ThomasPowers

Of course the "ridiculous number" method can come back to bite you; much like in Donna Andrews "Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos" where the protagonist did a commission for a relative having a conflict with a HOA about her *plastic* flamingos and so has wrought iron ones made. The smith did an excellent job; but didn't like it and so when someone at the craft show went gaga over them; names an outrageous price to do another set whereupon the person whipped out a checkbook and ordered *more*! It's happened to me more than once; so I have learned to set the price high enough that I am happy to fund my shop while doing the commission(s).

Spent a lot of time in the hospital watching Japanese bladesmiths using anvils that look like pieces of heavy fork lift tines. Here is an example of a USA version that cost US$25 IIRC:

Good First Aid kit! CO monitor!!!!!

Compressors: expensive to buy, expensive to repair, hard on the ears, produce little and high pressure air. Blowers: cheap to scrounge, cheap to replace, quieter on ears, sized right they produce a lot of air at a good pressure. Yes you can use your $250K Purdey shotgun as a canoe paddle; but WHY?

"Don't build a stand till your anvil's in hand!" (To get the height right.)

Case Hardening is a time&temperature thing; but not generally very deep. Now as a historical oddity; many of the trade knives sold/traded to the indigenous peoples here in the Americas were case hardened wrought iron. They learned to do a chisel edge \| so that there was a steel edge left rather than a V edge where the steel would be honed off both sides.

My family leans heavily towards tea; It seems like we visit the St James Tearoom in Albuquerque often enough that we "should call it St Jim".

I'm still trying to get Twisted Willow to do a load to Quad-State!

They had the original date shipped and where to when I contacted them: Dec 28 1915, Merino Colorado, (OK John you can laugh now...)

Just a tweak on a rusty barbwire icicle I had already welded up. I don't think I will have any problems getting "watchers" in my shop on weekends. I plan to start bringing extra hammers to the NMABA meetings to start paring down. I have tried to work with having backups for my favorite tools; now not so much...

Don't forget the scientific term "bomb" for a compressed gas container. I remember an old Bell Labs story about an engineer carrying some crystals grown in a high pressure hydrogen environment telling an Airline employee he was carrying a Hydrogen Bomb onto the plane...

Made it to a New Year!

Yes; but it was merely a handful of items; I need to get rid of stuff not add to it...

Coil spring is a great "prototyping" chisel material; then when you find a design what works well for YOU and have more forging skills you can reproduce it in a high alloy steel like S-7 or H-13 that will last a lot longer in use. But keep your prototypes for "rough" use in the future.

Add a hinged bar with a swinging leg as a third hand helps a lot with longer pieces in the forge.

90:10 or other alloy(s)?

I've been hoping to "Hulk" with a combination of Gamma Rays and a steroid; but so far no luck! I've complained to my Oncologist several times already about the lack of any decent super power after all of this.

I chose blacksmithing to be a hobby and have NEVER wanted to do it as a job! Any money that does trickle in goes into the "feed the forge" fund and trickles out into propane, coal and steel. Much happier giving away stuff than to be under paid for it.

Welcome from the SW "High and Dry".

I picked up another dome headed RR bolt at the scrapyard today. I find them easier to dish with if they are bent into an arc that follows my swing when dishing. Experimentation with your swing and dishing form helps get deeper pots

And there are a few steels that the ASM HT Handbook suggest NOT to normalize. (IIRC S-1 is one of them.)

MADE IT TO THE SCRAPYARD TODAY!!!!!!!!! (Escorted of course.) Made it back online with help of Daughters who know smartphones better than my IT degree from 1999...

For beginner bladesmiths I suggest cutting down the side of the coil, (or both) to get a bunch of ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( pieces that are all the same alloy so you can make a lot of test pieces and learn the forging and heat treat temps and break the finished blades to learn what you did right and what you did wrong.

Yes, refiling resaw blade that is NOT 8" wide will most likely have fewer issues than trying to keep a large one sawing straight. Any chance of finding an old school saw sharpener that can help? I would definitely start small and work your way up as your skills develop.

It was annealed in a bombed out factory during WWII IIRC; why students can't mar an anvil face with it. Yes overdue for proper dressing; but SWMBO is not going to let me use power tools for a while....