Donal Harris

Petrodvorets. 5 star hotels for about $70 a night. Can’t be right.

I haven’t heated with wood since the early 90’s, but when I did, I never bought it. Those selling it all seemed to assume I didn’t know how to estimate 4 feet, 8 feet, and 16 inches. Sometimes I would drive from Shawnee down to Duncan and pick up a trailer load of logs from one of my cousins who owned a tree trimming company, but normally I would just pick up the stuff the electric company guys would leave stacked beside the road when removing trees which had grown over power lines. We owned (or rather the bank owned) an old two story house. About 900 sq ft on the bottom and 900 on the top. It had a Franklin stove with a blower that would heat both floors. Only downside to it was you could not have a fire just to have a fire. It was an interesting house. It was built very early and did not have a bathroom inside the house when it was built. The guy worked for the railroad and his wife was a little person. The rails on the staircase and all of the counter tops in the kitchen were sized for her. And we don’t get enough snow or ice here to really need worry much about wet or frozen wood.

This is just nuts, but seems to be the way everything is now.

I like the original better, but both are very good.

Baroque has always made me think of what “sporting” houses in San Francisco during the Gold Rush would have looked like. Why is it people always seem to think some culture’s sense of style is better than their own?

If I want to be sure I end the day with a blister, all I have to do is wear my wedding ring while working at the anvil. It would be much, much worse if I were left handed. True story. I threw a cup out the window of my truck when driving back from the church with my wife to our house on our wedding day. My ring went flying off my finger. I was pretty skinny way back then — 6’ and 147 pounds. Luckily my best man had a metal detector. It took probably 30 - 40 minutes, but we found the ring. I have not littered since.

It looks like it had been allowed to decay till only the shell of the manor house was left. I’ve never really understood why Baroque architecture became so popular.

Why not folding legs. Set screws seem to me like something which would be a pain to mess with at the end of the day when it is time to pack up and go home. Or removable legs held in place by spring pins? Set screws may be more secure, but feel like something which are more useful when something must be permanently set in place, but you want the possibility of removal if the need arises. Joey van der Steeg did a video on a portable cavalry forge. Have you seen it? It was designed to be easily set up and then later taken down for transport when the unit had to move. I just don’t remember how the legs worked or even if it had them.

Have you tried contacting the company and asking them? They are not a product listed on their site, but someone likely knows their characteristics.

I’ve been wanting to make a letter opener for some time now. It looks like you may have caused the scales to get too hot when buffing or sanding them. It breaks down the epoxy. I did the same thing when I first attached scales. But maybe not. It is a little hard to see. And it counts.

I saw the butts, but didn’t think much of them other than, “Dude should’ve field stripped those.”

I just read your profile and saw you live in Norman. Contact Byron Doner. He was our president for a long time and is still a director. There is a group which meets at his shop every Thursday evening. Ask him if you can come over and see his shop and visit for a while. His contact info should be available in Google. Then there is Gerald Franklin. He is in Norman as well. Like Byron, he is a past president. How about this? I must have shrunk it too much in order to save on bandwidth.

I believe there is a meeting tomorrow in Tulsa. Not exactly the center of the state, but not quite xxxx either. The trade item is a BBQ utensil. Just knock out a quick steak turner in the morning before you go, but you don’t have to. Most people don’t. I was going to go, but need to spend time with my family instead. I’ve attached this year’s schedule. The calendar is pretty empty. Prior to the pandemic there was usually a meeting in at least one of the 4 regions every Saturday. Hopefully next year we will return to that. I look just like my profile pic. If you see me at a meeting in the future, be sure to say “hey.”

Not mine, but a very good use of spalted maple.

Hammer blanks. Daniel Moss on YouTube uses them for those. The tapered sections can be cut and then forged into punches and drifts. Most of the hard work will have already been done.

What do you do with all the batteries?

That looks like a Harbor Freight dolly. I have one just like it, except I cut boards to fit across the opening in the middle and screwed them in place. Looks great. I got my old improvised anvil out for them to use, but mine for some reason prefer to use a large chunk of concrete. What you made sort of reminds me of the Stanley Cup.

Currently 71. Yard is spongy from the near constant rain over the past week. If I didn’t know better, I would think I was in Seattle. I’m starting to think this Climate Change may work out well for Oklahoma. Not so much for the Pacific Northwest, but Ok for me.

I was born in Sallisaw. Moved to Rush Springs when I was in the 1st Grade. I’ve always wanted to go to your strawberry festival. My mom used to talk about it all the time.

Do you think I could modify this to work? When Glenn sent me a copy of the missing BP, I thought at first it could be. The pipe at the bottom fits neatly inside my tuyere. But it is too tall and the opening at the top is too wide.

Where in Oklahoma?

Nice, Charles. I won’t be making any heavy chains. The links I will be making for a schwenker grill will be very light weight. No heavy blows required. I have several jackhammer bits. One of those I am forming a bickern from. It should be tougher. I also plan to use some of my more “splitty” wrought iron to make a stake anvil, much like the stake anvils Joey and the Black Bear Forge guy have done. What is his name, John? His was fabricated. Joe’s was wrought iron with a welded steel face. The Doc’s Hot Shop and Forge guy made one as well, but his was bloody huge. Mine will not be. I am still bummed I was not able to see Joey van der Steeg and Brent Bailey because of COVID and the SCABA conference being canceled.

I see what you did there. I actually have an old blower. I bought it shortly after I first started. It works fine, but I needed to carve a new handle for it and clean it up. It is still sitting in my garage where I put it when I brought it home. My wife’s hair dryers work ok. They cause me to burn way too much coal, because I am too lazy to bend down and turn them off, but other than that are ok. But I have considered finding a small electric motor to power the hand cranked blower. Not sure I would would 1.5 HP at 3450 RPMs though. I have a 1/4 HP dead motor I pulled from my FIL’s scrap pile. It is seized up. It could be just bearings. Some day I plan to open it up. Some pump motors are TEFC, but these are not. I’ve checked and should be able to find a decent rebuilt Baldor or equivalent for not much money. The real expense will be the VSM. I’ve seen them for sale used, but am not sure I would want a used one. I mean someone didn’t want it, and my electronic skills are lacking. Not sure I could rebuild one.

Was yesterday and not today, but it did follow me home.

It is 5/8” thick. The bottom is 5/8” up to where they snapped it off. That is 1 & 1/8 inches wide. I am thinking it would make a decent stake anvil for making chains?