blubrick

Wizard of Oz (Yes, there is a connection - Google it!)

Chip on the shoulder

Another source of powerful magnets is computer disk drives. They are a really odd shape, kind of like a squashed crescent, and quite small (about 2" long). Again, do not let your fingers get caught between these puppies, they are very strong! If you do get your hand or fingers between them, don't just slide them off your open hand, they will probably just pinch the webbing between your thumb and forefinger (or so I've heard )

(baked beans) - Blazing Saddles

Piecemeal (and a few more characters)

It is fun isn't it North? Here's my second piece - a letter opener. Well, it's kind of my second piece. I have made a few other things, but I can't really call them mine because I had varying amounts of help. I was under instruction and at some stage, I succumbed to the offer of "Here, let me fix that for ya". My first piece was a leaf, and I burned it away to nothingness - but I've already told that story. I did the whole thing bass-ackwards, forging the blade end first and then the handle. But this time, when Dale very kindly offered to "fix that fullering for ya" - I told him I'd rather leave it flawed. The rusty bar is what it was like before I started to play with it. Mister Washington is only there for a size reference.

Even more scary, did you see him brush the scale off the die with his hands? Sure, he raised the head, but the machine was still running and he put his hand into it!

You have more hammers than screwdrivers.

It's amazing this blacksmith doesn't burn himself.

JWB, for raw newbs like myself, just saying "stupidity was the reason" doesn't say very much. I might be doing, or about to do the same stupid thing without even realizing how stupid it is. Similarly, I've never heard of the old potato trick. I guess you put cut pieces of raw potato over your closed eyes? I've heard of people doing the same thing with cold teabags.

4 bending forks 3 swage blocks 2 pair of tongs An anvil that weighed more then me.

On the second day of Christmas My true love gave to me, Two Damascus hammers, And an anvil that weighed more than me.

You're drunk? Whew! For a horrible moment I thought you were going to try lining your gasser with rum, sugar and water.

Excuses? I hope it didn't sound like that! The feel I was going for was "the moral of today's lesson". When I did what I did, I did it wrong - plain and simple, there's no escaping it. Now, if I know why I burned the steel, I can work on that and might not burn it next time. If I don't, I will keep making the same mistakes without learning from them. And that's not my idea of fun. Still, it's nice to know that there are plenty of new and inventive ways of screwing up for me to learn! And I'll be here telling everyone just as soon as I find the next one!

Just on that BP0453 Drum Dolly... It looks to me like you could light a small wood fire underneath the drum to thaw out the ice. That might take a little while to kick in, though. Living in Australia, where pretty much the entire continent is in severe drought, I kinda baulk at the idea of emptying and refilling the slacktub every day. Good thing it will never freeze around here - well not solid, anyway.

Smoke is pretty complex stuff, really. It is an aerosol (suspension of ultra-fine solid or liquid particles in a gaseous medium), and its chemical makeup varies wildly with whatever fuel is being oxidised to create the smoke. From wood, it's usually carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, native carbon, water vapour, methanol, and heavier organics such as may be found in creosote and turpentine. You can see evidence of this when a smoky fire starts to burn cleaner. The smoke is being released as a by-product of combustion (spell it right if you're posting an informative article), and subsequently being consumed as a fuel. From metals burning, it's usually just the metal oxide itself and absolutely not to be breathed in (most famously for zinc, but the same goes with all metal oxide vapours).

In response to my first post here, over in "Introduce Yourself", Dale Russell realised that he and I were "just a hop, skip and jump" away from each other and offered to show me his smithy. I suspected I might just learn something from this bloke, so I called him on his offer and spent a bit of time in his workshop with him. Lesson one - Make a leaf. He showed me how it was done, then handed me a piece of 8mm square and said, "Now you do one". So I got to it. First, I fullered the stock on the edge of the anvil and drew it out a bit to make a stalk for the leaf. In truth, it was probably nothing like the way he showed me to do it, but I thought I was doing what he did - turns out that the stalk was too short so I was up for some more fullering and drawing out. The next thing was to flatten out the leaf blade - I started that and by this time it had wound up on a pretty odd angle to the stalk, so I straightened it out before putting it back in the fire. So there I am with the makings of a leaf going, feeling pretty good about my work and the strangest thing happened - when I pulled the bar out of the fire, my leaf was gone! Just like an alchemist of old, I had transmuted a base metal. Unfortunately I had not turned lead into gold, I had turned steel into sparks. :mad: With 20/20 hindsight, I understand the three things I did wrong to cause this to happen. First and foremost, I wasn't watching my work close enough. That's ultimately what caused it to burn away. But I think the leaf stalk may have been a bit too cool when I straightened it before putting it back in the fire. When I did that, I may have put a little crack in it that the fire got hold of in short order. But underlying both those things was that I failed to realise that as the work became thinner, I needed to work quicker with the piece needing less time to get up to working temperature and cool down again. Even though I came away from the day having made nothing I could call my own work, it was a very instructive experience. I had no idea I wasn't swinging the hammer from my shoulder. For that matter, I didn't even realise that I should be putting my shoulder into it. Now that I do know, I realise why I have been working that way - I'm more confident of not missing the work when I bend my elbow only. I have got a few chunks of steel I could use as my own anvil, but I really don't want to spang up anyone else's real anvil, so I guess I might've been kind of overcautious. Ah well, practice, practice, practice! And how am I to practice? Well, Dale very kindly loaned me the guts of an old charcoal/coke forge of his - it just needs a blower and something to keep it off the ground. As a loaner, it's on me to, if possible, return it in better nick than I got it, so I'll try to build a little stand for it. He also gave me a pair of tongs to clean up and put some longer handles on. So now all I need to find is: some fuel (easy), a place to set it up (still easy) and some time (now, that one, that's a bit tougher). Shortly after I can put all that together, I'll have some pix to share. In the meantime, I'm havin' fun and learning - and that's what it's about.

G'day all, I'm a 43 year old "not a blacksmith's bootlace" from Cockatoo, Victoria (S.E. mainland) and I have almost zero prior experience in metalworking. That said, I have just taken a short course in basic blacksmithing, and I think I'm hooked The place where I did the course hosts a blacksmithing group, and I can go and use their smithy for a small fee every week, so I'm pretty much set for being able to get forging straight away. Meanwhile I can gradually acquire all the gear I need to set up my own smithy at home. As fas as my specific area of interest in blacksmithing goes, I'm not entirely sure. I'm not particularly keen on bladesmithing, but it seems like forging a knife out of an old file is a bit of a rite of passage, so I'll probably do that at some stage. I like the idea of architectural work, but fences, gates and the like are projects for the future. For the moment though, I'll be happy to knock out hooks and pokers and similar small items. I'm sure I'll find my niche in good time. I've been lurking in the forums for a while now and you lot seem really friendly and helpful. I'm looking forward to learning lots while playing with fire and hitting things. Cheers all, Matt L.