[TheForge] Merry Christmas

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

Excellent Ed;
Try for one at a time though. Grin.
Style has a lot to do with those choices as well as budget , brains and talent.
It's possible to do satisfactory forging beginning with dirt and wood, or even cardboard for a forge. 
At one of the CBA conferences there was a guy who made a functional charcoal forge entirely from laminated cardboard lined with mud..Even his blower was cardboard, save a dowel axle and an old bike innertube for the drive belt.
What do you want to make? What tools do you have available?
Start modestly on hammer size unless you are very robust...1 1/2# is good. If you push it too fast you'll end up with chronic ligament injuries. Work up as you gain strength.
Sites like Anvilfire.com and iforgeiron.com have the answers to most smithing questions tucked away here and there.
The best cheap anvil is a heavy shaft with a flat end on top and the bottom buried in the floor..very efficient. Seems odd i know, but true. With that, you can forge out a traditional "bik" type horn driven into a hardwood stump.
Most blacksmithing questions have multiple solutions. 
Most blacksmiths will give differing answers to a question.

On Dec 25, 2013, at 10:25 AM, Ed Eccleston wrote:

Hah!  Ok, you asked for it...   So, what type of forge is best?   What size hammer should I use?
Should I draw the temper out of spring steel before forge welding?  And what the heck does that actually mean?  Where can I get a cheap but good anvil?  Is a point and shoot infrared thermometer a good way to check metal temp.?  Why were some smiths treated like dirt in history, and others like royalty?  Who are the guys making a really decent living in the trade, what are they building and is there a common denominator?

   Just joking on most of the above (although not all....).  


Ed

Sent from my iPad

> On Dec 25, 2013, at 8:38 AM, CGRAF <adveniam at att.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On 12/24/2013 7:58 PM, Ed Eccleston wrote:
>> I am an avid reader, but too amateur to post.  I want to thank you all for the great banter as well as information posted on the site.  Do not let it atrophy!
>>   Merry Christmas to all!
>> 
>> Ed Eccleston
>> Professional wood butcher
>> Neophyte smith
>> 
>> 
> Everyone here was once a neophyte.
> 
> Many of us are still amateurs which means we do it for the love of it , as opposed to professional which means we would try and make money from it.
> 
> Truth be told it is the neophytes posting which have kept this list alive and useful.
> 
> The posts from the old timers full of inside jokes and sometimes an arcane bit of knowledge can easily be the beginning of a lists death spiral.
> 
> So ask away with the questions all you lurkers. Even if it is the ten thousandth time it has been answered , we all had the question answered for us at some point .
> 
> Now it is pay back time.
> 
> Mike Graf
> .
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