Nobody Special

Try rubbing flour or baby powder on the sides with it tilted a little. Sometimes brings out faint marks that are next to impossible to see. On some I hit it with a non-knotted wire brush first.

So, you would get upset like my wife when I call her palomino the orange and blonde one, the grey the white one, and the sorrel the red one? Almost as bad as when I call Tennessee Walkers the ones what walk funny and the Fresians the Spinal Tap horses.

Been working on some larger ones, and ground down the insides of the handles; it really cut the weight.

PM sent.

This is usually pretty clear cut on something like sculpture, or art pieces like that cool looking fang. But...what about things like bottle openers, and hammer styles? I see a lot of "Hofi-style" hammers being sold on the internet. Some of em are clearly profitting using his name to promote knockoffs, and are clearly wrong. Others are looking at it as, well, it's a general shape of hammer. I dunno, I think I could make a "Brazeal style" rounding hammer and not feel I was stealing his creativity, IF I'm not using his name to sell hammers or trying to make an exact copy, but if I were to do one like those fancy Cergol Ironworks deal with the chiselwork, is that artistic infringement? What about if I change the patterns to my own design? How about all those forged copies of say the Game of Thrones slave necklace that are floating around out there for sale (even though Danerys's was resin cast)? Or I often have people come to me and go "look at this bottle opener I found on the interwebs, can you make it?" My usual response, ummm, yeah, but let me make a few changes to make it my own. Sometimes I wonder if I'm still too close. Some of this stuff is craft, some is art, some in between, and it can get blurry. Some of it is clearcut, and making an exact copy of someone's design and taking credit for it is clearly over the line.

Yessir, and I modified my comment when I was playing in the show me hooks forum, and realized you were already using something like and I hadn't read the post close enough.

A few of my openers. The harpoon ones go like hotcakes. They're my take on a style that several people came to me asking about. I didn't feel comfortable duplicating it, so changed it some.

Now I have the Munsters guy stuck in my head....could be worse I guess. Wasn't My Favorite Martian. Meh, Do not adjust the vertical. Do not adjust the horizontal....there's something on the wing! Some....thing....on the wing!!!

You're having nostalgia tv flashbacks, but the just the facts line is giving me the novelty song flashbacks. Ever catch St. George and the Dragonet?

They were called breaker boys.

Seen the smaller handling hole in Peter Wrights, and have one with a similar.

Still not finding a link anywhere online. Closest was episode 86 of the Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, Fire and Iron. Probably not it...

Got a link to the trailer? My google-fu has been weak on this one, and it's not popping up on the History Channel's site either. Found the "Night Class, Christopher Columbus Aliens" sneak preview just fine though...

Are they? That's good news. I usually end up with busted ones that people are tossing for general purpose steel and the handles to cut down for hammers. Silly me, I never thought to test what obviously must be a hardening steel. I forsee numerous repurposings in my very near future.... You wouldn't have much leverage with that thing, but if it was soft enough ground or you pushed it two handed....there's times I definitely would have prefered that shovel to the standard issue E-tool. Last random thought, anyone ever try the Bealer method of cutting and welding two sheets together to form the shovel and socket? Might be faster than forging and rolling.

Both are from used coil spring. 5160-ish.

My knife.

My grandmother didn't bother catching them. Back in the days that she kept chickens, she'd step out on the back stoop and blow their heads off with a pearl handled .38. She eventually stopped when her little farmhouse became part of suburbia. Something about repeated visits from people calling the police. (not illegal there, yet apparantly disconcerting...) I don't do it that way, it makes the feathers harder to get off.

A thin steel hook works well for catching chickens by the legs in the open. Works best with three or for young'uns to drive the chickens.

Heavy, hard to draw, slow, and unless that leaf spring is new, prone to breakage. I haven't done a self bow, but I've made crossbows with steel prods. I like the idea of the aluminum bow, but wood's hard enough to fire. Do you do any archery now?

I know they're still being made in Europe, couldn't say if they've started here as well. Hit up Joey Van der Steeg on FB, (he responds faster over there), he'll tell you all you want to know about Peddinghaus, it's a passion with him.

It's like looking at old cars. I don't know every antique out there, but I know a Pontiac's split grill when I see one, you just build up familiarity by reading up and looking at a bunch of them. There are literally hundreds of makers out there, but some are much more common. There's not an overwhelming number of the common brands in America, maybe a dozen or so, although even they varied in make. Say Peter Wright, Mousehole, Foster, Brooks, Hay Budden, Trenton, Southern Crescent, Vulcan, Fisher, Kohlsa, Columbians..... You learn to look at the overall general dimensions. A general shape is a good guideline, like the skinny waists on trentons and hay buddens. Stepped feet? Probably Peter Wright, Sharp angle on the corners and a squarish feel, often an english wrought iron brand. Hundredweight markings are a dead giveaway. Shaped depressions on the bottom, the faint outline of logos on a cast anvil (fishers especially). Broken heels/horns are common to Fosters. Mouseholes had dots between the numbers. And then sometimes you just end up guessing. Cutting steps became popular early 19th century. Wanna say 1800-ish, but I don't remember, before pritchel holes anyways. Pritchel holes took off about 1820, but......many older anvils were retrofitted with pritchels by blacksmiths.

I have drill this Saturday, so no Bealer group for me this weekend, but I don't mind playing (in Marietta). Excellent group. There's (I forget his last name) Chuck, who regularly posts on CL in Acworth. He usually has a lot of tools, most of his anvils go 3 a lb. Know what you're looking for when you go, and test rebound. He's fair enough, but he doesn't forge, he buys them on trips up north and resells them. If you keep an eye out, a lot pop up cheaper at local farm auctions, but you may have to attend several before you see one. I've got a couple at one in Taylorsville, and a pretty Columbian at one north of Chatsworth. Chuck also usually has hardys, tongs, forges, and other assorted goodies.

The various clay/sand mixes work fine for lining coal/charcoal forges. I've tried different things in the mix, grasses, wood chips, sawdust, perlite, vermiculite, busted pottery for grog, haven't messed with foam beads. Grass and wood chips seem to give it the most cohesion, not sure that it makes it a better refractory. I wouldn't mess with it for propane. Too heavy, too crumbly, and I doubt it's as effective a refractory. The backyardmetalcasting mix with the portland works well for a small casting furnace up to brass pouring temps, (around 2100 to 2200F) but not so much in a forge. It gradually spalls further and further away from the firepot, effectively leaving you with a big duck's nest forge. It's made worse by the fact that clinker sticks to it and has to be chipped off.

Or leave it on and call the hammer Ed.

Beautiful, and you've already been trying it out, I see. They really do turn to stone in daylight then?