Jacques

Has she got a sister?

If you mean Durban, I can't really help you, but ianinsa lives in that area. http://www.iforgeiron.com/user/13949-ianinsa/

I made this chest a while ago. The hasp were mostly fabricated since I did not know how to forge it. The hinges were bought and hidden underneath the straps at the back. Other than that I can't help you very much, except that I felt like bragging. Oh yes, and I'm trying to fill it with money. I've got the bottom covered in small coins after three years so any donations in coins will be appreciated.

I've got a wood lathe, and I've already made my rest and the steel for the tools is lying on the table now for months waiting for me to get time.

Tiaan's original thread is here. http://www.sablade.com/forums/showthread.php?886-Rebar-knives-in-progress-photos

We had one machine in the workshop that I had to stuck a heater underneath to get it to work in the winter. In summer we didn't have any problems.

Drawing on it's own as art has just as much place in the word as technical drawing. Doing art classes will teach you a lot about proportions and relationships and would help to make your eye better at seeing what look right. Technical drawing will teach you how to make a thing absolutely right. I have to do both, and I very often go to a piece of paper to get the proportions right before I can do a CAD drawing. One free CAD package I use is Draftsight http://www.3ds.com/p...sight/overview/ Edit: Draftsight is 2D only. CAD packages that can do 3D tends to be much more complex and drawing free flowing objects in 3D in CAD is an art on its own.

Recommended waiting time for concrete is 28 days/ 4 weeks to cure properly.

I've got a big Trumpf nibbler, and I've done similar things on it, but only up to 1.6mm. I can do up to 3mm with my machine but my experience is that you need to shrink the edges some time during the process or you get the wrinkles. If you make it oversize maybe you can cut of the wrinkles, but I haven't explored that far yet.

If I were you I would not fiddle around with pressurised tanks. The last time our compressors were tested the technician told me all sort of horror stories about what he have seen when tanks burst. And I still haven't found the gauge I home fitted onto my CO2 tank. It was a scary day that.

From a more elegant age. Also a much more dirty one and I just love electricity and don't want to go back to coal myself. (except for my forge) Stopped a while ago at Cullinan while Friends of the Rail had their steam locomotive there on a corporate run and spend some time talking to the driver who was busy oiling everything with a big oil can. Interesting how very crude and chunky everything is compared to modern stuff.

Welkom by die ysterbrigade. Everything you want to know is on this forum as well as a lot of things you don't want to know but are going to find out eventually. Nothing better than doing a first good heat treatment. A more knife related South African Forum is www.sablade.co.za Contact Samurai Stu and get yourself on the SA Bladesmiths mailing list.

The crucibles I've got is made from graphite. If I were you I would buy the right stuff. Having played around a bit trying to make my own to melt aluminium the commercial ones are so much better and not expensive at all. Unless you would like to experience the pleasure of seeing a crucible failure. This remind me of that quote I've read once: "Molten alumnium vapourise flesh instantly."

www.lathes.co.uk is one of the biggest lathe sites

Do move it to my workshop. Don't move it anywhere else.

Neat, I like it. Just one question. I see that the stairs are bolted on the ring gripping around the post. Is that the only fastening for the stairs?

Nice, I see the milling attachment is included. My father have one he bought new in the sixties, if my brain cells are firing right he also has a little book showing how things go together.

www.bookfinder.com has 96 copies on their lists.

A link to some amazing sculptures by James Corbett.

"Wabi-sabi is underplayed and modest, the kind of quiet, undeclared beauty that waits patiently to be discovered." Link Now I understand slightly better.

I also had a problem with sourcing thick plate and welding it. I laid my hands on a lot of 12x12mm square bar off-cuts and welded it together. It is keeping up very well and will probably outlast me.

How can something so ugly be so beautiful?

See if you can get "Step-by-Step Knifemaking" by David Boye. It is not about smithing blades but one chapter is the complete checklist you have to follow to make a blade his way.

I've completed my first 6 knives. Forging them from spring steel and probably spending more time online reading about heat treatment than it took to actually do it. Thanks for all the postings that made this possible and here are pictures of the two better ones. If you would like to see all of them you can go my very bad blog . Now I can officially call myself a knifemaker, so are now going to work on adding the word good to that.

My first anvil was (is) a 100 kg anvil I got at the scrapyard. My second anvil was a small 25kg anvil I got at the scrapyard. My third anvil is a badly damaged 30 kg I got at the scrapyard. And I am now looking for a square piece of steel as an anvil for a specific job. I think this is the wrong way round.