Glenn

If a neighbor asks you to cut a tree, no matter how easy it looks, say no. No matter how smart your dog is, do not let him go with you to cut down a tree. When you calculate the length of the tree and where it is going to fall, always add 1/3 more length to the measurement. Always top off the chain saw gas tank before starting to cut the tree. Find the path to run away from the falling tree BEFORE you start to cut. Make sure the path you select does not have small roller bearing limbs in the path, or high hurtle obsticals across the path. Once the tree starts to snap and pop, the tree IS falling. You can run faster without the chain saw in your hand. A dog will stand 1000 yards off to the side of a tree being cut. But they will insist on final inspection of the direction of fall by standing on the fall line and sizing up the situation. Once the snapping and popping starts and the tree actually STARTS to fall, only then will the dog will run - not to the side - but the length of the tree along the fall line with enough speed to overtake and pass a cheeta. Always block any road with an object that can NOT be moved. Orange cones won't work. Don't assume that because you told the neighbors wife not to use the road, she told her husband the same thing. It is not proper to test the brakes on the neighbors car, that drove around the orange cones, by having a dog dash across the road in front of his car doing very close to warp 9, immediately followed by a cheeta, and then a tree dropping in front of his hood orniment. Ear plugs make visual signals seem much more humorous than they were intended to be. Do not think of these visual signals as if they are a silent movie. Just because you have "good" neighbors since the first day you moved in, don't assume the relationship must or will continue for any longer than - - say yesterday. It is better to cut a hole in the tree the size for a car to pass then to cut up the entire tree. A simple thing like a loaf of bread and a 6 pack from the grocery is very important to some people, and can constitute an emergency in order to have the road cleared. When under duress to use a chain saw in an "emergency situation," 10 minutes can seem like 10 days before there are any tangable results. Do not use the truck to drag limbs down the road to another location. Cut a hole in the middle of the tree, the size a car can easily pass through. When the neighbor returns, from filing the IRS tax return at the post office, do not remind him that today is April 15, the post office does NOT close at 5:00 pm sharp, but stays open to midnight or after for those running late and still trying to get the tax return in before the deadline. Do not ask how large a tax refund he is getting this year. Try to remember it is not your fault that with his new job title and the overtime, it put him two tax brackets higher, and he now owes the IRS most of his overtime pay. Do not ask if that was the same overtime pay he used to purchase his new bass boat. Do not mention the "case" of beer under his arm looks "really good" or now thirsty you are now that you finished cutting the tree, and stacking all the wood. Do not let the neighbor see you insert your ear plugs as he gives you visual signals that are much more humorous than they were intended to be. Remember: Chain saws are for "personal use only" and are NOT to be used to help neighbors. Well maybe if the neighbor agrees to be a flagman on the road crew.

I drag the coals out onto the forge table and then use a shovel to move them to the bucket of water, mentioned above. The clinker, goo, etc goes to the bucket. Next day, it doesn't take long to sort out the clinker, and occational shale. Let the coke (now washed) dry a day ot two and it's ready to start a fire. During the summer, I save the coke back and use it for demos, real coal but no smoke. I do not use water to sprinkle a fire, or put water into the fire pot. Just what I am used to doing here.

Ed, When we build our home it was designed to be able to be heated on just wood should the electric or gas systems fail. During cold weather, the wood stove runs constantly, 24 hours a day. The batteries in the smoke detector are changed at the start of cold weather and tested on a monthly basis. We burn between 15 and 20 cords of wood a season. The hot ashes are removed and taken outside in a 5 gallon metal bucket and placed in the snow with a 1/4" plate steel cover on the top of the bucket. It many times takes 3 days for the ashes to get cold to the touch, even in below freezing weather. A change of wood from say oak to popular (logs in the woodstack) will greatly affect the way the fire burns and how hot the fire gets. We try to keep the wood from one log together when split and stacked. This is one reason we have two sides to the wood stack, one for daily use and one for night time use. All this is in a closed, airtight container, with someone being in the house most of the time. To leave a fire open and smoldering in a garage, smithy, or even outside, to save 15 minutes of my time or 7 minutes of your time is not something "I" would want to do. Your mileage may vary. Let's hear from a firefighter on this one.

Leaving a fire unattended is NOT a good idea. Ask any fireman. There are too many things that can go very wrong. A storm with wind could restart the fire, an animal could knock it over, or knock something onto the fire. IF there is a leak in an acetylene bottle, or propane tank, a spark is all that is needed to create one heck of a boom followed by fire - and a whole lot of fire - everywhere. The loss of everything you own, all your neighbors posessions, and maybe a whole city block of houses or businesses is not something I would want to explain to the fire dept, the authorities, and the neighbors. We will not mention the wife. Cleaning the fire out of the forge is the first thing I do as I shut down. I rake the fire out of the forge and put it (the fire) into a 5 gallon metal bucket of water. When the rest of the tools are put away, the forge usually has cooled enough to put my hand into the forge. If it is not cool enough to touch, I find something to do for a while. I sleep well at night knowing that the fire now out, and has 3 inches of water on top if it. To build a fire, two or three sheets of newspaper are set on fire and coke from the previous fire, or new coal is put on the paper. Add a little air and you have the fire started. If for some reason it is being stuborn, set fire to a couple sheets of paper and add sticks from the yard, pine cones, wood shavings, or whatever. When this catches, add coal. This second method also smokes much less as the fire consumes the coal smoke. The 15 minutes it takes to put a fire out, and the 15 minutes to build a fire the next time is just part of the blacksmithing process. Use the time to plan what you are going to do, and how your going to do it.

The foot is coming back very slowly. I can finally walk on it a bit better today. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. Ed.

Went to the junk yard today to finally get rid of some small drops and short pieces of little use. Fellow pulled up beside me in a pickup with the rims almost touching the ground. He had cleaned out a garage and everything in the truck was rust perferated or rust. Nothing worth even a second look. At the bottom of his load he put a couple of pick axe heads and a maddock head off to the side, but threw a pry bar into the junk pile. It was one of the straight ones, with the bottom 1/3 square, the center thrid hex, and the top third round. The working end had a single bevel. I said he may want to keep that bar. He said no one uses them any more, you can't sell them, it's junk. Usually these are about 1" square stock and about 4-5 feet long. But this thing was 2 inches by 2 inches square, a full 6 feet long, and weighed most of 50 pounds. I ask the weighmaster what he wanted for the bar, and he said to put it on my truck before I weighed out. I owe the weighmaster a favor now, got the bar in exchange for small unusuable pits of stock - weight for weight.

If you put your chewing gum on the bedpost to save it overnight. (And remember is it lost it's flavor or not) If you remember the first time you opened a flip-top can and realized your "church key" was obsolete. If you remember Black Jack chewing gum, Nehi orange, or Burma Shave signs. If you remember which one was the Champaign of bottled beer.

If you ever used a goosewing broad axe for its intended purpose. Fionn If you ever used a froe for its intended purpose. T-Gold Ok the answer to that burning question: Set up the block and tackle. At the middle, count all the ropes and minus one. 5 ropes minus 1 is 4x advantage or a 25# pull will lift a 100# weight (less friction). Easy to figure and get close to the working load.

Letter opener Tongs Tongs with an attitude. No one said your tools could not have character. Strine form Oz

You may no longer be a youngster if: * if you know the difference between a single tree and double tree. * if you know how to thread a block-and-tackle and then use it. Extra points is you know the mechanical advantage and how to calculate the ratio. * if you ever used a chain hoist with the continious chain. The one that you just pulled and pulled and pulled. * if you know what a post-hole-digger is and have used the ones without a motor. * if you ever used an adz for it's intended purpose. * if you ever started a motor with a loose pull rope. The one that had to be wound on the pully. * if you ever worked a team of animals to pull something. *if you ever worked on a straight 8 motor. (Changing oil qualifies) Did I miss any?

They had to do surgery on on my right foot today. It was infected had to drain and clean the wound. He is back home tonight, and would appreciate your prayers.

Inside Start by taking an exposure of just the fire and then adding light to the rest of the scene to match that exposure. If you have too much light on the scene the fire will wash out. If you have too little light on the scene it will appear dark. This is compared to the exposure of the fire. Outside To intentionally include the fire in a scene outside, arrange the photo so the fire is against a dark background, shadowed area outside, or something to make the fire jump out against the surroundings. Email me with what equiptment you have to work with, a diagram of the set up, and we can try to figure out a solution to the problem.

Knife has a handle made of mariposite a stone with lots of color, Blade is ATS34 stainless with 416 guard and pins. Rich Hale Knife has handle of giraffe leg bone that has been dyed and stabilized. Blade is ATS stainless with pins and guard of 416 stainless.

I will certainly accept your suggestions. It was worth a shot.

Any chance of a blueprint of the process and the roofing tool you made ?

Show us what followed you home, and from where. Show us the steel, tools, equiptment etc, that followed YOU home. Also where it was found, such as the junk yard, street corner, alley way, flea market etc. And maybe a few details to give the rest of us non-scroungers a little help on how the process works. :?

And where is the fire extinguisher located ?? This question is not just to Hollis, but to all with gassers, as well as coal forges.

Copied to the PL Ed is again having problems with his meds. In addition he has broken a tooth and no one will accept his insurance to repair it. His area of the country is being flooded - again - and they are on a continous watch to keep water pumped out of the basement of the house. I suggested that now would be a good time to add his name to the prayer and am doing so with his permission. If you have any extra room on your prayer list add his wife Bev, as she is putting up with him during these rough times.

Digital Cameras are neat tools. For the internet 480 x 640 x 72 dpi is usually all that is needed. To make a photographic paper print, you need all the megapixels you can get. When looking for a camera, look for one that is easy to use, has OPTICAL zoom, a built in flash, close focus capibilities, and you can EASILY get the image out of the camera and into the computer. * IF it is easy to use, you will use it, if it is NOT easy to use, you will NOT use it. If it is small enough to carry with you, you will carry it, otherwise you are going to leave it at home. * Optical zoom is the lens doing the work, not the software. IF you do not have the information captured and stored (optical zoom), you can not recreate it with software (digital zoom). * Built in flash will add light where it is needed for a better photograph. Without the flash, you are limited to daylight, or situations where there is a light bright enough to illuminate the subject. * Close focus is needed for showing details. Usually a close focus and using the zoom will get you the photograph you want. * If you can not easily get the photograph out of the camera and into the computer, you will not use the camera. It will just be too much trouble. The sales person has practiced making it "look" easy, but it needs to BE EASY FOR YOU to use with YOUR computer. USB connections and direct entry of the media card (stick or whatever) into the computer or printer is worth considering. Like any tool, a camera can be very useful. The easier it is to use, the more you will use it. The faster it is to get the photograph out of the camera and into the computer, the more you will use it. Remember that 36 exposure roll of film that had Christmas photos, Easter, 4th of July, the fall leaves, Thanksgiving, the new years big snow, and the kids birthday in May all on the same roll? AND you had 3 exposures left before you could take it to have it processed? You want to be able to take ONE (1) photo and be able to put it into the computer now, today, so you can send it email to your friend before they have to log off. There are a bunch of good cameras out there in the 3-4 megapixel range that will do a good job. I see no use for an image that takes up megs and megs of storage per EACH IMAGE to have to reduce it to 10k so it can be sent across the internet. But if your going to enlarge and print that image on digital photographic paper (not computer paper at $2.00 per 500 sheets) then you need all the megs you can get. You want to consider the batteries and the storage media of any camera you purchase. At some point the camera WILL run out of juice to power it and need the battery replaced. If it only takes the recharable battery from the manufacture, you will need spares. If it takes a dedicated size battery, where are you going to find that one after hours and on the weekend? You need to carry spares. Before you believe the salesman, call the local drug store or grocery store and ask if they carry that battery - in stock. The storage media is an important consideration. The mega-giga-drive "will be all you need" cause it stores everything - till there are problems. This is where several media storage devices are better. One fails and you can still function by using another one. Or use one for the main subject (the event, party, vacation) and pop in the second one for all the iron work, and interesting details, on the gate you found. Digital cameras are great tools to learn photography and become the best photographer you can be. Taking 500 images, sorting through them and saying "WOW, I GOT ONE!" is fine as long as you delete the other 499. Next trip out try to get two images that are keepers from that 500. Next trip try to get three that are keepers, etc. Keep the good ones and delete the junk. You just showed me 6 GREAT PHOTOGRAPHS that were all keepers! And WOW do they look good !! Excellent work. The others - what others ??

T why not just do a blueprint on the subject ?

I have not heard from Gilly since this was posted Feb 15, 2005 on the IForgeIron prayer list. Till we do hear from her, please keep her on your list. (She has medical problems and Rod, her husband, was severely injured when his welding truck wrecked. There has been no income as he was self employed and last I heard they were very close to loosing their home and land to the bill collectors.) Send a card, note, or letter to Gilly to try to lift her spirits during these trying times. Gilda Rice Box 4 Charlie Lake, BC Canada VOC 1 HO IF you would like to enclose something to assist her, US Postal Money orders or International Money orders should be made out to Gilda Rice. Her bank can handle the exchange.

Couple of photos of a Rich Hale Knife The dark handle is snake wood,,,the spacers are african blackwood and nickel with black liners,,,the light piece is oosik

Ed, thanks for the comments. Folks may want to take note of the event and limitations and plan for 2006.

Ok, I'll be the first to say it. They look store bought. Good job.

April 2005 (3rd weekend in April) BGOP Spring Fling Fairfax Wildlife Club near Warrenton, VA BBOP Spring Fling - click here to go