TWISTEDWILLOW

1 hour ago, Irondragon Forge ClayWorks said:

the rabbit hole of sword collecting

I would like to find an old Navy sword or cutlass is there any place in our area that you know of where I could start looking? 

41 minutes ago, Frosty said:

HEY BILLY, good to see your AVATAR again!!  

Hiya Jerry! Good to be back!

42 minutes ago, Frosty said:

How is the new place? The Cochran gang getting settled

OH man it’s been a whirlwind and of course knowin my luck everything that could go wrong has! lol 

we are still settling in, the new garage it still half full of boxes! We got a lot of junk!!!! 
and I haven’t even started on the steel piles and blacksmithing stuff!

I’m not sure I want to actually restore them all shiny or nothin like that just clean them up a bit, I’m afraid I’d mess something up if I tried to disassemble them for super deep cleaning, I just wanna clean up enough to read and maybe get a date,

36 minutes ago, Irondragon Forge ClayWorks said:

Glad you & yours are doing fine and welcome to the rabbit hole of sword collecting

Thanks Randy!

And thank you for the info! 

don’t worry I’m not gonna mess with the wire or try to remove the hilts, 

im not sure if they are worth anything but even if they are I’m not interested in selling them at any price, i don’t want to mess with the original stuff i want to keep them as they are and maybe just clean them up a tad 

20 minutes ago, George N. M. said:

The folding entrenching tool I carried in Viet Nam and the one that I carry in the back of my vehicle were made by Ames

That’s so cool!!!! And thanks for the extra information!!!

so here at the new place it’s big enough that I’m gonna get MY own room with windows on two wall tons of natural lights light, and I thought it would be cool to make it into a Victorian style study, with a big desk for writing and bookshelves and a big humidor,

but I also want to display some antique weapons and some artwork in there, so we come to the swords, I want to display them but I would like to clean up around the writing so I can possibly date them and have the history of them, but probably not go as far as restoring them, 

anyways thanks for all y’all’s information!!! I’ll have to start reading up all I can about them! 

it would be really cool if they were from the ACW! There were a couple small battles here locally! 

Howdy everybody! How’s it been going? 
it’s been a hot minute since I been on here, been busy busy busy at the new place!

I just had a couple of antique swords givin to me about an hour ago, they are heavy on the patina but I can make out Ames MFG

(or at least I think I can) lol 

thats on one side and then some numbers and letters on the other side 

The only thing I know about swords are that they are pokey on one end and you hold the other end that’s not pokey! Lol

im afraid to use anything to awfully abrasive to clean up around the hilts so I can read what they got to say, there’s a lot written there but it’s hard to make out,

I’m wanting to do some research on them, what would be the best thing to use to clean up the area with the writing to make it legible? 

14 hours ago, BillyBones said:

Well, fall down on my drunken behind and roll down the mountain

Man!!!! 
when I was stationed in Norfolk VA a guy from Montana who had lots of snow sports experience was asking around if someone wanted to go with him one weekend to a small ski resort on the West Virginia border 

I was like hey I don’t have duty this weekend and that sounds cool! 
so we loaded up and made the drive over to West Virginia 

I had never skied or snow boarded in my life being from eastern Oklahoma so I asked him what was easier to try and he said snowboarding so I rented the equipment and went to the little kids slop to try it out for a few minutes…

I thought I had the hang of it so I asked him witch trail I should try as a beginner…

Fully trusting him to guide me right and not knowing anything about ski trails when he pointed to the Black Diamond Trail and said that’s where I should start I believed him…

by the time I made it to the bottom of that god forsaken hill I had double black eyes and bruises from my head to my toes…

I road the ski lift back up and returned my rental gear as he was laughing and trying to get me to go down another trail… I went directly to the resort bar and sat there all day drinking beer and waiting for him to finish his skiing… that was my first and last time I ever tried snow sports, 

about the only snow sports I do now is ride my ATV and tow max around on a sled lol

Howdy all! 
It’s been a frozen nasty mess here in the greater metropolitan Areas of Peavine and Westville and Stilwell the last week, been busy dealing with all the fun stuff that comes with that, lol

today was my first day back at the shop and it was fairly quiet just a few customers coming an going mostly saw sharpings, 

then….

BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I came running out of the shop in time to see a big ol suburban hit the highway 

I ran out to the highway and found a customer pulled in the driveway and cars backing up both sides 

there was two cars coming from the north so my customer stopped and the car behind him stopped, he turned and pulled in and then the suburban wasn’t paying attention and swerved at the last minute, hit the car and broke its front axle from the force, then hit the ditch (which is REALLY steep like 20 foot) then over corrected and flew back up the ditch, went airborne and crashed in the middle of the road 

I ran to the first car and that girl was in a cussing fit so I knew she was okay so I ran to the suburban that was blocking both lanes and the airbags were deployed and a girl was fighting her way out balling her eyes out an shaking, I asked her if she was okay and she said she thought so but hit her head 

I checked around both vehicles for leaking gas or smoke to make sure something wasn’t gonna blow then I yelled back at my customer to call county,

then I called the fire chiefs personal cell and told him there was a wreck in front of the shop and he said he’d be there in as fast as he could, (he was in the barn milking cows when I called) 

he showed up in the fire command car in a few minutes barking orders on the radio and then half of mid county sprung to life 

an off duty city police officer from somewhere rolled up an hopped out to help 

traffic backed up a mile in both directions on 59 

an ambulance showed up to check out the two girls and then 30 some odd minutes into it county deputies showed up, highway patrol was to far away so they never made it 

a deputy jumped in the suburban and got it far enough over to clear one lane( neither me or the fire chief wanted to touch the car for liability reasons) 

roll backs finally showed up and started working on getting the cars out of the road 

I asked the shook up girl if she was gonna be okay and she said she wasn’t from here she was a contractor in the area to work on the new fiber optic lines goin in and that was her boyfriend’s suburban and had no family or friends locally but she did have a camper at the RV park in Baron and the towing company was gonna take her there 

the other girl was a local and she was going to be alright 

the whole thing took a little over an hour, after everyone was gone and the road was cleared I went back to the shop and sharpened my customers saws and pet the cat an fed the goat and locked up for the day, 

long story short, i should have just taken off the whole week and not opened the shop back up today 

it was a very exciting afternoon in Peavine America today! 

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Rebar is really good for bending and welding and reinforcing lawnmower decks after people have beat them to pieces but that’s the only “Good” use I’ve found for it other then it’s intended purpose, 

it makes a good handle for brush fire rakes too! 

there’s so much free an cheap steel to be found that’s better suited for forging projects then rebar 

For a project thats going to be hand held under pressure holding a projectile though…

I would honestly recommend buying a piece of new material that you know the Exact composition and heat treatment for 

that way you have a higher chance of success in your project and probably safer since you will know the treatment requirements for the steel

that would really smart if you used some found metal and it snapped off and wacked ya about the third time you put it under pressure

I mean personally it seems a little bit out of taste to me to give coupons to close friends and family members (mostly because you’ll probably be making them stuff free eventually anyway) 

but like coworkers or customers or acquaintances who aren’t close I think it’d be perfectly acceptable 

John

exactly i shouldn’t have got involved in the first place

Jerry

thats  what I was saying is that the dumping ash gates were designed to relieve pressure instead of stuff blowing out 

I mean obviously a little rivet forge probably wouldn’t build up enough gas to do anything more then pop and most table forges probably wouldn’t either but the larger industrial forges and big fire pots with big tuyeres can trap a lot of gas and have the potential to throw out some hot coal 

I should know better by now not to let myself get drawn into silly online stuff lol

15 hours ago, Nobody Special said:

May 4, 2016, Forge Explosion! by rwolfe, see below. It was after banking with green coal,

Thank you! That’s the one I was looking for, 

I’m having an interesting conversation with someone who says coal forges don’t produce gas and another fellow chimed in and said that the gas doesn’t explode 

personally I’ve never had a really violent explosion out of one but I know that it’s always possible 

39 minutes ago, Rojo Pedro said:

Thanks. Here is a prototype little ladle. Used commercial 1/8” rivets on this one. Think it turned out pretty good

That looks awesome!

A year or two or three or??? Ago someone told a story here on IfI about a Boy Scout troop that was having a forge day and broke for lunch and when they came back and cranked on the forge there was an explosion from the built up gas in the coal forge

does anyone remember that or am I imagining that story?

On 12/20/2023 at 10:30 AM, Frosty said:

That is sure a LOT better than you 3 living IN boxes, Billy

For sure!!! Lol

On 12/20/2023 at 10:54 AM, George N. M. said:

As you get older you realize that stairs are not you friend

I’m starting to figure that out!

The bad part was the whole first week Ash N Max we’re out of state so I moved most everything by myself I was doin good to pack load haul an unload four loads a day before I give out, I could barely walk up the stairs for a week straight after that and even now my right knee is still giving me fits trying to get up or down, I went to the chiropractor but that didn’t really do much for me 

I have a 1000 pound Tommy lift gate on the truck so that saved me some of the worst part

all the steel, machinery amd blacksmithing stuff will be a pain so I’m gonna use the tractor as much as I can there, 

the plus side is the property we just bought has one big shop and another two bay shop so I’ll be able to finally get all that blacksmithing stuff out of the rain for the first time in years lol 

On 12/17/2023 at 5:07 PM, BillyBones said:

purty nice

That looks pretty awesome man!!!!

hey Guys an Gals! Sorry I ain’t been on in a month or so,

we bought a new house and I’ve been moving nonstop to clear our house out in peavine so I could get a crew in there to do renovations and prep it for me to rent out

Me Ash N Max have been living out of boxes at the new place and slowwwwwly settling in, 

I haven’t even started moving all my stuff yet that’s gonna be an operation in of itself!!! 

I’ve got tons of steel and machinery and then all the blacksmithing stuff on top of it!!!! 

the repair shop will stay here in peavine so I won’t have to move all that stuff and customers machines thank god cause every thing else is already gonna be a hundred loads lol 

Hey man!! That’s Really interesting! 
evem if it’s an ol memory it’s still really cool!!

Your Uncle owned a radio station? Do you recall the frequency? 

I grew up mostly with radio and still have it blaring all day long in my shop today 

I have an insanely large Digital collection of music on iTunes but it’s been years since I’ve bought or owned a CD 

I think that’s gonna change now, i really really like the sound of this record machine! 

so much so I went out today and bought myself one and my first record lol

David,

Tree cutting is always a lot of work!

Are you planning on making charlcol out of all of it or do your have a wood stove to burn it all off? 

I had a busy day today!

I went fishin this morning with my brother am we did really good! Caught a lot of sunfish and small mouth Bass!!! 

after lunch me Max an Ash went to my moms house and had lunch and then I hauled in 500 boxes of Christmas stuff and helped her get two of her trees up and ready for her to decorate…

she likes to put them up wayyyyyy early and she likes to put like 30 strands of lights on them!!! 

last year after some blown fuses and breakers I made her switch everything over to L.E.D lights!!!! 

after that she showed me a victrola suit case record player she had bought at Wally World recently and a bunch of records she found at an estate sell,

I have never messed with a record player because I had grown up with cassette tapes so I had no experience with one before this afternoon, 

DUDE!!!!

That’s the coolest thing ever!!! Now imma have to get one!!!!

i didn’t know they still made those things or the vinyl records for them!!!!! 

A few weeks ago I was in Fayetteville AR for an appointment at the VA hospital there and I walked around the downtown square and went into a record store and I thought that it was weird and I thought to myself who on earth still buys these things? Lol 

now here I am after playing with one and hearing that snap crackle pop sound they make I’ve got to have one! 

That ain’t no joke!!! It’s definitely a learning experience!!!

Wow!!!! David that’s a lot of work!!!!

I’ve got a number of small trees around the yard that I need to cut down poison the stumps and clean up that I’ve been putting off!! Lol

it will be pretty cool if some on the wood is recycled by local wood workers who will turn it into something awesome!!!

Wow that’s pretty cool man!!!

Lol 

we’re finding all kinds of odds an ends there 

lots of newspapers from over a hundred years ago are among the coolest things so far! 

the bottle will come in handy, I’ve got a around 8 of the grill size bottles but they don’t last very long with my heaters

the girl who fill this one up says it hold around 24 gallons and the grill size holds 4.7

I spoke with Glenn for many hours on the phone once about that and he had told me about certain companies that refused to pay up but then started trying to slip in advertisements once in awhile! 

I say we all send them a bill at the end of the month and threaten civil court if they don’t pay! Bahahahahahaha

8 hours ago, OlavFairhair said:

Which manufacturer did you find?

Nordforge 

I tried to read their website but my phone said it couldn’t translate Swedish for some reason 

This bottle was setting in an old house I bought earlier this summer, I was up there meeting with my contractor and I drug it out an threw it in truck just a little while ago

took it to get it filled am buy a cap for it lucked out an it still was about half full so didn’t even cost all that much to fill up!!