Larzz

:rolleyes: I quess when they take it out of one hand and put money in the other hand it was good enough! My hands are still empty....I quess it wasn't good enough!

Darn, they left the remote and took the steel. Must a been one of those darn blacksmiths again....leave a peice of iron laying around and in the morning it's gone. What is the world coming to!:rolleyes:

As I said, with proper training and tools. Go for it. Local rules must be different in your area. They laughed at me when I asked them about filling my bottles on site. With out a vent, you will properly need a pump to fill the 100# tank. It will only fill partially, until the pressures equalize in the tanks. As I am sure they will tell you, fill it on a scale to get the proper fill percentage by weight. The Correct weights are stamped near the top for each tank. Next week, we will talk about acetylene, balloons and burning strings.........see the pretty flash...wheres the ointment?

It may not be new under the sun. But it will be new in my shop! Thanks for the example! It was very well done and a great help. I likey very much!!!

The empty, tare and full weight are stamped on the tank. They will vary from tank to tank. I have talked to my propane supplier about filling smaller tanks and they would not allow it. From this I "assume" that you are using an unauthorized connection. So be very carefully and be aware that in the event of a "mishap" you will be responsible for any damage to the tank and neighborhood. If you have had the proper training and tools, go for it. This is not something I would recommend for the inexperienced to do. All it takes is for a spark and the wrong mixture in the air and we would be reading about it in the papers. Personally, I take my tanks, both 20 and 100 pounders down to the propane supplier and let them take the liability for filling them. I am a boiler inspector and have listened to way too many horror story's in my travels so I tend to be a bit cautious about explosive gas mixtures. In any case keep the wind at your back and don't smoke. :)

When I can't make it any better, that is good enough. As I learn more, that point continues to move and grow. The other side of the coin is knowing when to stop fiddling with it and leave it alone. Many times I try to add in that last little bit and opps ....way past the point of no return. The joy and frustration is finding the middle ground of "Yah, Now Thats GOOD Enough!"

Welcome aboard Utah!

You can take the knife making class at the North House Folk School over in Gran Marais by the big lake. I did and it was a wonderfull start. Five days, 9 hours per day and I made five knife blades. Of course that was after reading the "Step by Step Knifemaking" book cover to cover serveral times. As Ratle10mm indicates making a knife is easy. Making a good knife, now that is hard and may take years of practice. Me, I am still learning how use a hammer to move metal. Been learning for about three years now. I might try to make another knife next year. Got a bunch of tools to make first. In any case welcome aboard!!

I am always a day late and a dollar short. I just found out about my hero Frosty. Please add my wishs and prayers for a speedy and total recovery. My heart is out to you too Deb! Larry

Thanks, block heater it is!

Of course that's what he meant. Aren't you aware of the magic properties of REBAR the magic mystery metal? It takes longer to heat and is quicker to cool then other metals. It can be harder then diamonds or softer then SPAM, sometimes at the same time. It seldom melts but burns brighter then the sun, with sparkels! :>

Hammerhead: Tempory counterweight to wooden handle.

Sawzall: Tool used to inject raw sewage into left thumb and forefinger while dropping plastic pipe on head. Alternative use is to start smoldering fires in walls while rubbing nails in half.

Dumb question time here. How much chance of brittle fracture (breaking into small pieces) is there if I use the anvil without warming it up? I am thinking about this winter in Minnesota. (-20 or so). Frosty, what do you do up north on your end of the tundra?

Now to wipe the egg off of my face. I stopped back and checked their catalog. Yup, it was Stressproof (1144). It said it was "high carbon, high manganese steel with good strength and wear resistnace. It responds well to heat treatment." Thanks to all for your comments. Seams more like medium carbon but should work okay for some tools. Has anyone used it for punchs or drifts?

As I am just starting out and have only made a few items worth talking about, it has been about a fifty-fifty split. Some hangers for the shop tools, a couple of plant hangers for the kitchen, and a few gifts around x-mas last. The feed back has been good but the time to work short. As previously mentioned, move the GF up to the top of the list of "work-to-spec" customers and see what happens! (I hear happy times ahead!) In my case the better-half wanted a simple trelis of rerod for the back yard weeds (opps, I mean flowers). The return on investment was well worth the time.

Thanks for the replys. I will stop back and see what sheets they have on it. I don't think I will be making knifes with it (to uncertain a material at this point) but will try to make some punches and drifts and see what happens. From what I could find "stressproof" is a patented procress to surface harden (work harden?) steel. I found a fair amount on 1144 but only a few entrys on 1177. (typo?) It appears to be as nakedanvil say a medium carbon steel. It's fairly cheap and close by so until I can find a good supply of better steel I will give it a try and see what happens. The guy at the steel supply told me that they aren't supposed to use their carbide cutoff saw, too much damage to the saw. They have to use a tourch to cut it to length. Sounds like a suface hardened material. It was a spur of the moment purchase, I needed 1/2' round anyways. I will try it out some time this week and let you know.

While at the local steel supply I noticed that they had some steel they called stressproof, on the sheet it was called 1177. I can't find a whole lot of information on it. It is supposed to be hardenable and good for tools, cutlery etc. Anyone ever use it?? I picked up a chuck of 1/2" to try working with.

Talk about too many irons in the fire. When I enlarged the photo I noticed he has a whole row of "spoons" laid out in the hearth.

I have had several nests in the lawn behind the shop. I use a long pipe at dusk when they are all back in. Pour some gas down the pipe using a low angle, that way the sentrys don't notice. Let soak a minute or two so the nest is saturated and then a match from a safe distance. Had one nest over a foot in diameter. Left a big hole to fill in. I though about a molitov cocktail ...........decided against it as a bit too much overkill. Oh, I'm pyro from way back. I was in an apartment and had one fly up my long sleave shirt in the fall. Hit the back of my arm several times. After being stung about five times, I calmly took the shirt off. The wasp flew to the wall, like it all in a days work. Unfortantly I had to fix the hole in the sheetrock left by the heel of my boot. After being stung a few other times by the little suckers.........I HATE WASPS!!!

The turn is going the wrong way...no... I'm looking at from the wrong hemisphere. Okay, eyesight recalibrated now.. Hey they look pretty good.

MMM, that looks like something that would be good to make at demonstrations.

Mike, I think she will be using them in the bedroom/office and will not be moving the curtains much. Thanks for the heads up, I will check with her and see if that is an issue. She is coming out here in Aug and I could modify them at that time. Larry

Thanks, she did.

I was going out to see my sister in Seatle and remembered that she liked a leaf I made up at Gran Maris. So I made one and took pictures of it and printed them out for to show the process. The next day I hit my head with my hand (took the hammer out first) and reliased that I really should make a set of four. So I put the pictures in the gallery along with a plant hanger I made for a christmas gift. The rest of the set is in the gallery. I have not linked a picture in the gallery to a thread yet. I will try to add it as soon as I can figure out how. Let me know what you think.... http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/16790/sortby/f/sorttime/9999/way/asc