FieryFurnace

We went to the ECD event this past weekend. It was simply beyond expectation! Friday evening was a folk dance with a mixture of Contra and English Country dancing. Mostly Contra! Saturday morning was a practice session of about 2 hrs. and then an afternoon session of another two hours. They all went very well; there seemed to be one dance each time that I just could not do! Saturday evening, everyone got dressed up in, primarily colonial dress, and we had about three hours of ECD. I have pictures, but my sister has the camera that has the pictures, and she is in Tennessee again today. :mad: She'll be back tomorrow. I was surprised at the similarities between Contra, EC and CW dancing. The ECD is by far the most complicated, Contra comes in second ,and CW is the easiest. However the steps and turns used in CW are the same but they are done in a different, much more complicated manner. The terms used to desribe the steps are different in some instances too. During the weekend, I tried to pair up with people who knew what they were doing, and most of them complimented on how quick I cought on. Wether they were just saying that, or they really meant it is for you to decide! I'll have full details on my blog ASAP. Thoughts??? Dave

I have fabricated some white/stine colored knee breeches out of some old dress pants. It took about 30 minutes! I'll wear them with my green colonial shirt and grey vest. I'll post pics when I get em. Thanks.

My sister figured out that it is rather informal and has no set time period. Most of last years attendance were dressed in Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes. Some attempted colonial dress. (Like one guy rolled dress pants to the inside and duck taped knee socks above the pants! OUCH!) I do have some knee breeches but I do not have any socks yet. What about hats? I like hats.

At least I think it's called ECD. (English Country Dance) My sister is on a homechool forum thing and a lot of the people from the forum are going to an ECD ball in Nashville TN. this Saturday. She wants to go and so I'm going too. (If everything works out and we end up going) I'm sure somebody on here knows more about that than I do. What would be proper to wear? I have an 1800's double breasted gentlemans sack coat that I know I could wear. I have a gray, fine leather vest, grey wool trousers, blue broad cloth trousers, tan coarse cotten trousers, and a green colonial formal undershirt. (I.E ruffles and stiff colar) Other than that I just have dress pants. Somebody help me out here!? Thoughts??? Thanks!!! Dave

Finally got back to working on my knife. I ground the tang down but decided against bending it down. This, I think, will put the handle at a slight angle to the back of the blade. I annealed twice and hardened. Unfortunately, I had no other quenchant than the veg. oil so I used it. I did a blade quench in the oil for a few seconds then dropped the whole thing in for another couple seconds. After that I took it out and chunked it in the quench tub. Don't reckon that was the best way of proceding, but when I tested it with the edge of a file it laughed so I suppose that's good! I reshined it with 220 and 400 and it's in the oven at 350 degrees F. now. After I finish with the temper I'm going to rub on it with the old 400 some and then sharpen and attach a handle. Shoot, maybe it'll work!:D

Civil War is my time period too. That's why I did the side boards to look something like a wagon. I know it falls WAY short (authenticity wise) but it's as close as I could get and still have it highway-worthy. Frosty gives more credit to my lot than I deserve. It took me 2 1/2 years! Is that quick? I had thought about making a sliding stand like that. For now I am going to make a "step-in-the-ground" one that is the correct hight. I'll look at the trailer and see if I can put the vice next to the blower there. I think the angle iron supports that are welded to the tongue will be in the way though. Primarily the vice will be used for twisting. I do little and light hammering in the vice. Time to eat. I'll be posting some updates on the sucker rod knife in the knife makein section soon.

I don't know anything about wiring something with that many wires! Ask the guys who were on chat a while back. We were trying to figure out how to hook up a light set that came with another sets directions. I ended up retuning the light set. I'm wanting to build a permanant hood for the top of the forge, but that will have to wait. I'm running low on the green stuff and I still need the burlap to cover the tires, a tent to set up under, and steel to build my stock for events. I want to get it on before the event in May, but that depends on how much I make at the first event this year! I'd like to eventually do what your doing with the authentic setup on top of a trailer! That would be nice. As it is I'm going to have to dodge authenticity specs with burlap!:D

This is some 1/8 x 2 that I heated up. It took about ten minutes from the time I lighted the match to that picture. Close up! Making hand guards for cudgels there. I'm very satisfied with the way it works; it's the first forge I've made where it worked right the first time I ever fired it up. I like the idea of putting the vice on the tongue but I don't know how it will work as far as the spectators view. I want to be at least standing at a side view to the spectators, preferably facing them. To do that with the tongue I'd have to go all the way around the tongue to get to the vice. It's still closer than my vice is now; distance isn't the worry here. I don't want to be demonstrating and I hit my leg on the tongue while I'm b-lining towards the vice! Just dissapear behind the other side and CRY! Now I have to wait untill the third weekend of May to use it at an event!:(

Here are some pictures of the first fire in the trailer! Starting the fire! Oh yea, In the picures the trailer looks too tall on me. I parked it on top of a mound of dirt so I'm standing in a hole. I need to move all my stuff around and park it in a better spot. FIRE! With that flame it looks like I must be blowing myself to death. Actually, I'm blowing a good steady, aprox. 3 seconds to each turn of the handle, speed. This creates a fire ball about 6 inches deep. I'f I blow much harder I end up with a volcano! This thing heats FAST!

Alright, Got lots of photo's! This is the right hand side of the trailer. I still have to put a few more bolts on to attach the wood to the frame. (I ran out of bolts.) This is the left hand side of the trailer with the forge. It's finished! COAL! This is where the vice will mount. I still have to do the light too! I have more poics coming later but I have to get ready for company. I fired it up and it works great!!! Particullars later. I don't know when I'll be back as I'm spending my extra time preparing to teach at church this Sunday!