Mike Turner

Hello my friends my wife and I have been having a terrible year and I now have time to get back to making knives and my friends here. Those that do not know my wife almost died in February, she had 35 blood clots in her lungs and is lucky to still be with us. She has fought a long hard battle to get better. She is doing great now almost back to normal. I too have been plagued with injuries from my day job as a farrier and I too am finally feeling pretty good and glad I can start getting back in the shop. Well it is great to be back and will take me a long time to catch up on what I have missed. Here is a skinner with a gut hook I finished yesterday for a customer. It is 5/32" ATS-34 with a flat grind, heat treated and cryoed by my good friend Gene Martin. Has 304 stainless steel bolsters and stabilized birds eye pine scales with stainless steel pins. Custom sheath by Sally Martin. Thanks for looking.

Well if some farrier has gone and kicked or hit your horse with a rasp you need to ask yourself why. Did the horse kick him first or bite him or just being a puke cause you treat it like a pet instead of a horse. So if your horse stands for the farrier and is not ill mannered or spoiled it will never be kicked or hit with a rasp. I will not shoe or trim bad horses and I tell new customers if they are not good I will leave. I just had a Precious take me out 6 months later I am now getting back to work. I only did the horse as a favor to a good customer, this was her friends horse. Now neither one of them are customers. But back to the main question on client list. I built my business on my work you do a great job you won't have any trouble getting work. I have more to add but I am tired and it is late so be back in a day or two.

Another farrier here, I was a union Lather for 15 years doing steel stud framing and drywall mostly on hi rises in So. Cal. I started shoeing horses in 1999 did some competitions and I have added custom knives to my resume. I also do some blacksmithing. Like Finn I have to many mouths to feed to try the starving artist blacksmith thing. Besides I love shoeing horses and making hand made shoes .

Rich that is sweet :D

I get mine from, Kelly Cupples / octihunter@charter.net 2807 Butterfield Rd. Yakima Wa. 98901 509-949-5231

Nice Guppy Sam .

Remove the paint, you will thank yourself later . If you are welding by hand I would make them no larger than 6" long as it is difficult to weld that much in one shot.

OK I stuck a rod in the hole on the box and marked it for length and it looks like there is about 3" of thread stuck in the box. I clamped it down and put a 4' pipe over the handle to see if I could move it not a chance all I did was straighten out some of the bend . I have it soaking in penetrating oil and will give it a try again tomorrow, if that don't work I will get a friend to help with the heating process.

Hi Thomas the problem is I can not turn the screw at all. I am tempted to try and force it to unscrew it but thought I would see what others thought first. I have been soaking it with penetrating oil for a few days.

Richard I was looking at the photo with it on the ground and it was bugging me. The screw is in cockeyed in the box. The screw is straight.

Well the biggest difference is localized heating you can do with coke or coal. Coke is also much hotter burning than gas. Also you have a better atmosphere nuetral to carborizing with coke/coal so you have almost no scale. Gas you will find easier to tend but will have more scale and will not be able to do localized heats. Just my 2 cents

Thanks for all the replies, I now have the pics to show what is up with this vise. It appears that the screw maybe almost all the way out maybe an inch or so of thread still in the box. The thread on the screw is in good shape. So now what do you all think?

Mark you are welcome in my shop anytime Central point is about a beautiful 40 min drive to Williams.

Hey Mark welcome from south side :D

Dan it is not rusty, I think someone way over tightened this vise as the handle is bent real bad which you will see when I can get some pics up.

Hi all I just picked up a Iron City 6" post vise cheap. The problem with it is the screw is stuck in the nut and it appears to be cross threaded or something. I think it maybe cross threaded as it has pulled a burr off the front of the nut. The vise it self is in great shape jaws are very clean. Any suggestions? I will try and get a picture up tomorrow.

Ed amazing work as usual.

This is what wrought chain looks like

I would not sell it unless you absolutely had no use for it. If you can find it, it seems to be selling for $6 to $8 a pound for good wrought and as a bladesmith the wagon rims are great stuff, etches very nice. For a guy that just wants to make a grill or a gate he won't pay that he will be around or under a $1 a pound. Remember they don't make it anymore and once all the surplus wrought is used up it will be gone except for the backyard guys that make it. I bought a ton of wrought anchor chain a while back and have parted with a few pounds to friends but since I have not been able to get more I have stopped and have decided to only use it for furniture on my knives as the pile is dwindling I may get 10 years if I am lucky out of my pile and then I have no more. Sorry for the lengthy post but just wanted to make a point of the rarity of the wrought and it should be saved for special projects.