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The obvious, tool steel will last longer, mild steel is fine. A lot of guys will say if your gonna make a tool, make it to last. My approach much of the time (not all) is to make it fast. To me this means having a nice belt grinder and welder.

Hey man, nice photo's in American Craft.  Were those your jury images?

Well I would agree that a friction screw press really is the thing to have.  The issue is that to do the work of a 30 ton hydraulic press you need a 100 ton Screw press.    Now if I could find a 100-150 ton friction screw press I could buy reasonable I think Id jump on it but I dont think it would completely replace a hydraulic press either.

 
Why do you say this?  Are the "ratings" just different?   Most tasks I would like a screw press for seem to profit from the fact that there is limited heat suck.  

I used to have a 33 and mine had no problem with one inch stock, that thing was snappy.    I couldn't have kept up with it for five minutes.  No way.  The control is amazing.

 

My only issues with the hammer were the small dies and small throat.  Thats a good point about resale, I know I lost no $.  I still wish I wouldn't have sold the thing.   Mike is right, it excels for smaller work.  Oh man, and pipe work!  Tippy tap tap.

Looks like a pry bar and fulcrum to me, bottom of the pic.  

 

You won me over when you took the time to flatten the bends, that move adds a lot. Nice.

Nice one.  Yup, would be nice if it the dies were a tad wider so you can get in there later w/o shunts but I would use this one a ton as well.

 

 

I always thought the "smithin magician" term had gained notoriety kinda like kleenex.  Heck, Hoffman (love love his drawings) didn't even come up with the moniker.  Check the story here- 

 

http://www.metalsmith.org/pub/mtlsmith/V16.4/magi.html

 

Some really great usage ideas there as well.  And man I wish I could render drawings like that!

I used to have a gallery in an old cabin in a "Historical Park".  What came through the door most often was old people who wanted to look at old stuff and weren't prepared to spend money.   I learned real quick not to rely on the foot traffic for sales.  

 

Good luck with your venture.

Remember,  it isn't a deal unless you are getting the one you really want.  Sucks to buy one size down because its cheap.  

Not a lot of true "blacksmiths" around, but many metalworkers with a love of forging.  The ability to instantly fuse steel together in intricate or super strong ways is unbelievable.  And welders are cheeep, and can make you quick $.  You can use the technology however you like but to limit yourself seems silly.   Personally i have no problems with welding but tend to design away from grinding.

It's all railroad iron, the j clips are similar steel, just not as use-able of a cross section.  With the solid one's you get a nice meaty hunk and it's forgiving to heat treat if you chose.   You could forge the threads of one of those big bolts into a square shank and it can be your first stake.  Good for you!

All our toys seem to be bright plastic kind, feel like a little kid.

 

Shot 1 - Bunch of mates and toys.  

 

Shot 2 -  "Maybe we should get a few more kegs, just in case".

Those squiggly rail clips are good medium carbon steel, useful for all kinds of tooling.  Just gotta straiten 'em out.

There is a case to be made for making a pattern or jig for this kind of work, if you plan on multiples. Complex sweeping arcs and loops like the photo are a really appealing use of the material and when you put two together that are exact it's a wonder to the viewer. I'm all for slight variations and all but if you want to add something like this to your line of goods then you best make some forms. Trying to hand roll even more than a couple would be frustrating and tough to not look amateurish. If you have a nice pattern then you can bust out as many as you want. What will you do when a friend of the giftee wants a set? Go back to your notes? Been there, done that, it's painful.

This guy, Jack Brubaker, does all his swoopy candle holders(made of pipe) with jigs, patterns, whatever you wanna call them. They look like you would imagine, multi-planed, multi -stage forms where you take nice long heats and clamp as you go. The jigs themselves are really beautiful.

Thanks for the stories Ptree, really enjoyed that read.

Makes me want to learn more about my great grandfather. My Grandparents were in my shop about six years ago and my grandmother says "Jamie, I don't know where you get this from." Then my grandpa goes "My father was a hammer man for twenty years at Ladish". "Whaaaat ?" says me. I did a little poking around at the history (axle forger to the auto industry) but that's about it.

Again, great stuff.

i really don't get the demonstrating thing. You are there to sell your work right? If you are working you have no time to field any queries from buyers. Seems like shooting yourself in the foot to me. And you are there to sell "your work", right? Well, if people can see you sweating right in front of them I think they are way less apt to spend, they just saw you do it for free! In an art fair situation you are the gallery, the sales team. You can talk about process but you should be selling an item, not giving away a demo.

I do see the other side, people see the amazing process and maybe are more apt to buy. But I still think you get more action by paying attention to your customers than working. I work enough.

I agree with the 10% rule. However, you have to take in account the commissions that trickle in after the tents have been rolled up and put away. Make sure you advertise your practical skills and have your photo album of past works front and center.

I like pops knife supply.. Best prices I've found, never had a backorder, great manners on the phone. Fast shipping the biggest plus. Love the 3M "gold belt".

Love it. Makes burning man look like a bunch of hippies and a lighter.

Similar minds...Here's pretty much the same thing, I made mine for my female last Valentines day. Handle is tubing, tigged on the underside, and squished to oval (for the prying). It also used to enjoy being a ball peen. It's a bit soft, how did you heat treat yours MBruce?

Great videos! Thanks for that link. So tempted to check out the sun dried tomato gravy and pork jowl omelette but cant spend the 21 minutes.

Any ideas about a source for carbon hunks? Would old water filters work?

Sweet arena Dr. Dillon. Lifetime full of hard work right there, congrats.

Like that Tim. Is that some found metal? Whats the end use?

LL-

+1 vote for dumping the overhead. I did the same thing about a year ago, although my note was about half yours. Moved to the country, shoved all the gear I could into the shop garage, put up a few bird feeders. Did wonders for the brain. take care.

I would try to find a bigger one, you can do real lil' work on a big machine. I've got a p6 and when doing detail work I just put my hand on the flywheel and bump. A flypress is so precise and with the Sarver counterweight mod it's easy. I'm always wanting a second one and even then, I would go as big as i can get. Unless you're pulling on it all day, even the p6 is comfortable.

A p6 from old world anvils is $2275 ( the same unit as the CL ad), don't see any on the Blacksmith's depot site. Good luck.