sandpile

RTHIBEAU--I built a railling like you are talking. I ended up making round holes(drilled)in one side of the tubing and splitting the fullered ends of the stakes and doing a suicide joint. The next railling was simply WELDED with 3/32nd rod, and ground out. Grin. Chuck ps. I have your steel ready to mail.

DR. JIM--Thanks for letting us know where to get the best deal on your books. What a treat to be a close and working friend of BOB ENGNATH.. TYLER- Thanks-- Tell that to SF DUCK. He drew the AVATOR for me. It is one of the cartoon smiths BOB has drawn for his blacksmiths calender. Happy Fathers Day everybody. Chuck P.S. TYLER I was posting while you were..I would think BUSTER was just making sure that Novice smiths protected their dubious welds. It is not big thing, until one gets to thinking that BUSTER meant everybody.GRIN Have a gooden.

PAM-- I am glad to hear you have it behind you and come out of the sleep potion intact.Grin. That is the scareyiest part of an opperation. Good Luck and God Bless Chuck

TYLER-- Just about all of the hawk makers have and do still sandwich a piece of carbon into the WI or lower carbon steels. It is easy enough to do. A lot/most of the pioneers axes/hatchets/hawks were made that way. Chuck

ELLEN-- I posted over on the prayer page. She is doing as well as can be expected. Should get home some time today. has a friend that might be planning on staying and helping with recovery. Chuck

ELLENS surgery went as planned and so far she is doing as well as can be expected. She should get out of the hospital today and statrt her recovery at home. I think she has a friend(Karen) that will run and fetch for her.Grin. Thanks for the prayers and kind thoughts. Chuck

MY trades seem to go the other way. I had a really nice mare. There was a good horse here in town. Stud fee was $500.00. Kept the mare around for a year and then kept her and the colt around for another year. Sold the mare and kept the colt three more years and spent $300.00 getting him broke, plus all the time I had put into him myself. I let a 15 year old kid trade me and old swedish anvil and a trailer load of pipe and steel for him. He gave me about $600.00 worth of stuff for a $4000.00 horse. Of course, You have it figured out!! This kid is my oldest grandson. I have ten more grandkids and I could not GIVE the horse to him because of all the other kids not getting an equal amount.BOG. I still think I got a pretty good trade. I know the horse and kid did.grin. Chuck

Hammers and presses, drills and torches are all dangerous. The quickest way to get hurt bad in my shop is a buffing machine. When I start to buff out and polish a blade, I like to be by myself or if someone is in my shop. I ask them to refrain from breaking my concentration until I am through with the buffer. It is the same with several of the machines in our shop. We try to keep our concentration while operating all of the power equiptment. We have had some scarey things happen with a large hand held grinder/wire wheel. NONE will get you any quicker than the buffer. Just some thoughts on biters. Chuck

ELLEN - is going to have an kidney removed tomorrow. They have detected a hickey in it. They will remove the kidney to make sure the problem is isolated to the one kidney. We need to give ELLEN all of our support and prayers. Thanks in advance. Chuck

ELLEN-- Do you like to read Historical western type novels by ELMER KELTON?? If so I have a bunch~not all~ but a bunch. Enough to keep you down for a while if you like them. On using your press. Pre-heat a block and warm your bottom/top dies on the press. chuck

Richard -- has put forth a pretty well thought out primer for a beginning maker. It should be enough to get them started. Thanks Richard-- Glenn. Chuck

THIS is very good reference. FREEBIRD-- This site is so full of info., one could spend many hours studying the different aspects of knifemaking. http://www.knives.com/engnath.html There is a lot info in Engnaths.. Actually, It could be a one-stop place. Chuck

THOMAS You are probably partly right. You being from a clan of ridge-running, whisky making, coon, fox , and squirrel hunters. you might ought to show up wearing a number three wash tub for a helmet. just in case Ellen deciedes to beat you over the head and shoulders, severly.LOL Now me, She knows that me being a stove-up, reject, cow-puncher that has already had all the mis-treatment from broncs, bad cows, bog-holes, smokey fires, and soured up cooks. She will just naturally take it a little easyier on me.He heh. ELLEN I have some 3/16" flat stainless you want me to dome up a six or eight inch piece for your forge?? chuck

WOODY-- Nice work. Looks like the kind a knife that would feel good in your hand.l I use a lot of combination handles. It kind of cleans up my knife table.Grin. Chuck

THOMAS P. That is part what makes Ellen purty. I betcha she will even pat your ole horned hat and take a little time to make you feel important, even when she knows your not.LOL ELLEN you keep up on this pattern welding and we will have to have a combination of your steel and my grinding and handles, before we even get out to JIMS. You any good at sheaths. I hate them.Grin They are a necessary evil, huh? Made two leather working knives today, for my saddlemaking buddy. O1 and Rosewood slabs, NS pins. Chuck

JULIAN-- You are doing better with each knife. Congrats on a nice knife. Good Luck chuck

THOMAS P. might get in a small jam if he goes from the barn to the Knife shop. All the higher priced goodies are in the Knife shop and a 170/90 lb Greater Pyrenees takes up most of the floor space during my absence. He has a disgusting manner of attack. He just barrels forward kind of like a German tank and bites a chunk out of whatever he runs into. Sometimes this a gut hold and sometimes on taller people than my self, it is quite a bit more painful and lots more permanentBOG. Chuck P.S. At the present time, there are 17 dogs in and around our place. Only ones pinned up are 6 Pyrenees pups.grin. Most belong to my oldest daughter. We also have her 10(ten) horses here, as we speak. NO grin.

ELLEN Tell your friend to heat the piece to about 160 to 190. Below the boiling point. I don't like to let it sizzele(sp) on the metal. Gives it a pukey looking color. You can play with it and get the streaky look or get a uniform color on the entire piece. This can be done with Lemon juice or Vinegar. You can also do it with an apple or potato, wiping and neutrelizing between peeling whatever. You can get an interesting color on most blades. Chuck

GLENN-- Pard. A big thumbs up to you and all the contributors and the guys that carried it through to the finish. Congrats. Chuck

Heck, that ain't such a bad deal. If'n he would PLUMB clean it out. There is parts of this barn I have not seen in two years.Grin. Just leave the stuff alone that is still outside. chuck

Birchwood Casey Browning. Nuff said.Grin. Get it at WallyWorld. If not there Brownells. Chuck

I have a custom show in OKC, OK. on the 4th & 5th of November. If I can't make the deal. Maybe THOMAS or ELLEN will be kind enough to clue me in??Grin. Chuck Bennett

KBEBOUT--If I was going to fix this anvil, I would find a good piece of steel and cap it. It has had the dickens beat out of it. and been ground on quite a bit. To really fix it. I don't see anyway except to cap it. My two cents worth. Chuck

RALPH--DAWN You folks are in my thoughts and prayers. hang in there. Chuck Bennett

SHRINE--RATHER than gash your teeth and fume.BOG.. Just use your post-vice and a number three or bigger heat-tip, and a good pair of vise-grips. Using these tools and a little imagination. 1/4" rod or 3/16 if you have it. Start out tying the simple knots (over-hand, square, bow-line) after tying the easy ones and figuring out how to manipulate the rod. You will be ready to try turks, fiador and some of the other more complicated knots. Keeping your rod in the right color range and still soft enough to pull and tap through, without pulling it apart. Remember to pull just so hard and then tap on the back of the rod to encourage it on through the opening. If you had some really hard-lay nylon, like a catch(Lasso) rope that a heeler uses, it would help to understand what you need for the steel. A heeling rope is used by the heeler in teamroping of steers, to rope the hind feet on the steer. Chuck