Frazer

I still like pen and paper for notes (to myself and others). I find I'm much more likely to remember something (even without referring back to the note) if I write it down rather than typing etc. I'm a bit of a writing implement enthusiast.. I use a fountain pen at work, but they're a little delicate for an EDC. Diamine Archival Registrar's Blue Black is a nice ink. It's an iron gall in ink, which can be rough on some nibs, but it's permanent (not all fountain pen inks are) and it oxidizes (darkens) over time. I carry a copper pen (takes pilot G2 refills) and pencil around with me and use them all the time. They both have my number etched on them. When my Ma travels she sends me post cards from wherever she happens to be at the time. My grandma will also occasionally send me a handwritten card in the mail, but other than that I don't see many. Mostly I just get bills and fire starter in the mail. As an aside, it's nice of these companies to send me enough kindling to light the forge indefinitely.

I use ceramic belts with H13. If you need to do a lot of grinding then anneal first (as best you can, this is a good practice in any case) and/or use a grinding wheel on an angle grinder. Then you can finish with the belts if necessary.

When you go to buy 100' of the stuff it's hard to argue with that nickname!

IMO I don't really see the need for soft jaws if you're working with hot iron, but maybe I'm overlooking something? Soft jaws, in my mind, are for cold work. Or at least are for instances where the part that's being held in the vice isn't hot. I use either wood or copper depending on the amount of squish I need it to have.. Sure you could use copper or nonferrous alloys hot (you might melt aluminum..), but some of the other options that have been mentioned (i.e. wood, plastic, leather) would not be long for this world if you introduce heat into the equation. I would not use mild steel sheet for soft jaws... but that's just me. I have some 2x2x1/2" angle iron jaws that i use for making 90° bends in the vice. I have a third section with a solid semicircular piece welded down the center of one of the inside faces for holding tapers. However, none of those are soft jaws. Those are more like vice insert tooling.. And yes, I put a nice radius on the sharp(ish) outside corner.

Geez hope you heal up quick Billy. Dog fights are no joke and they can happen so fast. My mom used to foster dogs (mostly pit bull mixes). I was dog sitting my uncles pup (Roxie) for a few days and I brought her down to the lake where my mom and her foster dog were. The pit bull (I forget her name) was pretty well socialized and had never had any issues in the past. Later in the day we were all inside and my mom gave a piece of food to Roxie, and the foster dog must have been jealous because she came in and in the blink of an eye had latched right onto Roxie face. I jumped in grabbed the pit by the collar, lifted her up in the air with one arm and started pulling up on it's nose and hitting it in the face with the other until it let go. That's probably not the best way to break up a dog fight, but in the spur of the moment I wasn't sure what to do other than get them apart somehow. Luckily I don't think she had time to get a good grip, the whole thing took maybe 20 seconds to resolve. But it was very bloody and violent. My mom got rid of the other dog the next day.

Also a jigsaw blade held in a file handle can be pretty useful for opening up the hole after 1 or 2 holes have been drilled.

Given that it has been in the 90s in these parts for a couple of days I feel it's time for our annual reminder to folks to drink plenty of water and take occasional breaks to cool off. It's easy to get in the zone and ignore the obvious signs of dehydration. This is good advice in general, but it's especially important when working during the summer. That's all, hopping off the ol' soapbox now.

Ohh.. Thank you. I wasn't sure what yellow meant. Hm. I want to say it starts with Mac... Macrilan...That's a totally made up name.

Michaels?

Possumbly.

I use a countersink to deburr since I keep one in my hand drill 80% of the time for that purpose. Then I just drill the hole with the press, give it a quick shot with the countersink and it's done. It's all the same IMHO, it just depends how you're set up. Not everyone has countersink bits, but most everyone has another drill bit.

Come on folks, back on the saddle! Don't be afraid to get on the horn. On second thought, that might hurt.

The outsiders I share this thread with are going to be very confused when they see all this horse banter, welcome to IFI folks. lol. I spent the summer of 2018 working at a Boy Scout camp in the equestrian program with my girlfriend at the time. Considering I had never even seen a horse up close before I learned a lot. For example, I have no interest in going near their feet! Much like dogs, horses have quite a range of personalities. Not to be tack-less, but I do have a few puns to rein this conversation in a bit. Perhaps I have not earned my salt?

Nice tongs for holding your spikes as well.

Wow, that's beautiful. I love the handle.

Frosty, I like that shoulder strap arrangement.. I'll have to keep that in mind for next time/future improvements. I have already shared these in more detail here, but I'll add my apron to the mix as well. Nifty features include 2 hammer loops, 8 pockets of various size, straps across the lower pockets to hang tongs from/reinforce the pockets themselves and cargo pants pocket access. One oversight in my initial design was the omission of a shallower pocket for smaller items like tong clips. I will add one (maybe two for the sake of symmetry) later on after I've had more time with it. Then I can decide where I want to put them and what size they should be. As far as keeping the rodents away I made a hanger for it so it lives inside under the constant vigilance of two felines.

I don't have a swage block either, but I do have a welder. I made this guy with a piece of 1.5" sq. and some 1/2" leaf spring. If you repurpose a hammer you have 80% of the work done for you. Just make sure you soften the struck end and preheat for your welds. My little hobby welder is way under powered for this heavy of stock so I tacked the pieces together and used the forge to bring everything up to a dull red before I started running stringers. I made my first flatter the same way Goods describes and it works perfectly fine as well. I'm just sharing another option.

The edges of your anvil are a bit too sharp for those set downs. Those little nicks/cold shuts may come back and bite you later. Something to consider.

They can be long or short; clean or dirty; old or new; leather, cotton or wool. I'm curious what style of apron you folks are wearing out there in your shops. Whether yours have them or not, are there any particular features that you like or dislike in an apron? Why? What do you usually keep in there and where the heck did it go when you need it??? (Okay, you can ignore that last one ) This is the place for forge-wear discussion and your reasoning.

I put the magnet on the on the horn of my anvil in a bag for bit... Then I melted the bag accidentally and turned a fuzz ball into a solidified mass of plastic, metal and scale. It was pretty cool... Anyway, what you're describing is a little different. Magnets and magnetism in general are a nuisance in the shop. Especially the strong ones. Eventually everything is magnetic and you're trying to start a chisel line in the right spot, but the edge is covered with scale flakes so you wipe them off, then the piece starts to cool down and starts sticking to your chisel and you're fighting with this invisible force. Or you're working on a ring or something on the horn and as you move your hands around to work a particular spot, *woop* the magnet decides those are his tongs now. I'm imagining one of those spiky bracelets the angsty "yutes" wear. Only more... splintery. Perhaps a wrist-mohawk of sorts. Sounds pretty rad. That was kind of my thought process on the back spacer piece. But it would be cool to have a slightly larger version in front somewhere.

It doesn't retain it, but it does make it darker. Yes, the fading over time is pretty much inevitable in my experience. It may transfer to food, but assuming you clean it well after you're done I doubt you'll notice... Just don't take my word for it and give it as a gift or something without some testing of your own. I've never done anything like this with stainless so YMMV.

That's very true and difficult to avoid. Rather than scotch bright I use a piece of worn out 2500 grit sand paper. If you go crazy with it you can still go too far. This isn't like a DLC coating where you get a true black and durability. Try reetching, clean up with the worn 2500 grit, clean with windex (or some other streak free cleaner) and then soak for several hours (maybe even overnight) in SUPER concentrated instant coffee. I don't measure, but I put 5-7 heaping spoonfuls in a 16 oz cup of water. Cold water is fine, some say better. I wonder (dare I say, doubt) if the steel will retain it's corrosion resistance when all is said and done. I wouldn't clean it in the dishwasher when you're done for fear of rust.

As I mentioned it may be possible to do with differential hardening/tempering. However, I wouldn't recommend that you try to reharden the knife unless you know what kind of stainless steel it is and that you can safely follow the procedure for that alloy. If you just want black.... Isn't that what you already have after your first attempt..?

If the blade is only one type of steel then it's only going to etch one color. Generally speaking people etch pattern welded steels that are made of 2 or more alloys that etch differently. 1095 (which etches dark) and 15N20 (the nickle content causes this alloy to resist the etch and stay bright) are common examples. The hardness will also make a difference. For reasons unknown to me hardened steel etches darker than it's unhardened counterpart. You could try deferentially hardening/tempering the blade yourself, but some of the stainless alloys out there require more precision temperature control/soak times than I could accommodate in my shop. Without knowing the alloy and what process to follow you're more likely to ruin it than anything IMHO. I think it would be easier to use a resist of some sort (nail polish might work) and do some sort of design on there. That could be splattering, or doodles or streaks or whatever you want. You could even do layers of that. Add some nail polish, etch for a minute, add some more, etch again, etc.. I've never done that besides when anodizing titanium, which is different in method, but conceptually similar. Maybe it could work here. Ive also seen people etch with mustard and get patterns, but I don't know how well that would work on stainless. P.S. Welcome aboard. There's really no reason to post something twice. We saw it, people will get back to you, patience is a virtue. If you haven't already, READ THIS.

I like the touchmark/branding idea. The spacer on the back does have my initials stamped in it, but that piece is removable. It would be nice to have my mark on the apron itself. I'll have to think about how, where and what. I don't really have a touchmark per se. Sometimes I do my initials, other times the letter z in a sort of script. All with off the shelf stamps. Frosty, I like the magnet idea, but those things pick up all sorts of metal filings, grinder dust etc.. Especially when I sweep and everything gets stirred around. I doubt it would take long to become a little furball of metal-stuffs wherever I stick it. Still, something to consider.