Nobody Special

I dunno, ask Seymour Krelborn.

With the beards, you might try a beard butter or beard oil. I hate calling them that, but works wonders for the itchyness/scratchyness when it's coming in. I grew/regrew one every month for a couple of years between drill sessions with the Guard, and had one most of the time I was in Iraq. I prefer having a beard, but I'd have to win over wife number three, and I'm still worn out from convincing the first two. Give beards time. Mine grew in lousy until I was in my mid-30s. Patchy, and the middle was missing out of the mustache. Cool video Joe, you never fail to impress.

They admitted it, and figured it wouldn't matter, and that they were free to change their minds. Yah, been helping my wife out getting a paralegal degree, which basically means I've been auditing the classes and doing all the homework alongside with her. Good for the marriage, but add one more skill that I have zero accreditation for... We're also filing a motion about insufficiency of process, (didn't serve us remotely right, no certification of delivery, complaint was wrong, address was wrong, no notice of retaining lawyers, defendants were wrong, and how do you get the plaintiffs incorrect?) but the whole thing was delayed til next month due to COVID. Whee....

Yes, when I've up in the middle of the night sicking up from reflux and ulcers (not at all booze and ibuprofen related, right...) my first thought was, 'but man, how alive I feel!" I'm going to go out on a limb, and get to the root of the problem by saying if you've got a vegetarian bill, you're hooked. Could be barking up the wrong tree though. Meh, I'll just leaf.

Used to happen to me a lot in the Army because we ended up working weird hours, and they wanted to see what we were doing out at two and three in the morning. I finally got so I'd tell them, you can just ask me what I'm doing if you want to know, you don't have to say I ran a non-extant stop sign, and I'll blow in your Breathalyzer if you want, it doesn't bother me. A couple laughed, and one got mad and gave me a ticket for running the stop sign that wasn't there. Which would have been embarassing for him in traffic court if he'd bothered to show up. "You swerved a little back there" was one I got a lot.

Except that the UCC is a recommendation for a uniform code of law that isn't law itself until adopted by individual states. The UCC includes the Statute of Frauds, under § 2A-201 although Statute of Frauds did originate under common law, surprisingly recently. Prior to its development, it was caveat emptor out there except for food adulteration. Many states adopted parts of it word for word, but there are variations in many places from the UCC. Auction law for one is especially fun. In Wyoming, Statute of Frauds is covered by Wyom Stat §34.1-2.A-201, and veers off a bit from the federal UCC, such as changing the $500 limit to $1000. Where I'm at in Washington state, it quotes it verbatim, under RCW 62A.2-201. Like I said, in court, it's not the witnesses, it's getting the guy ya had the agreement with to admit it existed. I'm going through a lawsuit right now that hinges on this more or less exactly, (they said we could break the lease because they wanted to sell the place, then they changed their minds after we moved out) and they admitted it. Oopsie. Lucky me, I paid attention during business law. Yay...

If you have to consider looking like a minivan, perhaps it's time to switch to salads? A ham can be cured, but can you imagine the veterinarian bill? If wer're blue skying damascus wish lists, I'd love to see a full size anvil done in it. Raindrop pattern for choice.

Statute of Frauds in most every state says anything over $500 must be in writing or it's invalid, although if they're dumb enough to admit it in court, an oral contract still stands. There must be an offer, agreement, acceptance, and consideration discussed, but full details don't have to be written. And an advertisement isn't an offer, but an invitation to do business, although consumer protection laws may apply. All of which I'm definitely just commenting on, not advising about. Promissory estoppel is kind of a principle that if there's a serious reliance on the information provided in an oral contract or agreement it might apply, but it's a lot harder to meet the standard in court. For me personally? I don't really care for most things under $100, unless it's a pain to make or work that I can't resell to someone else if they default. I don't require a deposit most of the time for that amount, but I will for anything over, and anytime up-front money changes hands, I like to have it in writing, even if it's just a receipt/agreement with the outline of the details. Even if I didn't want to take it to court, sometimes just having it in writing brings them around. Little stuff, meh. I kept having people flake on bottle openers and wood carving tools, but they were easy to resale. The thing that really convinced me about written agreements was the time I loaded about 120 chickens onto a guys truck, and then he tried to renegotiate the price to $4 or $5 bucks less a bird after it was loaded because he figured I wouldn't unload it again. He cussed me when I wouldn't take the decreased price, he cussed me when I started unloading the truck, and when he really cussed me again when he started to throw the money down and drive off and I told him I'd call the cops on him for theft if he left with my birds on the truck. He finally paid what I wanted, plus an extra $30 for making me load the truck twice in the rain, then left a strip of rubber in the driveway and posted a bunch of fake complaints for the next eight months about us on FaceBook and Craigslist saying our chickens were diseased and mistreated, going so far as to rip off photos from the PETA website and claim that it was our birds. After that? No writing, no sale. My birdies were clean and well kept. I also do it on the buying end. My ex put a deposit down on a horse one time, and then had a call two days later from the lady saying that God had spoke to her in a dream and told her to keep the horse. God apparently didn't have any problem with her selling it a week later for $500 more though to another buyer. I also insist on writing for any business done with family. Although when you try to hold them to it, you never hear the end of it.

They do, in a system called InPass. More countries do now because they want people to search before trying to get new patents.

I don't forge and sell as much stuff as youse guys (although I've finally been picking it up again), but I've done all kinds of nutty work or made stuff for people. Deposits are a must, but over the years, I've also gotten more into having it in writing. Changes are also in writing. I've found that the ones that avoid written contracts are also the ones most likely to be the troublemakers when it comes to changes or payment. Of course, you tell them that it's for their protection, as it also binds you to your word. If it goes to court there is also no (less anyways) argument over terms, or whether the oral contract is valid under the Statute of Frauds rule because the value of the work is too high.

For awhile, a lot was made from old railroad track. Pain in the rear to work. You could also cut a piece and make a test coupon, heat treat it and see what it does.

Well, you start by hardening until a file skates across...with a glassy sound. Are you sure it's punsters? We also have a lot of ham-sters.

Well, we've all banged to music on the anvils, or rang them for the fun of it. I got sidetracked by the Google doodle this week and have been a little obsessed with making a mbira, the African instrument with the plucked metal keys. When I start looking at traditional versions, it seems to be mostly cold forged, but with a lot of work and tweaking and it's got a cool sound. I'll post pics if it doesn't come out a complete flop. Y'all know any more forged instruments? Apparently steel guitar is usually just a name.

The interviewer hints that it might be related to Noah's flood towards the beginning, and the interviewee says it specifically a little after 18 painful minutes in. I think he's taking a few facts, and stretching his assumptions too far; it's not well supported. He basically uses two supporting elements, a look at a coal bed in Kentucky and the more recent eruption of St Helens to say that there seems to be evidence that coal could originate from peat created by decaying bark from floating log masses, buried by sediment. This doesn't seem too farfetched, and he supports it with talking about dives to look at precursors at the bottom of Spirit Lake, and about coal stratification at the one location that didn't seem consistent with a swamp. No discussion of carbon dating, but a little bit of talk about tree rings. He also tries to tie in petrification in anaerobic conditions, but he doesn't really connect it to evidence of coal formation. But then he says that they are able to create a "coal-like substance" in a very short period in a laboratory by applying heat and pressue. Okay, he's using pyrolysis to reduce biomass to carbon...which is not the same thing as coal. He starts speculating about worldwide log jams explaining the world's coal formations, and explains that coal formation could occur in very short times under the right conditions. Of course he's saying that. If you're arguing that the world is less than 6500 years old, and coal was formed by the Great Flood, then how can you have coal formation that takes millions of years to form, the conventional model being that even lignite stems from the Tertiary Period ending two and a half million years ago? He says that the bark would then have been buried by silica and other minerals in sea beds. He also, painfully talks about coal as an antiseptic process preventing decomposition, even as he mentions heat formed by layers of the bark being a crucial part of the heat needed for his supposed rapid coal. He compares it to heat generated by hay bales...and in both cases, that heat is generated by fermentation. Fermentation is a necessary part of the process, it breaks down the lignite and cellulose among other things. I don't disagree that Wikipedia can be problematic, but the same problems that prevail - misinformation, inequitable vetting, etc are prevalent in many other sources of information, news articles, blogs, books, and even honest to God paper encyclopedias. At least on Wikipedia the disputes are generally recorded and the dispute open to the public-ish, if you go looking for it. It's not worse than a lot of others as a place to get started. There's a nice discussion on coalification put out by the Bureau of Mines in the late 70s. Found a copy on the CDC website of all places. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/UserFiles/works/pdfs/ri8317.pdf The wikiverse ain't perfect, but it's better than a random apologist for the Flood on Youtube. "Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig; es ist nicht einmal falsch!"

Chickens, house, kids...everything but the bills.

It can be dangerous though. I'm still pretty sure that me getting bees for mead crafting contributed in the long run to my last divorce. I could get my bees if she could get a few chickens, the next thing I know we're running a farm with a few hundred chickens, plus assorted goats, pigs, horses, turkeys, etc and she's leaving me for a horse farmer 50 years her senior. It wasn't craft exactly, but the creative impulse nonetheless.

Well, don't tell anyone, but I like to play with steel and knit, albeit not at the same time.

Seen ones on the front before, but it's an interesting choice. Hey, I have a place where I can put the pritchell, and stuff will just fall out. No. that's too easy. I'm going to put it in the front, and cut out a channel. It's old enough to not have a step. Maybe it was added by a smith, not factory original? Not completely unheard of.

For ID, you might hit up technicus joe/ joey van der steeg. He hangs out here occasionally, as well as the book of faces on the blacksmithing forums, and he kind of has a passion for german anvils.

Aren't most commercial welding fluxes anhydrous borax and iron filings? I use twenty mule a lot, sometimes it seems to seep from the weld long after the initial weld is done if it's not dried first. Another traditional one I used with success was dirt dauber nests, although I imagine they work better in sandy areas... When I was casting a lot, I tried ground shell (originally to provide calcium to chickens) and even charcoal, but I don't think they'd work so well in forging, never tried them.

I LOVE my 1816 Foster. If you can find them, you can often get them for next to nothing because the forge weld breaks on the horn or heel. Paid $75 for mine, and it has a ridiculously wide face. Junkyard anvils are definitely a great alternative. If you are truly interested in casting iron or steel, you want to look for a hobby group that does it specifically. Melting steel can be done in a forge in small amounts. Ask anyone here that's burnt up a bar. Casting steel or iron though, not something to do at home safely or well without a lot of expensive specialized equipment and knowledge. Finding a group helps with the learning curve, and I'd recommend it for most casting anyways, including aluminum. Casting injuries...hurt. You also would probably want to build a furnace for casting. Heat sources for casting tend to make poor forges, and vice versa. Mr. Powers also tends to be a great source of knowledge regarding almost all esoteric metallurgy. If he doesn't provide the info directly, he'll point you at a book and show you how to do an interlibrary loan.

The precious metals look to mainly be silver inlay. It's tedious, but I wouldn't think the material would be expensive. Labor on the other hand...What are the stones, garnets?

So...file a sword, geese eat filings, collect poo, roast poo, smelt poo, refine? How the heck do you get that job? And how the heck did they find this out originally? Even if you just randomly happened to notice that your goose was eating your filings...as geese are wont to do, of course, how did it ever occur to someone to save enough to smelt, then make a bloom? Starving the geese I at least see, as if I were a goose, I'd turn up my nose at iron filings for breakfast too. And if they had to recreate it, why a duck? Why not go the full distance...aside from the fact that geese are mean? And I thought that the first person to try an oyster must have been desperate...what the heck was exactly wrong with Wayland? What other crazy alchemical stuff did he try to figure this out? Almost makes quenching in the urine of redheaded boys seem practically ordinary.

I was going to mention the exothermic properties, but someone already mentioned it. I might also add that purchasing the stronger varieties of Hydrogen Peroxide will get the attention of three letter agencies, as it has certain umm...ilicit uses, which is as much as I will say on the matter.

A goat chariot? Like Odin's Wain? For awhile I played around with friction folders from half horseshoes. Very popular with horsey people. Cut in half and forge the cut end to look rounded like the other. You have to grind or file down the insides before bending though, or they end up way too clunky. Lot of fun, no wooden scales or such, so very little fit and finish.