Woody

yes Cadmium coating is usually a yellow/gold color like what you see on some grade 8 bolts.

The people posting on this site have a responsibility to pass along FACTS not rumor and folklore when it comes to health and safety issues. Milk is not an antidote for exposure to zinc fumes. Never has been and never will be. Yet, every time someone mentions exposure to zinc fumes several of these ill informed individuals pass on what "some old welder told them years ago". I think it is time for this site to make a "sticky" out of welding galvanized etc. It seems this subject comes up every couple weeks. Metal Fume Fever and Heavy Metal Poisoning are nothing to mess with. If you think you have the symptoms SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION IMMEDIATELY. Drink the milk if you must but all it will do is quench your thirst. If you have been exposed to the fumes you are poisoned and no amount of milk will change that.

The people posting on this site have a responsibility to pass along FACTS not rumor and folklore when it comes to health and safety issues. Milk is not an antidote for exposure to zinc fumes. Never has been and never will be. Yet, every time someone mentions exposure to zinc fumes several of these ill informed individuals pass on what "some old welder told them years ago". I think it is time for this site to make a "sticky" out of welding galvanized etc. It seems this subject comes up every couple weeks. Metal Fume Fever and Heavy Metal Poisoning are nothing to mess with. If you think you have the symptoms SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION IMMEDIATELY. Drink the milk if you must but all it will do is quench your thirst. If you have been exposed to the fumes you are poisoned and no amount of milk will change that.

Chainsaw, you and Ashley are on my list, God Bless and Keep you both. Woody

BEWARE of Cadmium it is much more dangerous than metal galvanized with zinc. When heated Cadmium gives off extremely toxic fumes. 29CFR1910.146 OSHA Confined Space Regulations have a special cavaet about welding with cadmium containing rods in confined spaces that states: "Note: Some materials – hydrogen fluoride gas and cadmium vapor, for example – may produce immediate transient effects that, even if severe, may pass without medical attention, but are followed by sudden, possibly fatal collapse 12-72 hours after exposure. The victim "feels normal" from recovery from transient effects until collapse. Such materials in hazardous quantities are considered to be "immediately" dangerous to life or health."

look under "coal" in the yellow pages

Actually if you go ask a rancher or a farmer, he probably has some laying on the ground someplace that you could pick up for free. The derusting is easy if you check the blueprint on electrolysis derusting on this site.

I have two gas forges, one was made out of rolled sheet metal and the other was made out of two 20 lb propane tanks that I cut and then welded together. I vented all the fumes from the tank, then filled them with water completely and drained them several times. Then I cut them with a metal cutting blade in a sabre saw. When I was done welding the two pieces together, I happened to have it sitting right beside my bucket of quench oil. The similarity in size was amazing. Then and there I asked myself why is everyone so set on building a forge out of a propane tank. All the metal shell of the forge does is support the insulation. Why not get a 6 gallon steel bucket like the ones that popcorn popping oil come in and use that. If and when I build another one it will be made from a bucket.

I saw a gun stock made out of lamanated bamboo, quite impressive. Some bamboo is very hard, remember it was used by the VC for punji stakes.

You might try putting the pieces in a air tight container, then exposing them to ammonia fumes. It is supposed to darken the wood. The liquid does not contact the wood. The weathering can be done with a rasp or wire brush.

Your undivided attention for one thing :)

When I started making knives someone told me "when you put a price on your services that extablishes what you are, try not to be a cheap one" . I do have two price scales, one is the friends of Woody pricing the other is you don't know Woody from Adam price.

Get well soon Jim my prayers are with you

Pricing is what the market will bear. Remember you can always let them beat you down on price but they won't let you raise the price if it's too low. If you don't hear a sharp intake of breath when they look at the price it isn't high ehough. If they look at it and fall over it's a bit too high. Look around at other similar knives, handmade not factory, in your area and see what they are selling for. One way to get a feel for how much people are willing to spend is look at the paper under sporting goods and see what kind of firearms are offered for sale by their owners. If it is mostly bolt action Mosburg shotguns, single shot shotguns etc you live in a very frugal area and most sportsmen won't be willing to part with more than a pittance for a knife. If there are a lot of high dollar fancy guns etc those people are more willing to pay high dollar for a custom piece.

Sneak out at night, find a rusty barb wire fence, pull the staples, roll up the wire, try to make it back to town before the sheriff shows up. Actually a couple months ago when we were doing some sod removal and leveling at the neighborhood playground we found a big roll of rusty barb wire that had been buried for about 20 years, too bad we tossed it in the dumpster.

one thing I learned welding Stainless Steel Dome Risers into Acid Tankers years ago is that the stainless disapates the heat faster than the carbon steel and if you are not careful the weld will crack right down the middle.

are you sure it wasn't a cannon ball, both are round but there the similarity ends Never heard of nicking the surface, what is that supposed to do?

DON'T fill the tank with car exhaust fumes unless you want an address with 17 different zip codes! Exhaust contains Carbon Monoxide, a flammable gas, among other combustables. Have you ever heard a car backfire. that is the exhause exploding in the muffler and tail pipe.

it will be a great experience for you, perhaps you could try a double row of teeth, use a 3 corner file to cut XXXXX down the spine then push the points out to the side just a bit to set the teeth.

Fdisk, guard this with your life. S0001 Making Magical Swords

Sorry to hear this, I remember him from the Chat Room. My prayers to his family and friends. Woody

An ASO is just that. I would use it as it is and not worry about "improving" it. My first anvil was an ASO and it worked well till I got a better one. I loaned it to a kid that is just learning and he is using it now. Remember that your time is worth something too. While you are trying to "improve" the ASO you could be doing something that would bring you estra $ to buy a good anvil. Keep looking. I bought my second anvil, and then I was given a 150 lb Vulcan.

Fdisk, yeah you can grind your own saw teeth and set them. It should be an interesting experience. When you get a little more time I will tell you how to make a magical sword that will cut the barrel off a machine gun :)

remember that saw teeth are "beveled" and "set" The bevel makes the tooth and the sharp edge. "set" means they are bent at a slight angle from the blade, that way they cut a slot wider than the blade which keeps the blade from binding in the cut.

Really start with a saw blade. These were made from pieces of 2 inch wide metal cutting bandsaw blade. I dis stock removal and did not heat treat them because I did not want to damage the teeth by scaling off part of them. They ain't pretty but they do hold an edge and the spine will cut wood, metal or bone. Camp Knives with saw teeth on the spine - Blacksmith Photo Gallery If you use saw blades form the blade so that the saw cuts as it is pulled toward you not when it is pushed away from you. This will keep the blade from kinking or binding when you saw.