BillyBones

Ok, Gewoon, what in the .... is that going to be? Work is good just trying to figure out what it is. I am thinking octopus or squid. Have un upcoming "new" (to me) craft show shindig. Not sure about the crowd that will be there and i am making i bit of everything to test the waters. I figured take a few hot dog/marshmallow sticks. To make the fork i decided to forge braze a fork with a "socket" on the end of a piece of 1/4" round.

I am to cheap to pay for the ad free as well. I usually bluetooth my phone to either the radio in my shop or my headphones at work and turn on Pandora. I just choose an artist i want to hear then they will play a song or 2 by them and then songs from similar artists. So it is a pretty good variety of music and commercials come about every 4 or 5 songs but they play in about 30 seconds. I can deal with that. I have watched some videos on youtube and i noticed lately that they will put a commercial right in the middle of a song. That is really annoying. Even live streams are getting commercials in them now. I only had one or 2 freinds that were musicians so i did not get to hang out with garage bands.

Went out for a smoke, got caught. Searched and they found my small bag of shrubbery along with a wad of $1 bills and some change. Possession with intent to distribute. That 366 hook thing is pretty cool. i finally got a chance to take a gander. BMTU, a hook is just a shape. Scrolls are just basically hooks. It is up to you the artist to figure how and where you want to use the shapes you have at your disposal. When i was really into drawing i used to say that no matter what it is that you are trying to draw it is just a whole bunch of straight lines. It is the artist that determines size and placement of those lines. Even if you are drawing a circle it is still just a whole bunch of very small straight lines set at different angles. Aint giving up on you either cuase we, or at least me, do not want to see you give up on yourself.

One of the guys from Green Day said it best once, "The radio is stuck on suck". I do have to say though that in this digital age i have turned off the radio and turned on more streaming music. I have been turned on to a lot of bands that i provably would have never heard of otherwise. I have said this before but where i lived the first years of my life was in the backwoods of KY, a county of 3,500 people. But we gave you Loretta Lynn, Crystal Gale, and Chris Stapleton. I suggest turning this one up.

The funding here is done by daily attendance. There are 2 weeks out of the school year that head counts are taken and what ever the average number is determines how much the school gets. But yeah do not get me started on how our schools are run. Anyway that is flying pretty close to a taboo subject, politics, so that is all i will say about that. I could have chosen a much easier drawing like an office building with nice shrubbery ( with a few knights who say "ni" near by) but no, i chose the hardest of the bunch. I just ordered some drafting tools yesterday. Got a new architects ruler and a small French curve set, but i was amazed at how cheap things have gotten. Back in high school i mowed lawns and raked leaves to to raise $35 for the pencil i bought. That was the 80's, so what would that be now like $100? Today i can buy 10 pencils for that. I averaged about a B but like i said almost all art classes and if you fail art there is something really wrong with you. I did have a few credits in English, math, and science. I also took 2 semesters of Latin. Languages was also a required subject. French, Spanish, or Latin was our choices. Our English classes were broke down into sub classes. I took poetry and plays, mythology, novels and short stories. Best class i ever took was called practical math, it taught us how to do things like balance the check book, figure taxes, and stuff you use math for everyday. I forgot history, my world history teacher was a women who was about 90 years old, or seemed at the time, strict old lady too. She had been to more countries and traveled all the time so she not only taught the history but also gave us first hand experience of her time visiting places she was teaching about. I have went on enough about that but one more thing. My science teacher was also female. She was a senior my freshman year at my high school. My last year i was in school, the 5th year, she had gotten her degree and got hired at her old school. Well, we knew each other from being in school together so that was kind of awkward situation at first. If anyone would like i could tell the story of how my freshman year, to set my reputation in high in stone, i was arrested and escorted by the police out of the school in handcuffs.

I took 3 semesters of drafting. The plane was my choice as my final project for the class. When i was in high school i kind of fell through the cracks. I took not only drafting but 3 semesters of ceramics, drawing, industrial arts (photography, printing, etc.), wood shop, metals shop, foods (cooking) etc. When i dropped out of high school my final year i needed 18 credits to graduate, i had 19 or 19.5 but becuase i did not have enough credits in English, math, and science i would have spent 2 more years in high school to get them. I was 18, going into my second junior year, so i joined the Army.

There is a lot of stuff i listen to that i would not post because it is not family freindly. I am a huge Rob Zombie fan but he drops a lot of "F" bombs in his songs. We will not even discuss Rebel Son. Anyway, Stevie Wonder and my favorite song by him. Here is one of my favorite bands covering it. Widespread Panic with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, who i also highly suggest checking out.

Frosty, i had to once draw a cut away showing the interior of a passenger plane. So not only a plane in general but a section showing seats and luggage spaces, restrooms, etc. I took drafting for a while myself in high school. BMTU, i may suggest trying to also do those drive hooks with an upset corner for a bit of learning. I am by no means saying that what you did is wrong just suggesting something to try. When i do them i square out a piece of 3/8" round, so ~5/16" square i guess, bend over about 1" of it for my upset corner. Do the corner then using the side and face of my anvil draw out the spike. I had problems learning upset corners and doing drive hooks like that helped a lot. Anyway just a suggestion of something to try and maybe put one more tool in that box of tricks. Perhaps even motivate you to light that forge just to try it as well? From seeing what you have done, if you watched a couple videos on doing upset corners, even for a refresher, you would have them in no time i think.

BMTU, that thing about the videos and time i agree with. There are a couple of smiths on you tube that do not edit them out. I like "Black Metal Studio". While most videos show a set of tongs made in a 20 minute video, this guy took 8, 1 hour videos to show the process. Along the way he explained in detail, using a dry erase for visual aid, every thing he was doing. You got to see his mistakes, how he corrected them, etc. Nothing was edited out. He only has a handful of videos but i am in the opinion they are well worth watching. Also the videos are not "project" oriented but "process" oriented. Like Frosty also said, everything we do is just the same 8 basic skills in different combinations. Master those 8 skills and everything will come together. We have all been in your shoes at one point or another. I have been at this full time now for about 10 years. Not as a job but i am lucky enough that i can spend at least 20 hours a week in my shop. I have had many days where i stand and look at my anvil trying to decide what i want to do. Those are the days i light my fire, grab a piece of 3/8" round and make a few S hooks maybe. It A) gets me practice at fundamentals, B ) builds some of my inventory ( you will need that if you plan on selling your work) C) gets my thinking and creative juices flowing and after a couple i move on to something else. Do not set time limits on yourself. If you can make an S hook in 10 minutes great, if an hour great, if it takes you 10 days, great. If you have no deadline then who cares how long it takes you to do something. Take your time and focus on learning. If you are stumped on something to do try working on one of the skills you are weak on. Say forge welding, set your goal to be that you will weld 2 bars together today. If that goes smooth then try 4. You may not have made "something" but you made progress in skill building. I have only worked with another smith once. I have been to less demos than i have fingers on 1 hand. I have 1, not very good, blacksmithing book. I have never taken a class. Everything i have learned has been from youtube, this site, and by doing. Yes it is a more difficult road in learning but is far from impossible. And as a final note, if you are ever near Dayton Ohio you, or anyone else for that matter, are more than welcome to hit me up and come to my shop. I am working usually Fri-Sun. in there. Well i thought that was it until i read the last to replies, notes, yes take notes. Make it a habit. That is one of the things i am very weak on is writing stuff down and making those sketches. I even bought a book to make them in a few months bakc and have managed to make 1 sketch in it.

Frosty, thanks for the explanation. Nat, that is why i said if they crimped together. You can work those apart by hand with a little help from a pair of pliers.

Yes you can. If those just have crimp style seem you can take 2 pipes apart at the seem and make 1 pipe of 2x the diameter. Frosty, put me down for one of those posters when you start making them in bulk.

Have you tried E-mailing them?

Am i the only one who is having some problems with the site? My last post here was supposed to have a pic that did not come through and i have had a couple not post at all. And a few other peculiarities. May jus be me but just wondering. Anywho, Blue, i assume that is some kind of flying machine? I did not know you had to iron them. Is it steam powered? Here is the swage i used as well for the ladle that did not post

swage bock.

Most of the owls around here are barn owls. Those big white moon faced ones. Not quite as big as a horned owl but still a pretty good sized bird. Red tails are, according to some Native Americans, the spirit animal of artists. So maybe it is not just hunting but seeing as how you work in clay and iron as an artist, visiting you and giving you it's blessing.

Using the shop floor for texture, i agree that is brilliant. Made a couple sample pieces for a ranch/butcher place that just opened here. The fork and ladle. Also made this Viking ship hook rack. I call it a Viking ship, the scrolled part is the sail and shields, the square bar the boat. That is what it looks like to me at least. Edit: i forgot to add that is the scroll i made the other day as a trial, this is what i did with the practice scroll.

The most common snake we have are black snakes, that translates to any kind of dark colored snake that can not be immediately identified. My uncle years ago had an old metal shed he tore down and put on the creek bank. A while later he had to move it and asked my help. That was me using a hoe to flip the pieces over while he watched with a shotgun. After about the 5th piece i flip i hear the gun go off. He blew the head clean off a copperhead. That week he was in the paper having killed one of the largest copperheads in KY. Mind you my uncle was just about 5' tall but the photo was of him holding the snakes in one hand over his head and it dangled to down around his ankle. I do not know if we have goshawks here or not but we do have a lot of red tails. I was driving down the road one day and one was on the side. I got that feeling that is was going to fly in front of me, and it did. It went across my windshield between it and the antenna. It was so close i could have counted the spots on its belly. Also saw a hawk once dive into a thorny apple after a dove. We have a raptor center close that rehabilitates wounded birds. If able they will release them back into the wild periodically. On those days the public are invited to come and watch. If they are not able to be released they either keep them there, like the eagle that only has 1 wing, or get them homed at another facility. Another something about the wilds that i came across this week. Ohio has again became home to fisher cats. There have been a few sightings of them in the northern part of the state recently.

I hooked 1 snake in my time and it was in a lake. Turtles on the other hand are not exactly common to catch one but definitely not rare. Me and my granddad used to go catching turtles. He taught me how to reach up under the bank and pull them out. Kind of like noodling for catfish but you definitely did not want to be wiggling your fingers. Me and a couple of my friends went out carp kicking once. There is a lake here that flooded and when the water started receding it left a bunch of small pools. Those pools were full of huge carp. Some a good 2 1/2' - 3' long. So we started going into the pools and "flicking" them with our foot from one pool to the next till they were back in the lake. One of those guys we buried this week. We had a few streams near us that we could run trot lines on. And i have run a few jug lines but i think that was more of an excuse to go to the lake to drink beer and tell lies. We actually have a lot of rattlesnakes here. Timber rattlers are not that uncommon to run into. I can deal with them it is the copperheads i do not like. I have heard that there are cotton mouths about but i have never seen one and i did not think this area was a habitat for them. But then again, i was surprised as all get out a few years ago when i learned that we have flying squirrels.

Yes. Or at least the ones we use and i am familiar with do. It is not very big at all and you have to look for it.

Side of face, the tester would not open far enough to get a test on the center of the face.

Took the hammer to work to day and put it on the hardness tester. 60 Rockwell.

TW, i agree with all of that. Like when i was working in a garage, many people get by just fine with that $25 dollar wrench and socket set they buy at the local box store but for me professionally... well i have seen tool boxes that cost as much as a new car. When i lived in Lake Charles i rebuilt the transmission in an F350 that was owned by a professional fisherman. It was a new transmission that none of us had any experience with, after building it, it made it 50 miles down the road before blowing apart. Came down to how the cooler was flushed. Real learning curve. But i digress. The truck had a complete wrap around sticker with a whole slew of sponsors, he had a boat that matched. I was explaining to him what had happened and why the trans failed, along with how we would correct the problem. This was on a Thursday if IIRC and we would not be able to get his truck back till Monday at the earliest. He said something along the lines of he was going to miss a tournament and that would cost him $15,000 just for not showing up. I said i am in the wrong business. I can see him having a fishing pole that is thousands of dollars. When we got the tranny done the second time me an my manager took it for a test drive and got it stuck in a ditch. When the back end of the truck went into the ditch the trailer hitch caught the side so the rear tires were off the ground. Just put it in 4wd and pulled it out but still kind of funny. Oh, and yes we went across the ditch on purpose not an accident.

I am no angler so to me $100 for a fishing pole is a bit pricey. That $30 wally world special does me just fine. I lived in Louisiana "The Sportsman's Paradise" for a couple years and did some fishing. That fish Max is holding is about as big as anything i caught there. That is why i am not an angler. When you take him to the creek you are teaching him to catch crawfish right? Need to take a beer or pop can with you, cut out the top, scoop up some creek water, and boil those crawfish. Bank side meals are always tasty.

My buddy's mom made an out door table like that. The top was the fly wheel, i think the base was mounted in a rim if IIRC, all nice and welded up. She found the crank and stuff in the garage, the crank was a forged steel stroker for a big block Chevy my buddy paid a pretty penny for. As far as bird stuff, how about nice elaborate French baroque style bird cages? From looking at them on the interweb machine most look as if they would be a lot of tedious welding of small round bar with a bit of sheet metal work.

One of my daughters favorite books is "Irish Fairy and Folktales" by W.B. Yeats. When she was little before bed she would get story time, the Yeats book was one she liked, but i used to tell her stories as well. One of her favorites is a traveler is walking down a road, hungry and thirsty he comes to an old house with an old man and woman sitting on the porch. The traveler asks for food and water on for his journey. The old man says that he has a well by the house but food will cost the traveler a story of his journeys. The traveler says that he has no stories to tell. So the old man directs him to the well. While reaching for a drink the traveler falls into the well. "Adventure ensues". At the end of the story the traveler is again walking down a road where he comes to an old man and women sitting on a porch. The old man asks, Now do you have a story to tell? The "Adventure ensues" part is where you start making up the story. As long as the story begins and ends at the old couples house the rest is just what ever you can come up with. It changes every time you tell it. You can make it as long or as short as you want, set in any place you want. I think that is why my daughter and my grandkids have enjoyed it over the years is becuase it is never the same story twice.