I'll have a look at the portable forge.
I made my original forges/ovens using clay ... and then when that broke apart, I used clay on chicken wire ... although, somehow a big plant pot was involved ... maybe it started as a clay plant pot, that broke apart, got covered in clay, that broke, got covered in chicken wire and clay, and I suppose the plant pot just disintegrated and was cleared away with the ash. Anyway ... I can still see the spot where it used to be, which is now a discoloured "high" where the rain has washed the clay away.
And ... for the "bellows" I used one of those motors that blow up inflatable beds ... it was only supposed to be " try it and then buy something" ... but I kept using it. I think I used a 15mm copper pipe to feed the air in ... but I recall issues at the hot end ... which I probably solved using more clay. So basically, I had to rebuild it each time I used it!
Friendly neighbors ... yes on one side, but one of them (admitted downwind) isn't at all friendly and has called the fire brigade in the past (although that was for my son's fire when I was out).
Haha, what an awesome cool story!!
My first "forge" was a zinc bucket filled with sand and a few patio bricks... I drilled a hole in the side, inserted a metal pipe (with little holes drilled in it) from a former coat rack, conected an electric weed burner to it and voilla: a forge was born! lol! And believe it or not but it worked amazingly well! Now I have an old 'refurbished tool trolley' from work (management and maintenance in a medical rehab centre) as my 'mobile' forge. On the worktop is my firepot and self built chinese bellows. Google it, if you don't know what it is, you'll love it! Below the worktop a tuyere with ash dump, welded by me... welding... 'baking' would be a more fitting description but hey, who's counting, right?! It works and I'm happy with it! Haha! All done with scraps and left overs, didn't cost me a thing exept a bottle of wine and a cacke, so to speak. As for my new anvil, I'm almos embarrasst to tell but that was a totall steal as well: 336lbs, london pattent, forged between 1820-1850, maker unknown (still working on that) and payed only £233,75 for it, that's £1,44 per lbs... can you believe it??? I thought it was a joke at first but it wasn't so I played the dumb/ignorant guy and picked it up the very next day. I think I won't tell you about the condition of the anvil because you won't believe it anyways...
it hasn't got 'sharp edges anymore but it also has no chipping whatsoever, exept for a tiny one on the table.
An exeptable amount of 'sway' on the face and table and a 'blunted' horn. Probably by a blacksmith with a bruised thigh...
It can't get any better then this you say? Well, there is more: About 4 weeks ago we had a 'tree inspection' (?) were I work and this 200+ years old oak tree proved to be a safty risk so it was decided to cut it down... it was one of the biggest trees on the whole estate and I got permission to take a piece from one of it's branches to mount my new anvil on...
Ok, let's get back down to earth: my life has never been easy and I had to fight for every penny... nobody had heard of adhd or autism when I was a kid so you can imagine my childhood days were not realy a walk in the park, so to speak. Don't get me wrong, I had a fantastic childhood. School, on the other hand, was a different story. Work same thing. Couldn't keep a job... money, relationships, mental health etc etc... seen it, been there, done that.
Honestly, nowadays I'm doing great: amazing wife, 3 kids, good job, house, car, chickens... and my childhood dream fullfilled: a real ANVIL !!! I feel like I won the lottery and I'm the richest man on the planet!!!! I want to shout it from all the rooftops (is that an english proverb? It is in dutch)... I'm totally stoked...
Only thing left to do is build a little shed/workshop for her. Then I'll have to smuggle her in after nightfall for I fear that my neighbours will run me out of town with torches and pitchforks... hahaha... (something with chickens and a noisy rooster, ahum*cough*) so, I'm not gonna tell a soul, lol!
Goodness, I only wanted to make a small comment, now look at this...
Please forgive me but I'm so over the moon by this... after almost a whole year of nagging, begging and driving my wife completely mad, it finally happened: i got my anvil. I initially thought it was a small one, 150lbs-ish, the seller had no idea about it's weight but instead of a nice 'carp' I caught(bought) myself a whale without even knowing it...
My initial point was: be patient, opertunity will present itself in due time, just look at me for proof.
I'm going to stop now, hope you'll still want to talk to me...
again, apologies. Normaly I'm not this extravert... at all!
Good night and kind regards,
Michael.
