Few new simple toys...
I had to wait for some stuff to finish processing at work so took a long lunch on a quest for a leather apron. I have been smithing for 3 years now and still did not own a decent apron. As a result, I have a lot of T-shirts dotted with burn holes. I decided to first try out Harbor Freight.
For those not familiar with HF, they are a hardware store that mainly carries cheap Chinese tools. I firmly believe that if you are buying a tool, you should buy high quality. However, if you are only going to use a tool once or twice or its a tool you don't mind if its sucks, HF is the place to go.
Well, HF did not have any appropriate aprons. Also, they apparently have dropped most of the anvils that they were selling (not sure if any coyotes were nearby to have anvils dropped on them.) The only anvil they are selling is the cheap 55# Indian anvil I started with. It is being sold under the Centaur Forge name. Too bad...
I did pick up an oil can (think the oil can in Wizard of Oz.) The oil can is for lubricating my crank blower. Also pickup up whats called something like a map measurer? Got this tip from another blacksmith. Its a little tool that you can use to trace curving shapes. The tool gives you an accurate measurement. Very useful if you have a curved design and you want to know how much metal it will take.
Final stop was at a welding supply store. Picked up a decent apron. No more holy T-shirts.
A chronicle of my attempts to create an early clock using only traditional techniques.
Tuesday, November 8, 2005
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1 comment:
I don't know what kind of apron you picked up at the welding shop, but if you still want a try at making a good leather one appropriate for events and demos, try Leather Unlimited out of Wisconsin, they have a website, and any search should pick it up. Good prices on whole and partial hides, including deer and elk (which I think would make a GREAT smithy apron).
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