George N. M.

Over the years I have done a fair amount of work with medieval cookery manuscripts and there are a number of English cookery and food words that have shifted meaning over the centuries. One example is "mess". The common modern meaning is something that is disorderly and dirty and needs to be cleaned up. However, the older meaning is a group of 2 or more people sharing food or drink, often from a common dish or bowl. The translators of the King James Bible used it in this sense for the story Genesis 25 about Esau "selling his birthright for a mess of pottage" meaning selling his inheritance for a bowl of soup. "Mess" in the shared food sense survives in military usage, e.g. "mess hall," "mess sergent," "officer's mess," "mess mates," etc.. And, yes, "meat" is pretty synonymous with "meal."

OK, this one is actually about ironwork rather than cheese. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/73103#respond I always like how historic tools are pretty much the same as the ones we use today. Form follows function. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Chad, do you do any finish work on them like wire wheeling the scale off or any grinding on the blades? Also, do you harden them at all. I know it doesn't do a lot but I harden mine in super quench. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand" G

Actually, there may be an Etsy shop or somewhere else on the internet that sells gold Celtic designs and interlace decals rather than having to do it by hand, racing stripes and flames too. PS Just to be fancy or intentionally obscure when I sign something I sometimes will use the Latin "me fecit" as in "GNM me fecit MMXXV" which translates as "GNM made me 2025."

Gold pinstripes that flow into elaborate Celtic Knots and interlace. Too much is never enough! I'd also stamp into the metal somewhere your name and date of construction. It may be in use a century from now and a craftsman should sign his work. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." GNM

MS, I have one word for you regarding the noisy BnB: Bagpipes. You don't have to learn to play them yourself, just a sound system. Most unsophisticated folk dislike them (unlike us cultured people who adore them). Mideastern music can also have a deterrent effect and traditional Chinese vocal pieces can make your teeth hurt.

Absolutely do not dress the edges! It is fine as it is. As a general rule, no grinding should be done on an anvil. There are some rare exceptions but I doubt they apply in your case. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Very sweet score. I've seen worse anvils of that size go for $1500. I agree with Frosty about making him something special. I understand his sentiment. I've been thinking about where I want my shop to go once I am gone. I am more concerned about benefiting beginning and working smiths than anything else. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Commercial gun blue (cold blue)'s active ingredient is phosphoric acid. I usually use rubber gloves when using it but I hve never had any problems if it comes in contact with my skin.

Just a simple, basic, and modest place to hang your hat and keep the rain off your head.

Jennifer, First, glad to have you back. We (I) have missed you. Second, cool new (to you) toys. Being able to have a big mobile lifting device will make you life a lot easier. That is what has limited me on a number of things in the shop, not being able to unload or move heavy things around. About a year ago I passed on a good deal on a Little Giant because I didn't have a way to bring it home or install it. Third, the new furry companion looks like a good addition too. Needs more head scritches though. George

Welcome aboard from 7500 feet in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. I suggest that you check the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America to look for a local blacksmithing organization near you and join it. You will learn a lot and get to know good folk. And there is nothing like learning from someone else. It is possible to teach yourself but that is not a preferred method. Lots of us, myself included, have done it. I started pre-internet and all I had were some books from the library and my own mistakes to teach me. Nowadays there are some very good videos on You Tube (and some really bad ones). The channels I like are Black Bear Forge, JPL Services (our own Jennifer), Torbjorn Ahman from Sweden, And Christ Centered Ironworks. Some folk like Alec Steele but I find his style of presentation kind of annoying but that could just be me. Also, hard copy books are a good resource. If you want any recommendations just ask. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Little known fact: There were just holes in the helmets. The horns grew out the Vikings heads. (Devilish) However, once they got them on, they never took them off. It has been proposed that they originally put them on as part of a coming of age ceremony and they just grew out through the holes.

Any idea yet on price? G

Shaina, a suggestion and a question: I suggest that you ease the corners of the plate. If it were mine I would regularly drive one of those sharp corners into my leg. And, what are the knobs on the sides of the rail in the last photo? Magnets to deaden any ring? Thanks. G.

Gazz, I'm basing this on the policies of my local land fill here in Laramie but they may be similar in your area. They also have a no scavaging rule but if you are descrete you can haul off some good stuff. I avoid looking in the scrap metal dumpster to avoid a quandry like the one you are in. Here, the local scrap yards bid on the scrap metal dumpster and then haul it off. So, the city is getting paid for the salvage metal. I suggest that you talk to the landfill manager and explain the situation and offer to buy it from the city or county (whichever runs the landfill). if he of she says that rules are rules and no, take it to his/her boss, possibly the city or county manager and explain that if you buy it from them the city or county will be making more money than if it is sold to a scrapper. As a last resort you can find out who buys their scrap and offer to buy it from them. Good luck but a commando raid to liberate it is always an option. When Frosty mentioned Gazz going commando I thought it was something about you losing your underwear. ;-) G

Shaina, is that you leading the procession into the icey depths? G

I think some of your issues may involve balancing delivering enough air/oxygen to the fire without blasting the light weight charcoal fuel out of the fire. You might want to mash the tip of the tuyere down to spread the air flow or direct it to the side so that ot swirls around the fire area rather than blowing directly into the center or expand the tip of the tuyere to take a perforated end (similar to the bottom of a regular coal forge) so that it delivers more air but not at such a a high velocity or so concentrated. Or, of course you could go to a heavier fuel such as coal or coke. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

NIce. If you don't mind saying how much did it put you back? How fast is the screw compared to your post vice? That is, how many turns of the handle to move each's jaws the same distance. And how are you going to mount it? On it's own stand or on a bench? Thanks. G

I doubt we will ever completely switch to metric in our lifetimes because of cultural inertia and politics. To some folk Imperial measurements are "freedom units." I'm pretty bi-measurement fluent, particularly in distance, volume, and mass but I still struggle mentally with C vs. F. If it is going to be 35C degrees outside I don't know whether I should wear a tee shirt of a jacket. G

Chad, the spikes may be wrought iron or steel. Spark test them if you haven't already. Because of the fiberous nature of WI due to the slag inclusions you can etch it and get a "wood grain" pattern similar to pattern welded steel (aka "Damascus") You can do some cool things with WI for knives where you have a WI body and a high carbon edge welded on. Because WI has the silicous slag inclusions in tends to be "self fluxing" and welds easier than a lot of steels, particularly the high carbon weird alloy steels. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Sox, both Madelyn and I have lived in some pretty small and remote places in the US and I'm sure that Southern Italy would present some of the same challenges. The biggest one IMO is remoteness from what are usually considered essential services, shopping besides a small, local market, doctor, dentist, mechanic who can work on modern vehicles which have lots of electronic do funnies, building suppliers for anything but a very small project, etc.. Often, these are an hour or two aways, each way. While you may be used to it from living in Florida southern Italy can get HOT in the summer and AC is unlikely in small villages. Maybe you can afford two places and have a cabin in northern Sweden for the summer and Italy for the winter. I have also discovered that as we get older stairs are not our friends and availability of medical services and therapies become more important. When my late wife, Martha, was fighting cancer we had to go into Denver for chemo. We were less than an hour and a half away each way but there were folk there who had to come in from Kansas and Nebraska who had to drive 6-8 hours each way which made it an overnight trip for them. I suspect that Southern Italy could be pretty remote if you needed anything like that. I'm not trying to rain on your parade but if this is a serious retirement choice do your due diligence and make an informed decision. Madelynn's folks retired from central Florida to western North Carolina (near Murphy) and loved it but had to leave when her mother developed medical issues and the area was too remote. G

Latt, one more thing: I was discussing this with Madelynn and I forgot to mention that we decided to go with an electric induction range and we really like it compared to gas or resistance electric. Unfortunately, it does not double as an induction forge. Like all kinds of stoves there are advantages and drawbacks but we have found that the drawbacks (can only use magnetic cookware) are greatly outweighed by the advantages (clean, fast, very responsive, no open flames or combustion products). If you or anyone else is thinking about induction I suggest that you get an induction hot plate (about $50 IIRC) and use that for awhile to form an opinion. In 2019 with a large kitchen and including an island made up of cabinets, sink, lazy Susan in the corner under the counter, 120 degree Austrian made hinges, top of the line doors (21 doors, 12 drawer fronts according to M.), drawers and drawer glides, and under cabinet and in cabinet lighting we spent about $5000 at IKEA. Six years later they still look great. Also, there was only one piece where I had to correct the manufactured holes, etc.. Generally, I was impressed with how well everything went together and the quality of the IKEA products. That said, the sides, bottoms, tops and doors are a heavy weight particle board with a plastic coating which is part of the reason that the price point is lower than plywood. But the structural integrity seems more than adequate and everything appears to have very good Swedish engineering behind it. Obviously, if we were doing it again today it would be more expensive than $5k. Inflation alone would kick it up to about $6.3k. I agree with Sox that a lot of the Asian made stuff has very poor quality control and marginal quality overall. When you read the on line reviews of many of these products there are a lot more where folk have had problems versus those who like the product and are happy with it. Some of the reviews are pretty horrific. G.

I don't know how far you are along in your kitchen renovation and whether you have bought the new cabinets yet but we renovated our old house in Ft. Morgan, CO and then moved up here to Laramie and did it all over again in the new house. We used IKEA cabinets in both projects and have been very pleased with them. Many of the commercial cabinets you get at a big box store a POSs made in China. The IKEA ones are very well engineered and good quality. And they come with soft close hinges and drawer glides which are nice. Also, we used a lot of drawers under the counter level and find them much better and easier to access than cupboards. We highly recommend that you look seriously at that option. IKEA has a kitchen planning/designing app on their web site which when you are finished will give you a total inventory of what you will need to buy and how much the total cost will be. We found that the cost from IKEA is generally less than the big boxes and you get a better quality product. If you are not near a brick and mortar IKEA store they will ship. We have done both. Our nearest store is in south Denver area and is about 2.5 hours away depending on traffic. The shipping IIRC is a flat rate and the delivery guys will bring it into your house or garage. BTW, if you go to a store you have to load it into your vehicle yourself which can be fun with some of the larger items. One caveat, I don't know how much tariffs may affect prices of availability G

Alexandr, what do the cutouts on the firepot say? I don't read Russian and backwards and not the complete phrase to boot. Very cool though.