Donal Harris

5 hours ago, alexandr said:

Final work. Polished the countertop. 

Beautiful piece.  It almost looks as if the wood pieces are floating or embedded in ice.  Have you done any videos of yourself working?  I wouldn’t be able to understand anything you said, but most of the time that doesn’t matter. JLP never really said a word in her earliest videos, or not the blacksmithing videos. She did have a ninja video which was pretty early in which she spoke. 
 

Mod, Can you delete the video I pasted in the quote. I was able to remove the photos, but couldn’t work out how to delete the video. 

On 6/7/2021 at 1:02 PM, BillyBones said:

Then made a swivel.. 

 

Would the swivel allow you to spin a grill hanging from it? I am going to copy that chain on the left if you don’t mind. I rather like it. 

 

On 6/7/2021 at 2:28 PM, alexandr said:

The original plan was to put this countertop on a finished wooden table. Perhaps I will make a new one.

 

Russia is a civilized country.

Everything that is sold in your country is also sold in ours.

I am looking forward to see the completed table. 
 

Of course Russia is civilized. I wasn’t implying it is not. I was more curious if you have “big box stores” like Home Depot or Lowe’s and if so, what I would see lining the shelves of the tool department. 
 

Also, unlike most Americans who think the Allies won WWII because the US Army, Navy and Marines are the best of the best of the best (which they are, the Army at least), I know differently. The war was won because of the 27 million or so Soviet soldiers and civilians who died during the war. 8.7 million of those were Soviet soldiers and partisans, with over 1 million Soviet soldiers and civilians killed, missing, or wounded at Stalingrad alone.  As for what Leningrad or St. Petersburg had to endure, just indescribable.

So no, I would never say Russia is uncivilized.  Without the sacrifices made by your people, the Allies would have lost the war. 

Cool hook and interesting story. 

6 hours ago, alexandr said:

Completed the tabletop. It remains to make "legs"

Will the legs be steel or same as the top? It looks interesting and will surely look more so when complete. Why didn’t you fill up the smaller gaps with smaller branches?  Do you have to buff it to make it clear, or does it set up that way?

And a totally random question, what brands of powered hand tools are available in Russia, cordless specifically? My knowledge of Russia is pretty much limited to WWII and Cold War propaganda. I visited most of the countries in Western Europe in the early 1980s when I was stationed in Bad Cannstatt (part of Stuttgart). Travel to Eastern Europe wasn’t all that easy then.

Joey van der Steeg did a video on this. 
 

On 6/3/2021 at 10:19 PM, M.J.Lampert said:

ok i get it its not a iron but still this is what ive been doing since march designing a KV-2ish remote controled airsoft tank 

Ever played World of Tanks?

I believe a croc’s teeth are still visible when their mouths are closed, while a gator’s teeth are hidden, or at least mostly hidden. 
 

As for my work beneath the oak tree today, almost finished with my flatter from a utility trailer, axle spindle. Punched the hole and smoothed everything out with a flap disk. 
 

Hole went crooked on me, even with the two guide holes I had drilled. Primarily because I punched and drifted the hole and then noticed something on the ends I should have cleaned up first. The hole collapsed and went cockeyed. I got it somewhat straight by drifting it to round and then squashing it, but couldn’t get all of it out. I thought about heating it back up, inserting the drift, and twisting the drift, but  decided against it. It is just a struck tool. A straight eye probably isn’t all that critical. 
 

I saw Jennifer do the same in her video, punch the hole too soon, but she had the skill and experience to straighten it back up. 

Did we ever find out what the blobs were?

I didn’t know modern saw blades were high carbon. I’ve always assumed they were mild steel with carbide tips attached. 

The hammer is filled with 60 lbs of lead. I assume it would pack quite a wallop. I don’t really want one for drawing out stock. I need it because I don’t have a striker and it is often hard to hold a top tool, the item being forged, and the hammer all at the same time. I can work around that with a spring swage or a Smithing Magician, but not in every case. 

Gerald sent me the parts list and the contact info for the SCABA member, Rickey Vardell, who made his. Gerald said he bought the steel to make two hammers, which was how he paid Rickey to build them. Rickey made two and kept one. 
 

To compact the dirt, I will rent one of those machines that do that. 
 

More so than a hammer, what I need most at the moment is a grinder. I paid for the plans to build one, but have yet to begin.

HIPAA is necessary but a pain. When it first came out most did not understand it. It was more Health Information Prevent Access Act than it was Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. We would have clerks refuse to give physicians results of tests they themselves had ordered unless the patient first signed a release authorizing it.

I’ve even had problems myself with things which are in no way a violation of HIPAA law. One example about five years ago concerned coverage of a procedure for my wife. I wanted to make sure it was covered under our plan. The billing department refused to tell me because doing so would violate HIPAA. Totally ridiculous. Had I called to ask if my wife had had the procedure, that would have been a HIPAA thing. Finding out if the procedure would be covered by our health system’s insurance plan wast totally fine. I asked if the clerk could tell me if the procedure would be covered with our insurance for a random, imaginary stranger walking in off the street.  The clerk insisted that too would be a violation. I tried asking if it would be covered if I were to have the procedure, but she still refused to tell me, although that was not due to privacy concerns. She refused to tell me because I was male and would never need the procedure.

I’ve also had problems with a cashier. I used to drop in every couple of months on my way to the cafeteria to see if I owed any money on accounts of mine or my family members. A cashier refused to tell me, because, “HIPAA”.  I even asked if she could check to see if I was the guarantor on any accounts with balances needing to be paid. Still, “HIPAA.”

I definitely does not look like a hippo now. Too bad they didn’t give you more time. You could have made that thing truly fearsome. 
 

Speaking of hippos, many people in healthcare have trouble when asked to spell, HIPAA. The mascot for it used in training is often a purple hippo, leading people to think it is HIPPA. 

I asked Gerald today about it today. He said his treadle hammer and that of Byron Doner are both swing arm types. The design is that of Mark Gardner of Illinois and were fabricated by Rickey Vardell. Rickey sells them. 
 

I had jus assumed it was inline because of what I had read about interchangeable dies. Gerald says it requires a little tweaking to get them to line up, but that isn’t much of a problem. 
 

How much energy do you think would be lost if the hammer were to be placed on compacted earth instead of a concrete pad?

22 hours ago, Frosty said:

Uh. . . .where were we D? 

Frosty The Lucky.

We were discussing necessity or The Mothers. I am fine with either, although I didn’t really get him when I was younger. He was just someone who wrote strange music and gave his kids odd names. 

1 hour ago, alexandr said:

I can’t say, I don’t know. Maybe 3-4 days. I usually do 10-15 jobs at a time.

You must have very lean processes. 

In-line. Primarily because both of the examples I would copy are in-line and it seems it would be easier to copy something I can directly measure than it would be something I can only see photos of. I really like that they can be fitted with both top and bottom dies which appear to be easily swapped out. 

My NCO’s were all top notch and all my commanding officers decent men except for one. 
 

We didn’t get much spark testing done. He had a hard stopping point due to a luncheon he had to attend. Most of the time was taken up by be going “Ooh!  That looks cool.  What is that and what do you use it for.”  In other words, I would yell, “Rabbit!” and down the trail we would go. I think I could spend a week walking with him around his shop, just asking him questions. 
 

But I did leave with a very good start to a collection of known steels, all the major steels of interest to a blacksmith. He has his stored in a plastic box which is separated into multiple compartments, very similar to how my wife stores her thread. Much more efficient than just a bunch of pieces you have to dump out of a coffee can to find the one you want.

So although we never really got around to the primary purpose of my visit, it was certainly not time wasted. I now know how he made his touch mark and the difference between a Kick Ass and his other pneumatic hammer, and why he prefers using one over the other depending on the work he is doing. I also now know a treadle hammer is capable of doing very fine and detailed work. He uses his primarily for repousse. It can strike very hard or very softly. 

Cool bowl. 
 

Your post caused me to think of Frank Zappa. 

Possibly what Arkie said. But if the rails are connected by fishplates and not continuous as if all one piece, it would be doubtful. 
 

We used to walk and play along the tracks when I was a kid. It was cool waving at the engineers and such as the trains passed. We would look for whiskey bottles—there were plenty—spikes, rail anchors and coal. No way I could do that as an adult. The engineer would think I was an escaped convict or someone looking to do mischief. A deputy sheriff would be waiting for me at the next crossing. This I know from experience to be true. 

I also managed to get the coal off the trailer. It slid easy while on the trailer. Not so easily when on the grass. The bag fell over off the pallet (oak I will use for random things later.)  It fell on the bag opening. I will have to cut it open. 

Alexandr, how long does it take you to produce all of that?

Hauled a load of bulk trash to the city recycling center. Came home with wood for my smoker. 

As an essential worker, I was never really on lockdown.  It was sort of tough at first knowing my neighbor was home relaxing, but as it went on longer, I was thankful I was considered essential. My neighbor works in oil and gas, which had bottomed out around that time. While he and his wife had to dip into their savings, I was able to pay my bills and eat without worry. My paychecks were never interrupted. As the lockdown became longer, I began to feel a little guilty. 
 

What I’ve done in the shop today. Took a small piece of the san mai billet and tried to grind out a drop point hunter profile. The high carbon piece of the billet had cracked badly right in front of where the point is. The piece wasn’t really long enough to make a full blade, but I figured it would be long enough for me to practice grinding out a profile and then putting an edge on it. It will allow me to possibly - probably - fail and not screw up something I cared about. 

He is a retired US Army sergeant major, Field Artillery. Korea as a PVT in 1963 and the RVN as a SSG in 1967. Very good people indeed. 

That Early American Wrought Iron book by Sonn would be good for such ideas. 

Not sure I would want to taste dog patina. 

Gerald Franklin is going to show me how to properly spark test steel as well as give me the small, known samples once we are finished this Saturday. While there I will show him a couple examples of the links I have made so far and see if he has any suggestions as to how I might make them a little faster and more reliably. One is basically a normal link made with 1/4” round bar, just longer and twisted in the center. The other is from 1/4” square bar. It is basically a closed S hook with the center longer than normal and twisted. Hard to describe. If I had an example finished I would post a picture. The other loop is forge welded. This one will not be. 

On 3/24/2021 at 1:57 AM, BillyBones said:

Thomas, i only had to do it once but we dug it 3x6x6. When i was about 13 i had an aunt that passed. The family was to poor to hire a grave digger so we did it ourselves. 

 

One of my brothers married a Seminole. She died from a heart attack at Baptist in OKC after a shoulder surgery. She was buried in the family plot right outside of Maude, Oklahoma. It is the last of the original allotment still owned by their family. 
 

Evidently their tradition is the family must both dig the grave and fill it back in once the vault is lowered into the hole. Once the hole is started, a backhoe can be used, but putting the dirt back is all done with shovels by the family. 
 

The guy who they had hired for the backhoe work dug the bottom of the hole to small, which they only discover when trying to lower the vault into the hole. It wouldn’t fit. What happened next was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. They didn’t say a word. They just raised the vault back out of the hole and two or three of the men jumped down into the hole with spud bars and shovels and pretty much every male family member took turns working on the hole until it was large enough for the vault to be placed fully at the proper depth. It was that red sandstone you find pretty much everywhere in Oklahoma if you dig deep enough. Wasn’t an easy thing to do, especially in white dress shirts, black pants, and black, dress shoes. 
 

Had this have been any other group of people, the second it was apparent the hole wasn’t big enough, there would have been lots of loud bitching and complaining to the backhoe guy. Then there would have been complaining that this uncle or that nephew wasn’t doing their share. I was impressed. Amazing people.