ThomasPowers

Are those Canadian dollars or Singapore dollars or Australian dollars or US dollars or.... . Canadian dollars would mean C$1400 == US$1092 so a better deal!

Would there be a smithy associated with an ice house? Yes, No, Maybe---depending on how big a business it was and how close the local smithy was to the area.

Here in a town of 10K people, (when the university is in session), there are a number of places to refill or exchange propane tanks. It is amusing to call and compare the price per gallon for propane. I refill and always used the same dealer for over a decade---they once came in when they were closed to fill my tanks when I was teaching on a weekend! Unfortunately they were bought by a larger company based 80 miles away and no longer offer dock service. Exchange places would often fill to a lower amount and then charge for a full bottle---there was a big class action lawsuit about that. The refill places measure the propane by gallon and charge for what you get---I may refill a half dozen BBQ bottles and they just bill me for the total gallons. (If you find a pace that has a standard refill charge abjure it! Most times there is still some propane in the tank when it goes to be refilled.

There are a number of books available with plans for building "nomadic furniture" ; in fact the book "nomadic furniture" is available online in a pdf. They tend to be DIY guides to building simple easily built furniture that is built to be able to be "flat packed". (Much of it is built of plywood.) I prefer the medieval trestle tables with wedges designed to be built from real wood and disassembled for storage and transport. (Plans can be found online!) Built from recycled wood you can have a sturdy work surface that you are proud to show off.

Are you concerned only with the USA? If So; what part of the 1800's? "Practical Blacksmithing" was published in 1889, 1890 and 1891. I have a 1897 Sears Roebuck catalog that shows what was available pretty much everywhere in the USA back then. You do know that there was a major change after the Bessemer/Kelly process, 1856, started the switch from real wrought iron to mild steel. Civil War Blacksmithing describes some of the stuff used then. Lot of info on the Fur Trade era in the early 1800's. So *details*! /

Egyptian Metalworking and Tools (Shire Egyptology) by Scheel, Bernd Search on your favorite used book site.

I'm envious; we don't even have weeds that lush!

Stamping creates a bit of a stress riser if that is a consideration. Etching or electro etching is a bit less of a stress riser issue.

Thanks; I'd like to see it in action!

Your rice coal is probably anthracite; it will work but is harder to use than bituminous blacksmithing coal. You may want to read the threads about how to use anthracite for pointers. If you do try charcoal get "lump" charcoal and NOT briquettes!

Well Done! It was cloudy and coolish today so I fired up the gasser and withy a squirrel cage fan blowing on my back, (had to put baffles on the burners...), I finished off a couple of rasptlesnakes for the State Fair and worked on a couple of chuck wagon cooking sets.

They do have a lot of free range cyclones out where Billy lives, are they crushed to make recycling them easier?

Don't use a drill geared for drilling wood for drilling steel. My drillpress is currently set for drilling steel and is much faster than a hand crank. If I need to drill wood I use a hand electric drill.

Have you perused "Egyptian Metalworking and Tools"?

I've seen ones made with a cast iron skillet before. My firepot is from a 1930's Banjo rear end axle cover, bought two (US$3) that had been made into jackstands and converted the first one into my firepot, got the second one as backup; but I've been using the first for 30+ years now with minimal evidence of wear so it will probably outlast me. If you are in the USA; which of the half dozen blacksmith supply places here in the USA have you checked for what you need?

Have you looked at a board hammer for another take on how to do it? My screwpress has a ring that provides the mass with two dependent handles. They are removable and you can use a strap attached to the ring for the "pull". OTOH if I'm giving a big pull my head is outside of the danger zone anyway. If I'm giving a small pull---a bump, my hand is on the handle and I know where my hand and head are at. Now making adjustments to the dies the screwpress can autorotate down if you don't set the stop on it and thwap you. I slide some pipe insulation on the handles when I expect that may happen. (And try to use the stop all the time!)

Yes you can make them; but it's not necessary. How many machinists make all their own nuts and bolts for a project? I have a drawer full of commercial rivets I have bought over the years at garage sales and the scrapyard; but the nails provided the "look" I wanted as well as being cheap and fast!

MINE ALL MINE! Ah sorry you'uns can't attend; I'll try to leave you some stuff for next year!

I went to the monthly "Friends of the Library book sale". One of the folks there had saved out a couple of books for me. Library bindings of "Practical Blacksmithing" and "The Art of Blacksmithing"; of course being hardbacks they were more expensive---US$1 apiece. I've had both for years if not decades; so a local forge friend is stopping by to get them in a couple of minutes. Most of the rest of the books I got were ones I've read before and liked and I was replacing paperback copies with hardback copies.

Going on a trip? Will your shop doors be unlocked? Can I offer your wife a couple of hundred dollars to clean out your garage for her?

On a sadder note; a lot of those nails ended up scrapped as there was just too many of them for museums---how many of us would have been willing to buy a couple for show and for roman stock!

You want the lid to keep rain out when it's sitting in the yard; it also helps camouflage it from pesky neighbors...

I ceded her the house and the studio and built my shop and keep it locked!

Have you looked at R.J.Leahy, rjleahy.com? They are what a lot of the armor makers use and they have a wide selection! For flat headed rivets I generally use 8 penny, 16 penny or 20 penny nails, clip them to size. What I used on my grill.

I generally use a ball peen hammer ball to make the lip, I have a couple old ones that are a bit more conical than ball.