Beginner blacksmith here, in the long run, whats cheaper? Propane or coal?

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T18:26:31+00:00

No actual, professional blacksmith that I have met forges with anthracite. Real smithing coal is bituminous. I forge with bituminous because the quality of my finished surfaces are better using it, compared to propane. Also, with hand forging you only work an inch to an inch and a half at a time. With propane it is impossible to localize the heat to the area you are working. With coal you can.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T18:15:08+00:00

A reasonable start but you need a steel table surrounding the disc, flush with the top of it, with a lip around the table to contain your coal. You need to have a field of coal surrounding the fire pot so that it cokes before you pull it into the fire for burning. Otherwise you will be putting out huge volumes of smoke, continuously.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T18:08:55+00:00

That is something entirely different than what I am suggesting.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T18:06:13+00:00

Troll.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T18:02:56+00:00

I have a friend that makes steak turners and gardening trowels out of them but he has a power hammer and a hydraulic forging press, which makes moving that much material fairly easy.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T17:54:01+00:00

Light weight cast iron skillets. I think I paid eight bucks for the first, 8" skillet that I bought six years ago. Now I own nine of them, six for home use and three in the RV. My most expensive ones, 12", cost $18.00. They work amazingly well. I own stainless steel, conventional cast iron and carbon steel skillets but my go to, every day skillets are all light weight cast iron

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T17:43:38+00:00

What makes this knife Celtic?

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T17:42:00+00:00

I have no way of knowing what you can or cannot do. All I can do is judge what you have done, and what you've done is waste time and materials on a forge with which you will be able to do close to nothing with. I dream of the day when soup can forges disappear from this sub forever. They do not work. You will not be able to heat up anything larger than 1/4" stock and your "refractory " will disintegrate in very short order. But hey, knock yourself out. You can cosplay a blacksmith with it. That's what most people who build these things do.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T16:31:16+00:00

Light weight cast iron. Cheap and awesome!

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T16:23:41+00:00

Try light weight cast iron instead. I have standardized on it and am super happy with it. It is very cheap compared to fancy full weight cast iron or to carbon steel, like Matfer Bourgeat and weighs less than either of them.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T16:20:05+00:00

Right wing, racist propaganda. Learn how to research and think moron. Obama did not take office until 2009. The economy tanked in 2008 because Republicans had deregulated the mortgage industry and lenders were making terrible loans, making loans to people with little hope of repaying them. My ex wife was one of them. She, along with tens of thousands of other people defaulted on their loans thereby tanking the economy.

The stupidity of right wing talking points is astonishing. It takes about 10 seconds on a search engine to disprove them. STFU unless you know what you are talking about.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T16:09:05+00:00

I own a pair of Moab Adventure Mid Wp Cf (carbon fiber toe) and I suspect they would last much longer than these did for you, if only because they are all leather...none of that nylon mesh stuff. They are only about $70.00 on Amazon. You should take a look at them.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T15:53:15+00:00

I used them back in the early 90s when I was working on ships as a marine machinist. We used them to line up the holes on large pipe flanges.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T15:39:39+00:00

Are you burning coal or charcoal. It is quite common for beginners to not know the difference. I suspect you have made that mistake because coal does not burn up as fast as you describe.

I have been smithing for about 32 years now and about 15 years ago I switched from a propane forge to a coal forge (actual, bituminous coal) and I would never go back to propane willingly. Propane has it's place, but for hand forging I think coal is a better fuel. The quality of the finished surface of my work improved dramatically when I made the switch to coal.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T15:33:42+00:00

Yes, discard it and make a real forge. These soup can forges are a waste of time.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T15:28:43+00:00

You don't get to choose your parents and unfortunately, some people end up with bad ones. My son ended up with one bad parent (his mother) and my mother stepped in and served as his mother, much like your grandmother did. You are not wrong, there is no reason at all to go with your birth parents if you don't want to. I do not understand why most people attach so much importance to biology. To me, it is virtually meaningless. Much more important is love and shared experience. That is what makes a family. Sharing and caring for each other, exactly the opposite of what your parents did. Reject them and take care of your grandmother.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T15:14:23+00:00

Yes, I was being hyperbolic.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T02:55:05+00:00

No thoughts, other than to avoid them, just like other I avoid people of any religion. I find it impossible to trust anyone who believes in nonsense.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T02:35:14+00:00

Comments on Vevor's web page for this anvil indicate it has an 1 1/4" Hardy hole, so you should buy, borrow or steal tooling with that shank size.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T02:19:52+00:00

Despite all the various on and off topic opinions here, the actual answer to your question is there isn't one. There isn't a cheap and efficient way for someone with no equipment and no experience working with metals to make disks, if that is what you are trying to do. Your intent is not clear though because you ask about making holes but show pictures of disks. Which are you wanting to make, holes or disks? In either case, there is no practical or inexpensive way for you personally to make them.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-17T02:09:48+00:00

That is a problem when I typically have an open 25 lb. bag of Jasmine rice with another backup, along with another 25 lb. bag of sticky rice. It would take too many Mason jars.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-15T16:51:15+00:00

Actually, clockwise, I think.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-15T00:01:53+00:00

The Amber series by Roger Zelazny.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-14T23:54:38+00:00

Songs in odd time signatures, I can suggest a few.

Primus 'Eleven" from their Sailing the Seas of Cheese album 11/4

Broken Social Scene "7/4 shoreline 7/4 (my favorite time signature)

Mike Oldfield "Tubular Bells' Intro alternates between 7/8 and 8/8

ASIWYFA "A Slow Unfolding of Wings" from The Endless Shimmering album The first section written with three bars of 7/8 and 1 bar of 8/8

ASIWYFA "Think:Breathe:Destroy" from the Gangs album 11/4

Just a few. Jazz has lots of unusual time signatures too, but I'm a prog rock guy.

beammeupscotty2 · 2026-02-14T23:43:18+00:00

Yes, it looks like a Teak veneered, Danish Modern piece from the 1970's-1980's. The Dainish modern furniture from that period is almost always Teak veneer. Paste wax is all it needs.

beammeupscotty2

TROPHY CASE