Magnolia Forge

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I couldn’t help but get my hands on some of Faram Forge’s work. They’re truly beautiful and functional tools.
09/04/2018

I couldn’t help but get my hands on some of Faram Forge’s work. They’re truly beautiful and functional tools.

It’s been busy at the shop for knife making, so I haven’t had the opportunity to break out the forge. I am in the middle...
06/30/2018

It’s been busy at the shop for knife making, so I haven’t had the opportunity to break out the forge. I am in the middle of construction on the ceramic gas forge, which will be easier for rolling out and quick work. I was going to build the burners, but really love the setup that Rush Fire Forge makes, so they’re on order. I’ll be using gas to forge some knives and do some mokume jewelry, since the fuel source is so much cleaner and leads to less inclusions. Either way, lots of life and shop stuff happening. I’ll try to be better about posting and showing work once I get done with something. :-p

Spent a few hours at Texas Ferrier Supply refinishing some old tongs I picked up and made them into scrolling tongs, and...
04/04/2018

Spent a few hours at Texas Ferrier Supply refinishing some old tongs I picked up and made them into scrolling tongs, and made a hot punch out of a jackhammer bit.

Picked up some scrap and the yard, and got some remanence from steel company. I beam and legs are for a stand for my pro...
04/03/2018

Picked up some scrap and the yard, and got some remanence from steel company. I beam and legs are for a stand for my propane forge, angle is for smithing and framing forge. Flat bar stock is for new table for my portaband, and coils are for drifts and punches. Not bad!

04/01/2018

Hardy holes. I don’t think there has ever been more frustration over sizing standard tools inside blacksmithing then when you consider the nonstandard sizing of hardies. They can go from 1/2” to 1 1/2” and larger in rare cases. A lot of what we see in hardy sizing has to do with a battle across the pond to differentiate from the English metric system. For the longest time, hardy holes were standardized as 25mm, which we see in examples such as Peter Wrights. This didn’t translate too well to the American Imperial system, because 25mm is just under an inch. So, we find that hardies in American made anvils started standardizing at 1”. For my 342lb Hay Budden, this poses another problem, because Budden made several models of anvils with varying hardy sizing. Mine is 1 1/4”. Modern standards mean that I can’t buy pre made hardies very easily without modification, and to get a solid fit without play, have to make them myself. Good thing this is the name of the blacksmith game, but I love to use old tools too, and finding hardies I don’t have to modify is rare.

There are some smiths that will make an adapter, that will fit into their hardy that then graduates the receptacle to a standard 1” so they can use modern tools, and, rotate them in any position for variable use.

As I build my hardy collection, I’ve thought about doing this, but never plan on getting rid of my big Budden, so will likely make all of my tools to fit the anvil itself. When I’m dead and gone, my hardies will be one of a kind for my anvil. Hopefully my famil doesn’t lose them, otherwise they’ll have to make them again in order to get them to fit.

I’m still doing a ton of research into the drive that set hardy holes to the standards we have today, but rest assured it’s a tale that is ubiquitous to blacksmithing as it is largely lost to history.

I got to spend some time at a workshop with the great Bill Epps. Made my first rose and got to learn a ton about metal c...
04/01/2018

I got to spend some time at a workshop with the great Bill Epps. Made my first rose and got to learn a ton about metal control. Really great experience!

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Mansfield, TX
76063

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+16824078207

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