habu68

If you have O-A you have a powerful explosive and carbide(acetylene) cannon. Dont take a spear to a gunfight. contact me off string for my pop bottle, drive shaft mortar plans. Grin.

when I worked at a historical park my master smith would teach by having each of us make the piece by doing each step then cutting it off and doing another one from scratch adding the next step and cutting it off again, and so on, until you had a whole set of pieces that showed each step in the process. We would then string this instruction on a piece of bailing wire for future reference. This taught muscle memory and you ended with a complete set of instructions. His set was then hung on the wall of the shop for use with the public as a pass around as a smith would demo. Great learning tool. Andy Morris, my master smith did a 6 month apprenticeship with Francis Whitaker. Francis told Andy to do a candle holder of his own design. Andy made a beautiful 3 legged candle holder with twists, welds, tennon, and cup. When it was completed Francis told Andy to "now make me a set of three just like it." Andy had failed to make a drawing and cut list of the parts and spent half the night at the forge, trying to replicate his first piece.

The Anthracite from the powder river formation in Wyoming passes though town on the way to the local power plants. The bucket full that found its way to my forge was returned due to high sulfur and the smoke altering the breeding cycle of the West Nile Mosquito. The coal was returned at great risk to its rightful owner. This anthracite looks like a glassy obsidian or hard roofing tar. ymmv

I have used Playdough as a damming material for babbitt bearings.

to the above I would add punches drifts chisels slitters jigs bending forks 2 foot steel rule steel framing square a speed square How to use the Swanson Speed Square and a 4x4 foot piece of 1/4 inch steel with a light coat of rust for a black board and lay out.

scotch brite and a spring type clothes pin, here.

An "old hand" of 6 years old in coveralls taught me a good way to light a fire after watching me blunder with wet tinder. He started his lecture with "weeeeellllll the way we do it....." as he showed me how his grandfather and father taught him to light a fire.

Philip Look up treadle lathe they use foot power and a flywheel to solve the problem of the back and forth rotation. example and plans : Make Your Own Treadle Lathe - Download

Well said Lassie ;)

the wheels are 5' o/d, arm 22' 350 lbs, arm sling and a-frame give a release point 42' off the ground, counter weight is rated to 2000 lbs (we have fired it at 1100) Range 900' with a 10lb bowling ball at 1100 lb in the counter weight. accurate to 6' at 900ft. The firing of a burlap wrapped ball with 2 cups of coleman fuel at ten-o-clock at night into lake Estes brought the stands to their feet and a call from the police and fire marshal. It was a Beautiful Thing. more Pic's and movies at Mad Splatter

I stand corrected....I never was one for hand to hand combat... i lean toward range and knock down power... never bring a knife to a gun fight.

Another trick is to use modeling clay until you can work out your setup and volume calculations. A couple of us spent a few hours trying to make lily style candle holders until we made a finished one out of clay and cut them open to show the shape of the flattened blank.

I also agree with Master Hofi and Phillip and others in their hesitation to modify old tools. In looking at this swage most of the swages around the edge and the holes in the body have damage to the shoulders along the face. This makes the swages almost useless for forming shoulders. I thought about cutting a radius on each of the forms but on closer examination most of the damage would be removed by milling the two faces about 1/8" each. So far I have only sanded away the heavy rust with a flap wheel and exposed the damage. The Jury is still out as to what I will do to make this a better tool for my use. Thanks for the input. I too could stand a good milling to remove the wear of time... Mike

White Shirt: My Great Grandfather circa 1910 striking for his apprentice; Staged ??? It was his camera. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/data/500/medium/FrankPolzin.JPG

da's why ya be wear'n the dirk handy in the garter, laddie.

Dang slick idea, easily modified, you could bend up the edges of the flat stock for box tongs, I'd call them Jayco tongs. I've also seen tongs that were no more than two pieces of wood hinged on one end with a piece of leather. If you can imagine a spring swage, you then heat a piece of metal and burn the shape into the wood. It will make a very secure and workable pair of low cost, disposable tongs for the one off project with the odd piece.

Larry, It helps to go to a festival where they are selling the kilts. The fit on a kilt is weird, they have you stand in a three sided booth an drop trow as they wrap you in FREEDOM.... Just beware of the lasses with the Regimental Inspection Mirror On A Stick. BOG. The Mocs come from Minnetonka-By-Mail - Minnetonka Moccasins Specialty Retailer nice boots good for dancing. You know what a Scot wearrrs und'r da Kilt dun't ya lad? why socks and boots, dun't ya know...

Be sure to check out the video ads for utilikilts. "fire" is one with blacksmith content.

Wore my Utili-kilt to m'daughter's St Pats party just this eve...

I recently purchased a 15"x 15" x 4" industrial swage block and the large faces are dinged and chipped with hammer and chisel marks. A simple milling on the bridgeport of about .125 inch from each side would remove most of these marks and is what I will do the next time I can get to my brothers shop. My question is this: how would a shop , circa 1800, mill and dress a block of this size. I am aware of files and scrapers in the hands of apprentices, but this is a little over 2 sq ft of surface area and we are talking a total of a .250 inch of removal. Maybe a mill stone like those used for grinding flower? Other ideas? I love to pose questions like this to people when i do demos at historical parks. It would be nice to have a solution.

I once worked for a company that recovered silver from photo processes like X-ray and photo labs. We would regularly ship boxes with 1000 troy oz bars of 999 % silver (1 000 troy oz = 68.5714286 pounds). They were about the size of a small building brick. It was fun to take a stack of these into UPS on a dolly and have the young lady reach across the desk and try to lift one off the pile. Then the look on her face when you told her that you wanted to insure them for $10,000 ....... each.

here it is in pdf for downloading Modern Blacksmithing, Rational Horse ... - Google Book Search

From "the Modern Blacksmith" 1904 Modern Blacksmithing, 1904 DRILLING IRON: "Every smith knows how to drill, sometimes it gives even an old smith trouble. The drill must be true, the center to be right, if one side of the drill is wider than the other or the drill not in proper shape the hole will not be true. For centuries oil has been used for drilling and millions of dollars have been spent in vain. It is a wonder how people will learn to use the wrong thing. I don't think that I have ever met a man yet who did not know that oil was used in drilling. In drilling hard steel, turpentine or kerosene is used as oil will then prevent cutting entirely. Nothing is better than water, but turpentine or kerosene is not as bad as oil; if you think water is too cheap use turperitine or kerosene. I had occasion once to do a little work for a man eighty years old, and when I drilled a hole, used water. The old man asked if water was as good as oil, and when informed that it was better, said: "I used to be quite a blacksmith myself, I am now eighty years old, too old to do anything, but I am not too old to learn." it ought to suggest itself to every smith that while oil is used in boxes to prevent cutting, it will also prevent cutting in drilling. " A nice little primer on blacksmithing at the turn of the 20th century