Quarry Dog

Same to Dan Dailey and Smedley Butler.

I forgot about that one historical drama they did recently about that one railroad goon too. I forget the name of the show. I think it was on the History channel. One of their more educational shows as of late.

What I'm wondering now is what dill-weed went down the rail and started stripping spikes off of the tracks? Something similar had to happen to warrant it being made a federal crime. It's either that or some buddy of a railroad tycoon had a buddy who had a bunch of goons that needed work and it just stuck. Ah, the good 'ol boy network, that's who to blame.

Hmm...beer nut? Maybe I need to learn how to make the stuff and see about partnering up with these guys. Ice cream and bottle openers...

Would Ballast Point - Jabañero Sculpin IPA count as Cajun, even if it is from here in San Diego, CA. It is so hot that you need a beer in the other hand just to cool you down, although ice cream would probably work too. What Ice cream flavor goes good with beer though?

Agreed!

Heckuva letter opener. I can think of more than a few people that would like a fine piece of eye candy like that. Edge holding ability is a somewhat overrated stat anyway. As long as you don't seriously abuse a blade, you'd be surprised how well even mild steel can hold a serviceable edge. As long as you don't do edge on steel/stone contact or have it floating around in a junk drawer where the blade gets nicked to Sunday and back, you càn cut fruit or harvest from the herb garden for a long time before you have to sharpen it. Maybe even the occasional steak isn't out of the question. That being said, if a knife is a daily, hard work, cut through foil packaging, wood chopping, razor for you grandpa's super tensile strength whiskers, you do need good steel for that, or the edge will be gone in the first day, on top of grandpa being very angry with you. And worst case scenario, you could always super quench.

Have you tried asking for them by the name of duplex nails? I know that's what we call them at work. They're really handy for setting up the "Gator" (guided cutter that we use to cut conveyor belt square so that we can splice it nicely). We get them from the concrete finishing crew when we start getting low.

A man once grabbed something hot, and promptly set it down. His smart aleck son asked him "Hot, eh?" His reply was "Nope, just didn't take me long to look at it." That joke said, you might need to get your eyes checked. It took you just a bit too long to look at it. That really looks like it hurt.

Difference might be that you pick it out as soon as it is cool. Some of the new guys at the shop would leave it sit. Some times we'd find green coal in the bottom from someone soaking the coal for a "fire cave". Now that I think about it, that's probably what did it.

I've never run into hot short material, but I've read in old books that it breaks at forging temps. I don't remember if that is while forging, or if itmcan just break off in the fire like that. I have run into silicon bronze that was overstressed on a lathe (too heavy of a cut). When we tried to anneal it, every now and then, a crack would find its way through and you'd only pull half a piece out of the fire. The other end would'nt even move. Without knowing what you're working with it is hard to tell.

That blower would be great for setting up multiple forges on one line, like for a co-op shop or a teaching facility at a summer camp. You'd just need a butterfly at each forge and flow divider of some sort, so that when someone shut their butterfly it didn't blow out the other guys' pots. A secondary butterfly on each forge set up on a dead man of some sort would probably be good too, or you'd be burning through a lot of unnecessary fuel. Probably even then more trouble than it is worth, but it would be cool to see.

I figured this belonged here.

If you dunk it in a bucket, make sure that it's a plastic one. Coal in water will eat a galvànized bucket inside of a year. Probably even a stainless one would have problems, and I'm sure that not everything that ended up in the bucket would be coked up.

The difference isn't about softness. Quality Assurance, or so the old joke goes. I'm gonna stop there and hope I didn't already go too far. NS: Corn comes in more than just white and yellow naturally. I've seen red and blue, as well as the standard yellow and white, and don't forget the wild maize, all without dye.

Look for blueprint BP1013 by one Uri Hofi. I would post the link but can't because "Forbidden" has my hammer in a vice.

This looks like a seriously simple forge to build, at least if you use some lighter gauge material. I've never tried to bend 3 mm (around 1/8"?)sheet like that, but I would imagine it to be a little bit of a chore to do it by hand. That press looks like it could do it while in the On-For-Flight setting. I might have to try this design when I want to try out side blast.

You might also have Ideas of minor "improvements" that could make the tool work better for you, or at least look better. Just don't be surprised if you go to the trouble to make a tool with said improvements, and it doesn't work like you planned.

If I recall correctly, grinding the chrome may be just as bad as burning it off. I could just be kookoo though.

Red or white?

I would be worried about that scarf not welding on the sheer plain. I go by the scarf on page 22 of "Farm Blacksmithing" by J.M. Drew for welding a ring. It's available for free download on google books.

You'd be surprised how much fill you can do with larger sized wire in a short time. I run .065 dual shield at work. It takes what would be an all day project with 1/8" 7018, and jams it into a couple hours. The slag pops off on its own half the time, as well as hold the metal up a little bit when you're doing vertical. It also seems to penetrate deeper, and make a very smooth profile too. I was doing "surface" welds on 1/4" plates that were butted up against each other, only to flip them over and find out that the weld had penetrated to the other side, and without a lot of over-reinforcement. Then again, the cone turns black from all the heat I'm throwing off. I once had the opportunity to run some 1/8" hard wire in my high school shop class, and I had no idea what I was doing. I made the ugliest pull-up bar you've ever seen. I'd love to try it again on something, now that I have somewhat of a clue.

I've yet to get into making billets, but in MOST situations (life in general), I've noticed that starting small and working up is the better way to start. It is usually safer, as well as easier to figure out where you went wrong, and more likely to be easily corrected without starting from scratch. Once you've done enough where you get it right 90% of the time, it's time to step up to the next level. I'm to the point where when I don't have anything else to smith up or my inspiration is lacking, I'm faggot welding a horseshoe that I straightened out back onto itself. The latest one has been drawn and folded about 4 times now and it's starting to get small enough where I need to add in another horseshoe so I have something substantial to work. As far as the rebar rod on the end, you have to remember that if you cut & stack, you will have to cut the very end off so that the weld spot won't show up as a repeated flaw in the pattern of your billet, but if you're cutting and polishing between stacks anyway, that shouldn't be very hard to make sure of, and it really won't eat up that much material if your'e drawing it out pretty long between stacks. Finally, to cover the welding with a wooden handle. If you mean welding with a wooden handle on your hammer, a little bit of singed wood has to be better for your health than singed plastic or fiberglass, and a metal handle is bad for your wrist/elbow/shoulder/neck/back. Seriously, don't use one for any extended period of time EVER. It will mess you up in the long run. I've forge welded 1.5" bars together with a wooden handled hammer and it was fine. It didn't even smoke, although I had to wear a glove cuz that puppy was H-O-T.

Wasn't there a guy on here trying to fab/machine an anvil somewhat similar, dovetails and all? "If you want to hear a new idea, read an old book" or find an old anvil.

OK, gotcha. I was thinking that their was some nifty mystery magic fuller that didn't let your work bounce around everywhere when you hit it...like a smithin' magician/blacksmith helper but better.