Anvil Stand

Since I've been moving into my new shop, I've been pretty busy trying to get everything up and running again. over the summer I was using charcoal in the side blast forge, which worked alright, although it was certainly far from ideal. The heat was too inconsistent for me to be able to do anything truly worthwhile. As the Christmas Season is upon us, I received four commissions for a Dutch Oven Cook Set. So, yesterday I went out and purchased 400# of coal and 140 linear feet of steel. It was a hefty sum, but I am now well stocked for quite some time.

Part of moving into my new shop is a new anvil stand. Previously I had my anvil perched on top of a tulip tree stump, just resting on top of the ground. Now, since I am in it to win it, I wanted a securely anchored anvil stand. I had a few 6x6's lying around, so I chopped one of them in half and bolted and screwed it together side by side for a 6x12 post. Then, I dug a deep pit, put some gravel at the bottom and sunk the post in.

That's a deep hole! It was a bear to get out of the tangle of roots and clay soil.

Set and leveled.

Backfilled.

An assortment of fasteners.

Now a quick tour of my shop for kicks and giggles. It is a lean to of dimensions 10x12. At the peak it is 12' tall, going at a sharp angle to about 6 1/2' towards the end of the slant. My dad built the majority of it, and I was able to help him. It has a galvanized steel roofing. 

The shop as a whole!

Coal bin opened, containing 200 lbs of coal.

Closed. All made from scrap lumber.

Already, without even having worked in my shop, I have made a mess. 

And in this corner, weighing in at 25#, general flotsam and jetsaaaam!

The shop, from the side. 

The vise is seen in the foreground, still unmoved from the original outdoor location.

Here is the olde log cabin style forge in the foreground.Compare with the following photo of what it used to look like. 

Quite a change, huh? This was back when I made a Stake Anvil

I will be keeping the forge in the foreground, as a memorial, as well as a cooking hob. 

Clutter... I need shelving!

I lit a small fore to keep me warm! 

It began to rain. I need to put up a small tarp on the overhang...it doesn't hang over well enough.

I am looking forward to the days ahead, the days where I will be forging long, hard hours of work. You can expect a greater output of work posted here in the next few months! 

Happy Hammering! 

Ridgeway Forge Blacksmith Company 

ridgewayforge@gmail.com

The Round Punch

Today I want to share one of my favorite tools to use, which I only recently made. It is easily made using only the tools outlined in Blacksmithing 101: Beginner Tools. (link)  The only tools you need for this are hammer, anvil, tongs, hot cut, and files. You could even do without the hot-cut and files if you forge to finish.

The tool I am going to show you is a round punch I made for punching screw holes in hooks and other such pieces. It is also helpful for punching rivet holes, and is much faster than cooling the piece and drilling a hole.

Behold, my Round Punch!

It is a 1/2" round bar of coil springs, tapered down to about 1/8". 

It is rather simple to make: 

1) Heat and straighten a 6" length of coil spring

2) Cut off the section, and dress the cut using backing-up blows

3) Taper business end by hammering square, octogon, round.

4) hammer flat 1/4" taper into the struck end, only slight taper, do not bring to a point. 

5) normalize in the air, them file it perfectly round. 

6) coat with oil to keep it rust-free! 

The profile is pretty round. It is slightly oval, but if you rotate the punch 30 degrees each time it punches well. 

the end is mushroomed from the hammering. Dress those edges to prevent chipping! It work hardens as it spreads, and can shear off suddenly. 

I need to dress it, it heated up a little too much and upset a little, deforming. 

When you use it, keep it cool every two hits by dunking it in water. A quick dip in oil or beeswax or coal dust will keep the punch from sticking in the hole. 

Here is what it does! 

As always, happy hammering and God Bless!

Ridgeway Forge Blacksmith Co. 

A New Tool: Nail Header

On this chilly Sunday afternoon, I write about something I've derived much pleasure from!
You may remember that in a previous post, I wrote about a demonstrator and the nail header tool he made, as well as a nail that he passed around. Well, although it is to some a mundane task, I have always been intrigued by one of the prime blacksmithing exercises.


So, I made myself a Nail Header!
Two, actually.
The first I began with a piece of 1060 steel. I beat it into shape:

Moving that metal was tough! It was the same stuff that I made my hot-cut hardy out of. Its really very tough, even with a 4-lb hammer. 

This was the first one, and the square punched hole is off center and crooked, which detracts from the overall quality of the header. 

It is beefy, but I may have to take it out and reforge a little bit. 

It is punched 3/4 of the way through, and then drilled out the back to allow the nail's shank to freely fall out of the header. Because the hole is punched off-center, it sticks a little bit. But it way my first, and I'm allowed mistakes, right?

The second is much better! 

I made it from a Railroad Spike: 

I cut off the head, and flattened the area a bit. I then rounded the spike portion of the metal, and drew the whole thing out a little bit. 

Here it is, post-forging and post-wire brush.

Again, punched from the top, almost all the way through, and then drilling the rest of the way. 

And now, NAILS! 

And, for these, I didn't quite "nail it", since I was new at the whole thing. It really helped me with my square tapers, though. Good practice! 

This is my best one!!!!

An ugly bunch, I know. I need to work on that.....

Ew. Ugly. But, its tough, there is only so much heat when it is in the lower 20 degrees F.

This nail header, I might add, is on sale from Craigslist, because I am a poor college student.

Happy Hammering, and Happy New Year!