Christmas at the Homestead

jscusmcvet

jscusmcvet

Adventurist
This year as a gift to Joe, Ann and myself, we picked up a vintage hand crank blower and coal forge. Joe and I have been playing around in the firepit, getting some mild steel glowing orange and letting him bang the crap out of it...

So this is our next step. I had to fix up the table the forge came in and refurbish/fabricate a bracket for the blower. Came out pretty darn nice I think. Also mounted an old Fisher anvil that my Dad had picked up at a junk shop before I was born. I have learned a lot over the past few weeks about refurbishing an anvil and mounting it properly. You will see in the picture it is a little low for me, but just right for Joe.

So today we fired it up as a trial run... well... supposed to be a trial run with no metal, but we could not resist. Before anyone loses their mind Joe has eye protection coming from Santa and lo and behold we survived. The boy moved some metal and he was thrilled.

More pics to follow when I can get to it. Merry Christmas.

Joe on anvil.jpg
 
When we are all dead and gone your son will remember this day. Good on you Dad!

Spend all the time you can with him. He's going to be 20 years old in another (seems like) 20 minutes.
 
One of the kids at work took a blacksmithing class, I had no idea how much $$$ you could spend on an anvil. Nothing like teaching/learning a lifelong skill.
 
Gallowbraid said:
This is amazing! Great job sir!


I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that all of his nerf darts will now have custom forged metal tips at next year's Appalachian Rendevous though...
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Haha... we have already decided that the metal plate we are working on will become a giant spear tip... you know... just in case we need it :)
 
Have you guys watched the blacksmithing show "Forged in Fire", pretty cool what they do out of common materials in the first round of the show. The focus is on edged weapons from the past in the final round.
 
bob91yj said:
Have you guys watched the blacksmithing show "Forged in Fire", pretty cool what they do out of common materials in the first round of the show. The focus is on edged weapons from the past in the final round.
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Yes that is what got Joe interested. We started off heating mild steel in the fire pit. Takes a while and a lot of hot air from me (a skill I am known for :)) but we were able to get it red hot and move it some. That got the kid hooked and gave us something to do together. We are trying to help Joe find who he is and I must say we are all having a blast in the process.
 
So we have been working more on the forge and trying to learn about how all this works. We have made a bunch of hooks and things like that. How lucky am I that one day about a month ago I came home from work and Ann and Joe had been to the railroad tracks and picked up a bunch of metal, including a bunch of railroad spikes.
This morning, after a lot of work by me and Joe, I finished our first shot at a knife. I don't think it could stand up to a torture test, but it is pretty sharp and good for cutting meat, etc... and we made it from scratch. Worst case scenario I could bonk you on the head with the handle :)

first knife 2018.jpg
 
Ann's Mothers Day present... railroad spike knife and deer hide sheath... all made by me and Joe. This is the second knife out of our forge and I am starting to understand a little bit about what I am doing. I need to source some higher quality steel at some point but we are sure enjoying the railroad spikes. I believe I am a fairly lucky guy to have a wife who thinks this is the best mothers day present ever :)
Anns knife 2018.jpg
 
Joe's awesome Christmases continue. Last year we built a go cart for him from a 1970's era Manco rolling chassis. He drove the hell out of that thing, broke the frame, helped me weld it and it is still operational today. His knees however are somewhere near his ears when he drives it, so...
This year we purchased a used "FireFox 620" go cart with a full roll cage, suspension, live axle (like having a locked rear end), hydraulic disc brakes, and 3 point harnesses for the 2 seats. We bought from Ann's cousin, who was selling it to raise money for the local American Legion. A wee bit of work, a sleepless Christmas eve for me (as it has always been for Dads everwhere) and this morning was good to go.
We sent him across the property with clues to search for his new ride. Joe is completely bought in to the off road life.
Damn lucky kid I might add.
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Merry Christmas everyone. It has been a great day with sunshine and lots and lots of riding :)
 
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