jumbojak

To be fair, in today's world "booting up" is as simple as pulling the phone from your pocket and swiping the screen.

I have a stump anvil similar to the one in the photograph above. It seems somewhat limiting but I have considered welding catches and grinding different radii into the sides for just the reasons Glenn mentioned.

Billings and Spencer was still forging simple carbon steel wrenches long after other makers had switched to more sophisticated alloys for their tools. If you get a closeup of the markings I might be able to roughly estimate the date and give a better idea of the alloy, though the end profiles certainly look like the older style which was produced into the 1920s. At one time B&S was a premium brand for adjustable and fixed end wrenches. They fell behind the times though and later attempt to modernize never gained much traction until the company was absorbed by Crescent Niagara and later killed by the Cooper Tool Group. The ones you have would probably make good candidates for repurposing. I have a small but growing collection of the old style Billings wrenches. They can be had very cheaply and I love the look of them. Especially the obstruction wrenches.

Sewing isn't very hard. Planning a pouch or roll can be surprisingly difficult though. I recently made a roll for a set of wrenches and with a few eyelets tacked on the ends it'd make a handy punch/chisel holder thatthatbcould be easily brought back inside or tucked away.

I would test the corrosion resistance of the bolts (studs?) which would tell you something about their potential uses, even if you don't determine the exact alloy. They might make good stock for outdoor fixtures or cooking utensils.

I got halfway through that article and found myself wondering when they started making car bodies out of high speed steel. The next paragraph cleared it up though. Interesting research.

A radio, yes. I should probably get one of those. The empty hole in the dash stares at me every day just begging for something to fill that space. A cup holder would be nice too.

The Integra was somewhat famous for broken climate control cables. It's really a question of how much or little of the dash I have to remove to get to it! And a sticking brake caliper is coming between me and comfort. I'm on number two to replace now. The first was likely due to the previous owner compressing the rear piston with a pair of Channellocks thereby stripping the parking brake. Moving on to the front, I think it's likely due to the brake fluid having not been changed since 98. Brakes are marginally more important than comfort. I just wish it had been both rears as I already have pads for that. Grrrrr.

The library card I carry in my wallet.

Staying cool in the car? I still haven't found the motivation to figure out why my "new" 98 Acura's heat won't turn off. I can turn the blower off but heat still radiates from the dash. Most likely a broken cable but I haven't been bothered enough to crawl under the dash yet and figure it out. By July maybe... if I don't die of heatstroke by then...

I can't speak to PFERD but at least some of the Grobet USA files are made in India. I discovered that while looking for some smaller saw files so check the COO before you shell out any cash for their products. The Indian Grobets looked terrible in the photographs I looked at and not exactly cheap either.

Well, I'm officially past the two week point without a cigarette. A girl I work with walked back in the other day after taking a smoke break and smelled absolutely scruptuous, but I resisted the urge to stop on the way home to buy a pack. Hopefully I'm out of the woods now. I've been using a vape pen just to maintain sanity but it's not the same. I'll give it another week and start turning it down to get off of nicotine completely.

If we're talking about blacksmithing tools I generally pass whenever someone knows (or thinks...) that a particular item is a blacksmithing tool. The price ends up way too high in that case. I've seen damaged hammers priced higher than new ones you could buy at a local hardware store because the hammer in question was a rusty cross peen and therefore an antique blacksmithing tool. For other types of tools I normally steer clear of the gimmicky stuff that seems to end up at thrift stores a few seasons after it's advertized on TV. While I usually buy hand saws if the price is $5 or less I toss the newer models back in the pile as they can't be sharpened reasonably. Pliers I will go for if a brand is visible and I can look it up, the knock offs stay where I find them. I don't buy used screwdrivers unless it's something I'm reallllly set on getting like the old SnapOns with the nice handles. Sockets and wrenches are usually priced smilarly to new, so it'd have to be something interesting like an SK, Wright, Proto, or Armstrong to get my attention. Power tools get purchased if it's a really good deal. I've found that older corded drills can be had for $5 or less and having a supply comes in handy. I'll pay six if the chuck key is part of the deal. Bench grinders, drill presses, table and miter saws etc., tend to be out of my price range but I keep my eyes open for other folks and might just be convinced to fork over some of my own cash if the deal is too good to pass up.

I've never run a gas forge so this may be completely off base but wouldn't having your forge mounted that high run a serious risk of burning all the hair off of your head? I think Thomas Powers mentioned doing a demonstration where he singed the hair from his arm by passing it in front of the opening. Just a thought.

At least it wasn't passing motorists "helping" with by blaring their horns. I've been in that situation a few times and there's nothing like seeing ten cows you carefully drove down the road all by yourself split into two different groups heading into two different patches of woods. The driver then pulls up and apologizes ("I didn't think they'd do THAT!) but all you can think about is dragging him out of the car and doing something highly impolite. I feel your pain Frosty...