Nobody Special

I've heard that, but I've always seen it called that with copper on the bit. Does it make a difference?

A mostly finished spring lathe. I've been watching too much Woodwright's Shop and decided to make some wood gouges and chisels the other day. I've gotten tired of using the drawknife/rasp/sander to get close to round or oval handles, so I finally broke down and made one. (so now I need to make more chisels and gouges for the lathe...to make handles for the chisels and gouges, to..... Used Harry Rogers's Youtube vid for the plans, adjustable and breaks down easy. There's no hardwood at all in the thing, poles (bungee, not the traditional 20 ft sapling) and the treadle go in today, plus the pins for the poppets, from a broken garage door screw with square thread. Only real pain was cutting the mortise for the wedges in soft pine without everything chipping out. Ended up rasping it close and sanding the wedges down to fit.

Not in slack tubs. I've had them fall in feed bins and can't get out again. Dang rats have sharp teeth even through welding gloves.

I remember seeing something in there, but really, it only smokes much when you first start up, and something else to consider, green smoke is flammable and has been known to blow up inside of blowers, bellows, etc and tear them up.

It's not the magnetic variances you have to watch in SoCal, it's the zoning variances that are the devil to put up with.

But surprisingly difficult to make the bolts work right. It took awhile before I got good at sockets and got the fletching right so it didn't corkscrew in flight. Not to mention the dogs kept trying to steal the rawhide for it... While I'm moderately interested in the technical aspects of laminating silver to steel, I don't think it would work well as a knife or a taser, not to mention the idea of trying to hold a knife and engage in physical contact without getting shocked yourself. As a member of the military, I can tell ya now that any commander is going to look at the idea of using a knife in combat except under extreme and unlikely circumstances as nooooope, I think a taser is actually illegal under the Hague conventions, and a taser knife is more like H*** .********* no.

There's also the "thunk" test. Hit it with a hammer. If it's rings like a bell, steel, or wrought and steel (although not in this case I think). If it makes a quiet thunk, cast iron.

I've done well using homade round wedges set into the wooden ones. Take a small piece of black iron pipe or nipple, sharpen one end (single bevel on the outside grinds in pretty easy). Cut to length, clean with a file (using a grinder on something that short and sharpened can be ugly). Tried copper, but although it works, it folds over too easily, making it look kind of ugly.

Dang it, you beat me to the projection AND the grid method? Well now I feel useless. Although, I was gonna say that the old overhead projectors like they used to used for school paperwork worked great for that...now I'm the one that looks old next you zany kids with your iphones and your powerpoint... We used to do that in theater long before I picked up the hammer.

I planned on a through tang and peening, possibly epoxying two slabs together. Still thinking about the guard and pommel. Giving up on the barley carving, I think "keep it simple, stupid" is a better idea for a first one. Either a variation on rounded rectangle with mld tapers, or add the finger ridges. Planning to dye it with tea or tobacco, then stabilize, maybe a dark stain on the other pieces for contrast. Here's pics of the bone before and after the TSP boil. (did it outside, btw)

A sound of music pun? It's a Trapp!!!

I would, but one, it would mess up the heat treat to anneal and carve runes, and two, I haven't figured out how to make it glow blue in the presence of orcs. Got a huge beef soup bone for $23 at Kroger today, and some TSP (posphate free version, but still a degreaser and a base.) It looks like something out of a Flintstone cartoon. I'd feel that it was too much cash, but I could easily make 10 or 20 sword handles out of the darn thing it's so big. Trying to figure out how to slice it up to fit one of my stock pot, and I'm going to simmer it for about three hrs with a few tsps (tblsps?) of tsp tommorow. It's a monster.

What Frosty said, you also may be getting too hot.

Alright, only been messing with this thing for about a year. I looked in the corner the other day and said hmm, unfinished sword. Why not? I recently switched to using ceramic belts for my main grinding, and it's turned sanding into...well, not a pleasure, but a lot less of a pain for my knives. Heat treated, tempered to 475, maybe a bit soft, but rather sharpen more often than break it. 5160-ish spring, and I've had good results making knives tempered at 425 and 450 with it. All the initial sanding/grinding's done, now to get a pretty, smooth finish and put the furniture and handle on it. Still thinking about bone, but now I'm having doubts as to style. It's way too short for an arming sword (about 21", and 1.5" at the widest.), and pretty light for a gladius (just under a lb, sans handle). Sorta kinda feels like a xiphos, except the wasp waist isn't so pronounced. Meh. And remember, this is my second unfinished sword. I got sick of working on the big one that was going to be a spatha, so...

The dimmer switch may or may not work, depending on the type of motor, I've mostly had good luck. You can also build a manual air gate (block either the air going in or out partway). Texas can be a pain to find coal in. Have you called nearby farriers? They might know where to find it, even if they don't use it themselves. $1 a lb is a very steep price for coal. I'd also call farrier supplies on both sides of the Tx/Ok border. There's also farrier supplies in Ft Worth, near OK city, and a farrier school north of Gainesville. Bit of a drive, but.... Also, Qanah's up near Wichita Falls, no? Kinda rural, lotta mesquite? You may want to consider making charcoal yourself. All you need is some dried hardwood and a 55 gal barrel or three. Mesquite makes great charcoal, although I shudder to think what you'd go through in buying/sharpening saw blades. Maybe some live oak up that way....

I would still consider the little Trenton, that's a great price, and you may eventually want one that's easy to move (for demos and such).

Unknotted wire brush, oil (or wd-40) and put it to work.

In the cheapies, Wolverines aren't bad. Takes me about 6 to 8 months to go through a pair, usually the sole seperates from the upper. That's everyday wear, work on the railroad, farmwork, and forging. Catch them for about 70-80 bucks on sale.

It's only a guess, but you might be grinding too thin prior to heat treat, I've had that cause warping before. I don't have the expertise at blademaking that some of these people do, but I do better when I leave some meat on it, and do the last grinding and finish after hardening and tempering...even if it slows it down, and I have to be careful about not overheating the blade and wrecking the temper. As Moxon said, "If a true edge is yours to win, forge thick, grind thin."

Meh, knives are fun at first, and everybody wants to start with them. Let them. The reading and the interest in other parts will come, and quickly. I started by making sub-par knives, probably half the people on here started by making sub-par knives. It's enjoyable, and you learn a lot. Sometimes what you learn is that you have a lot to learn. As stated above, the project is slightly ambitious, check out the knife making classes for tips, and good luck. You first attempt looks far better than mine. (also, read up on heat treatment, and leave some meat on the blade prior to heat treatment, it'll help prevent a tendency to warp the blade. If necessary, get help with heat treatment and be careful using it, a lot of new people have trouble with that part, and it can leave the knife prone to breaking.

I would so forge in a Bradley.....wasn't for those pesky first sergeants. Ain't shape charges that have been killing them, mostly EFPs and oversized HME bombs....although saw a lot of aluminum oxide used to give em a boost. First sergeants also frown on Leyden jars, and electroplating in the trailers and swa huts...don't ask. (did NOT get the joke of making a Baghdad battery in Baghdad.)

Slag, they use aluminum on the Bradley because it's light and it works. They can survive a hit from an RPG, depending on the type of RPG and how it strikes. It also helps that crews actually get out of the darn thing to do their jobs, unlike some other countries...if it takes a round hard enough that you have to worry about irritating fumes from an aluminum fire, or it being hot enough to actually catch the aluminum on fire, the crew has probably already been killed by shrapnel and spalling. Kinda like worrying whether or not the lubricant on the ekg pads is a skin irritant during cardiac arrest. Not the only oxidizer either, worked at a metal plant in alabama that worked with zirconium. They would sometimes amuse themselves at lunch by setting down the wipe rags (used to catch fines on wire being drawn down) outside at lunch in the sun on a hot day and watching them catch fire. They had a fire one day in a scrap drum, and I'm not sure they ever did fix the hole in the roof...30 feet up.

They're not too narrow. Punch a small hole and use a tapered drift and/or the horn. Be careful, don't work it too cold, and know that you will lose a few, more while learning. I sell probably twice as many w openers than without. Although why on earth you'd want to use what you clean a hoof out with to touch your beer bottle......ew.

Never dropped one on my head before. I've found dropping them on fingers and toes to vary slightly from the cartoons. It's a shame we don't have anyone that could tell us what it's like to have a heavy weight dropped on you unexpectedly from above to compare...(doesn't look at Frosty, doesn't look at Frosty, doesn't look at Frosty...)

You could, but 18 lbs is pretty small. (4" x 4" x 4" x .28 lbs per cubic inch) For $100, I would definitely keep looking. With patience I've bought several real anvils for less than that. I'm not saying he's ripping anyone off, but I think you could do a lot better. Scrapyards are buying for something like 4 cents a lb. If you can find a scrapyard to sell to you, even at .20 cents a lb, you could get a 200 lb block for 40 bucks. They may or may not let you in, liability issues, but even if they don't, they might pull a block out for ya, and they've been known to occaisionally have anvils, swage blocks, or post vises laying around.