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I Forge Iron

Mr Smith

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Everything posted by Mr Smith

  1. It *should* be okay. Make sure you bolt it down to something, like a stump. Check out Tim and Marian Lively -- Handmade knives since 1974 - they use something *much* smaller :)
  2. Sure thing! Any parts of it in particular? I'll take a bunch of shots when I go in Sunday, and post the best :)
  3. G'day guys! Here's another of my how-tos. I'll do some more, so, If you have any requests, suggestions, let me know. We use this tool at *every* demo - it always gets a good response. Folks want something they can take home with them, that doesn't cost more than loose change ($1AUD = $0.75USD approx), and we're happy to oblige. Glenn : I'm working on a BP for medieval cloak pins. It *should* be in your inbox 'bout this time tomorrow As per usual - comments suggestions,etc to the usual place (me). Enjoy!
  4. G'day Dinny! What it is is just a swage, with a round "dimple" as the bottom, and a ball as the top part. Just 'cos you asked, I'm gonna knock out one of my you-beaut plans for you and post it up.
  5. On the subject of getting rid of pigeons... I useta work at a large shopping centre (mall). One of the features of the place was a large central area, which had a roof made of white awning material. With its high ceilings, the place was sorta like a big circus tent. The thinking behind it was that there was no need to spend big dollars on lighting, as the inside was lit up by the sun, as good as daylight. Unfortunately, the pigeons loved it too. Once a pigeon moved in, we either had to catch them with a butterfly net, or put up with complaints from people when pigeons are eating off of cafe tables, etc. We solved the problem by getting a recording of a peregrine falcon (falco peregrinus) apparently, they eat pigeons like no-one's business. Anyway, we'd run that recording twice a day over the PA, and chuck up some wooden cutouts, painted up like falcons, and the pigeons were not to be seen again. It was so effective, the pet shop guy was complaining within a couple days. Apparently, falcons eat pretty much *any* small bird. Oops! :)
  6. G'day Stephan! Here's what I do: Get a good, deep fire going. Make sure it's free of all crud, clinker, and whatnot.Put the steel fairly high up in the fire. Get the whole thing up to an orange heat. Flux liberally. Now, if you're having problems with getting a welding heat, I would suggest getting one side up to near welding heat, then flipping the whole thing over, then repeating until both sides are hot enough. Failing that, put the axe head in on edge. Heat up one edge, weld it, then turn it over and repeat. Hope this helps!
  7. Here's a story... just in time for Halloween! I was hardening a drawknife in our oil tub one day. Whilst I was doing so, something bobbed up to the surface. "Hello" I thought "Someone dropped a rag into the oil tub!" Not so. When I checked the 'rag' a bit closer, it turned out that a rat had gnawed through the chipboard lid of our tub, driven on by the smell of waste cooking oil, fell in and drowned. To this day, my favourite tongs are known as "the rat tongs."
  8. Well, now someone has brought up the Aborignal people of Australia, I reckon I'll chuck my $0.02 worth in again BTW, I recommend anyone with a passing interest in this kind of history check out "Guns, Germs and Steel". It should be available from your local library. The difference between Australian natives and American natives was the fact that Aborigines never adopted agriculture. Why? Well, Australia has one of the most unpredictable climates in the world. You can have droughts that last ten years, followed by a year or two of good growing conditions, then back to drought again. Agriculture never took off, because there was no way to guarantee a steady supply of food. Couple that with the fact that no native animals are suitable for domestication, and you have a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. For the record, Aborigines *did* practice aquaculture, but it was not widespread. Contrast that with Native Americans. The climate was reasonably temperate, allowing crops to grow reliably. The only difference between them and Europeans was the lack of domesticated animals, at least any suitable for pulling a plough. As has already been mentioned, the Native Americans were doing quite nicely, thank you, with tools of stone and bone, so there was no pressure to discover new methods of toolmaking. In short: Necessity is the mother of invention.
  9. Yep... doing ashtrays, I get em up to a red and carefully close up the gaps, with a smaller hammer. It makes for a shallower bowl, but it's quite the conversation piece. You may want to consider putting small divots in the last "wrap" somehow to hold a cigarette in place.
  10. Mr Smith

    Payback

    Nice work! What's it made from? What kind of handle is that? Details, please!! Keep them coming!
  11. You *could* do it Couple of metres of rebar, a water pump, and you've got a nice water feature! :)
  12. G'day Alan! Thanks for the photos - some nice work there - I'm working on drawknives and chisels at the moment, so it's good to see how other folks do the same thing.
  13. G'day all! I decided I'm gonna chuck one of these up every week or so, or whenever I get around to it. Comments, suggestions, requests, all are gladly accepted. These are some bowls I make from time to time. They go great as gifts, and remind me of pots I useta make in primary school. I could only find one I made from rebar - ignore the rust - I finished with spray, rather than beeswax.
  14. A friend of mine lives in an older area of Perth, and has a gate at the front of her house with almost this kind of thing on it. I dunno if it helps, but I'd say that, looking at it, the points were forged to a square, then flattened on the diagonal (ie. with the "square" sitting on one edge). There is the imprint of the anvil edge on them, so I'd say they were resting on the very edge of the anvil. Does that description help? I'm not much for explanations :)
  15. I had a spark go into my eye once when someone else was forge welding. The next time I was at the opticians, I asked for prescription safety glasses. Every now and again, a piece of (usually hot) crud ricochets off one of the lenses, and I stop and think "They just paid for themselves." Even one day spent hurting is one day too many.
  16. You shoulda asked for a non-smoking cat! Nice little kitty anyhoo! Congratulations!
  17. I was always told that a good weld can be stronger than the parent metal. There are bending forks that I made when I first started out, that are still going strong.
  18. G'day! I've done some reading up on the subject (via Wikipedia) and it seems there are three main reasons for fitting shoes. 1. Diet. Apparently the feed they get in domesticity are low in Beta carotene, which is an essential nutrient for hooves. Wild feed equals stronger hooves. 2.Travel. A horse in the wild is constantly walking and feeding. This walking stimulates and hardens the "sole" of the horses foot, and it becomes hard like a callus. A domesticated horse walks much less, the hooves become weakened and are more vulnerable to injury. 3. Weight. When you add the weight of a person, the hooves wear quicker. There's other stuff, but the main idea is that wild horses don't need shoeing, domestic ones do, largely because of the fact that they are domesticated. It's sort of a catch 22 :)
  19. So much for the much praised free trade agreement, eh? Maybe we'll become like Amsterdam. Will Australia become a haven for those wanting to try the banned substances in our cafes? I foresee a burgeoning trade in smuggling the precious goo into the US, hidden in tins of axle grease. Vive la resistance!!
  20. I know - apologies. The writer is very much encouraging the "I want to make a sword - tell me how!" types, but the forge was the reason for the link. A picture speaks a thousand words, dontchaknow!
  21. G'day guys! I've been watching this thread for a while - very interesting reading! I would say that a couple of thoughts have crossed my mind vis-a-vis Native Americans and smithing. Firstly, there is a map of Aboriginal tribes and their territories prior to white settlement hanging on the wall in one of the corridors at my university. Desert areas tend to have larger territories, and higher rainfall areas have smaller territories. I'd imagine this is because you need a larger area to support a viable population. With that in mind, it becomes a question of necessity - Do you need to shoe horses, if you can cover your entire territory in less than a week? If horses are needed, you just might need to change horses more often. Remember that many cultures used shoes of leather and even straw, prior to the invention of metal horseshoes. Secondly, economy - A Native American could, more than likely, obtain furs and trade goods by themselves, easier than they could make objects of steel. It would make more sense to trade even a whole lot of furs for one tomahawk, being as collecting the furs would be a whole lot less time-consuming than smelting, forging hardening and all the other processes involved. Remember that in colonial times, even the smallest scraps of metal were hoarded by the local blacksmith. How much do you think would be available to the local natives? If we consider that tools made of wood, stone, and bone were at least servicable, compared to steel, then the relative abundance of that kind of material, compared to iron and steel would certainly tip the scales in favour of "the old ways." Personally, I think that Native Americans more than likely went without metal working, except in close proximity to European settlement. A good book to read on this kind of topic is Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel." It has also been made into a TV special by PBS.
  22. G'day all I noticed there was some discussion on Vegemite in the forums and chat room of late, so this might raise a few eyebrows. According to today's (Sunday's) paper, Vegemite has recently been banned in the US! It can no longer be imported! It contains folate, which apparently only allowed as an additive in certain foods, of which vegemite is not one. Can anyone confirm this? Or have I been sucked in by the latest rumour??
  23. I usually squash them straight in a leg vice. It's a two-man job, but it works. Then all that is needed is to straighten the rod over the anvil.
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