Ferrous Beuler

On the rocks

When your car breaks down on your way to a camping trip and you whip up an on-the-spot smithy with a hibachi, tire iron and a rock for an anvi and you forge weld that broken tie rod on the roadside. No matter that you have a cell phone, AAA and your'e only three miles out of town...Dan:D

Dogs......

Fish......

Stress relief? Well things can pile up if you let it. Dealing with it head on is the best medicine, suck it up and get it over with. That works for the day to day stuff that crops up which just comes with the scenery. THEN I'll go hammer some iron with a clear conscience, o.k. and maybe a few unnesesary wails at the stock... Now and then when some bonehead is giving me a hard time, i.e., trying to make his problem my problem, boss etc. I am reminded of my earliest days in the service. In bootcamp at Parris Island my Senior Drill Instructor's name was Staff Sergeant Nucholls (pronounced "Knuckles") He got his point across. Never did you want to find yourself alone with him. A time or two, I did, and he did. So whenever I find some illustrious sort trying to blow smoke up my backside it just pales in comparison and rolls right off my back. People have asked me what it is like to be in the service and I never felt I could relate in terms they could understand. Then once years later I met another Marine who told me something that really summed it all up which still probably can't be fully grasped by civilians- " The ONE thing the Marine corps really teaches you is how to eat a river of xxxx and smile". Another view to put this point across came from the church. "Turning the other cheek" does NOT mean turning tail. What is meant by turning the other cheek is when he was confronted by authorities (roman) and publicly slapped in the face, he took it like a man and turned his head, offering the other cheek to like treatment, showing that he could take whatever was dished out. Confronting, not running. If you confront your stress you will beat it. If you let it go it will beat you.:cool:Dan

canopener.

Merry Christmas to all and a happy new year!!! Especially to those serving in uniform overseas who won't be home with their families for the holidays. (Prayers). Looking forward to another great year of learning and meeting more great folks in this craft. THANK YOU GLENN!!!!!!! :DDan

Twelve packs of Blacksmith Bitter (regal Aussie brew) Eleven bits-a-whirling Ten feet of nailrod Nine handmaids striking Eight sided barstock Seven travelers traveling Six hissing clinkers Fiiiiiiive tons of coal... Four railroad spikes Three swage blocks Two pairs of tongs (and two left hand welding gloves) An anvil that weighed more than me Sorry Glenn, couldn't resist... FOUR RAILROAD SPIKES

Hillbilly, Great avatar! Them hounds get into the peanut butter? I have here an awesome nonstop powersource, my sister-in-law's motormouth. Nonstop hot air 24/7. Maybe not quite hot enough for forging directly so coal is still needed but the blast is constant and plenty strong. I'm thinking a butterfly for sure so it can be controlled. Keeping her sedentary is not a problem. Keeping myself in close proximity can be a problem. Available for long term loan, very long term loan, very good terms. :cool:Dan

Howdy neighbor!:cool:Dan.

Wimmern Sam wusste ich nicht, dass ich karikaturen auf deutch lesen konnte! Kuhl! :DDan. Sam Wow I did not know that I karikaturen on deutch could read! Kuhl!

Remember "Back to the future"? In one of them, (back to the future 2?) "Doc" was the scientist who discovered time travel by means of his inventions. Trouble was, once he went back into the past to the 1880's and got himself stuck without his modern lab, he had to learn blacksmithing so he could fabricate a new time machine and get "back to the future". Only a blacksmith could do this!:cool:Dan.

You have to get a fire going - a real live vibrant fire- , not huge just established. I do this by stages. In a clean empty pot goes about a double handful of hardwood charcoal, with green coal heaped around the outside but not yet included, just there all around so it can be raked in once the charcoal is going and the fleas are jumping. Not a lot of charcoal, about a coffee cupfull is all you will need, but just to get started put in twice that, the double handful. Too much won't matter, you can't put in too much. Too little will put you back at the start, no fire. Once youv'e done it a couple of times, you'll see what it needs. Storebought bagged lump charcoal for grilling goes about $7-$10 per 10 lb. bag. DO NOT waste your time with briquettes, you want hardwood lump charcoal. One bag will last you for quite some time, starting many fires for you. Once you open the bag you will see it is not all of uniform size, there are some big pieces in there. Just scoop out a bit and take it to the pot. I use the cross pien on my forging hammer to gently bust the bigger hunks into smaller bits. The grain of the wood can readily be seen, bust it with the grain to split really big pieces, and crossgrain (gently tap) to make those little bits. A layer of nickel sized chunks about two inches deep is what you put in the pot atop the grate. Above this is still an empty pot, with the coal heaped around the edges, but first we need a fire. Below the grate in the ashdump/tuyere upload some LOOSELY packed newspaper. Don't squeeze the balls too tight, I use one "ball" of a single sheet first, right up under the grate and under that another single sheet of which half is made into a loose ball and the rest just gather into a dangling tail hanging down out of the ashdump pipe. That is the fuse. Light it, one quick flick of a bic is all you need on the bottom corner of the hanging fuse, let it go. The flame will grow upwards and now smoke is gently gathering atop the charcoal. The paper is burning and the charcoal is beginning to catch at the bottom, it burns readily which is the whole idea behind using it as a booster for coal to begin with. Coal alone is hard to light, using charcoal in the chain gets you fire in short order without wasting time. You have to judge when to start feeding air, and FEED IT GENTLY AT FIRST. This is the point when your fire will go out in a frustrating pathetic wisp or catch and grow, experiment and learn. Let's assume your first try goes well, you havn't packed the paper too tightly and so it burns increasingly and upward, which it will if you don't apply blast prematurely. The licking flames reach the charcoal and it begins to white about the edges. Soon there is more and more smoke, not just a whisp but a rapidly increasing cloud of white expanding. Fleas begin to jump. For the first time add slight blast now. It will dictate it's wants for air, pay attention, not too much too soon but keep a SLIGHT feed of air coming. If it appears to suddenly have died, FEED AIR QIUCKLY, it may be saved and envigorated. If not, reassess the paper and start over. As I said, charcoal burns readily and soon you will have a heart of red coals, whitening about the edges and a sworm of lively fleas keeping you company. Now at long last, begin to rake in green coal from all around the outside, leave a doughnut hole in the middle where the heart of the charcoal fire is now burning actively with flames emerging 3 to 6 inhes high to serve as a chimney, coke will begin to form in the ring of applied coal. The small amount of charcoal will soon dissappear and so will its fleas. The flames will now increase to a foot or more high, all the while keep the air coming. the more obnoxious yellow cloud of a new coal fire is now there and the coal around the ring of fire will appear as a sticky gooey mass as the immpurities are burned off, a crust will begin to form a dome. Now you have a coal fire in your forge. Experiment and learn. :)Dan.

We all know the classic "The Villiage Blacksmith" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, I've made my own first verse. Add yours by quote and we'll see if we can all come up with our own version collectively, one verse at a time. "Under a dormant chestnut tree My humble smithy stands The smith a chilly man I be With cold and frostbit hands My anvil sleeps beneath the drifts Like blowing desert sands"... O.K. now it's YOUR turn to add the next verse... :)Dan

now THAT is a really cool piece! How about a little hand forged Les Paul and a Marshall stack to go along with it?:cool:Dan

On the bottom? Hmmm... I could be wrong but I don't think this is a foundry mark. Could be from a previous owner as an I.D. mark if stolen. I do something similar with my guns. Under the buttcap I carve the last four digits of my S.S.N. into the wood then replace the buttcap. Even if a thief had hours to rummage through my house those guns would probably not be found anyway;)Dan.

Trumpets and confetti...

Hang onto your wrought. I have gotten my hands on a little, from here and there over time. A few wagon rims, one old andiron, some other bits and pieces. I don't do anything with it at this point because I think I am better serving myself to wait on using it until my skills have improved quite a bit and I reach the point where I want to use it for some special project, so I resist the temptation and just leave it all alone for sometime in the future. I once heard something that can be applied here- a wise old man once told a young man who wanted to know what he should do with his money, "Buy land son, everybody wants it and they quit making it a long time ago".:)Dan.

Mr. Boggs brings up some good points here, some of which parallel my own views. As I stated in a previous post I feel there should be credentials awarded according to skill level as in the American Farrier's Association; "Certified Farrier", Certifed Journeyman Farrier", Certified Master Farrier", etc. How would such a program be governed and administered? What would be the cost? From where would adequate funding be secured to support such apparatus? Looking to existing programs which exist and are successful in other organizations may provide some insight here. When and where would certification boards convene? At semiannual regional conferences? Would they only be accessable at biannual or annual national conferences? Could at least the lower levels of certification be awarded by local affiliate forgemasters with those seeking higher levels of certification being required to attend a certification board at one central location? Who would be the official of a certification program? Would this be a salaried position? Beyond simple procrastination on my own part I feel the main reason I have not yet joined ABANA is that it seems to boil down to little more than an expensive magazine subscription. I don't want to bash the anvil's ring or the hammer's blow but I have always felt these could be greatly improved. The potential exists to bring them on a par with the myriad other trade publications found in many other disciplines. I have also felt that they should be combined into one magazine AND -most importantly- made available to the general public on the newsstand. Here is the source for funding. Here is the source for exposure. Here is the potential to bring a higher level of respectability and status to the organization. If lagging membership has been an increasing reality, a professionaly produced nationally marketed magazine will reach the throng of persons interested in learning blacksmithing which already exist in large numbers. They are already there, witness the interest generated anytime a demonstration is given, at fairs, craft shows, etc. ABANA in my view is NOT wanting for interested newcomers, they are simply not being reached. Discussion is the seed that brings positive growth,THANK YOU Glenn for providing this forum to the community. A place where even a meagre newbie like me can shoot his mouth off, hopefully for the betterment of the craft. :)Dan.

Tempering is one of those things that is not easily self taught by reading a book, etc. It is best to learn while standing at the elbow of someone experienced. Pay attention then when it's your turn have them critique your work (abuse it) then show you what you did wrong. :)Dan.

The worst part? Trying to teach yourself on your own. The best part? Meeting some real blacksmiths and joining their group, which is easy. Go back to the homepage and click on the option "Looking for a blacksmith group near you" :cool:Dan.

Happy Birthday Chopper

Nice work Sam.:)Dan.

:(:(Worst burn? Well the bad ones are the ones we never forget. My "worst" came from a sputter ball while mig welding. Amazing how those little gobs can fly this way and that... This was a really big one, about 1/8th in. dia. or so. I was mig welding on some galvanized roll-up door track when this sputter ball flew at me and blew right through my jeans and skivvies like they weren't even there and well, I learned in a hurry that skin CAN be welded. One part of me got welded to another part of me, as in third degree welded to another part of me. Bad, yes, but I really felt bad for the guy next to me on the same job. Sputter balls are EVIL, this guy some how got one inside his boot and couldn't get his boot off... The nasty smell of burning hair X10. Rude. At least mine was accessable. I had my pants to my knees and was pouring coca cola on the fire before my gloves hit the floor. The other guy? That boot was not coming off... He rolled, he jumped, he grabbed, he yelped... By the time he got his boot off the fury had run its full course. Me, I got a pair of bad burns where I peeled the parts apart, but he had a really nasty hole in the top of his foot the size of a dime. Ouch! Dan.

Irn you have certainly earned your Jack Frost battle badge!