Sam Thompson

Thanks for all he advice; I should make it clear: It's not mine. It's not on my property. Neither I nor my mate have any intention of opening the bottles. If anyone wants it I will put them in touch with the owner.

Hi Beth, I'll ask him and pm you. Yes, Steve I know it's dangerous although they used to let us chase it around on the benches at school 40 years ago. I believe the soluble forms are nasty, the pure metal less so.

Yes, sorry everyone, I've just realised that! It's about 4'' long, about the right size for the cotter pins on a bicycle crank.

A friend has just moved into a new workshop and has inherited from the previous owner (who repaired barometers) a couple of bottles of mercury, about 1/4 of a pint. Is it valuable and does anyone know who's likely to be interested in it? There's no provenance or documentation.

It's definitely one of these: http://metalworking.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMCTLG=00&PMAKA=02402964&returnurl=MTL&partnerURL=http://catalogs.shoplocal.com/jlindustrial/ind

I thought you Americans occupied yourselves differently during the moonlight: Get you a copper kettle, get you a copper coil Fill it with new made corn mash and never more you'll toil You'll just lay there by the juniper while the moon is bright Watch them jugs a-filling in the pale moonlight. Build you a fire with hickory, hickory, ash and oak Don't use no green or rotten wood, they'll get you by the smoke You'll just lay there by the juniper while the moon is bright Watch them jugs a-filling in the pale moonlight. My daddy he made whiskey, my granddaddy did too We ain't paid no whiskey tax since 1792 You'll just lay there by the juniper while the moon is bright Watch them jugs a-filling in the pale moonlight. B. Dylan

I'd have a walk round a few builders' merchants and ask them for advice. With a flue that size you need to put a cowl on the top.

Obvious really... If you think about it!

It's exactly the same as the one bottom right, Thanks Bill... now I can sleep at night! Why the LH flutes?

That's what I thought at first glance; it's the tapered left handedness of it that's confusing me.

Has anyone got any idea what this is? It's tapered and it's got a square, left-handed thread. The shank shows signs of having been turned clockwise in a chuck. It doesn't look like an east-out, which usually fit into a tap wrench and the material appears to be softer (marks on shank).

I just call myself a "General Blacksmith" and people still get confused about what I do. At least I can feel superior to "Private Customer".

Comedy names lose their ability to amuse quite quickly and the suggestion of drunken incompetence won't sit well with many prospective customers.

Flint strikers?

I agree with the opinions that if the bar is M/S then it's best to leave it as forged, it's easy enough to repoint it when it wears. If a spark test shows a higher carbon content then you've got a really good deal. Go and buy a length of M/S and use that to make a digging/pry bar and use the good stuff to make something more useful. As far as practicality goes, I make them with a straight square point on one end and a chisel point bent at about 30deg, 4" in on the other end.

Who you gonna call?

Nails were sold as '1,3 or 5 clout' depending on the shape of the head. The smaller sizes were easily made in one heat, often by women working (paid at piece rates) in a shed at the bottom of the garden.

It looks like we're all right, The last few paragraphs explain it all: http://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/viewindex.asp?article_id=wb_making

I like the idea of Blacksmiths Without Borders. Crack teams of highly skilled operatives could turn up at the world's trouble spots and mend things... Fix any bent railings, repair broken fireplace equipment and rout around for useful bits of scrap; all the while holding friendly discussions about the nature of 'hand-made' and the future of the craft. When the dust has settled and normality returned, the more ambitious of us could quote for some public art to commemorate the disaster. Perhaps we could all live on a secret island somewhere in The Pacific and travel about in rockets, Fiery Furnace has a mobile forge, maybe he would lend it.

Didn't whiskey barrels originally hold sherry? I'm pretty sure that whisky barrels did.

Several times I've tried blowing oxygen into the air intake of my (coke) forge, thinking that it would make the fire hotter or something. It seems to have no effect at all. Has anyone else been bored enough to try this and can anyone explain why it doesn't work?

The fulcrum pin/spindle looks alarmingly small, is there any reason for that?

Sorry... hangle grinder.

He's got a neat touch with an angle grinder! I like the misplaced apostrophy, Did yuo meen that?

I've just found these at the back of the cupboard, they don't fit me but they are unused and in good condition. They are about a UK size 10/11. there's no maker's name but the soles say: 'Heat and oil proof' If anyone wants them they'll be £30.00 plus P+P .