Frosty

Very nice, I like the simplicity and boldness of the design, the size and clean detail of the elements accentuates it's openness. This is the kind of work an owner would have the contractor make the house match. Frosty The Lucky.

I know, my feet are getting wider, lots wider. They remeasure you if you want another pair. What they keep the measurements for is to have a baseline to compare to, I guess it gives them an idea what's going on in your feet over time. Then again, the old boots fit just fine once I get them warmed up a little. Frosty The Lucky.

Are you going to be online at your regular Edress Harold? I'll be spending a week or two in the mid west late June, maybe we can hook up again. I sure enjoyed the last time. Frosty The Lucky.

Being of the bent that it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it, over amping the temp rating on refractory is probably a good thing. It's a might help, can't hurt. On the other hand most everybody I know making gas burners talk about how long the flare lasts, some a while, some hours. Makes me thing a 4,000f refractory should make a dandy flare, all a person would have to do is put a 1:12 taper in the forge liner with the narrow end out to accept the burner tube. Frosty The Lucky.

I poured concrete and wear good boots or shoes. I have two go to pairs of boots for uncomfortable achy feet, legs, back, etc. My White's Logger Smoke Jumper lace up boots were custom fitted and are more comfortable than sneakers for most anything but they're spendy, last I checked about $350 for what I bought. They last a Looooong time though, my first pair is just turning 35 I think, I could call White's, I and my measurements are in their book. My other go to boots are Z Coils and they have springs in the heals for a soft tread no matter what you're on. These take some getting used to as your subconscious thinks the ground is moving till it adjusts. Z Coils are becoming the industry standard for folk who make a living on concrete and I think insurance is starting to cover them. Heck, I just bought a new pair of sneakers with a Dr. Scholls gel sole and they're darned comfy . . . so far anyway. yeah, they're leather, I really don't care for hot slag, scale, cutoffs, etc. melting into my shoes. I'm just getting too old to dance like that. <grin> Compacted crushed gravel works well so long as it is NOT washed gravel, it needs the fines to compact properly. Clay will work but can turn into a quagmire if the water rises under it. Flowing over it isn't so terrible but if ground water comes up, think quick sand but muddier. If the gravel you have in place now has good fines adding a LITTLE portland cement and compacting makes for a really durable surface. It's called Concrete stabilized soil and isn't nearly as unforgiving as a concrete floor. It is however plenty hard enough to roll tools, equipment, motor vehicles, land cargo jets on, etc. Frosty The Lucky.

Blacksmithing tools don't sell real well in antique shops so it's no wonder they don't give much but a glance, probably cost them more to get it home than they'd make. Lastly, it's a TV show. If you want to know where they find something you have to pay attention to where they are, then go there and ask around, coffee shops are my favorite information sources when traveling. Shooting a TV show on old "Whatsisnames" place will be remembered for quite a while, years at least. Frosty The Lucky.

It also depends on what kind of electrode flux you're talking about. I sincerely doubt E series rod fluxes will do anything but prevent any weld. Flux on E 6011, etc. is sawdust and clay, the sawdust burns providing a good plasma column and strong pressure to help blow crud out of the way and the clay fuses into a nice strong slag to protect the bead while it cools. I don't know about 70xx rods but the slag tells me there's something like clay in the flux so it probably won't work so well. However, seeing as I've never tried breaking the flux off welding electrode I could be as completely wrong as it's possible to be. I've never even given it much thought seeing as I've had really good luck using 20 Mule Team borax, the laundry soap and recently I've been adding 1pt in 4 of boric acid and like it a little better. If you try electrode flux, please let us know how it works, I may want to add it to my tool kit. (tricks I use to make life easier or possible) Frosty The Lucky.

Sand boxes work well and are easily adjustable for height should it be desirable. They also tend to damp the ring, like dead stop any resonance. Frosty The Lucky.

The vermiculite has a melting temp around 2,000f so any very near the inside will degrade. I've had some success with 2pts fire clay to 3pts silica sand (sharp is better it seems) to 1/2pt portland cement. Mix thoroughly dry and have your brick molds ready before you add moisture. Add only enough water so it will clump hard when squeezed in your hand and break cleanly. If it stains your hand it's too wet, if it crumbles it's too dry. hammer it into your brick molds with a wood mallet till it bounces then strike it smooth with a bar. If you really want insulating brick replace a portion of the mix's sand with saw dust and lay it in the molds so it rams to about a 3/4" - 1" layer next to the fire, then ram it with the hard refractory. When using saw dust it helps to moisten the sawdust and add it to the other ingredients after they're mixed. You will have to mix it a lot though or it will separate. The portland cement is there to get the bricks to set up before firing but if you use too much it will spall and degrade the bricks. The sand will help prevent it from shrink checking as it dries as will using the absolute minimum water it takes to work. Sand will also help prevent checking with the thermal cycles as it allows some movement when expanding/contracting. This makes me wonder why sharp sand seems to work better than aluvial (stream/beach rounded) sand. The sawdust will burn out leaving voids in the refractory just like light insulating fire brick, (it's how they make it) providing some insulation and not having any silica sand in it will make it more flux resistant. I've wanted to try using small styrofoam beads instead figuring spherical voids would be strounger but I'll bet it'd be pretty stinky firing the things. Lastly you need to cure and fire your bricks. Let them dry completely, days if necessary or put a light bulb next to them but dry Dry DRY is a must. Now for the first fire, charcoal briquettes work really well for this, lay a single layer on/around the spaced out bricks and light em up. Allow it to burn out and cool completely. Now move them apart a little so you can put lots more charcoal briquettes on/around them and repeat the first firing process. Lastly stack them for your forge and mount your burner (if it's a gasser) and bring it up to a nice cheery orange heat and let it soak for a couple hours and you're good to go. Well, as good as it'll get for home made firebrick that is. Best luck. Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks for posting the pics. How long would a fellow have to sweep floors, empty trash cans and such before they let him squirt a little oil on such equipment? Like you say Jim, the crew has to know each other and the job very well. We were like that on the drill crew, we'd go days without saying anything about the job, it drove visiting white hats nuts, they never knew what was going on. It usually took us about two years to get a new guy trained up so they weren't more hazard than help. It was usually easier training someone who'd never worked on a drill than an "experienced driller" it's so much harder to untrain someone before you train them. Frosty The Lucky.

Beautiful Jose! Another fine blade. Frosty The Lucky.

Sweet score Joe! I'm sure someone with Anvils in America will be along presently and give you her birth date. Frosty The Lucky.

Another rule of thumb that's a good departure point is to mount the face so your wrist is even with it when standing comfortably next to it in your work shoes. Another is to mount it at knuckle height but those were the days of strikers so it's a little low for single hand hammering. Those work as departure points but the most important thing to remember is to put it at YOUR comfort level and it's hard to beat Thomas' advice. Frosty The Lucky.

Alaska trade with Ontario? Why not, what do they have to trade? Aren't I a nice guy, I'm not going to pick that straight line up, no siree, not me. So Luke; UPer or Troll? I married a UPer and it took her several years to get over MatSu valley winters, she used to get more in one snowfall than we get all winter. Like I said, I'll be north of Minneapolis late June, maybe we can hook up and get you introduced to some multi talented metalheads. Frosty The Lucky.

We understand Larry, New Yorkers just talk like that. <snicker> Frosty The Lucky.

Are you making a solid fuel forge? If so forget the copper, brass, plastic(!?) or such, just go with black plumbing pipe and fittings or if you weld exhaust pipe is fine. Avoid galvy but don't sweat a little so long as you don't get it in the fire. If you use galvy avoid the bluish white smoke looking stuff especially if you see pretty bluish greenish flames. (Cyan is the actual color) Don't freak out if you get the galvy burning just get out of the smoke and let it cool down. Frosty The Lucky.

That'd depend on a number of variables. #1 what it's going to be used to heat. #2 what fuel. #3 Where it's going to be used, as in clearances, room cooling, etc. #4 What can you afford, for construction, fuel bills, making the smithy livable, etc. A little more info will make meaningful answers easier. Frosty The Lucky.

By all means come back and ask away! Just post pics, we LOVE pics. Both of you looking for more tools will speed it up a lot and before long you'll have loaners for all the new friends you'll start teaching. Nothing shortens your learning curve like teaching someone else, nothing. Frosty The Lucky.

Sorry about the obnoxiously huge, poor quality pics. Frosty The Lucky.

I'm happy to help when I can Mark. It's easy to lose sight of the fact you don't have to use something just because you have it. AND I'm a firm believer in the old adage, "it's better to have IT and not need it than need IT and not have it." Don't get me wrong, knowing how to go it "primitive" is a good trick to have in your toolkit. Being able to do smithing work with nothing more than a camp fire, a couple rocks and split willow tongs means you'll never be: #1 bored on a camping trip, #2 shy tools and or weapons after an apocalypes. I'm not usually a fan of RR spikes, especially for knives but as to the "primitive" forging angle, I recently made a friend a stake tool from a RR spike for making nails by the camp fire. Frosty The Lucky.

I went back and looked at the first post and the video. It's a Watt linkage a fellow name of Bruce Freeman adapted to a treadle hammer he calls the Grasshopper hammer. Bruce sells plans but they're (in my opinion) more complicated than necessary. The basic principle is the natural arc of the hammer arm is counteracted by the pivot being mounted on an equal length counter swinging arm. It needs a stabilizing element perpendicular to the motion of the hammer or it's kind of floppy. Bruce uses a long vertical lever at the back but I've seen designs that use a wheel in a horizontal track instead. I like the wheel. If you're interested in designing your own version check out the Watt Linkage and other linkages used in early steam engines and similar, then get out the popcicle sticks and get to experimenting. There is another inline hammer called the Weta but I don't know if more than one ever got built but there may be drawings or pics online somewhere for the determined searcher. Frosty The Lucky.

Do it in a "V" block, it isn't that hard but it does take a touch and some practice so be prepared to mess it up a time or two so do a test piece or two first. You can pack it with sand but it's not necessary unless you're in a hurry. I've done some really light wall sq. tubing without much problem, just don't get carried away on any one heat or step. You can get some pretty cool effects from forging tubing, makes for nice furniture and such. Frosty The Lucky.

Get yourself hooked up with GOM (Guild Of Metalsmiths) in your general neck of the woods, there are plenty of metal casters in the gang, some good friends of mine. I don't know about the book you're referencing I'm not that into casting and have a good friend locally who is a master caster who teaches if I want to be. If you're up this way near the end of June stop by the Museum of Industry and Transportation in Wasilla for the Art On Fire event, the iron pour is always fun Fun FUN. Heck, I'll be in Elk River for the last couple weeks of June for a little annual gathering of metalhead friends, I'm sure there'll be flowing glowy metal from time to time, there usually is. I'll be checking my E-mail on a friends computer if Deb won't let me take the laptop, give me a shout, maybe we can hook up and get you introduced to some casters. Frosty The Lucky.

Sometimes you don't have a choice but to defend yourself and at those times don't hesitate. That said try making a friend of an old opponent, you've shown what a bad idea it is to be your enemy, make it worthwhile to be your friend. High school is a time of raging hormones and it's darned common to get busy on each other for no good reason so don't hold it against each other. Remember, life is too short to lose a friend, you'll never have too many. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard David, glad to have you. He must be a darned good friend if you're considering letting him have the anvil in better condition. I've done similar, friends are good to have. <grin> Yeah, I'd keep the better one and invite my buddy over any time. The odd sound to the PW might be the piece of steel welded over the hardy hole isn't as solid as it should be. Even a little unfused metal can buzz if in contact. Listening for a flat sound or buzz is a common test to detect a delaminated face plate. In either case good work can be done on them but keeping your eyes open for a nicer one is sort of a blacksmith tradition. Frosty The Lucky.