3rd Annual Jim Campbell Hammer IN & Touchstone Open HouseSaturday. April 30 & Sunday. May 1 Touchstone celebrates the 3rd annual Hammer In honoring long-time volunteer Jim Campbell. New for 2011, this event will be paired with our annual open house to offer a unique weekend experience for visitors that are new to Touchstone and campus veterns alike. Blacksmithing demonstrations by acclaimed artisans Phil Heath and Michael Walker, music, food and campus-wide open studios are just a few of the weekend's features for guests. http://www.touchstonecrafts.org/Default.aspx?pageId=464806&eventId;=265895&EventViewMode;=EventDetails Touchstone Center for Crafts 1049 Wharton Furnace Rd. Farmington, PA 15437 724.329.1370 Phone 724.329.1371 Fax www.touchstonecrafts.org   

Welcome to the community for Blacksmiths, Knifemakers, and Metal workers! This is a topic forum for people interested in the arts of Forging, and working with metal to make beautiful and exiting projects. In this forum people can ask questions, give suggestions and ideas, and even feature some projects that they may have made! Whether it's a question about normalizing a blade, or a suggestion that may get your creativity sparked; this is the place for makers of the art of Blacksmiths, Knifemakers, and Metal workers. Share your questions, thoughts, projects, and ideas now!

Im 15 and looking will be looking for a job for the winter, i want to go somewhere that makes stuff but im not sure where to go... i also want to get skills out of the job... i want to be making stuff not going to peoples houses and mending things.. i live in quite a small town so my options are limited... i love the idea of restoration but there's nothing near me, maybe like blacksmith or wood carvings?

I'm building a brake drum forge, and coal obviously is the fuel of choice. I understand some guys use lump charcoal which they say works well, because anthracite or bituminous coal is hard to come by in some places-- like where I live. Has anyone used just plain, good old fashioned wood? Or has anyone tried wood pellets? In my area, pellets are 10% of the price of either coal or lump charcoal. I have hundreds of trees on my ranch and I use wood for heating my log cabin. With a good air supply, will Douglas fir, other conifers, or even pellets get hot enough for forging? I'm sure wood was used in bygone times in places where there was no coal, but is it a good forging fuel? Does anyone have experience (good or bad) forging with wood? THANKS!!

Hi all, Due to location & noise, in order to continue using my coke forge and anvil I must move indoors, into the shed to be precise. I know it sounds a bit crazy attempting to run a coke forge in quite a confined (10-14 m3), fairly air tight space, but I have researched thoroughly the dangers and safe working levels etc and have the use of a fully calibrated gas analyser designed to measure CO in real time, so safe operation will be measured to the nearest ppm :)  The fans gumf claims 1060 m3/hr which I guess is best case, flat out @ 50hz and obviously does not allow for any other mechanical losses, but even a conservative estimate must give around 45 air changes an hour, which to me sounds like more than adequate clean air coming in to displace combustion gasses. But I guess the first question is will the chimney work as a passive exhaust,  to maintain positive pressure behind the chimney (which will be 12") I will have only a forced air inlet and no other vents other than the chimney itself, trouble is I can see it both working and not working: 1. Inside air will be forced up the chimney as that is the only way out = more ventilation 2.Inside air will cool the air in the chimney reducing the natural draw =  less ventilation And even if the CO issue is overcome will heat just ruin my plans anyway?

I'm a blacksmith in training and i need some coal, i want some, i don't need it but it would help a ton. my father keeps saying that i can get 1000 lbs of coal for $100 but so far, it's all 50 lb bags for $20 on http://www.centaurforge.com, some 12 lbs for $20 on some remote website somewhere someplace in some far recess of the pixelated world of the internet!!!  ... i don't mind paying $200 for 1000 lbs, or even a bit more but the problem is, is that i'm in Florida right now. so, i don't know how to get coal cheaper than a buck a pound. right now i'm using lump charcoal and it works fine. but coal gets the metal a bit hotter. so what do i do.

Small anvil for sale with a Hardy hole and mounting holes 5-1/2 inches long 2-3/4 inches tall ..$25.00 shipped to Lower 48 States

I am hoping to take the fire out of blacksmithing by using the same technology that turns nichrome wire into a heating element. I don't want to make a nichrome heater. I am hoping to have removable leads that will allow me to attach to whatever piece of metal I am working with and heat it up directly. Anyone ever tried anything like this?

Since not much else happens on my end of the States, I thought I'd post this. The Infor can be found here.

How could I forge a foil for fencing? What kind of steel would be good for a flexible blade that wouldn't be at risk of snapping and stabbing my fencing buddies? What should I keep in mind for tempering and whatnot to help with that?

I recently have re-awoken a serious interest of mine: swordsmithing. I am in contact with a swordsmith and his apprentice,but they are both a bit far from me. If you have any expirience in bladesmithing, swordsmithing, blacksmithing, or are an apprentice, I would like to hear about your expirience and how you got started. Or if you are at least educated in this feild, I would like to hear about it, or get recomendations on what books to read. I have a basic outline about how the blades are made, but that's about it. Or, just converse among yourselves, there is a serious lack of REAL swords on instructables. I mean, I look up the word 'sword' and I get tips on how to make replicas and models. That's just fine, but I intend to be making a living offa these things. Among other things... Also, I am talking about the Japanese method of swordmaking. Not necessarily katanas, but the method seems to have great quality to it. *a side note* A quality blade is at least $200-up, and I'd be working with tamahagane. I would not buy one for any less.

The anvil I'm thinking of buying is quite small, only 5kg (11.something lbs) and looks to be steel. what would be the minimum price for an anvil of this size, and is it worth it?(I plan on smithing small blades) any help would be useful, but I live in Portugal, so please don't say that there's a really cheap anvil in (insert American mega-store name here), you will hurt my feelings by being insensitive

Hey everyone, i was wondering if anyone in the Hollywood-Miramar-Pembroke Pines area of Florida USA has any old scrap iron, steel, charcoal, or coal they do not want and would be kind enough to offer it to me for free or for a reasonable price. I am doing blacksmith work so it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Things wanted: Bolts, car springs, brake drums, any kind of bar (round, flat, square, hexagonal, octagonal, etc.) lump charcoal, any large chunks of steel to be used as anvils, any old blacksmith tools such as hammers, etc.... anything donated is appreciated. Thanks again!

Hi, I'm into knifemaking. There are some carbon fiber knives on the market, but they all have very poor edge retention. (because the edge is made of carbon fiber as well) I was wondering if it would be possible to add a thick metal coating of a hard metal to a carbon structural center, as to coat the blade in a thin layer of metal. This metal would then be serving as the cutting edge, hopefully with better edge retention.  Is this at all possible? What types of metal could be used? Thanks in advance!

This forum is to transfer ideas about what tools to use when getting started blacksmithing. Everybody has to start with some tools and the cheaper, the better.

Http://denvermakerfaire.com  Lots o interactive stuff. Kids, bring your parents.  Robotics, fire breathing dragon, electronics, blacksmithing, much more.

Please take a look at our website at: http://www.dawnapproaches.com/woodworking.html We carry an excellent woodworking collection - 145+ books on DVD-Rom for $9.99.  Thousands of pages of old out of print woodworking books on 1 DVD-ROM. Out of print books on the old skills that are now basically lost that we have taken the time to gather and compile all in one place. We have cleaned up and procured the best copies of these old vintage books. It is a very good resource. We also carry Military & Survival Manuals - Hundreds of Manuals on DVD-Rom, Beekeeping Manuals - 109+ Books on DVD-Rom, Drawing and Painting Manuals - 92+ Book Collection on DVD-Rom and Rare Knowledge Collections on Dentistry, Glass Making, Horology, Blacksmithing. Gold Mining, Homesteading, Canning and Preserving, Dressmaking, Beer and Wine Brewing, Locomotives, Crystal Radio, Herbal Remedies, Cooking, Taxidermy, Leathercraft, Millinery, Boy Scouts, Horse Training, Pottery, Jewelry Making, Old World Survival Book Collections on DVD-Rom and much more. There is something for everyone who would like a library of old world skills at their fingertips. Take a look if you're interested in these materials. We are a verified paypal business and ship within 48 hours. Thank you.

Lindsay's Technical Books is a rare resource these days. If you are looking to learn something arcane and antiquated, especially things that involve the words "large" and "dangerous", this is a good place to start.  http://www.lindsaybks.com/prod/index.html I also like the Lindsay Trauma Center  http://www.lindsaybks.com/trau/stcomp/index.html

If I want a flat screwdriver in an odd size, I can take a piece of metal, heat it, pound it flat on one end and file or grind to shape; something within reach of even the clumsiest blacksmith. Is there some trick I'm missing that allows similarly simple home construction of a philps-style screwdriver? Or are they part of a plot to allow only factories to make screwdrivers :-)

Out in Naunquan, China the villagers use molten iron to celebrate instead of fireworks. The tradition dates back some 500 years when the blacksmiths of the day couldn't afford fireworks and did this instead. While there's only one color to work with, the effect is pretty stunning and a lot more in-your-face without, you know, melting your face off if you don't get too close.via Gizmodo

My title kind of explains it but I would like to make an Assault Raft like what the SEAL's use. To buy one runs about 200 grand... ridiculous if you ask me but that's the way it is... I have been thinking of using duct tape and PVC, kinda following the Myth Busters template. Awesome episode I just saw! Anyways, if anyone in the Vancouver, WA area who would like to help is welcome to... other than that I could just use some help on the brainstorming. THANKS!

If you're going to this wild and wicked event, and you want to dress to kill, check out some ideas (and get tickets) here:  The Crucible's Fire Cabaret There are some other good ideas here on Instructables, too, for flapper dresses, tommy guns, how to do a finger wave, or headress.  This is gonna be one hot event -- you'll see some hot jazz and blues, and also jaw-dropping demonstrations in blacksmithing, welding, flameworking, and more -- accompanied by burlesque dancers, aerialists, contortionists, and other amazing talent.  Bring a camera too and strike a pose against a backdrop of fire sculptures, bootlegger cars, and a blazing industrialist environment.

I'm Yeti-gone-awry! I want to rebuild my shop and to put in a new floor or have one poured would cost about $1300.00 of which I'm a little short of. I was in Colonial Williamsburg last week and in the Blacksmith shop I noticed they had a brick floor. The bricks were laid close together. I have bricks, a lot of bricks. I could lay down a layer of gravel then a layer of sand and then put the bricks in, but should I lay them next to each other w/o spaces between them or lay them a 1/2 inch apart on all sides and sweep in mortar mix between them and wet them down? I know that if I bring in a milling machine I'll have to pour a thick pad for it. Thank you. Chuck

Good afternoon, Im making an exhibition piece that will have children working a set of bellows that are connected to a (pretend) blacksmiths forge. What I need to represent is the more the bellows are pumped the more the "embers" will glow. Im thinking a turbine tachometer that leads to an LED driver set to display as Bar so the faster the turbine spins the more LEDS are lit, or they trigger a series of LEDs to light (this thing has to get pretty bright not sure one LED per step will do it. Trouble is im good with the theory and pretty good with the practical its just the technical that is letting me down. If anyone could see there way to giving this some thought and maybe doodling a circuit diagram / shopping list that would be awesome. You can checkout some of the other things if made here imakemodels.co.uk

Well, semi-final details anyway. Here's what we've got:Show & Tell, Boone, North Carolina. We'll be at the Bald Guy Brew coffee shop, November 8th, 2 PM. If you're interested in coming PM me or email me at the address I have listed on my profile. If you want to come but don't have a project or skill you want to talk about, make some awesome some food and bring that. If you're driving any distance and need to stay in town overnight, PM me about that too. I'll point you in the right direction. It's looking like it will be a great crowd. We'll have a blacksmith, some guys from the ASU solar club, snacks, and a lot of other great stuff going on. If you have a PowerPoint for your presentation, put it on a USB drive. We'll have a screen and a computer. And coffee.Hope to see you there! If you plan on coming let us know so we have a general headcount.Cheers,-DMC

The second annual Honolulu Mini Makers Faire is coming up, Saturday May 9th! Last year's organizers are back and the event is growing!     Saturday, May 9, 2015 from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM (HST)     The Sullivan Center for Innovation and Leadership at ‘Iolani School (563 Kamoku St, Honolulu, HI) is the place again this year (thx!)     Attendance at the Honolulu Mini Maker Faire is free. Please sign up through Eventbrite.     "May 9th, have you reserved the date?!  We are less than 2 weeks away and the list of things to see include: 3D printing, Virtual Reality, blacksmithing, Lego, robotics, Minecraft, costuming, modeling, Raspberry Pi, drones – including a drone competition, musical instruments, astronomy, and way more!     "This is our second year holding a Mini Maker Faire in Honolulu.  We've added a 2nd soldering workshop, a raspberry pi workshop, and two drone racing events.  For more information go to http://makerfairehonolulu.com/. Register now for limited slots at the Hawaii Drone Club's Racer-X Competitions at the 2015 Honolulu Mini Maker Faire: http://t.co/6WXAwBiu4G" The event media page has vids from last year's event- a sample of what's to come this year. One of Hawaii's greatest maker events of 2015, come share what you are working on!

A new article in Nature reports on research indicating that developmental changes caused by environment can be passed on to offspring. The Universe is always more complex, and more subtle, then the textbooks and dogmatists would have you believe.Lamarkian inheritance is a theory of genetics where animals could pass on traits which they acquired during life. In the typical textbook oversimplification, the examples used are often the giraffe stretching to reach leaves would have children with longer necks; the blacksmith who developed a highly muscled right arm would have childred with bigger right arms; and so on. After the discovery and rediscovery of Mendelian genetics, Lamarkism was more or less ignored (except by Lysenko), leaving only this simplistic and stupid story of a "mistaken idea" in textbooks.There have been a number of discoveries in recent years of heritable traits (in humans as well as in other animals), for which no specific gene, or even combination of genes, could be isolated. The term "epigenetics" refers to the fact that many of our physical traits are driven, not by genes directly, but rather by the complex biochemistry of how, when, and how much genes are expressed. There have been some examples of epigenetic inheritance, but in all those cases, the pattern of gene expression is itself driven by the presence or absence of nearby "triggering" DNA in the genome.This new article is an example where an epigenetic feature driven by enviornmental influence appears to cause changes that can be passed on to offspring. What the mechanism is (i.e., how the pattern of expression gets "stored" in the germ cells) is not clear, but it is very intereresting to see the effect in real life.

So I came up with an idea for a pretty awesome MMO game.  Basically it's set in medieval times with swords and armor like your typical Elder Scrolls game.  You play as an adventurer building wealth getting a house ect. like a survival server in minecraft.  The only computer characters in the game are ones employed by a person to do work.  In a minecraft role-play server the downfall is nobody wants to sit around in a shop all day.  To solve this problem people employ workers in their shops.  The cool thing is people get a lot and can basically take to building anything they can afford.  The employed people come with various skills, wages, and levels.  The shop keeper can set up trade routes and gather supplies for his shop.  People who build better shops make more money by having better signs and better hospitality (more expensive to employ but happier customers).  You can build as many shops as you can afford and they can do anything.  To keep the virtual economy flowing people must eat food and consume a specified amount to be able to live.  So you must have so many grams of food each day which you can buy from shops, get from your farm ect. and then every week you must flow money out which can be in the form of repairs or sickness, or theft.  Now this all sounds pretty cool right, but wait for what comes next.  Lets review first though Join the game as adventurer Gain wealth Choose a career: shopkeeper / warrior / thief / assassin / ect.  If the thief of criminal is caught the fate is decided by the king. Gain power, prowice, friends Keep the economy flowing As I am typing this I realize the game would need to employ an economist to help prevent an in game depression or economic collapse. Now its time for some fun.  The game encourages the development of kingdoms.  By making friends and gaining in-game recognition someone can become king and gain ownership over a kingdom.  With enough wealth and land possession a king will be able to choose to build a kingdom.  These kingdoms are pre-set with boundaries and costs already incorporated.  As with all MMO games there are multiple worlds to log into and each one has multiple kingdoms within.  This allows for kings to go to war ect.  The whole game has very few limits on what can happen, however seeing as monopolies can ruin a game when someone becomes too powerful the game automatically sends bad things their way such as plague, fire, catastrophe ect.  Also to prevent one king from keeping power for the whole existence of this game every week things get a little harder for the king and his subjects are manipulated to go against him more and more until the kingdom finally collapses and starts anew.  This helps keep people hoping and wanting to try.  This is the basic idea of the game and I will now go into more detail on the interworking details.  Feel free to share your ideas to help with the development of this game. Details in a completely random unorganized order: King can collect taxes spend in various ways and do all that he can to maintain power.  He can employ and army and select various people to go underneath him such as dukes and lords.  The arm can be commanded by the king and at his expense be transported very quickly to a battlefield.  Generals command groups and keep track of all their men which helps the king prevent deserting soldiers.   The game's currency is dealt out to new players in various ways.  A quest may be formed, or a reward/bounty given to players so they can start making money.  The money payed to computer controlled employees goes out of the game and is carefully monitored to help keep the economy balanced. The total currency in the game can be increased or decreased in additional balancing attempts.  Thats what the full time economist is for. Resources are out there and just like with the currency, their appearance is carefully regulated.  Giant forests will exist making wood and endless resource, however from the start wood is fairly cheap.  Stone can be mined all over, however it is difficult to collect, shape and transport making more expensive.  Then there are gold diamonds iron ect. which are hard to find and appear in mines based on special algorithms.  The game will constantly be improved and will launch with hundreds to thousands of items which people can make and purchase.  Items can also be custom crafted either by the blacksmith or a painter which allows for unique items and helps create a competitive market.  There are in game "easter eggs" which can be found through experimentation so when a blacksmith gets it just right he can have super strong and lightweight armor, bound to his name which can create a buz about how special so and so's armor is.   Your help: How do we develop this, how do we get it out to the public, is it a good idea? What is wrong, what is right?  We were thinking kick-starter then employing a game development company.  How much does one need to develop a game like this?  Will it have public support?  How should you get the game.  Single purchase,  monthly subscription, in game purchases, purchase a character when character dies he is gone or some other ideas? Thanks

The San Mateo Maker Faire is coming up in just a couple of days! The Instructables crew will be there - will you?From the press release:Sebastopol, CA (March 19, 2008) - Last year, over 45,000 people from all across the country (and beyond) came to the Bay Area to celebrate the world's premier event for DIY (Do It Yourself) creativity - Maker Faire! This year, May 3rd and 4th, the event returns to the San Mateo Fairgrounds once again, for what will be the biggest and wildest Maker Faire yet! Put together by Make Magazine and Craft Magazine, Maker Faire celebrates things people create themselves - from electronic gizmos that would make James Bond jealous, to "slow made" foods and homemade clothes that would make Martha Stewart swoon. The event is a non-stop "wow-fest" where surprises and inspiration are as ubiquitous as the festival air."At the surface, Maker Faire is a fun event for people of all ages," explained Event Director Sherry Huss. "But more than just a weekend of creative entertainment, we want people to leave feeling inspired - "that they too can create things, express themselves, and engage the world around them. Our goal is to resuscitate the spirit of American innovation!"Named "Best Special Event" at the 2007 FOLIO FAME Awards, the 2008 Bay Area Maker Faire will put a special emphasis on "Green" living. There will be a huge exhibit featuring Farm Aid's Homegrown Village, a local farmer's market, Swap-O-Rama-Rama's giant used clothing swap, DIY workshops and fashion show, Bazaar Bizarre's crafts fair, a live Prius plug-in car conversion from Bay Area's Calcars.org, and much, much more.Along with the hundreds of Makers displaying their unique creations, specific event highlights from this year's Maker Faire include:Greg Leyh's 19 foot Tesla Towers - live performances dailyWedding Bells! "The Neverwas Haul," a self-propelled 3-story Victorian House, will host the first-ever Maker Faire weddingSaturday Evening Fire Spectacular (extended hours, 6pm - 10pm) - Power Tool Drag Races, Steampunk Spectacular, musical performances, The Flaming Lotus Girls, and moreElectronic Music Fest - an orchestra of musical toys, LIVE bands playing instruments you've never seen before, The Tarantulas Jug Band and much moreThe Life-Sized Mousetrap - a giant re-creation of the popular board gameLUNAR (Livermore Unit of the National Association of Rocketry) will help parents and children build and launch Estes-Cox rocketsThe Electric Giraffe - our huge, 17 foot tall, 1-ton walking robot giraffe will once again patrol the grounds of Maker FaireThe founders of ROBOEXOTICA present the "MindReadingMartiniMaker" and other award-winning cocktail-robotsEducational Robots - robotic demonstrations for two youth robotic competitions: FIRST LEGO League (5th through 8th grades) and FIRST Tech Challenge (7th through 12th grades)"Like Father Like Son" - a local father/son team will be converting a 1967 Honda S90 motorcycle into a state-of-the-art plug-in vehicle"ArtGolf" - the 3-hole artgolf course makes its Bay Area Maker Faire debut. Fore!The Village Blacksmith - new to this year's FaireDiet Coke & Mentos - Las Vegas' famed Bellagio can't match this DIY display - shows both daysThe Institute of the Future Pavilion - what will Maker Faire look like in 2018?Experimental Aviation - The Oshkosh Experimental Aviation Association (eaa.org) will be taking Maker Faire aviation to new heightsCyclecide Pedal Powered Bicycle RodeoMany more headlining activities to be added in the weeks ahead..."This is going to be the biggest and best Maker Faire yet," said Dale Dougherty, editor and publisher of Make magazine. "If you want to see the future of American innovation, this is the place to be."The Details:When: Saturday, May 3, 2008 (10am - 10pm) Sunday, May 4, 2008 (11am - 6pm)Where: The San Mateo County Event Center and Fairgrounds 2495 South Delaware Street, San Mateo, CAAdmission: Adults: $25/$20 in advance; Students (13-21): $15/$10 in advance; Youth (4-12): $10/$5 in advance; and children under 4 are freeFor the very latest information and updates, please visit: [www.makerfaire.com]