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Great article from the BBC has a bit on Jake. http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-35531727

The Mexican coppersmiths in Michoacan use pine bark to anneal their pots. Makes sense given the surrounding flora and industry.

Good luck Ian, you'll back back at it before you know it. Take it easy....

His 'n hers.

I also wear gloves almost all the time. I used to get such bad cracks in my skin but when I stared to be diligent about always gloving up all that went away. I can remember what is hot.

If you'll be doing any grinding, that is.

Don't forget about your lungs. My favorite respirator ever. http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/1272/respirators

Sculpt nouveau makes a nice solution called black magic. Any patina you use will react much better if you sandblast or soak in vinegar for awhile.

A Hossfeld Bender would do those sections easy, cold. And so much more. Spendy to get going but sometimes you see them on craigslist.

The decorations on my hooks are done with dies. Yes, I make them. Its a really attractive technique because typically surface embellishment is done directly into the work piece like chiseling a vein or texturing with a ballpien. With die work you get the opposite, things pop out at you and some fun stuff can happen. And it's way less common making it unique and visually valuable. I also really like the paw print hook.

UNGAWA hooks. Made from 1/4 x 1 drops. One of my favorite cross sections.

Such a powerful thing to make, a little key chain trinket, charm, talisman. Whatever you wanna call it, a little bit of the smith traveling around the world. Here's one I built for my wife to keep her safe on the drive to town.

Dems nice ones. What does the mounting hardware look like? And really nice pics, I bet you'd get some bites on etsy and the like with that photography.

What makes this hammer "radial"?

In my opinion there are not many tools that can enhance a general metal shop like an ironworker. They buy you so much time and open up such a larger range of work, be it bigger railing jobs or more widgets, you will wonder how you made it without. What this translates to is way more income, provided you can hustle up the work. One of my favorite Nakedanvil analogies was something like "you see a lot of dudes driving around in big dumb $45,000 trucks lamenting the price tag on a $15,000 ironworker". Which one can actually make you money? Thinking about it this way, the price tag seems more than fair. sexy hunk pic---