tkunkel

Good morning, just curious if anyone has fixed up a 1920's 25 lb Little Giant that has been through a shop fire? Our area was burned over in NC Washington in 2015 and my LG burned, melted out all the babbit. Saved all the components except the electric motor and have it sitting a back corner of the garage for a retirement project. I had gotten it a couple of years earlier, it ran fine, had ordered new spring and dies at the time and had the repair book to tune/tweak it. It was fun to operate but a bit noisy for our place......Upon rebuilding, I bought a hydraulic press and like it but miss the LG.....we'll see what retirement and my patience brings;)…...Thanks for any feedback. Tom

Nice tongs and bottle opener!

Nice work, David! Patience and persistence made everything come together nicely! Thanks for sharing.

Looks like a nice sandblasting cleanup job. What material are you using as the abrasive? I don't have a sandblasting cabinet yet. I so some electrolysis and wirewheeling for now. Thanks for sharing photos. It is always nice to clean up old tools!

Awesome work, Daswolf! Nice, clean look. Time, skill, and patience produce nice results.

Daswulf, nice guitar construction! Always fun to watch your creativity in action! Keep going! Tom

Nicely done! (Both the work itself and giving it to your wife!)

Desmato, nice clean lines and evenness on your tines. I think your aunt is most fortunate! Good job!

Socrates: I remember reading "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." And that can be interpreted to mean if one is motivated enough, one will travel and seek out that teacher......Good luck going forward. It is a fun, rewarding journey. Tom

Very nice work, Ausfire! Nice clean twists! I still need to do a longhorn. Yours are a good standard to aim for..... Thanks for sharing.

Nice persistence, Ausfire! Nice "eye candy" hooks!

Olydemon, Nice variety of openers. I like the curved handles and the chisel work. Tom

Cade-O, I have not used the technique you are describing. I have made wood grain texture and other textures by cutting lines in the hammer face with an angle grinder and then hitting the metal at orange/yellow heat to imprint the texture. Good luck with your project! Tom

Ted, I like the handle you made. Nice twist, proportional, anchor tabs seem a bit on the thin side for me......What did you want to improve on it? Thanks for your photos of swages and leaves, also. Tom

I vote for the steer or whatever animal looking back at the handle. Nice work again, Ausfire!

Turned out great if you ask me. Like the texture!

Olydemon, I enjoy the visual texture of your tentacles! Your jig for dimpling the suckers, you are just screwing down the bolt and indenting? Did you find it faster than a hand held punch? Thanks.

Thanks, Daswulf! This points me in the right direction I need to go!

Any finished picture?

Nice squadron of dragonflies, Daswulf! Impressive output!

Daswulf and Blackegg, thanks for your comments. Daswolf, could you explain a little bit more about your smaller tag making process? Did you use smaller font and copy your name and website multiple times in the same space of the business card and then cut the card up? I have included photos from my table at a craft fair last November. I was a last minute sign up and got a table in the middle the room, so people are walking on both sides of your booth. Different then farmers market but it gave me a start. I lost my previous display board in a fire and hadn't made time to build a new one. I want to explore using wooden louvered doors, cut down a bit to use on a table top, with an A frame setup. Being able to have flexibility in moving display hooks around up/down and side to side quickly, without redrilling and screwing in hooks would be nice. We'll see how my project schedule goes this next month......

Daswulf, thanks to you and many others for sharing your sales booth experiences. I dug around and found some photos of displays I had used for my wife to take to farmers markets/craftsales in 2012 and 2015. Lots of trial and error with signage, labelling and product mix. My wife and I found that the wood background got peoples attention. I am in the process of making a story board for a bottle opener, to better explain the time and processes involved. Too many people seem to have some sort of sticker shock but it is always nice to get the customers who appreciate and buy and who are excited to gift themselves or others! I did my first holiday craft fair by myself last December. Need to get photos of that included. Had learned from previous experience to have better signage. Tried string labels and found them ok for the time I had. I like the idea of combo bizcard/pricetag. I don't like stickers or the ones I have tried, as they tend to unstick. I had a credit card reader, which we knew from previous experience increased sales. It was a good experience, lots of adrenaline getting prepared, set up, made new contacts, shared/gained info from other vendors about how this show compared with others. Money was so-so for the time but the experience was worth it.

You have been BUSY! Thanks for sharing your project!

Steve, thanks for sharing the interview. I thought you did a great job explaining how involved blacksmithing can be and hopefully raised the understanding/appreciation of the general public towards blacksmithing. Nice knives shown also........have your book and consider it a great resource. Still in the baby steps of Damascus/knifemaking process. I notice you mentioned enjoying the process/journey and I feel the same!