AKFrosty57

The Great White ... Birch that whacked Frosty is toast (currently toasting in the wood stove), but I agree it has "relatives" all over the place. Heck, we have 15 acres of relatives ... not all Great Whites, but birches nevertheless. They say even smaller species can be dangerous if you tease them.

These days, when I go outside at night, I always take one of the dogs with me - that way I'll be warned if a well camouflaged birch branch might be stalking me. Oh wait ... I got that backwards. I go outside *because* the dogs need to go out (potty breaks, don'tchaknow). OK, so maybe I am protecting THEM from the Great White ... birches.

Too bad all our current dogs are girls ... if we still had a BOY dog. I'd get him to pee on the birches.
-De

All this roasting is making me hungry ... I think I'll make like a tree and leaf. Oh, before I go though - it looks like the age-old question has finally been definitively answered.

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody sees it, does it still make noise? Arrgghh! Never mind - we may never know ... he wasn't WATCHING.

Hey! What is FROSTY'S least favorite month?

Sep-timber!

Love you guys - keep him smilin'.
-De

Hey Grant ... where did you *think* Frosty came up with the wherewithal to create six-thousand POSTS? Whittling posts from trees, much less hunting Great White ... Birch, is darned hard work!
-De (hiding in the woods after *that* one )

Speaking of "poster boys", I'm not the one with SIX-THOUSAND posts. All the time you spend here, it's a wonder you have any time for tree cutting. (Snicker-snicker).

Sooo ... I guess maybe it was a good thing I got to the Emergency room and mentioned that little tidbit of info before they rolled you off to the MRI room. EH? They were still busy pulling Great White ... Birch "teeth" from your skull when I arrived. Bad Birch. BAAAD Birch.
-De

And THAT'S exactly why I can't even go into a room with an operating MRI, I have too much iron in my hide and eyes. The spinning magnetic fields tends to turn iron and steel chips into little blender blades in your bod.
Frosty

Hey! I didn't just "settle" for that ID. My son Dan and I gave it great thought ... seeing as the ID "Frosty" was already taken. Besides, AKFrosty57 is easy to remember - at least it will be until his next birthday .

Oh, just in case anyone is confused ... this is De (Frosty's other half) this time. I thought I may as well USE the "AKFrosty57" ID since I went to all the trouble to set it up.

Sooo ... if you see "AKFrosty57" here, you can scratch your head and wonder which of us it is. If you can't figure it out by the wordage, maybe one or the other of us will take pity and sign it.
-De

AKFrosty57 is the handle Deb had to settle for when signing me up with a Yahoo E-mail acct so I could do some surfin at the hospital. This is MY home comp and is signed on under my old handle. If you see AKFrosty57 it just means I'm downstairs on Deb's laptop . . . Computer! Not HER laptop!
Frosty

Frosty can give as good as he gets - never fear. And that Great White did more than whip his BUTT ... it pretty much whupped him head to toe. Literally.
-De

You boys are pretty rough - I hope he's laughing...

Frosty was giving me grief for mashin' my hand in a power hammer then he goes and gets his butt whipped by a tree, go figure. Glad you are back, mi amigo.

Hi all,

De here (aka Deb Frost, snowgoose or Defrost, depending on where I'm writing) ... just wishing to add my own heartfelt thanks for ALL the thousands of prayers, good thoughts, supportive words, donations and just plain LOVE this list and its many members have shown since Frosty's encounter with the "Great White ... Birch" last September.

I fully believe that the prayers from this list were a big part of the reason Frosty is well on his way to a full recovery - and also a big part of the reason *I* (Frosty's wife, for those of you who don't know me yet) made it through those SCARY first two months without falling completely apart.

It was (still is) amazing ... and awe-inspiring ... to discover so many, many strangers (strangers to me, anyway) were actively praying for my husband - and for me. Trying to keep my sense of humor intact thru this crisis was sometimes a challenge. I want to thank you again for helping me find reasons to smile.

At times, especially during the first few weeks when I thought I'd never smile again - just checking my "De Frost" Facebook page often had me grinning over yet another of what I came to refer to as my "bunch of hairy-faced blacksmith angels". No offense meant towards the ladies among you! But it seemed for a while there that every time I opened my Facebook page, I had several new "Friend requests" and a remarkably large number of them were ... well, blacksmiths .

I have only been checking in here at IFI now and then when Frosty says there is a particularly funny or touching post - and am using (you may have noticed) the Yahoo account I opened for Frosty while he was still in the hospital and didn't have access to his own long-standing "Frosty" IFI presence.

I know Frosty has thanked you ... and is working hard now at just getting back to "normal" (hey, what is normal for Frosty, anyway? ). I just thought I should add my own thanks. You are good folk. All of you.

Hugs and love,
De Frost

Thanks Bill and Larry I am just looking for a place to talk about the craft I love with people that understand why I love it so much good to be hear I think I will go look around

Ah HAH! a bean can forge or the brick version. I don't know how to convince just how necessary one is.

No comment on your wife's estimate of your cerebral usage. I'm sure she's low balling it in a vain attempt to keep you in line. Deb tries the same trick sometimes bless her silly heart.

Frosty

Say doc, I used a SS salad bowl for the rain cap on my shop stove pipe and before that I built a new one for the house and used a steel gold pan. The old one on the house had a spark screen that just collected creosote causing problems. The house stack is tall enough and services a high quality Jotul stove so sparks are not a problem.

On the last part, you COULD build a corner.

Frosty

When it's more than just cool I'll warm my anvil to help preserve heat in the work. I do most of my work over the waist so I'm not concerned much with breaking heal or horn off.

Sometimes I'll warm a decent sized piece in the forge and lay it on the face but recently I started taking my propane Turbo Torch to it and I must say it brings either the 125 Soderfors or the 202 Trenton to comfortably warm much faster.

Frosty

OK, so a little background on the Farm to help anyone wanting to write a letter.....




email: ianstuartlowe@gmail.com

There's sure lots of potential there! From Christmas gifts to wind chimes to cat teasers.

Thanks,

Frosty

Didn't THAT give me an idea! I like the idea of having a C clamp like anvil holdfast but it'd be a lot better if it had a fast rough adjustment. Sooooo, how about after cutting the foot off welding a square shank to it at an angle.

The angle would be critical and maybe pretty tricky to get right, the square shaft will probably need to be bent in an arc. Here's the idea, drop the square shank into the hardy hole, the clamp drops onto the work and the shaft jams in the hardy hole like a regular holdfast and you can use the screw to get it good and tight. Hmmmmm, okay it'll probably work better with a piece of round stock than square.

Anyway, that's my off the top of my birch damaged head idea..

Thoughts? Ideas? comments? critiques? Obvious flaws?

Frosty

Frosty, I would also like to chim in and say it is nice to see your posts again and that your starting to get back in the swing of things again.

HH

Boiler:

Thomas wasn't trying to put you off, he was being straight up honest with you. Bladesmithing is a poor way to learn the art of blacksmithing, it's too failure prone for the beginner. Learning to bladesmith after gaining proficiency as a blacksmith is far more success prone. Then again all we can do is suggest what we think are the most effective ways to learn the craft, actually learning it is in your court.

Sure boiler making started with blacksmiths but it evolved into much more modern iron working techniques for a bunch of good reasons. Modern boilermaking and blacksmithing hold few real world parallels. Having iron working experience will shorten the learning curve regardless which direction you go.

Use hard fire brick for your forge and find a softer blower, compressed air makes for a poor forge blast. a hair drier or heat gun or heater blower out of a car will work.

You made a major, near guaranteed failure mistake if you "tempered" the blade THEN hardened it. No wonder the edge cracked. Here's the correct sequence #1 grind to within about 1/4" maybe 1/8" of the finished thickness on the edge. Do all the rough grinding and contouring. Harden the blade. Before the smoke clears from the air temper the blade. I'm NOT a bladesmith though I've made many edged tools including probably a dozen knives. My preference is a progressive temper which means you draw the spine of the blade farther than the edge, I like the spine to have a spring temper for 5160 leaf spring steel this is as much as purple. I like my edge to be between a light and dark straw. For narrow thin bLADES SIMILAR TO A STRAIGHT RAZOR IN PROPORTION i LIKE A PALE STRAW. fOR WIDER AND THICKER BLADES, SAY A HUNTING OR SKINNING KNIFE i LIKE A GENTLER GRADIENT BETWEEN THE PURPLE SPINE AND DARK STRAW EDGE TO GIVE IT A MORE FLEX FORGIVING NATURE.

tHEN AGAIN, AS i SAID i'M not A BLADESMITH SO IF YOU READ DIFFERENT ADVICE HERE FEEL FREE TO DISREGARD THIS BIT.

DARN! I just noticed I hit caplock sometime back, sorry about the apparent shouting I'm not shouting at all.

Welcome aboard, glad to have ya mate.

fROSTY

Welcome aboard Robert glad to have ya.

Coke is to coal what charcoal is to wood, basically pure carbon that can develope great heat without imparting impurities into the work.

The best advice has already been offered, find a local group, download free smithing books, search IFI. You can also just build a fire and take a lash at it.

Frosty

All I can say Steve is there is NO cure for you now. Welcome aboard, you're in good company.

Frosty

Very cool Mike. Drats! something else to put on my gotta try it list when I can go back to the fire

Okay, scratch the drats I like these, lots.

Frosty

That fire looks alright Mark, not great but usable for sure. Not having burned corn I can't give you any specifics other than to say experiment take notes and let us know what you learn.

I'd say you had enough heat on the iron at least until you develop better control. Once you have everything under good enough control you can use higher heat (more maleable iron) which not only allows more movement faster but bigger faster disasters. Voice of experience there.

Frosty

Welcome aboard Bob, glad to have you.

Talk about finding what you need in one location! I know there are lots of smiths in the UK on IFI so I'm not too suprised to see so much help so fast.

It's hard to say what's keeping you from good heat with your setup without pictures and a little more info. If by charcoal briquettes you mean the compressed regular shaped dense and heavy bagged charcoal sold for grilling that could be the problem right there. Loof for "Lump" charcoal, it's very light and soft. It takes less air and a deeper fire than coal or coke but will produce iron melting heat with a little practice.

If the coke you can get is to large just break it up, I like coal that passes a 3/4" sieve and fines. Breeze is popular with many smiths because the foirge makes breeze rather than coke proper.

Commercial coke is made in ovens and is under pressure so it's harder, denser and is harder to light and keep burning. Breeze formes like charcoal as the volatiles are driven out of the coal by combustion heat but it's an open air process so the coal puffs making the breeze light soft and easy lighting. It looks kind of like gray popped corn.

Either fuel works just fine but takes a little different fire tending technique. Finding a local group or an experienced smith to visit will solve all these little things quite handily.

Frosty

Are there any tools of the trade that she uses, and could be forged? Don't know any speech therapists, so I am just guessing.

Something else you may want to explore is forging some jewelery; ear rings, necklace.

Can you ask any of her coworkers what she likes?


Good to see ya back Frosty! How much is an out of state hunting license for Great White Birches?

Howdy Gene:

No mother in the history of mothers has ever turned down a hand made christmas ornament.

Frosty

I see the need for only a cross or straight pien. To me...the direction of the pien does not matter much because by moving my hammering arm and my tong arm I can achieve any needed angle.

Plus I have a prejudice against straight pien hammers. Mike can tell you...I hate the looks of them. To me they are the dumbest looking thing ever handled. I totally respect their use and value of a straight pien and those that use them...I just can't get over the look of one. HA!

I use a 2 pound Tom Clark cross pien. I have picked up a lot of hammers made by just about everyone...and this is the best hammer that I have ever picked up.

my .02
Peyton

PS: No offense to those with straight pien hammers...it is something I am trying to deal with. I need to have a better sense of equality for all piens!

Thanks Mark, it's good to be alive and coming back online. Deb's been a rock, without her I'd be a statistic or at best a slowly recovering lump. I'll gladly pass along your best to her.

Frosty