new baby anvil

[Klinkerhoffen]

Just got me a cracking anvil if anyones into smithing etc, double bick and a rather light 230kg. Anyone do their own knives? ive been making some damascuse steel whilst bored.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0FLlINgkEU

[stoney baloney]

that's so f*cking cool. how long did it take you to learn to work with metal like that? i would like to learn.

 

talk about an unappreciated, lost art. back in the day... blacksmiths were highly revered.

[Klinkerhoffen]

Heya Baloney, I first started when I was about 17, I was studying archaeology and working on a roman fort here as a field archaeologist. One day I was asked if i could go help the stonemason who was doing some fancy work on a roman gatehouse reconstruction, he was a real old timer at his thing and so professional, still working at 80 something years of age.  Cutting a long story short, hed broke the teeth on one of his stonemasons chisels, me being me said 'I can fix that'  so off I went in search of a propane torch and a few basic tools, fixed it, hardened it and he was a happy guy.  

 

Soon after I got my eye on a weird looking bunch who had came in for an open day complete with roman armour, swords, javelins and portable digging tools etc etc.  I sat on the grasseating my lunch  and realised the romans must have had mobile blacksmiths to fix all that crap when it went wrong, I went off and researched the pants offa it. Soon after I started forging small portable items, then over a few year I did more and more working my way up to making gladius type swords from damascus (or pattern welded*) steel, something many historians thought the romans couldnt do despite there being a number of steel 'blooms' from furnaces on hadrians wall.   I landed another job that paid crazily well and left my archaeology  behind along with smithing until recently.  Good part is, I'm back with a vengeance and plan on setting my own commercial forge and foundry up in a year or so. 

 

 

I'll grab a few photos of those tongs I was making, made maybe ten sets that still need to be polished up.

[Klinkerhoffen]

Edited May 1, 2013 by Klinkerhoffen

[Papito]

Could you make me a Ring like this one?

 

[stoney baloney]

Heya Baloney, I first started when I was about 17, I was studying archaeology and working on a roman fort here as a field archaeologist. One day I was asked if i could go help the stonemason who was doing some fancy work on a roman gatehouse reconstruction, he was a real old timer at his thing and so professional, still working at 80 something years of age.  Cutting a long story short, hed broke the teeth on one of his stonemasons chisels, me being me said 'I can fix that'  so off I went in search of a propane torch and a few basic tools, fixed it, hardened it and he was a happy guy.  

 

Soon after I got my eye on a weird looking bunch who had came in for an open day complete with roman armour, swords, javelins and portable digging tools etc etc.  I sat on the grasseating my lunch  and realised the romans must have had mobile blacksmiths to fix all that crap when it went wrong, I went off and researched the pants offa it. Soon after I started forging small portable items, then over a few year I did more and more working my way up to making gladius type swords from damascus (or pattern welded*) steel, something many historians thought the romans couldnt do despite there being a number of steel 'blooms' from furnaces on hadrians wall.   I landed another job that paid crazily well and left my archaeology  behind along with smithing until recently.  Good part is, I'm back with a vengeance and plan on setting my own commercial forge and foundry up in a year or so. 

 

 

I'll grab a few photos of those tongs I was making, made maybe ten sets that still need to be polished up.

 

 

so cool. so freaking cool.

 

i appreciate anyone who authentically makes the things in their life they need. when i graduated culinary school, we spent about a month on a farm in rural colorado... one of the guys educating us was such a good blacksmith, and from that moment on-- i realized that was another thing i wanted to learn.

 

cheers, and thanks for posting this.

[KevinBacon]

The P.C. term is 'african-american-smith'

 

Humph!~

[Klinkerhoffen]

Could you make me a Ring like this one?

 

easily, ive the foundry side too. What it would cost you is a different matter

Edited May 2, 2013 by Klinkerhoffen