TWISTEDWILLOW

Had to run to town today, took a detour on the way home an sniffed around the scrap yard , I found a 8-1/2” x1/2” plate 3’ long, some sucker rod pieces, some mild steel stuff a some springs, $.20 a pound,

If you really want You can start a go fund me to buy more skeletons and I’ll set em up in the smithy! those things ain’t cheap ya know!

We’ve never had a trick or treator heart either, we live out in the countryside We have to take Max to town for trick or treating, but highway 59 runs right in front of us so we get a lot of traffic passin by so we like to do a little decorating Sorry Jerry, I’m not hauling an anvil out to the field!

Not really smithing but we got our some of our Halloween decorations up

Jerry’s just yankin yer chain Enrikee, If ya don’t find what your lookin for Your more than welcome to ask questions, if one person can’t answer it someone else will be able too!

I’ve made it a whole month now without gettin in trouble!!! so Imma leave that one alone! but I got yer Joke! I actually did think about welding a ball bearing to a handle to make the punch but when I looked through my collection of ball bearings I’ve salvaged outta machines I couldn’t find the size I needed for this buckin block that’s why I just made a punch outta the tire iron, but as I move forward with this particular project I’ll try the bearing idea for blocks that I have the right sized bearings for

My plan is to make a set of bucking tools like this one from 3/16 up to 1/2” an make the top tools outta sucker rod for top tools like punches then imma switch it up an make the bottom tools outta sucker rod square ends for hardy bottom tooling, then make a set of top headers usin big sucker rod ends with wood handles so all together it’ll be a big rivet set I’ll have to work with, im havin a hard time visualizing your coat hanger idea Jerry, but I’ll tell ya this!!! if you think imma good enough welder to weld somthin as small as a coat hanger to a ball bearing you have way over estimated my welding capabilities!!! if I tried that I’d end up with a spiky ball!! Cause I’d end up burning through all the hanger trying to make it!

I’ve kicked that idea around Glenn, im gonna make a few sets of these for different sized rivets Then imma start making different configurations for them after I get the hang of makin them,

Personally I’m more concerned about loose tool heads flying off an mushroomed tools shooting off shrapnel then I am rust on my smithing tools, I don’t bother cleaning off rust I just throw a couple coats of BLO on em once a year an call it good, an I only do that cause I have an open air smithy, rust comes right off with use in my experience I don’t live next to an ocean though, but I do live in a very high humidity climate with monsoon type rains,

Howdy from eastern Oklahoma an welcome to the forum! some people use 20 mule team borax right outside the box some dry it first, some folks blend their own flux ect… personally I use Peterson’s number 2 blue flux with success, there’s plenty of threads here that you can read over to get an idea of what to use an how to use it, take some time an explore the forum you’ll find quite a bit of information on flux, also if ya plan to stick around ya might wanna update your profile location so other smiths in your area can give ya a hand!

Awhile back I got curious how those Kens tong blanks were so I ordered a pair of scrolling tongs from them, as well as a couple bags of rivets to learn with an try out on other stuff they’ve Been floating around the smithy for a month or two now and I thought about gettin round to trying them out, But first I needed a rivet header and bucking block or whatever they call it, ive got a bunch of 2” solid round stock laying around that came off I dunno what, I’m assuming it’s mild steel cause it cuts pretty easy on a band saw but I didn’t bother doin a spark test, an I thought that'd make some heavy duty bottom blocks I plan to make the top tooling outta sucker rod since I have piles of it too, and the top tool is gonna be struck so I figured sucker rod would hold up better I watched that guy on black bear forge make a set and so I just copied what he did it was all relatively easy like he said i cut the block 2” long marked it and used a center punch to get a good start on the hole cold, I found a ol tire iron in a pile that was relatively the same size as the rivet head and cut 8” off then ground it as close to ball shape as I could, then I heated up the block, the first heat took awhile but the following heats not very long, I used the center punch to dig a hole in it for two heats, maybe 5/16 or 3/8” deep? Didn’t measure it I just kinda eyeballed it, then I heated up two more heats and drove the ball end punch in rotating every strike, the final two heats I put a new rivet in a plate and hammered it onto the head then I heated again and held the rivet with tongs and hammered it into the block rotating every strike, I think it came out nice on the block, I’ll start work on the top tool some afternoon this week when I get a chance,

Looks pretty slick from here Chimaera!

That’s what flame throwers are for George!!!

Here in Adair county everyone throws their bottles in the back of their farm trucks, an if you’re lucky they might even use some baling wire to keep ‘em from rolling around! it’s even better when the tanks are riding on the back of a flatbed truck and they come flyin off the rig goin down Swepston hill… never seen one explode but I’ve picked up a few! Among the other hundred things a month that come flyin off trucks an trailers! Trash bags, cell phones, Fuel jugs, chainsaws, couches, bed frames, tools, hitches, spare tires, 1400 pound round bales ect… I probably pick up a few thousand beer bottles an can a year on top of all that junk! One of the coolest things I ever picked up outta the bar ditch was a CaseXX huntin knife! I’ve found most everything under the sun but surprisingly enough I’ve never found a fishin poles! Hundreds upon hundreds of vehicles every year loaded down with fishin gear pass buy an I ain’t never found no fishin gear! Talk about priorities! You’ll secure the 1/2 pound fishin pole like it’s made of gold!!! but you’ll let a full gas cylinder launch off the truck at 65 mph!

Yeah it was weird, I was hammering away an I felt a sharp pinch feeling in my arm, i didn’t think nothing of it until blood started running out, so I went to clean it up with a shop rag an I felt a bump in my arm, and I looked at the hammer and saw a big chip missing outta the face, then I took a telescoping magnet off my bench and it stuck to the bump in my arm, I told the boss I needed to leave, ran down to the clinic and the doctor walked in not believing that anything serious had happened until I handed her the magnet and her face went white and she sent me straight to X-ray and found it was lodged by an artery and she didn’t feel comfortable removing it so she scheduled me for surgery to remove it i asked the surgeon if I could keep it after they got it out but they said no, that they had to send it off for some kinda testing that i didn’t understand,

Jerry, we all know y’all just shove someone out in front of a mamma moose with a calf by her side! An the bears clean up the mess!

Yes I was in the Navy, George, here they auction the properties off on the steps of the courthouse if the property tax goes unpaid for 3 years, ive know a few people that bought properties that went over on their taxes, your right they are normally pretty bad shape in a lot of cases the houses are in unsalvageable condition, An crack heads ruin other houses with their meth labs, Also I know of two places that used to be landfills way back before any regulations and inspections, one was for a town the other for county and both places are chuck full of ol car batteries, chemicals and lord knows what else, I think the current land owners are grandfathered in an safe but any new property owners would be required to dig it all up an properly dispose of the waste, or something like that ive heard the same thing about buying a old service station around here, If you buy property that has an old rundown service station and there’s old tanks still in the ground DEQ will pay you a visit and make you dig em up and they test the soil for leakage, it can get really expensive really quick!

Doesn’t ring a bell to me, I’ll take a look in AinA later an see if there’s something in there about them

Yes Jerry im doin that As I’m redressing the tools, I had to have surgery 5-6 years ago to remove hammer face shrapnel from my arm that had lodged by an artery, done been there, done that, learned my lesson, and got the tshirt thats why I’m doin maintenance on all the handled tools An once I get through all the handled tools imma start on the chisels an punches,

Those pumpkins look awesome BillyBones! Do you got a picture of the fuller that you used? this afternoon I’ve been doin some maintenance on handled tools, replacing some broken an missing handles, adding wedges to loose heads, redressing faces an peens and wiping everything down with blo, ive still got a few piles of tools to get through but here’s a few I got done so far, an a big punch I got at an auction a couple weeks ago,

Hey now that’s pretty slick Dave!

E timer, howdy from eastern Oklahoma and welcome to the forum! i Just read through, sounded to me like they were a high school kid who was probably waiting towards the end of a deadline for a paper an picked a subject they thought would be cool to write about an was lookin for some quick information to throw a paper together! I was always really bad about doin that in school myself! Jerry, are you not like my speak Where me right mine quest tons?

Interesting story for sure, im creek an Cherokee, im not involved with to much tribal stuff though, I don’t go out to Norman ever that’s out west, im in the eastern part of the state close to Arkansas,

Very very nice Nate!!! What material di you use?