ThomasPowers

Carrying a 5 gallon bucket of water up to the water table was an old one. I didn't get brick; but one time I worked a 16 hour tour, drove 2 hours to take a 12 hour tour for a sick guy, drove back 2 hours and caught another 16 hour tour. Any way when I showed up at the sick guys unit I had to use the porta potty really bad and the hands thought it would be funny to tie the door shut while I was in it. (at lest they didn't turn it over!) Being a Lot Younger/thinner/more athletic I just pushed the top of the door open and climbed out and went to work. About an hour later a rig hand pops

Turkey Bacon violates all sorts of my dietary laws! Didn't forge this weekend; went and saw my Mother for a belated Mother's day. Spent 2 hours shopping in a single store. Mother had made a list but it was in the order that she had thought of things and so we went back and forth a LOT of times. She didn't get my suggestion of getting all the needed things in one area before going to another. I expect she will be moving in with us within 5 years. I also spent a lot of hours with a pole saw and bow saw cleaning out dead trees and limbs---packed it all neatly in my little pickup and it wi

How are you keeping coal from falling off the forge table?

Knowing the right people can sure make your life easier!

I think it's called "Looks like too much work for a hot day". I'm making a hammer drift from a pick end I hot cut off. Funny think I've been running into old pick's at the scrap yard lately and need to figure out some stuff to make from them. (The old mining pick is up on the shop wall, the others on the possibles pile.)

I've had luck at auctions when they lump a whole lot of stuff together by buying the stuff I want from the person who wins the bid---once it was tongs in a box of woodworking tools. The Bid winner wanted the woodworking stuff and was happy to sell me the tongs much cheaper than I would have paid. (Of course this doesn't always work, sometimes they want the same stuff you want; or wanted pretty much the entire cost for the items you want.) One of the easiest ways to save money acquiring smithing stuff is to already have enough of it that you are not desperate to buy more. Then only stuff

And so you would NOT make a San Mai billet with the center LC stainless. The grinding and hilting indicate a strong familiarity with blade making; so I would assume it was done right rather than wrong. Why go to the effort of doing a nice handle and sheath if the blade was soft? I always check my blades for hardness before finishing them.

If I were to survive; I don't know if I would end up being a "scrounger" finding needed items in the wreckage of civilization or end up "chained to the anvil" as I have a nice pre-electric set up---though I am going to try selling off my post drills! 2 Miles away from us is a windmill repair and sales company---If I can get the old well that was shared with our neighbors retrofitted we can have running water! (And being on a septic tank, flush toilets!)

One of my favorite P-A stories is "Alas Babylon" by Pat Frank. Written just before 1960 and it hits a LOT of the things later stories do. (Including refrigerated insulin going bad after the power goes out.) It is a very positive P-A story. Unlike "On the Beach" where after a Nuclear War everybody left slowly dies. (Which was written around the same time as A B.) One of the issues with 90% die off is what happens if the only local Dr's capable of removing an appendix don't survive? I've had both my appendix and gall bladder out, either of which would have probably killed me pre 1850.

Couple of copies of Practical Blacksmithing on abebooks for under US$12.25 shipping included.

I'm already in the hole; I'm just hoping it's not filling with water faster than I can bail! The rise in prices is why we decided to go ahead as we expect it will be over a year before it drops due to supply chain issues and pent up demand.

John; the Diabetic in LH makes the decision to die rather than divert the resources to keeping himself alive; so being Friday I mixed the two... Black powder is easy until you run out of sulfur; I have medieval descriptions of refining the potassium nitrate for local materials, but sulfur is a problem! Also all the time spent making powder and guns is time not spent getting food. I'd hope folks would get that figured out before the canned goods run out! Actually I know few post apocalypse stores that go directly to blades, "Dies the Fire" is one; but that includes a mcguffin to ma

Frosty I can take you to meet Billy Jack Pound of the Pound Ranch in person and let him tell you the tale of *why* they have Elfego's anvil... If you can find it somewhere there was an online collection of transcriptions from the Oral History project(s) during the 1930's on the settling of this area. I tripped over it several motherboard/disk crashes ago. Full of tales about life out here in the "wild and wooly days" One I remember was about a a fellow deputized to track down a killer and includes swimming the flooded Rio Grande with his horse and tracking down the bad guy in his hom

My point is that weapons are more abundant to be found than "traditional farm implements" I know folks locally that could equip a company! Shoot I have 3 guidons in my den myself---Solingen, 1890's for the Argentina Army. Much better than anything I could make in a reasonable amount of time and I have a background in bladesmithing. To get working farm implements is MUCH harder and to get trained horses, mules or oxen is harder still! (Not to mention people trained to work them!) So look in the local pawn shops or little museums for edged weapons and spend your productive time worki

Finding Osage Orange with the correct grain for bow staves is what ups the cost!