Shabumi

It looks like some worked in tails and powdered wigs too, it must have been casual Friday when they drew this plate

Here's a condensed version from the Reference Material section. I found an online copy of Diderot's Encyclopedia and took a screenshot of the needle making plate. It looks like they punched the eyes cold.

I found a site that shows Diderot's encyclopedia, and translations in different languages. Here's the site if anyone's interested, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/ and here's the plate TP spoke of [ed: in a separate discussion of needlemaking]. It's fun trying to figure out the process based on the little info they give

Hahaha, she probably knew it would cost more, but she "was wise in her generation, and made no protest" to her husband "of extrordinary meanness". I think the moral of this story is that it pays to know your customer, sometimes 5-10x more. This story makes me wonder how difficult it was to punch an eye in a needle. I'd imagine all the heat would be gone the moment the needle left the forge

I was looking through the California Digital Newspaper Collection and found this gem in an article from the Grass Valley Morning Union of June 22nd, 1888 when I did a search for "blacksmith".

Looks like a chair to me. I like the chain seat, looks like it would be comfy to sit and rock in. I can't see from the pictures, do the front feet pivot to accommodate the rocking? Frosty, I'll try out a few test holes like you suggested. I'll bet you have enough in that file to write a book "Easy, old school tricks to do the impossible". It would be a perfect book to read on the porcelaine throne

Very nice tongs HH, and you father should love the cross "ink well" Kycats, I like the contrast the copper bowl gives with the silvery-ness of the cross. Still haven't been able to get enough time to light the forge, but in the 15-20 minutes free time I've had these last few days I managed to get the pipes for my chimes cut, cleaned, tuned and have the hang point center punched. I also cold worked a random piece of 1/2 in x 1/8 in bar into a circle a little under 8 inch diameter for the top support, still need to rivet it closed though. A quick "dumb" question about drilling. I want to put 1/8inch posts inside the chimes to hang the chime from. It needs to be tight and I don't want to have to redo the whole pipe by drilling to large, so would a 1/8 inch drill bit be what I want to use or should I start smaller?

I think that one is in downtown Nevada City, but there are a bunch in this area. It could be from Empire mine or Malakoff Diggins though. They get the one at Malakoff going when the do their annual "Humbug Days". I always thought it would make a great power hammer. Set it up with your 5 most used heads and you can move from one head to the other.

Like this?

That must be the missing ingredient to the magic weld. In addition to the hammer anointed with the blood of virgin wool and the anvil with an egg balanced on end on the horn pointing true north at high noon on the summer solstice, you must bare yourself to the gods of the craft. Only then can they truly judge if you are worthy of their favor.

Perhaps one of the leather utilikilts, it should protect the delicate upgrades you may be getting from scale and molten flux

So that's what that's called, we use them between our gatepost and another post to keep our gates straight(ish). I was always told to just "twist the gatepost" when it started sagging. The end table is very nice looking I like the wrapping on the legs, but I have to agree with TP about the turnbuckle. It doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the table. Maybe if it were bare metal instead of painted it would blend better. As it is now, MY eye gets drawn to the turnbuckle vs seeing the table as a whole.

I was taught to spell it Opossum even if my teachers never said it with the O, so maybe the O is silent

Here's a blueprint in the Hofi series that points out the difference of cast vs forged, I think it was written by Hofi

Here's the scrolling fork I did today. It started as 18 inches of 3/8"x1" mild. The class was for a 3/4" jaw fork with a loop on the handle but there was plenty of stock, so I decided to get more practice on the technique and did it again on the other end. The necks are a little rough, my arms were starting to complain while I was drawing them out, so I figured I'd stop before I mess it up too bad. I'll finish drawing it out in my shop later. It was a good day. No one got hurt, everyone laughed at least once and I got to pay back some of the kindness given to me when I started. Just a few little things for the beginner I was sharing a forge with, like showing him how to move metal quicker with hotter metal or that he can use his shoulder when he swings instead of just his elbow.

Not in my shop, but I went to a CBA class for bending forks. Made a double ended one with a jaw opening of 3/4 inch on one 3nd and 1 inch on the other. Pics to come after I get home. Also signed up for a forge welding workshop with Mark Aspery and Victoria Ritter teaching in 2 weeks. Really excited as it's only 1.5 hours away from home.

Buffs are great. Big eggs, with a good chance for multiple yolks as they get older, though not as rich as a duck egg. I think our record was a 4 yolker from the buffs we had. Some of my favorite breeds are the Picatas and Cacciatores Frosty: the SeaWolves look way more menacing than the Miners of our local HS.

That concert must have been something to experience. This is an interesting idea for chimes, really large so you could feel the vibration as it rings. I have some 3inch pipe I could play with. That should be fun, I love having chicks around. We started with 100 3 years ago, and we're down to about 80 right now. This spring were going to get the new batch and retire the old ones. What breed do you use? We use Rhode Island reds, barred rocks and the cross between those two, black star links. Everyone else, those hammers, handles, knives and leaf look really good. Don't worry about the fullering too much, you'll never find a perfect leaf, or every leaf you find is perfect. Take your pick

TP, you can build it and it would vibrate at 16hz but you would only hear the overtones in the 300+hz range. It would only be 124 inches of 1inch pipe

I'm in the same boat as you. Been so busy with life that I haven't had time to do more than check the new posts before I have to be back on the run. Very nice wolf opener. In haven't been to the shop in over a week, but I have been working with metal, though it's only hot when I connect it to a power source. Our sow pasture went from nice solid dirt to 8 inch deep rust red "snot" mud overnight, so I've spent the last week electric fencing a new 10 acre area for them and moving them into it when im not showing or delivering puppies (we raise mini Dachshunds). In fact as I type I'm waiting at the airport to pick up a new stud and his sister for our breeding program. English creams if you're wondering what color. I have been researching alot in the 10 minutes of spare time I have in between chores and I am quite excited about making tuned wind chimes out of some old pipe we have laying around. If anyone is interested in how to get a certain tone from a chime check out leehite.org , quite a bit of good info there about chimes. I even managed to make a XL file where all I need to put in is the ID, OD and frequency(hz) I want and it pops out the length I need to cut for that tone

I would love to experiment. Alas, a welder I have not... Yet. I would imagine that a good weld is a good weld. Whether mig, tig, stick or forge. If anyone with a welder would like to try before I have the chance to experiment, I'd love to see the results.

Does anyone use non-forge welding in their forging? Like the octopus suction cups I've seen going around where they weld onto a piece, then forge the weld to shape it. Or weld 2 pieces together then forge to shape vs grind to shape?

Just keep at it. What you want will come to you if you really need it, unless you get something better. Then you will find 3 of what you wanted in the next week.

Thanks for the link Steven. Though I have a quick correction. It's Darryl Nelson who did the shell tutorial. Dylan, another option would be to use a top fuller, radiating from the center of the bottom. It won't be as fast as the veining tool TP suggested, but it is another path to check for an aesthetic you prefer.

Love the eye punch, especially the tear drop shape. I've seen some where they use a fuller to draw out the mane like a leaf or knife blade, and I like the look it gives. Kinda like wind going through the mane. I don't have any of my tools, but I did a quick mock up with clay, a lighter(fuller), a knife(chisel) and a pencil(large and small ball punch) to show what I mean. Now you have me wanting to go back to the 3d horse head that started my owls