That's awesome. Great machine and great associations.

I should definitely stop by the next time I'm visiting the monastery.

JHCC, please do. Door is always open to smiths and farriers.

4 hours ago, Hickory Wind Forge said:

….. However I wanted to share this: a blacksmith acquaintance just learned he is badly sick and decided to sell off most of his shop to prevent his kids from having to deal with it. ….

Mat, I had a similar experience yesterday. One of my mentors passed last year and I had wanted to buy his drill mill. It was a piece of equipment I wanted, but it was also a piece of His Shop. I couldn’t bring myself to ask about buying it from him. It made me feel a bit bad, didn’t want him to feel like it was coming to an end… Well yesterday I got a call from one of the smiths in our group who was helping the son clear out the last of Ray’s blacksmith shop and the drill mill was available. I was there in five minutes and after about 2hrs of reminiscing, I brought it home:

I now have a piece in my shop that was Ray’s! Next step is to get it setup and tooled up. I just hope I can put it to work as well as he did.

Keep it fun,

David

That's great Goods. Funny how something that's just an inanimate chunk of metal to most people can really tug at the heart.

At the start of last week I had no plans whatsoever to buy a power hammer but I came to realize that I would never ever have another chance to buy one from someone who I like and respect and who I knew took the same quality of care of his tools as I do. Finally decided I'd much rather pay what Rand was asking and get a well-maintained cherry than buy one from someone who I didn't know even for half-price. Rand was really glad it was going to my shop also, rather than some stranger.

Matt.