blkbear

Have a look at the door pulls that Dief posted. Very simple in design but elegant looking when installed. Sometimes design does not necessarily need to be complicated. Left brain thinking can be diffucult for some people. The left side of the brain is the creative side and the right side of the brain is the logical "math" side. Maybe just fooling around at the forge, as mentioned in a previous post in this thread, you can stumble across something that you can use as a basis for soemthing else. Another thing you can do is doodle. Get some paper and a pencil - erasers are not allowed here - and just let your hand draw lines and go from there. You can draw an object if you wish but part of the doodling exercise is to just let your left brain have a chance to express itself. Nothing you do is wrong. All part of the process. After a while the left brain can be creative and the right brain can see the prctical application of what the left brain is designing. Or it can happen the other way around as well. Brian Ottawa

Very nice. Simplicity in design and elegant in look. I think that that is one of the goals of design. A very good job. Brian Ottawa

Very nice! Gorgeous handle. What did you use? Looks like curly maple or something similar. Did you stabalize the wood before sculpting into the handle? Brian Ottawa

Where exactly is Peter's Valley?? Is there a web site to see? I see you are from New Jersey. If it is in or around that area it would be a nice weekend trip from Ottawa. Brian

Thanks for the link and explanation. Makes a lot of sense when considering a longer blade and by making the sword lighter would not exhaust a combatant as soon during a fight - duel or otherwise.

Welcome aboard. You will find everyone here very friendly and helpful. All are very willing to share the knowledge that they have. Also look through the blueprints. Lots of good stuff there. Brian in Ottawa/Canada

Interesting. I look forward to some more.

In certain blade designs, both knife and sword, I have seen a fuller line down the centre of both sides of the blade. Does this have a specific name as it applies to knives and swords? Does it serve a specific purpose for the blade other than just a visual element? Thanks Brian in Ottawa

Thanks for the info. I will look it up. Brian

I don't know how many of you may be familiar with this show. I watch 3 episodes on the History channel yesterday - armour, sheilds and only saw bits of a one hour episodes on swords. The show is presented by a fellow who trains actors and reenactors on the proper use of medeaval and other weaponry. Really interesting stuff. Being metal workers we would find any one of these and most likely others interesting. Lots of information and tidbits on the development of weapons and armour which are directly related to developments at the forge. Some of the things on armour was how sowmtime in the mid fifteenth centiry Italian blacksmiths and armourers figured out how to harden and then temper body armour. Now, I have not delved into blacksmithing history, etc but this really blew me away. In 1450 or 1460 something they figured out how to harden and temper the material they were using. The sword eposide showed how, after figuring out the carbon would make iron steel and make it hard, blacksmiths would pattern weld iron/steel and carbon so that they would get a piece of steel with a consistent carbon content. This also made a handsome looking patern welded sword. Lots of other interesting/fascinating info in these shows - including drawingf from the 14th and 15th century on how to use the various weapons that were available at the time. Much more sophisticated than one might imagine. I highly reccomend this show. Brian in Ottawa

In Canada the most popular - recognized remeberance for our Remeberance day is a poem called "In Flanders Fields". Always brings tears to my eyes. I was in posted to West Germany from 1977-1981 and on many trips around Europe stopped at cemeteries. Very poignant and sad. I was in my mid 20's at the time and in reading the headstones finally realized that I had already outlived the vast majority of the souls buried there. Visiting the war grave cemeteries made the whole thing very real. In the Commonwealth war graves cemetaries there was always one headstone that would choke me up. The inscription read "A soldier known unto God". Seeing hundreds, and in the case of the American cemetary near Omaha beach in Normandy thousands, of headstones really shakes you to your core. My heart is sad for their deaths but very appreciative of the sacrifice they made. If any of you make your way to Ottawa we have a brand new war museum and I would be glad to take you there and show you around the city. Brian in Ottawa

Perosnally, I like the Australia idea best. Brian in Ottawa

We live in attached condos in Ottawa. Backyard is 15ft by 15ft and our neighbours butt right up against us on both sides. Hardwood chunk charcoal is readily available here so I am going to give it a try. Brian in Ottawa

Computers are great things for putting together a resume. You can tailor your resume to fit the position you are applying for. Excellent suggestions by all who have replied. Use keywords - words that the company has used in advertising the position and others that can be associated with the work. Keep it on topic and concise. Max 2 pages. If need be you can adjust the line height of spaces using your computer to squeeze maybe another line or two but don't be frivilous with what you include. As for outside work activities sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I know that it is annoying to get this kind of wishy washy advice. Do some research on the company before you finalise your resume and send it in. Besides finding out more about the company you can find out about the company's employees. Do they participate together in company sponsored bowling leagues? Softball? Other sports? If so that mey be part of a compnay's strategy in team building. here it may take a bit more digging and asking around. At one point in the past 3M looked for people who worked good in teams and used the outside work to develop a sense of belonging to a team. I dunno. Just suggestions but doing research on the company can help with building a resume and impress an interviewer when they ask if you have any questions or if you incorporate company info in answers. Show individual initiative. Good luck Brian

The cat will be upset (hahahahaha!!!) when she sees that I am heading outside and not cleaning out her box with the new stuff. Brian

I scavengened a gas bbq from the garabge. I have cleaned it up and painted it black and am looking to fill the inside with the liner. The plan is to drop in a fire box and fill the area around it with the liner material. I will be have a 3 inch pipe connected to the fire box out the bottom of the forge to another 3 inch pipe which will be connected to my blower. There will be ash dump at the bottom of the down pipe and air damper in the side pipe. I will also be cutting down the sides of the bottom section of the BBQ/forge so that I can move long/large pieces into the fire. Brian

Thanks for the info Charles but I am building a coal/charcoal forge. Brian

Hello folks. I am in the process of making an old gas BBQ into a portable forge. I want to line it with furnace liner. I have a recipe that I printed from this web site but am at a loss to find out what one ingredient is. The recipe is: 4 gallons fireclay, 4 gallons silica sand, 3 quarts borax powder and 4 gallons of grog. What is grog?? I sure hope you can help me out here or if you have another recipe for forge liner, I will glad to get it from you. Thanks in advance. Brian in Ottawa

Oh man!! This stuff really irks me. Being from Canada and having to put up with the gun registry, which has cost the taxpayer over several hundred million dollars - and edging towards a billion, and is still of no use to anyone, I resent the government telling me what I can and cannot own or have in my possession, be it firearms, knives, toilet paper or napkins. Governments are not to be trusted with this kind of information. They will and do abuse it. Police here have defended the gun registry say they need it because they use it daily many times over. They also refuse to elaborate exactly why or what they do with the information. Although I have a lot of respect for the job they do on a daily basis, I don't think I trust them with lists of people who have weapons. Our glorious RCMP have, over the years, been successfully sued by individual firearms owners for illegal searches and seizures. Don't give them an inch because they will then take as much as they want without you even knowing about it. I participate in several organizations here that fight against hunting bans and restruictions on persoanl ownership of firearms and other weapons. Unfortunately PETA has made some strong inroads with politicians in this country as well. This, as well, does not bode well for hunters. Brian in Ottawa

TSP - I belive it is short for tri-sodium phosphate (I threw out the carton with the complete name on it) and you can get it at paint stores for one. It is used as a cleaner for surface prep on walls that you are about to paint. We have used it as such when repainting our house. I dumped 2 tablespoons in water last night that I was boiling the bones in to clean them. WOW!! After an hour the bones were clean as a whistle. I soaked them, to remove any residual chemical residue, and dried them overnight and I am going to start carving with them tonight. Actually the first use for the bone is for horns on a Musk Ox soapstione sculpture I am completing. Next use will be for handles on a series of RR spike knives I am working on. I will post pics when thwey are done. Please note that I am a slow worker in this area. My wife forbides me to work with sharp stuff if I am tired and after 31 years of wedded bliss she knows of what she talks about. So - I don't work every evening. Brian

Thanks for the info and the tip on using TSP. I have been boiling the bone for 6-7 hours in water alone and there is still some collagen on the bone. I will immediatley put some TSP in the water. We have been painting so have TSP on hand. Yes - I was also thinking about letting Mothe Nature do her thing with future bone purchases but with winter coming on I think boiling in water with TSP will be the answer. Are there any other solutions that you have used to stabalize bone nefore installation on a knife?? I have a beautiful big chunk of maple (2ft high by 2.5 ft in diameter) that will keep me in handle material as well for quite some time. I will be putting some in to stabalize this week. Brian

I am getting the raw bone from a butcher after he has trimmed off what he uses. Still bits of stuff on the bone and the marrow is still in. Brian

Hello all. I am interested in using bone for knife handles and need some advice on how to prepare bone for use. If I start with raw bone do I need to cook it and then stabalize it before use as handle material on a knife?? Thank

Very nice! Great work.

Our good news is regarding our Dacshund (wiener dog) Harley. Harleyt came into our lives a year and half ago at 4 years of age. He has been a perfect fit for everyone in our family except the cat - still some work to there. Two months ago we came home to Harley being partially imobile and holding his body very stiff. Took him to the Vet and was told that Harley had pinched a disc which was protrouding into his spnal cord cutting off the nerves. By the next day Harley was totally paralysed on the back end and had no control over his bladder and bowel. After the shock we informed the vets that regardless we were not giving up on Harley and putting him down or givining him away. We would deal with whatever came along with this. Now, two months later, Harley has control of his bladder and bowel and is walking and running again. He is not 100% but hey, anything is better for him. The vets are very impressed with his recovery. Harley looks a little funny when he walks and runs - the front end works fine, but the back end looks like he has had a few beers, tracking sideways and stumbling a bit. Through it all Harley never lost his zest for each day and all that it brought. A real lesson for us all. Brian in Ottawa