Jump to content
I Forge Iron

Marc1

Members
  • Posts

    2,024
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Marc1

  1. And to answer my own question ... :)

    Thank you Irondragon for the link. 

    The Blacksmiths' Song was composed by a Past Prime Warden, Moses Kipling, in 1828; it is sung every year at the Company Banquet in Mansion House

    In the good olden days when the gods condescended
    To visit this Earth and enlighten mankind,
    Amongst those who most us poor mortals befriended,
    Still Vulcan, our Patron, the foremost you’ll find;
    When he taught us with Anvil and Hammer to mould
    The Ploughshare, the Spade, and the Sickle to reap,
    Had we paid for such knowledge a mountain of gold,
    The purchase would still to mankind have been cheap.

    To the mem’ry of Vulcan our voices we’ll raise,
    May he and his sons be revered thro’ the land;
    May they thrive root and branch, and enjoy happy days

    For by Hammer and Hand all arts do stand.

    Withdraw the utensils produced by our art,
    And with them the best comforts of life will retreat;
    Without Knives or Forks we should look mighty smart;
    As with unshaven chins we sat gnawing our meat.
    Withdraw but the Axe and the Saw, and the Plane,
    Not a Table or Chair would be made for our use;
    To the mud-hut we would soon be driven again –
    The best, without us, that man’s art could produce.

    To the mem’ry of Vulcan our voices we’ll raise,
    May he and his sons be revered thro’ the land;
    May they thrive root and branch, and enjoy happy days
    For by Hammer and Hand all arts do stand.

    Still duly devoted to Love and to Beauty,
    Each true Son of Vulcan will ever be found;
    For Venus herself taught our Grandsire this duty,
    And with all her sweet charms she his gallantry crown’d.
    And still ev’ry lovely young Maiden will prove
    To Vulcan’s descendants most yielding and kind;
    For the good Man of Metal, in matters of love,
    Has always the highest regard in her mind.

    To the mem’ry of Vulcan our voices we’ll raise,
    May he and his sons be revered thro’ the land;
    May they thrive root and branch, and enjoy happy days
    For by Hammer and Hand all arts do stand.

    7 hours ago, JHCC said:

    Then there are the REALLY big casters with the 8” wheels. Someday, I’ll figure out what to do with these. 

     

    i also have a set of those, pulled off my old boat cradle. May be one day I figure what to do with them :o

  2. Beard will grow back. Your scalp would have been worse. You got away scot free,  Yes overhead plasma calls for bigger precautions.

    I have a welding helmet with a leatherback lining and so stopped burning my head and neck when overhead welding or cutting.  I adopted long sleeve left glove long ago, to weld large material that requires long welds. Goes all the way to the armpit. I look like a crab. 

    I am setting fire to my clothes now, so a leather poncho is the next purchase :)   

  3. You can improve on those fish tale ends by using a light cross peen hammer and make a little fan with the grooves along the flat bar end. A bit of filing the edge end round, and it will look great. 

    I like your candy stick twist. A bit hard to chew I guess :)

    As for hammer, you can grind the edges of your hammer, or if you can afford one, get a rounding hammer ... or make one.

     After 55 years of cross peen hammers, I am using rounding hammer for almost everything ... well obviously not for making a fish tail end :)

  4. On 12/21/2019 at 11:54 PM, jlpservicesinc said:

    I usually look like i just woke up from sleeping in a gutter.  All dirty and hair all messed up..  sometimes I even have lipstick smeared across my face..    i think it's a pity thing.. :)

    Do you get more tips looking that way? 

    I wonder if I can try the lipstick trick ... :P

  5. Crocs are in rivers and the sea up north past Brisbane, not down here in Sydney. We do have bull sharks but we tend to ignore them and they ignore us. Mostly juveniles all he way up the Hawkesbury. Big ones down the mouth of the river and out to sea. They never stopped us skiing or swimming. never a recorded attack to humans. Some stories of dog disappearing though. 

    There is also local stories of a monster Loch Ness style ... but I never seen it even when some swear to have seen it right in our neck of the woods.

    I hope to catch it on camera one day. :)

    https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/does-a-prehistoric-monster-haunt-the-hawkesbury-river-sydney-has-its-own-nessie/news-story/b77b47c46f6d225cb132f346c7f78f10?sv=661f0fcab50bb288cbd5c969f176aba3

  6. 4 hours ago, Frosty said:

    .Humans are adaptable though I notice the hotter the climate the more violent and war prone humans are. . 

    Yes, good observation, not very politically correct, that is why no one dares to generalize this way, but that does not make it less true. There are also other loose link to socio economics, cooler climate seem to be more prosperous than hotter ones. 

    Australia seems to escape that rule however, at least in regards to war or violence in general. Perhaps because we have been here just 200 years, a drop in the ocean of genetics. 

  7. The fire near us, called the Gospers mountain fire, has grown to a gargantuan 484,000 hectares, that is 1.2 million acres. For some miracle we are in a small pocket surrounded by fire from all sides but south, and still safe. The only road to our property is closed but for residents to allow fire trucks to pass freely. It is a rather narrow road. I have a fire pump at the ready if ambers start to fly. The river will be my escape route if it comes to that.

     

    image.png.84f56495a4cebca461e41a0a4a3f0a75.png

    Meantime my daughter that bought a beautiful rural property recently has the fires closer to home. She evacuated to an RSL club who is looking after her, the girls and the chicken, giving them and others shelter and food. Nothing is lacking for them. Husband is a firefighter alone at home with pump at the ready. We had 47C yesterday and winds from the nordwest , and all indications that the fire would pass over the property. Yet in the afternoon, the temperature dropped in the thirties and a persistent southerly blew the fire back north. we have forecast southerly all week and things are looking much better. 

    image.png.e456e77583db432ab2a2b4f8707cdc7f.png

     

    Keep in mind that 85% of fires are lit by arsonist 43% ...and accidental stupidity the rest 42%. This means that the bushfires are a factor of population numbers. More people more fires. Yes, those so inclined are trying to make political milage from other people's misery and blaming global warming. The sad reality is that bushfires are man made, by directly lighting them and by indirectly preventing fuel reduction burning in winter for ill conceived ecological reasons. We have triplicated our population in the last 70 years, an experiment that few countries have ever made. Your thoughts and prayers are welcome. 

    Marc

  8. I once took the rod description to the welding supplies nearby to see the equivalent in Australia only to get blank looks ... you know the one that say ... whaaaat? :)

    Post some pictures of the progression on that repair. You have most that is needed to do it. I say most, only because you have never done it before. The anvil is toast as it is, may as well try to resurrect it ... and $75? bargain. 

    If you are going to name it consider Lazarus. If you are not religious then Rhino.  

  9. On 12/21/2019 at 12:43 AM, George N. M. said:

    I've never had anyone give me a tip except to say "keep the change." 

    that 'keep the change' always bring to mind the movie, "Home alone" where he uses and old gangster movie to scare the burglars ... what does the guy say? ... "Keep the change you filthy animal, ha ha ha ha. " 

    Anyway, that is just me :)

  10. 3 hours ago, Judson Yaggy said:

    I would grind and weld that anvil.  Using the proper methods.  My position clearly goes against the popular opinion here, but as one of the rare professional smiths who still post on IFI I would like to point out that efficient forging on every edge and face is the bread and butter of shaping a work piece.

    I agree. Furthermore that anvil, besides looking like the skin of a dehydrated Rhino, seems to me to be damaged by more than just hammer. and chisel.

    Someone messed with heat on that anvil.

    Then again I may be wrong and it is just lack of water :)

  11. Is it you? You are back! I bet you are not that little anymore :)

    Welcome.

    I don't know the maker of that anvil. Strange step on the square horn side. Still, a nice anvil for a good price. Make good use of it ... or polish and sell on ebay for $3000 as an antique with obscure history, being on a pirate ship, used to reforge the pirates cutlass when they got damaged ... etc ... ::P

  12. 56 minutes ago, George N. M. said:

    At the latter events I have to crank up my pretentiousness level higher than I am normally comfortable with but I do feel that I am doing karma and the universe good to relieve someone of a portion of the money that is not good for them to have so much of.  If some working stiff wanders up at a fancy event I will give him the "friends and family" price.

    ha ha ... do you dress up for the occasion? I suggest long pointy shoes, possibly white, an elephant tail hair bracelet and a multicoloured bandana on your forehead. 

    Re-pricing higher ... yes, polish or wire brush it first :)

    The 75k threshold is for gross sales not profit. 

    Haggling is something I wouldn't dream of doing to an artist / artisan / craftsman and not even to a tradesman. Big projects in the tens of thousands i ask ... can you do it for $X ? All I can get is a no. Many times i get a yes and a supplier or tradesman i can call back many times over.

    Like I said, pricing is an artform and many never got the memo :)

  13. Gee whiz ... what does she ... did she do for a living?

    Don't tell me knife manufacturer's inventory manager

    :)

    Lock - unlock ... yes, my sliding door's security bolt requires to push the door back a bit to release the pressure on the side of the bolt, a mystery that is only clear to myself. 

    We must be relatives :P

  14. I love the $5 punishment increase. :)

    In general ... and this is a personal perception, Items on display with no price are automatically suspect of being overpriced even if they are not. 

    Pricing correctly is an artform, and an item that does not sell may sell if you take it off the table for a season and return it for twice or triple the price. 

    But don't tell your customers that :)

  15. The sharpening knives situation must be universal. i gave up on sharpening knives due to complaints that they are  ... sharp. (?)

    My reply to treat all knifes as if they are sharp did not work.

    What I do now is keeping a diamond block at the ready in the kitchen and so i sharpen the knives I want to use as I go. Since knives do not complain of discrimination, this seems to work somehow :) 

     

×
×
  • Create New...