Rashelle

Y'all are making me hungry. Snake's, frog legs, alligators, various snails, eels, Korean mystery meat, Thai mystery meat, Vietnamese mystery meat, all sorts of kimchi variations including a fish one (I thought it was a vegetable.... oh well it was tasty), various sushi types, mystery fish soup, oysters cooked and raw, various shellfish, pig, beef, sheep intestines, tongues, stomach (not that tasty last night), Pork ears, feet tails, tripe, and pickled varieties, sashimi, various fish eggs, various bird eggs and pickled and aged varieties, etc. If I have a chance I will always try new foods. If you don't try it you don't know it's tasty. Oh and the durian and lychee, plus some other mystery fruits. Now it's dinner time.

January 23rd is an upcoming Ypres poppy forging event at our Mentoring center in Longview. Let everyone know when you'll be in the area and hopefully someone will be available.

I figure if you ask 5 smiths, you should get at least 8 answers. Heehee. If someone is better then me then is isn't because me or they used electricity. My reply to that is along those lines. So I (and I have to put I as I can not speak for anyone else) would of answered along those lines most likely. "You might be a better blacksmith then me but it isn't because of the tools we use or do not use." The problem being that the person that said that to you sounds like a troll and is just trying to make themselves feel better. Not much you can do with trolls as they are safe behind the anonymity of the internet. (Which can lead to some serious ill-will towards a "person" you'll never see or know in real life.) Frustrating as that may be. So when a anonymous "person" gets to me I have to make myself let it go. (Good thing blacksmithing is stress release for myself, (I get to hit something) that and punching bags, and the reminder that I am not getting shot at so no reason to fret.)

I've seen them all. Don't know if I will bother with any more new ones though. I read almost all the books for the decades following episode 6, and the prequel books also. Disney ........... can't think of good enough bad words. Just doesn't go with the already existing Star Wars universe.

Internet picture:

"June of 1890, and the third (and most important) was filed just shy of one year later. All three shared a similar core design: a sealing medium in the form of a thin disk or plug, affixed firmly to the top of a bottle via a crimped metallic disk. " From All about Beer magazin in a quote about William Painter. "Technically, Alfred L. Bernardin (who history has shown was decidedly not Painter’s BFF) beat him to the patent office by about three months, receiving a patent for his counter-mounted “bottle-uncapping tool” in July 1893." I believe Painters went more widespread use a year later 1894. As Bernadin's was unpopular. According to collectors weekly Painter invented the crown top in 1892. ...........Yada yada yada, followed by the patents.

I had one of the Fort Rangers who is a beer history buff tell me when. But I have since forgotten. I think it was a bit after 1845 when I started researching a little on my own. Maybe this'll help as a start point.

I use my laptop. I'm just not enough up on the modern gadgets to be able to use those to browse forums. I think it may be a case of the site still being buggy like it has for the past few months. At least it's working again. Thanks for the attempt though.

Adding location to profile, I can't never seem to see locations anymore when I look at them. I know I had location on mine but I don't see it when I scroll over my thumbnail. I can't see it on others either. Ok delete that just checked again and can see it again. Wasn't able to see it the other day though.

Cool, that sort of sparks some ideas for me to make some dental pick like tools for a friend that uses them making electronic thingies.

That is a good way of putting it. It implies more then one way. Not exclusively one way. Sort of like Bruce Lee "Tau of Jute Keen Do" Tau meaning Way not meaning THE way. We each have our preferred ways to do things according to our personal preferences, abilities, equipment, training, etc. To say or imply that others are wrong, idiots, imbeciles, etc. for doing things a different way IS wrong. (Without getting into legalese and arguing semantics here, there are bad ways that are safety hazards.) I have my preferred way, I also have the way I'll approach a given task due to efficiency regardless of my preference. Others have their own ways. It does not mean that different view points should be talked down to or belittled.

Why wouldn't I? It all comes down to individual preferences. I personally do not like the looks of big box items made in a factory in (wherever land) and sold in the major chain stores spottily welded together. That is not aesthetically pleasing to me whereas traditional joinery is. (As I type this I am seeing more replies that have the potential to turn this into a heated argument rather then a discussion. Please everyone remember that we all have the rights to have our own opinions without calling each other idiots for disagreeing with you.) I did Fort Vancouvers blacksmith apprenticeship, I personally like doing things by hand the old ways. I don't really understand myself why people take up this old craft and then do NOT do the bulk of their work that way. With that said at work in addition to instructing (in mostly traditional, what you could make yourself, propane forge, use of belt sanders on knives (files are shown), I periodically make things for the shop and for production for the business. In which case I use bandsaw for cutting most stock, my personal belt sander (the students use smaller ones), even sometimes a angle grinder for scale removal. But then at those times I am in a production mode and need to up efficiency to make a living. My own preference though is to hand forge my own tools and projects. I get a zen like feeling from that. So left to my own devices I make what I use. Which has included forges. There is a good feeling from it. I am not relying on a power source or modern equipment other then lighting. For production I use what is available that ups efficiency.

Small slices cut for small cupping tools. A slightly larger slice for upsetting 3/4R stock into 1" R. I can almost picture needing 1" monkey tools but not quite seeing needing them. Work them down like you would pipe for some 3/4" ones or smaller. OHHHHHHHHHHH the main trunk for a tree lamp, run the wire up the center............ Lot of potential uses .... Too bad Alaska would make the shipping not so fun, or I'd offer to buy some off you. Small slice deformed into a spoon swage. Ok I need to stop thinking of this for now and go to bed. Cut lengthwise, weld onto appropriate pieces make top and bottom swages and fullers. That reminds me I want to make a 3" set of fullers. Ok now maybe I can go to sleep .......... Grrrrr neck down make other size swages, before cutting lengthwise, same for monkey tools. Pss Good night.

Just a thought. When I uncoil a spring that way I put the holding bar upright in the vise and uncoil from the bottom of the spring, so gravity and leverage work in my favor. Pulling against the vice jaws so the bar don't slip down and tilt.

I am thinking monkey tools. For tenons. Maybe even forge the ends down a little smaller on some for varying sizes. Are the holes tapered also? Heehee I am dreaming of lots of monkey tools.

"How WOULD i make a blade without forging or stock removal?" Flint knapping, but then that'd be stock removal of a non metal knife. Cast a bronze one. Then work harden the edge. I'd been not paying attention to this either till odblacksmith quoted that.

Cool, thank you for that information. I'll have to let my friends know for next time I go up there that we have places for us (me) to visit, heehee.

Top tools and hammers sounds like to me. The biggest using either me or another as a striker I've made is along the lines of a 8.5 lbs hammer for another blacksmith. So that'd be close to that other piece of steel mentioned above, heehee. I think 1.5"R 1045 (might of been 4140) is the biggest by myself and hand hammer. No clue why I had to make that hammer without a striker, but for some reason I did. I do not recommend it either.

The last tool looks like what some friends of mine use as a clinching iron when they make tools. One person holds it on the under (inside of the canoe) while the other drives the tack down it hits the iron and clinches over. I made them some custom ones and just mailed them a couple days ago. WOOOOWWWWWW is it spendy sending things to Canada for a few pounds of metal.

I'm not sure of the dates but there is supposedly a Hudson Bay Co. Fort with blacksmith shop and at least one blacksmith that does demo's there. I missed it when taking a week long canoe trip with some friends that live in Winnipeg a year or so ago. Didn't find out about it till I got back ......... GGGGGGGGGRRRRRRR. I asked even.

I'm also doing it for a living, though I'd consider myself among the least of those here that do so. I actually enjoy going in to work nowadays and still research and blacksmith even on my time off. I also remember that there are many who do not do it for a living who are much better then me.

I use a variety. At work it's the galvanized buckets for water, which inevitably leak, so have to be sealed first. Then make sure a student doesn't get hot metal on the sealant, grrrrrrr. At Fort Vancouver it's wooden tubs. For demo's I usually use a wooden bucket I coopered together, just have to remember to presoak so it'll hold water as it dries out between demo's. For quench oil it's either an ammo can, or a wood box with lid, I plan on eventually getting large pipe for bigger things, super quench is in 5 gallon plastic bucket. Fort's ash for annealing is in a 5 gallon bucket. Works vermiculite is in a metal bucket for students. I have my own 35? gallon drum with two bags of vermiculite for my own use at work for annealing. So just by meself I manage to use a variety for whatever fits the task.

I also preferred the second photo.

Thanks Daswulf. I'll get a friend to figure out the app issue, heehee. Funny thing once upon a time the military wanted me to change MOS and go computer tech for them, amongst a couple of the choices they wanted me to change over to. I just never cared to keep up with the technology as I enjoy more physical activity. Computery stuff is a means to a short end for me.

I end up emailing the pic to me also. Then I have to refigure out how to resize the pic. Which seems to change each time and irritate me with the technology changing faster then I can devote time to keeping up with it. So I'm lucky if I get a good pic sent to myself.