I would absolutely advocate personal safety. You are your own police when it comes to either being safe or researching safety to do your best. I know of more than one person that visits this forum that either currently responds or formerly (responded) to 911. These are firefighters ( professional or volunteer), police or EMS ( medics ). Some are active, some are retired, some left the service for personal reasons. While many think that 911 is Goverment sponsored, MANY areas have First Responders that are yes, perhaps trained with State funds ( State paid for their classroom study and some of their equipment) but these people maintain their personal gear and give freely of their personal time ( and fuel and sometimes the clothes off their back) to folks that need help. These folks have sometimes weekly ( normally monthly) meetings to keep up with training. They are not paid for this time. While there may be State ( or Federal ) monies available from time to time, these people are the root nature of society. Good folks. I do not wish to start any troubles, but to say that 911 is Government sponsored dial a prayer may be considered by some as a slap in the face. YES, in some areas the service is not top notch and Metros can be as big of problem as small areas. To further confuse some people, response time is the time from the dispatch recieving the call until the unit goes 10-8 ( in service ). Scene time will be time from initial call to the unit(s) on scene of the emergency. This of course will vary from area to area. I know of no service that wants long times of response. I also know that TV is constantly bombarding us with Cop shows , hospital and EMS shows. Some of this stuff is true and some of it is absolute Hollywood. Should we be safe? Of course we should. Our trade ( blacksmithing ) by nature has more than its' share of things that are not really safe. We learn by folks getting hurt ( just as our trade formerly used Potassium Cyanide for case hardening ). Acids are yes, dangerous. I use them. I am EXTREMELY careful. I plan to try the vinegar route. It may be a solution for me. The CPSC and OSHA would have a field day in many of our shops. Some of that field day would be absolute garbage. Some might save someones life. Young folks, be careful. Listen to the safety suggestions presented here on this site. Be very careful before you try something ( especially with chemicals) new. Some of the folks that visit here are active duty Armed Forces and their job is to respond to emergencies. Some are Veterans of that service. You are responsable for your own safety in your own shop. Be safe. God Bless the Combat Veteran ( and the Stateside vets too).
Steps off soap box.
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" It ain't real if it ain't forged "
Last edited by Ten Hammers; 08-13-2006 at 03:42 PM.
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08-13-2006, 03:40 PM
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