Alan Longmire

35, or 350 pounds. Nice!

Personally, I'd be concerned about that insulation as well. It says it's rated to be fire-resistant up to 2000 degrees. What we usually use on forges is ceramic wool fiber (not mineral wool) rated to 2300 or 2600 degrees. That thing is indeed huge and will be quite the gas hog. I use coal for welding and large objects, but my blade forge is little two-brick with a 3/4" venturi burner that will run at 2100 F for a week or more of four-hour sessions on a 20lb tank.

I'm diggin' that one!

It can be, especially with the nastier wrought like wagon tire. Anchor chain and tie rods are much cleaner and usually cause no problems. Slow speed, slow feed, lots of lubrication, and you should be fine. Unless you're not... Seriously though, most wrought is no problem.

I have one of Owen's, and it does do bevels quite well.

Pretty much, plus a couple of extra steps. I've been looking online for pictures, but haven't seen any yet, so a verbal description will have to do. First, make a rivet block for your vise. This is just two pieces of steel with a hole the size of your wire drilled between the meeting faces so it holds your wire securely. The easiest way to do this is to glue the blocks together with a sheet of paper in between, then drill the hole, then soak the paper off. Next, grip your wire in the blocks with a bit sticking out and gently form the dome. If you want it smooth and shiny, you'll need to make a rivet set, just a punch with a polished hollow in the end. Hammer the rough dome, then put the set on it and hammer that down snug. It may take a while to get the feel for how much wire to use. If you were using smaller wire there's another method in which you hold the tip of the wire vertically downward in the tip of a torch flame until it starts to melt. It will form a ball, at which point you immediately quench it or it'll fall off. Then you cut that off with enough wire to make the length you want the rivet to be, slip it into a hole in a chunk of steel, and hammer it into a domed shape, followed by the set if you want. That's how I do my countersunk sterling silver nails I use to fasten silver inlays to hawk handles. There's a pictorial on that around here somewhere, but I can't seem to find it. Edit: Found it! https://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?/topic/37778-this-is-why-im-always-recommending-files-to-people/page/2 about halfway down the page. That's 18-ga wire, it may work on 16.

Looks good! How do you like it?

I have a connection, if I provide the parts he'll do the actual hookup. I wired most of the shop and it was approved, this thing just takes bigger stuff I don't want to mess with.

Still sounds like the industrial stuff, so yeah, toss a bit in a forge and see what happens.

I forgot to add, that's some clean forging! Well done!

I think this is important too:

That looks a lot like metallurgical coke. Lightweight, silvery? Has a ring to it?

There will be a two-digit number on the right front foot as you look down the horn from the tip. Add a zero to that number and that's the weight.

It's not that so much as if I'd bought it like a normal person I'd have had the wiring done and, for that matter, a place to put it, before I ordered it. Instead it was a "hey, take it or leave it right now" deal, so I took it. I have made a place for it, just need to add some heat shielding and call the electrician. That last one is a sticking point, as I will not use the phone if I can help it. Takes years off my life. I could do it myself, but Josh, aren't you a home inspector? I'll pay the $50 to ensure it's up to code. But yeah, we do things a little slower here too.

Oh, man! Great job on the knife, and good luck with the fish!