BillyBones

How to grow catnip, i cant keep it from growing. That and peppermint is quite plentiful on my little slice of this planet. Peppermint completely surrounds my shop, love the smell. And catnip all the way around the house and barn. Funny story, i used to pick the catnip around my grandma's house hang it and dry in the garage. Then i would just put it in a baggie to store. I would usually just throw it up on top of the fridge. One day granny got a new fridge, the guys came to put in the new one and get rid of the old one. When they moved the old one the bag of catnip fell on the floor. So grandma and the 2 movers stand there looking down at a rolled up baggie of herbs. Grandma picks it saying "oh this is my grandson's". Not saying once what was in the bag she just put it in a cabinet. I guess we could all imagine what they thought was in the bag.

Lots of us from KY that are of Irish decent. My people came from Derry (Ulster, N. Ireland). Both my grandparents knew their stuff about what was growing about. I have forgotten alot myself but i could still survive out in the wild from what i remember about wild edibles and the like. They grew up during the depression so i am assuming what they knew was a matter of survival at one time for them. They also taught me the importance of what we now call "prepping", that was daily life when i was growing up. Slag, thanks for the info there. My granddaughters get eaten alive and i have been tryng to find a safe effective repellent. I was going to try the catnip but then the cats would not leave them alone.

The thing that i love about smithing is you can be almost completely self reliant. All but 1 set of tongs i have i made, i use a hammer that i made and of course a forge that i built. It is kind of a hybrid JABOD and brake drum forge. I can get anthracite cheap so that is what i use in it, but have to keep constant air flow so an electric blower. I weld with no problems and if not careful will burn the steal like right now. In the winter i will usually go with gas becuase of lack of ventilation and it tends to heat the shop up quicker. But that to is built by me. Basically just a small square box of fire brick with a Ron Reil style burner. It to will get to welding temp just takes a little longer. And as far as gas consumption generally 20# per 7-8hr run. I run 3, 20# in series no freeze up problems and i go through the gas in about a week. That is 3-4 hour days also. I to am basically a noob. This is not my profession, but a hobby. I may have $200 at most wrapped up in both forges. But if you are unsure as to whether or not you will like the journey you start on you have to ask "Is $850 an amount i want to spend on a hobby i may not like?" And if i do can i get my $850 back? In other words start cheap. And if like me you end up loving it, then pull the trigger on larger more expensive stuff. Good luck and most important have fun.

Catnip is a very useful plant. Grandma used to give us a cup of catnip tea when us chillins would take sick. A mild seda-give (best one word joke ever, thanks Mel) that would settle upset tummies. So safe that i asked the doctor about giving my daughter a little when she was an infant and would get cholicy. I remember grandma doing that and the doctor said as long as there were no pesticides or the like it would be fine. Another quite useful plant is jewel weed. Does wonders on poison ivy and grows near poison ivy. Just tear off and bruise a few leaves and rub it on the spot you touched the ivy, dont work if you have already started reacting. Granpa told me the it was becuase the moisture and roughness of the leaves, you were just washing the oils off. Dont care why, i just know it works.

I got chewed out at a junk yard once for calling it a junk yard. They said this is an automobile recycling center. I said i see junk cars in a yard looks, like a junk yard to me. Watch those "recycling centers" a lot of stuff you can get about the same price new. Example i did a Caravan tranns one day and mess up an axle. Our local junk yard, that we use at work a lot might i add, wanted $55 for it, Autozone wanted $58. Even a rebuildable tranns core is $500.

Went to an antique store a while back and saw an "anvil" there. It was a piece of railroad track ground to look like an anvil, horn, hardy and all. $300. When i saw the "blacksmiths hammer" for $65 i walked out with tears from laughter. The hammer was actually a big punch.

CGL, that is a nice bell you got there. Nothing i make actually looks like what i lay out. Try as i might just dont happen.

When i was 13 i got my first car. A 1970 Nova with a worn out 350 in it. Me and my dad pulled the engine, punched it out and built a 383 stoker. Big ol' 750 double pumper sitting on top of a Weiand high rise single plane. Went through the old power glide and put a 4:12 gear in the rear end. Did all the body work and blacked out all the chrome. I ran open exhaust on it and in 1986 when i got my license, car alarms were the the new rage around here. I would drive to school and just tap the gas pedal and set off all the alarms in the lot. I raced it on the streets but my dad was the only one that ever took it down the track it would run a high 11 to a low 12. When i joined the Army my dad sold the car for $400 to one of his friends, i was fuming when i found out. I came home on leave one year and my dads buddy called me and asked if i wanted it back. I bought the car back for $400. The only change he made was he put a TH400 in it becuase he blew up the power glide. Since then i have owned a 67 mustang, 69 Nova, 67 Belair , 2001 Mitsi eclipse, and now me and the old man have a 66 mustang GT. Those were our toys not our daily drivers. They were built for speed not durability and if you have never swapped a tranny out on the side of the road in 8" of snow or rebuilt your engine in a motel bathroom you have been deprived. The 66 gets mostly trailered to car shows and swap meets now. My knees are getting to old to drive a stick very far now a days.

A gozinta pin is a pin that gozinta the hole.

Kind of. He came from Louisiana and there is a term for Cajuns that sounds derogatory however Cajuns wear it with pride i just call him my "coon ... mouse" (... think donkey or slang for your backside)

Well to start the day a simple hook, been a while since i made one. Making my aunt a coat rack. 4 spikes that will represent the crucifixion. I have not made the crosses but there will be 3 for Jesus and the 2 thieves on Golgatha. It will be spike, cross, spike, cross...etc. I need a slitter but my tongs are to small to hold the piece i am using for it, so as any blacksmith should do, need a tool make a tool. started a new set but then had to watch the grandkids so i just got them roughed out. Will finish tomorrow. A little refining and weld on some 1/2 round for reigns, rivet and done.

I had to stay with a friend for a minute and his wife raised guinea pigs. She had about 40 of them. They are the most annoying creatures when in a bunch i have ever been around. 1 aint so bad but that many with all the squeaking...

Ken love your little picture thingy. I got on the bus back in '84. I think i had a good time all those years but they are a little foggy.

Pretty simple really. A piece of 4x4 and some 2x4s. It is actually much sturdier than it looks, i am "one of these days" going to put 2 more 2x's coming out at an angle on the bottom and tie them into the 10x10 that is the base of my shop wall. You may also see a pile of weights next to it on said 10x, may have to change the bottom plate now.

Nice score Das, it is nice to have both forges. The gas forge can heat a little more even and more localized, but they are limited in space.

I am not sure about the ATF acetone mix i usually use PB Blaster on rusted up things. But if irondragon and frosty both recommend it i would use it. Plus a can of Blaster is like $9 as a quart of tranny fluid is $3. However i do know ATF. I would suggest not getting the new stuff that is mostly synthetics but get either a dexron 3 (dex-merc) or a type F. The new stuff does not have the detergents in it that the older style fluids had. I would guess that it is the detergents that make it break up the rust, kind of the same way they will wash away the clutch material on a burned up tranny.

That is a phrase seldom heard in the lower 48 i believe. I forgot you were in Alaska so imagine the picture in my head. We use the drum off of an 850 series Ford as a pedestal base for the snag grinder at work.

Sorry guys those 2 posts were supposed to be over in the "What did you do in your shop today" section. Woops. I do not know when they will hit hot iron but i have a small ASO i got from Rural King cheap they can beat on. Little pieces of aluminum or copper or what ever they can find to pick up. I do how ever have a shooting range set up for them in the barn. Just a cheap little bb gun but they have fun. Their arms are almost long enough to shoulder it and reach the trigger. One of them can actually do it and hit a pop can from about 30 feet. The night i took that photo i had some stuff to burn. So i got them roasting marshmallows for their first time. Almost 7 and had never roasted a marshmallow. Definitely need more time with papa. I was thinking the clinker could have been covered in polyurethane just poured on real thick like. My grandpa before he passed made counter tops by making a rectangle trough then putting peices of glass, pottery, china, stones, shells whatever in it and covering the whole thing with polyurethane. Made some neat effects, maybe i could collect a bunch of clinkers and do the same.

Thanks CGL, dont look as nice as yours but definitely functional. And if you are wondering it is a 153# mousehole made around 1850. The grand kids love to be with papa in the shop. I was burning green coal a couple weeks ago and one of them said " I never knew fire could smell so good." As far as what i did today, cleaned out the forge. Thought i would be the new blacksmith god, all my clinkers were coming right to the top of my fire. Now that i cleaned a clinker out the size of a football (that would be an American football for my overseas friends) i now realize they were coming to the top simply becuase they had no where else to go. Here is a piece of it, maybe i can sell it as art?

I agree with Mr. Powers, especially if you are planning on making razors. You can make pretty decent knives and hawk inserts from a piece of coil spring but razors have to hold a much finer edge so it will be benificial that you use a known steel and find out the proper method of heat treating. The "Heat Treater's Guide Companion" is a free down loadable AP. I thought i wanted to be a blade smith when i first started but the limited amount of time spent at the anvil turned me off.

Well to start i had some coal that needed sifted. Bunch of little stuff mixed with a whole lot of dust. Fortunately the twins came for a visit. Grandma was not happy when they came in covered in coal dust. Not identical, the other kind of twins. Re-mounted my anvil, thanks to crazy goat lady on this one. After seeing the way her husband mounted hers i could not believe i did not think of it myself. But thanks CGL. This is how i had it with the turn buckles crossed. Real pain in the...to tighten. Now swithched to this: The angle iron like that makes a nice place to set a punch or chisel or whatever. The 2, actually 4, little screws are there becuase when i first tied it down when i would tighten one side the anvil would move that direction. So i put the screws on each corner just to hold it enough to tighten it all down and never took them out

Das, i feel ya on that. Once i eat i am done for the day. I to usually do not eat supper until 9 or 9:30ish.

Jacks are no problem in a scrap yard. Every car has one in it and there will provably be some just laying about. Having said that let me also add that i have been an auto tech for more years than i care to count, 20+, take heed to this : NEVER, EVER GET UNDER A CAR THAT IS SUPPORTED BY ONLY A JACK. Get something solid under there, that would be what jack stands are for. Around the yard you will be able to find a lot of stuff that can support the vehicle. There is also not much of a chance they will let you cut the leaf springs or something out of a scrap car, those they plan on reselling. And if they do, and they know you, one of the guys may just be nice enough to bring the fork lift over and flip the car to where you can get to what ever it is that you want. Go visit your local mechanic. We have a huge scrap pile in the corner of my shop. I specialize in transmissions but the shop does it all. That means on any given day i have a pile of axles, springs, sway bar links, etc., etc., etc. Most techs will let you rummage through the scrap barrel (my owner wants scrap price for it, most are happy just to get rid of it) but keep in mind clean up after yourself. Also with mechanics a box of doughnuts or a couple bottle openers will go a long way. Biscuits and gravy, they will call you when they get the parts off if you get them from Tudors.

I tried explaining to my co workers one day the difference in a pick ax and a mattock just could not get it to sink into them. All the mattocks i have ever used the ax side, the blade was usually only about 2" wide and was more of a wedge than a cutting edge. My cousin one day had to dig a small trench from his house to the barn he chose a mattock to do the job. His dad came out and the boy was sweating and wore out. My uncle looks at the mattock and the adze end was bent into a nice scroll. Oh i may mention my cousin is about 6'5" 325#. He is in college right now on a wrestling scholarship, Iowa state i think.

Rojo, you might like this. Or anyone else who likes to laugh at others folly. When i was younger working in a machine shop one of my co-workers went out for a walk one day. Being a winter day the air was crisp but not to cold and a nice day to be outside. Whilst on his walk he came across an old hornets nest. Deciding it would look good on his mantle he took it home. It only took a couple hours for the nest to warm up and the hibernating hornets to decide it was spring. Well out they came and, well... Ended up having to call an exterminator cause the hornets did not want to go back out into the cold homeless.