George N. M.

Carbide lights and lime lights (aka calcium lights or drummond lights) are 2 different things. In a carbide light chunks of calcium carbide (CaC2) are placed in the lower screw off/on bottom chamber of the head lamp. Water is then put in the upper chamber through a small trap door. The rate of drip from the upper to lower chamber is controlled by a lever on the top of the lamp. The water reacts with the carbide to make acetylene gas. The gas is taken through a small tube to a ceramic orifice in the center of the reflector where it burns with a bright yellow-white light. The standard cap lamp puts out about as much light as an old 2 D cell incandescent bulb flashlight. Calcium carbide and carbide lamps came in in the 1890s with the use of electric arc furnaces and cheap hydro power electricity. Lime lights us a hydrogen-oxygen mixture against heated calcium to produce a bright, white light and were first used in the 1820-30s. Carbide lamps often have a sparker, similar to a cigarette lighter, on the reflector. You light them by holding the palm of your hand over the reflector, allowing acetylene to build up behind your hand. You then slide your hand off to the side rolling the wheel of the striker with your palm. This ignites the gas. If you allow a good bit of gas to build up behind your hand you can get a respectable bang when it ignites. Always gets a good startle out of newbies on a caving trip. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Very nice. If you can find an Italian 50 lira coin (pre-Euro) there is a nice portrait of Vulcan at his anvil on it. They were struck in stainless steel. You can find them on ebay for no more than US$1 each. Probably less in some Croatian coin shop. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

There is an interesting legal question here. Who, exactly, owned the iron tires at the time of the interaction between Thomas and Mr. X. 1) One one hand you could say that Mr. X had started the process to sell the tires to the scrap yard by weighing in. He would have then been paid when weighing out. However, he could have decided to keep the tires and leave them in his truck and what he was paid by weight would not reflect the sale of the tires. So, in this argument, he still retained ownership until he was paid out and could have legally sold them to Thomas instead of the scrap yard. 2) However, you could also argue that the scrap yard was the owner once he weighed in because it was his obvious intent to sell them. 3) The fact that he tried to throw them far into the pile indicates that he intended to dispose of them which argues that he did not intend to cancel the sale to the scrap yard. 4) If Thomas had paid him and then he weighed out and was also paid by the scrap yard he would have committed theft and fraud because he had sold the same item to two different people. I think the best analysis is that the scrap yard owned them, Thomas bought them from the scrap yard, and Mr. X was paid by the scrap yard for them. What happened was legally correct even though Mr. X was probably trying to double dip. I have to admit that I have thought that Thomas has a junk fixation and acquires more than he will be able to use or pass on in his life. However, I have realized that I do much the same thing. I take our trash to the county land fill every few weeks. There is supposed to be no scavenging but there is never anyone around and I usually bring back something usable that someone else has thrown out. I just yesterday brought back a home oxygen concentrator machine that had been tossed out. I figure I will be able to salvage the small compressor out of it. I also recently scored an 8" Delta grinder the same way. Anything I salvage that we can't use becomes a donation to the thrift store. There are enough folk who have so little that it seems a sin to me to just throw out something which is still usable. The land fill has a dumpster for metal scrap. I am afraid to look in it because I am afraid that some day someone will have dumped one or more anvils/forges/blowers/etc. and I will either kill or injure myself trying to get it/them out of the dumpster or will go to jail for trying to bribe the land fill employees to let me scavenge them. Or some variation of both outcomes. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Another way of arriving at a price point is how much time you have in it. If you decide your time at the forge is $60/hour and you can make a bottle opener in 15 minutes then the price is $15 each. If you think you can get more, fine, but don't go below that because you are minimizing the worth of your skill and craft. That harms you and the craft. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Anvil, good luck. My advice is to treat her as a new acquaintance with whom you are creating a new friendship. The only memories or past experiences to be brought up are good an pleasant ones. This is not easy and may not be successful but good luck and I hope it works out well. George

Copper will work harden. If you pound on your copper tool or strike it on an anvil, rock, etc. you will get it as hard as it is going to get. You might be able to have a copper core or point on a tool supported by a stronger metal. Think of the construction of a lead pencil. There are also some semi-exotic copper alloys or softer bronzes and brasses which might work. Not all bronze or brass is created equal. For example, many alloys have lead in them which makes the metal better for machining. However, the addition of lead makes the metal unsuitable for forging. You may have to acquire several different alloys and experiment. I'd try a soft machining brass first. BTW, welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I believe that "bohunk" is a corruption of "bohemian" which also had beatnik/hippie connotations in the early 20th century. I have also heard the term "hunkie" used in the midwest in the mid-20th century. Almost all ethnic/national groups had some sort of nickname during that time period, some more derogatory than others. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Most of my caving was done with a carbide lamp which had a number of advantages to the incandescent flashlights and head lamps of the time. About 16 years ago my late wife, Martha, our teenage son, Tom, and I took the lower cave tour at Carlsbad Caverns. We were furnished with hard hats with built in LED lights in them and the difference was amazing. BTW, the lower cave tour is excellent and I recommend it if you are ever at Carlsbad Caverns. The most strenuous part is some ladder climbing and descending to get to and from the upper level (the Big Room) to the lower level. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Excellent! Must be a different platform than IFI where you don't need to hit "submit reply" when you are finished and can see a posting as it is drafted. GNM

I remember the old guys at the steel mills telling me that it used to be 12 hours on, 12 hours off, 6 days/week. And if you switched from one shift to another you worked a double (24 hours) to make the shift rather than skipping a shift. I have worked a triple ( 3 8 hr. shifts) and was a zombie when I walked out. It was the last day before my weekend and I slept most of it. Did get time and a half for the 2d shift and triple time for the 3d. Not something I would want to do regularly and doubt that I could do today. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Nodebt, all that came up when I clicked on the links was a tiny thumbnail (less than .25"x25"). It sounds like a cool sculpture. Since I grew up in upper mid-west and have family there walleyes were common in my life. And wallies are really good eating. I recently saw that Culvers (a midwest and out to the Rockies hamburger and ice cream chain) had brought back their walleye dinner I was very pleased. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

One problem with that poem is that it has resulted in blacksmiths being called "smithy." Folk think the first 2 lines refer to the person rather than the building. It is like calling an auto mechanic "garage." "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

There are still jobs that will wear a man out pretty fast. Dry walling, tile laying, roughnecking on an oil rig, etc. tend to be young men's occupations. You don't see many folk in their 50s doing those jobs. If you start at about 18 or 20 by the time you are 40 or so your back, knees, etc. have been pretty used up. I worked in the steel mills as a young man and when I looked at the guys who had been there 20 or 30 years and their physical condition it was a great incentive to go back to college rather than make a career in the mills even though the money was very good. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Excellent news! Since their little brains are still developing connections sometimes it doesn't connect quite right and things like this happen. Thankfully, it is often self correcting over time. I am so pleased to hear this. GNM

I had a friend who was a geology grad student who was doing a thesis on Wyoming uranium deposits who had a box of high grade ore specimens under his desk for easy access. When he realized how much they increased the ambient radiation near his nether regions he decided to move them to a closet down the hall. "Just in case." One of the things to be concerned with in some parts of Wyoming where there is a lot of naturally occurring U in the soil and bedrock is radon gas. Since radon is heavier than air some folk have to have specific ventilation systems in their basements to keep the radon from ponding there. I have used soil radon to prospect for uranium deposits. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Also, in the 19th century, besides having to hold a pose and an expression, having your picture taken was considered a serious event. If you were smiling it meant that you weren't taking the moment seriously and were frivolous and inappropriate. This carried over into the early 20th century. I think smiling for a photo became a thing in the '20s and 30s. Of course, this was for more formal photos. Snapshots where you might be goofing for the camera or which were taken at casual events might catch a smile. Snapshots became more common with the introduction of the Kodak box camera around 1890. You'd take a roll of film and mail it off to the Kodak Company and, in time, you would get your pics back by mail. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Welcome aboard for 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. I hope you find the craft as rewarding as I have for the last 44 years. It can be a hobby that pays for itself which is not something that can be said for a lot of diversions. It has been a good addition to my life through good times and bad. You will meet all kinds of people here at IFI. Ages range for early teens to late 70s. Education from probably drop outs to advanced degrees. Just stay away from any topics that you wouldn't want a 10 year old girl reading including sex and politics and everything will be fine. We LOVE pictures of your shop, tools, and projects. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Alexandr, is that your house or a customer's? In any case, as usual, very nice work. The fireplace picture is making my wife, Madelynn, give me that "Could you make that, Honey?" look. G.

"Da boys" trying to look tough. Today they'd be in middle school. Looks like they are working in a mine given their cap lamps. Interestingly, they appear to have some sort of oil burning lamps. I would have expected carbide lamps. Maybe only the adult miners got carbide lamps and the boy helpers only go the older and dimmer oil lamps. Any date to go along with the photo? I'd guess the first decade of the 20th century. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Looks like an older version of the man on the right in the original photo, similar build and jaw line. The man on the left in the original photo has a stockier build. Did this photo have a date? I don't think it is the same shop, the angle on the forge hood is different. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I still think that the more probable explanation is that the description was erroneous rather than the negative being flipped. If it had been flipped it would mean the man on the right in the current image would be holding a hammer in his left hand which is not impossible but the percentage of south paws in the population is about 10%. The orientation of the anvil and the fact that the man in the off side of the anvil appears to be holding a sledge in his right hand argues for me that the smith is on the right of the current photo and the striker is on the left. And man on the right appears to be more the age that Mr. B would have been in 1913. I'd say the preponderance of the evidence is that someone got the left/right description of the caption wrong. The only way to definitely resolve it would be to research the Sweetwater County archives and other collections to see if Mr. B. sported a mustache in that period or otherwise resembles one of the men in the photo. Until then this is all mere speculation. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I was the same way during the Gulf War. I was an old fire horse smelling smoke. But my wife was pregnant and I was new in a good job and family won out. Besides war is a younger man's game and i was close to the end of my military career. Also, posting old photos to the forum should pose no copyright problems. It is not for profit and most of the photos are probably old enough that they have been out of copyright for decades. This is known as the Doctrine of Fair Use. Slag, if he sees this, should have some comments since this is more up his legal alley. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

As further historical background, there were a lot of immigrants in Wyoming in the late 19th and early 20th century from the Balkans, often Serbia or Croatia. They are sometimes referred to as "Austrians" in contemporary newspaper accounts since those countries were or had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many of them worked in the coal and metal mines. Slavic names are still fairly common in the Rock Springs, WY area and IIRC there is still a Serbian Orthodox church. There was a story in today's Laramie paper about a young man in Rock Springs who was born in Crimea and his family immigrated to the US in the '90s. He is planning on returning to Ukraine to volunteer to fight the Russians. Props to him. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

"y'all" is a useful construction. "Standard" English does not have a you plural and "y'all" or "you guys" fills that gap. I knew a lady from Tennessee who said you weren't really from the South unless at some point you had said "all y'all" as in "all y'all come on over here." "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Actually, I think the identification may have been flipped. In 1913 Mr. Bastalich would have been 25 years old. The gentleman on the left looks older than that (although it could be the moustache) and the fellow on the right could be that age. Also, the man on the right is on the normal side of the anvil for a right handed smith and is holding a hammer in his right hand. The left hand guy is in the usual position for a striker and appears to be holding the handle of a sledge hammer. Also, the fire in the forge appears unusually large. BTW, Reliance, WY was a coal mining town a few miles north of Rock Springs. Almost all of the coal went to Union Pacific locomotives. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."