As Thomas indicated, the blower is an anacrhonism (by several centuries) for my mid-14th century persona. Such devices were invented in the early industrial period, I think. But I just don't have the space to store a pair of single-lunged bellows at home, which *would* have been the height of technology for a small-shop smith.

BTW, Thomas, a smith I've worked with (Danr Kretchmar from Irontree Works) uses alternating bellows that can be operated by the smith himself, using an X-shaped handles over the bellows. So a thrall would not be absolutely necessary.

The leg vise is another anacrhonism, and so is a London-pattern anvil for that matter. But I take the time to explain those to anyone who is interested, and why I am making such compromises.

Sometimes convenience wins over accuracy. But I do plan on improving my setup over the coming years.

The X pumping system is well documented in several variations to the medieval period; but the frame takes up a lot more space to travel with.  I mounted two smallish bellows on a piece of plywood so they can easily be used for a ground forge or a forge I build on a table from adobe.  The green bellows cost less than US$1 to build, the reddish brown one was more expensive as I sprung for real leather. Scale is 2' long. They work great with charcoal. They are getting a bit bedraggled as I have been using them over 20 years now for a forge based on the one depicted in the Hylestad Stave Church carvings.

BTW do you have a copy of "Cathedral Forge and Waterwheel" Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages, Gies & Gies, lots of good illustrations and answers to such common questions as "When did they start using coal for blacksmithing in Europe?"

I assume if you are interested in Medieval smithing you have a copy of "Divers Arts" and perhaps "De Re Metallica"; know any good sources to share?

Indeed, I bought CF&W based on your posts some time ago. 

Did you like it?

Oh yes. A great book full of interesting details. I haven't gone through it from cover to cover yet.

Broke out the torch and cut some bowl blanks. 

And tried out the new dishing form. 

Which worked pretty well in combination the old (deeper) bowl form. 

Looks good i been trying to find a old tank to make one of thise forms.

GG find out where they send welding tanks to be hydro tested in your area.  We once picked up 3 full sized pickup loads of failed tanks from ours---all they required was that the tank be cut in two before leaving the yard---and they even supplied the O-A gas to do it!  This was in Columbus Ohio.  Out here there was a fire in a rather junky place in town and I now have a stack of tanks that were scrapped and sold at 20 USCents a pound.  Hydro testing is about 100 miles away from where I live now so buying the complete "Bell, gas forge shell, dishing form"  for scrap rate works ok for me.

 

Thanks for the heads up thats smart.

The main thing: hydro test places want to be sure that a "bad tank" won't be put back into pressurized use.  Steel scrap price has gone down recently; might be a good time to ask!

The place where I exchange O2 cylinders for the torch has given me a few out-of-certification empties. I’ll see if I can get you one next time I’m there.

Well that be amazing thanks. 

Cleaned up some bowl blanks and rebuilt part of my hammer rack. 

And added hangars for C-clamps:

16 hours ago, Gandalfgreen said:

Well that be amazing thanks. 

Picked one up this morning. 

20 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

The main thing: hydro test places want to be sure that a "bad tank" won't be put back into pressurized use. 

Air compressors are my main buisiness, any time we have a scrap tank we chop lumps out of it with the plasma cutter. Can't be too careful with them. 

I havnt done anything in the shop for a long time but that's going to change soon. 

I'm moving my shop home so the last few weekends have been building a shed for the workbench and tools with a lift up door to give a bit of weather protection and a covered area for the forge and anvil to sit under. It's only a small back garden and the Mrs still wants to be able to put the washing out so I think this is the best use of space.

It means I can just walk outside to play rather than drive to my work, unlock 6 locks, set up and climb the ladder to my shop (it's in a 10 foot storage container on top of a 40 foot storage container), forget something so back down the ladder. Repeat the ladder process 6 or 7 times until everything I need is up there then work alone for 4or 5hours. Since my heart attack last year I'm not liking the idea of working alone with no one in the area. 

Long covid means it's taking far longer than it should to build but it's getting there. 

 

I had to do at least a triple take but the angle of your pics make it look like the roof is sloping towards the sheet metal roof by the house. I assume it's the camera angle and the inside corner making it look that way. I HOPE I can assume the roof is sloping towards the neighbor's yard instead. 

Looks like a workable space and not having to climb ladders is a plus. Won't you miss the good old days though? Your old shop ranks up there with Dad having to walk through chest deep snow uphill both ways to go to school how happy he was for the privilege. Well . . . okay you might have to embellish a bit.  

Looking pretty good Dax, enjoy your new shop. I hope this time next year it isn't full of plants. 

Frosty The Lucky.

4 hours ago, JHCC said:

Picked one up this morning. 

Wow really....amazing

I'm amazed too, even the little one is DANGED heavy! 

Frosty The Lucky.

It Slopes towards the narrow bit at the back. That bit of garden is fenced off and left wild and the water from the flags drains there already.  Your right though the photo does look like it Slopes towards the garage. The roof to the side is my garage roof, they are concrete / asbestos roof boards. 

Sounds like a good plan and a good start, Dax. I know what you mean about long covid, you just gotta make up your mind to outlast it. Hope you are hammering soon. 

Bowl work. 

And put a handle on a yard sale find from a few weeks ago.

Chased a sankofa design around the cutout on a yarn bowl. 

Nice wirk John.  might light my forge here shortly after dinner.

I should note that the raising hammer I made last week turned out to be fantastically useful for fixing a bowl that I’d almost given up as ruined. Truly, it was even better than I expected. 

Also, using the welding-tank dishing form for the initial shaping was a delight. By the end of the afternoon, I’d gotten down to about 35 minutes from flat disc to finished bowl. Let’s see how it goes next time!

(Also, Vise-Grip welding clamps are great for holding sheet metal for forging.)

Bowling for Dollars John?     Might try cleaning the chased area and brazing some spelter over it and filing smooth to get a gold design in it...

These will be yarn bowls for Lisa's shop, so quite possibly.

Interesting idea for the brazing. I might try that on a scrap piece one of these days, especially once I get another tank of O2 -- I used up quite a lot today.