Ramsberg

Can't believe that was seven years ago, seems like it was yesterday. As a note, it wasn't the pipe that was dangerous, it was the coating on it. Most all heavy metal poisining comes from zink or paint coatings being ground or burned off of the bit of metal. One breaths in the fumes and it is absorbed via the lungs, the same things occurs when welding without proper ventilation. Some intense alloys are dangerous, but they are not that common. If you keep to mild steel, which is a low carbon steel with few alloy metals and other standard steels then you will be OK. Caleb Ramsby

I hope all goes well. When you get there think about asking the doc if you could take a "mellow" test instead. Nothing heals like humor! Caleb Ramsby

Two tips, well three really. Firstly, try to shine a bright light into the crack and to see if you can determine how old the rust is inside the crack. If the rust and deep part of the crack looks old, then it has proved it can take it. Second, rub a bit of chalk around the hardy hole to see if there are any more cracks. Also rub the chalk around the crack as far as the crack goes to see if it is longer then it apears to be. Thirdly, your picture is a bit out of focus, one that is in focus would really help in the diagnosis. Caleb Ramsby

No, I talk at the same volume regardless of the ambient noise level. I generally don't realize I am doing it unless someone else is around and gives me a weird look. . . Caleb Ramsby PS. Dodge, I mis-read your quote as "Impress, Adapt and Overcome! " did a bit of a double take! HA!!!

Just an idea, I have not tried it, but what about holding the work in the vise with V blocks and have the area you want to drift above the vise. The work may bend a bit, maybe too much, may be worth a try though. Caleb Ramsby

This link should work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctEJ-rCkm3c Goofy fun, I like it! Caleb Ramsby

There is something that I don't really understand here. It said that he was hit in the back of the head by the broken wheel. Does this infer that it occured when the wheel wasn't having metal pressed to it? As in he was turned around to grab a different piece of work and it broke apart. Back in the 40's my Grandfather was working in an industrial forge shop and while grinding by hand the point of a 2" diameter by 12" long drill bit on a very large grinding wheel, a fellow worker came up behind him and "goosed" him! My Grandpa spun around and smashed the guy in the face with the base of his fist which was holding the drill bit, which sent him to the ground for a few minutes. Fortunatly I have heard of more playing around in the shop then I have seen first hand. I flat out don't allow it around any machines or dangerous equipment, my Grandpa could have easily had that drill thrown through his guts. I am not saying this is what occured at Berkley Forge. Maybe we could use this tragic accident to start a movement to replace grinding wheels with belts, belts are dangerous in their own right, but I don't think they are nearly as dangerous as grinding wheels. Caleb Ramsby

I must admit that I have been watching it too. I really hope that it grows as a sport. As they say, "What is old, is new again. " It is rather fraught with danger, but so is football, hockey, lacross and many other physical "impact" sports. Just like race car driving, they are 100 times as aware of the danger then static on-lookers are. Heck, blacksmithing isn't exactly the safest ocupation or hobby, far from it. Everyone picking up hammer and tongs should be very aware of the potential for danger they are facing, some are not but that is no ones fault but their own. Probably the most dangerous thing in any shop is the grinding wheel. That machine has probably produced more tragedy then all the others in a standard blacksmithing shop. Such as is evidenced by the recent and unfortunate death at Berkeley Forge and Tool. If this jousting takes off, then it may really help bring back some glory to the draft horses! Caleb Ramsby

Very nice metal work, love the camera work, hate the music. Caleb Ramsby

Say, thanks BSPeter and Peacock! In 100 years I don't think I would have guessed that one! I am curious about something. Do you fellas know if they used special racing shoes for horses back then? As I stated before, my Great-Grandpa trained pacers and trotters and I am wondering if his apparent horseshoeing expertise could have come from or been usefull in his race horse training buisness. Caleb Ramsby

Hey Smoothbore, Glad that you got a kick out of the photo! I am not sure, but I believe the vehicle was supposed to be a Model T type truck. I have attached a close up crop from a higher resolution scan of the vehicle. Can you identify what it could be? For a while after this was taken, he had his own small trucking company, which operated up until the 40's or 50's I believe. I have a feeling that you would get a big kick out of reading, "Excuse My Dust" by Bellamy Partridge. Hey Montana7, I have also included a close up "lever type vise" . I have been told it is used especially for rapidly clamping and pounding out the calk on the shoes. I also included a closeup of one of the other vises in the "anvil and vise" photo. There is yet another vise that can be seen in the "shoe hammer" photo. That shoe hammer I believe is called a "cats eye" hammer. It appears that he had two seperate work stations setup. One on the left of the photo for general smithing, then the other with the shoers anvil and vise for shoeing. Of note is that he also had a buisness partner, whom he eventually bought out, as well as at least one full time striker. Hey Seldom, Yes, there is a great deal of other stuff that one can see has been produced in the photo. My Grandfather had donated his fathers "books" from the blacksmith shop to the local library/museum. In it were records of exactly what items he made, services he provided and what prices they were made and done for. Unfortunattly there was a flood in their basement and the books were destroyed! It is really a shame. Does anyone have a clue as to what the strange curved shapes are as seen in the "strange curves closeup" file? There is what appears to be a horseshoe with the curve of it smashed flat. It is wild, looking closely at the higher resolution scan there are horseshoes and boxs of horseshoe nails absolutly everywhere! To return this to the original post, I believe that at the time most smiths bought their shoes in bulk, in different sizes then simply adjusted them to the horse. Maybe some smiths in the middle of nowhere who only shoed a few horses a year made their shoes from scratch, but mostly I believe they were bought in bulk. Now here is a question, has anyone here ever made a "sword" out of a horseshoe? HA!!! I must admit that what agrevates me more then anything else is people wondering if I make swords! I just don't get the whole sword obsession. Caleb Ramsby

I should also mention that he trained Pacers and Trotters for the local race track. He also had a pet ram. The local bar would only let him in with his ram if he used the back door. . . likewise he was one of the first in the town to get an internal combustion powered vehicle. . . so maybe he wasn't the "usual" blacksmith. Caleb Ramsby

My Great-Grandfather was a BLACKSMITH! Picture circa about 1920's or so. The picture is near 4 megs in size, hope that isn't too great of an issue. Caleb Ramsby

Heck yeah! Each of those videos should sell 100 tools each! It is unfortunatly rare to see such high quality video production techniques in the blacksmith world. Of particular note is that these are made to sell work to the customer, not teach other smiths, every full time smith here should take a page out of his book! Great work too, by the way, I really enjoyed watching them! Caleb Ramsby

Hey Metal99, I have a question. It is in regards to your journey to where you are now in metal working. Did you get sidetracked by the alure of working hot metal under the hammer during your quest for knife production? I ask because I got started in blacksmithing because I was getting into wood carving and found that the best and most expensive were produced by hand by blacksmiths. So, I figured that with enough study and work I could produce some chisels that would at least be usable. What ended up happening is that the hot metal kinda took over and I never really got to the chisel production. Just droped the wood carving and went with blacksmithing. Great story by the way, it really goes to show where real motivation can come from! It also shows that some whom first appear to be "a waste of time" , are actually often the most worth while of attention. Caleb Ramsby

Hey SmoothBore, To paraphrase, "Complex thought yields simple, effective designs. " I really like that one! Add to it: "The simplist machine does not always have the fewest parts. " and "Engineering is a series of compromises. " Then we get a trifecta that should be painted on the wall of every shop that devises and builds machines, assuming of course that the workers speak english. Thanks for your thought provoking observations. Caleb Ramsby

Hey Daniel, Glad you found it! Very odd, I had thought that I had given a direct link, then checked mine and it goes to the list, I must have copied the wrong link or something, weird. Caleb Ramsby

Hey Mark, I don't have any comments relevent to the thread, I just wanted to say that if there were an award for the coolest picture deal that goes with ones name on here, that you should win it. What an awesome picture! Caleb Ramsby

Hey Daniel, I see the height of your building is set to be between 8 and 10 feet. Making it 10 feet tall would be much better for blacksmithing purposes. Not only does it give a greater volume of precious air and keep the hot stuff away in the summer, but it also allows much more "head room" for swinging a large sledge hammer or manipulating longer pieces of stock around. For keeping your rail anvil straight and upright(good job on making it vertical, more mass under the hammer) I would suggest getting a few 3/8" or so lag bolts and some large diameter, 1/8" thick or more washers. The washers could also be made from thick sheet metal by cutting out square pieces and drilling a hole for the lag bolt to go through. Use the lag bolts and big washers to attach the rail to the timber by drilling guide holes in the timber and screwing in the lag bolts so that the washers under them lap over onto the rail and grasp it to the timber. You would want the lag bolts to basically butt right up against the sides of the rail anvil. If you get ahold of a post vise, your wood post that holds up the rail anvil would be a perfect place to mount it. Just on the opposite side of it as the rail anvil. Actually that kind of setup gives me a few ideas. . . hummm. That would be increadibly convenient for switching from vise to anvil. It looks like you have already made some good progress with your hooks! If you don't mind I would like to suggest a really great project that will help develop your ability to produce curves rapidly. It is the Treble Cleft Chime by Bill Epps, as liked to bellow. http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/ From your analogy in your first post in this thread, this really sounds right up your alley. It was one of the first things that I made, besides the simple hooks like yours and although it is challenging to get correct, it is very rewarding when it is done right! The original is for 1/2" round stock, 36" long. I had found that the varience in stock width should be reflected in the original stock length otherwise the proportions don't look right. Such as 1/4" stock would be 18" long originally and 3/8" would be 27" long. I also found that making the treble cleft from square stock, with it bent "on the diamond" that is with the corners sticking out in the bends. I liked that a lot more then using round stock to make it, but that may just be personal preference. Keep up the progress! Caleb Ramsby

I am very curious about something. At 32 years of age, I am asking those who have been around a rather long time if they could point to a period in history when the reference to adults was prefixed with Mister, Miss or MIsses and when that bit of respect was droped. From reading fictional books I have found that it was around the 60's or so, depending on author and genre, that it was more then less droped from that subsect of society. My observation is that it is becoming much more difficult for the youth to rebell. Probably the two best things the youth does are to rebell and cause havoc. Technically my generation, that is the generation of my peers, is not my generation, seeing as how my eldest sibling was then very close to the age of my peers parents ages. I rather rapidly discovered that my idea of rebeling and that of my peers, was a rather large step apart! I had a point, ahh yes, as I stated and as has others, youth rebels. As an elder friend of mine said, "If the young didn't rebel, then they would never leave the house and go off to make children of their own. " This is partially true, since historically often there would be three generations of a family living in a single house or building, but I believe the point is valid. What I am getting at here is that when one looks back to say, the early 1800's, the youth on this continent were brought into an increadibly strict society. This was a time when honor was king amoungst men and duels, to the death and otherwise, were common place. The youth at that time made their step in rebelion, then fast forward to the early 1900's and one can see that many steps of rebelion have occured in that 100 years. Yet again, leap forward to our time now and another 100 years of rebelion or as some may call it, "social advancement" , has occured and for the youth to rebell now requires a massive effort. As a historical reference. When Sir Hiram Maxim was tromping about Europe and demonstrating his new gun to various nations, he had an increadibly difficult time gathering employees which were not drunks. To the extent that men who claimed to be tea tottlers, would disapear for days, lost in pubs, spending every penny they had on drink. Now, exactly how is that respectfull? Sir Hiram Maxims autobiography "My Life" is a very fascinating read for anyone who has an interest not only in the creation of machines, but also in a true historical perspective on the working conditions and workers of the mid to late 1800's. Bellow is a link to a free to download google scan of it: http://books.google.com/books?id=NLw_AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22My+Life%22+Sir+Hiram+Maxim&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ny1YT6z-J4f10gHiiqGgDw&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22My%20Life%22%20Sir%20Hiram%20Maxim&f=false Click on the little gear looking bit on the top right of the page to open up the options for download file type or one can read it direct on the link. Note, Sir Hiram Maxim was an American. Mr. Ramsby

LDW makes an excellent point! There is a vast difference between blindly sharing knowledge, passing on tips and teaching one to learn! I consider myself to be extremely fortunate in that I was home schooled for 5 years, by parents who were both professional teachers at one time. More then anything else they taught me how to teach myself. So that in the years after my schooling I have been able to greatly expand my knowledge in any subject I wish to. Unfortunatly many people have never been given this type of schooling and have instead been taught to learn by following instructions. Getting a bit off piont here, but that is a massive issue for many who attempt to transition from High School to a College or University. In the later it is assumed that the student will figure out what to study and how to study it, while in the former it is all spoon fed, with some exceptions of course. One technique that my father would use was to intentionaly arive at class late(as the teacher) with instructions for someone to step up and take over the class if that happened. The Principal was not very fond of this practice, but it really got the students involved on a much higher level of learning. It also exposed who in the class was most responsible and capable. Some are neither. The point of this rant is that teaching ones self is very difficult, teaching someone else is even more difficult and teaching someone else to teach themselves is the most difficult of all, except for maybe teaching someone else to teach someone else to teach themselves. Frankly, there are a lot of people who outright stink at teaching. I have a feeling that most of them are the same people who use the statement, "Those who can't do, teach. " , I would suggest the statement, "Those who can't teach, do, and shouldn't try and teach! " There are a few such as Frank Turley and Brian Brazeal who excell at teaching not just how to make things, but as LDW pointed out, the why of the how to do it more efficiently. Through out history, true sages have been very rare, but they have existed and period writings indicate that they were sought after to answer difficult questions. There was one sage I read about who lived in Japan, can't recally the exact time period or his name, but he dictated that anyone could ask of him any question and he would devote all of his wisdom and focus to answering it. His condition was that once he began to answer, the questioner had to sit and listen to the whole answer. One such answer took over 10 hours to give! There being people who lack patience and respect, but are foolish and greedy is nothing new at all. The ancient Chinese produced clay drinking cups which if filled to the top would spill through a cleverly hidden and routed hole in its side, if however it was only partially filled, it would not spill on the drinker. Maybe what we all really need is a "Teachers Corner" which would be a seperate deal like the "Members Projects" and intended to be used by those who know how to teach, to teach others how to teach! I have a feeling that almost anyone who has been blacksmithing for half a year or more has had people ask them to teach them how to do some basic smithing and although there is a lot of information out there about how to do the basic smithing, there is very little if any at all about how to TEACH the basic smithing! Caleb Ramsby

That sure looks like it does the trick! One thing that I have done is to wrap an old towel, cut down to a hand width strip and shortened, then wrap it around the stock between the hot end and the hand end. Soak it a bit before use, wring it out to keep it from dripping all over the place. Then when in use and while heating stock dribble some water on the wraped towel to keep it wet and cool. This technique keeps one from getting water all over the place, just don't wrap your hand around the towel to hold onto the work, it may steam and burn you. My father taught me this technique when I was learning soldering copper tube. If one is soldering close to an already soldered joint, a wraped and wet towel will keep the already soldered joint cool. Caleb Ramsby

Hey Mick, Awesome looking paper weights! What about a larger "laptop weight" ? HA!!! Your mention of the massive billet intruiged me a bit, here is what I was able to dig up. http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/2155-biggest-damascus-billet-ever-done/ The link in the thread linked to above was dead so I went to the wayback machine. http://web.archive.org/web/20090123232228/http://www.7knifedwarfs.com/aw/2006/09/monster-huge-damascus-bar.html Unfortunatly it didn't capture the pictures, but it did capture the text. Just curious, what is your normal selling price for those paper weights? Caleb Ramsby

Thomas, that's just EVIL, but very funny!

A story: About eight years ago, my sisters, at the time, boyfriend asked me to show him how to forge an axe. Well, sure says I, more then happy too. When I asked him what type of axe he wanted to make he said that since he was a child he had dreamed of making a 100 lb axe. . . yes 100 lbs! I was a bit stunned and asked him what in the world he would do with it. He said that he would use it in the "play fighting" that he and a few friends did, sudo reenactments of Medieval sword play and such. I had to point out a few things, firstly one can't "play fight" with a 100 lb axe, even if it were dull it would cause severe blunt force trauma, secondly, my forge was not nearly powerfull enough to heat even part of a 100 lb axe, much less my anvil and hammers capable of forging it properly! What I did was instruct him in forging a crude knife blank and gave him some advice and directed him to resources on heat treating and grinding the blank. Before we started I told him that "Even an idiot deserves a chance to learn. " I must admit that said statement was a bit harsh, but it was how I felt. I don't know if he continued down the blacksmithing or bladesmithing path, but at least he got the chance at a crash course in the basics of heating, holding and hitting metal. I must say that this forum is very docile compared to the light steam power forums that I frequent. They have members which can be increadibly harsh to ignorant persons which are looking for or demanding outlays of knowledge, even at times some members demand that such persons be banned from the forum. I have never seen anyone here be banned because they are ignorant, instead they have been pointed to where the knowledge is. Back to the original question. A cool litte "soup nazish" gyro place near me has a sign inside which reads, "If you are talking on your cell phone we reserve the right to serve the next person in line. " . To that point, I can't say if people seeking knowledge have the "right" to acquire it, but I do know that those with the knowledge very much have the right to keep it to themselves! Todd Marinovich, who was for a short period of time the Raiders Quarterback, ended up, for a number of reasons, quiting the NFL. He is an increadible athelete and quarterback, arguably one of the best that has existed. After he quit, he would be out and about and people would recognize him, become furious, walk over and say, "You should be ashamed of yourself! If I had you ability I would never have thrown it all away, I would have. . . " Generally he would just smile, nod and walk away from them. In an interview he stated, "This really infuriated me! Although I was born with atheletic genes, I worked every day from when I was a tiny child on becoming a better football player. My very first steps were on a football field and for my whole life I had not only spent hours and hours everyday practicing, but had a very regimented diet as well. I didn't have a hamburger until I was away at college! The fact is that these people DIDN'T put in the work that I did, I didn't just magically acquire my abilities, they came from very hard work and thusly they were mine to do with what I wanted, NOT THEIRS! " That is paraphrasing a bit. My point here is that although I try and share what very little knowledge I have with people, I also believe that those with the knowledge and ability have the right to keep it to themselves if they wish to do so. It is theirs and they earned it through their effort and work, even if the original knowledge was given to them freely, they earned their ability through their work and I am overjoyed and honered when they share it freely with such ignorant persons as myself. Caleb Ramsby