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I Forge Iron

Dumbaskis

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Everything posted by Dumbaskis

  1. Dumbaskis

    Barb wire

    I must admit at this point I'm finding lots of arguing about the topic here and elsewhere, and lots of generalities when it comes to universal zinc truths etc... but can someone please direct me to a document or sticky that's bold enough to tell me if I can burn off a thin layer of zinc on galvanized steel -outdoors and not breathing it -- will it come off and what color or temperature? There are obviously degrees of galvanizing from triple hot dipped and crazy thick, to a shiny, cheapo electroplating job that I see on virtually all steel cable that less mechanically inclined people would think wasn't plated (absence of rust after 6 months in a damp environment but the ends are all rusty? Yeah... But it is surely safe for me to singe off this?? Thanks in advance if you even just have a RTFM .pdf or link.... because all I can find so far in dancing around the subject in extremes from obviously erroneous "Drink milk if you feel funny, otherwise no worries" to "never ever consider forging a knife out of even the thinnest electroplated cable"... please note my primary interest in forging period is using what's around me in a pinch and knowing how to in a bigger pinch, not simply buying what's best or even consuming gallons of gas looking. I have junk all around for miles but it's not all leaf springs and bare cable magically not too rusted to use but discarded and free. I will definitely be using acid all I can in a case like this... I guess if I'm already scavenging after a social collapse or something I'll come across car batteries with acid along the way of most steel expeditions... but in a pinch just watch the flames burn a funny bluish color while holding at, maybe lighter orange steel temp range, until that stops happening and you've got a clean piece?
  2. An existing daily practice of working on archery bows professionally keeps me in the wood shop, and I have lapidary stone working supplies to augment that and/or (mainly) as a hobby making pendants, parabolic jewels... plus a love for metal and knives I'm finally setting a little evening time aside for. This will be po boy to start (as usual) but slowly grow along with he other two. The process is usually fairly painless and natural these days with a little CAREFUL ingenuity and a few pieces of junk. I wanted to grind a knife-shaped stone pendant out of Moh's hardness 7 agate one day (jade or flint-like stone, jasper). No one ever told me you could wet grind on a $40 (new) Ryobi dry grinder but I plugged one into a ground fault, stood on a rubber mat, occasionally put some coolant through the gravity fed water dispenser and/or dripped some oil down the bearings and it's been running for years. Still use it when I don't want to fire up the big arbor. That kind of thing, until you can do better. Turned a 7" tile saw into a 10" tile saw in minutes and a couple disks to prevent dishing. Until you can do better, until you can do better... never failing is never trying.
  3. Dumbaskis

    Barb wire

    Thanks; great reference. I take safety more seriously these days like I wish I had earlier, with one nightcrawler scar, and history of breathing in what I considered acceptable levels of burnt and dust-atomized minerals being released from worked stone or wood. I won't make the same mistakes again, some smithy hazards seem to pale many of those stemming from my existing sticks and stones (the big 1947 table saw, perhaps, excepted).
  4. Dumbaskis

    Barb wire

    I was wondering if I bumped this if the original poster or anyone still had the pics, or if anyone else has used barbed (or "barbless") wire? I have an entire spool of it (barbless as not to scratch horses) and will be learning to forge weld with junk and scraps like in Goddard's $50 Knife Shop book. I have done lapidary (jade, agates, local jaspers etc.) and currently, partially support myself making archery bows, all of which had their beginnings in jury-rigged McGyver-type setups, grown piecemeal from dumpster dives to modest, yet semi-professional shop areas, so I think I'll enjoy it and pick it up in an acceptable enough fashion ^_^ I guess a thin layer of galvanize zinc just scales/burns off?
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