George N. M.

Aric, health insurance is a BIG deal, particularly because you have kids. Is it possible for you and the girls to be covered through your partner's insurance if she has it at her job? If not, you will have to look into private insurance. Also, most states have an insurance exchange where you can get health insurance if you can't get/afford it on the open market (aka Obamacare). This is one of those things that you always hope you and your family will never need but if you do it can get very expensive very fast. My late wife, Martha, used to say after she was diagnosed at age 53 with terminal cancer that everyone is just one diagnosis away from a life changing train wreck. I would say that unless you can figure this issue out it could be a deal breaker. I would ask the owner of the new place what he does for health insurance and what the other employees do. If they run bare and just pray that nothing bad happens that is not good. A lot of small employers cannot afford to offer health insurance any more. Maybe some of the folk here who are in a similar situation or are self employed can share what they do about this issue. George PS I don't recall if you are veteran but if you are you might check out coverage through USAA.

Chad, penannular brooches are not intended for the hair. They are fasteners for things like capes, cloaks, shawls, scarves, etc.. They are an early form of a safety pin and were used in the same manner. They generally date from the first centuries BC to the mid medieval period. They are probably too heavy for use in holding hair but I won't say that they couldn't be used as such if the pin were light enough and the wearer had heavy, thick hair. GNM

I have had better luck with DO doctors reater than MD doctors. This may be because DOs are trained more to treat the whole person rather than just prescribe drugs. It gas worked for us. GNM

I just got back from seeing my doctor and while I'm generally in pretty good shape and you folk are going to have to put up with me for some time yet he did tell me that I could stand to build some muscle mass. When I told him that I was a blacksmith he said that that sort of work and swinging a hammer is good exercise. So, I told Madelynn that if I am out in the shop it is on doctor's orders. It's not something I want to do, it's something I have to do. If necessary, I will ask him for a script that I need to spend X hours per day or week in the shop. Just a thought that y'all might want to ask your doctors abut being required to spend time in the shop. It is certainly more healthy than sitting in a recliner with a fermented malt beverage in your hand. And, IMO, much more enjoyable. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." +

IIRC, cultivator teeth are fairly high carbon steel. For beaks they fook like they belong to one of the corvids, crows, ravens, etc.. GNM

We geeks have ILL ingraved on our hearts but for those who are only semi-geeks it stands for Inter Library Loan. It is a process by which you can access books from libraries all over the world. I have gotten books from as far away as the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. It is a HUGE resource when doing serious research. If you rely only on what the internet has, even as good and convenient as it is, you are ignoring a VERY valuable research tool. The internet is great for things like "what was the name of that guy in that movie?" but for serious, deep, and academic research you need to use written resources and ILL is a valuable part of that. I probably wouldn't be a blacksmith if it hadn't been for the references I got through ILL at my small town library in rural Wyoming. This was 1978 and before home computers and the internet, the Paleolithic, really. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Dad, First, I am not a welder. So, I am giving you my understanding as a welding lay person. Depending on when your vise was made and the manufacturer (it is fairly rare to be able to ID a vise maker. Most are unmarked.) it could be made of cast iron, ductile iron, or steel. The easiest way to tell is to do a spark test. You can look up details but it is based on the fact that different ferrous metals will produce different color and shape of sparks when touched by an abrasive wheel, often from an angle grinder but you can use a bench grinder wheel or a grinding wheel on an electric drill. If it turns out to be steel the problem is a lot easier to solve. Depending on what metal the vise is made of will affect how it is welded. Most welds are steel to steel. Cast and ductile iron take special welding rods and if the mass is large enough it may need to be preheated before welding and allowed to cool down very slowly. An alternative to welding is brazing which uses bronze rods to "glue" the two edges of cast iron together. A brazed joint is not as strong as a weld but, as I said previously, this will be a compressive force which will not put much stress on the braze or weld. As Frosty suggested, silver solder is another option. It is not as strong as welding or brazing but it might be good enough. Discuss all this with your welder friend and ask him to be honest about his experience and skill in working with metals other than steel. If he does not have the expertise go to a welding shop and discuss it. You may have to go to several because not every welder has the necessary skill and experience. Good luck and keep us informed of how it goes and post picture. We LOVE pictures. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Nobody, what has happened with baby powder is that it is no longer produced using talc mineral because there is sometimes asbestos contamination in some talc deposits. So, to avoid allegations of liability almost all the domestic producers now make baby powder using corn starch. My wife uses powder and the corn starch is lighter and gets all over everything in the bathroom much worse than the old actual talcum powder. It has been 3-4 years since I could find anything but corn starch powder in the stores. GNM

Dave, copper is a really attrctive metal but you have to be a bit careful with it when it is going to be used around food or beverages because it reacts with anything even a bit acidic to make copper compounds which are not a good thing to put into the body. Traditionally, the way to get around this issue was to apply tin to the inside of copper vessles and utinsels. Today you can do the same by using lead free solder, melt a bit in the copper bowl and spread it around with a piece of steel or a small wire brush. If you are only going to be using the copper with water or other non-acidic food, no problem. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

David, you may be correct, however, I think the consolidation of blooms into wrought iron bars would have been done at or near the point of production rather than transporting the raw blooms to a smithy for processing. It would be interesting to know if there were production operations in the area. Thanks for posting the link. George

Cool. It looks like the higher spar was hoisted up the mast first, before the lower spar rather than having them permanently fixed to the mast iike later tall ships where crewmen climb up to adjust the sails. GNM

Dad, if it were mine I'd try the welding/brazing the screw box back on but I'd make sure the welder had cast iron experience. Also, even if the screw box is unsalvagable the rest of the vise, as parts, still has value to someone. Also, do a spark test on the vise and see if it is cast iron or possibly cuctile iron or even steel. I suspect cast iron but the others are possibilities. And I agree with John, the past wasn't always better than the present. I remember tube TVs too. In the late '50s and early 60s if our TV went out I'f oprn up the back and see if there was an obvious burnt out tube and if there was I'd take it out and go to Walgreen's where they had a display of TV tubes and buy a replacement. More often than not that would fix the problem and my folks didn't need to call a repairman. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

PS Something else to consider is how much time and money you want to put into the project. If it is for the fun of it, great. But if it is about getting a working vise for your blacksmithing time and resources come into the equation. There are post vises on ebay for less than $200 (plus shipping unless it is close enough to pickup). A new Kanca at Blacksmith's Depot is $385 (+ shipping). And they show up on Craig's List and Facebook Marketplace and etsy and various other on line and local auctions. Post vises are generally better for a couple of reasons but you can do a lot of work with a Harbor Freight bench/machinist's vise for not much $. Just thinking of possible alternatives. GNM

People with more expertise with post vises than I have will give you better comments and suggestions but one thing that struck me is that appears that the threads in the center part of the screw are obviously more worn than the ends. I don't know if it is enough to make a practical differende in use but I think that you should be sure that there are enough threads left that the vise will work and hold once you have somehow repaired the screw box. Also, I don't know if someone skilled in welding or brazing cast iron could just weld or braze the screw box back onto the vise. In use the force would be compressive against the vise. So, the weld/braze is not going to get a lot of force on it. That may be the easiest solution. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

UK census records are sealed for 100 years (in the US it is 72 years IIRC). So the most recent UK census available through the UK National Archives website is 1921. Depending one Elenore"s age (say early 20s during WW2) she might show up as an infant or small child in the 1921 census. If you know where yur grandfather was stationed in the UK you might check the area around where he was stationed. My wife is a geneologist and you can see that some of it has rubbed off. GNM

I also agree with Gewoon. A heat deflector sounds like a simple and elegant solution to protect the garage door. A sheet of steel, aluminum, or even plywood suspended by cords or wires from hte edges of the garage door would work. Just angle it up towards the outside so that the hot air will spill out to the rest of the world. I have a modified Sandia type propane forge which has a chimney rather than venting out the ends and if I put my hand over the chimney with my arm extended over my head it is warm/hot but I doubt it would melt a plastic bag. The hot gases from the forge, particularly one that hs "dragon's breath because the exhaust is turbulent, mix with the surrounding atmosphere pretty quickly and the heat is diluted. You could even do some experiments witha themometer to quantify how haot it gets at farious locations and distances above the forge. Yes, I would protect the vinyl garage door because melting a hole in it is a bad and expensive to repair. GNM

'I'm in agreement with Frosty that there should be no problem running a propane forge in the rain. Any drops that hit it will immediately evaporate. However, while the roge is cold you will want to move it inside or cover it with a tarp to keep the liner dry. Look back at Alexandr's postings. Fairly recently he had a picture of a wood chimney cap shaped like an umbrella that he had done. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Billy, since the "Elenor Shaw" is etched into the blade it probably was done as a special order. She could have been the wife or girl friend of someone in the British Forces who ended up trading it with your grandfather for, say, American cigarettes, after Elenore "Dear Johned" him. As good a speculation as any. G

Horner is kind of an odd duck in the paleontolgy community. He has done some great stuff and has helped popularize the science but in many ways he is more than a half bubble off plumb. If you ask 5 paleontologists about him you will get about 12 opinions. And there is a reason that he is not affiliated with any university. He would be awful in a classroom. GNM

Davor, actually, I would suggest that you could just make the mast a little bit shorter and place the single spar at a height which falls between the two you have done. And, if possible place the mast more towands the middle of the hull. Maybe you could have two boxes for tea lights, one before and one aft of the mast. Also, could you please describe how you measured and formed the two strips forming the sides of the hull? That strikes me a geometrically complicated. Was it a fit and cut approach or did you have it all calculated out before hand? G

Scott, from what I have observed over the years on The History Blog is there only occasionally any follow up regarding conservation. Sometimes when there is an announced conservation effort on a well known painting or a mosaic there will be a later follow up showing the before and after versions. I think Livius, the lady who runs the History Blog, gets her material from internet press releases from museums, archeology authorities, the general and specialized media, etc. and repackages them for posting on her blog. So, if there is a special find there may or may not be another one after conservation. I have seen conservation posts on jewelry, paintings, mosaics, and a few other things but very rarely on iron objects. Most resposible museums know their limits on conservation and will only estend the process to significant artifacts, particularly those that are intended for display or detailed study. Otherwise, the artifact is stabilized, if necessary, and filed into the collections. Some of this is due to the conservative attitude of "do no harm" to the artifact and in hope that there may be a better way to deal with conservation and restoration in the future. And, yes, there are lots of folk out there who find something and do not recognize its significance and discard it or just set it in the corner or on the mantel as an interesting souvenir or try to "restore" it themselves, e.g. removing rust with a wire wheel. GNM

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. If you put your general location in your profile we will be able to give better answers to some of your queries. This is a world wide forum and as far as we know you could be in Lapland, Kansas or Tasmania. Coal slag/clinker is basically impure glass because the commonest impurity in the swamps when the coal was being laid down was sand and silt which was washed in. So, any use of coal slag would be about the same as ground up glass. It will melt at about the same temperature and will abrade anything softer than itself. Because the melting point is fairly low, it did melt when the coal was burned, I don't see much use for it as a refactory product which would be exposed to higher temperatures than its melting point. Ground up to about pea gravel size slag is an excellent medium for traction in ice and snow. Anyone who lives in snow country and has access to slag/clinker should carry a container of it in their vehicle. And give it as a strange but very useful gift to friends and family. It works much better than sand or cat litter because it is sharper and more "grabby" and is a good size (sand is often too fine). Back in the day before road salt was a thing cities would spread crushed coal clinker on the icy streets for traction for horses, wagons, and pedestrians. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." PS In my experience "slag" are the molten impurities which accumulate on the top of liquid metal when refining ore, e.g. iron, and are poured off and discarded. "Clinker" is the unburned residue remaining after coal is burned. They are close to interchangable but IMO not quite. One implies a refining process while the other refers to a residue which is similar to ash when burning wood. My 2 cents.

Very nice, Davor. I like how the strips outline the hull. My only issue is the Viking ships only had one spar (the cross piece on the mast that holds the sail), not two as you have done. That kind of clangs esthetically for me but might not be an issue for other folk. Other than that, really, really good. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

You may have seen it already but there is a style of bootjack that looks like two single shot black powder pistols joined together at about the lock. Here is one: https://www.alamy.com/bootjack-dated-c-1939-dimensions-overall-225-x-28-cm-8-78-x-11-in-original-iad-object-10-long-medium-watercolor-gouache-and-pen-and-ink-on-paperboard-museum-national-gallery-of-art-washington-dc-author-john-price-image225625234.html?imageid=E5AAE177-85A2-423E-BE9B-9E81812287F7&p=697458&pn=1&searchId=7406b9cdb2be772591ae9f6c4767b29b&searchtype=0

PS Francis Whittaker once said that there is always room at the top but, unfortunately, that is a narrow niche and hard to break into. Even though I have pretty much worked carft shows and ethnic events and sometime done what I think is pretty well in that niche I have had to plan and strategize markets, target demographics, inventory balance, etc.. There is a LOT more to it than just being a good blacksmith whether you are just trying to make a hobby pay for itself or trying to have a significant revenue source. And, yes, there are a LOT of ticky-tacky homes being built and furnished. People are moving out of the cities and there is a big push for low and middle income housing and that often means multi-unit dwellings, condo and apartments. Not much call for hand made fixtures there. And given high mortgage rates and the cost of even "mid" level homes folk don't have the money for custom and unique fixtures. GNM