SinDoc

Yup. This particular class is just the basics. Make a hook with a twist and such. Hopefully I can squeeze into a intro to bladesmithing class as well, but boy those classes sell out quickly.

We had a little over 3" down in the greater Columbus area. Go home Ohio, you're drunk!

Me being me, I was dead set on teaching myself how to smith. However, after only a little over month, I have already decided that while this is a trade I could PROBABLY teach myself over time, it would be a fairly grueling process. It was most apparent when I was trying my first heat treat over the weekend and noticed I had a really hard time telling how hot the metal was based on its color (I don't currently have any means of verifying temp). Rather than continuing to be stubborn, I decided I should take a class or two. I am not sure who was shocked more, me or my wife. I know at least one person here had mentioned Adlai Stein and that he was a cool/nice person. Well I decided to sign up for one of his classes tonight for an intro to blacksmithing. Does anyone want me to say hi? Seems like everyone knows everyone else who has been in this craft for a long time.

Slightly back tracking on the topic, but I could think of quite a few electricians at my work who would probably pay top dollar for patterned Damascus cable stripper! You would get return customers as well since several of the regulars have a nasty habit of using them to bite into live wire and make them go BANG!

Well, time to dust off the ol passport and pack them bags!

I finally got around to testing out the anvil yesterday. From the horn to the center of the anvil had really good rebound on a bearing. After the center, it got gradually worse until you past the hardy hole then it is pretty much dead sadly. I don't see myself ever banging on that end of it anyways and have done most of my practice up near the end of the face before the transition to the horn anyways. I will have to go garage sale/flea market shopping this year to see if I can find another one on the cheap. Wife will definitely enjoy the shopping!

Got it. Ill have to order some but I will get those sealed back up! Would you happen to have any recommendations for type/brand of cement I should use?

I have some sheet metal laying around that I am going to make a wind break out of. Eventually lol.

I did not get to take any pictures, but I manage to fire it up for a few yesterday. Only shortly however as I had noticed cracks in the liner and wasn't sure what to do about that. The flame was a nice light blue, maybe with a slight tinge of green and the dragons breath was very translucent. Only noticed licks of orange flame that would pop up when there was a ever so slight breeze (my forge sits outside).

I was just getting ready to do a little more forge practice yesterday (after calling it quits on my stupid plumbing) and as I was setting up and getting ready to do my "dehumidifying" heat on the forge since it had been about a week since I last ran it, I happened to notice cracks in the top of the liner. I assume I should worry about those and get them fixed correct? Or is this a common thing that I should worry about too much? Due to them appearing to originate from the nozzles, I probably didn't do a "dehumidifying" heat on the forge correctly at some point and ran it too hot before it dried out.

Only two rules of plumbing that I know. 1. Water doesn't run uphill 2. Don't chew your finger nails.

We had that problem. Our old terracotta pipe collapsed last year and we had to spend quite a bit of money to have it replaced. Hopefully I can finish the drains tonight, then install some PEX for new feed lines tomorrow then forge Sunday

We have a saying in my industry. Everyone's an electrician but everyone is scared of plumbing. One will kill you, and the other will just get you wet. I don't mind drains, albeit they're a pain to run and plan out. Water feeds is what I worry about. Don't want to flood my crawl space!

My shop currently has everything pushed aside and is full of CPVC pipe as I had to redo the majority of drains in the house due to some...failure...of piping that is probably twice as old as I am. I am an electrical guy not a plumber dang it!

If the sky outside is any indication of the weather today, looks like it probably wont happen. I could set it up at the cusp of the door to my shed/shop, but I dislike doing that. Plenty of ventilation, but the idea of a very, very hot thing sitting in my mostly wooden building (granted it has metal walls), is just an unpleasant feeling. Should have built that garage instead!

I am going to have to hit up some flea markets this year and try to find some odds and ends, post vise being one of em.

Got it. Hopefully it isn't really windy again today and I can fire it back up and take some photos. Finally resolved my plumbing issue so would be nice to take out some frustration on some metal

As my late grandfather would say after losing the tips off all his fingers on his left hand, make sure when using any kind of cutting tool that your workplace is nice and clean. He cut his finger tips off after he tripped over scrap on the floor while running his saw and fell hand first into the blade. Grandma wasn't very happy when he came walking in with this...bits...in a baggy and said he thinks its time to go to the ER

The only thing it came with was the care instructions. I picked it up so the guys at Majestic had it already all put together for me. I will have to give Brian a call and see what they suggest.

I apparently need to do more research on the flame envelope. Granted it has been roughly a week since I last turn it on, I don't recall even seeing blue in the flame. I will have to read more on what a proper flame should look like and then research the proper way to set my flow. Per Thomas, I should probably call Majestic as well.

Funny part is while I am much too nervous to use a circular saw, I use miters, table top and chain saws all the time

I have seen first hand what a shattered grinding disc can do to a person. I was the lucky individual to rush a person to the ER from work who had a piece sticking out of his forehead. I have also seen safety glasses save someone's eyes, as when the disc exploded, it lodged into the glasses instead of their eye. Scary stuff. I personally don't mind angle grinders, but am very cautious with it while using one. Circular saws on the other hand, I bought a small one a few years ago to help build my shed. It is still in the box. Fully taped. I am too afraid of them to even unbox it to try using it.

I have already spoken to some people on this forum, and have been enjoying reading around learning everything. I am new into this craft and have not yet figured out how to correctly...tune? is that the right word? my burners. I have a Majestic knife maker 2 burner deluxe. I know I have heard mixed takes on them, but they are located right down the road from where I grew up. Literally. So, why not buy local? Anyways, should I set my regulator to a certain psi, then use my burners control to adjust as needed? Or just I get the forge going, the run the burners wide open and control via the regulator? Does it matter? It seems like the end results would roughly be the same, but the second method just sounds...wrong. The couple times I have used it so far, I use the controls on the burners and adjust the psi as needed but haven't really messed with it. I adjusted it to 10 psi and have just left it there. Also, I have learned this thing is next to impossible to run with so much as a light breeze. Any recommendations as to designed a wind break for it?

Haven't decided quite yet. The hammer marks were mostly me trying to move the metal on the edge to make it thinner. Quickly realized I was doing it wrong and stopped, hence the nasty hammer marks. Supposed to have my grinder hopefully next week. Until then, I haven't worried much about finishing. I just did some cleaning and what little grinding I could with my angle grinder.

Thank you for that Dragon. I have been spending the last several days just reading through the site. There is so much stuff to read.