Grant I'm about 1 hour out of the old Steak n Kidney (sydney), was there twice last week, (had a problem with a job we did for Auburn rail maintenance) PM me with where she is working and for how long, I have a little bauble with an Ozzie slant to give her.
Beats me why anyone wants to live in Sydney anyway. Theres only one good thing comes out of Sydney, the Pacific Highway, heads north to Gods Country. (Thats not true theres other highways that leave Sydney too).

Dale I did'nt know you drank beer, guzzled it yes, drank it no.

Phil

G'day!
My name is Karl Buhse and I'm from Redland Bay, south of Brisbane QLD.
I'm a hobby blacksmith(wish i was a blacksmith by trade) and I've been interested in blacksmithing ever since a smith at Timbertown made me a horseshoe with my name stamped on it in 1996(I was 5).
I would really love to come along to the A.B.A.Qld meetings but i work on saturdays, so obviously i need to quit my job.
Anyway its great to know there are so many keen Aussies on here and see some of you around maybe.

Cheers

Karl,
If you're ever travelling down the New England Hway to Tamworth stop in and say hullo at the Peel River Artist Blacksmiths 109 Peel St. we love to see like minded people. :)

Ahh, theres a lot of "blacksmiths" at theme parks that have a lot to answer for in my opinion.
I was stupid enough during my apprenticeship to take holidays to go to timbertown to work for nothing, doing what I had taken a holiday from.

That could have been Doug Mosely or Grahame (forget his second name) or even me that made that horse shoe.
Oh well welcome aboard Karl

Cheers
Phil

Thanks guys,
i just realised there was something i forgot to mention.
I dont have a proper anvil yet, i just use a ripper from a tractor, and i'm interested in the Doug Slack anvils.
But i noticed that the detailed sketch for the 42kg anvil shows a hardie hole, and the 97kg anvil doesnt.
So would i be right to assume the 97kg anvil doesnt have a hardie hole?

Thanks Phil that sure answers my question

Hi All,

Another (relatively new to the site) Aussie here. Excellent site all round!

I am very much an amateur hammer-wielder, but have definitely been bitten by the bug and love spending as much time as possible with the little propane forge glowing. I have picked up a 4" leg vise (ex Midland Railways where my Grandfather worked his way up to foreman many years ago), but my current "anvil" is a 50kg lump of mild steel. I am planning to try and stick-weld a truck leaf spring to the top to give me a better working surface.

I would be interested to hear if any experienced smiths have tried out the 97kg Doug Slack anvil. It looks like it'd be better than the cheap cast iron offerings I've seen, but not as good as if you can get your hands on a well looked after old faithful.

I'm not at all sure that 320 BHN is sufficient - it isn't true to say it's equivalent to a 3000kg hammer, it's 3000kg resting on the ball bearing. It is possible to create a fair amount of force with a swinging hammer.

I also figure toughness & rebound are going to be as important as hardness, and I just don't know how to work those out from the supplied information.

Thanks again for the welcome & the generous sharing of information!

Richard

PS My kids made me the sign in my avatar (it's double sided) for Christmas, and I forged the eye-screws, s-hooks & angle bracket as one of my first solo efforts. A pair of tongs was the first job, as I was told anyone who wants to be a smith should learn to make his own tools.

Thanks guys,
i just realised there was something i forgot to mention.
I dont have a proper anvil yet, i just use a ripper from a tractor, and i'm interested in the Doug Slack anvils.
But i noticed that the detailed sketch for the 42kg anvil shows a hardie hole, and the 97kg anvil doesnt.
So would i be right to assume the 97kg anvil doesnt have a hardie hole?

Hi and welcome Karl if you want to give them a call to ask them about the anvils there number is 07 49824722.....any info you receive could you please post it on here

regards Mike

Graheme Askew was the name I was trying to think of, I knew it would come to me if I really tried hard. Now my head hurts, I know what will fix that though, Beer.

As for the hardy hole in the anvil, I don't know. Anvils only equate one thing to me, hard work. We class them as class A1 boat anchors.

Many, many thanks to John Leet for the nice gift he sent to my daughter in Sydney!!!

You weren't here, so I had to drink all the beer myself, you want me to describe it to you?

sorry about the delay grant, death in the family, getting to it now.

Yeah, I know how that is, my Granny musta died a dozen time! Just kidding, sorry to hear.

Pretty nice "bauble" ya got there, I'll hafta drink another six-pac. "Preciate it, m8. Her birthday Saturday too!

Hi Grant, I hope it was high octane I don't touch that lite xxxx, did I enjoy it. :)

Phil, whats the lastest on Timber Town, do you Know gone or staying?

Cheers John.

Yeah, I know how that is, my Granny musta died a dozen time! Just kidding, sorry to hear.

Pretty nice "bauble" ya got there, I'll hafta drink another six-pac. "Preciate it, m8. Her birthday Saturday too!

you drink all the 6 packs you like on me....just bill it to finnr.

yeah wife's old man, so we got the muther up here for a while....( might even make her a cage of her own...with a floor!....lol)

got some other goodies, guess ill haffta include a birthday card. probly ready to send by monday.
(gotta tig a bit on the back of the ausie bling so it will stand on her desk).

I can't remember if you enjoyed it or not, which means you must have, right?

now mr zappa/grant is it true "the meek shall inherit nothing"

now mr zappa/grant is it true "the meek shall inherit nothing"

Sounds right to me.

bit dodgy i know, but im only a pretend one.

Yesterday it looked like an Aussie "Smiley Face", Today it looks like an exploding "Smiley piece of dung". What happened? Just kidding, you know me by now. That'll be a keeper, for sure. Thank you m8!

lol.....its a self portrait......more 6 packs.....lol

i love frank so hear gos it wasent very large there was just enough room to cram the forge in the corner next to the dodge it was a 54 with a mashed up door..........now i am off to have relations with a telly u funking 47 with over drive.(a vaccuum cleaner to non frank types).

finally..

Phil, whats the lastest on Timber Town, do you Know gone or staying?

Cheers John.

I dont know, we retyred some loco wheels for them but they were'nt allowed to put them back under the loco,as they had lost their railway accreditation. They paid the bill though. As to the rest of the park I thought it was still business as usual. Is this not the case? I'll try to get hold of someone from artist blacksmiths and ask them.

Phil

Thanks Mike and all! My daughter is very impressed, not with the bauble, but the fact that your post got it to her! Good on ya! I don't know what you guys are doing down there, but she don't wanna come home! You might be increasing your population by one! :blink:

Maybe we need to add the one of 2 last blacksmiths in Aust onto here. (See general blacksmithing forum, mirror made by)
All the rest of us must just be imaginary.

Phil