July 19, 20169 yr I'll get there, now working on my gas fired forge, first fire just last weekend. haven't got all my tools yet was a little impatient, need a good set of tongs and a decent hammer
July 19, 20169 yr Nice start. I like your forehead protectors (grin). Your anvil looks painfully low to me but if it works for you then happy hammering!
July 19, 20169 yr Author 1 minute ago, Judson Yaggy said: Nice start. I like your forehead protectors (grin). Your anvil looks painfully low to me but if it works for you then happy hammering! yes anvil is low, still hunting for a good stump.....forehead protectors (yeah get told on a daily basis they're for your eyes not your head lol)
July 19, 20169 yr Nice looking setup, I started forging with a lot less. There is lots of info here on setting up a smithy. The way I determine anvil height is standing naturally with arms at side making a fist. My anvil height is where my knuckles rest on the anvil top. If you have a welder you could extend the legs of the angle iron base to raise it a bit. Stooping over to hammer gets old fast! Forge on!
July 19, 20169 yr Author 16 minutes ago, TwistedCustoms said: Nice looking setup, I started forging with a lot less. There is lots of info here on setting up a smithy. The way I determine anvil height is standing naturally with arms at side making a fist. My anvil height is where my knuckles rest on the anvil top. If you have a welder you could extend the legs of the angle iron base to raise it a bit. Stooping over to hammer gets old fast! Forge on! believe it or not my ape like arms are knuckle height to the anvil but I still have to bend a little to get the right strike on, just going to look for a good stump to refine for height, reading on this site I go into information overload and get side tracked and end up miles from where I started looking, love this site...keep hammering
July 19, 20169 yr Glad to see you protecting your hairline with proper safety glasses there. Try wrist height next time even higher if you do a lot of finicky work. Frosty The Lucky.
July 19, 20169 yr That stand isn't too hard to adjust in height. A couple of 2x's under the legs will lift it a bit and you can play with different heights that way without too much trouble. When you find what works, just drill a few holes in the angle iron and run in some lags to lock the wood in place.
July 19, 20169 yr Author 24 minutes ago, DSW said: That stand isn't too hard to adjust in height. A couple of 2x's under the legs will lift it a bit and you can play with different heights that way without too much trouble. When you find what works, just drill a few holes in the angle iron and run in some lags to lock the wood in place. had thoughts of doing just that DSW, then wait till the right stump comes along (I get a bit fixated on things and really want a stump) cheers mate
July 19, 20169 yr I dig it. I sure need to get me a big anvil like that. One thing I'm gonna do to my forge is what Trent here has done and that's a gravity ash dump lid,and clinker breaker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNvoUzvn7Cs
July 19, 20169 yr Where's the mousehole opposite the side opening on your forge so you can stick long pieces through it to heat back from the end?
July 20, 20169 yr Author Hi TomasPowers will be fitting one, as yes I did come across the problem so far, I have got a gas fired forge made from an old 9kg gas bottle, I started working on before this project...fitted one to there don't really know why I didn't to the hard/solid fuel forge......I have a these brain snaps sometimes but it will be rectified.....learning every day keep the anvil ringing (cheers)
July 20, 20169 yr Hi Rusty, Nice looking anvil, is that a Swedish anvil? Has it got any markings on it. Cheers
July 20, 20169 yr Author 12 hours ago, zsteve said: Hi Rusty, Nice looking anvil, is that a Swedish anvil? Has it got any markings on it. Cheers Hi zsteve Anvil is a 150kg, B K anvil made in Sydney Australia
July 21, 20169 yr Thought it was either a BK or Swedish with those bolt lug/ mounts on the base - but couldn't see the side of it properly. Nice anvils those BK's good size too.
July 21, 20169 yr First of all, congratulations on getting a fire going and having some quality forge time. I hope you don't mind some constructive criticism about your posture. I offer it because it pains my lower back to see you hunched over like that. A lot of beginning smiths do what you are doing. I believe they want their eyes close to the work and their body far from it. Some also insist on their body always being square to the work. My advice is step up to that anvil and get your body over the work. You will save your back, save your muscles, and improve accuracy and endurance. Swinging as the photo shows, you are expending a lot of energy to hold that hammer in the air at arms length from your center. -Adair
July 21, 20169 yr Raise the anvil and step up to it. Some folks even smith standing next to the anvil and facing the horn with their tongs and workpiece crossing in front of their waist.instead of beside it.
July 21, 20169 yr Author 8 hours ago, Adair said: First of all, congratulations on getting a fire going and having some quality forge time. I hope you don't mind some constructive criticism about your posture. I offer it because it pains my lower back to see you hunched over like that. A lot of beginning smiths do what you are doing. I believe they want their eyes close to the work and their body far from it. Some also insist on their body always being square to the work. My advice is step up to that anvil and get your body over the work. You will save your back, save your muscles, and improve accuracy and endurance. Swinging as the photo shows, you are expending a lot of energy to hold that hammer in the air at arms length from your center. -Adair Cheers Adair, mate at this early stage I am open to all the constructive criticism I can get, as we all knowledge is power, and the power is the people who can give you knowledge 8 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Raise the anvil and step up to it. Some folks even smith standing next to the anvil and facing the horn with their tongs and workpiece crossing in front of their waist.instead of beside it. thanks for the input, learning everyday with the help of folks like you cheers
July 22, 20169 yr At the least you don't want your elbows to leave your side and keep your shoulders still. If you're reaching for the anvil you're too far away and any hip or shoulder action you put into it is costing accuracy, accuracy count's more than just about anything else. Frosty The Lucky.
July 22, 20169 yr A couple of things, first welcome. Second not long ago...... a couple of weeks ago a youth student picked his hot metal up off the anvil to admire it, stepped forward while swinging it down, stumbled, punched the hot metal right into a young girls ...... face ......... missed her eye due to ........ glasses. They deflected the metal enough to just graze the cheek resulting in a minor burn as opposed to the loss of a cauterized eye........ Good thing glasses are required and the students are told to hold their metal down.... not that that part was observed on the one students part. Takes just a moment and things happen. Last observation. I do like has been mentioned above stand in close over the anvil. So I don't stretch, when at a too low anvil I spread my legs further apart thus dropping my body down without bending over. Sometimes even bending knees.
July 22, 20169 yr Good grief Rashelle! Stories like that scare heck out of me. Stuff like this happens no matter how careful a person is, everybody forgets, slips or whatever. Keeping your eyes on everybody else and NOT losing your own focus is a long learning process but well worth it. How's she doing? I'm pretty sure the burn's healed up nicely, young skin heals so fast but how is she taking it? A scare like that can really shake you though it's not a bad thing to NOT trust everybody in the shop. Stuff happens to everybody. Frosty The Lucky.
July 23, 20169 yr Stuff like that happening to youth is about the most scary aspect of my job. Those little circumstances happen to everyone like you pointed out. Burns happen, cuts and scrapes happen, so do bruises. I had one week camp I started calling burn unit camp. They were so bad the first couple days with touching hot metal. By the end of the week though they started figuring it out and we actually had a day without so much as a hot wax burn. I was kidding the youth calling them cooking camp ... roast kid for lunch. No theatrics on my part normally means no theatrics on their parts. The girl took it well .... it is an outdoor survival school. Minor injuries are expected. Her father took it well also. Will leave a small scar for a little while but should be good. First rule of Trackers: no one dies, second rule nothing that doesn't heal in 4 days .... well we push that one a little bit in the blacksmith and bladesmith classes as burns tend to take a little while. Cold running water is your friend. I make them keep injured parts under the chilled drinking water fountain till the cold hurts more.
July 23, 20169 yr Shop rule: Any burn that results in a verbal OUCH, shaking of the hand, or actual grabbing of hot iron, the part stays UNDER water for 15 minutes. This allows the water to pull the heat from the meat to keep the meat from cooking. They can argue all they want that it no longer hurts but they can not argue with the clock.
July 23, 20169 yr LOL yes steak is the example I use when explaining that to them. That and the phrase "by then you might have stopped cooking."
July 23, 20169 yr No shish-kid-bob! Fortunately I almost never have a student burn them self badly enough to need 1st. aid but I'm not teaching more than two at a time max. I did have three young ladies from Germany want to try blacksmithing but that's a rarity. Deb's Boss's nieces and a friend the youngest was 18. Frosty The Lucky.
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