JHCC

Reply: "Great! How much you want for it?"

Is this just "in theory", or has anyone actually done this?

Just a matter of time....

Gotcha. Thank you for all this. Very interesting, indeed.

Okay, that makes sense, but why then are we cautioned against hitting too hard when forge welding?

Well, that's what a degree in Ancient Greek will do for you! I'm sorry, Thomas, but which one is your contention? That all forge welds are solid state welds? Or that basic forge welds may include a liquid state, but more skilled smiths can produce solid-state welds at lower temperatures? Not quite the same thing. (I'm not arguing with you, by the way; just trying to understand what you're saying.)

All this makes perfect sense, but are you saying that all forge welds are solid-state welds? Is it not possible that your basic forge weld does indeed involve a liquid phase, but that increased mastery gives the ability to execute solid-state welds at lower temperatures?

It's an industry term.

Yeah, that's one way to put it....

A friend of my old boss got drafted into the army during the Vietnam War. He was from Puerto Rico and had never even experienced below freezing when they sent him off to mountain training school. He decided he'd better start liking the cold, so he switched to cold-water-only showers and ended up becoming the president (in later years) of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club. There was once a great photo in the paper of him on the beach on New Year's Day, sitting on a block of ice and eating a popsicle.

This was my understanding as well; hence the admonition not to hit too hard and squirt the liquefied surface metal out of the weld.

On the other hand, this was what I looked like when we started dating in the early Eighties -- that is, before I could even grow a beard. (And coincidentally, this is my ID card from the intro blacksmithing classes I took at PCA with Fred Crist.)

Alaska winters are just like Florida summers. You'll love it.

Another hobby/amateur blacksmith here. Never done it professionally, probably never will, had a twenty-some year hiatus between when I did it a lot in my teens and twenties and when I restarted a few months ago. Am I a blacksmith? Yes. Am I as good a blacksmith as some/all/most of the folks on this site? Not even close. Do I enjoy it? Yes. Is it a fun hobby? Yes. Is it a cool thing that I can do with my autistic son? Yup. Will I ever be the next Samuel Yellin/Bob Kramer/Brian Brazeal/Uri Hofi/Steve Sells/Frosty the Lucky/ThomasPowers? Nope. Does that bother me particularly? Less and less with each passing day. I know what I am, and I know the limits of my knowledge and skill. I am trying to expand those limits and get better at, as Jim Coke says, forging on and making beautiful things. And that makes me a blacksmith.

Lots of funnel weaver spiders, which are NOT the same as the Australian funnel web spiders. Lots of nonvenomous snakes. Yeah, gotta love Ohio. And then the inch-and-a-half long horseflies come out....

My old teacher recommend a good boil in dishwasher detergent, preferably in a covered pan that you didn't plan to cook in ever again.

In answer to the original question, I first caught the blacksmithing bug from a guy who had a portable forge set up at a craft fair where my dad was selling his Shaker bentwood boxes. I cranked the blower on his forge for a couple of days, and he let me forge a fireplace poker. In answer to the tangent, my day job is as a professional fundraiser for a private liberal arts college -- the art museum of which has some really nice Yellin gates and window grilles.

"Oh! are ye men, and have ye hearts of steel?" -- John Stanyon Bigg, "The Huguenot's Doom"

My most recent serious beard. (And no, I don't have a nose ring. That was a joke.)

Better than my first one!

Welcome, Jacob! Nice to see another Vermonter (even if I am currently expat in Ohio).

One of my woodworking mentors recommended using soapy water as a lubricant for sharpening with oilstones. You get the same sharpening effect, but you can then rinse the slurry off the stone and not gum it up with oil and metal particles.

How sad!

Whichever way the smoke blows, dude. Actually, according to Bob Kramer, they're basically the same thing. And he would know.

Rams...hmm, gets me thinking of the potential for football mascot-themed bottle openers: Rams, Broncos (horseheads), Eagles, etc. Of course, my local team is the Browns. Anyone making a bottle opener shaped like a pile of dung?