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I Forge Iron

George N. M.

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Everything posted by George N. M.

  1. Ah, I knew this would go into conspiracy theory sooner or later. Ted, I think we should leave this topic and get back to blacksmithing. We'll end up irritating each other. George
  2. If there are legitimate hair, skin, or scat samples DNA analysis should show that there is an unknown species out there. Crowd funding could pay for it. And where are the bodies? All creatures die, naturally or accidentally, and leave remains. Something should have been found by now. And there have been no primate fossils found in North America younger than the Eocene (about 35 million years ago). That, of course, is not proof of non-existance but it is circumstantial evidence which points toward a conclusion. As you say, all evidence, both positive and negative needs to be considered as well as probabilities. And given human nature, it seems improbable that with all the reported human/crypto primate interactions that none of them seem to have resulted in a fatality for the primate and resulting remains. Given the prevalence of firearms in the US and the tendency of many folk to shoot first and ask questions later, particularly when encountering something big and scary, it seems improbable that something like this has not happened. All that said, I, personally, would find it very cool if hard evidence turned up of the existance of a large primate species in North America. However, I really don't expect that to happen. I recall that the yeti scalps in the Himylayas turned out to be made from goat skins. GNM
  3. Welcome aboard from 7500 feet (2285 meters) above sea level in SE Wyoming, USA. Glad to have you. Please do NOT grind on the face. You will do more damage than any improvement would justify. Yes, some fool has used chisels on the face without a protective plate under the work but the damage is not serious enough it interfere with normal work. I'd be happy to have it in my shop just as it is. If taken care of your grandchildren's grandchildren could be still using it. What part of Poland are you in? Some of my ancestors came from the area of Poznan in western Poland (one of those areas which has been either Polish or German depending on whose army most recently passed by). "By hammer and hand alla rts do stand."
  4. I'm skeptical of bigfoot because of the lack of physical evidence, a critter hit by a vehicle, bodies, scat, fossils, etc.. Also, particularly in the coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest there does not seem to be as much opportunity to feed a large omnivorous primate as in a more temperate climate. Even if it was a dietary analog to a bear it would leave more signs of its existance and give more opportunities for hard evidence such as photos and videos. And it is hard to assign levels of credibility to sighting reports. Some are going to have a high confidence level but a lot are going to be mistaken, seeing what the person wants or is predisposed to see, and just plain old frauds and pranks. Is it possible that there is a large undiscovered primate out there with a large enough breeding population to keep the species going? Yes. Is it probable? IMO, no or at least a pretty low probability. I agree with Frosty and Carl Sagan that the more fantastic/improbable the claim the more evidence you need to support it. As an attorney I am well aware of the need for evidence. To prevail in different sorts of legal actions you need different levels of evidence. In a plain old civil case, e.g. a contract dispute, you only need a prepondance of the evidence (aka the 51% rule), in certain cases you need "clear and convincing" evidence, and in criminal trials you need to disprove the presumption of innocence by "beyond a reasonable doubt" evidence. I would need at least "clear and convicing" evidence to think there is a high probability of the existence of a previously unknown large primate species. BTW, Frosty, The Whiteboard is one of the first things I read when I turn my computer on in the morning and have for the last 15 years or so. GNM
  5. TTB, also, look up scythe anvils, aka peening anvils. These were used to realign the edges of scythes in the field and were just driven into a log or the ground. Many medieval smiths had nothing larger or better. Frosty mentioned paper bag bellows. Bags of any sort can be used. Leather bags were common. Two squeezed alternately give a more or less constant blast. You mentioned you have 2 kids. One or both of them may be old enough to be a bellows boy/girl. All you need is a heat source, a pounder (hammer), something to pound on (anvil), and a grabber (tongs, vise grips, channel locks, pliers, etc.) I bet you could put together a very workable kit that weighed less than 5 kg. and would fit into a shoe box. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  6. TTB, I second what Paul has said. You can forge on very minimal equpment. Small projects take small tools. That is what travelling medieval smiths did. You can even use a flat rock for an anvil. Frosty can tell tales of forging in a camp fire with a rock for an anvil. You could even use the ball of your trailer/caravan hitch. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  7. I like him. It is good that you didn't follow the Kokopelli model too closely for a G/family audience since in many depictions there is no mistaking his gender. GNM
  8. I've been to Rhodes and there is nothing left of the Colossus. The modern symbol of Rhodes is a statue of a deer on a column. There are periodically proposals to re-erect a Colossus but nothing has come of them. Incidentally, almost certainly the colossus was NOT astride the harbor entrance with ships sailing between its legs as is often depeicted in old prints. That would have required a much larger statue and would have probably required mor sophisticated engineering and construction techniques than were available then. Fun fact: The Colusseum in Rome is named for a large, "colossal" statue that originally stood near it.' "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  9. One more thing to consider: Some schools are pretty restrictive about anything that could be construed as a "weapon" which may well include knives of any sort. If you are going to be doing anything that is sharp and pokey or cutty I suggest a discussion with the teacher and/or the school administration. You don't want any unpleasant surprises. I've brought firearms and large knives into schools when doing presentations on Viet Nam but always with trigger locks and prior approval. But these were schools in rural Colorado and Wyoming which have more realistic attitudes. GNM
  10. Good book. It has been on my bookshelf for years. I probably got it in the '80s. G
  11. Two possible advantages of the rear nut adjustment dould be that (1) the grotesque face is fully exposed for admiration and (2) you don't have the handle in the way in front. You would have had to have a big honking wrench close at hand to operate the jaws. Maybe it was made for someone who was wealthy but wanted his shop to be "artistic." Hammers would have had animal heads on them and tongs would have had jaws that were real animal jaws and fancy finials on the ends of the reins. Basically, everything would be for how it looked rather than how well it worked. Sort of like Marie Antionette and her ladies dressing up as rustic "milk maids." GNM
  12. A similar thing happened in Wyoming in 2017. The 580k population of Wyoming about trebled with eclipse watchers from Colorado and other places and, of course, they all tried leaving at once. I-25 from Casper to Cheyenne and down into CO was VERY packed and a 2-2.5 hour drive turned into 6-7 hours. And there are few secondary parallel roads for alternate routes. I was at a friend's cabin near the summit of the Laramie Range south of Douglas. We could see out onto the plains and during totality we could see areas that were still sun lit. As the article mentioned the darkness was about like a medium twilight. We all waited until the next day to leave and all was well. Very cool experience but I'll pass on seeing the April one because of the hassle. GNM
  13. Penannulars had pretty much passed out of use by the late middle ages and rennaisance. However, they are still a cool project and it wouldn't be hard to say that they might still have been in use in remote areas (e.g. rural Scandinavia or the Highlands of Scotland) while everyone was scuplting and painting in Italy. (My medieval history professor father in law used to joke that the common belief was that on January 1st, 1400 everyone woke up smart and artistic and set up an easel in the kitchen and started to paint and turned the cow shed into a sculpture studio.) In actual fashion brooches were mostly plate type with the pin and catch on the back. Fancy hinges and latches would have been in vogue but they are a longer and more complex project than is good for a demonstration. GNM
  14. Archie, I've said this before but you are new enough that you may not have seen it. So, trying to engage someone like your friend in rational, logical discussion is like trying to teach a pig to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the pig. My best friend who I have known for 50+ years and we were Best Man at each others weddings has tendencies in that direction. He has expected the economy to collapse for the last 50 years and is a prepper with a basement full of food. I try to be a voice of reason when conversation goes in that direction but it's how his brain works and how my brain works differently. GNM
  15. KItchen ware such as cooking forks, trammel hooks, spatulas, firesteels, skewers, spoons, etc.. Simple things that take a few minutes will engage an audience more than a long, involved project. Yes, you can forge a blade but you probably don't have time to do the hilt, etc.. Blacksmith knives where the tang is bent around to form the grip might have possibilities. Anything that takes bench work to finish is probably not a good choice. Will you be selling or just demonstrating? "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  16. For me one of the compelling pieces of non-evidence is that as far as I know not one ox hide shaped ingot has been found on this side of the Atlantic. Also, I believe that all the Old Copper Culture artifacts were made by cold hammering (and annealling) rather than by casting which would have probably been picked up if Old World folk were reworking native copper into ingots for transport. Yes, some early trans-Atlantic contact seems probable but I need convincing for large scale movement back and forth. GNM
  17. Coincidentally to our discussion of copper yesterday here is an article regarding a 4k year old copper dagger found in Poland. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69556#respond By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  18. I think the chrome plating makes it kind of problematic for forging no matter what kind of steel it is since heating it to forging temperature will cause all kinds of dangerous heavy metal inhalant issues. You can remove the chrome with acid but then you have the problem of disposing of toxic metal contaminated acid and residue. Maybe bury the treaded end 6' into the ground to make a chrome plated hitching post? "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  19. I find the Hancock article to be pretty conclusory and he makes some grand assumptions. This is a bit like the idea that all pyramids around the world must be the result of Egytptian influence. The other factiod of 500 million pounds of copper being "missing" also takes some pretty major assumptions. To say that X amount is unaccounted for means that you have to know how much was there to begin with and how much is still in situ which is pretty much impossible. 500 million pounds of copper would make a cube about 96 feet square or about 10 stories tall. That is a LOT of metal to move around even over centuries or millenia. What really makes me skeptical of major trans-Atlantic trade or transport of large amounts of copper is the lack of Old World artifacts on this side of the pond. A project of that size would have taken a lot of man power and if they were from the other side of the water we would be seeing, for example, Minoan or Phonecian or Egyptian pottery and other artifacts turning up in North America. Yes, the Hancock article showed some artifacts which were proported to be of Old World origin but we don't have any information about their provenance. And if copper was mined and smelted into ingots which could be transported some of it would have been lost in transportation between the midwest and the east coast. None of these hypothetical ingots have been found as far as I know, not to mention remains of camps or storage sites. To expain a sudden "flood" of copper in the mid-Old World Bronze age Occam's Razor would point towards some unknown old world source area before trying to look to a now lost trans-Atlantic copper route. I remain skeptical without more convincing hard evidence. GNM
  20. I was a Wyoming geologist for years until the bottom fell out of oil, gas, and minerals in the early '80s. I didn't want to go to work for 7-11 or Burger King. I never wanted to say "Do you want fries with that?" professionally. So, I went back to the University of Wyoming and went to law school. I still describe myself as a "recovering" geologist. It is one day at a time and you are never completely cured. Whenever I feel a compulsion to hit a rock with a hammer or make a map I call someone up and they talk me out of it. ("Hi! My name is George and I'm a geologist. I've gone 27 days without hitting a rock with a hammer." Applause) Thomas Powers had a similar history but he went into IT rather than the law. My cousin's husband still works at a limestone quarry near Mankato, MN. I'm somewhat skeptical of dramatic claims made on the History Channel. They are not known for their academic rigor. I don't discount early old-new world contact but large scale export of copper from the new world to the old needs some serious and persuasive evidence. Besides chemical signatures (and I may question how distinct they are) there would need to be evidence of export from the UP to the east coast of North America and loading and trading for old world goods on the east coast. I'm not saying any of this is impossible but i would like to see more evidence than a History Channel program. I am aware of the Old Copper Culture in the Upper Midwest and that copper artifacts from the UP show up in Hopewell contexts ("Mound Builders"). GNM
  21. The Ames family and company has been around a long time and has been a player in US history. They made lots of tools such as shovels in the 19th century. Between Laramie and Cheyenne at the highest elevation on the transcontinental railroad is 60' high granite pyramid with portraits of Oakes and Oliver Ames whowere brothers who were instermental in financing the Union Pacific Railroad and the laying of the tracks that met the Central Pacific (which was building eastward from Califoria) to meet at Promentory Point, Utah in 1867. Later they were implicated in the Credit Mobilier scandle which IIRC involved bribing members of Congress with UPRR stock and shady dealings with the federal support for the railroad. Here is the wiki article on the Ames Monument. And, yes, I can attest that there is a passage inside that goes around the base. As an old Wyoming caver I have been in it a number of times. The folding entrenching tool I carried in Viet Nam and the one that I carry in the back of my vehicle were made by Ames.
  22. There have been lots of odd minerals found in glacial till and moraines. There have even been diamonds from kimberlite pipes in Canada found in Wisconsin and Illinois. Frosty, do you have original references for the evidence of New World copper in the Old World? GNM
  23. Because BLO dries hard I would think that there is little chance of staining clothing once it is completely dry. Bees wax might be more problematic. A hard automotive wax might work too. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
  24. Usually, they also make good firesteels (flint stikers). However, I have one that will not harden in either oil, superquench, or water. Probably some odd alloy. GNM
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