I thought they looked like a 6 and 8 pound shot put when you posted the pictures. I have drilled a hole through a 16 pounder to make a hammer for throwing in the highland games. You might drill halfway through insert the rod, for stability, and then weld it.

We lost commercial power last night at midnight-thirty due to a severe thunderstorm (60 mph gusts). Been running all morning on generator. Did manage to make a wood grain texturing set up though. A 1 3/4 pound ball peen that we picked up at a junk shop for a dollar U.S. and some scrap mystery steel for the anvil block. Wore down the better part of a 4 1/2 inch cutoff wheel in the process. My wife wants to forge all afternoon.

Almost done.... lol ...it will never be done.... or will it?

Added crushed rock to the forge hut today

Took me a year to get to this point

Nice work! I too have a gravel floor for my forge. 

Also, I casted the ribbon burner a couple days ago and got the rest of the body of the forge put together today. Just have to get all the pieces together and coat it, clean it and paint it.

piddled in the shop today. A better leaf, a S hook, and finished up dream catcher.

11 hours ago, duckcreekforge said:

When you see him, ask about magic balls and Reindeer water

 Funny you should mention that....I got the story and didn't even ask........go figure.  It was a good meeting today. Had a good crowd.         Life is good          Dave

ColoradoCJ- Nice looking leafs especially the one on the right the veins look good.

Peppie- That's a beautiful looking leg vice, but having the jaws flush with the table could be helpful for some uses, but may also limit the use greatly. Why do you have it like that??

                                                                                                                                  Littleblacksmith

The top of the jaws are about 3/4" higher than the bench top. Havent found it to hinder any use " yet". I do need to be aware of its placement when I build jigs for it.

I was told it is a German design. 5  3/4" jaws and weighs about 90- 100lbs. I still need to place a steel plate under the foot.

Oh ok that may not be so bad I thought it was flush. Yeah it looks German I like the German style ones I want one. 

Made the new new bottom fuller I've been meaning to for months now. The I got a couple of the kids to swing hammers some. Had them practicing tappers to make some hooks. The oldest daughter & oldest son. Hopefully they stay interested in it.  She didn't do bad at all. He needs a smaller hammer & I had to dig out the midget anvil for him. 

 

Was still great watching them.

I love you got the kids involved..  I started when I was 8... Took a really long time to get good at it.. Love the farriers anvil.. What it go 200lbs? 

Nice work Helena..  Can't wait to see it all fired up.. 

Made a left-handed corkscrew as a Christmas present for my southpaw brother. 

Also started work on a flatter, but didn’t make enough progress to show here. 

JHCC: very nice corkscrew !  I love it !

jlpservices:  this was the first time they've both actually gotten around to picking up the hammer & I'm pretty stoked about it. Was supposed to be fiddling with knives today, but this took priority. 

The farrier is an old centaur forge branded kohlswa. Its in 140 or 150 range if I remember right. Been a minute. 

Thank you, blacksmith-450. My first corkscrew, worked entirely by eye, and it came out with exactly the same pitch as the commercially made one in my kitchen. 

Looks like everyone was busy - great looking projects.

Spent the weekend making tools.   Made the mandrel and hot cut first.  Used the hot cut to make the jaws on my first set of tongs.  Took 3 1/2 hours to make the mandrel yesterday and then used it today to make my first set hammer.  Started making a second set of tongs but ran out of time and energy.  Next step is to clean up the hammer after the heat treatment and get a handle on it.

Teaching the "setting the hook class" at the local university.  I had one student that was great patience practice: "hit it on the end...No you hit it an inch behind the end. Hit it on the end!  No I want 1/2 the face of the hammer to be sticking off the end of the workpiece!  Let me dress it so you can continue making a taper in 1/4" mild steel sq stock...."  "Now whomp it 4 times walking around the 4 edges to make a rosehead nail!"...tap tap tap

Most of the students signed up didn't make it to class; it would have been an exercise in red ink save that I get to visit my shop, house, WIFE!

ti's times like these that make one question  "Whats the real reason"..     

Do you charge for the class? 

Made this the other day and finished it today. 18 oz. I used large radius fullers in the diagonals. What y'all think?

I basically charge break even if I get a full class for both sessions.  If you don't charge something the students don't believe it has any value. If you overcharge then they can't afford it.  I've had at least one apologize to me when they found out what professional classes were going for.

But students.., I picked up the forge this morning before church as I don't like loading hot stuff in my truck and it was finals day and the student scheduled for the first slot in the morning didn't show up...

On 12/1/2018 at 8:37 AM, JHCC said:

If the weld doesn’t hold, I’ll make up a holder for the ball,

If it's cast you can drill and tap it.

Frosty The Lucky.

Well, we shall see. Something to keep in mind, especially since I could theoretically drill and tap both balls and swap them out on the same base.

Well if you don't mind an old school suggestion: drill the hole larger and then set the shaft using molten lead.

I have a headache ball where a machinist friend drilled and tapped one of the existing holes and told me in great detail how he had to off set things on the lathe as the hole had two sections that we not concentric.  Bravura Machining but for the use I told him I'd been happy with a lead set and he could use all those extra hours he spent on something that deserved it...

I have a couple of 90+ pound dock weights in cast iron that I will need to mount once I get power to the shop....(still trying to figure out how dock weights got to a desert...) 

Now that I can certainly manage: I've still got several pounds of lead type left over from adding weight to the treadle hammer head.

3 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

still trying to figure out how dock weights got to a desert.

For tying up the Ship of the Desert?

I could make some smokey references; but you would probably reply with something about the woodland monks; the famous forest friars!

It is amusing that we do have Oryx out here; they were introduced and have become a breeding population and can be hunted with permit.