I have a new job.

I walked into work on the morning of Wednesday, July 8th and discovered I no longer had a job. My supervisor Mike, who was obviously upset, informed me due to the negative effects of the pandemic on the economy the company had to eliminate several positions throughout the branches and mine was one on the list. There was no warning. One day I’m an essential worker and the next I’m unemployed. I let my team leader know where I was on the job I had been working on, cleaned up any of my tools that were out and went home to tell my wife that I had lost my job. The next couple of days are sort of foggy. Much to my surprise, I discovered myself moving through the stages of grief. It then occurred to me that this was the first time since I was in High School (26 years ago) that I was without gainful employment. I’d move from lethargic disinterest to unreasonable rage and then fall deep into a pit of despair feeling hopeless. I eventually got myself to where I was able to sort things out and begin to set about fixing this undesirable situation. I sat down at my computer and set up my account for Wisconsin Unemployment Insurance. I located “my proudly assembled 26 page resume including scans of all my certificates” in one of my desktop folders, added my last job to it and promptly headed over to Craigslist to check out all the excellent job opportunities they had listed. Oh brother…. It turns out finding a job...during a unique global pandemic….with 22 million other Americans also out of work can be tricky. I had no idea what I was doing and no idea how to improve my odds. I would see a listing on Craigslist or milwaukeejobs.com, go to the website, fill out a contact form or an application, upload “my proudly assembled 26 page resume including scans of all my certificates" and eagerly await the phone call from a shop manager weeping with joy and finally finding an applicant with such a shining work history. Strangely, I never received that call. A couple of days into this I was in my garage shop trying to fix something when my neighbor Michael got home from work and stopped over to say hello and remark on the gigantic toolbox I now had in my garage. At a socially responsible distance we chatted and I told him what I was experiencing even though I was diligently scouring the help wanted ads with my “my proudly assembled 26 page resume including scans of all my certificates”. Very kindly and tactfully he suggested I might try out a couple different websites. One was called “My Perfect Resume” and the other was called “Indeed”. He explained that in the current job market, resumes shouldn’t be more than two pages at the most. He also impressed the importance of something called a cover letter. He is a very good person and I will be alway grateful for his advice. The next day I logged onto My Perfect Resume, set up an account, paid the nominal fee and got to work. This site is fantastic. It walks you through all the steps, offers wording suggestions and formats the document in a few different ways to suit your “image”. It also helps you build a cover letter to accompany your resume. I really can’t express how helpful this site is. Once I was armed with an improved brochure for my services I headed over to Indeed and started looking for jobs.This process took the longest. I also found a website called "Government Jobs" which got me several promising interview. I am blessed with friends who made suggestions and provided tips on jobs that were available. I did begin to get replies to my submissions. My resume was getting some circulation. I began to get interviews. I began to get calls from employment agencies. An agent named John from Argus Technical Services was specifically helpful. He got me a couple real promising interviews and was really helpful and supportive. In the end it was a tip from my friend Sarah that landed me a job and she had my gratitude. As of the writing of this over 350,000 people have been lost to this pandemic and my story pales in comparison to that. I was unemployed for almost six months. I had to make some tough financial decisions which will take me quite a while to recover from but many, many others had it much, much worse. I was privileged enough to have a dad who helped out significantly with everything. I also had friends/family who check in with us regularly to give support and love. 2020 was a pretty horrible year for us and I’m glad we’re through it and able to start repairing the damage. I hope we all can begin to mend our lives, our country and our world as soon as possible.

Copper Coffee Scoop

This may come as a bit of a surprise but, I really like coffee. I was surfing through youtube a couple of weeks ago and I saw a video of a blacksmith making a copper coffee scoop. I watched it and immediately fell in love with the look of it. I also decided I wanted to try to make one. I searched for any other videos of these scoops being made, watched their techniques, picked up some important info on the properties of copper and how to work with it. I then set about figuring out where to get the copper material. I ended up going to the almighty Amazon to get my copper disks and rivets. Next was figuring out tooling. Aside from some very beginner looking steel spoons, this is the first bit of forge work that requires shaping a cup. Ideally I would use a swage block but I haven't been able to afford one. I did some looking and I found one I want to get in the future when more surplus funds are available but for now I will have to rely on my own creative DIY work-around. I found a couple of old ball hitches and a used pintle hook ring I have in my scrap surplus to use as a cupping jig and decided to give them a try. While I was working on the cup and kinda chasing my tail, a good buddy of mine stopped by. He scored me a couple brake drums off a semi trailer I had asked him for in order to make a couple things (teaser!!) for the shop and for a friend. We were chatting about what I was making and he wondered about the use of a wood mallet. I hadn’t seen anyone use a mallet in the videos so it didn't occur to me. I dug mine out and decided it probably wouldn’t work for this project. After he left I got to looking at the mallet and discovered that it fit into the inner diameter of my ring jig. I gave the copper a good annealing, placed it on the ring jig, centered the mallet and hammered it through. It worked really well. A wonderfully shaped cup. I cleaned up the rim of the cup, polished off the forge scale, hammered out a quick handle and then riveted it together. I’m pretty happy with the results as a prototype. I’m ultimately going to change the shape and process of making the cup because the rim of the prototype is a bit too flimsy and I want to experiment with different handles that are a little more flat rather than twisted square. But as a “proof-of-concept” I’m pretty happy with it. I will be making more with a goal to make them available for sale. I look forward to seeing these evolve.

Shop Saw Update

Several months ago I stumbled on a Craigslist ad for a small metal cutting band saw. I had been kinda looking for one but they were always well out of my price range. This one caught my eye because it was listed for $50. I brief look at the pictures revealed that not only was it the kind of saw I was looking for, but it was also a Grizzly brand which is a brand I quite respect. I called to see if someone scooped it up and found it was still there so away I went. 

I showed up to a small fabrication shop and they walked me back to where it was. I was a little rougher in person than the pictures showed and it was missing a blade, some guards and a manual. Still, they plugged it in and it turned on so we I loaded it up. 

I did some searching on Google and came up with a PDF of the manual and discovered Grizzly still sold blades for it. Woohoo! 

I ordered the blades and set them aside with the manual for when I would have a chance to tinker with it. 

That was last year...

Well, tonight I dragged it out and started fiddling with it. I figured out how to install the blade, rigged up a larger table face so I could use it as an upright saw, hunted around for some srock i wanted to cut for split crosses amd started cutting. I experimented with different blade speeds. I discovered a loose lock bolt for the blade tension wheel after the blade came zinging off during a cut. 

All in all, it worked really good.  I'm super happy with that $50 chance. I look forward to being more productive in the future.

Wonderstate Coffee Review - The Ghost of coffee past

Greetings my fabulous Fox River Roustabouts, welcome to another Blue-collar Coffee Review. This review is somewhat special. The coffee I’m trying is no longer available because the company has changed its name and branding. In December of 2019 (11 months ago as of this post) I was given two bags of coffee beans from my boss at the time Mike as a christmas gift. The beans he gave me were from a Wisconsin roaster called Kickapoo Coffee Roaster. As I was doing research for the review video I discovered that they had decided to change their name in order to be more socially conscious with regards to cultural appropriation. They are now doing business as Wonderstate Coffee.

I could sit here and describe all the very interesting things they do as a progressive coffee company (like being 100% solar at their facilities!) but I really suggest you go to their website and spend some time learning about these wonderful Wisconsinites. Their website is easy to navigate and makes for some really good reading. Especially as you drink some of their coffee(wink, wink). Oh, What’s that? You’ve always liked coffee and are thinking about upgrading your brew set up but are not sure what you need? No problem, Wonderstate has your back with their own, hand picked “Brew Kits”. I’ll be honest, when I get a little side cash saved, I am very likely going to pick up one of these kits myself. As I said, the beans I’m trying were a gift; this is not a sponsored review and my opinions are wholly my own. I do hope you enjoy the video. Give it a “like” and subscribe to see what happens next in the shop. Halloween is just around the corner….

Die-grinder bit holder and organizer

Today in the shop I decided to organize all the bits I use with my die-grinder and drills and such. I was tired of them rolling around in a drawer and having to dig through them to find what I need. This was a very quick build with a minimum amount of effort put into it and it still came out pretty good. Some minor sanding and a coat of Boiled Linseed Oil and done.

Check out the whole video here.

Spyhouse Coffee Roasters - Orion Signature Blend

Greetings my fellow Fox River Roustabouts, welcome back to the shop. It’s time for another video from our coffee review series. Today I am featuring some coffee gifted to me by a long-time friend and band-mate Aaron. I was chatting with him after seeing a picture of his home coffee station and when I mentioned I was doing coffee reviews he said he had some coffee he thought I would like and offered to grind up a pot worth. The coffee he gave me is from a bag of “Orion Signature Blend” coffee he bought in Minnesota at Spyhouse Coffee Roasters. While making the video I desperately wanted to use the Metallica song “Orion” off their epic 1986 album “Master of Puppets”. It is one of my favorite songs from the band but of course I would almost immediately get hit for song licensing issues so I settled for adding a hyperlink to the song title above. Even though I couldn’t use the song, I still enjoyed the stars out of this coffee. Enjoy!

Gearhead - Beadlock Texas Pecan Roast

Greetings my fellow Fox River Roustabouts and welcome back to the shop. It is about time for another coffee review and since it’s International Coffee Day I figured let's roll!! Today I will be reviewing Gearhead’s “Beadlock Texas Pecan Roast” coffee. This is part of the sample pack I purchased from Gearhead a while back. I have several friends who own Jeeps and it’s because of them that I knew a beadlock is a device used, especially on vehicles built for rough offroad use, it helps keep the bead of the tire seated in the rim when the tire is experiencing abnormal stress. Often when off roading in rocky terrain drivers will decrease the pressure in their tires to allow the softer tires to grip the available surfaces a little better. If they did this without a beadlock there is a chance the tire could pop off the rim and cause a real problem. This coffee definitely got a grip on me. Enjoy.

First Coffee Review Video - 427 Stroker from Gearhead Coffee

Greetings my fellow Fox River Roustabouts, welcome back to the shop. Well, here it is! The premier video from my new coffee review series. In this video I will be reviewing the “427 Stroker” blend of coffee from Gearhead Coffee. As I was trying to figure out which coffee to start with on this series I happened to notice ads for Gearhead coffee showing up in a lot of my feeds so eventually I checked them out. The company is obviously targeting a demographic that is interested in car culture. The coffee I’m reviewing first is a nod to the iconic “Mystery Motor” used by racing legends Mickey Thompson and Smokey Yunick. When I was in high school I figured I wanted to be a mechanic when I graduated so I took all the classes related to that like small engines class, automotive concepts both one and two, auto maintenance, ect. I’ve always liked cars and trucks, especially old ones and hotrods and while I didn't end up becoming an automotive mechanic I did end up working on trucks and heavy equipment so I still fit in the gearhead catagory. Looking at their website I discovered they offered a sample pack of six different blends with enough of each blend to brew a full pot of coffee. This seems like a great way to start the series so I ordered the sample pack and here is the first review.

Something New Brewing

Greetings my wonderful Fox River Roustabouts, today I am excited to announce something new coming out of the shop. I am going to start doing coffee review videos. I’ve been a regular coffee drinker for decades consuming vast amounts of the wonderfully caffeinated elixir while working or making music or just hanging out at a cafe with friends. I’ve noticed that coffee culture has been growing and when you look on media sites there is all sorts of content related to “this roast” or “that grinder” or “those brew methods” and is constantly portraying a glamorized idea of coffee culture. I noticed something missing. There is very little input from the average, everyday working stiff slugging back a “cup-o-joe” as they deal with their blue-collar, multiple-job trying to make-ends-meet life. So I thought I could develop a series using a basic automatic drip coffee maker and do some taste tests of different types of coffee available for purchase. I’ll use some standard controls so I can maintain a neutral brew environment like store bought water and a reusable, dishwasher safe filter. I think this will help eliminate anything that might unduly affect the coffee I brew. I’m looking to start this series in the very near future. I hope it turns out well and provides some entertainment for everyone. If there is a coffee you would like to recommend please feel free to send me an email at Chris@foxriverforge.com and I’ll check it out.

Giaco Whatever Unboxing

In a fit of retail therapy I paid money to a Kickstarter in order to get a specialty retractable utility knife from a maker named Giaco in Italy. I stumbled across it while watching videos from Jimmy Diresta. In this video, I open up the package and check it out for the first time and give my thoughts. I will do a review of it in a couple weeks.

Enjoy

Setting up the Shop

I finally got some time and weather to get into the shop and get things essentially placed. I was able to dig up a knockoff GoPro camera my wonderful wife gave me a few years ago so I could have a couple different camera angles for this video. I also used a licence free music site called “Epidemic Sound” for some of the video. It was an exercise in creative problem solving moving some of those items alone but I succeeded.

Enjoy

A new Beginning

I’m not a New Year’s Resolution person,
like, AT ALL.
I don't need a special day dedicated to making promises I’m not likely to keep. I do, however, like tidy increments of time so since it’s January I’m launching an overhaul of my YouTube channel. I haven’t been able to get out to the forge at my dad's house for months mostly because it’s inconvenient to wedge into my schedule, so I made a decision. I’m moving the forge.
Again.
My house has a two car garage and I am going to give up parking inside so that I can put together a shop where I can work both on home projects and other creative endeavors.
I want to start making regular YouTube videos showing the creation of the shop and the projects that go through it. I’d like to augment that channel by creating corresponding posts here. I would use these posts to provide more details and explain things that either I didn’t have time for in the video or would be too tangential.
My gear and expertise in video creation is fairly sketchy but I hope to improve that with time.
The first video in this series is called “A New Beginning” and I’m literally, starting from scratch. I used my phone and the YouTube app to shoot it. It didn’t sound or look that great but I got it done.

Enjoy

Strange customer

While I haven't been doing very much smithing at all recently, an off hand comment led to be sharpening some lawnmower blades for a friend.  Shortly after doing his set, someone else contacted me to sharpen their blades based on a recommendation from the first set. This has led to a small but steady stream of work sharpening mower blades and even repairing some yard tools like rakes and shovels. It's not a lot of money but I enjoy it and a couple extra bucks is nice.
It has, however, led to a strange encounter.
A lady called  looking to get some items touched up and said she would send her son out to the forge to meet me. He arrived and I immediately took notice because he was very large, easily four inches taller than me. He was also, evidently, a huge Detroit Red Wings fan because he was wearing one of their goalie masks. He was shy and didn't say much as he handed over a machete, an axe, and a pitchfork with some bent tines. I told him I'm just now getting into knife sharpening and these were the first blades of this type I'd sharpened. He didn't seem too bothered. I touched up the axe easy enough.  The machete had some pretty good dings in the edge, probably from some hardwood limbs or something, so that took a bit of time. He wasn't overly anxious but he did have some sort of sneezing fit because I heard him make a sound lime "ki, ki, cha, cha" a couple times.
Anyway, I got the pitchfork tines straightened without needing to heat them up and he wad on his way. I assume he had to get back to work because he was wearing coveralls with the name if some camp on them. Weird guy, never said a word aside from the sneezing. But I guess it's October and people are more open to let their Freak Flag fly.

Split crosses for a church auction

The church I belong to had an auction recently to raise funds for its outreach program. This year I donated three plaque mounted split crosses. Split crosses are made by making two intersecting cuts in a length of metal and opening those cuts up in a specific way creating a cross with a diamond shape in the middle. They look really nice when done well and I’ve made a few of them in the past so I know how they’ll turn out.

I made these particular crosses out of some discarded railroad spikes. I chose the spikes because I had them in my stock inventory and the dimensions were decent. I also like the symbolism of turning spikes into crosses to help raise money for my church. I bought the bare plaques from Michaels Craft’s because I wanted the rough, hand-forged look of the crosses to work with the proper, cleanly milled edges of the commercial plaques to show a union of thrift and wealth.

I also took the time to record the process of making these plaques. I recorded footage of the entire process for one specific plaque, edited it and put it on a flash drive to be auctioned off with that specific cross. I also uploaded a copy to my YouTube channel. You can watch it below.



I’m pretty happy with how they came out and I hope they do well at the auction.

Lunatics on the internet

As I've said recently, 2018 has been a year of intense change in my life and my opportunity to be creating with metal has had to take a backseat to the remodeling of my life. That doesn't mean it hasn't been on my mind. I find that even if I can't swing the hammer my self, I get pleasure and inspiration from watching others being creative. Most of this comes in the form of watching other create. I am an avid fan of Forged In Fire (which I greedily consume via Amazon.com) and I subscribe to several channels on YouTube. There is a channel in particular that I want to talk about right now.

Let me set the stage.

One Friday afternoon I found myself in a particularly foul mood, I took up residence in a chair in the living room in full grump-mode. These are not particularly flattering details about myself but it's important to the story plus the more I call these traits out, hopefully the more I will be able to recognize their onset and be able to subvert them. Anyway, Jessie was trying to brighten me up a bit and asked if I wanted to watch a blacksmithing video or something. I responded with a indifferent grumble of syllables so she turned on the TV, pulled up YouTube, did some searching and hit play and I soon found myself watching a guy with a birds-nest of hair and beard grinding on a large plate of metal with an angle grinder while NOT WEARING A SHIRT! Such was my introduction to Michael Cthulhu.

Believe me when I say I have spent more than a few hours removing metal with an angle grinder and the idea of not wearing a shirt during this process is ludicrous. This brazen disregard for everything my previous Safety Coordinator had spent decades pounding into my brain proved to be a worthy opponent to the gloom that had been holding me captive and soon I was fixated on this crazy guy who, it turns out, makes giant swords for people.

In fact, what endears this artist to me is that he does amazing work with what looks like a crazy mix of in various states of ill-repair. While I know from experience what it takes to make videos like the ones he produces, the average viewer is left with an impression of a madman in the woods using scrap metal and cobbled together tools to create beautiful and detailed works of art that happen to be absurdly large swords.

He started off making short "smash" videos using swords he created for customers to destroy various chunks of wood, ice and mannequins, some of which were on fire. These are often quite theatrical and only 3 or 4 minutes long. He then posted a "build" video where he filmed his creative process of laying out and fabricating these swords from scratch which were often over an hour long and discovered people, like me, would watch these as well.

My goal here is obviously to get you to watch a couple videos from Michael and hopefully subscribe to his channel so that when we are together next we can sit and talk excitedly about this build or that. With that in mind I spent some time and picked a couple videos hoping to entice you into checking him out.

A great deal of the swords he builds are from video games so I am quite ignorant about them, however, he did do a build related to something I am at least aware of and have interacted with.

Star Trek

These videos are related to Michael's build of "The Sword of Kahless" which, in Star Trek cannon, was the first bat'leth ever forged. Here is the "Smash" video for this build.



See, wasn't that FUN!!! He used a Sharpie to paint his face like a Klingon! It's a beautiful piece of work. However, to really grasp the level of detail and effort he put into this weapon, you really should check out the build video. It's a little bit longer but it shows just how talented Michael is. He's pretty good about explaining what's happening on the screen at any moment. Also, he has an accent which makes him even easier to watch.



Man, what did I say about detail. All that pattern grinding by hand!!

As I said before, I really connect with how these videos turn out because it reminds me of how I am when I'm working on something. I'm muttering to myself, trying things that sometimes work and sometimes don't. I like the realism of the videos. The Discovery Channel did produce six episodes of a show called "Big Giant Swords" where Michael and a crew of people he assembled built some swords. I have watched clips from the show on YouTube but it just wasn't the same. It seemed too polished and gimmicky. I believe that was cancelled shortly after it was started so now he is back to being his own entity.


It's kinda strange because, as a fabricator/blacksmith, I don't really have a desire to build stuff like this. We are talking about swords that are sometimes over 100 lbs and 6 feet long. I'm not really even into blade-smithing, I just really enjoy watching people being wonderfully creative in whichever medium excites them. Plus some of the skills, tricks and equipment are transferable.This isn't to say that if someone approached me about making a knife or a sword that I would reject the idea right away. I'm more than willing to discuss any idea. I've made knives and at least one Uruk Hai sword for a friend and it was fun but they aren't my main focus. He has started a patreon to help pay for the immense time it takes to make these videos. He has said that most swords take about a month to build and each build video takes about a full work week to edit and assemble. I hope to be able to jump in on that in the near future. Until then I will be waiting eagerly for the next build video to be posted.

Ctrl-Alt-Dlt...Life Reboot

This is the year of change for me. I've never been someone to try to map out my future with any real degree of determination. I have a things I'd like to see happen and if they get put into motion I try to have them play out as beneficial as possible. My experience with this silly journey called life has taught me that, at best, you have to be adaptable to the circumstances that are presented to you.

By the end of this year, through a not uninteresting sequence of events, I will be able to say that I have, changed jobs after 22 years, bought my first house, got baptized and married. The first two of these items I did within days of each other. Any one of these are fairly significant life changes and all but one of them were no where near being on my radar even 8 months ago.

But life, as I seem to live it, demands adaptability.

With all of this going on I haven't been able to put hammer to steel in my forge for many months. Today I had a small window of time so I chased out some mice and a few spiders and fired up the forge. A successful session in the forge is usually diametrically opposite to living my life. I like to know what I'm making, what tools I'll need, how long I'm dedicating to each project and as much else about that time as possible in order to be a economic with that time as possible. I still need to adapt to situations as they arise but I'm usually quite focused. Sessions like today are much more day-dreamy and if I get anything to come out, I'm pretty happy. I was able to get a split cross or a Frederick's cross done but it was a hastily cut with a cut-off wheel rather than a band saw or hacksaw and rather sloppy job. Still, it looks alright and the sense of accomplishment was nice.

I do have some other things I was to do in the near future including a couple videos but we will see how that plays out in the coming weeks.

Harvested Steel

I've always been creative. I grew up where I had to spend a lot of time entertaining myself. One day I would be trying to play a garden hose like a bugle and the next I would be climbing around in the backyard tree line like I was Rambo. At an early age my dad would have me help work on the lawn mower and change oil in the vehicles so I developed some mechanical aptitude.

Where we lived was a short distance from the village hall where, on Saturday's, the community would bring their garbage for removal. Rural community home pick-up service wasn't available at the time so we would load up the garbage cans, drive to the village hall and get in line to dump everything into a compactor that would fill a container and be swapped out by truck when full. In addition to standard garbage, they had a bin for scrap steel and other items not suitable to be compacted with the garbage; things like used or wrecked bicycles for instance.

I don't know how or why it started but I began asking the guy running the compactor if I could grab some of these bike. The used ones were still good enough to ride and the damaged ones had parts to fix each other and soon I was gathering parts together and building complete bicycles. This culminated in me building an entire bmx style bike made entirely from different salvaged bikes. Nothing was from the same bike. The forks, frame, rims, tires, tubes, pedals, gears, bearings, even the bearing cups were from different bikes. I rattle canned it flat black and called it (obviously) Frankenbike. I enjoyed making something functional out of these parts people had given up on.

Fast forward several years to my journey into blacksmithing. For over 20 years I've been working at a final stage manufacturer of utility equipment and in addition to the various skills I've learned, I've also had access to a great deal of scrap metal. I always loved looking through the scrap bins at the different shapes and daydreaming about what it could be made into. On occasion there would be a scrap that was too perfect to leave so I would check with the supervisor and get permission to take it home. The company was quite generous and as long as there wasn't any misconduct, either displayed or perceived, they were open to those requests. So when I started blacksmithing I was able to grab small bits of stock or cut off scraps that I could work in the forge to build skill. I really liked the idea of taking this piece of metal deemed unusable and reforming it into something aesthetically pleasing and sometimes function.

Sounds familiar, right?

I, too, recognized this theme in my thinking. I get as much joy, if not a little more, from turning a rusty chunk of rebar into a couple nice wall hooks as I do turning new steel into corkscrews. There's an obvious material cost savings, though the effort of harvesting and processing the steel needs to be considered. It also requires some knowledge to determine which metal is useful, can it be worked with the tools available, is it galvanized or coated with something equally as dangerous. Heating up galvanized metal releases fumes which are deadly. Metal can be soaked in vinegar and cleaned but sometimes the health hazards are just too much to make it worth using. A couple hooks or brackets aren't worth respiratory failure or nerve gas exposure. These are things I've learned through reading material online or from experiences at my actual job.

Ultimately it boils down to this, I enjoy harvesting scrap steel for my projects. I love the excitement I feel when I look at something and see the potential in that raw form and the satisfaction of coaxing that vision into a reality. Many people enjoy the idea of recycled or re-purposed material as a way to be more conscious of What we consume in this little rock we ride through the universe.

So if you see something lying by the side of the road or leaning against a dumpster and it ignites your creativity, consider doing something with it. You may find yourself in a new hobby as well!

Accidental Anvil

Some time back a friend of mine gave me a bunch of tools he decided he didn't need while cleaning out his garage. As I was loading them into my truck he said he had a block of steel to give me if I wanted it. It turned out to be a block measuring 4”x4”x9.25” and weighing nearly 50 pounds. I jumped at the offer. I had no idea, at the time, what I would/could do with it but, I loaded it before he could think twice.Time passes and it sat in my forge and acted more as a conversational piece than anything production worthy.

At that same time, I was doing regular work in the forge making this or that. Occasionally I would get frustrated because I'd have to put a step or shoulder in a piece of steel I was working which requires the use of my anvil’s edge. The problem is that my anvil is quite old and had a pretty hard life before I came along and most of my edges are chipped and damaged. There are ways to refinish the faces of anvils but it don't really want to do that so I made due with what I have.

One day while trying to organize my work area I had to move the block in order to brush off the forge tabletop. I set it on the face of my anvil and resumed cleaning. When I went to move it back I looked at it and an obvious solution came to mind. I could dress the edges of this block of steel to whichever radius I want. I could even put a few different ones on there which is what a lot of Smith's did in the past. This way I could get the edge work surface I wanted and not have to drastically alter my anvil. I grabbed my angle grinder with a flapdisk on it and went to work. I made one edge nice and round another one was a sharper round and I left a couple edges at 90°.

Once finished with that I stood there and looked at the block and thought maybe I should weld on some feet so I could keep it from moving all over the place while I'm working on it. I don't have a welder in the forge that could handle that kind of job so I took it to work where there are plenty of welders available. At lunch I set everything up and just as I was going to strike an arc i saw a bracket used to attach truck bodies to frames hanging on the side of the bench I was at. It's angled stock with decent sized hole in a nice solid plate of steel and I thought, “That looks like something i could turn into a serviceable hardy hole.” Most hardy holes are somewhere from ¾” to 1” square so as to accept a hardy tool. Hardy tools are usually different types of tools with a square peg base that fit into the hardy hole on the anvil and aid the blacksmith in certain ways like bending, cutting and shaping.

I cut the bracket off the table and cleaned it up. I then looked around for some steel tubing with a 1” inner diameter. I found some that had a decent wall thickness and cut off a section long enough to hold any of the tools I owned. I then used a die grinder to square out the round hole in the bracket to get my tube, positioned the tube and welded it in place and used a sander to flatten out the face of the hardy hole. Then it was just a matter of welding it to one end of the block. Even though I have a state structural welding certification, I don't weld full time so my welds are fairly ugly but very functional. I welded it up and sanded it to my satisfaction.

As a stood there looking at it I remembered a chunk of kelly bar I had at the forge which has a hole drilled in it. I thought that would work as a pritchel hole even thought it's quite a bit larger than most standard ones. Pritchel holes are commonly used to aid in punching holes in metal and are usually around 1/2" in diameter. I figure if i need to, I can make a reducer to fit in the hole. I brought the piece I to work, cut it down to size and welded it on the opposite end. It was around this point I figured I might as well face the fact that I was building an anvil or at least an (ASO) anvil shaped object.

Once I settled on that it was time to decide what to do about a horn. The horn is commonly shaped as a tapered offset cone. Given the resources I has this wasn't really feasible so I opted to weld on a couple chunks of used machine pins I salvaged out of the shop scrap bin. I cut those to length, welded them on and sanded them to shape. I saw that I never got around to welding on the feet so I did that and as I was positioning it I got to look g at the hardy hole bracket and realized that I wanted to make that bracket a little more sturdy so I weld scrap diving again and found some decent plate stock, trimmed it to fit and welded it across the bottom and rear of the bracket effectively closing most of the bracket up.

So, that's that. I meant to do a little grinding to make a use out of something that was in the shop and the next thing I know I have a 65 lb ASO. I classify this as an ASO because it doesn't have a hardened face that I'm aware of. It will be serviceable as an auxiliary work surface and for small work but the majority of my work will be done on the shop anvil. I haven't ruled out welding a hardened top plate on this thing but it's just not necessary to do that right now. I imagine it will get more use as the shouler block I had intended it to be but it might work as a secondary anvil if I have a visitor to the shop who wants to doodle around. Regardless, I'm pretty proud of my little accidental anvil.

October update

Greetings everyone!
A few posts back I said that I wanted to post at least once a month here and I succeeded for a couple months but then dropped off again until my last post in September. I'm a little bummed at my lack of posting but ultimately I just have to try again.

I know the main reason for lack of posting is that when I want to assemble a post I really like inserting images and hyperlinks to add to the content or aid in giving anyone who reads this something interesting and engaging. The problem is currently I end up having to use my phone and the Blogger app to assemble posts and while it's functional it is a far cry from doing it on my laptop.

So obviously the answer is going forward I will try to utilize both. Simple update posts I will do here on the phone and more complex, in depth posted will be done at home where I can make them as filled with stuff as I please.

I do, at this time, post more often on Facebook and Instagram so look for me there and if you haven't already "liked" my pages, I would be honored to have you in my social media circle.

I am also planning on setting up a "Tailgate" post where I will have a list of things I have for sale. I'm doing this in the short term rather than selling on Etsy for a variety of reasons. As inventory changes (meaning if inventory sells) I will update the list.

Thank you so much for the support and I look forward to sharing much more with you!

Rain Gauge

I recently made a rain gauge for a wonderful friend and neighbor Shirley. She had been admiring the first gauge I made for my Dad and asked about having one made. I looked around the shop and found a decent length of 1/2" square stock and some smaller round stock and decided I had the material to make one.

I took the round stock and squared it with the idea of putting twists in the branches that hold the glass tube that actually collects the rain.

I cut a section of the half inch stock tapered and bent it to weld on for a stability leg on the main gauge staff.

I then flattened and scrolled the branches and welded them to the main staff.

Cleaned it up, painted and delivered! All in all, it was a bit heavy but turned out really nice.