Maybe next time...

  This always happens.  Found out about something called the Saugus Iron Works when its too late to go see it.  It was the first colonial setup to process iron ore into bars ready for a blacksmith.  I didn't find out about it till last night.  I won't have a chance to see it this trip.  Oh well.

http://www.nps.gov/sair/

Designing the clock...

  I finally started to carefully design the clock from the original.  My past wooden clocks were made pretty much from memory.  The very first clock I intentionally made oversized so that my poor woodworking skill would have less of an impact on its function.  Larger clock meant that I could be less precise.  That clock was about 5 feet wide.

  I had more confidence with the second clock.  I trimmed off from the height, width and depth.  That clock is right around 3 wide, 3 foot tall and 2 foot deep.

  Well, I'm now working on the design for the metal version of the clock.  I want to stay true to original and I'm a bit surprised by the size.  I guess it has been almost 8 years since I last saw the clock in person but I don't remember it being this small.  The size is going to be 21.5" wide, 23" tall (not counting decorative finials and escapement) and about 17" deep.  Much smaller...

  I've started the design in Turbocad.  Not exactly medieval but for the first clock I don't want to "wing" the size of parts like I did in the woodworking or my previous attempt at the frame.

I see so much of myself,

  Last night I was participating in a blacksmithing chat group on the www.anvilfire.com website.  Because of a techinal glitch that held up new members, there are suddenly a lot of new people all at once.  I found myself in a familiar scene, except I was on the advice end.

  The new guys were asking about anvils, hammer sizes, etc...  I suddenly realized they were asking the same questions I was asking about 3 years ago.  I found myself dispensing advice, answering questions, give cautionary warnings.  I was the most experience guy online at that moment.  There are pleanty of more experienced smiths on anvilfire but I was the most experienced that was online at that moment.

  It was an odd feeling but a good one.  Sometimes I don't feel like I'm making that much progress with my smithing but then I look back and see how far I've come.

Taking a break...

  I am going to use the next few weeks, months to prepare for my next effort at the clock.  I still have some works in progress that I will finish first but as I look at my equipment, there are just some general things I need to do.  I'm listing them here more for my own benefit rather than my one or two visitors...  :)

* Make new stand for new Fisher anvil

* Make stand for new Peddinghaus anvil.

* Make "child size" anvil stand for Russian anvil.  This will allow younger kids to try things out.

* Pick up kid sized gloves and safety equipment.

* Make stand for swage block.

* Fix legs for my blower.  The current legs are somewhat flimsy and light.  I've never liked the base I had for the blower but just never got around to doing anything about it.  I'm going to use lead to add weight to the base.

* Make new stand for my post vise.  (A post vise has a "leg" which goes from the vise to the ground)

* Make new storage containers for a more "period" look when demoing at events.

* Make new bellows (low priority but still there)

* Pick up some lighter hammers for kids.

* Polish hammers (remove dings from faces)

 

Well, I think that is enough for now...

 

Long but fun weekend,

  I set up to demo this weekend on Friday night.  All day Saturday and Sunday I was demoing blacksmithing.  I had at least 4 or 5 people give blacksmithing a try.  Its always rewarding to help others learn.  But this weekend there was an additional reward.  As a kind of thank you for all the demoing work I've done over the past few years, a lady that I know gave me a #100 Fisher anvil.  This particular model anvil is famous for its "dead" ring.  It is a very quiet anvil and my neighbors will thank her.

Some items that I worked on this weekend...

* Nice roast fork (large fork for picking up big pieces of meat)

* Pilum, a Roman style spear.

* Started another Quatrefoil.  I still want to make a quatrefoil for an SCA Art-Sci.  This time when I did the quatrefoil, I put decorative fleurs on the inside.  Came out a bit better than I expected.

In addition to that, I helped others make a knife, do some welding, and several S hooks.