Building an open air blacksmith shop

[Glenn]

 

[Scott NC]

Very cool Glenn.  Such attention to detail.  He makes it look easy.  Now he needs to make Ezra a little power hammer to pick up some work from the railroad....

[Frosty]

Thanks for the link Glenn I loved it. Of course poking our noses down such a large rabbit warren of excellent videos was a cruel thing to do to us. 

I only saw minor faults in the model a working blacksmith wouldn't make but nothing to shout about.

Frosty The Lucky.

[KMADDOX]

That is cool, guys like him sure have a talent! Great attention to detail and realistic. 

[Michael]

What fun! Thanks for posting that.  The narrow gauge railroad where I very occasionally demonstrate has the same sort of open air smithy right next to the tracks.  One of the demo requirements is waving at the train passengers as the locomotive goes by. 

[Dax Hewitt]

Wow, that is incredibly cool. What skill. 

Would the vice be period correct? It only showed it briefly and it looked like a modern engineers vice, were they around in the old West? 

[Scott NC]

  I bet Ezra built himself a prototype.  

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I noticed the vise as well an thought it out of place,

I know there were some bench vises being produced in late 1800s early 1900s, years after the American civil war ended and the industrial revolution began so I suppose it’s possible,

though it still seems outta place to me,

[Frosty]

No it wouldn't be but I doubt a miniature leg vise was available with the miniature tools he bought for the build or he didn't know the difference. He's pretty obviously lacking in practical blacksmithing skills. The vise was one of the minor details I let slide.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Scott NC]

  He's a model railroader.  Not a blacksmith.  I couldn't build all that stuff and tie it all in to electrics and make it work together.  Although he built all the other components so realistically, it wouldn't take much to make a leg vise out of match sticks and some cardboard.  

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

24 minutes ago, Frosty said:

I doubt a miniature leg vise was available

I did some googling an saw a few,

I think your right, he just didn’t know the difference

I forgot to add earlier that all the early bench vises I’ve seen didn’t quite look like that,

[ThomasPowers]

Also remember that the "Old West" as we think of it was pretty much after the US Civil War---the first cattle drive on the Chisholm Trail being in 1867.

So a gunsmith might have a machinist vise; but a blacksmith would have a tried and true post vise.

[ArmySoldier72]

that was pretty fun to watch over a cup of morning "joe"

So much skill, thought and planning.

Amazing

 

ARMY

SE Oregon

[Scott NC]

  The fiddle/banjo background musics pretty cool too.  I went to a barn dance the other night and kind of like it.  I found my toe a tappin'

[Dax Hewitt]

The finest music in the world is fiddle and banjo music. I have to say though my wife certainly doesn't agree. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

4 hours ago, Nodebt said:

fiddle/banjo background

I challenge anyone to "keep still" while they are playing. I love the "old time music" and bands like The Cat Gut & Horsehair string band, Ricky Skaggs, Loretta Lynn, Mountain Aires, the list just goes on and on.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7B57E6B1D4B1D3E7

 

[George N. M.]

Dax & Irondragon,  I really like old time acoustic country music (NOT the twangy road house stuff) but I have to say that the best music in the world has to involve bagpipes.

GNM

[Frosty]

My favorite kind of music is hanging out in a living room while musicians jam. I like songs that tell a story and prefer to be able to hear the vocalist over the instruments. Old blue grass is one of my favorite "types" of music but I love some of the new stuff too, Hoyt Axton is I think one of the best composers of musical stories ever. Take a listen to "Della And The Dealer". Roy Clark could play anything and do it as well or better than anybody while putting on a crazy good show. His electric guitar wasn't just loud, it got every nuance possible squeezed from every note at warp speed. 

I love acoustic but REALLY love Simon and Garfunkel, The Doors, etc. Good music is good music and I like it.

Bagpipes are another story, they speak directly to my soul, the sound of a drone is as ancient as human music. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[anvil]

I was a clawhammer/Appalachian banjo guy. Simple "strokes" for simple blacksmiths. Still plink around a bit,,,, in my closet.

[JHCC]

Still one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever:

 

[George N. M.]

John, lovely.  Thank you.  But if I had to choose one piece of music to beam out to the stars to represent humanity it would be Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

GNM

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

50 minutes ago, JHCC said:

Still one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever

That was very pretty, thanks for sharing John, I’d never heard that song before, 

I had to google image search to figure out what Instrument those guys in the back were playing, because I didn’t know what on earth it was lol,

turned out to be a bassoon! Learn something new every day! 

George, I looked up your song too an I have heard bits and pieces of it before, 

I’ll be honest though my music taste is more inline with Randy an Jerry’s but I do like some bagpipes every once in awhile!

[arkie]

4 hours ago, anvil said:

I was a clawhammer/Appalachian banjo guy. Simple "strokes" for simple blacksmiths. Still plink around a bit,,,, in my closet.

Have you ever heard John Switzer (Black Bear Forge), fellow Colorado smith, play his banjo on his alternate channel.  When he plays, he sorta spaces out into the ether.  I love old John, great fellow.

[ThomasPowers]

I once spent an evening in the concrete floored, concrete walled, concrete ceiling of a Church basement listening to bagpipes; was quite a bit before my ears recovered---they were designed for playing on lonely moors or during battles; *not* indoors!

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

22 hours ago, George N. M. said:

best music in the world has to involve bagpipes.

Oh ya the pipes and Irish drums are hard to beat. Speaking of the pipes, this is one of my favorite good clean jokes.

Amazing Grace....

As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a grave side service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Kentucky back-country. As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost; and being a typical man I didn't stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch.  I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play.

The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man. And as I played 'Amazing Grace,' the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together. When I finished I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head hung low my heart was full. As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, " I never seen nothin' like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."