JHCC

Current thinking on hot-cut hardies is that they not be hardened. A decent piece of steel (e.g., normalized 5160) will still be harder than your workpiece at forging temperature, so you shouldn't have any issues with it being able to cut. As you've noticed, a softer hardy will reduce the risk of damaging a hammer on a missed blow. (I actually had this happen to me yesterday, when an over-mighty blow to cut some 5/8" coil spring glanced off the workpiece and struck the hardy with almost full force. BIG dent in the hardy; not a scratch on the hammer. Ten seconds with the grinder, and the hardy is as good as new. I'm okay with that.)

I run away from flee markets.

Someone was throwing out this lovely cargo carrier. I think I shall make it into a soon-to-be-cluttered-up horizontal surface.

Did you order the rice coal or the nut coal from TSC?

And today, in addition to a doorstop for a coworker and a cross for Lisa’s office (new job — yay!), I made a knife for a friend who’s been badgering me for one. He did my mother-in-law’s memorial service, so I owe him big time. (Forged, hardened, and tempered; still needs to be sharpened.)

I just finished a new “Andy hammer” (named for Andy McKenzie/ @Everything Mac, from whom I got the idea) — it’s a heavy metal holder for a wooden head and packs quite a punch. Mine is made from rebar, but Andy’s is a piece of pipe welded to a handle.

Just so long as they all go to heaven….

Jasent wants us at his bick and call.

Most versions of these that I have seen have a “V”-shaped notch (rather than the flat-bottomed “U” shown here), to accommodate variations in thickness. If you know that your stock is going to be consistent, though, I like how these align the side of the spike with the plane of the reins.

That explains why it’s upside-down.

The word you want is “bickern”.

Congratulations!

I did miss that; my apologies.

Side Effect 28: “I’ll put a Band-Aid on this cut in just a second.“ = “I’ll put a Band-Aid on this cut when the blood starts making the hammer handle too slippery.”

Also finished up my Andy hammer.

As noted over in the “What did you do in the shop today” thread, the wire proof-of-concept slide (see top photo) gave up the ghost, so I made a new one from 1/2” round: Close-up of how it’s attached: The tabs are a bit thin, because I accidentally made them too short and had to draw them out a bit more than originally planned. Still nice and solid, though.

The wire proof-of-concept back rail of my motorcycle chain hold-down gave up the ghost, so I made a new one from 1/2” round: Close-up of how it’s attached: The tabs are a bit thin, because I accidentally made them too short and had to draw them out a bit more than originally planned. Still nice and solid, though.

Really nice work. Well done. I must say, though, that the stained plywood is something of a disappointment and (apart from the quality of the lettering, which is very nice) looks a bit cheap. There’s also not a lot of contrast between that brown and the lettering, which really needs to stand out a bit more.

I can vouch for this.

@yves, why am I only now discovering your website? There is some great information on there.

Well, it wasn’t a Mousehole, so it was “good enough”!

I can’t believe that no-one’s pointed out the obvious problem with that anvil: with that color of corrosion, it’s obviously made of copper! Just kidding. Looks great (for a non-Mousehole), and definitely a fantastic price. Keep us posted.

Make the stand from one long piece of stock, about 36” long. Punch a 1/8” hole 12” from one end and make a 1/8” tenon at the far end. Bend the long section between the hole and the tenon into whatever shape of base you like, insert the tenon into the hole, and dome over its outside end. Shape the remaining 12” section into the vertical part of the stand. (One detail, whatever you do for the base: as you draw out the stock for the hook, give it an oval cross section, and turn the hook the hard way to make the oval vertical. That will be nice and strong, but will slip more easily between the banana stems.)

That’s very clever.

I wonder sometimes if that film is running at true speed — it seems just a hair sped up as so many early films do when played on later equipment. Impressive technique, nonetheless. Let’s assume that a nail that takes ten seconds in the film really took fifteen. That’s four nails per minute, 240 nails per hour, 2,400 nails in a ten-hour workday.