LLG

Forty years ago when I worked in an industrial blacksmith shop, we had a metal box with a couple hundred pounds of slack lime in it. This was used to anneal steel. Heat the piece and bury it in the lime. Leave it overnight. In the morning it was always too hot to touch. Remove from the lime box with tongs.

We used never-seize for hot punching in the mill blacksmith shop.

Glade to hear your elbow is healing nicely. Three and a half years ago I suffered a detached tendon in my right arm. It was a work related injury. I lifted a sheet of 3/4 plywood improperly. It took about two and a half years to feel normal again. I did have the tendon reattached. I am an office "rat" so my day job is sitting at a computer all day. I do a lot of construction work on the side, but did not do much during that healing time. I am now into a heavy remodel and have a lot of demo work to do. I have been swinging the hammer a lot, both sledge and hand. I am happy to say the arm is working as good as it ever did. I reason I mention all of this is because I want to get back into smithing. I was an industrial blacksmith helper in the 1970s and recently have had a real desire to start forging again. I was worried that the heavy hammering would be too much for my arm, but that does not seem to be the case. I am looking forward to building a forge in the next year or so and start hammering some iron. BTW, nice knife and leaf. My interests are in knifes and hawks.

What a treat. The pictures brought back great memories. November 1st 1973 I went to work as a blacksmith helper at Kaiser Steel, Fontana Steel Mill. The very first thing I was trained on was how to operate a hammer. There were two hammers in the blacksmith shop. A single leg Chambersburg High Frame Hammer, I do not remember the weight - it was at least twice the size as the small hammer I suppose it was in the neighborhood of 1000#, and a 200# Chambersburg. I spent about 3 years in the blacksmith shop. Made all kinds of tools, many of which I still have - lots of hand hammers. I became what I would consider an expert "driver" of the High Frame, but only satisfactory on the 200# hammer. I did not run the small hammer much. The head blacksmith's helper was the one that ran the small hammer most of the time. He was an "old" man then and had been running that hammer for 20 plus years. The hammers in the blacksmith shop were air powered. BTW. In the steel mill the hammer driver sat in a chair. The chair was tall like a stool. This allowed better control of the choke and throttle. I was suprised to see the hammer driver standing to opperate the 200#er because the choke and throttle controls were very touchy comparied to the High Frame. The small hammer took alot more concentration to operate.