Chad J.

The first of anything is never pretty. Thanks for the tips Thomas.

Got in the shop after work for the first time in over a week. Just made some steak flippers, a bottle opener, and started in on a rat tail handeled knife, and a large serving spoon. I don't have high hopes for the spoon but how do you learn new stuff without trying? I don't have a swage block so I'm going to try forming over the hardy hole and a piece of wood. Anyway, I'm having a cookout at the house Sunday and I need to make sure the shop looks good and somewhat organized so probably no more hammering this week.

I actually plan on using mine to make a flattening press, weld on a couple hinges, build a stand and a handle. Throw hot blades that aren't flat in there. Any drawbacks to that idea?

Holy cow, hope I can develope a quarter of that skill

I was lucky, most of the major stuff in the house was done before I bought it. Electrical upgrades, plaster repair, and stuff like that. No one has messed with the barn in several years. I am tempted to turn the upstairs into 2 bedrooms from the 4 or 5 they claimed. The bathroom is tiny, it could stand to be turned into a spa with steam shower and sauna.

Plenty of rodent nests in there. I was annoyed by the shear number of layers to the walls. The tricky part is coming. I need to get the beams supported while opening the area top allow for better use of space.

I'm gonna have to try that, and c yeah I was wearing a dust mask. I keep expecting something to land on me while I clear this stuff out.

My barn has several small rooms in it. Three of them are chicken coops. I started tearing them out today. I pulled wooden crate, followed by particle board with a wall paper pattern, followed by drywall, then tar paper, 1 by furring strips, and cardboard. This area is going to turn into a stock room. I am going to salvage a bunch of the wood for various other projects.

No matter what, PA, firearms will be around but those who are smart would likely conserve ammo for the times when you can't use a blade or arrow. I would prefer to avoid attention in my actions in PA wilderness situations and we all know how much attention a gunshot gets. I think a good scrounger or handyman would be able to make themselves valuable enough to communities and raiders to avoid...unpleasantness.

Billy, I was trying to figure out if I could use an alternator and a water wheel or windmill and get decent power. I'm not an electrician, let alone an electrical engineer.

Valid point on the die off and the need for farm tools. I've probably read too many books or played too many games where weapons were needed. Farming tools would be interesting to make, however I don't have the space to stack up plows and discs and I'd be hard pressed to find a buyer for scythes right now, though I am near some Amish communities. As far as post-apocalyptic times go, I'm fairly well set up for skills learning the smithing, but also carpentry, brewing, distilling, welding, and basic mechanics. I'd like to think I'd last a while.

I started this the other day and this is actually my second attempt at this design as the first tore at the handle and is now going to be 2 smaller knives and a razor. This design has really challenged me and made me think about how v to get the metal to move to where I wanted. I still cut the blank too big, gonna be some serious grinding later to keep my shape. I was going for post-apocalyptic shape. Right now it's about 26 inches long and I have work to do on the lower part of the blade and the tang. I'm happy with how it's forced me to think about what I'm doing.

Took the little tiny circuit breaker box out and put plugs on the wires going to the lights and one outlet box. I'm going to install the 100 Amp box and hire sometime to make sure it's set up right so I can get service in the shop, but in the mean time I have lights.

Hang on while I pick my jaw up off the floor.

Nice find!

Lary I use them as practice for just about any blade design I'm going to do. Nothing wrong with it, people just need to understand it's not going to keep an edge no matter what they saw on TV and YouTube. Anyway that's a great design I'm gonna borrow it for a couple myself if ya don't mind.

A bunch of years back when I was still in the scrap industry I worked at a plant that made Babbitt. The antimony had a higher melting temp than the tin and was less sense so it would float on top of the molten metal line ice cubes in a beverage. Anyway this topic has me curious. I was going to start making some more steel roses and I wonder if I could get the copper to stock to one side of the petals.

I video chatted with my 12 year old nephew about smithing and gave him the basics, explaining the anvil, hammers and what I know. He lives on the east coast but next time they come to visit he wants to try making something.

I worked on a couple more knives and several s hooks. I'm getting a much more even hook, better at squaring up the round stock and the amazing revelation that I should dip the ends in my slack water pot to keep the twists where I want them. Not sure why I didn't think of that before

There's airways learning to swing the hammer left handed. I've been considering doing that to give my right arm a break on some of the heavier drawing out and rough shaping.

I have one I'm going to be making a few axes out of. I need to get some mild steel for the body.

You can make a latch for your tongs to help hold materials and experiment with handle sizes on hammers. I'm prone to tennis elbow thanks to swinging my mine detector in Iraq. I've found that making my hammer handles stickier it reduces the amount I squeeze the handle. Currently I use bee's wax and warm it over the forge to get an even coat. I also have 1 ball peen that I made a leather wrap backstop on. I also have been paying attention to my mechanics on the swing.

Wow, how wide was the piece you started with for your hinges? And for the door handle that cross, did you do those as 4 individual pieces that you welded together or one piece that you split?

Built a new door for the shop. Getting My tools secured is a big priority and no one is getting through that door easily. It's 2x, 6' 8" tall and 48 inches wide. Not light. The handle I have some grinding to do and the hinges fit on the old pins

Rough forged a pair of 5 inch blades