Virusds

Technically i did this yesterday but i forgot to post it The refractory on my new forge finally finished drying on Friday so i was able to test it out yesterday. It got alot hotter than it did before and i made quick work of a piece of leaf spring into the basic shape of a little 10" Bowie knife that is for my cousin. I still have alot of work to do but it is coming along. Sorry for the crummy picture, it looks WAY better in person.

That is absolute beautiful. You did a very good job on that. I really love the pommel design and the fantasy-like look to the blade. How long is it and how heavy?

Yea idaho had its first confirmed case like 4 hours ago from someone who was in NY recently. That is like 2 hours away from us in Ada county though, none in our area.

the main hard rhing for me, and i imagine for others is not to let the media get you down. its just horrible how terrifies people seem to be over this. If i go to make a new tab on my browser, there are tones of news articles saying, in short, "we are all going to die!" Even though im in idaho, were we have yet ro have a single confirmed case, and i am a 14 year old boy in good health, i find myself lowkey freaking out after going to a concert or to the park. The only good rhing ro come from this is the habit of constantly washing my hands, which if this does ever get bad, is a good thing to havd in my opinion. My advise is to just under that there have been many different pandemics before and they all ended. This is the black plague and it wont kill those who are healthy. Like i say earlier, take your vitamin c and d, wash your hands a lot, dont eat extra sugars and you'll produce be fine. If it does get bad i recommended you go to a friend's house who lives the country and has a well for water and other than that, have faith in God and if your not religious, trust the government to do there job. Ill also be praying for your mom crazygoatlady.

I just think the best thing we can do in this situation is not panic ourselves and definitely don't say things that will make others panic. If we are all to busy preping for a pandemic than none of us will discover a cure. And if you are going to go get emergency supplies, buy things like canned food, bottled water, and a generator. Not particle masks and toilet paper. Most of those things wont really help in the long run and will deprive others of necessities. Stay healthy, dont eat extra suger, take your vitamin c, and if it gets bad go to a friend or family who lives out in the country and don't let others in the property.

Welcome Mathieu! Hope we can offer some good help to you and your workshop!

That looks really nice jlpserviceinc. Ive been working on this for a while know. I just haven't found time to go to harbor freight and get some epoxy to glue on the handle. It is a Scottish highland dirk and i made rhis one for myself. It isnt quite full tang, gut its close, and its not totally straight, but thats also close. Like i said i made this one for myself and i raely just wanted to make a functional blade and a nice looking handle. Speeking of the handle, it is made of Russian olive heartwood. I choped of the sapwood and brought it down to size with a hached and an angle to hegin with. Than i used an old fariars rasp to put in the basic shape. Than i used some rat tail files and but in the details. Finjaly i sanded it donwn and teied to buff it but it wasent high grit enough so the ahine just wore out after holding it. It originally had a hole all the way through it but i filed that with pine resin glue and filed that to be flush with the habdle.

I love the knife. Im new to blacksmithing, only been doing it for a little over a year now, and i am still not very great at it. I like to make knifes more than anything so i really love that one especially knowing that it was ground down with hand tools. Also how did you make the pattern on the fire poker? I understand that you twist is right then left but the twist lines keep running through the entire peices and i was wondering how you accomplished that.

The flowers are also edible, fun fact. And they really smell good. And the mice will steal all of the dried up fruit and you will lift up a rock and there is a mouse storage center of dry frute just sitting there! Its also really cool to see how they survive the 19° winters here. They slowly shrivel up while they use the water that is stored in their leaves and when it finally rains in the spring thay grow big again! For some reson the leaves almost never die even though they freeze solid in the winter.

Dont worry jhcc. Didn't think so. And ive never accualy seen the fruit of the variety of prickly pear that grows here. But if u can saw off all the skin and prickles the flesh of the leaves is also pretty good. It tastes like cucumber

Ya a thought about mentioning that but i think my response was witty enough already plus my age was on my profile so thought yoi would eventuality figur it out. And yes my mom is reinforcement enough, im homeschooled so she accualy is my teacher and has the power ro do just that to me. Lol Sorry thats alot of typos. Yikes!

Alright. The only epoxy ive ever used is some cheap harbor freight stuff that really likes to break and not stick to stuff. Its super thick and came in two tubes ine that said a and another that said b. With that kinda stuff work of do i need a thiner epoxy? And wich one is the catalyst? How can i find out?

I'll ask clear questions from now on. I'll ask clear questions from now on. I'll ask clear questions from now on. I'll ask clear questions from now on. I'll ask clear questions from now on. I'll ask clear questions from now on. I'll ask clear questions from now on. Hope that computer pixles are okay to wright that in Mr Frosty. I promis to do better next time! I do not have a vacuum chamber or pump and i dont know anyone that does. How do you treat wood with epoxy? Can you do it with out a vacuum chamber?

Ya i was talking about knife handles. Sorry for not clarifying. It is a pretty brittle wood when dry but it might work for hammer handles if you dried it in a certain way. Because when i do bushcraft (one of my hobbies) i use Russian olive for bows occasionally and i have heard that other people make self bows from it as well so it can be pretty flexible. But you are right it has a very coarse grain but it also has a very straight one.

for handles i really like to use russan olive. it is invasive here and is basicly everywere so theres no trouble finding it. it is harder that walnut when dryed and has a beutiful dark color especaly when it is oiled. i use a rasp and sander for my handles. i also have made one stacked leather handle and it turned out OK.

So i got this new forge on Friday. Its just a deep cute litfle knife forge and it works fine and Danny. The only problem was that i just learned from a few of u guys that the ceramic wool liner may need to be treated more in order to maked it safe to use. It is as far as i know rigidized but it is not covered in refractory. I heard from pnut that u are able to use a rigidized liner for a while but it will wear out. I just need some general info on what i should do and how i should do it. I do not have any pictures of the liner at the moment but i will get them to y'all in the morning.

Ok, seriously THANK U! It is a lot more rigit that ao6me replacement complimentary 'wool' that came with. it and it is pretty hard and i think it was rigidized. So how do i know when its wearing out?

Well i guess i will do that. I was real excited to get forging again after the coldest part of our winter but guess im going to jave to wait a week or two. Just real angering that i was sold something that can give me scoliosis with no warning and even a q&a answer that said that it was totally safe to use. But i dont want to die so i guess I'll do that. Should i he worried if i used it for anout 50 minutes today without knowing all this? What is the fastest and cheapest way to get some refractory cement? Would buying fire bricks be worth it when it comes to the longevity of the liner vs the price?

It is not going to be run inside. We were just testing it inside. And pnut it was literally the cheapest forge on amazon that had s 4 star review so i don't know who made it, its no Hells forge though. And i don't think it got refractory. It definitely doesn't have the consistency of concrete. Ill be using it outside if that changes anything.

My new forge arrived in the mail today. It does like to send flames shooting out the sides and i was testing it in my dads garage and we didn't want to burn it down so we only tested it on low power. It got to a bright orange but the light saturation on my phone camera made it look blue. Heres some pics. Also before y'all ask the ceramic liner did come rigidized.

Very nice knife! I hope that some day i can make something that nice. U did a real good job.

Thanks for all u guy's advice!

Well i actually havent been to the library in a while because we usually fo into town for certain things then come right back. But i already own Practical Blacksmithing, which i havent read alot of yet. And a book called The Backyard Blacksmith (i don't know the author) the thing is a have alot of trouble learning from books and stuff i read. I learn the nest from stufc i can see and hear, mostly see. And i also read VARY slowly mostly by choice because if i read to fast i dont learn anything. Ok pnut ill make sure to keep on a lookout for that.

We currently have a little heard of cats that aleeps on our doorstep as well. Only one of them is allowed inside because he came first. And befor he was neutered he also fatherd another litter for our calico cat. We also almost fell victim to one of those cat plagues you all were talking about. That only ended up killing one though. Then we foumd that an antibiotic would help them. The most unfortunate thing is that out of the two litters of 3 kittens our mama cat had only one of them was a boy. The rest of them are girls and are almost to maturity. I do have a pic of one of the little kittens we saved from the sickness. This ones name is princess and is our inside cats daughter (we think anyway, no way to know with cats)

Sorry abbreviations are my short skill and i dint understand any of those thinks. But i am about 5 miles from town.