Paul TIKI

I used to have an album by Dweezil a while back. He turned out to be pretty darn good on he guitar. Fun Tidbit, He was in the Arnold S classic "The Running Man" as one of the Resistance guys. Hes the one with the Beret and Unibrow always standing behind Mick Fleetwood

Very Nice Satori. A couple of tools that should last a couple of lifetimes gotta say I'm jealous.

It has not been a fantastic week here. Rain on the days when I would have had time to forge, No time on the days it would have been perfect. Then pinched a nerve in my neck and my left arm is next to useless. I don't know what I did but it hurts like the dickens. I did finish my walking stick. I "carved" the head into the likeness of a Zuni Bear. It's made out of a chunk of cedar from the front yard and the stick is a branch from the maple tree in the front yard. The shape was simple so I did a rough cutout with a Jigsaw, then refined it with a chisel and a file. Finally took it to the belt sander (Hand held model fixed in a vice). Then I coated the whole thing in BLO. I'm pretty pleased. It feels good in the hand and I like the way the cedar wood grain came out. Now to figure out what iron accents to create for it.

Looks like you got lucky with the Aussie Mix. I have an Aussie/Lab mix that frankly, isn't very bright. He's sweet, but not smart. He once ate an empty can of cat food. Just the can. We had to force feed him a bunch of pumpkin to get him to pass it without hurting himself. To quote Foghorn Leghorn "Nice boy, but he's as sharp as a sack of wet mice"

These puns are so reVolting I almost Diode.

SinDoc, kids learn a lot with Positive reinforcement. The will grow up knowing Watts important

What a powerful thing to look forward to.

cool shop build. I find it odd that you have to really look to find LECA blocks here. Went out and was building the deck yesterday. Still got a ways to go.

Yikes. There does come a point where it would be cheaper and easier to just knock the building down and start over. We took our problem place because we could pay cash and just use the house payment as funds for renovation.

Tell me about it. We moved in to a 100 year old house. We got most of the major stuff, but keep finding surprises. I know I can't keep it all but I do try to keep as much as I can of the original.

So sorry to hear that Frosty. It sucks to lose one before it's time.

SinDoc, a staycation for me would be spending time at the forge

Kind of a long weekend. Sank more posts for the deck going up in the back of the house. Digging out the holes and then mixing the cement has me really sore. Also, Finally got the front window opened without breaking anything. It's a heavy son of a gun. The weights and pulleys are long gone. Now I need to build a screen for it. Planted some roses in the front and re-potted some Aloe Vera plants that the neighbor gave us. They were horribly root bound. All in all, no time for the forge. On that Oxy Propane setup, That's awesome! A while back I worked as a Brazer on an assembly line building Air Conditioners. We used Oxy-Propane. We had Y tips on our torches to heat both sides of the piece at once while brazing copper tubing. I saw that monster nozzle and all I could think of is how fast that could burn through thin walled copper.

got a couple of hours at the forge yesterday. The ugly tongs now match and have holes in the bosses. I don't have a punch large enough for the bolt I'm going to use but I guess I could just drill them out if need be. Next time I'll be trying to draw out the reins, or at least shape them into something comfy.

Thanks for the info folks. All that said it might jump out of my price range, but maybe not. It's hard to see in the pics, but it looked like a clean, well appointed shop. A lot of the focus might end up on other items there, but since I'm not an auction guy I have no idea. I guess it's a case of "treat it like a trip to the casino". I would like to see if I could score a good hammer or two and maybe some tongs.

speaking of Hay Budden, there is going to be an estate auction about half an hour from here that includes a bunch of stuff from a blacksmith shop. Listed Items include a 108 lb Hay Budden Anvil, 200 hammers, a forge, and other tools. What would be a fair price for that anvil, assuming it's not damaged? I'm thinking I might go and I want to make sure I have the cash without over spending. I just looked on the auction website, the pictures of the anvil aren't great, but you can see the 108 on the stamped side of the anvil. that would be in hundredweight, wouldn't it? The other pics don't show any obvious flaws with the anvil. The edges look clean. I want to go for more than just the anvil now that I have seen the pics.

I withdraw the question about the welder I am thoroughly sore today after digging post holes in stubborn soil in preparation for building a deck in the back yard. It's elevated, so I have to sink the posts 2 feet and then pour concrete. As a labor saving device, I have a 4' long copper pipe that I use as a sort of water drill to soak the ground where I'm going to dig so the soil compacts a bit easier. Just connect it to the hose, turn the water on, and shove it into the ground to the desired depth. Back it out slowly and the soil is nicely soaked but not sludge level muddy. Post hole diggers are able to get hold of it and it comes out easily. Then we discovered that we had a gas leak. On the company side of the meter, not the house side, thankfully. On the bad side, it's probably been there since we moved in. It's outside and slow enough to not smell. We only spotted it when some water slpashed on the gas meter from the post hole digging exercise and I noticed bubbles from a joint in the pipe coming from the regulator and into the meter. Guy from the Gas co came out and it took about a quarter turn with a pipe wrench to close it off.

Uh...Billy...I'm almost afraid to ask but the Welder you did not get along with...That was the device in the scrap pile, not the person...Right?

Welcome aboard Ben and that owl is awesome!

Ah, the ol' Kingsfoot. I had a bout of it and then it seemed to go away. Now I have diabetes to worry about. Either way, I'm drinking way less soda (none except for the occasional one with a sit down meal at a restaurant). Gout always seemed to me to be one of those ancient diseases like the Grippe, the Auge, or any of a dozen ailments from a time when hand washing was mocked and surgical precision meant "within an inch or two and then they poured hot tar on where your leg used to be"

SinDoc, glad you got rid of it and should be feeling better. I actually got out to the forge on a beautiful day yesterday. I managed to do two leaves along with random metal Deformation. I'm testing a new layout of Forge and anvil. I'd like to say it was planned, but truth be told I had to move the forge for a delivery of dirt and fill for the back yard next week. The empty grill shell JABOD made moving the forge easy. We also got some Whirley Bird attic vents installed on the house that made a huge difference in the amount of heat building up on the second floor. Also found out that over the last hundred years or so, what little insulation in the attic has probably been stolen by birds for nesting material. Yet another project for the summer

That sounds like an excellent Idea. Did not know about the spontaneous combustion peril.

Part of why the topic came up is I am thinking of doing a couple of things, one is to trim back some branches on the huge silver maple out front of the house. When I do that, I will likely have several sticks that I can use to make walking sticks or canes. On the walking sticks I think I may use a couple to tie staff slings to. I think it would be nice to put an old school finish on them. I have some BLO on hand. My wife has some for use with oil painting. I think I may just buy some tung oil too, to compare the finished surfaces. I also have some polyurethane, but I dunno if I want to go that route. Thanks guys, and I hope this info can help some other folks

So the more I read here the more I see some really old school techniques for all kinds of stuff, I want to learn more but I also want to share what little I know from working in a paint shop many years ago. So if you want to preserve a chunk of wood, understand what it will be used for. If it's a fence, you have things like Thompson's water seal, which works fine if you re-apply regularly and it's fairly cheap. Exterior woodstains also do a good job, imparting color, but most of those can't be walked on. Polyurethane's vary, but most do better inside, and most require a very thorough surface prep to come out right. It ends up being very tough but will likely yellow with age. Laquers and varnishes are great for ultra smooth finishes but often have to be applied in multiple coats. Not like 2 coats, more like 6 or seven, with tedious sanding in between. They also aren't all that tough. that's what I learned working at the paint shop, but coming here I learned there are other really old school techniques I have heard about Tung Oil or Linseed oil, neither of which ever came up working at the paint store outside of the two old guys who came in and bought a gallon once every 2 years, so I wondered what do ya'll use for treating handles or other wooden things and how long do they last? Google only goes so far and does not trump experience.

It makes me wonder, I see house jack type screws every time I go in to work, only they are used as safety stands for aircraft when working on landing gear or when the crew is doing something that may unbalance the aircraft front to back. Could someone find a useful screw from a defunct aircraft service company? They are usually part of a 6 foot tall jack stand