Frosty

And now I know what a "tool balancer" is, I can think of a number of things one would be handy for. Thanks John, Lounge well my friend. Frosty The Lucky.

I replied to one of your other requests for the same thing! Did you even do a web search for "II&B Co. anvil"? . . . "Illinois Iron & Bolt" is the first hit. I'm not going to search through their website or catalogues for you, it won't help you learn how to learn. I enjoy helping folks and answering questions but you have to do something for yourself first. You have the internet available, all you have to do is a web search. Of course doing a good web search is a learned skill, just like blacksmithing. And taking decent photos for that matter. Whatever you may wish to know about your anvil will do absolutely nothing for learning to be a competent blacksmith, that requires different questions and time at the anvil. A little knowledge and a LOT of practice is the secret. Now, go forth build a fire and beat some steel! Need a hand give a shout. Frosty The Lucky.

Tool . . . Balancer? Dang, now I can't think of what we called them, something like recoil lanyard, call or come back? I vote we rename your Theater dumpster John's treasure trove #1. How many dumpsters are a regular host? I mount most of my top tools on old hockey sticks, I picked up 8-9 from a high school trash can next to the gym door. I used to have free reign at the heavy duty shop dumpster till a guy at a different camp got greedy and started throwing brand new tires in the light duty dumpster and picking them after work. Someone noticed his rigs had brand new tires, took a look and that was that. Private citizens can NOT buy new Cop tires. That was it, dumpster diving became a firing offense for any state employee so I no longer got to bring home scrap steel. Fuel truck delivered day before yesterday and left some deep ruts down hear the shop. Mud season begins. It's the good bad of spring, warms up ground turns to mush. <sigh> Frosty The Lucky.

Celtic towel torcs? . . . Dang, where'd THAT thought come from? Frosty The Lucky.

No picture? Depends on why it doesn't have a horn. Was the horn broken off or is it a hornless pattern? What about the rest of the evaluation? The condition of the face and edges? How about it's rebound? Do you use a horn, if so for what? My Soderfors has a beautiful horn and I rarely use it for anything but a bottom fuller on occasion, It's edges have two different radiuses and I can do almost all my fullering on them. I's use the horn for truing up rings if necessary. $200 for a 150lb anvil sounds like a great price if it's in good enough condition. Post a couple pictures and we can give you more informed opinions. Frosty The Lucky.

I was thinking a sea serpent, I could cut it in lengths for the above ground parts and make a larger Wyrm. Frosty The Lucky.

He's also wearing more sandals than the low top shoes the others are. Then there is his hat, though I know nothing about hats it sort of makes me think Tyrolean sort of. What about the fellow sitting in the lower right with the basket of . . . things that look like cloves of garlic? Is he selling nibbles for the event everybody is gathered to watch? I dipped my toes in the Torc rabbit hole and watched a few "Curator's Corner" videos from The British Museum. The lady was discussing the Snettisham great torc, first pic in the link about torcs. She described how gold was poured into a bar then forged longer and longer until it was the wire in the torc from the hoard. Of course NOBODY knows how it was made, then she goes on to describe what she imagines it took to cast the ornately decorated ring ends onto the twisted wire body and the collars between were to hide the join. HAMMERED more than 200' of wire to precise dimension to make the 64 strands in the yarns in the "rope" main body! It illustrates my amazement at how many museum curators guess at things they have no grounding in rather than ask someone who does it every day. How many gold smiths would she have had to ask to learn about drawing wire? I tend to snoop around museums for blacksmithing or metalworking displays and offer advice for their displays if it falls in one of my areas. When the curator was interested, large museums often require college degrees to have an expert opinion. Drats drifted into a rant anyway. Sorry gang. Frosty The Lucky.

Good save John! There appears to be a signature in the bottom right but it may just be some of the random detail, filler on the ground. I'm wondering about the subject, the fellow standing with his hands behind his back doesn't look happy and that's a lot of spectators and a musician for a non-event. Who brings young children to watch a smith work on a normal day? There isn't much of a fire in the forge, nor an anvil or other smithing tools. If they were branding an outlaw I'd expect a different crowd and if they were closing his manacles I'd expect an anvil and guards. I don't know what's going on or why but I like it. Frosty The Lucky.

Epoxy and sand makes good anchor and you don't have to melt or deal with the sometimes exciting things that can happen pouring molten lead into cold stone. On further thought, preheating the scraper and letting it warm the holes for a few seconds should help deal with rapid temperature change. People been anchoring in stone with lead for a few thousand years so . . . Frosty The Lucky.

You can drive the pins out and handle it one link at a time. Hmmm, make a 3 lobed master link for interestingness say a tree or saguaro cactus? Bicycle chain bonsai? Frosty The Lucky.

I don't know, I can't see what the break looks like well enough and there is no picture of the other side so I know what it's supposed to look like. If it's supposed to be solid to the bearing surface then welding full depth should do it. If it is as wide as the shiny black between the weld bead and the bearing surface, the weld they made is barely a tack weld for what it should be. I hadn't imagined they'd put 1/4" weld to repair a 2" break. It would've been a better join if they'd totally degreased it and silver brazed it. Done properly it would be at least as strong as the original cast iron unless it was malleable / gray cast iron and nobody spent the time and money heat treating cast for that kind of part. Cast iron ASOs are gray / malleable iron and it requires a long cooling process IIRC. It's been a while since I read how malleable is made. What it is is more expensive and impact resistant, something that part of a power hammer doesn't need at all. I'm just hoping Kevin takes a few better pictures so I can maybe make a useful suggestion. Frosty The Lucky.

I'd like to hear some stories of the little people, Billy. It's kind of amazing how different stories in different nations and different millennia are not so different. Frosty The Lucky.

Giant bicycle sculpture? Frosty The Lucky.

Bolt it to the stand and the anvil maybe? I don't recall if you have a welder or not. If you do making a sledge hammer trip is pretty straight forward. Frosty The Lucky.

They would make serious gate and door hinges wouldn't they? On that note if you built one into both leaves or the leaf and frame of a gate / door so they came together when it closed you could hang the padlock inside where it was protected. Frosty The Lucky.

Very nicely done John, I like it. Frosty The Lucky.

Your post was the first one I opened so I'm blaming you! For a darned good bit of enjoyable reading and searching that is. It keeps me off the streets. How many of his videos have you watched? "Ancientcraft UK" hosts I don't know how many, he's one of their main people. His primary interest is in pre-iron age Briton though he has studied in Europe. He only mentions clovis points briefly and almost mocks the idea they are the result of the culture crossing the Atlantic. I believe the anachronistic costume is part of staging for a program though I don't know what it adds. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a superior's "good" idea. When he's in lecture mode about what he's doing I listen closely but if he drifts into modern cultural I only watch. He has video about collecting, smelting and casting copper, making and casting bronze and some I haven't watched about iron smelting and working. I'm only watching the free videos and probably missing the really good stuff or maybe just this year's videos. Frosty The Lucky.

Spring has been like that here too Alex. Three days ago the driveway was almost all clear and now it's covered in snow again, been snowing almost 2 days straight. Light but steady. Gotta love spring this close to the arctic circle eh? Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Kevin, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you'll have a much better chance of meeting up with people living within visiting distance. You know, like someone who can help? I'm not going to offer welding advice, it's too far outside my range of expertise, even when I ran a lot of rod. The one suggestion I do have is, after welding it maybe weld a couple reinforcing straps across the weld. Heat and form it to match the guide where it's welded, 3/8" x 1" and long enough to pass at least 1 1/2" past the weld on each side. Just stitch the weld on alternate sides to minimize pull as it cools. Take it slow and easy, you don't want the reinforcing bar to get hot or it WILL pull as it cools. Frosty The Lucky.

First I want to thank you for opening another rabbit warren George, it's a good way to take up all the free time I have after losing myself watching Dr. James Dilley's flint knapping videos! A teaser in return. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFvMyGiAA7M On a more serious note, it is an excellent article and provides plenty of stuff to look up. I do SO love a good rabbit hole. No fooling, I do. Frosty The Lucky.

Making it up yourself Scott? Are you painting now? Looks like a punch to me, I don't think the bottom die is wide enough to be a shear. Frosty The Lucky.

Did you know that grinding wheels embed bits of broken abrasive in what you're grinding? That little bit of grit will dull files hundreds of times faster than clean steel. Accidently taking too much off on a grinder of any kind is how you learn control and touch when you're grinding. It's how I learned, by stocking my scrap can. Frosty The Lucky.

That's a good one Scott. You should get a larger screen to view things on, the lad on the right is roasting the mouse on a fork. Frosty The Lucky.

Thank you Wicon. A closed die forging sure can form characters proud of the surface, JUST like that. Frosty The Lucky.