bhanna

Except it won't be a relatively short space of time, and the old stuff isn't magically obsolete. Firefox and Chrome users will be fine as they get automatically updated, but IE users will get left behind as the spec changes. IE8 is still widely used, which would be very bad to code html5 for. Also, most of the stuff html5 adds would be useless to anybody trying to implement a simple storefront. Html5 is relevant, but only to developers who want to make sure they stay relevant in the future or who are doing something where IE doesn't matter. I would caution anyone against using FrontPage, Dreamweaver, or any other WYSIWYG programs. They may be easy to use, but they generate horrible code. If you ever get to the point that you want to hire a developer to add any features to your site, the abominations these programs call code being there will drive up costs a good bit. I wouldn't say don't use these programs, as I can't think of any good alternatives if you don't have the time to learn some proper html/css yourself, but just something to be wary of.

Finally got the hammer from my parents. Here's a pic (and my hands aren't very big.). So tiny

Maybe I should try making a quarkscrew?

Sorry, no pictures yet. Left it at my parents, but they're shipping it this week and I'll post pictures as soon as I get it. It really is the smallest hammer I've ever seen. I guess I'll need to find a project that requires fine details. Maybe a pendant? My wife could use a new necklace . Unless of course someone wants to donate me "a pound or two of gold" to hammer into a leaf :P

So for Christmas I asked my parents for a 2.2lb German hammer from blacksmithsdepot.com. Well, along the way, some decimals got mixed up, and Christmas morning I end up pulling a .22lb hammer out of a box. Aside from making everyone laugh, I'm not really sure what to use this for. It's sold through a blacksmith supplier, so I assume there's some use in blacksmithing for it, but through lack of experience or imagination I'm completely stumped as to what that use is. Anyone with any good ideas for what I can use a really small hammer for? Any ideas for a project that it'd be useful for? I'm perfectly happy doing a project for the sole purpose of getting to use this thing .

I definitely second the file. Only knife I've managed to get shaving sharp so far was using a fine file. It certainly shaved some time (and a large swath of arm hair, much to my wife's dismay).

It had curved to the side. I actually bought the book 'The Complete Bladesmith' and used a trick from that. Went and got a propane torch, heated up the parts that were curved, and straightened it out in my bench vise. Turned out quite nice actually, and he loved it. Here is a pic of the finished knife with the sheath (first time i've ever worked with leather).

(hope I'm attaching the image correctly) My first finished high carbon knife, and also my first thrower. Gift for my brother's birthday. I thought the blue color it took on in the tempering added character, so I kept it . My wife's going to make a leather sheath for it. I think he'll like it, it throws better than the rest of my throwers, and it holds a decent edge too. On a side note, it did develop a really slight curve in the quench, and I haven't been able to get it out. Any hints on getting it out, and also on preventing it in the future?

you can apparently find vermiculite at Home Depot. Thanks for all the info. I guess i'll either try kitty litter or vermiculite. Hopefully with all your help I'll be able to finish my first high carbon knife .

Thanks for the responses. That helps a lot. I didn't think 45 minutes would be enough. I guess that would be considered normalizing then? Isn't Vermiculite that white stuff in potting soil? Would you need to mix it with anything, or just pack it in a container and throw the blade in?

I finished forging my first seax-ish object out of coil spring yesterday. I know I'm supposed to anneal before i do any grinding to it, but I'm not sure how long it's supposed to take to anneal. I mixed some hot charcoal with some dirt and buried it in that after bringing it up to a bright orange. It was still hot to the touch about 45 minutes later, but i could handle it with gloves. Was this long enough, or should it have taken a lot longer? If this isn't good enough, what would be a good method? Also, once i do get it annealed and cleaned up, should i bring it to an edge before quenching, or would that be better after tempering? Thanks

Thanks for the responses. @Phil - Right now it's a brakedrum forge, but i plan to turn a grill into a forge so i can heat longer sections. I noticed the $15 fans are 50cfm. Would one of the 100cfm bathroom fans be sufficient for my new forge? I noticed on that grainger page i linked to there's a 134cfm blower in my price range. Do you know if that would be good enough and still be fairly quiet?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'm having the hardest time figuring this out. I'm currently using a shop-vac for my air supply held a couple feet from the pipe. This works great, but it's really noisy, and I'll be moving into a townhome with an HOA in about a month. So i need to find a nice and quiet air supply to not xxxx off the neighbors. Is there anything out there under $100 that is quiet and sufficient for blacksmithing. From what I can tell, i need a centrifugal blower, but I don't know how strong. Would anything on this page http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/oem-specialty-blowers/blowers/hvacr/ecatalog/N-d0x?Ns=List+Price|0&sort=DD work? If nothing there, could anyone give me a link or some ideas for something that would fit my description (quiet being very important). Thanks in advance for any help. I really don't want to have to quit this just because I can't afford anything better than a xxxx townhome

I don't know about traditional, but i tend to wear a tophat when blacksmithing. I figure it makes up for the mangled junk i produce by making me look distinguished while doing it. As for the motorcycle helmet thing, one saved my brother's life. Something went wrong with his bike and he flew into the air and landed on his head. He ended up in the hospital with some bad head injuries, but he's back to normal. His helmet was completely totaled though. Definitely would be dead without it. They may not save you from everything, but for the crashes where they will save you, it's probably better to have it.

Full beard for years now. Unfortunately wife and/or work makes me trim it every few months. Whenever it gets past about an inch, I start telling people this is my goal: They think I'm joking, but really I'm just biding my time.