hello from the Old Dominion | Introductions Come First, Right? | Forum

Hi folks. I wandered over here after "meeting" Jerry Frost, Grant Sarver, and some other NWBA types on another forum. I live in Northern Virginia and I've been playing around at smithing for a few years, although I only got around to getting some formal instruction about a year and a half ago. I'm a member of BGOP. I make mostly blades, tomahawks, and other pointy/edged stuff, plus tools that are useful in producing that kind of stuff. It's not that I'm not interested in other types of smithing, but there so rarely seems to be time to try new things.

I started out in my back yard with an adobe lined washtub, a (badly) handmade, hand-cranked blower, hardwood charcoalm, and an anvil welded up out of I-beam and steel plate. I've made and used propane and oil burners and forges (the oil forge was quite crude), and now I mainly work in a coal forge at the BGOP shop. I don't own a power hammer (no place to put one, don't have the spare $$, and in fact I've never used one), although I'd like to make a mini hydraulic press. At the moment, nearly everything I do is done with hand tools. I'm also married with four kids (number five on the way). In a good month I might manage eight hours at the forge, so it tends to take me a loooong time to finish anything much more complicated than a nail or an s-hook. :banghead:

Anyhow, that's a quick rundown on me. Glad to be here. Looks like an interesting group!