jayco

thorssmith, Welcome to the wonderful world of blacksmithing and Iforgeiron. ENJOY!

Nice work, John! James

I have had a few pieces of really old rebar that I thought was actually pretty good stuff. Meaning predictable,,,and acting like mild steel. I don't know if I have any of it left or not.........the thing is, it's so old that the patterns of ridges on it are far different than modern rebar. I've had poor luck with the 'modern' rebar. A couple years ago I broke one of my logging chains and needed to make a quick repair. I found a piece of 3/8 in. rd. about 7 or 8 in. long and figured it would 'do in a pinch' I heated the piece with the A/O torch, bent it into a crude 'link' shape and arc welded the two ends.........no forge.......no quench. The first time I used the chain after the repair, it broke like glass.....right next to the arc weld. So, I still use rebar once in a while........but not for 'critical' uses.

Dan, Aaron, the animals you guys describe as not paying any attention to your presence,........sounds a little the symptoms of rabies. My dad always said that if you see an animal that seemed to be in a daze or oblivious to your presence........that it could be rabies. A few times in my youth I remember seeing dogs(sometimes cats, too) rapidly trotting up or down the road near my home. Dad would shout at them or call to them........if they looked around or responded in any way, he figured they were probably rabies free. We haven't had any outbreaks of the disease in years(that I know of) just something I remember from when I was a kid.........Funny, I hadn't thought about that in years........ James

I got so mad at an old push mower once, that I shoved it into the creek after a hundred or so cranks didn't get it started. And yeah, I had checked the plug,checked the gas, filed the points( it was an old lawnmower), and sanded the 'mag'........ Left it in the creek overnight. Well, next morning, it didn't look quite right there in the creek, so...I fished it out, brought it back to the garage and let it sit there for a while. I don't know what made me do it,( stubborness, I suppose), but I just had to give that old lawn mower one more crank. And it started! It just goes to show you,........sometimes funny things happen! James

Welcome to IFI, Dan. I live in a 'holler' too! I guess I'm across the river from you.....more or less. James

My shop has two different values. An A/O torch,arc welder. anvil, couple of blowers, post vise, a few beat up hammers. Not worth a whole lot on the open market, really. But what the shop has allowed me to do,.......and what potential it holds for the future..........are priceless! James Flannery

Welcome to Iforgeiron, JMP! I,m not quite sure what a "trackback" is either. Although I,ve been a member for a year and a half, there are still features on this site that I am unfamilar with. (I,m a computer newbie) Maybe someone will explain how "trackbacks" work! Anyway, welcome to blacksmithing and IFI community! James

I overheard a couple of guys at the local hardware talking about seeing copperheads around here recently. The funny thing is that these snakes are scarce for a few years, then,....they're everywhere. Must be a big year for copperheads around here! One of the things that makes me a little afraid of being bitten is that from what I can learn about snake bites, everyone has a different tolerance level to the venom. I've heard of old folks who just put a poltice on the location of the bite and claimed to be alright after a couple days. My aunt was copperhead 'bit', 40 years ago, and went into extreme shock. If my uncle hadn't been there, I don't know what would have happened to her. She spent 2 weeks in the hospital and was 'poorly' for the rest of the summer.

Rich, welcome to Iforgeiron! I don't know where Pine Grove West Virginia is, but since I'm in Greenup Co. Ky, you must be one of my neighbors I haven't met yet. What you said about 'no time like the present'..........I couldn't agree more. At 52, I'm trying to catch up with all the things I wanted to do at 25. Anyway, Enjoy the site! James

Since you're a CBA instructor, you probably have information about smithing to share with us! Whether it's a RR spike knife, how to sharpen a lawnmower blade, or just where to find coal, all information is good and 'comes in handy' for someone. By the way, I've been 'hobby smithing' for 35 years. Here on the farm, I'm always breaking and wearing stuff out.........that makes me my own best/worst customer! How confusing is that!? Anyway, welcome to Iforgeiron, and continue to enjoy the site! James

I had my latest snake adventure just this morning. I did a little forging early this morning, but it got hot here early in the day. So, I decided to pick blackberries instead. I climbed the high hill to where the berries were and began filling my bucket. I was picking berries and daydreaming of cobblers and such things, when I happened to look down and saw a rather large copperhead glide silently into the heart of the blackberry bushes. Evidently, he had been within a foot of where I was standing. Lucky for me he was not in the mood for biting. At first I kinda thought this was a "bad luck day", but no, this was a "GOOD LUCK DAY!" James

Rthibeau, you raise a good question.....what is scrap? what is stuff? I think of scrap as 'something left over.....something unusable........but........ If I collect someone else's 'scrap'....it becomes my 'stuff '. If I have cutoffs or drops that could still be used, then it is both scrap and stuff........sort of 'scruff'!?! Oh, I,m getting a headache! This sounds like a George Carlin routine!

Frosty's correct..........this should be a Blueprint.........and I will be taking notes! Nice work! James

Chris, Welcome to Iforgeiron! I should warn you that IFI and blacksmithing are ADDICTIVE! There are links on the front page to help you with 'getting started'. Join in........Enjoy!

Nice forge, Aaron..........looks like it would melt down a Buick! James

Thanks, Finnr As to anvils, mine was old and well-worn when I got it. There's not a square edge on the face anywhere. I have a couple of 'blocks of iron' with sharp corners to use for sharp edges on forgings. I can arc weld a little, and I've thought about attempting a repair on mine....... but the rounded edges and missing chip don't really affect my forging, so I just use it 'as is'. And, if I don't do the repair correctly..........I might make it WORSE! So, I'm just gonna leave it alone.....and use it.

I was in my shop this evening, using the bench grinder,.....when out of nowhere........This little bumblebee whizzes by me a couple of times and stings me on the right elbow! Apparently, I had made him REALLY MAD! It seems that 'once was not enough' for him. He kept diving at me........to the point I had to leave the shop for a couple minutes! When he finally quit diving and buzzing, I crept back into the shop to see where he had went. He had lit on the backside of my handcrank blower handle.........in a place where I couldn't hit him of course....(I think he knew that!) I looked frantically around the shop for the wd40, brake cleaner,,,,,,,well anything! Believe it or not, all I could find was a spray bottle of liquid 'TurtleWax! YEAH, LIKE THAT'S GONNA STOP HIM!! Having nothing else, I sprayed him liberally with it, and within a minute or so he stopped moving,........ I guess he died of 'waxy buildup'! Why can't I just find frogs or little turtles in my shop, like everyone else?:confused: James:)

KYBOY, I'm not sure which 'off load' place you're refering to. I haven't been that way in a while, but I suppose they're still moving a lot of coal at Catlettsburg Ky, and that there is a lot of coal off loaded at the power plant in Louisa, Ky,....If you know where those places are......... Catlettsburg is maybe 30 miles from me........Louisa, about 50 mi. Any time I'm on highway 23........between Greenup and Ashland..........I see a lot of trains carrying coal.......probably from somewhere down your way!

One upshot to the current high fuel prices is that if you have been needing a truck to move blacksmithing equipment, to haul coal, or go to the scrap yard, this is a good time for buyers. Around here there are lots of full-size pickups and 1 ton trucks for sale.

On the subject of 'soft coal', I have a question.......but first let me explain. A neighbor gave me three 5 gal. buckets of coal sometime last summer........cleaning up his back yard I suppose..... As far as I can tell, it's just run-of-the-mill furnace or house coal (not much clinker, but a lot of ash and some sulfur. Anyway, I put the buckets of coal behind the shop and forgot about them until the other day. Since there were weeds growing out of the buckets, I decided it was high time to use the coal before the plastic buckets disentegrated. I pulled the weeds out and discovered that the buckets were nearly full of water along the lumps of coal. I picked up a couple large lumps from the top of the bucket and they all but crumbled in my hand.........very soft! Now, the question........did being emersed in water for a year soften the coal? Did the cycle of freezing and thawing last winter do it? Or, is it just my imagination........and the coal was already soft?

Here's a hardy tool idea I've used from time to time to improvise tools I didn't have. It starts with the idea that a piece of 1/2 in. round stock........doubled back on itself fits diagonally in a 1 in. square hardy hole pretty easily.......and it is unnecessary to weld it. The first pic is one of my fullers and a little bending fork. Following that idea, I decided to try making a bottom tool with the same kind of post. I took a piece of 1/2 in. round about 16 in. long and heated about half of one end. I doubled back 2 or 3 in. to make the post........drove it in the hardy hole hot, and bent the rest of the rod down to the face of the anvil with a hammer while it was still quite hot. I made sure it laid right down the center of the face so it would rest solidly. I wanted to try some different swage/fuller shapes on this thing. From left to right; A 3/8 in. half round swage A hot cut A 3/8 in. half round fuller A fuller in a 1 in. arc The first three tools work o k........but I made the fuller on the end useless. It hangs over the step of the anvil......got excited.........forgot to measure! I hot-swaged the first one, and shaped the rest with the bench grinder. The last pic shows the tools in better detail........had to take it outside to get a good picture! Yeah, I know,........TOO MUCH TIME ON MY HANDS! James