The Dragon Anvil at work

Having weeded the garden (a perpetual process), it is time to play with the new Dragon Anvil. My shop is one big inflammable, so I decided to move the whole shebang ouside.
My project is to forge a hook tool, used to turn bowls on foot-powered lathes. The raw material is a tine that broke off my spading fork. On the left, Dragon Anvil and proto-hook; on the right is the forge -- a firebrick hut on someone's discarded barbecue. Not visible is the Dragon Lady, a propane-powered torch I have mentioned before. The Dragon Lady will heat the proto-hook to boiled-carrot color in about three minutes. I have the same problem here that I have with microforging (q.v.) -- small pieces don't stay hot very long. But it is enormous fun, bashing hot metal into shape. I messed up many a time, losing a "heat" as the blacksmiths say; for instance the vise-grips I am using as tongs slip and I drop the piece on the ground. Grrr. Still, if you don't try you won't learn.

Today I used a regular propane torch to heat the tip of the hook, for refining the shape. Slowly... but the Dragon Anvil is wonderful. At last, a solid object to bash against.

If you think the anvil is pointing the wrong way, remember that I'm left-handed. Sometimes the world looks like one big right-handed conspiracy theory.