Gene Chapman

Hey, great little uglie, you gave me a couple ideas. Keep up the good work. Gene

Have used mine to crush glass for frit, think thsts what it's called, you need to set the depth stop nut open a bit, otherwise it will literally powder the glass. My wife was making glass beads for a while in a class.

Tried to edit but is slow, hope this works

That didn't work too well, will try something else.

Bart, This is the setup for trying to drill a long dowel, it worked well.

It isn't real sharp and I don't want to sharpen it as it would ruin the patina. I did trying it on a 3 X 5 card and it tore the card rather than cutting it. Glad you made the drilling engine. The same principal applies for drilling a tomahawk handle. I had a wooden makeshift setup and drilled a 3/4 or 7/8 inch dowel through the middle, a battery operated drill was used. Glad you like my publications, it's a retirement thing. I'm working on a new one but have stalled in the nice weather.

This is a Schrade wire handle folder, Pat date 9-21-26. These were made for explosive handling. This is a test for posting a image, thought this might be interesting to some.

Grant, I was curious about I Forge forums and found out it's free. It has all the bells and whistles of V Bulletin, numerous metal related catagories, "Everything a boy would want, dirt, fire and noise", as Paul Thorne told me his mother said when showing her his shop.

How does one go about getting a Blacksmiths Group Forum on I forge Iron, what are the costs? I am thinking of a Pacific Northwest blacksmith/metalworking/knifemaking forum. There are a couple recent local forums here but they are limited and don't have all the bells and whistles of V Bulletin. Can it be moderated by several moderators to share the load. Any anwsers would be appreciated. Don't know if this is the proper place for these questions. Thanks, have a great hot iron day. Gene Chapman

A dust collector is hooked up to two grinders and the drill press. It's the small harbor Freight one and is vented outside via flex tubing. The outlet on the side of the garage with a screen over it to keep varmets out. It was initally noisy outside, so I made a muffler from a 5 gallon plastic can with a plywood baffle with holes drilled in it. The holes area were much greater in size than the 4" flex tubing area, hey, it worked well, has great suction for grinding and buffing. The shop cat dosen't care for it so leaves when turned it on. Only metal is ground in the shop, no knife handle material, wood dust and grinding sparks don't mix.

I live in a neighborhood and stopped using the 50# Little giant years ago, my son has it now and I have a P6 fly press which is almost dead quiet. I'm mostly retired now but used the fly press mostly for products that could be forged with the press. Hand forging on the anvil was done when the neighbors were usually at work.

This graphics arts photo of a Phil Baldwin damascus steel workshop at Russ Jaquays shop Pt Townsend Wa, circa about 1983. The big thing behind us is a charcoal retort (or whatever it's called) that held a cord of wood. We had a 4 day workshop, Mon-Fri then a NWBA conference Fri-Sun.