blazerbud

I'm curious how the handles are commercially made. I think that it would be possible to use a router duplicator set up on a wood lathe. A device like this holds the router perpendicular to the shaft of wood. A master handle is chucked up and it is traced over its entire length, and in 360 degrees rotated by hand, while at the same time the shaft being cut is rotated under the router bit. The lathe is of course not used under power, it is simply rotated by hand.

Lots of neat ideas shown here. Some of them, I think I will incorporate into some new projects. The design of the riveted hawk gets my imagination started. There are so many different blade patterns, eye patterns, and rivet patterns that lots of unique combinations could give it a totally different feel. Like some fancy scroll pattern with 5 to 10 rivets. Utterly useless, but cool looking. I also like the overlapped design of the riveted hawk. But I think it would be interesting to try and forge weld something with a huge bit shuch as this to where the overlapped pieces did not loose their shape, in other words, weld it but don't turn it into one piece, keep it looking like multiple pieces overlapped and layered.

I don't know what to say that is cute or funny about that or even interesting. But, I did eat a proscuitto sandwich at an italian deli in Panama City Florida last September. It was good, and I also like to eat cucumbers and sprinkle salt on them.

to get the sodium bisulfate descaler to be turbocharged, just add some hydrogen peroxide.

Ferric chloride can form with muriatic and steel. This is why it is so prone to re-rusting. red rust is iron with an oxidation state of +3, Fe2O3, we don't like this kind. black rust is iron with an oxidation state of +2, Fe3O3, we like this kind very much. Old wrought iron that can't rust is already rusted with black rust. A protective oxidation. much like anodized when talking about aluminum. Make black rust, it wont happen automatically anymore because old iron had phosphorous in it because it was turned into steel using charcoal, the natural phosphorous remained in the finished metal and helped to form a hydride upon atmospheric oxidation. Modern steel is carbon doped with carbon from carbonate minerals like limestone. this causes a flux to lift impurities from the iron, subsequently modern iron has little to know phosphorous.

Be Careful, I'm twice as curious, intelligent, handsome, and educated as you, and I see nothing wrong with liveing in caves and eating beatles.:D

Hey Andrew, It's Me Bud. I put my MUG up here to remind you.

I would have to advise against all arc welding at any amperage or voltage. It is too easy to have an accidental shock that you did not intend to have. It seems like I always get shocked mildly and sometimes pretty bad when either clamping in a new rod, or touching the workpiece.

The names on this one will remain undisclosed to protect the innocent. It was around 1955, there was snow on this part of the country, a young man had returned to his parents farm land. He went out walking in the crisp air early one morning like he used to as a boy. When he came to a creek that had a little ice up around the banks, he thought he would take a drink. He laid down on his belly and dipped his lips into the stream, the cold stung his skin. He sipped the frigid clear water and thought how fresh and good and clean and perfect it all was. He stood up, refreshed, and started to walk upstream. 10 feet from where he drank. A giant bloated dead deer lay drowned under the ice. There is always something upstream you can't see.......

True story: My former boss grew up on a Texas dairy farm in the 1940's. They had Jersey cows. Their neighbor had Herfords, Beef Cows. This old Herford Bull used to get into the Jersey cows whenever he was feeling frisky. They did't want no Herford/Jersey mixed calfs. They always had to run him off. They would shoot him with bird shot on numerous occasions. This went on for years. One day out of the blue, the neighboring farmer showed up with a crisp new $100 bill. He handed it to my boss' Dad and said, " My bull died. I figured you had about $100 of lead in him.":D

Me Confused.......... Is that one supposed to be funny?

That's right. Water mixed with fat or soap or all three. Water will evaporate or boil if the bit gets hot and this cools the metal. Oil can get so hot the bit looses temper. Most all machine shops use the water diluted lard emulsion kind of stuff. I like automatic tranny fluid, soapy-water combo as opposed to any natural grease or fatty lard. You'll quickly get sick of rancid bacon odor. The feed rate is important, when you see curly cues peeling off don't stop. If you get a bit to cut...not chip...you are keeping it cool, preserving it's temper, and drilling fast.

I like hickory too. Once I get a little better at it and have some real hammer time using handles of my own creation, I'll convert some of my better hammers to custom handles and I'd like to find some hickory that is suitable for this.

You can see the Red Sox and Yankees in the Background

I read an article in Hot Iron News Winter 2000. Nahum Hersom made hammer handles from old pallets. I have access to some of those. I have had trouble with hand cramp pain, he mentioned using an octagonal faceted handle. I think he is right, the flatter sides put less psi on my hand than an oval or rounded handle, and the octagonal facets feel good, and keep the blood flowing, and allow easy indexing and alignment. I combined this with the Hofi technique of a conical shape or tapered handle so that a loose grip will keep the hammer secure due to the fatter wedge at the end of the handle. I tried all this out on an old 32oz Ball Peen. I used white oak from a section of pallet, and shaped it using a sand paper wheel on an angle grinder. I purposely left it a little irregular, the uneveness feels really good, like walking on a loose brick floor, no fatigue. I used linseed oil to install the handle and grinded my own steel wedge and ground barbs on the face of it, then rammed it home and cut it off and ground it nearly flush. I coated it in linseed oil. It is shown on my Wife's dining room table. She doesn't know I took photos in there. I am going to make some more this was my first.

My name is Bud LaMonica. I am relatively new to Blacksmithing. But, I have worked in metals for some time now, casting, welding and fabricating. I am a member of the Appalachian Area Chapter of Blacksmiths and our local forge the "Choo Choo Forge."