jake pogrebinsky

Beth,dear,thank you so much!But,no,i can't let you do that(i've shipped orders to Europe not too long ago,it's too cost-prohibitive for anything other than strict necessity).But,if you'd be so kind as to send the info using which this book can be ordered,i promise to do so forthwith!I'm a rich carpentero the next two days,and even have a friend that has an electronic banking capability,to pay for stuff online!Please,i think that would be a best way! I thank you for your kindness and concern,and am very glad that you've taken what i had to say in stride(i did have to,and it was you that i was particularly worried about alarming).It would be great to read something that pertinent to all of us here,and maybe discuss it some,too? Art is important(such an original thought,eh?),artists,too.As loaded as both these terms are(as per your reference,Beth,to your conversation with your friend,above,inclusive).BUT: For how long must the creative individual grovel and sweep dust with their tail?(Or,in my case,clutch my scrunched-up immigrant's cap in both hands and bow,nervously?). Our "product"(and the metalsmith is luckier than many in that respect) is not that physically apparent.It's very togh to proove materially that the child's brain will not develop correctly without some art/music/et c. education,but most people do accept it as common sense.Similarly,many other such very important factoids,et c. And yes,certain,even very large part of responsibility for bringing it to everyone's attention lies squarely with the art professionals themselves.Large,PART,not EVERYTHING.There IS a limit to one's patience with the imbalance of forces in the economy. An artist's strike!I vote that we strike! (My attitude reminds me of a quote from a great writer,Izaak Babel,from one story where the Chief Cemetary Beggar tells him,the young reporter:"Young man,you've glasses on your nose,and there is autumn in your soul.And you are fierce behind your writer's desk,and stammer when out in public..."). I'll say a few somewhat unsavory things now,please take them with a LARGE grain of salt,as i don't take myself too seriously. Michael,this is in regards to accerting one's prerogative as an artist. I never really make anything that is not (thinly) cloaked by "functionality",but i do consider that at times.One idea that i keep(pushing aside)is to use some of the many critter sculls that i've gotten from trapper friends(i've fed carcasses to my dogs),wolves,wolverines,foxes.One idea was to forge half-organic/half-mechanical carnivorous plant of sorts,digesting an obviously animal remnant. Even more ghoulish idea was to actually make a point of highlighting the fractured teeth,so graphically mangled against the steel trap. Now,i'll probably never do anything of the sort,but,just out of academic interest:Isn't there some poetic justice in the soundness of the public's repugnance,rejection of some of us,artists?Instinctive self-defence,if you will,and what living organism doesn't have that inalienable right,to defent itself from the unseemly? Again,please don't take anything i may say seriously!I mean that :ph34r:

I don't know how to thank you guys for such kindness and support.I hear you,and never underestimate the value of such sound advise. To actually put it into practice...I may just not have what it takes.A huge part of being a proffesional artist is self-promotion.I always knew that,and knew that i'll have to practice it or perish.There are other aspects as well that i've woefully neglected,so if i don't make the grade,i'll have no one but myself to blame. And if so,if i fail crashingly this fall and have to give up forging,i'll at least know that i've failed not at the basic skill,but at the peripheral issues that i just wasn't built for,temperamentally.(There's a most annoying whiny streak in everything that i write.It's infuriating,how it creeps in even though try my best at edging it out!That's the chronic,debilitating pain that is my reward for all the years of heroics out in the woods,it's actually slowly destroying my very personality.That's the main reason for urgency in my upcoming negotiations of the possibilities of the social contract). A friend really needed help with building a deck and a couple of stair-flights.I'm now a carpenter for a couple of days,man,it was so different working with wood today!The stuff is so light,and forgivong! Tommy,thanks,Frost always does make one think!Never read that poem before.

Harold,thank you,you're entirely too kind.I know that there are a lot of noble things that i CAN,in a way,represent by what i do,and people recognise these things,which is wonderful,but i deserve no credit for any of it:What i do has been accomplished by means of utter selfishness/sinful pride,and many other people were severely hurt in the process.Thus,i could never be proud of what i do/am,and let no more be said,for there's much grief therein,but i AM very happy that some of this stuff is interesting to folks,and brings joy,by reminding how many neat things there are,in this neat world! Beth,you know,a very good friend of mine in Fairbanks,a watercolorist,has recently started making 3-D bronze castings(having them cast to his design).They're simple animal figurines,and they instantly started selling.Last i've heard he was going to do more designs,and was quite hopeful about this particular new branch of his.So,good luck! As to my mention of the show,it's that gig that i signed up for at the University museum,something like"The Alaskan artisan..."something or other.In essence-a Christmas bazaar.The people are going to go there with a thought of maybe buying a $5 gift for their dogsitter(and there i'll be-with THE perfect fit-an 18th c.French roasting fork!!!). The fact is(and here i have to tread very carefully,as i don't lie,on principle,yet have no right to burden anyone with anything too heavy)-i'm not making it,straddling,as i do,the fence between the incompatible worlds:That of the organised society and the hunter/gatherer's existence. I live on charity of friends,and not making it in any sense of the word even so.I'm going to have to choose,and go with one or another.Smithing is possible(with my tastes and predilections)only as an exclusive,gallery sort of "art",or some nebulousness such as an "artist in residence"et c.Other than forging,my choice lies between getting a job,or going back to camp,further out than before,as a total outcast this time. So,this choice will have to be made this Nov,18th,when the hoity-toity(in our blue-collar Fairbanks,and Alaska in general),will come to the Museum to take their last sniff at me(we've been circling each-other for years ).After that,i'll have the rest of the winter to get the gear together if i was to hit the River,or,whatever develops as a result of my efforts now. I have facilities available to me in Fbks IF i've orders,but surviving in Alaska as a craftsman is tough(my buddy Hanna,a fantastically creative person AND sculptor,who took forging lessons from me,has gotten her Masters in sculpture at the UAF.Within months she was enrolled into an apprenticeship as a pipefitter,to go welding on gas pipelines,because that's how it is,in Alaska,probably in the world in general).I'm an unskilled laborer,and i just am not willing to eke out a pathetic existence as a dishwasher,too old for that crap.If that'll be the best offer from the White Man(as it had been my whole life),i'll take whatever the bears would give me :D

+ limestone for flux(eventually discovered at Saugus R.)

Common usage that i'm familiar with would be iron smelted by means of reduction(less than liquidus)from some type of Fe oxide ores,hematite,limonite,et c.,commonly grubbed out of a bog. Not sure about plumbing in England,i think in Europe in general you just empty your chamber-pot ot the window? :)

So,you tattood your fox? What is the tattoo of,if i may ask? And in general,what are you going to do with the fox,is it to be installed somewhere in particular? You never need to worry about political correctness here,the indians are terribly outspoken,racist and proud of it,to a shocking degree(when i get to town i often forget myself and mortify people not used to village scene).It's perfectly ok to joke about,say,"the only good injun-is a dead injun" here,and the other way,like "white man speaks with a forked tongue".And the most durogatory term ever is "white school teacher",it means something like more money than brains,or someone who's not in any real world.A colonialist,in short. I keep getting to busy to properly answer many of the things that come up in this curious thread,they just blow by...I'll see if i can post some photos of my Killer Camelback,it's quite a monstrous abortion!Modified by the father and son team of machinists with a tranny out of a '53 Chevy(best as we can tell),so that since it has a low and high range,it now has 8 speeds,6 forward and 2 back(for them left-handed holes )The thing's not easy to shift,but is a blast to use(if/when i vanish,you can safely conclude that it ate me up).It's #4 Morse,and i have bits up to 2" for it... As to my latest exercise in futility,well,i'm proud of myself as far as my attempts to speak in a foregn tongue,if you will:To grab remnants off of the floor,hot-cut them and weld them together(into shapeless turds ).As usual,i'm falling behind on planning,calculating,designing,anything to do with discipline,in short.Which is NOT laudable,in any practice of any trade. So,come November,the time of my big(maybe final)showdown with the Public,i'm not sure what i'll be able to say,with the odd assortment of strange objects that are beginning to stack up. I guess that i'm going for variety,as in:"Look what can be POSSIBLE,in forging".But picking on new to me design/technique doesn't,exactly,do wonders to the QUALITY of the finished(what's that?)product...

Beth,i finally looked at your fox.Looks like a happy fox,and also looks made by a happy,well-adjusted person!Very TACTILE kind of a sculpture,looks like it was built to be crawled over and played on. The small picture is tiny,and the big one VERY big,actually hard to see,but looks like you've done a fantastic job of it,congratulations! Jeremy,thanks again.As soon as the picture got loaded,i,of course,read the caption.So,i spent the day playing at a 18th century Frenchman...It was cool...kinda-sorta...No,it was decidedly cool. I bit off as usual,way more than i could chew.Ended up 10 hours at the forge,and no fuel for tomorrow,but,i got 'er done. I'll post some photos of what i used,i think most folks will find it amusing(all WI,some of it ridiculously old.The long carriage bolts came from a Gold Rush era mining camp,but they were old,salvaged crap then,stored in a can). There was only one unhappy welding episode,among hours of welding,all in all it's a good design,and quite doable.The MAJOR screw-up i've my lovely brain to thank for:I reversed the order of long/short pieces,and welded it that way before realising the mistake.So,the "heart within a heart",the point of the whole exercise,could not be Changed tack and just curled the now-orphaned set of tines just anyhoo. The effect of the whole is messy,over-curliqued,baroque,in short.What did we have in France in 18th cent.,Marie Antoinette?I think that she might've liked stuff like that OK,the preject definitely was a waste of time and fuel.BUT,it was good in many respects as well.I know a little more about what makes iron tick,and a bit about this perticular design.Looking forward to making a classy fork,now,with more hope and less trepidation before the technical difficulties(a long way of saying:Chalk it up to experinence )

The internet speed today is abhorrent,i'll be lucky if this sends at all Ciladog,i'm sure that you're right!The old dyslexia takes it's toll-thanks for the correction Jeremy K,thanks,that's the element all right,really appreciate the picture(Phil's hard copy of Plummer went astray,and the electronic version is incomplete).Such element,repeated,was used to fill the space in many old trivets/grills.Do you know,by chance,if that was colonial work,or something that people brought with them from Europe? Beth,what a cool thing to've done-a real job!Fantastic!Don't know what to say other than i'm very happy for you! The "Fox" deal is something that i must've missed,everyone else seems to know what's up,is it somewhere else on here?(Each page change for me equals the time it takes to roll a sigarete,and smoke it almost entirely,+/- 15 min.)) I'll try to look up that WTF company(funny name,that ),congratulations on such a great thing,Beth,it must've made you feel validated,in many ways,right on! Tell more about your rifle-making friend,is he an engraver? Thomas,our Catholic "cathedral" here in Galena is but a log cabin,but i'll see if they have all the different spaces like the sanctuaries and such,and see what i can peddle there :D

Wow,Lewis,that's not the pattern i meant,but it's really neat:Wild,unrefined kind of a beauty to it.If i'd a seen it outside any context,i'd have concluded that it was very old work...Way cool. You're absolutely right about the inefficiency of subsistence living,compared to the modern,organised society's efficiency.It's staggering.And quite disheartening,in many ways.It gives one so much,and in so many ways,but the price is steep."Life short and brutish...",as the old saying goes.Still,it's worthwile. Let's see what happens in the fall run,very possibly i'll be able to send you some fish.The fishing will put an end to this bout of forging,till october.I must say that i'm almost relieved,as my forging is also done on a subsistence level,i.e.,beating the hell out of me without too much to show for it. The trouble with WI(among others)is that all my stock is large,over 1" dia.It's not that bad,really,but it GETS bad if one tortures it overly much(running small gauge stock out of it),then it gets mean. Welding it is easy,but it doth puke the slag all over the parts that were at welding temp,making clean-up simply dreadful. BTW,Beth,just for the record:Hot-short is when steel doesn't like to be forged BELOW certain,usually very high,temp.It is the side-effect of Phosphoros. Cold-short is it's opposite,and is caused by Sulfur. Happily,you'll never need to worry about that,but just in case you may run into something that exhibits these heinous traits.

Hey all,Lewis,great job on getting back with it,very glad to hear that all's ok.(I'll post pictures of mt camelback one of these days,it'll raise the hair on the back of your neck-that 3-speed automotive tranny conversion is SCARY ) I've welded a blade onto the adze-head,it went fairly routine,will post a few photos that are self-explanatary.Will finish and handle it some time soon. All in all,it's time to get back to decorative,non-structural stuff.I kinda hate to do it while my tail is between my legs after battling the WI,but it simply needs to be that way.The loss of control on these past two tool-heads was staggering,MUCH to be re-thought,re-considered,much tooling built,for the battles to come. I'd love to hear about anyone else's projects,Beth,how's the gate plan fairing?Lewis,any more of that "magic realism" Baba Yaga stuff in the works to scare the youngsters? I'm trying to formulate some plan to use the elements of the classical wrought iron grill-work in a smaller interior objects.Possibly,a quatrefoil-as-candlestand-support,or the like.(Like those cast or plastic Eiffel towers or whatnot that they peddle on the street:A small grill for those that can't afford to pay for a sanctuary gate in the cathedral )Just a way to practice some more or less classy technique,without having a serious commission to justify going there...

P.S.Given my background,of course i'm only too familiar with Uncle Joe Stalins maxim that "You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs". And i was taught very early not to turn my nose up at ANY food,omelette,of course,included! But,darn it...Here's one of my very favorite quotes ever:"Now,Lenny!I didn't take that mouse away from you out of meanness!But Lenny,that mouse...It wasn't fresh!".

Thanks for that Kipling poem,Thomas,that's great!I know exactly what you're saying,and can relate very well. On medicine,technology,progress,all these things are very puzzling to me,in a fundamental way. Quite recently a book was published on King Leopold of Belgium private little* genocide in Congo,early in the 20th century.(*7 to 15 million people,as documentation is sketchy,and estimates vary). What impressed me about that book was the mention of Joseph Conrad,who travelled up the Congo fairly in the thick of the deal(the writer supposes that Conrad wrote "The Heart of Darkness" pretty much from the actual observations),and Conrad's view on this was,kinda,"Well,tough scene,no doubt.But,them's the brakes.That's what it takes to continue with progress". He was right,of course.Rubber then had a crucial role in world's economy.It helped pay for all the innovations of the time-steel production,electrification,needless to go on...And,of course,medical research. My thought here is that i'm VERY glad that you're hale and hearty!And i do love all of the poets of progress and the Empire like Kipling,Conrad,all of them,ever since i can remember they shaped my thinking with all the Just So Stories. I'm just saying...that i'm puzzled...deep thought,indeed ;)

:P I WANT AN ELECTRIC KETTLE!Man,i love dem things...Sit there nice and comfortable,while waiting for coffee,instead of grubbing in the yard for burnables,feeling like a large dung beetle(Maybe i AM a large dung beetle?See,i really need that coffee in the morning,before coffee i cannot quell all these terrible Kafka doubts about who i really am...). No,nevermind the electric kettle,because possibly,even probably,very soon i won't have electricity for it.Or coffee.And all that stands to reason(see "Guns,Germs,and Steel",Jared Diamond,for why). Folks,we're on dangerous ground here,it'd be extremely easy for me to say something that you'd find absolutely horrifying,Beth,we really must tread very carefully,and not romanticise what i do here:It's considered(and is)marginal for a reason,and there's much to it that is sad,hopeless,and just plain hard.And,it won't end well.(The retirement program of a worn-out river-rat is not different than that of a used up sleddog).But,judiciously avoiding certain issues,i'll post some neat photos on occasion,tell about some of the interesting,good things about this amasing place! Beth,i'm so sorry:With my dumb joking i've undone years of marketing strategy by the fishing industry!I didn't mean it that way!Actually,chum,or keta,is an excellent fish,bar none.Here,this run,they reach already spawned-out,but it's not the case down at the Yukon delta,350 miles down river.There,the same run are silvery,fat,and wonderful fish in every respect,fresh out of salt water.(We'll have our turn here in a few weeks,with the fall run,the main fish harvested here for winter by people).Also,the Japanese,these perfectionist fish-fanciers,consider the Yukon River chum salmon THE best salmon period,and they really do know their fish. Give it a few weeks,and i'll have to leave the forging till October,and i'll post some photos of fall chum,they're beautiful fish. I catch them with a 150' gill-net,the "wall of death" It's not very challenging,though i do like fishing,and have always been a fair fisherman,it's also mostly a bunch of hard,often unrewarding labor. Cutting fish is something else that i enjoy,human and dog feed both,though it's considered woman's work around here.But,as an official madman/village idiot i'm forgiven a lot I'd never be as good at it as some old women around here,it's simply astounding how skilled they're at it,but i like it a lot,and get better every year. Beth,to incert my confused thought into the old "Art World vs World of Art" argument i'd say that the concept of creativity is often left out of equation. The creative person,be they an abstract painter,or someone that embroiders doilies,or an old village drunk who doesn't do a xxxx thing,they all DO something for the soul,it seems.People are attracted to them perhaps because it reminds one that the world is dynamic,it's interesting,it's the Creation,vs the drudgery that is so easy to fall into in the course of going about one's life... And a creative person does everything creatively,wether it's craft,or raising children,or teaching Art,it really doesn't matter that much... I'm reminded of one friend i have here,Brother Justin.He's a monk(a Dominican,i think),and what he does,his vocation and avocation,is Heating and Refrigeration!It just amuses the hell out of me,but in a very hearfelt and respectful way,the H&R monk!He's wonderful at what he does,and is much loved around here.And reminds me that the world is such an interesting,psychedelic place!So,i cherish Brother Justin as one of my favorite artists :P

I must've been writing concurrent with you,John.Thanks for that link,i MAY become solvent one of these years ,or get hired to do a special job.I hear that the stuff is truly wonderful,especially for welding. Brief report on today's masochistic exercise. Another chunk of the same material.This one had a hole throgh it,so i decided to try using that hole,as the stock with no holes in that construction is few.The hole was drilled,i was glad to see,so that i wasn't scared of the possible distortion around it. I slit it back from the hole,and drew the two resultung parts out. Welded in the poll,as before,but still had lengh of sides left,so i wrapped them around and welded them over the poll,like a package. It was a gruesome,nightmarish weld,as it included more than one dimention.I opened and closed it a number of times,but eventually prevailed. To make a short story long,i did end up with a usable tool,this time.(Unless i burn it tomorrow welding in a steel bit). It's an adze,in case it looks weird to anyone.I always wanted to build one in this,the scandinavian style,with a narrow axe-eye. I like the cute rounded way that the poll came out.The whole deal at this point is 750 g.If i'm successful welding on the bit i'll radius the thing as a gutter adze.

I think that of all the info that passed here you put it best,Beth:"Nice-deep-hot fire,and a minimum blast to keep it as hot as you need it"-perfect. I could add the old "rule"(supersition,possibly,or not,not enough physics under my belt to tell),that you want to make the weld on the rising temp,as you're bringing it higher,not the other way... Beth,usually,when there's a ton of meat around here it's a moose,sometimes bear,but it'll look much smaller compared to the large moose chunks.I can and do make dry meat,used to,before i moved here to the village(for a number of years i was quite feral...),but i eat it too xxxx fast to make it worth the bother. Smoking meat or fish does not actually contribute to preservation,only the flavor and keeping the bugs off.Which can be useful,on occasion of wrong weather for the meat to keep,but not long term.I do smoke fish,but it's mainly also a drying process,that's how it gets preserved,by evaporating the moisture that the bacteria needs to sustain it's life. That is WAY COOL that your kids actually ferret,with ferrets!In the photos is only a humble feral short-tail weasel(ermine,actually,is one of it's common names .I tried to make friends with it(her,probably,as the males are transitory),by petting her,and she flipped the hell out,and screeched deafeningly,and showed me all her teeth!She never did come inside after that,made me feel like a moron,for making such an obviously unwelcome pass at her... I like bears too,and enjoy watching them out somewhere in the neutral territory.If they come around to my camp(when i lived in camp),it inevitably ended badly.They don't come to my place here,now,though they do manage to get themselves shot at people's houses around Galena on occasion,not often.Only one this summer(that i heard of,anyway).The ones that i took the photos of at the village dump are black bears,Ursus americanus(that means that there are no brown bears around,as these would disappear immediately).They ARE neat critters,i love watching them,but they're totally untrustworthy.Very dangerous in a sneaky sort of way,they'd take a kid,or a dog,or anything that they think they can get away with,and do it with lightning speed.They're immensly strong and fit,and no human can be a match for even a small blackie(that's why no one takes chances with them,and dispatches them as soon as they come around the house). The dogs are my old team,gone now but for two of them hanging about.They were good dogs,and i was a slave to them for oh,12-14 years,or more(there were others before).300 fish caught,dried,and stored per dog,a year.I mostly had 7-8 at a time,and it made for a lot of work.(Using dogs for transportation is also work,it's ALL nothing but work ).Now,i at least have the time to forge I tacked on a few shots of the king salmon fishing season earlier this summer.They're so fat,that they need to be cut up in very small strips to dry.They do get smoked some,not much,just for flavor.Prepared like that,the folk name for it here is (the politically correct)"squaw candy" The last two photos are of chum(or dog)salmon,that was the primary dog feed here historically,and the beginning of my dog fish drying operation this summer.Even with 2 dogs i'll need about 500 fish. A part of the summer chum run is very good quality fish.The commercial fishermen down river had a good season,so far,excellent,really.The majority of the market for chum this year is...England (it maybe called "keta" there,the industry's trying to shake that "dog" association)

Beth,very briefly for now(checking in while the charcoal process's taking it's time). The atmosphere,the environment in your forge must simply have more Carbon(coal) than Oxygen(air blast).(The synonyms of this are "reducing a.",also "rich"). It's good for any forging in general,but especially for welding. In practical terms:If you have an X amount of coal burning in the forge,give it the minimum possible blast to achieve needed temp. So that sets up a proportion:If you find yourself needing more temp,you need to increase the amount of Carbon,coal,under your work,as you also increase the blast. The "hot-short"-ness,and it's evil twin the "cold-",is only out of the weird archeometallurgy that some of us are foolhardy enough to meddle in.Totally disregard all that. You have,in England,access to iron that makes all the ridiculous WI exercises obselete. What John B uses in his work a lot,from what i understand,from Pureiron,their successors,or the like.

Just read again what you've written,Clay,and there's so much more in it than my hurried answer this morning may indicate.Some VERY important thoughts,indeed...I'll go and light up,and think on it more at the anvil. Likewise,Thomas,Beth,i often don't indicate just how much i get out of our conversations,but i do,ido indeed,and thank you most sincerely.

Michael,thank you for the link(i'll try to watch it,videos are tough to load here),i knew you'd be the man to know about this kind of wild effects!It's amasing how diverse your interest in metalwork is,i'm envious! Of course you're right about the exposure of my shack to the elements,it takes a beating in every storm,they all come from S,SE,and it's hard to sleep for the noise,and the snow drifts inside through the cracks and piles of it grow on the floor! Clay,likewise,thanks for the support.You bring up a number of things well worth thinking about. You're right that barking up that WI tree has consequences,i'm just not sure that i've much choice...Like with many things here it's all backwards:I've a carefully hoarded stash of nice,new 1020 sort of steel,but not even close to enough.WI i've got out the yazoo,and it offers such a challenge! A long-forgotten quote from the inimitable H.S.T. is running through my head this morning:"When the going gets weird,the weird turn pro..."

And here're some leaves,Beth.The south bank of the Yukon behind the leaves is actually a giant island,separated by the slough the mouth of which is visible. Anyway,as i look due south,the light is from behind me,in the north.It's what the photographers call the "magic hour",when the light's very flat in angle.It was right about midnight when i took these.It's almost a month past solstice,but it's still is light all night,and will be for a while yet. In a way,we all live near or in the Cathedral,one way or another,it's just important to remember to see it! That's why it's so important to have good taste in ironwork-otherwise,it's unsuitable for the cathedral! :P

Beth,you know me now for the bs artist that i am...beg pardon,poet,that's right-i've a poetic vision of metallurgy! So,this is a part of the greater vision:Some say that forging is clay-like,and that you can model it in clay,i'm not sure about that. What i THINK is happening is that a shock wave get sent through the piece,rearranging it's insides,as well as the logical and visible outsides I read/heard tell that you can't work over 5/8" by hand,as i've mentioned before.(Very roughly,and speaking in principle only).How is it known,that a hypothetical limit exists? Well,here's how:When struck,a section of iron must form an UPSET(a convex shape).If you lack force for an upset,which proves that your blow penetrated the entire chunk,you'd be riveting,mushrooming the top and,to a lesser degree,the bottom of your work(Forming a concavity).There's a problem with that right there:The iron on top and bottom was displaced relative the middle,if you were to keep doing that,it'll have to form some inner shear-lines(besides all the other weird issues,imagine some chunk of steel with a fish-mouth on each of it's four sides*).In other words it'll be WAY weird to try to move metal without moving the middle of the chunk(though that is what the twists do). All that is one issue,just offering a glimpse into the weirdom of it all. Another way of seeing this is working with a freaky device called the propane forge. It gets so much of the stock hot,that it begins to whip around,as you cannot possibly hold or support it all.It does that in some interesting ways.You right away notice the simpler stuff,like the distribution of weight,by the movement of the more heavy/bulbous parts. Holding long stock under the power hammer is interesting,too. And now,not able to say anything of substance physics-wise,i'd suggest one to look up a diagram of a sword vibratory nodes.And how the vibration travels radially out of several,not even one,of those nodes,crossing and recrossing. I don't want to talk around in circles(like those vibrations),my thesis is poetic,but simple:Shock waves kill kidney stones!!!They can hurt your forgings,as well!!! :P

Right on,Thomas,sounds like you're having a good AND productive time. Absolutely,a rivet through the lap-weld,or any other one that would take that,helps a great deal. Welding under a press is cool,right kind of force.Never tried it,but my friend and mentor Phil apparently used a funky,foot-operated bolt heading vice for welding.The thing had quite a bit of leverage,and was about right for the task-and,left you both hands to hold the parts,too. I like your idea of having the iron panel in the gate removable,that'd be slick.MAY not be too much extra work involved,depending on how well it's thought-out. Beth,i still can't believe how impressive that ceiling arch-work is...The rest of the cathedral must be equally psychedelic(I like and value this term,and use it in it's original coinage(by Aldous Huxley)as in,fr.greek,"mind-manifesting".Particularly applicable to gothic cathedrals,i think,but it's just me). I'm a bit too wiped after a day of forging to get too imaginative in re:to all the dirty and wonderfull ways of WI.I'll just quickly run through the current project. I trimmed the axe-head,and slitted it deeply,over 1",to accepr the 1095 bit(plain carbon steel,.95%C,just in case).I deliberately wanted nothing but C in there,as i felt that i was already over-working that chunk of WI,and battling Cr in the weld seemed an odious chore. It welded fine,was easy,really,like any cleft-weld usually is:When the parts first come up to heat,one can push them together against the side of forge,And the point sticks,making it one unit to manipulate. Anyway,i'll put a few photos lower,of the simple sequence of weld-trim-hot-rasp,et c. Towards the end i began suspecting that i've wasted these last two days,and 50 or so lbs of charcoal.After normalising and cooling,my suspicion grew into certainty(the last shot below). Now,it was a failure of instinct AND of method both,and in two ways:I'm very attached to that arched design feature of these axes,but was too lazy to make a proper bottom-tool.Instead,fullering with a too-sharply radiused object i've sent a damaging vibratory force right at the achilles'heel of this specific shape. The final straw was the HARMONICS.Never shall a smith underestimate the harmonics in a given piece.We all were rank beginners not so very long ago,bouncing leaves off of the damaged,chewed-up/overheated(brash,the old term)fullered stems.It was a learning curve. I am ashamed of myself,but here we have it-i lost this one through thoughtlessness and overworking. Now,WI is particularly sensitive that way(layers of Si are a mineral,and vibrate differently),and i'd LIKE to think that with modern,homogenious mild steel i'd done better,but,that's not necessarily a fact. Now,or tomorrow rather,i'd love to escape back into the non-critical,the decorative stuff(especially now,greatly inspired by Beth's photo of the cathedral!).But,i think i may start on a different type of an axe-head instead,one needs to get back in the saddle,to let the hoss know who's driving here )) They say that Chinghis-Khan's name,Temujin,means "the look in the eye of a horse when the rider looses control". I won't have my own forge look at me that way :)

That is insanely impressive,Beth,i'm speechless... I think that whoever designed it was a blacksmith:Look at all the quatrefoils and the like in the pattern.Unto even the preserving the relative mass of what can be forged out of each faggot-weld of junctures. The entire idea,the flow of many of the main lines is ALL iron,iron plasticity... xxxx,i love gothic everything...There's so much to learn from it,just a gut instinct of an ignorant,(but passionate)smith. You're so lucky to live around buildings and everything else of this sort,it's simply incredible!

Beth,so,that means that you need to try to make a design and leave the certain parameters optional?That's not that hard,if one can quantify the possible options. McNeil River is actually quite a ways from here,let's see,two divides,i believe,some hundreds of miles even as a crow flies!It is a world-famous brown bear observation point(they're too busy eating fish to eat the observer). Yep,i'm some tens of feet from the River,depending on the water level.Let me see,i thought i had a photo of a barge tied up here.Their wheelhouse is really close,and level with my windows(so that i can't pretend that i'm not home,and avoid going down the bank to help them scatter all the small boats in the way of their landing). This type of axe is for super exact,controlled hewing motions(some of the old ones in that database were rehandled for general use,not the greatest idea).In effect it's a chisel only handled differently.Scandinavians also carve some incredibly compleh notches with it,in beams(loft),or logs.So the handle is very close,for control. The WI is,in effect,"damascus" of sorts.A non-homogenous material,interspersed with strands of slag.Wood-like,in that the slag is weaker than the iron,so as to form a definite,longitudinal strands.It unravels under the hammer,and does a number of other funky things.The name WI is strictly approx.,it's just a whatever,pre-bessemer mild steel of the past,thus,the unpredictability. These same slag inclusions,being Si,make it self-fluxing,like flux-core wire,in effect,and it welds like a dream...Also it's extremely soft,being generally very low C,and pliable,and it's texture is neat. NONE of which make it reasonable to use.The stuff is utterly unpredictable,liable to fail any moment(like break right across the supposed "grain").I'm a fool to mess with it. Still have to weld in the steel bit for the edge,and may well loose the whole mess in the last stages. So,the WI is cool,but unpredictable,i guess that's my point .

Well,the silly thing's hanging in there,will try to tack on a few photos of what i've wasted my day on. (Before you tell me that it's an odd-ball shape,take a look at this database here:http://www.miljolare.no/data/ut/album/?al_id=2085) That new batch of WI,albeit better than anything that i've used in a while,is still an absolute bear to deal with... Oh,sh...,the barge's pulling up,gotto go move some boats out of it's way...

Beth,i don't know if you need to worry about "the rights" of metal,iron,least of all:Given half a chance it'll dominate any other material,especially the more bland ones,like wood and stone.One curlique-and the observer's eye is focused on iron,at the expense of all else.You'll have no problem asserting you iron's proper place compared to wood! I like everything that Mr.B brings up.Harware should,if possible,be a part of design.Would be tough to get very far without some definite data on the woodwork.Can you twist the guy's arm to give you the details?Threaten him with grillwork so busy that the wood will become invisible altogether :P