Shawn

Does anyone have a pattern for an acanthus leaf that they can email me? Thanks [email protected]

Bois d'arc is known in Texas as Horse Apples. The wood is good for handles and wooden mallets. The fruit or apples do have a use. They are great for chunking battles. Just make sure you are not hit by one. They hurt like all get out.

In reference to what dablacksmith had to say...I get a lot of people who expect it to be cheaper, "after all, you made it yourself". And then there are the ones who want a special deal. Well, just because I give them a deal doesn't mean that my materials are less or my labor is less. I used to give special deals as I felt like some money was better than no money. I found that if I gave one person a deal the word got around and I was having to give everyone a deal. That has changed. I no longer give a deal. If they want it they will pay the price. I am not a production shop and each item is made one at a time. There is a lot of cheap stuff from Mexico, China, India, etc. But people who care can tell the difference and feel the difference. Fortunately the housing market is not very depressed here and there are plenty of millionaires here who are tire of the typical welding shop stuff (go to the steel supply place, buy parts, and weld them together). But yeah, general sales at demos and the like are down. People, in general, are strapped.

right click on the "download" button. In the drop down box choose "save target as". Choose a save location and save it. When it downloads you can open it at your leasure without waiting forever (if you have slow modem dial-up).

your gasser should have no problems getting to welding heat. It will not sparkle. Increase the pressure. contact the forge manfac to find out the correct setting for welding. be sure to use a ss steel liner to protect the refactory from flux

You hear a lot of talk about using brine for quinching but seldom anyone can tell you how to make it. I was looking at a sheet on hardening and tempering different steels. Many of them called for a 5-10% brine solution. In a little footnote at the back there were directions. A 5% brine solution is made using 1 pint of raw salt (rock salt) to 9.5 qts of water. A 10% brine solution is made using 1 qt of raw salt to 9 qt of water. They made a warning not to use table salt as there are additives that can cause unwanted reactions in the steel.