george m.

Dear Curmudgen, While there has been a renaissance in the manufacture of pattern welded blades in the 2d half of the 20th century the use of pattern welded blades had pretty much fallen out of use by the mid- to later middle ages with the increased availability of steel. The occurrence of pattern welded blades in the archeological record is much commoner in the early middle ages than later. I figure that it is the same time/labor equation. If a smith can make a single pattern welded blade in say, a week and can make a solid steel blade in 2-3 days and the solid blade will sell for 80% of the cost of the pattern welded blade the liklihood is that the smith will turn out more solid blades. Also, in a workshop it is probable that only the master and a few journeymen are going to be skilled enough to produce pattern welded blades. If a customer wanted a pattern welded blade and was willing to pay the extra it would be done but the run of the mill output would be solid steel blades. I will post some references in the morning. Yours, George

I've been told that as a general rule wroght iron is easier to forge weld than steel because it is self-fluxing due to its higher silica content. I don't know if that is true but it is what I have heard. That was the original reason for pattern welding (often inaccurately called "damascus"). It allowed the supply of rare and expensive steel to be stretched by layering it with cheap and available wrought iron. The decorative possibilities were just a nice icing on the cake. Once decent qulity steel became more available pattern welding dropped out of use, at least for sword blades. In flux, George M.

This is sort of off topic but my advice if you are ever contracting for a construction project or with an architect is to try to avoid the standard AIA contracts if you possibly can. They are very well written to protect the interests of the architects (to be expected) but not so much for anyone else. The owner-contractor model contract isn't too bad but does contain some architect protective language. If you HAVE to use the AIA form go through it VERY carefully and strike out any unacceptable language and replace it, if necessary, with an addendum. This will be a long and difficult process because of the length of the AIA forms and the size of their print. Everyone will say that the AIA contracts are the industry standard but you have to come back with that they are not the standard for your project. Also, from an owner's perspective there is often an on-going relationship between the architect and the contractor. They have worked together before and will again and often do not want to ruin that relationship for one particular project owner unless the conduct by one or the other is particularly egregious. Apologies for getting on my legal soapbox on a blacksmithing forum but it may be of some value or interest. Legally, George M.

What did you use for the window? Heat resistant glass? Mica (ising glass)? George

Dear Newbie, Yes, in shallow caves (IIRC less than a couple of hundred feet of overlying rock) there is a seasonal cycle of temperature but it is slight (a couple of degrees F). I'd stay away from solving problems like lighting and food source with magic. It is an author's cop out. There have been plenty of good yarns containing magic but they do not use it as a device to solve difficult, basic issues. Speleothems will grow at a fairly constant rate, generally very slowly as long as the weather and geology in an area remain stable. Also, in an evironment without seasons time and calendar keeping are not of much practical use because there is no seasonal cycle of planting, growing, and harvesting. The reason for time keeping on an annual basis is to know when to plant, etc. and to keep track of where you are in the day. If it is dark or light all the time the importance of measuring periods of time is pretty low. Timelessly, George M.

This is Martha, George M.'s wife. Thomas makes a good point about early clocks not being that accurate or reliable. I agree with some of the early posts in this thread that made the point that a pre-industrial cultures do not have or need really accurate time-keeping. Needing that for your story/game/movie seems to me an excessively industrial-world way of looking at a pre-industrial culture. My instinctive response is "Don't do it!" Fantasy writers who give their imaginary fantasy worlds excessively modern values and outlooks seem to me to weaken their stories. Of course, you have to do it to some extent so that modern readers can identify with your characters. However, it is a fine line to walk and I think excessively accurate time-keeping is beyond the line. I asked my son, a gamer, and he said on-line games allow gamers to coordinate using server time, but there is usually not in-game time keeping as an important element. I also agree with the respondants who said there has to be trade with the surface to allow the dwarven characters to eat recognizable food. I would say that, on the whole, food is more important to human beings (i.e., your audience) than time is. Good luck with your whole adventure.

Mr. Powers makes an excellent point: No grain = no beer. There are several medieval recipies which give times as "as long as it takes to say 3 Pater Nosters (the Lord's Prayer)" or "as long as it takes to walk half a mile." Also, the rate of growth of speleothems (including stalactites and stalagmites) is dependent on the amount and acidity of the groundwater. Both can change because of surface environmental conditions. e.g. a drought may decrease the flow of ground water depending on how closely the groundwater is associated with the surface water. Also, accretion of flowstone is usually so slow that accurate measurements would be difficult. With growth of only few milimeters per year would be difficult to accurately measure to determine dates. At the very best, I think it would be difficult to determine a particular date plus or minus a couple of months per year. The error would compound over time. A geologic factoid that you may be able to use: The temperature in a mine or cave equals the average annual temperature of the surface which is why caves are warmer than the outside in winter and cooler in the summer. If the average local temperature is lower than 32 degrees F. you will get an ice cave with ice speleothems (very pretty but very fragile). Also, fairly shallow caves are slightly warmer in winter than they are in summer because it takes the pulse of summer heat that long to penetrate through the rock. It is a small effect, no more than a couple of degrees, but measurable. Finally, if your Dwarves do major mining remember that they have to transport and dispose of the waste rock. That's why you see large tipple piles outside of old mines. If you want to look at a good reference for medieval mining techniques look at "De Re Metallica" by Georgis Agricola. It was published in 1556 and translated into English a century ago by Herbert and Lou Hoover (The former US President and his wife. He was a mining engineer by training.) It is available from Dover Publications in paperback. Geologically, George M.

Dear Newbie, I think that your proposed world needs surface dwellers and Dwarven interaction with them to provide food, particularly plant food and possibly food from animals. If you don't you are going to have to come up with some wierd metabolism based on a different source of energy such as sulfurous hot springs, etc.. Even troglydite life forms such as blind fish or shrimp pretty much derive their food from the sun, sometimes several steps removed. I'm not at all sure that you could base a food source, particularly for a culture that you want your human readers to identify with and understand, on non-solar bacteria and animals similar to those found at deep sea "black smoker" hydrothermal vents. Doing so could have the effect of making your Dwarves too "wierd" for a 21st century human audience. What geologic questions do you have? My wife and I are old geologists and she is also a Tolkien scholar and may have more input on the time keeping issue. I'll ask her in the morning. Advisedly, George M.

I just rinse the object in my slack tub. No problems so far. GM

Dear All, I price my work on the basis of how much time I put into it. All I have to sell is my time and the skill experience has given me. I usually figure $40/hour is reasonable for a craftsman of my skill. If an object takes a half an hour to make it is $20, either wholesale or retail. Generally, the material cost for my projects is nominal. If the materials are more than say, about $5 I will not add much for material cost. I follow the model of most proffessionals who charge by the hour, attorneys, doctors, engineers, etc.. The overhead costs are included in the hourly cost which is why the hourly costs are often so high. If I add too much the unit prices reach a point that the only people who can afford my work are those with too much money and not enough sense. I'd rather sell ten $10 items than one $100 item if I have a choice. What I'd really like is to sell ten $100 items in the same time that I usually sell the ten $10 items but that doesn't happen too often. It is a difficult calculus to determine what the market will bear, what is a fair wage for you, what can you expect to sell and how often, and the demographic of your customer base. Good luck. Some experience will educate you better than any of us. Economically, George M.

Dear All, I price my work on the basis of how much time I put into it. All I have to sell is my time and the skill experience has given me. I usually figure $40/hour is reasonable for a craftsman of my skill. If an object takes a half an hour to make it is $20, either wholesale or retail. Generally, the material cost for my projects is nominal. If the materials are more than say, about $5 I will not add much for material cost. I follow the model of most proffessionals who charge by the hour, attorneys, doctors, engineers, etc.. The overhead costs are included in the hourly cost which is why the hourly costs are often so high. If I add too much the unit prices reach a point that the only people who can afford my work are those with too much money and not enough sense. I'd rather sell ten $10 items than one $100 item if I have a choice. What I'd really like is to sell ten $100 items in the same time that I usually sell the ten $10 items but that doesn't happen too often. It is a difficult calculus to determine what the market will bear, what is a fair wage for you, what can you expect to sell and how often, and the demographic of your customer base. Good luck. Some experience will educate you better than any of us. Economically, George M.

Pure darwinian natural selection. Stupidity is not a survival trait. If he keeps on like this he may well take himself out of the gene pool and maybe become a candidate for a Darwin Award. Evolutionarily, George M.

Dear 99PPP0, Some years ago I started using coke rather than coal because my supplier quit carrying blacksmith coal but still had coke. I discovered that it had about 5% or so stones (usually carbonaceous [black] shale) in it. I had to pick them out by hand with every shovel full that I used. I was saving them in a bucket so that I could go back and return them for credit on more fuel. Unfortunately, the supplier has gone out of business. I've since gotten my coke from a different supplier here in the US and there has been no problem with contamination by rocks at all. The only way that unaltered rock is going to get into the coke is the handling of the product after it leaves the coke oven. Any impurities in the raw coal will be melted during the coking process. I always figured that the crushed coke had been stored on a gravel pad and the stones had been scooped up by and unskilled front end loader operator. As an old geologist I would say that your stones are pretty exotic for being naturally associated with coal or the coking process. The quartz and basalt (if you are correct in your identification) are igneous rocks which normally do not occur anywhere near coal deposits. If it were me, I'd return the coke on the grounds that it has been contaminated, either accidentally or intentionally. If by a "glass" you mean a water glass of about 12 ounces (about 300 ml) I'd say that you have a pretty high level of contamination. Geologically, George M.

Dear All, My first forge, which I still use, was a 22" round Champion (or at least had a Champion blower attached). Cast into the pan of the forge was "clay before using." I figured that meant that that mean to put a layer of fire clay in the forge to protect the pan. I put in a layer that sloped from the edge to the edge of the tuyre iron in the center. I thought the slope would help move the coal towards the fire. It didn't work very well. The clay near the fire bonded with the clinkers and it eventually cracked and disintergated. I took it all out and have used it for the last 30+ years without any clay. I have had to replace the tuyre iron a couple of times as it deteriorated. I have never heard any advice about having to use fire clay when building a forge. It seems to me that the only part of a forge at risk would be the tuyre iron which may be subjected to high heat. I don't think any clay would protect it. Does anyone have information about what "clay before using" really means and have I been "doing it wrong" all these years? Quizically, George M. PS his should probably go on the "It Followed Me home" thread but I just stopped in a junk shop in Idaho Springs, CO (an old mining town about 30 miles west of Denver) and asked about small RR spikes from mine railroads. They did have one but it was pretty rusty. I gave them $1 for it. I would have passed but the "wood grain" rust pattern showed me that it was honest to god wrought iron. This would solidly date it to the 19th century. I haven't decided whether to make something out of it or keep it as an artifact. GM

I am George M.'s wife and have helped with the booth. I would add to George's comments an observation that the display should not be too symmetrical. I have had people reluctant to buy things for fear of messing up the display, bizarre as that sounds. If the display is more random, that may be less of a factor. Martha

Dear Yves, What are the things in the lower left corner with a hole in one end and a peg in the middle? Also, I'm not sure I quite understand how the "flowers" work. It appears that the skewers are made out of about 1/4" (6.4 mm) stock. I find that kind of thick for a skewer both for selling and as a cook. I usually use 3/16" (4.8 mm) stock. The problem has been that stock that small qualifies as cold rolled key stock and tend to be expensive. Good luck and remember that what sells well at one event won't be the same thing people go for at the next event. Think about the demographic of the people who will be attending the event. I'm doing a small town Oktoberfest in two weeks and will have less "Art" on the table and more things like railroad spike knives and bottle openers. For an event in a more upper end venue I would reverse the ratio. I try to have a broad selection of items and cost. Some people will go for a $100 item easily and some will have to consider a $10 purchase carefully. Predictably, George M.

Dear Anvilfolk, Try searching Youtube for "forging" videos. That will eliminate most of the video game ones. Some of the videos are pretty awful but there are some good ones too. When you find a good one note who posted it and search for others from the same source. I wish that I had had this resource when I started hitting hot iron back in the olden days. Enviously, George M. When the world was young and dinosaurs roamed the earth.

There is a bicycle repair shop in Greeley, CO which has and overhead belt drive set up but NOTHING like this. There can't be anything in there except the tumbler which was manufactured after about 1925. I'd like to know what drives the system. I'd like to believe, because I saw steam radiators in several of the pics, that he has a stationary steam engine or even a locomotive or a traction engine with a power take off. Greenly, George M.

Dear All, As another Neanderthal/Philistine I have to disagree with the idea that stimulating a reaction of any sort is the definition of Art. That, IMO, is just a cop out because it is so broad that practically anything falls into that group. A person would have to work harder to create something that only elicited a "meh" from most people. Yes, there is a very broad range of reactions amongst people to anything but I think the artist has to have a goal or intent and the art is only successful if a majority of the people viewing the object or hearing the sound have the reaction the artist intended has he or she successfully created "Art." Regarding Tim's suggestion that you have to have considerable background to "get" mid-20th century painting: That reduces "Art" to an in joke or jargon amongst a very small group and eliminates any chance that the work will have anything more than a very narrow audience. There is a legal phrase, "term of art" (no pun intended) which means that a word or phrase has a very specific and narrow meaning, often different from the general or common meaning, and often used by a specialized group. The same word will have different meanings to a, say, engineer or a doctor. In this case it appears that "Art" has become merely a "term of art." Broadly, George M. "So short the life, so long to learn the craft."

Dear 99pppo, Nice work and nice coordination with the music. I might have liked a few more subtitles with thoughts and comments. I made a similar one for my wife a couple of years ago because she is small (5'3") and has spinal damage from cancer. I made it with a horizontal handle at the end opposite the hook and somewhat longer so that she only has to grab it and put her weight on it rather than having to pull down which stresses her back in ways that are not good. I'm also jealous of your anvil. Designingly, George M.

Sask Mark's link to the Wikipedia article on the purchase of the Voice of Fire painting illustrates the idea of "It must be Art because it was created by an artist." I still think that beauty is important to art. "Beauty" is, of course, in the eye of the beholder to use another cliche. Randy's well proportioned nail as an example. Subjectively, George M.

Dear All, I think that Colleen in the UK may have hit on a point which is part of the basis for my cautiousness about "art." That is the distinction made between "fine art" and everything else. We all know the value of our art (in the sense of a particular calling) and craft but a fair number of folk look at it as "mere craft" because it isn't classic "fine art." Something that smithing has given me is an appreciation for skill. When I look at something and am able to percieve that it took considerable skill to produce it I am more appreciative and receptive to it. Something which is a technical POS usually gets a pass from me. This sort of ties in to the criticism, which has been around since the beginning of "modern" art a century ago, that non-representational art is a technical cop out. That is, if you don't have the skill to paint, sculpt, forge, knit, etc. a tree you do something free form and call it your impression or interpretation of a tree. I think that there may be some truth in this but I have seen a lot of non-representaional pieces which required a huge amount of skill to complete. I'm always a bit disappointed when I see something which someone has put a huge amount of time and skill into and it just doesn't work on any level. Too much stuff out there which is presented as art or craft is a sad waste of paint, marble, iron, wool, etc.. My wife's (the spinner and weaver) reaction to a lot of fiber "art" is that all it is is a waste of good fiber and is something which would have earned a medieval apprentice a beating from the master for wasting material. That said, she also says that there is no such thing as bad spinning, only novelty yarn. Craftily, George M. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Dear All, There are excellent instructions with color photos for making medieval arrowheads in Secrets of the English War Bow by Hugh D.H. Soar, Westholm Publishing, Yardley, PA, 2006, ISBN 10: 1-59416-025-2. It also has a lot of good information about medieval archery. I hav gotten good use out of my copy. I've never been able to figure out how a diamond cross section medieval cross-bow bolt head was made except by swaging. There are no parallel faces. There may even be two sets of swages involved, one for the rear potion of the bolt head (in front of the socket) and one for the point. Cbert, let us know what you find out. I have always assumed that the central ridge or spine on medieval spearpoints and arrowheads was done with swages. The concept was certainly known since a swage is only a simplified coin making die. Those have been around since circa 600 BC. Pointedly, George M.

Dear Beth, Particularly as a newcomer to this forum I have not intended to be offensive, patronizing, or hostile. If I have come across as such I humbly and publically apologize and ask for pardon. As heretical as it may be I have tried to express my frustration with and my personal suspicion of what is the 21st century conception and the accepted wisdom which of what is "art" and the role and function of any artist. Part of this arises from the relegation of blacksmithing, woodwork, and other manual skills as "mere craft" and the opinion by some that it is somehow inferior to "real art." Other posts on this site (not this thread) have complained of problems blacksmiths have had with juried art shows. I suppose that at the end of the day "art" is much like "taste" and is completely subjective to any individual. Also, being a blacksmith is a "good thing" and offers a unique outlet for creative impulses. I wouldn't have been doing it for the last 34 years if I didn't find some pleasure in it. Apologetically, George M.

PS I seem to think of something else after I have hit "post." "After the first Artist, only the copyist." is a quote from a young man by the name of Renny Russell who wrote, with his brother Terry, a book titled "On the Loose" which was published by the Sierra Club in 1971. A very good and beautifully done work which approaches the idea of wilderness and its impact on people. I highly recommend it. GM