pnut

I spoke briefly with the landlord on the phone and there's been a complaint about a homeless camp made by the church next door to us. It turns out I may have strayed onto their property but you would think that a church would want to help a homeless person if that's what they thought it was instead of ripping up their tarps and making their life more uncomfortable. I'm going to try to talk to the pastor and apologize for straying onto their property and try to ease their minds that it wasn't an encampment or still site or whatever they thought it was and hopefully I'll be able to set back up on my landlords property without getting any further complaints about it from them. Pnut

I did as well. Skateboarding and other things had much more appeal at the time, although it was much longer than a few years ago. More like 35. I thought you were older, goes to show you never know. Pnut

I second that sentiment. Well said Glenn. Pnut

I was notified that I had to clear out my forge etc from the woods behind the building I live in. Hopefully it's only temporary. Someone from the county was down there and basically destroyed things. The county is getting rid of homeless camps and I think that's what they thought it was. They knocked over my rail anvil cut my tarps and poured out all of my charcoal. I wonder what they made of it all? I'm sure they didn't know what it was and probably drug lab was their first thought after homeless camp, but that's not an excuse to destroy it if they're not certain. I guess it's somewhat of a blessing I've been too lazy to rebuild my forge or it would have been tampered with and there's an insurance inspection Friday so there will be no forge for them to see. I was under the impression it was private property. I have to speak with my landlord on Friday. I have a few backup plans if I can't use the woods. There's a patio out back where people grill out in the summer. If she'll let me stow my rail anvil behind the wall there I will make a grill jabod. Hopefully I'll

Char cloth works almost as good as magnesium like you scrape off of one of the magnesium/ferrorod combos. One of the most satisfying things I ever learned was firemaking using as many different methods as I could find. I remember the first time I made a fire with a bow and drill and a"bird's-nest" in the Cub Scouts. I was beaming with pride. Pnut

In the early days of the US Forestry Service they adopted a policy of trying to extinguish all wildfires within 24 hrs of spotting them. The inevitable result was an overabundance of fuel after many years that when conditions were right erupted into a conflagration iirc that became known as "The Big Burn." It cost firefighters lives and changed US Forestry Service policies. Fire is natural in many landscapes and climates and we forget or ignore that fact at our own peril. Pnut

Welcome aboard. I'm not sure exactly where you are but I'm in Grant Co. It's probably not too far from you. You'd be surprised how little you actually need to get into smithing. I got started for less than fifty bucks. Closer to twenty five probably. Any heavy piece of steel will work for an anvil and here's a link to a thread about a forge you could probably build with stuff you have laying around and be forging by tonight or tomorrow.https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/44842-just-a-box-of-dirt-or-a-simple-side-blast-forge/ Glad to have you, be safe and remember it's supposed to be fun. Pnut

I found a copy at bamsite.org along with a lot of other good PDFs. Pnut

Will the small end of the track adjuster fit into the D8 roller shell? If it will it might make a good stand for the track adjuster. You have a good portable plate with hardy holes also. You're pretty stocked up on improvised anvils. JHCC that's a mighty fine looking stand for that piece of track. They're lucky to have you around. Pnut

Same thing in greater Cincinnati but with the added treat of 60mph winds and driving rain. A cold front was behind the rain and it's only going to be in the 40f range today but no rain so I can get the forge rebuilt at last. Fingers crossed. Pnut

I like the way the shadow looks like it's checking a tooth for sharpness. Pnut

Was that the shop he bought straight out of high school from his first employer? Pnut

Yep, spaying the females insures an "outlaw" male from down the road or the next farm over doesn't show up and get any females pregnant. You may want to check and see if there's any organizations near you that will supply you with live traps and spay/neuter the cats you catch and then return them to you. In the greater Cincinnati area there's a place called UCAN spay/neuter clinic that will come to meet you at the local Library and pick up feral cats alter them notch their ear so they can be identified as spayed or neutered and meet you back there the next morning and drop them back off to you. They do all of this free of charge. I have used their services a few times. The last time was to get Basil Bob altered. Unfortunately he's been MIA for a few weeks. I was surprised that they came out this far as I'm about forty miles south of Cincinnati. I send them a donation at tax time every year. Pnut

He was one of the first blacksmiths I was aware of. I'm always impressed by his work. I've not had the pleasure to meet him, but I got that impression from seeing him in interviews. Pnut

I've seen an artist do something similar with ply wood. She would run current into a nail driven into the board and it would make burns radiate outward from the nail. She controlled it somewhat by using brine where she wanted the wood to burn. It was pretty cool. Pnut

GCMS. Looks like Mr Sells beat me to it Pnut

I haven't done any pattern welding in my charcoal fueled jabod but I've been able to achieve forge welding temps pretty consistently. Especially after I got a real blower. I didn't say forge weld consistently because that would be overstating things. Hopefully when I rebuild it I'll still be able to get it hot enough. I'M changing it a little so we'll see. Pnut

I forgot that there's SCA members here. I'm not a member but being crowned the King of Misrule would be fun. Pnut

Glad to see you posting again Chris. Pnut

That's probably the best wood fired forge I've seen. If you send a report and tell the mods you mistakenly posted it in the wrong forum I bet they'd move it to the solid fuel Forge or the introduce yourself forum. Welcome aboard. Pnut

It was the culmination of the twelve days of Christmas and was the night of the biggest party. It was the blowout to wrap up the celebration. I watched a documentary about Tudor Christmas celebrations a couple weeks ago. It was pretty interesting. Did you know that the roasted boars head had it's own carol that was sang while it was carried into the banquet hall. It was published in the first book of Christmas carols. Pnut

There was a specialist for every stage of Japanese sword making from making the steel, forging the blade, polishing and sharpening, and making the furniture. Pnut

Have you tried liquid paper/ White out or Masking fluid from the the craft store paint aisle? I would try the white out first. Pnut

Impressive as always. You never fail to show great work. It looks like a wheel my friend does lapidary work on. Pnut

Can't say anything about the blower but the forge looks usable to me. You got that anvil that's in good condition so you've got the hard part over. I'd much rather have an improvised forge than anvil but your forge looks like you could use it. I don't know if I'd do anything to it. The tuyere has that piece gone but if the clay is stable it should still work. I'd use it as is until the clay covering the missing piece fails. Pnut