ramsies11

it could be a crudly forged buffalo skinners knife if your thinking of that, they didnt have points, and they had a slight curve, they were used for skinning the buffalo and not damaging the insides like the point of a regular knife did.

if his wrist is there, make a metal, bowlshaped cup, and have it where it fits over his hand, then then have 2 tethers coming off onto a velcro strap around his wrist, 2 more tethers, but do it right before you hit the elbow, apply duct tape as needed to have a firm grip. then on the center, top of the bowl outside of course, take a set of vice grips and take out the screw, drill a hole int he middle of the bowl so the thread part of the screw can leave, then put screw thru hole and weld the big end that wont go thru to the metal and re-attatch to vicegrips, he can turn the vicegrips themselves now to tighten or loosen on his project. ive had that idea floating around in my head for a while, i just dunno about the system of attatching it to the arm.

he pssed last night...

that is really really neat!!! id love to hear your stories sometime.

rambler: i love it. its perfect. and i have the perfect biker. my friend's friend wants to try blacksmithing and his doc says to excersize more. everybody wins!!

everyone: i do plan on buying a ring roller after i sell a new set of my shepards hooks, i have about 200dollars worth of hooks ready to be welded, and a ring roller will help me make the hooks more uniform also. i was wondering if anyone had a suggestion on where i could buy one of these. ten: im using a very very sturdy screw vice.

ive gone to a number of bam meetings and i wasnt greeted with open arms, in fact i was looked down upon because of my age. for that i refuse to go to anymore of their meetings or even deal with them.

i thought it was a great video, and i think for the time you had you covered the history of smithing very very well. i saw the heart hook and at first i wondered how it was going to turn into a hear but after i saw the forgewelded peice it dawned on me.and i did not know the beeswax bit, so heres my question, does the wax block have to be "pure" wax or can it be the stuff with the crud in it? pure wax runs me about 5bucks a lb, impure is free if i haul it away. and my other question is: what are you using for flux, yours looked black and almsot all other flux ive seen is borax soap. i enjoyed the forge welding bit, it was very .... ugh... i forgot the word, but it was a very good way of showing me how to do it.

its 3/8" hot roll, outside diamiter, rd stock. i need a basic ring that i can weld the ends together on. im bending it cold, to heat and bend would make my topiary prices go through the roof because of labor costs. i have the brake drum, ive set it in vice and used it on half circles easily with 1/2" rd for my shepards hooks. but now i have no idea what im doing wrong here. and im afraid ill end up spending a fortune to make a fortune. naz: ill definatly have to try the thing on cutting the stock 1.5 times more than what i need. it sounds like itll work. phil: ill have to look up somthing on a ring roller, it soulds perfect. lol

i have a welding business and i am planning on making topiaries (like those new cone shaped ones except up side down) and the bottom piece is a ring. im using an old 2ft diameter brake drum and i am trying to form a ring around the drum using 3/8" hot roll steel. my issue is that the last 3 rings i tried, i ended up having to scrap because they had kinks and straight parts in them. i need a way to make them all uniform in size and make them all perfectly circular. i would like to keep using the drum because it already has a channel in it that i can use to seat the steel when i bend it, i just dont know how to do it correctly at the moment. any ideas? i was also thinking on maybe buying a small length of that pipe thats in the under part of the road, the one that kinda spirals up. i was thinking on buying it and just running my length of rod around and around it untill i basically made a spring, and then use bolt cutters to cut off my rings. this is only an idea at the moment. ideas? questions? comments? concerns? anything helps. ram.

john, thats alot like what i had in mind. dan, my cats are too fat and lazy to do much.

ill remember that! thanks. haha

owen, this is, dare i say it, very very impressive. if any metal worker looked at this and didnt think so, hed either of had to be doing this every weekend of his life, or is no true metal worker. this is facinating. by the looks of it, the outside of where you housed your fire was broken up, correct? i saw a similar thing done in japan, when they did the melting of the of the iron ore into the steel that the master smiths used in their katanas every year. you really should message me sometime and tell me about all this bloomery work. i find it facsinating.

he goes in for surgery on monday. its supposed to be a simple and easy procedure. i dont belive it.

now, i currently dont own an electric blower, and by the time im done blowing and beating, after about an hour my arms are burnin(too bad its not from heat :D ) so a concept hit me the other day. as we all know wheels are inversely related as by size (and teeth per inch). now bear with me. if ive thought this up right, if i have 2 ft diamiter pully(my bike wheel) and then a 3in diamiter pully on the blower, depending on how fast i pedal(or lack there of) i could get ALOT of rpms. provided somthing doesnt go catastophically wrong and destroy my blower apparatus.and this is somthing that gives the arms a break, and i could get onto and pedal for about 15-30seconds and get a couple minutes of hand crank. but i also have a few concerns. 1. im not too sure if the blower will be able to handly that many rpms! :blink: 2. i might end up burning more wood(or charcoal or coal if i can ever get my hands on some of those beautiful rocks) and saving arm tired ness but then having to make up twice to three times as much. so would i even start to come close to a good idea or should i just scrap it and wait to buy a little electric blower?

update: hes getting worse. they say the cancer has almost doubled in the last week, they say he only has about a month. though, they said the same thing 6 months ago.

my great-uncle jay has been admitted into the hospital since june and hes been getting progressivly worse. he originally went in because of a heat stroke but after more tests theyve found cancer. and this man is a trooper, he started his little welding business a long time ago to help feed his children and give them nice things, now that business is about all he does, and hes very very concerned about it. when he recieved the news, we were sitting in the hotel room and the doctor came in and said "theres no easy way to tell you this jay..." to which he replied "awww, common doc, i needed to be in memphis a week ago and nashville tonight." when the doctor saw this she finally told him that he has cancer in almost every major organ in his torso. him, being the man who thinks he can beat it says "well, youve figured out whats wrong with me..... can i go now?" this isnt a man whos a smart aleck or anything like that. this is a man that puts others well above himself. in his time hes donated millions into different organizations and towns. this is a man that i personally idolize. i wasnt too concerned because i held the same attitude he does. but hes had a cough for 2 months now and its gotten worse since chemo.... this is the man whos convinced me into going into the armed forces, and by god, he better be there when im at my ceremony when i get out of boot camp.

the ballista? i already know of it. and its arms were made from wood and it actually did have a huge bow, it had 2 curved arms that wound some sinyew pretty titghtly. though i do find them neat

i kind of like RR spikes to be honest... and rebar. but i hate the farrier comments. yes, i am a smith, no i dont shoe horses. my dad and i pulled into the grocery and right next to us a guy pulled in who was a farrier and part of the missouri farriers association. i was wearing my ifi tshirt. and he goes: oh do you smith too? "yes." "ahh how many horses have you shoed in your time little guy?" that just kinda ticked me off. i dont SHOE HORSES!!

i want to make a cross bow. im going to ask my old woodworking teacher to make me an oak stock for it, and ive already figured out the trigger assembly. but my question was: the limbs, they used to be made from a springy steel and ive no idea what i have around here to work or if id have to special order it, and even then i dont know how to go about forging it. i was wondering if anyone here knew anything i could use. i want to keep this thing as historically accurate to medieval times as possible. i also want to forge the bolts from 1/4-3/8" steel depending on what i need for it. ive got the basic idea for the steel bolts down, heavier on the head than the fletched end. i planned on shooting these as opposed to store bought bolts or wooden bolts just because it would be easier for me to just make and grind a head on them as opposed to making the shafts and heads and flights. its also hopefully, going to end up being cheaper than buying a set of bolts for it. how do i make the limbs, and is there a certain equation i have to use for them? and can i make the bolts from steel?

if you are leaving the outside blackened, i would suggest a crude braze when you finish making the sword from hammer strokes, heat up the metal and use a brazing rod, if you cant find a good brass one or dont have an o/a torch, simply ask a friend with a gun if the next time they pop off a couple rounds to give you the shells, cut off the firing pin, and cut a slit down the middle, then roll it as tight as possible, this will give you a crude but effective rod, then heat the section to id say about an orangy color and then just tap the brass on there to melt it. if you have an o/a torch, you can completly surpass the need for brass even and melt steel into the hole, if its not on a part that NEEDS to hold an edge, a simple clotheshanger braze will work. i would though, suggest the steel brazing over anything, if you dont have an o/a set then see if a friend will let you steal it for a couple hours. hope it helps, and tip the friend. B)

here in s missouri, i am scared to even drive by a particular resturant most of the time because we have this group of workers who have their torch sets on the side of their truck, and most the the time the tubes and connectors are all still attached to the tanks. i dont know if its on or not, and what damage the actual torch bit has to it that could let it leak gas. they always come out of their trucks smoking cigars/cigarettes and sometimes they light one right outside of the truck and walk into the resturant. its just plain scary for me because it would in fact be my luck that somehow one of those gents left his tanks open and there is somthing wrong with the nozzle so its leaking gas and as they leave, one decides to light up...... i am frankly surprised at how little attention people pay to things like this, one of their trucks didnt even have a chain around the two, very tall and probably very heavy cylenders, they had a bit of what looked like baling twine loosely attached. all i know is when someone mentions about having them do work for them i advise against it, i know it probably isnt right but i dont want one of my friends to see them and the kaboom im waiting on to finally happen.

i do SOME spinning, about all i do is threading and making notches in stuff, im still learning.

i know its been a while, but how they comin Mr. Duck?