Hi from Montreal, Canada

[rhoge]

I build apparatus for scientific research for a living, and also do a certain amount of renovation/architectural work.

For some time I've wanted to expand my skills into metal fabrication - we had a great shop program throughout my high school years and I loved it.

I started gathering items for this over the Christmas holidays, but had a nasty accident requiring surgery on my leg in January.  Will take a year to recover, but got to the point where I can do some lifting.

Used anvils in my region are very rare and expensive, and with the injury I'm probably not going to be moving anything over 100 lbs any time soon.  I ended up buying a 35kg (77lb) Ridgid Peddinghaus from Van's Blacksmithing near Ottawa and built a stand for it over the weekend.  I also made a small forge from fire bricks that I'm firing with the small yellow propylene cylinders.

With my leg still healing, and with space constraints, I decided I'd need to start out on smaller projects in a seated position.  I live in the city, and have a tiny garage which has been relegated to my workshop.  I need to be able to wheel the stand and anvil out to my driveway to do any forging - don't have the ventilation in my garage to be safe with CO.

Attaching a few pics of my initial pre-anvil setup (little forge and vise with anvil block) as well as the anvil/stand I made over the weekend.  The strap over the anvil is just for moving it - I have not had the time to forge anything on it yet (did a few small projects on the vise).

Been lurking here for some time and looking forward to getting more active!

[SLAG]

Rhoge,

Bienvenu a I. F. I.,

Hope you heal up soon.

Blacksmithing is fun,  and a great skill to have.

Salut,

SLAG.

 

[rhoge]

Merci!  Ça s’en vient...

Realized I gotta watch my back...

(eg dysfunctional leg leads to messed up back...)

Don’t know if you’re in Montréal but I fell victim to one of our ice storms.