Paul TIKI

Billy Bones, will do. Both of the twins enlisted together and were in the same training platoon in San Diego. Their grandpa (23 years in the Army) was so proud. Unfortunately Dad passed before they could graduate, and one of them got heat stroke in the crucible and didn't graduate. Nice work on the Christmas goodies

I always told them it was my job to get them to 18 alive, after that..... Nah, They are great boys. They are the ones that got me going with all of this. One is a Marine reservist and his twin brother works in a steel shop in the city 30 miles away. The youngest is 17...

Chimaera. I've always liked looking at aquariums. Unfortunately for me the few I have tried always ended the same way some of my gardening efforts did. The only things surviving were the things I did not want. I'm fairly sure if I were trying to grow algae, I would end up healthy fish I didn't want devouring it My last bonsai tree attempt resulted in a bumper crop of spider mites too. OTOH I have three kids that survived, so.....

I've always thought loach sounded like an obscure cooking technique. "Now becareful as you loach the Gourami, you might dry it out" And synodontis sounds to me like something you would take Nyquil for

Maybe I'm conditioned to think things are never quite that simple. It's obvious laid out like that, which I why I guess I got wrapped around the axel on it Thanks

I guess what I'm asking is are there any considerations that I am missing, be it an ethical consideration or something that is "not done" in the realms I said I would likely be working in like online sales or at a booth at a con or a Ren faire. I 'think" there is not a problem as I stated things, but I also know that in many groups there are a few things that a newcomer can stumble upon that seem to be common knowledge among those who have been there for a while (those usually fall into the 'not done' category). If, by some stars aligning, I didn't really miss anything, that's great. And thanks for the replies everyone.

Well that's the thing. I read through the thread and tried to put things together in a way that is logical and ethical both. There is a lot of discussion of copyright and patents and such that would make sense if one were edging close to more directly copying someone else's work that is unique in some way, or making use of touchmarks or not in a way that could be confusing, and a lot of stuff that might be case specific. It's tricky to separate that from a much more specific, rubber meets the road kind of way. That's why I posted my summation of the way I would do business and asked if there was something I missed. What may be fairly obvious to some may not always be obvious to another, especially as someone who has never really looked beyond the creativity side of things and on to the business end. I'm fairly sure I wouldn't be doing anything against the letter of the law, in my case, but I'd like to avoid an obvious faux pas. Most specifically in the case of online type sales. I don't think there would be any sort of issue with a table at a comic con or craft fair, where sales are in person and there is no competition for the most part.

Here I go resurrecting an old thread again So all of this is interesting, but how does this apply in a more practical sense, in realms that many of us "hobby" smiths may exist in. Or Etsy Craftsmen. From an ethical viewpoint, I will not claim that all my work is totally original. After all, I watched at least 5 youtube videos on how to make a leaf keychain. I have looked at pictures of bottle openers for days. Pretty sure I can make a penannular broach, and maybe a matching hair clip. Flint firestarter steels look fairly easy. I got the ideas in my head from plenty of other smiths. I will give credit where it's due. For example, a firestarter set I have an idea for came from watching a Black Bear Forge video. I'd be glad to tell anyone willing to listen where I got the idea. Then again, who would I credit for the design of the broach since it is at least a thousand years old, or the idea of a chunk of steel and flint to make a fire would be equally old. But I do plan on putting them for sale on a table at some local events next summer, when I have gotten competent at making them. And I might start an Etsy store. I'm not seeing where that might be a problem if I do not claim the the design purely as mine, as long as it bears my touchmark and cannot be passed off as something as other than it is. I don't see a problem with this. Am I missing something? Am I stealing an idea if I start wrapping the handle of a bottle opener in leather because someone else talked about it on this forum? I wouldn't think so.

Where I worked we would get in full hides of high dollar leathers. Beautiful soft leathers in a variety of colors, all conforming to FAA burn tests and whatnot. the sad thing is that it seemed that we ordered in large quantities to get a minimum order discount in the 70's and 80's, and those 70's and 80's colors stopped selling. I think over 200 hides got sold at auction when there was that nasty 2008 stock market crash and everybody hated all the private jet owners. If nobody buys your planes, you don't need a lot of interiors material

Maybe check with some deer processors. Here is the thought, ask the processors if they send off the hides to be tanned and if so, where? Then another phone call to the tanner (or taxidermist) or wherever the hide goes to get a hold of some scraps. Also, I would imagine that anywhere that produces leather goods, or leather furniture, or other such might have scraps suitable for small projects. Several years ago, when working at a different aircraft manufacturer, I could have got my hands on a bunch of scrap high quality leather from the upholstery shop. The place I work now has outsourced that, but I'm thinking similar sources could be closer than you think. A quick google search has revealed at least 4 auto upholstery shops within an hours drive from me, guys who do custom upholstery work on cars. I'd be willing to bet a smile and a box of donuts could land you plenty of leather scraps suitable for everything from handle wraps to stacked leather handles. Then you could make all kinds of Deluxe goods

That is awesome. Our 6 month old shop helper isn't going to be ready for those for a while yet, but I may have to keep my eyes open for stuff like that. And I would like to request an addition to the definition of Curmudgeon: Someone you could learn a lot from if you know to do your research, ask a question, then shut up and actually listen to what they say.

There is no difference, aside from me being allowed to light things on fire and not get in trouble And I do consider myself to be a junior blacksmith. I am acutely aware of how much I don't know, and very grateful that I have an opportunity to learn from the curmudgeons here.

Nice work Hoj! I love the Christmas box idea. would be useful at our house as the cats wouldn't be able to destroy it! I had an oddball idea last night. I have seen the various little plastic tool sets for kids, and read here about cut down real tool sets for kids. I occurred to me that one could get a small hammer, some play dough, and a wooden block as an anvil and give it to a kid as a junior blacksmith kit. This idea popped in my head as I was hitting play dough with a small hammer on a chunk of 4x4 to see how I was doing leaves wrong.

BillyBones, I shall learn from your pain, then . No welding in the house, got it!

Thanks guys. Gives me a good place to start. It's good to know the welder would have to go outside. I know the sparks get everywhere but wasn't sure about fumes. The extension cord will likely wait until next spring because of the cold. Haven't been to the local library since covid pretty much shut it down to the public. They don't have and online catalog, this town is too small. I'll have to give them a call.

Our old dog Ellie use to love to chase squirrels. There was one that loved to scold her as it ran back and forth along the top 2x4 of the privacy fence. One day I heard the normal ruckus and smiled. Then the ruckus stopped. I looked out side and saw a Squirrel tail sticking up out of the grass. there was no squirrel attached. Ellie looked mighty please with herself. Ellie also brought us a couple of huge rats when we had to move in to a not so nice trailer for a time. She was awesome.

Ok, The winter here is giving hints that it will be here soon. As my 'shop' is pretty much a corner of the back yard without any kind of shelter or structure, I'm not going to be able to forge much in the next few months. I do fully intend to light a fire in the forge every chance I get, but those opportunities will be fewer and farther in between. I'm looking for ideas for things to work on (indoors) that will help with the shop come springtime. I have a treadmill motor that I hope to turn in to some sort of belt grinder for one potential project. I don't weld (don't know how), but I have an incomplete stick welder, so I may be able to put something together. The problem there is I don't have any workspace for it, and I would have to unplug the clothes dryer in order to use it. I'm also concerned for safety issues like ventilation and safe minimum workspace. If I were to set it up, how far away from things like the clothes dryer, vent, gas water heater, and so on, should I be? What are some other tools could I make that could be useful, but would not require the use of the forge? The kinds of handy gadgets that you never knew you needed until you made one, and then wondered how you ever got by without it. With luck, the winter will be pretty mild and I will get more forge time in, but I want to keep moving forward if it stays too cold. Thanks, as always, for the excellent advice ya'll give!

I don't have any real knowledge to contribute, but I will say that I hope you and your family recover quickly. Get well soon, mate!

That's a nice looking knife there! Farriers rasp?

I love high winds as a method of clearing my lawn. The next door neighbor spent 2 days carefully raking and bagging leaves. I waited for a windy day.... This weekend I hung some christmas lights on the front porch, made a huge pot of green chile stew, met the boys and hung out with the grandbaby, and even got a little forge time in. Still trying to learn how to make a basic leaf. Did get some more practice on drawing out some rebar using the S.O.R.S method. That went better than the leaf attempt. I went back to a black bear forge youtube video on making a leaf and now understand what I did wrong. Next time.... Now here are some pics of a future shop helper He's 6 months old.

You can lead an idiot to knowledge but you can't make him think!

Don't let lack of funds slow you down, or searching for the perfect tool. I did and that kept me from starting for way too long. When I first took more than a passing interest in the craft, I thought I needed all of those things, then I found out different. The great news is you can smash on hot metal with a hammer with almost no money at the outset, just time and cleverness (and maybe some stubbornness).

In your initial post it occurred to me, why not do both? I have found, at least in the learning stages, the initial investment to get started blacksmithing is minimal in terms of equipment. You could put together a solid fuel JABOD (Just a Box of Dirt) forge for next to nothing. For an Anvil, There is a huge thread on Improvised anvils. Minimal outlay to get started and you can still keep saving for a CNC and other stuff. Heck, even Propane forges and a second hand anvils are cheap compared to some of the big CNC mills I have seen. Oh, and those are some really nice knives!

That's why I was thinking about using the horn, you have enough control to get a broader base maybe. I dunno, this is well beyond my skill set at this time, but in my head it makes sense. Heat the pipe as far up as you want the flare to go, then hammer around the horn rotating the pipe as necessary.

I'm looking at my old tube flaring tool. If you had a cone mandrel (I think that's what it is), could you heat what you want as the base and then smack it down on the cone to flare out the bottom? That's what I might try. Or if you could do the same sort of thing on the horn of an anvil maybe?