OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Finding and Swapping Idle Chatter The End Of My Hobby?

Crikey freebird,
I can only wish for that kind of luck!

BTW, I'm a bit into hobby blacksmithing - I do have a smallish [~60lb or so] London pattern anvil, with a bit of history behind it, and a fair collection of 'anvil tools' like bottom swages, top fuller, hot chisel and so on...

I guess many hobbies are getting far too expensive now a days and just aren't what they used to be.

Sitting on the Jetty watching the waves roll in is still for free.

Cheers,
BB.

Too true, BB.

I like making stuff out of metal, and the advantage of being able to forge steel, as well as using 'stock removal' metalworking techniques [drilling, grinding, machining] is that it gives you a lot more flexibility. And consequently the ability to make use of all sorts of scrounged bits of steel.

A forge is a lot cheaper to run than even an oxy-LPG torch set these days, too - though I do have one, for brazing and flame cutting work.

hi gadge

looks like your well set upand your anvil looks very old

one can only image the amount of hard work , toil , sweat and things made on it over the years

you have a good collection of tools

I have some blacksmith sledge hammers and a hand powered buffalo blower I got for nothing from a skip

having the internet is a hole new world with utube so much to look at and how to make forges ect

blacksmithing is very poplar now with classes for teaching

but the tools are very dear as you would have found out

I use to know a old german boiler maker blacksmith and he was making a custom steel fence for a

big posh house

he was making by hand gum leaves and gum nuts for decoration to go on the fence on his anvil

it is amazing how in he old days metal was welded together just by heat and hammering

another fun hobby now I just need to find time

thanks for your anvil pictures

Good to see these old skills being kept alive in some quarters in this age of skill eroding automation.
I bet there are things that could be done in the 19th century that have become extinct today.
Keeping what we have left alive is more vital than ever.

G'day folks,
That anvil isn't all that old; it was used by the last soldier settler 'blockie' at Red Cliffs, Vic, to use horses to work his fruit block. He was a Gallipoli veteran, and retired to the house next door to the one I lived in for most of my school years. This was his shoeing anvil.

I have one of those hand blower riveters/farriers forges, too. Picked it up for cheap at a rural clearing sale, because it didn't have a fire tray.

This is it as bought;


The first fire tray I built was full size, using a discarded plough disc for a base;


Then I thought that having a small fire tray would be handy too, for heating smaller tools and such. That one's based on a small cast-iron car brake drum;


I've been pretty lucky with picking up tools as onesie-twosies at swap meets, markets and junk shops.
One advantage I have is some good reference books, including a couple of repros of actual 19th century books on blacksmithing - written just before the trade began to go downhill. It helps a lot if you can recognise a tool's purpose, when you find it in a bin in a junk shop.

My smithing bookshelf:

That looks like a turbocharger. I take it the "snail" is operated by a hand crank to pump air that stirs up the heat.

Yep, it drives a centrifugal fan via a step-up gearbox, so it's not necessary to crank it very hard to get a lot of air blast.
A night shot of it fired up;


Pic without use of the flash;



A pic of the finished tool [a fire rake], that's shown being heated in the pics above;

What is the idea of the valve on the bottom?

It's a dump valve; for dumping any ash, fuel chunks, clinkers [fused ash lumps] etc. that fall down into the air blast pipe, or 'tuyere'.

freebird, I must admit I have had some luck with charity shops in the past. Back when a relative was collecting WW2 militaria, I walked into a Lifeline store one day and there in font of my eyes was an entire WW2 uniform in near mint condition with a $5 tag hanging on it. I can tell you I wasted no time grabbing it off the rack and driving home feeling like I had just won the lottery! My relative asked "So how much do I owe you?". He half expected I had been ripped off. I said 5 bucks and he almost dropped dead!