Charles R. Stevens

Tommas Powers suggested soaking the handle in linseed oil, or linseed oil and solvent. This limits the srinkage of the wood handle. I rub mine in equal parts bees wax, linseed oil and turpentine. This makes a tacky wax paste. I heet the handle and rub it on. Treating the handles certainly seem to help.

My wishes and prayes go with all of you, irregardless of how you celibate the winter solstice. Hear it's Christmas, but we all bleed red and pound hot steel. Hug your cheildren and lift a cup with me!

Welcome, and well met. I'm sure you'll give as good as you get.

As a rule of thumb, aluminum is 1/2 the mass and strength of steel. Now, yes some alloys are stronger than mild steel, but if you compair high streamgth steel to high strength aluminum and mild steel to low alloy aluminum it still hold true. The advantage is in the engendered shapes, if the material is ectruded in the right shape, you can achieve aproximently 3/2 the strength for a given weight. We are talking tubing, I beam, Chanel etc. in this case it isn't the strength of the material as the inherant stiffness of a larger cross section. To use wood as an example, a 4x4 is twice as stiff as a 2x4, wile a 2x6 is as well (having a brain fade it I think it's actually 4x as stiff)

Avoid cement, it will decompose under heat. That's how the make it in the first place, limestone and clay and high heat. Use clay, clay and grog (grount fired clay) are better than clay and sand. You can improve the mix by wetting it with water glass. Ash is caustic and stabilizes the clay (keeps it from expanding and contracting when wet)

Actually HP is a measurement of work performed over time. And is based on colculations made with small pit ponies in Victorian English coal mines. Modern HP ratings are a mess, as the can be measured at the crank shaft, output shaft or the wheel. Hard to compare apples when some are whole, some are pies and others are sauce. Most modern manufactures will give you Hp at the crank shaft, this gives them a higher rating, and sounds good to the buyer. Wile old tractors where rated at the wheel, as in the actual work the tractor could perform. Big differance between a 10 Tom tractor rated at 18 HP at the wheel and a 850hp truck rated at the crank shaft. Oh, and if you ever wandered, a teem of heavy drafts can generate 25hp at the swingle tree. I've seen them pull loads at competitions that a tractor rated at more than twice that couldn't pull back down the track.

Word to the wise, your going to get chastised for your language in the tittle. Don't be put off. We all have had Glenn remind us of our manners. Welcome aboard.

I'll take all the help I can get! Not sure if any of you are qualified to provide the kind of help I really need ;-D. But I'll take advice and constructive criticism any day. Good natured ribbing is a s welcome as warnings to be safe. If you think I need to hear something, tell me, if you think it will violate Glens rules PM me.

I bet Glenn will dance a little jig when he reads that, Ivan.

We all have trouble seeing at the higher temps, some things that help are the tented glasses for gass torches, as well as using square tiled center punches and pinching ford the edge so you make a bump you can feel withe edge of the anvil or hammer, raise the anvil, or even get a magnifier on a boom.

It's unfortunet that do do abuse of the mental health system, that the forts had to step in, now it's all but impossible to get your love ones help, unless the seek it. Then the system that provides that help is a mess. The best care requires money or insurance, wich of corse you don't have because you e lost your job. For those of us that didn't fall threw the cracks, or who's friends and fammaly were able to pull us back from the brink it's a miricle. For all our brothers and sisters that are left out in the cold I still pray for them.

I appreciate your feelings Rich, and Steve. As I appreciate your time and experience. Even tho attendance may not be what you hoped, for posterity all your work and time is worth it.

If memmory serves 550-650 f makes the best. Then again that's resech.

At 10$ at Wally World it's worth e the experiment. I have a comersial hand held I liberated from my mom, 30 years ago, and I bet it was 15 years old then. Some of the cheap ones will run on DC or so I've been told. I like ac heater blower moters and clothes drier blowers as well. I like a momentary switch, as a dead man, I don't like the fire growing wile I'm not at the forge. Old automotive foot starter switches work well, but the sewing machine foot switch is easy, just change out the end that plugs in to the machine. I'll pick up one next time I find one at a thrift shop or on well at waly world. And see if I can kill it. I do know that the foot switch from a newer machine has a circuit board.

You can get a 4 gang box, and wire in a dimmer and a combination switch/receptical. The switch/ receptical can be jumperd so you have on/ off and dim all in one package. Ad a cord and all you do is plug it in to the wall, and plug the blower in to it. I use o foot reostate from a sewing machine.

The research iv done leads me to believe a indirect retort, with its lower temps will make a better grade of charcoal. Now to make the time to build one.

"Ivan, I have a mixed bag of emotional and mental health issues, to include Type II bipolar illness, ADD, PTSD, and a few mild ride alongs. Some one on the assembly line thought it would be fun to turn the gain up to 10 on my emotions. As I wasn't diagnosed till into my 20's I learned to cope to a greater, and lesser degree, but I spent a bout a year getting a handle on the fact there simply was no way for me to will myself better. The next year I spent learning to manage it. I was taught various meditation techniques as a kid and teen, both to control cluster headaches and my temper. And bit of Kempo thrown in. But the witch doctors (please if you are a psychiatrist or psychologist don't take offense) taught me biofeedback and ti Che. So I can pretty much hit the "reset button" at will. Amazing when you know how, and are skilled, one deep breath can stop an emotional run away dead in its tracks. As to the sling, don't twirl it over head. Make it so with your arm down at your side it clears the ground by, say 4-6" (so you don't hit the grass) to let fly, drop the pouch and stone strait down, and keeping your arm extended, preform an over hand throw, releasing when you are pointing at the target. Golf balls are good to practice with, large oblong fishing weight are deadly. The Romans has specialized tools to remove sling bullets from legionaries. Te over head swing is for battle field massed attacks.the overhead throw brings home dinner."

Yes sir, I don't care for cold and wet. We're socked in with fog today. Condensation on the anvil sucks

If I'm right as to what biltong is I can see the utility of havin the blade reversed, or on the top edge. But just in case my North American ignorance has led me astray, can you please explane.

I think their are a few more definitions of cold, but they wouldn't pas the family friendly test.

For me, in Oklihoma, wind chill is the determining factor. 32 deg. Is nice workin weather if the sun is shining, and the wind isn't blowing. Wile 60 deg can be misribal with wind and light rain. A wind break will help a lot, and if your using a charcoal fire, you can always light a "fuel fire" to take the chill off and provide forge fuel.

If you haven't descoverd it yeat, most chisels and hammers these days are to soft, often to thick and of the wrong profile. This includes air chisels. Be prepared to reforge and heat treat them as well as make them. Air hammer tooling is great practice for drawing down, shouldering etc to dimension

Best way would be to go and see Brian for a week. As I understand it be forges one (you striking) and then teaches you to use it. I'm saving my shekels, if I only could find a buyer for my first born....

I have a name for those kind of folks... Strikers! (Get the biggest hammer you can find) This of corse said in jest, I will offer to lease my farrier tools to an obnoxious client tho.

Double post, and eddeted. for content.