Big-D

Mr. Simmons was a true gentleman and a friend. I probably met him for the first time around 1994. I helped him make a gate that was raffled off in a silent auction for charity. Here's a picture of us with the gate, and another picture of Mr. Simmons and my two boys.

Mine is mounted horizontally as in the picture. They are made to be mounted vertically. You can pretty much change the attitude of the fan housing in 90 degree increments with those Buffalos.

I know one thing, I love my Peddinghaus.

You mean like this: Yes.

Let me tell you, if you can't find a hand crank blower in Iowa, there's a real problem!!!! One thing you might try is to run an ad in the local newspapers, something like "top dollar paid for blacksmthing tools; anvils, forges, blowers, vises". People around here in SC tell me they can't find anvils. I've bought an Arm and Hammer (NOT a Vulcan!!!), a Kohlswa, and a Peter Wright, all in very nice condition just in the past two months.

Hmmmmmm, I've had three Peddinghaus anvils over the years. The oldest was probalby 1960's vintage or so, it was marked "PFP". None of them had a crown. As HWooldridge said, it may be their way of stating a tolerance.

VaughnT: That's a pretty traditional (18th century) thing to have that scalloped border on a touchmark. Just takes a bit of work with a jeweler's file. I'm in SC as well. Sent you a PM.

Why not buy a forged anvil, like a Peddinghaus?

Two other points: It's not uncommon for me to discover that I need a particular style of tongs in the middle of a job. I prefer to stop for an hour, make the tongs, and get back to the job at hand, rather than wait a week or 10 days for the store bought tongs to arrive. Store bought tongs are rather generic, for holding a particular round/flat/square size. I make some lantern brackets out of two pieces of 3/8" square. I have some tongs I made that hold the two pieces together while I heat them up for forge welding. You could never find tongs like that already made. Another example is tongs for holding hammer heads, I have one pair that holds the head from the face, the other from the pein. Can't find those already made either. Yes, I make my own hammers as well.

Making tongs vs. buying I realize you all think I may be a newb, but actually I started blacksmithing in 1979 at Colonial Williamsburg. I had the luxury of learning from some very good blacksmiths. We made our own tools at Colonial Williamsburg, as well as tools for most of the other craftsmen there, and that has carried on with me to this day. I personally would rather make tools than anything else. To me it's the most enjoyable part of blacksmithing.

We're blacksmiths for goodness sake!!!!!!!

I make them both ways, but I probably make more by drawing down the reins. I love making tongs (and have been making them for about 34 years), I have to be careful I don't overpopulate myself.

I used 3/4" square for 90% of the tongs I make.

Like this:

You might also join the California Blacksmith's Association, and ask the members if any of them have one for sale. WRT size, I'd shoot for something in the 120-150 range. Under 100 the face is a bit small.

I think you meant "Peter Ross".

Here's a cheesey cell phone picture of the kind we made at Colonial Williamsburg:

You can find more information about the class here: http://philipsimmonsartistblacksmithguild.com/newsletter/category/7-2012?download=24%3Anov-ded-2012-newsletter

A lot of folks like ones like this: http://www.harborfreight.com/horizontal-vertical-metal-cutting-bandsaw-93762.html There are a number of articles out there on improving them.

Lawn mower blades used to be made of of something closer to a medium to high carbon tool steel. Due to all the product liability nonsense they are now something "softer" that will have less probability of throwing shprapnel off if they hit something.

I have a simpler method. Before I had a swage block, I needed a bowl shaped depression. I cut a piece of 1/4" plate big enough to make an individual bowl swage. I took the piece of steel to a friends house, heated it up in his forge, and forged it down into the bowl depression in his swage block. Took 2-3 heats to get it right. We had a cast iron cannon ball we used as a hammer. I then welded a hardy shank on it. I may still have it.

Here's one I made a few years ago, english pattern: