19 hours ago, ausfire said:

I have never seen nails longer than the standard 6" variety. A 12" nail would be a great starting piece for any number of forgings. What I really want are some of those 100mm duplex nails to make little swords for the kids at demos. There is one company here that makes them but only in buckets of 15kg or so. Can't get just a few. Seems no-one uses them much anymore as builders use easily removable screws for formwork nowadays. Anyone willing to send me a dozen if I pay the cost and freight??

Get that big bucket of duplex nails, Aus. Not only do they make for good swords for the kids (and you're quickly run through a 15kg bucket of them!), but the double head makes for a really neat rivet.  I use small nails for rivet stock all the time, cold peening them over on the back side.  With the duplex head left as-is, it really spruces up your design and folks wonder how you managed it.

And you can grind the top into a spike....

the scar on my right thumb was a recent grinder bite, have to be careful as I can scratch stainless steel by handling it

Angle grinder?  My unguarded bench grinder scars as less linear  and decades older.

yup

Hands are an interesting subject

My left hand

and the same holding a six inch/150mm ruler

But my right hand is a different story

Bart Simpson eat your heart out.  Momentary lapse of concentration cutting firewood on a circular saw running off the PTO on the back of a tractor. My index finger doesn't bend in the middle anymore but, like all things, you learn to live with it (had to re-learn trigger pressure with another finger though). Happened about thirty years ago and I still have to make a living each day, either with a hammer or a keyboard, or both. The shiny bits in all the pictures are calluses and the dark bit at the base of my right thumb is a really thick one which is where a ridge on my hammer handle hits, helps me keep track of where the hammer is. As always, there are prople a lot worse off than me, I just want to show that you can work past minor problems like missing appendages and still get things done.

Andrew

I once was running the forge at an SCA event and had a fellow show some interest and so I worked with him on a project.  I believe he was a thalidomide victim as he didn't have much in the way of hands or arms; but we figured a way for him to hold a set of tongs---using tong rings of course and a hammer, though I was a striker for him for the heavy work.   Later his SO stopped by and told me how much it had meant to him and in particular that I hadn't tried to "protect him" but instead had worked to let him do what he wanted to do.  I've seen a one armed knifemaker too.  Very inspirational as I age and my body begins to protest at some things I do.