v.j.hebert

Bud, I make frequent trips to my home parish, but when I do my family doesn't let me have a moment to myself. My great grandfather promised me all of his tools and scrap metal before his dementia got bad, but my great aunt stole them before I could. I look around a few places when i go home but people down there use most of their scrap and old tools. I greatly appreciate your kindness. Charlotte. The entire reason I joined this forum was to connect with people so thank you for the information. Mount Hermon in Washington parish is most certainly rural, and I never said wilderness, I said woods. Mostly pine for the timber industry. Everything here is dairy farm or pine trees, that is rural by definition.

I suppose I should give a bit of background info about myself to help you all understand my situation. I live a mostly self sufficient life out in the woods of Washington parish Louisiana. I moved here from a different parish a few years ago, people here don't like "come-heres" which is their term for someone who wasn't born in this parish. I have no connections to people here, and there's no way I could get into any junkyards or old barns or any other sources of scrap. I am recently unemployed and haven't been successful in finding a job for a few months so all of my savings are used up and I actually owe a few hundred dollars to family and friends. For this and other reasons I am trying to find a way to make a bit of money while I continue the job hunt. Lots of bees around so I decided to build hives and bait them hoping that a few swarms will take over. I need to clear alot of my land of so I plan on selling a few trees to sawmills while using some trees to build a better house for my wife and i, selling firewood, and carving beehives, drum shells, and anything I can make a few bucks off. In spring I will chop up about 4 acres to grow food for my family and to sell at farmers markets. My problem comes from the fact that I have almost NO TOOLS. A chainsaw, two files, a draw knife, a hatchet, a circular saw, machetes, a few hand saws, an electric drill with very few bits, a cheap 40 or so piece mechanics tool set, and an axe head and maul head that I haven't had a chance to carve new handles for yet. I don't have much of a choice but to learn blacksmithing, I need tools I can't afford to buy. Making the tools i need is my last option at the moment. Otherwise I'll become stagnate and I need to be as productive as possible until I find a job. I can't go without working, I'll lose my mind. Alan, thank you. I figured that was the case, and I don't mind sharpening tools often, I sharpen my knives and hatchet for fun. I just hope I can get a hot fire going today, my airflow was inadequate yesterday.

Dave, that is almost exactly what I need for the exact same reason. Beehives. Despite you all and several other forums telling me it won't work I didn't have much of a choice but to try, I couldn't get my fire hot enough. It isnt going to well. Though I'm fairly certain this ground anchor has a decent carbon content. I'm ashamed to say that my hatchet is softer and easier to work than this anchor

I had considered an adz, and if I were hollow in logs for a canoe it would definitely be the better option. But I'm trying to hollow logs straight through the center as if for a drum. So my plan is to plunge cut a checkered pattern through the center with my chainsaw to remove most of the wood, then use this "long handled chisel" to remove the rest and smooth it out a bit. Until I'm left with a log like this picture.

Thank you.

I took a look at them, but I couldn't afford it at the moment. Hammering out this ground anchor is my best shot.

I, for many different reasons, need an enormous gouge chisel to hollow out logs. I have seen them on YouTube videos and such but they almost always seem homemade and I probably couldn't afford one if they could be sold. But what I do have is a 5 foot long, 1 and 1/4 inch thick, old ground anchor from a mobile home. I know I can cut the auger off, heat, and pound a chisel out of one end, but I'm not a blacksmith, I don't know the type of steel this anchor is made from, how to heat treat it, or whether or not it pays to even try. Any advice?