I was burnt by scale, have you ever been

[j@j metal works]

Get use to it. Your pounding on red hot metal. I have scars on my feet (wear slip on boot they are easy to kick off), stomac, arms, and below the belt. I always thougt that was part of blacksmithing. Just consider them as battle scars.

[highlander]

i wear a welding glove on my left hand(tong hand) because i prefer to work with short tongs and they tend to heat up faster than the longer ones. ive had large pieces of scale go in the top of the glove many many many times. just ask moya034... he can hear me holler from across the yard every time.

after forging, i usually spend 5 minutes or so picking out the scale that has burned into the skin on my hands and forearms

[rmcpb]

Probably every time you fire up you will have a scale burn of one type or another. Part of the game, just suit up for it but your hands really cop it.

[ironrosefarms]

Scale is like your boss at work... it will burn you under the collar and leave a mess where you are trying to work.

James

[philip in china]

I think we all get toughened to heat and burns so after a while we don't notice them. Chefs are similar.

[JAFO]

Have scars on my stomach. I think scale burns are a fact of life for blacksmiths.

[ThomasPowers]

Scale is NOT METAL! Scale is iron oxide and forms when hot steel is exposed to the oxygen in the air. If you are getting too much/too heavy(thick) of it you need to look at your forging practices.

If you are using a propane forge tweak the atmosphere---many propane forges need the air/fuel balance adjusted after they come up to heat---something that may users skip and so they get reputations for heavy scaling.

If you are using a solid fuel forge check to see if you can get by with less air---electric blowers are often the culprit as they constantly push air in and many people run them too high.

You can also wirebrush your pieces regularly when you take them out of the fire to reduce scale; but if you are just starting out you will probably be too slow to be able to do this and be able to hammer in the same heat.

As I sit here I can count 6-8 scale pops on my hands and it's been several weeks since I've had the forge lit. Most of the time they don't cause trouble but when they land in the web between my fingers they let me know their presence.

I'm a no gloves smith as I found that while I have fewer burn incidents wearing gloves the ones I had were MUCH WORSE!

Smithing in sandals is an ouch too as the feet have much more sensitive skin on top of them. Long pants with the cuffs outside of the shoes are really suggested.

Keeping a good high quality burn creme on hand, (like in the shop fridge!), can help if you are prone to having problems.

[chyancarrek]

It's happened so often, I just don't pay attention to them anymore.

[1860cooper]

Yeah, I was thinking "who hasn't been burned by scale?". It's quite common. The beauty of it is it doesn't usually bounce off, it burns in. My instinctive flick of my are usually doesn't shake it. I had to get used to a brushing off reaction instead.

[Hoary]

hehehe I count on gettting burned everytime I fire up, I think the worst I had was when I was was trying to pick up some metal that was baking in the fire with pliers (before I had bought/ made my tongs) it so happened that when I was about to clench the pliers to get a good grip on the metal a piece of my charcoal popped and shot a piece that got caught between the handle of the pliers and my thumb and index finger. It happened so fast I didn't have time to react to the sting until both my thumb and index had a nice little bubble. Good thing I had lavendar oil near by for quick relief. :-p so there's my bone headed burn story.