Nobody Special

In Tucson? I would think 5-7 a lb if in good shape and the rebound is good. They're rarer as you go west. Not entirely sure - been in WA state too long and they're astronomical up here most of the time.

Do you have any context, or pictures? Is it the exact same as the other one from the post?

Well, if it's bituminous, and not too high sulfur, it might be very good coal for what you're doing. There's very good coal deposits not horribly far from me in WA, but nobody mines, uses, or sells it anymore; it's largely verbotten. I don't blame them, it's horrible for the environment, but I still greatly prefer it over charcoal for forging.

I'm largely in agreement; buy smaller coal if you can, let it break up in the fire, or if you do break it up with a hammer, put it in a bag first to retain the pieces, although do know it wears out the bag quickly, and it also tends to break what's under it over time if it isn't dirt. You can also use a heavy wire screen on a box to sort by size, but all-in-all, the bust it up and sift it method is very labor intensive. Are you getting bituminous? A lot of the coal I got in larger sizes when I first started forging were anthracite, which will work but is more difficult to use - the fire takes more air and thus tends to be hotter and more oxidizing. That makes it easier to overheat or burn work, and it means that you get a lot of scale and that forge welding is more difficult. On the other hand, it's easier to find and it's faster.

Been out due to surgery and just found this. I don't have words to express it, but it hits deep every time we lose one of the guys that have been here forever. I'll miss you a lot, Frosty. Ringing the anvil for you.

Beat me too it on Brunswick green. For the food, it's a southern hunter's stew that originated in Brunswick, VA or Brunswick, GA - people with a love of etymology and southern cooking argue about which far too much. There's pretty good evidence for both and the original recipes from each are a good bit different. Please see James Beard, Murk Kulansky on the subject and an insane number of subreddits for less informed but more entertaining versions.

Fun fact, she was rejected by the military for being that tall and ended up working in the OSS back in their wild-west days and created a shark-repellent. I showed that clip to my kids about two weeks ago.

I like 3-in-1 for the screw and most light lubrication. Don't go heavy on it, and clean the screw and re-lube once in awhile to replenish it and so you don't get gunk and shavings built up that can wear the screw. More frequently if you use the vise a lot, maybe once a year if not. No BLO on the screw though. Like Frosty said, it polymerizes which makes it a sticky mess short-term, and non-lubricating long term. BLO works great for the rest, but in my dotage I've found I like to paint them too. Bright primary colors for preference, but OD green is nice too (or is that more of a John Deere?)

Episode 96 and absolutely heavenly. There's a much more abbreviated book, The French Chef Cookbook, with the recipes from the show. It's nice to have when you don't want to go back and forth on one of her shows on YouTube to not miss details. I also love her French Onion Soup. Beats the heck out of Irma Bombeck, although occasionally The Joy of Cooking has fun details like multiple ways to skin a rabbit, or telling you the first step in preparing fresh squid is to give a good whack to make sure that it's dead. You do good work so I would think it would be fine, and if the tenon looses later for some reason, you can always forge weld then.

That's close to right for green poplar, should be around 800 lbs, (1.25 squared x pi x 4, x roughly 40 lbs per cubic foot) and will vary depending on species and water content. Might weigh as little as half that seasoned. Gonna shrink dome and might check too. I've buried a few stumps partially when I used to forge outside under the edge of an overhang, which gives you a lot of stability and a lot of flexibility to change the height. Makes it a lot more difficult to rearrange your location though and can be prone to rot over time, depending on a number of things. Not everyone does, but I've found that debarking also cuts down on ants and rot. I tend to agree with no toe jack. It will just make you unstable. I like an excuse to buy new tools too, but sometimes there's nothing more expensive than free stuff.

When the thigh-bruise fades, all the hair grows back, you struggle to find the last 2nd-degree burn scar, and you can't change a regular light bulb barehanded anymore, you know you haven't forged in awhile. Used to be able to shock waiters by just moving a fajita comal barehanded. Lately, I'm not much past being able to flip the tortillas on the pan with my bare fingers. In for ankle surgery in a week, then hoping to start getting more mobility back.

A planting tool for making seed holes. Used them growing up - didn't know the name for them then.

It ain't quite the original, but I had something similar. My neighbor went into a home awhile back and after helping look after the place for a few years and helping clean it up/out, I ended up with one of their horded cars, an 85 Civic Hatchback. It's not the 83 Tercel I had for my first car, but it's darned close and gets 40 to the gallon in town. Hadn't realized how much I miss driving clutch. It was also weird to see how insanely popular it is at my kid's school. I still saw it as a baseline economy car but they think of it as a classic. I seem to remember somewhere that the top half of the Vulcan horns were steel, not cast iron. I might cautiously think about cleaning that up, but probably not - the hardened layer won't be that thick, and besides, you're mostly either drawing on it or bending, so it doesn't matter as much. I usually only clean mine up to make them pointy again when somebody has blunted them because they got tired of being stabbed in the thigh every time they turned around. Not that he needs my approval, but Frosty is right all around on the clean-up of the face.

There is an easier cheat to welding 5160 - use a bit of mild steel or some other steel in-between so it's not welded directly to itself. Love the shield JHCC. I'm not great with sword work, better with polearms and blunt objects, but one of the things that stuck was that anyone who was only using a shield defensively was an idiot. A little bit of heavy is good for that.

Yup, and they sure are nice when you have one handy. I haven't had or needed a working chainsaw in about 10 years though and the stores were both closed and on the other side of the trees. Last one was a Homelite and that kind of soured me. We never had a lot of trouble with maple when I was on a tree crew up here, and we got a lot of vine maple and the occasional big leaf. But that might be because we very rarely felled the whole stick at once. I've heard black and sugar are more nasty. Alder on the other hand was a bloody nightmare that you couldn't trust, and my least favorite was cottonwood due to the cleanup. These were just hemlock though and cut up real easy. The biggest hinderance was the weather and me being out of shape from my bad leg(s) keeping me from running the last year.

If it was recent, top candidates are Northamptonshire, and Bishop's Stortford, and there was a roman road recently dug up near Brighton in E. Sussex. If it's older, no telling, they're always finding something in England. My favorite has always been the viking stuff in Coppergate.

Nah, my wife says I can use a leash, but that's about it. She's funny about the dogs.

You'll take my fencing pliers when you pry them...well out of the toolbox. I don't hold them all the time, but I ain't giving mine up easy either. Put in a lot of fencing with them. I thought I was done with my axe and whatnot on this property, but we got the power knocked out for a few days last week and I had to go clear trees off the road with a bow saw, an axe, and a rope the other day at 2 am so my wife could get in to work. I'd say a week's recovery sounds just about right; I was hurting for a few days. It's fine though, not supposed to have big wind again until tonight...sigh.

I agree with most of what was above - especially about zinc pennies and about learning from YouTube. You get the most interesting scars; ask me how I know. You ain't gonna make it in time with good results safely. That isn't to say give up on casting, but it takes time and good guidance. In the short term, you could make a really cool ring from a large coin rather easily by tapping it very lightly with a hammer, or I've even seen it done (albeit slower) with a spoon. I've done it, taught my kids to do it, and the instructions online are generally correct and safe. Depending on how you do it, you frequently have the coin's markings on at least one side of the finished product.

What, you actually keep yours in their holders? Mine get up and walk away. Sometimes, literally. I used to have a rawhide mallet that kept disappearing and was driving me nuts. Great for struck tools and straightening bits with twists. Turns out the dog (Charles Martel) was stealing it when my back was turned and was smart enough to bring it most of the way back and drop it on the floor when he was done with it. I didn't find out until he finally ate half of it. Hence the copper mallet. I miss that dumb dog.

I've known a few people that resembled that term. That thing has been driving me nuts, because I know I've seen it exactly somewhere before. Went poring through a 700-page treatise on Roman tools in Britain and couldn't find it. Too many books over the years. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold...I'll probably run into it again in two years and go Ah ha! and then never be able to find this thread again....

I would add "in arm's reach". If I had a nickel for every time I looked around and misplaced the hammer or mallet I had five seconds ago... I will use a softer hammer for punches and such - if I want to be careful with struck tools, I've got a copper mallet. I try very hard not to ever strike anything not hot directly on top of the hot cut though.

I'm not 100%, but I think the forked object is a bident, in this case probably used for turning hard dirt or on some sort of root crop. Too short to be a pitchfork. There's agriculture variations, weapon versions, and of course fishing. There were versions for digging, as hoes, or on/in-place-of a mattock. Looks for all the world like an oversized forked arrowhead.

What, no Sons of Martha? I'm overly prone to an occasonal kipple. Parts of it seem especially apt: "They do not preach that their God will rouse them a little before the nuts work loose. They do not teach that His Pity allows them to leave their job when they ****-well choose."

I usually just hit them with a wire brush and then paint them or use a coat or two of boiled linseed oil. Make sure it's warm and completely dry first or it will trap water under the paint. Electrolytic rust removal works a treat if you've got a container big enough. Easy enough to find the method on the internet. Is the jaw just not working generally, or can't get it open to work on the screw? Might be gunked up in there, might be damaged. When you do get it apart, you want no more than a light oil on the threads. Anything more tends to collect dirt and shavings and unspeakable things that gunk up and damage the threads.