JustAnotherViking

Don't forget about the deadly broadsheet newspaper! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millwall_brick

A lot of it is to do with the context and location. The UK is a densely populated place, so most of these laws have been a result of gang violence in inner cities, where the the intent of carrying is usually for intimidation and attack. A chef on his way to work? - tool A 15 year old with a kitchen knife tucked into his sock, outside a school? 'Sorry officer, I just needed to peel my apple'... - weapon Similarly the same logic can be applied to a hammer. In a bag with other blacksmithing tools - it's a tool. In your hand and waving it around in a very public area... what possible sane reason would you have for doing that. Pretty much boils down to ridiculous laws being passed to deal with ridiculous situations and people. Anyone with a legitimate reason for holding a tool doesn't have anything to fear or change... anyone with malicious intent has less of a chance of getting away with a crime because of a technicality "it's just a tool, not a weapon, honest".

Always have been 'controlled' areas of congregation as far as weapons are concerned. Churches, market towns, castles, and plenty of other places where people historically would have always been expected to disarm before entering, nothing new about that.

To me that would depend entirely on the situation and location, also reflecting the ambiguous/flexible application of the law. Out for a hike and stopping for your lunch? Go ahead. In the middle of London in a busy street and doing it just because you can? Yeah, I'd say people have the right to feel uncomfortable.

In regard to what is considered non locking, slip joint and friction folders are fine. Any sort of spring that holds the blade in a fixed position is not allowed as an every day carry. The key issue is the 'every day carry' part. i.e. the law would allow me to carry a small non locking blade about without any reason other than one every five years I might happen to need it by coincidence to cut a pice of string in the middle of the street or some other random nondescript reason. However, if I was going camping for the weekend, or taking part in bushcraft activities, I could carry a large hunting knife with me for that explicit purpose. Where it becomes a gray area, if I were stopped by the police on my way to the wilderness, it could be considered an offensive weapon. Once I get there, it's fine. Mental.. But as stated above, it allows flexibility for law enforcement to use common sense. If my car was full of camping gear and I was dressed appropriately, 'be on your way sir'. If I was dressed inappropriately for camping and had no tent or similar, alarm bells start sounding and I'd be hauled off to court.

Ah ok, sorry. Unfamiliar with the term.

Assume that was a case of the first one was completely by hand, which was then used as a lead screw for the next, and so on, improving the accuracy with each iteration?

The 'every day carry' rules are still the same. The cutting edge must be 3 inches or less, the blade must be folding, and non-lockable. The main different in the proposed legislation, is not being able to buy a knife online and have it delivered to a domestic address. Retailers can instead post it to your place of work, or partner with a 'click and collect' service, where you show up with ID to collect your order in person. More hassle to buy a knife, but anyone with a legitimate reason for carrying or owning a knife as a 'tool' will see no difference. From my two minutes of reading, the main intent behind banning certain types of knife (e.g. the 'zombie killer' knife), is to crack down on cheap weapons with no real/practical purpose other than looking scary and being used for intimidation. If you run a museum, or film/tv prop company, part of a professional re-enactment/cosplay company, you can likely still obtain such weapons. It's mostly to stop those with malicious intent getting their hands on cheap but dangerous weapons and keeping them at home. In terms of those in the UK who make a living from selling custom knives, it might just mean a change to shipping policy: only sending to a business address, or some sort of click and collect service... possibly extra cost, but i'd assume legitimate customers will be understanding.

It is crazy how humans appear to be solar powered. Bit of bight light after months of darkness and we're turbo charged. Probably the worst part of an office job. No natural light about, and I'm lucky if I see about 5 minutes a week when heading our for lunch. Dark leaving in the morning, dark heading home over winter. Might have a word with the boss about getting some sort of daylight lamp.

That reminds me, I need to go out and count all the stones on my driveway so I can renew my gravel driveway licence and make sure all the pebbles are accounted for. Don't want to risk being caught in public with one stuck in the treads in my boot heel!

The acid thing I completely understand. There has been a huge rise in motorcycle theft and general attacks involving youths squirting acid on the victim. Banning private possession of 'zombie' knives is a tad ridiculous however. Curious to see what their definition of a flick knife becomes.

Too many become complicit and expect a one time successful design to survive in a world market by doing the same thing over and over. You constantly need to innovate and re-invent... improving your processes and tooling to become more efficient or cheaper, or adding a new twist to an old design to stand out from the crowd. If you don't, someone else will build on the back of your success and surpass you. Not their fault you stood still. Unrelated to blacksmithing, but we have 10% of our working week dedicated to un-managed R&D to make sure we can stay competitive, and have opportunity for new ideas to become realised as product innovations over time.

Haven't actually got a formal diagnosis or any therapy yet. Did try vitamin supplements this year, although not convinced it made much of a difference. My late grandmother suffered from it, and it's only been the past couple of years that i've been experiencing symptoms, this past autumn/winter being the worst to date (although it has been a particularly bad year due to various other personal reasons, so could be coincidental)

Recognising, acknowledging the signs, and talking about it. All great steps. Not sure how things are where you are, but over here we're still dealing with dark, cold, awful weather, with no sign of spring in sight. Really doesn't help. Over the past few years i've been getting increasingly worse as the seasons change; really struggling to function as autumn turns to winter (family history of S.A.D.). If I hadn't picked up a hammer this October for the first time, I really don't believe i'd be sitting here typing this now. It was something about giving myself a new goal and hobby to focus on that made me get up, and do something. Only recently, have I been able to talk about my mental state back then. Unable to function or talk. Even trying to get up and leave the room to go to the kitchen could have taken several hours of trying to convince myself I could do it. Brain chemistry was completely screwed up, and there was a serenity and peacefulness in the thought of ending it all. All I can say is, you're not alone JHCC, and glad you've spotted the signs and can speak about it, and be proactive in helping yourself, knowing what works for you.

That would make more sense. Was just doing an approximate sum, not accounting for breaks, lunch, holiday etc. Huge number either way!

That sounds terribly boring. Over a 40 year career, assuming an eight hour working day, that's approximately one every five minutes non stop.

I can almost taste the hangover.

That cleaver is crying out to be put to use again! If it were mine, I'd get it cleaned up and functional. Hung up nice and proud in the kitchen for occasional use

How considerate of you. Let me guess, you have no public or product liability insurance either? If you're so interested in protecting yourself, I would consider registering your business properly and taking out a suitable level of insurance to protect yourself again a law suit from a defective product in the event something goes wrong before you consider hiring help.

wrong gas: pure argon rather than argon/c02 mix.... doesn't burn hot enough, so you get very clean, but very high welds with no penetration... yes you can turn up the amps etc to try and make it work, but going by the look of those welds, i'd assume the welder was on the same settings that had been used for the argoshield gas. plenty of youtube videos of people trying various gas mixes (e.g. keep the welder at the same settings, but change the gas mix being used) for comparison if you don't want to waste gas yourself experimenting (I found out the hard/expensive way by asking for a cylinder of 'argon' for mig welding; expecting to get a typical 'mig' mix, but instead got pure argon.)

If it just says argon, its likely 100% argon. Perfect for aluminium, useless for steel. argoshield will be a BOC's brand name for their mig mix. That likely explains the problem. Nothing wrong with the welder or settings, just the wrong shielding gas for the job at hand.

What is the gas supposed to be? To my untrained eye it looks like it's lacking C02 in the mix which is giving the big high welds with no penetration. did you clean up the weld in the picture, or is that it 'as is'? Were those just a bunch of tacks or were you trying to run a bead and it was spluttering?

Assuming you mean C02 argon mix for mig? Argon alone would produce a lovely and clean caterpillar of a weld with little penetration. Needs the oxygen to burn hot enough. Unfortunately I learnt the hard way and wasted a cylinder of argon learning mig

That looks amazing ausfire!!! Nothing exciting from myself, was just practicing 90 degree bends in some square bar and decided to make it into a shelf bracket. Not happy with the aesthetics, but It'll serve its purpose. Need to get some new stock... I have square, square and a bit more square. Could do with matching width square an flat for things like this.

If you're worried about storing the battery inside, it's not much effort to make a small tray that bolts to the underside of the trailer and just feed the wires through the floor. Plenty of custom bike have the battery exposed like that, so it's not a huge issue. Lot of heat and flamible liquid within a foot or two