BillyBones

Made and have a couple more flint strikers in the works right now. It has been a long, long wihle since i have made one. So i have a basic question, does these need to be hardened? I can not seem to recall if i hardened the last ones i made and i also make herb choppers that are basically the same thing and i do harden them.

Ok, so i seen this and thought what kind of kiddy song is "Diggy Diggy Hole". But i gave it a listen. Pretty good, and they made diggy diggy hole work.

Frosty, thanks for that. Maybe something i try. I have never tried a canister. But i also have no press and i do not see forging one on the anvil with a hammer feasibly efficient. Not t hat it would be impossible. Chad, my mom is a quilter and i have made her and some of her freinds tailors clappers. I use a nice exotic wood then forge a nice metal handle for them. I use BLO on both the handle and the wood. The first one i made for my mom i told her to set it on a scrap of white fabric to see if it would discolor it. It did not or i would have switched to something else.

An M1 Abrams tank has 8, 24v batteries that are run in series to power it. I was working on the tank one day and climbed up on the rear sprocket to disconnect the batteries. They are in the back deck so i was just standing on the rear sprocket. The armored access door was a bit in my way and i had to reach up and over it some. I turned the wrench just a bit to far and after picking myself up off the ground i decided i would just get on the back deck and do it that way from then on.

Lets go raiding.

Frosty, when i first read that i though it was a bit wacky. Now i think i can be just a small piece. And working in a machine shop i can almost guarantee i can get a drill and use the shank as the rod. I assume that you would heat the rod to a welding temp as well? Or insert the rod cold and then heat the whole thing to a welding temp? I was looking at the print today. The material can be anything from a 1018 to a 1030, but the supplier we get it from paints the 1030 red on the ends. I can dig a bit more into my paper work but today i was having problems holding the length on the parts we are making out of it. I have a +/- .0021" but every 500 parts or so would go up or down a couple thousandths. Finally figured out one of my tool holders was bad. So i did not have time.

I have made more of those brooches than you can shake a stick at. I know 2 different vendors for the Ren fest. I have never been but i guess they sell pretty well. Iron was a popular choice for penannular brooches in Ireland and Scotland because folk tales say that carrying a piece of iron with you would keep away fairies and other mischievous critters. Or so i have heard. Got some "1/2"" round bar today. Not much just a couple feet. It is 1030 seamless tube. 4, ~3' sections. Have no idea what to do with it but i also did not want to through away. The bars are 1/2" outside diameter, with ~.100" hole through them. Any suggestions?

Modern ignition systems can have upward of 40,000v. Scot, to answer your question in short, no. RPMs do not increase the voltage from the distributer. The coils job is to maintain a consistent voltage through out the RPM range.

I have, well had a bow that was made for me by a local bowyer. (i just learned that word recently, bowyer) He wanted a tomahawk and traded a long bow for it. Hickory with a bamboo backing. Only had about 40# draw but it was fast. He even made the string with the Flemish twist. My nephew wanted to try it so i said sure. I handed it to him, as i did something inside said i should have strung it. He went to bend the bow to string it, twisted it, and cracked the wood. Me and my granddad back when i was a kid made a couple bows. I have no clue as to the wood i just remember what seemed hours of scraping the wood down. We made arrows out of horse tail, a weed that grows around not actual horse tails. Horse shoe nails for arrow heads and he is the one that taught me long soft pine needles are almost as good fletching as feather. Now as far as my archery skills, i cant hit the broad side of a barn at 10 paces. I will argue however that firearms can be just as visceral as the bow. I have always been good with a rifle. There is some sort of Zen that i get when shooting.

How about a bit of early rock-n-roll with an Irish punk twist? Maybelline by Social Distortion.

I joined a credit union back a few years ago. Ever since i became a member of a credit union i have never went to again being a customer of a bank. I love Waylon. You could have picked about any of his songs and they are gold in my opinion. And speaking of westerns, i watched one a couple weeks ago that had Waylon, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Travis Tritt in it. Can not remember the name right now for the life of me though. Well, how about some good old southern rock, a bit more Blackberry Smoke. If you ever have he chance to see these guys live i highly recommend it.

Jennifer, even with a bad paw your work is extraordinary. Blue, just a guess on my part. What about hand soap? The guys i work with like to use Dawn dish soap, that dries me out like you would not believe. last summer my wife got poison ivy pretty bad and was told by her doctor to use Dawn to wash with becuase it would dry out the oils in the skin. Frosty, i got some of that Silverdine stuff for my skin and it seemed like it made it worse. May just be me though, my mom has an allergy to metals. The only jewelry can where has to be gold. Any other metal causes her skin to break out. I have never really noticed it on me, but it may be different in a "cream", suspension or whateverer you call that stuff. Larry, i heard long ago super glue was made for medics in Vietnam. I am pretty sure that is not true though, but regardless i have used superglue for cuts and the like for as long as i can remember. There is always a tube in my tool box.

Blue, are you right handed? Do you use a propane forge? I used to get red, itchiy, cracked skin on my hand and forearm from the IR of the forge. Or i am assuming that is what it is. If you are right handed i would guess that it may be becuase your right hand spends much more time near the forge than your left.

Irondragon, Did your grand dad ever put unshielded plug wires on an engine? It wont work anymore becuase everything is digital, but back in the day running unsheiled plug wires would cuase TV and radio to be interruptions for about a 1 block radius from the car. Kind of like what happens when you drive under power lines while listening to AM radio.

Eye brows... not me but my uncle did. Him and my dad were trying to get a '57 Belaire started, he was pouring gas into the carb when it back fired. Lost his eyebrows and a bit of his beard. I set my hair on fire when i was in high school. Again being a metal head at the time i had long hair. I was sneaking a smoke, not tobacco, one morning before school and set the front of my scalp on fire. I looked up in the mirror and the flame looked like a unicorns horn on my head.

My first question is do you mean a 3/4" - 1" ball bearing? If so yes. I have seen many people make a ball punch like that. Usually something a bit thicker than 3/8" but still using mild steel. 2nd question, what are you making? If it does not have to be hardened i would just do a wrap around collar forge welded to the end of the bar, then make it a ball on the end.

I have been grooving on this band here recently, Turnpike Troubadours.

Right after i got out of the Army i got a really bad hair cut. That was the fall of '94 and was the last time i have been to get a haircut. 30 years now. It used to be about waist long but then working in a machine shop, transmission shop, and old age taking its toll it is just below my shoulders now.

Frosty, didnt you guys have to have your firem,n chit to be able to play with fire? We had to earn one of those before we were allowed fire starting materials or be allowed to start the fire. We also had to have our totin' chit to be allowed to carry a knife or axe.

Jennifer, while no where near as bad as my whole hand a few years back i had a truck frame fall and almost lop off a couple fingers on my left hand. My pinky was still attached by the skin underneath the knuckle. The way it was hit though instead of cutting through bone it dislocated the knuckle joint and my finger was able to be saved. It just has a permanent 90* bend at the first knuckle now. Like i said not near as bad but i find it kind of amazing when people do things like that you relearn how to do the things you have always done. Hope ya heal up good and get back on top of your game soon. Was out in the barn yesterday and found about a half bag of anthracite i had bought a couple years ago. So i decided to use it. Figuring it being anthracite i mixed it with about equal portion of bituminous, disconnected the hand crank blower and jammed a hair dryer into the tuyere. (i used to run electric fan so air gate and relief were all in place still) WOW i forgot just how fast that burns through coal. And then what to do while the metal is heating? also you know how many time i started cranking my hand blower, it has become so much of a habit i do not even think about doing it anymore. Managed to burn one piece cause my coffee cup needed a refill, and of course not thinking just walked away.

We had those Coleman lanterns when i was a boy scout. I remember them always being a pain in the ... to light. We went camping once, this could go under the "embarrassing moments", it was night and i was helping put up the big tent. I had Coleman that i was toting around. I set the lamp down got down and set a stake. When i got up i put my hand on top of the lantern to give myself a boost. I spent that weekend camping with 2nd degree burns on the palm of my right hand. Not fun.

Davor, your hands a looking a bit furry in that last pic. I have never heard of Aladdin lamps, except of course in the story about the genie, so i looked them up. WOW those are expensive but very nice lamps.

Over the holidays my wife got me watching kids baking competition on TV. I actually kind of enjoyed watching that and even learned a few tips from those kids.

I run a Davenport 5 spindle screw machine for a living. It is basically a lathe with a revolving head that cuts in 5 tool positions. No computer controls, the only electronics are the buttons to start the motor. Everything is controlled by cams, gears, and dead stops. Timing, speeds and feeds, etc. are still figured the old fashioned way. Tools have to have grind angles figured out, where to center the tool using depth mics, scales, and squares, manual adjustments, etc. Then run 10,000 parts a shift holding a +/- .0005 " tolerance. Some parts we make have to be tapped, i tap right handed holes with a tap that only turns to the left. Anyway i like doing it and figuring all that out. Much better than just pushing a few buttons and a computer doing it. I also get paid much better than a CNC operator. When FIF first came on i was a huge fan. Yes it was a "reality" show but they have had some very talented bladesmiths on there as well. The hosts always seemed to try and make the show fun also. And depending on how you look at it, pro or con, it got a lot more people into making knifes and blacksmithing in general. You can watch them on demand or stream just about all the episodes. I would suggest the early seasons. It seemed that right before covid is when started loosing interest, however, during covid they did some episode of the hosts taking on a challenge and making blades. I thought those were pretty cool kind of putting their money where their mouth is so to say.

Welcome aboard. I am by no means an anvil expert but a bit that i picked up on Peter Wright anvils. In 1910 England passed a law that says durable goods shipped from England must be stamped "England". It is my understanding, again i am far from an expert, that is when Peter Wright started putting the word "England" under the word "patented".