Frosty

I agree with Thomas, pick up a copy of Weygers book, it'll show you a lot of cool field expedient forge set ups. I think a wheel rim is way more firepot than you want for making wood working tools, even if they're for cabin making. Go to a mechanic's shop and ask if you can have an old brake drum. They usually have to pay to have them hauled off so you may have to resist taking a bunch. Frosty

This is a reminder that Peter Renzetti will be auctioning off several tons of great blacksmithing and metalworking equipment next month. Please visit Cabin Fever Auctions - Home for many pics and details. Everything Peter has to sell has been excellently maintained. This is likely to be one of the East coast social events of the year. Hope to see some of you there. Regards, Don Plummer ---------------------------- I didn't FWD the list of stuff Don included in the E-mail. You'll find everything at the URL under "upcoming auctions". I'd sure like to go. Frosty

Two thoughts: First if you have a back door on your forge just move it back and forth till you have an even heat in the section you want to heat. If no back door, make one. Secondly, make a long handled twisting wrench and twist it cold. It's easier than you think. Frosty

Nice use of the comically small scaffold you can find at the Home Depot, Lowes, etc. Frosty

My shops have been varied over the years. Started in the backyard of my parents house with entirely improvised tools except for hammers. Moved to Alaska in 72 and suffered a hiatus of smithing for some 7-8 years. Slowly got back into it, mostly as an alternative to knocking off a half rack of beer every evening after work. (This is typical for off duty drillers, especially out of town drillers) Most of those operations were around a camp fire, some more sophisticated than others depending on how long we were in a camp. Home at the time was a mobile home in South Mountain View (A neighborhood in Anchorage) where I kept everything stowed in a shed and the arctic entry. I unpacked and repacked every time I wanted to do any smithing or fab work. To keep the neighbors mollified I did a LOT of gratis knife sharpenning and light metal repair, some light fab, etc. PR is important you know. Around 95' I ran into a local bladesmith through a farrier aquaintence and rented space in their forge. I escaped THAT situation, short money, tools, equipment, trust and respect for my old "buddy." I met my wife online in the winter of 96', got married july 11th 97', bought 30 acres of woods and started building the house. In the past going on 10 years most of my smithing has been outdoors, then under a tarp tent attached to the front of a 40' Connex (shipping container). Four years ago we subdivided the 30 acres, selling 15. This paid off a bunch of debt and left me enough to start construction on a real shop. I lucked out and bought a 30' x 40' red iron steel shop kit just before steel prices went through the roof. I spent almost $10,000 on the foundation and slab, mostly because of a building boom but also because of all the stuff I crammed into it. Well, I've been putting the new shop up, mostly solo, for three years now and would've had it closed in last fall if I hadn't taken the dirt dive and shattered my arm last sept. I'll get it close in this summer though. It'll have a separate machine shop area inside to keep the machine tools clean but the bulk will be a fab shop and smithy. Deb gets room in the "machine shop" for her fold forming, enameling, repousse and other metallic pursuits. Frosty

While this might not work for our red/green and other color blind friends (please let us know if you try it) it should work for others. There are lots of color charts in books and a number online. Take the book or print out to a paint store and ask for color chips. Paint stores routinely give away color chips. Match them to the heat colors on the chart, take them home and glue them in order to a stick, the leg of your forge, etc. Match your steel to the chart till you develop an eye for heat. Be aware the accuracy of printed charts will depend on how well your printer is calibrated. Finding a book with a current chart would be preferable. Frosty

If you have Quicktime viewer you'll love these pics. Frosty Wortley Top Forge - Panoramas

Agreed. Don is welding up his forge, not something requiring inspection, nor with a liability exposure. Actually, unless you have to meet hard specs 7018 isn't all that desirable a rod. Sure, it's excellent stuff but it requires special treatment and NO it can't be "revived" by baking at any temperature. The old saw, "any open cans at the end of a shift are trash," is the only way to keep hydrogen contamination within "spec". If you want to use 7018 and keep to spec you'll be making proper scarfs, preheating, making root passes, pinging and stress relieving AND throwing the rest of the rod out when you quit for the day. On the other hand, the chances you'll need the full 70,000 lb/sq/in and full deflection in any weldment in your forge aren't too great. You'll be fine using it on your forge. Frosty

I started using a mixture of 4 Pts. Borax and 1 Pt. Boric acid a while back and like it a lot better than straight borax. It's more aggressive and still not noxious. You can find boric acid in most pharmacies or in the bug killin section of the super market under the name "RoachPruf." If you want to forge weld SS you start getting into the toxic flux additives like Sal Amoniak(sp?) and other flouride compounds. It takes something pretty serious to remove chrome oxide from SS. Frosty

Don: Unless you're doing something that is going to be x-rayed or exposed to liability such as a staircase you're fine. 7018 isn't going to show hydrogen embrittlement on your forge. Unless we're talking something extraordinary in a forge. You aren't going to be heating RR cars or the like are you? Frosty

The irrnsrgn forgot to include "eye" in the definition. I guess it's why we don't call him the "English Professor." "Eyeballing" means using only your eyes to measure. That said, Thank you for showing us your video and other picture sets Roger. It's good to see what it's like to have the right tools and knowledgeable help. Frosty

Another thing a city blacksmith is s/he'd probably be a specialist rather than the all round smith you'd find in a small town. Philly was already a pretty sophisticated city by the revolutionary war. Farriers, bladesmiths, locksmiths, gunsmiths, hardware, housewares, industrial items, tools, etc. etc. Almost anything turned out in quantity, say nails would have been made by someone who did little if anything else and spikes would've been made by another person. There were large (relatively) competetive factories by then. You might try looking into historical business listings of the time. Perhaps tax records would give you names, places and relative volumes of business. Let me know if you need a proof reader. Frosty

That's a cuty Valentin. I have one that weighs about 4gm give or take but no pics. Frosty

Hi Vash: Welcome to the addiction. Find yourself a section of RR rail, it's a lot cheaper and better than the little cast anvils, iron or steel. Pick up a copy of, "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" by: Alexander G. Weygers. ISBN 0-89815-896-6 This is one of the best books on improvising a metal working shop from found materials going. Weygers is actually a carver, wood and stone mostly and traveled all over the world. Rather than taking all the tools he'd need to carve whatever he found wherever he was, he'd just build a smithy from found stuff. Then he'd make whatever tools he needed at the time and do his carving. Frosty

The vote of the ABANA board was unanimous and yes, it was largly financial reasons. Claire and other board members are seeking suggestions for changing ABANA for a continued future. There's been a pretty intense discussion going on on theforge list, the ABANA sponsored E-mail list. If you'd like to get involved you can subscribe easily enough. Manage membership or unsubscribe at: TheForge Info Page Frosty

Oh yeah, brownies tend to get a lot bigger than polar bears and the Kodiak variety are the biggest. Largest land predator on the planet unless the russians are keeping something else secret. The aircraft were mostly in the B concourse where you catch an air taxi for bush flights. In a previous incarnation I was a driller and spent a lot of time in the bush and consequently in B concourse. They moved some of the aircraft into the main terminal when they built the new section. I THINK Noel Wien's first mail plane is hanging from the ceiling. Frosty

That SHOULD'VE read, "I'm the old fart on the RIGHT." I even double checked "preview." A little about the setup in the picture, if you're curious. Deb and I were still building our house and I didn't even have a tarp up for a smithy. I set up what I did at the time because Richard hunted me down on the web to learn to make a sword. He was 15 when we met so naturally he wanted to make a sword. I still have most of my tools under a tarp but the shop is nearly closed in. It would've been before the snow flew this winter but I fell off a tilt top trailer at work and shattered my left arm and elbow. That was sept 12 and I'm still under a 10lb limit. Back to work on light duty a good two months before the surgeon's most optimistic estimate. The shop would've been the first thing I built if I were still unmarried at the time. Heck, Deb would've gone along with it if we didn't have to have a place to live and a barn for her pygmy goat herd. The smithin tools are fine even after years under a tarp but the goat's wouldn't have fared so well. The first pic is Deb, Buran, (the Great Pyreneese, livestock guardian dog) myself and the girls. The second pic is Buran the 150lb Pyr livestock guardian being his perfectly gentle self with HIS charges. Do NOT give one of these gentle giants the idea you are a threat to THEIR charges. Shooting yourself instead will be a lot less painful. The third pic is the house from the doe pen. A Boer doe is in the foreground and goat rock is on the right. And why are the goat pictures on topic you ask? I wear my apron when I disbud the kids. Frosty

I usually wear a full length heavy leather apron with split legs to the top of my boots. The straps go over my shoulders, through rings at my waist and around to buckle in front. The straps make it very adjustable and comfortable the weight being split between my shoulders and the waist belt. It has a breast pocket the size of a pack of smokes + Zippo and pencil, scale, etc. pockets. There is a scale/square/rod, etc. pocket on the left leg as well. I wear it when things might get messy and the reduced flexibility allow. I don't know how many times it's armored me against grinding disks coming apart, this isn't a common occurance but it's happened more than a dozen times in the last 10 years. It's also stood up nicely to sprays of molten flux, welding spatter, grinder spray, brush wires, metal chips and other various flying debris. Attached is a poor pic of me in it. I'm the old fart on the left. the handsom young guy on the left is Richard one of my students. I had it made by a friend based on the apron used by a THANKFULLY ex-associate. Frosty

I think I've already mentioned how attractive a gal who gets excited over tools is to me. You be one lucky gal. It's a funny thing how the bad moments in life can lead to some pretty wonderful things. Last september 12th. I took a little dirt dive off a tilt top trailer and shattered my left arm and elbow. Living in Alaska, about the worst time to lay yourself up is fall so Deb and I were looking at all the things we needed to get done for winter and me not able to do much of anything. After spending nine days in the hospital and undergoing two surgeries they sent me home to veg for several months while little of anything got done. The next thing I know one of the guys at work calls asking what would be a convenient time to come out with a crew of volunteers. Seven guys from work drove the 50+ miles to cut and split firewood, pickup stuff, tarp and generally winterize the place. Friends have been cleaning our barn monthly, driving us to appointments (Until I got cleared to drive myself of course) and generally keeping us up on the necessary work curve. They even came out to remove the spruce tree when it crushed our vehicles. We've had an "interesting" year in the sense of the Chinese curse, three major hits though nothing permanent nor tragic. The hard times are blessings, they let us know how strong we can be, they teach us valuable lessons and best of all they let us know people are basically good. Merry Christmas Pam. Hugs, Frosty

Mexico is good. Maybe even let the banditos know for those "special" visitors? You bet, one of the main attracitons is a Boon and Crocket, Kodiak Brown bear amongst the other mounts. Lots of vintage, AK historical aircraft too. Frosty

If you could see McKinley it was along the Parks Hwy. alright. Running the view through my memory it would've been south of the Park entrance, you can't see the mountain from there north. Did you live in a town? Air fare isn't that much from Oregon and summers are to die for. Of course you know about summer. Just don't let word get out, it's getting crowded enough. Like I say, if you decide to make the trip let us know we're only an hour from Anch international and have room. Frosty

Mike: You lived almost DEAD between Fbks and Anch? I think I would've moved sooner. Meadow lakes is about 50 miles north of Anchorage on the Parks hwy. about 7 miles past Wasilla. When the leaves are off the trees and it's clear we can see McKinley, Foraker from the living room. It's also a lot warmer in the winter than the interior. About where did you live while here? On the Parks or Richardson, Glenn route? If you ever take a trip back plese look us up. Frosty

Monel is about as close to inert and a really durable but workable metal gets. It's one of the earliest commercially available types of Stainless Steel though I don't know if it qualifies as SS anymore. Its used where corrosion resistance are important, for instance my Father spun the finial sphere on the Washington state capitol building in Olympia. That was while we still lived in Wa. state so it's a good 50 years old and is still as shiney as when it was installed. Frosty

I'm sorry to see Alan leave the forum and sorrier still to see him banned. I hope the bannishment can be reconsidered after some time has passed. I may be wrong but I think he took it harder when his mentor differed with him in another thread. I've had a similar experience with a new student who subbed to a list I'm pretty active on. He discovered the really big difference in how I run my shop and teach compared to how and what other folk do. He naturally thought I was somehow infallible and came close to flaming another smith for differing with a method I'd taught him. He was most hurt when I pulled him up short. I did it as gently as I could publicly but saved the serious explanations for private sessions. It's marvelous how watching your iron heat frees your mind for listening. He got over it though, continued with me, turned out to be a darned fine smith in his own right and is currently in the Navy going to nuke power school. I think Alan and Scott will talk it out and Alan will (I hope) return to us with a more open attitude. Frosty

Illustrated. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15270/15270-h/15270-h.htm Frosty