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.

Organizing things...

  I have a big demo weekend coming up so decided to use the chance to clean up some things around the shop.  I consolidated a lot of my tools into a large(very large) tool box that I forgot I owned.  It was nice because I was able to get rid of a lot of old garbage and organize things.  I also took my borax powder (used in forge welding) and put it into a new container.  The container prevously held cashews so I gave it a quickie paint job to make it look nicer at demos.  I had to stop at the point as a final rain band from Katrina passed overhead.

  Hopefully, the planters cashew container won't repeat an incident that happened a while back...

Got the fire going,

  First time I fired up the forge in a while and it was a good experience.  Someday I may stop being surprised when things go right but I do like the feeling.  In this case, I was making a tool and I decided to make it using multiple cuts, bends and welds.  God damn, it actually came out like I wanted.  I was even more shocked when I realized that it had only taken me maybe 45 minutes.

  The tool I am making is a header to make the rivets for the brazier.  It is going to be a fairly hefty header.

  Also, made a cutting saddle for my Russian anvil.  Its designed to keep from damaging chisels when cutting.  Its really just a thin piece of metal shaped to the top of the anvil.

Misc stuff.

  Today I visited a place called Gator Tools.  I had received a flyer for them a week ago and decided to pay a visit.  This is a tool place for those that find Harbor Freight just too high of a quality.  Don't get me wrong, there was plenty there I wouldn't mind getting but most of the stuff is Chinese knockoff products.  It means they tend to break/not work if you look at them wrong.  However, I decided to go ahead pick up to roller stands.  These are used to hold long pieces of metal on the anvil to free up my hands.

  I stopped at TSC on the way home and found a good canopy for doing demos.  It is 10x20 but can be expanded to 24x20 if the walls are swung out to form a roof.  I also got a small metal trash can.  This I am going to use to anneal tools.  In the past when I've annealed tools they were placed in wood ash which was held in an old kitty litter container.  The problem was that the tools occasionally got too close to the sides and melted the container.

I also picked up a piece of metal to make a cutting saddle for my anvils.  The cutting saddle is used to protect chisels from cutting through a piece and hitting the anvil.  I also picked up a 10# sledge.  I've had some volunteers recently to do striker duty for me...

Thinking more about the clock,

  About a year ago, I made an attempt at starting the frame for the clock.  While I had some success and proved some concepts, I still had a lot to learn.  I didn't have a lot of experience with drifting or worrying about very precise precision so it would have ultimately failed or at the very least a lot of cleanup work.  The hurricanes last year disrupted my work which was probably for the best.  It is time make another attempt at the clock.

  In a few weeks, I will be in Boston for two weeks.  This will give me the time to carefully design and think about the frame.  I own TurboCad and will use that to plot out the design.  My old attitude on a lot of projects was to just get in there and do it and fix any mistakes later.  This time, there will be too much energy, time, resources, etc... involved to worry about redoing work.  I need to take the time and do it right.

  I am sure I will have to redo many parts as I still have a lot to learn.  What I am going to try avoid doing is what I had happen with the chest where I remade almost every part 2 or 3 times(sometimes more).

  I think I will also go for a slightly thinner stock for the frame.  Last year I was using 1/2" stock.  This would result in a very heavy clock.  My rough estimate would be somewhere in the 300 pound range.  I think I will use 3/8" stock for the frame, 1/4" would be too thin for the support elements of the clock.

  I am also going to order some clock making books from www.artisanideas.com.  The books are geared (no pun intended) to 18th-19th century clocks but I think I could pick up some valuable information from them.  I will probably order them today so I can have them before Boston.

  I need to finish the brazier before I move onto the clock.  I was expecting to be done with it by now but work has kept me busy.

  Its time to get this clock going...  (that is a pun which I may explain later.)