduce the page size to half when you do the drag and drop so you can see the desktop around the page. Item two. If you'll put your general location in your header you might be happily surprised at how many folk on IforgeIron live within easy visiting distance. Yeah, that's right we're EVERYWHERE! IFI is represented by members in I don't know how many countries but all over the planet and thousands of folk in this hemisphere. This is kind of tied into the where are you thing but I know some De Priests, you wouldn't happen to live in Alaska would you? Seriously, we buy our hay from Ray De Priest in the Palmer neighborhood. If you're anywhere near that close we'll just have to hook up and I'll give you a beginners course in forging, forge making, tool making, etc. I'm always looking for more playmates you know. Oh yeah, I'll sign you up in the local smithing club. Heck, Metalmangler lives over Butte way and is a professional smith. closer and a better instructor, hard to beat eh? Frosty The Lucky.

Wow, that's a LOT of movement, I have trouble getting mine to move that far when I'm moving it! How heavy is your anvil? If it's light it may want to do the shuffle in use but even my 60lb RR anvil isn't that much of a gypsy. I'd still hesitate to bolt it down till I'd tried a couple few less permanent things like say a smear of silicone calking on the bottom of the feet. Once dry silicone calking is about as sticky as it gets, we used it on the bottom of the dishes on board boats to keep dinner on the table when it was rough. Just to be clear, I'm not talking about glueing it down, a thin layer allowed to dry is as non-skid as the commercial non-skid mats and a whole lot tougher. However, if bolts are the only or best method I'd do it in a heartbeat, tools and especially equipment must be right or the shop isn't right. Frosty The Lucky.

Don't forget to have your fire insurance paid up, just don't let the adjuster know about the leaf blower. Frosty The Lucky.

Are you sure you need to bolt your anvil to the floor? Neither of mine, one on wood one on steel stands dance around on me. I do however move them as necessary and can'timagine sticking either down for hand work. Have you used your anvil and stand? You might want to see if it's necessary before making your anvil a part of the building. Frosty The Lucky.

There is quite a bit of very nice opal in Oregon. Dad was a rockhound and that was his go to for opal. Beautiful non ferret medallions. Have you considered enameling? I got to give enameling a first go in late June and not only was it a LOT of fun the results were surprisingly good for a beginner. Oh yeah, I know there are folk here who know ferrets from non-ferrets but I'll clear up the wonderment amongst the rest. Ferret = ferrous, blacksmiths are THE classic ferrets. Frosty The Lucky.

Noah and his family are on the list here. Frosty The Lucky.

Bummer! That sure looks like CI. Probably time to break it up for the cupola melter. Or leave it where it lays. Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks for posting the link, it's good to see I'm not the ugliest guy beating hot iron. <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

I make forks by drawing the end out flat sort of like a longish screwdriver blade. I use a hot set to cut the tines and a veiner driven between the tines to round the fork where the tines meet. Then I spread the tines just enough to fit over my anvil bridge. The anvil bridge is just a piece of heavy wall square tubing with a shank on one side and one side of the end ground to a rounded edge. This allows me to forge the tines without having to bend them 90* away from each other to forge. Once the tines are finished and rounded to my taste I widen the round bottom of the tines over the horn to maybe 3/8" - 1/2" and flatten it a bit. Oh yeah, I do the fork as the final step, the handle gets first billing and if I'm making a back pack model (I call the pig tail toasting fork) the pigs tail gets final billing. That's it, simple in principle just takes practice and some DRATS! pile donations. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Niels, glad to have you. There are a number of inline systems to use for treadle hammers and the like. You can search "Watt Linkages" for a number of them. I'll be very interested to see what you're doing. I have one of my own on the drawing board and some steel cut but on a back burner. Frosty The Lucky.