October 17, 20169 yr Just wanted to say hi. I stumbled on this site a few weeks back when I was looking to make my new forge more efficient. I became interested in smithing from, don't laugh, a trip to the Houston ren faire. Been there a few times. The wife enjoys the acts and hand crafted works. I really enjoy the camping and getting away from everything. Oh and the food too. Enjoyed watching the smiths and glass blowers. But smithing combines some of my favorite things; crafting something with metal, swinging a hammer and fire. Currently doing the trial and error process. Just enjoying the heating scrap metal and seeing what I can shape it into. I don't have a shop, started with a mapp gas coffee can forge I made, upgraded to a small single burner propane forge. I don't really have an anvil yet. Unless a freebie cast iron anvil counts. Think it came from HF. Haven't been able to find a real anvil for sale in the south Louisiana area so working on making one. This site has been helpful. A lot of good reading. From trial and error I've learned what not to do, but a few searches on this site has been helpful in learning why it was incorrect and the proper way.
October 22, 20169 yr Welcome to IFI. Not many will laugh at you, some of us figured out the blacksmith interest the same way you did. Sounds like you are off to a good start. Look up TPAAAT to help with your anvil hunt, they come in all shapes and sizes.
October 22, 20169 yr On 10/17/2016 at 7:54 PM, StrayJeepDog said: This site has been helpful. A lot of good reading. From trial and error I've learned what not to do, but a few searches on this site has been helpful in learning why it was incorrect and the proper way. Bless you, my child. You have sent your feet on the path to wisdom.
October 23, 20169 yr 16 hours ago, JHCC said: Bless you, my child. You have sent your feet on the path to wisdom. Welcome aboard Stray Jeep Dog, glad to have you. Iforge seems to be collecting Jeep folk, maybe we should petition Glenn for an "Iforge Jeeps" section. Lots of us dog people too. Oh good grief! Don't let anybody fool you, blacksmiths are rarely that pompous. He's joking . . . I HOPE! We ARE a jokey crew and pulling a new guy's leg is sort of traditional but good grief JHCC, "Bless you my child"?! One of the best skills to learn is failure analysis and having someone around to tell you what and how you screwed up is priceless. We love pics you know, anything you'd show a young child you didn't want to explain adult stuff to. Frosty The Lucky.
October 26, 20169 yr On 10/17/2016 at 6:54 PM, StrayJeepDog said: I became interested in smithing from, don't laugh, a trip to the Houston ren faire. goin there next week! you gonna go?? Littleblacksmith
November 1, 20169 yr Author Thanks to all of the replies. been using a lot of the old parts that were replaced off my jeep to get practice on the forge. As far as the name, my dogs a stray cattle dog, and I can't keep him out of the jeep. Runs like crazzy and then jumps in waiting to go for a ride. Now I'm using a chunk of PH 4140 about 6 inches round and 5 inches tall. Holding up real well. Better than expected. Still looking for an anvil but this will work for the meantime. The ren faire was supposed to be that weekend. Ended up in NC helping out family after their flooding. Will probably still go this year. Just waiting for a long weekend.
November 1, 20169 yr It's good to have a good truck/jeep/ ? dog, dogs are good. That's an anvil and a nice one. A little creative thought ad you could make the stand so you could tip it up on it's side for a nice large (3" radius) fuller. Grinding various radii on the edges is a good idea and you have two sides. You're styling. Look into a portable hole for hardy and bottom tools and even if you do find something you like better down the road this one will be a splendid bench anvil. Frosty The Lucky.
November 2, 20169 yr On 10/17/2016 at 7:54 PM, StrayJeepDog said: Just enjoying the heating scrap metal and seeing what I can shape it into. I been doing just that for years and still end up making scrap but really nice scrap, it will get better I'm told. I hope so soon, I'm 70 and Time is getting short here.
November 2, 20169 yr I've known folks in their late 80's and early 90's still smithing so you still may have a bit of time...
November 2, 20169 yr Author 2 hours ago, Frosty said: It's good to have a good truck/jeep/ ? dog, dogs are good. That's an anvil and a nice one. A little creative thought ad you could make the stand so you could tip it up on it's side for a nice large (3" radius) fuller. Grinding various radii on the edges is a good idea and you have two sides. You're styling. Look into a portable hole for hardy and bottom tools and even if you do find something you like better down the road this one will be a splendid bench anvil. Frosty The Lucky. made a stand for it out of some scrap 2x6 boards i had. cut them down to size and used some 6 inch bolts to hold it together. a couple of metal strips screwed to two sides to strap the steel in. set the stand in a 5 gallon bucket and filled with sand to hold it in place. surprisingly its actually stable. wasn't sure what i'll do for a hardy hole but i'll figure that out sooner or later.
November 2, 20169 yr The 2" x 6" are on end I hope, it makes a much more solid stand. A portable hole is basically a length of square pipe on end that will receive the shanks of your bottom tools. They need to have enough heft to withstand some hammering and use as bending fork holders and have a base wide enough to be stable but if you have those covered they don't need to be fancy. Of course you can get all fancy on us if that's your thing, we don't mind at all. Frosty The Lucky.
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