Hobbyist in Purcell, Oklahoma

[Donal Harris]

RAs the title says, I am a hobbyist and live in Purcell. I have a wife, three daughters, only one of my girls is still school age. The one still at home has 5 cats, meaning I have 5 cats.

TL;DR version: I am a blacksmithing newb from Oklahoma. I work in a clinical lab.  I don’t have a lot of equipment, but that really doesn’t seem to matter much.  My interest is primarily ornamental and architectural iron working.

The Great Wall of Text version:

I work in a clinical lab, primarily inventory control, cost accounting, process improvement, negotiating contracts with vendors and clinics, and other business related aspects of the lab. It has been well over a decade since I have actually performed testing of specimens.

I am a complete newb where blacksmithing is concerned.  I have watched a lot of videos and read quite bit online, both here and other sites.  So I know a lot about it, but haven’t progressed past the drive and S hooks, leaf, cross, and steak turner stage in actual practice.

I don’t have much in the way of equipment.  I use a brake drum forge which was fabricated by a friend.  It is pretty cool.  It only cost $35.  That was for the steel plate he used for the top, and most of that was to pay to have a circle cut for the drum to fit in.  The rest was just bed frames, oilfield pipe and other bits from his junk pile. For a blower, I have gone through three or four of my wife’s hair dryers.  My anvil likes like something like a piece of rail from the railroad, but the salvage guy said it isn’t.  He said it came from a bridge.  I have it mounted to a stump I picked up at the city’s recycling center.  It works well considering what it is, but with no horn, hardie, or pritchel holes, I will be buying one eventually.  SCABA may have anvils for sale soon, just as they do cone mandrels and swage blocks.

I have a Champion #40 blower and a post vise.  Both weirdly have been usable as they were but I chose to wait until I cleaned the rust and red clay  off both and replaced them with BLO.  I am about ready to put the vise back together.  The blower will take a little more time.  I am debating painting it.  I have heard these blowers were at one time painted red, but I am unsure of this.  None of the original paint is left.  Just rust, oil and dirt.  In the end I will likely just go with BLO. I have seen some shine them up with flap disks, but I am not planning to do that.  Perhaps if I paint the blower, but certainly not the vise.  I like the black look you get after using a wire wheel on rusted iron.  And with a BLO finish you can still feel the iron.  It is just as good with iron and steel as it is with wood.

I suppose that is more than enough about me for now.  Thanks for all the very good information you guys have contributed to this site.

[Charles R. Stevens]

Welcome to addiction. 

[Donal Harris]

So I have learned. I thought all that was over when I quit golfing, but they seem about the same in that aspect. Just as there is always yet another new putter or driver that will “fix” your swing or stroke, there seems to be always another this or that tool which will magically make my forgings cleaner. 

Bradley. I grew up in Rush Springs, so I’ve been through there many times. Not often now though. I normally take the other road and pass through Dibble and Chickasha when visiting my parents since they opened the road up leading into Chickasha. It seems faster. 

I sometimes go to the SW region’s SCABA meetings. Perhaps I will see you at one. I had been looking forward to my first SCABA conference last weekend,  but life happened instead as it sometimes does.

Off topic, but I assume I am allowed to hijack my own thread?  I don’t know how to upload photos yet, but I just finished wire brushing my post vise I spoke of above. I was wrong. Some of the original paint is still there. I first noticed it on the leg and thought it just looked like paint. But when cleaning off the U-shaped bracket that holds the vise to the mounting plate, I found what is unmistakably paint. It look a heck of a lot like OD Green.  Could it have been an Army vise?

[Ranchmanben]

It certianly is a tool addiction but you get to make your own tools! I keep meaning to get over to a SCABA meeting too but seems like I’m always tied up on those weekends. 

[JHCC]

When I restarted blacksmithing a few years ago, all I had left over from my teenage beginnings was my anvil and two hammers. It's amazing how you can start with so little and make all the things you need to make more.

Of course, that can lead to "make a tool to make a tool to make a -- what was I making?" syndrome....