Shainarue

Tonight I worked on tapers for evaluation by my ABANA National Curriculum coach. From left to right: original bar, chisel taper, square taper, octagon taper, round taper, and diamond taper.

It does - but I have a similar memory (murder, not suicide) that took place inside an Aldi grocery store and yet I still shop there - so obviously I can't claim it's the memory that kept me from fishing, LOL!

Those are going to be beautiful Chad. Looking forward to seeing them finished. Look kind of like the Cymbidium orchid but without the middle part ... I know there are many varieties of orchids though. My first step whenever trying to create a thing that exists in the world is to see if I can find a paper pattern for it. People make all sorts of things out of paper (especially flowers) and it looks like it would translate easily into sheet metal or forged metal.

Our parents took us fishing a few times each summer when we were kids. I don't remember ever catching anything but my parents tell me I did. I took myself fishing only once as an adult - brought my little brother to fish at the Missouri River where we witnessed the aftermath of an apparent suicide before authorities had been notified. I'm not gonna pretend that it was that incident that stopped me from fishing - it wasn't - it just happens to be my last memory of going. My little brother is still a very active fisherman and he's gotten his daughter into it as well. Gee, most times she's dragging him out there rather than the other way around! Once in awhile, he'll take one of the nieces or nephews to try to get them into the hobby as well. It never really caught on with the rest of us siblings so he's it, lol. I should try to get up there and go with him sometime. He's got a few holes nearby his place that he frequents.

The 2nd from left and the one on the far right could be dual-function openers. The bottle opener, of course - and the flat tab can open can tabs!

I received an email awhile back from abana along with the materials & supplies lists. Maybe last month? I received another email today from the instructor for scheduling group coaching sessions between zoom lessons.

I will be! My instructor is Otto Engel. I think I'll only see you if you have the same instructor.

Thanks Frosty. The bar with feet on both ends is 6" without the feet. I like your idea of three pivots as well. I'll add that to my notes! My friend said she wouldn't normally carry larger than a 6" pot so that's where I started with the size.

I like the adjustable trivet idea! Ik not checking for math though, my math skills are pretty atrocious, lol I made a backpacker's trivet for the trade item at this Saturday's local blacksmith meeting. It collapses into one piece for packing. If just heating/holding a small cup, then don't open it far. If heating/holding a skillet then open it all the way. I'd make a few changes if I did it again but I think it's pretty cool! received_3535037490061472.mp4

How long is "a while" though? lol - I feel like I'm in there at least once a month for some consumable bit or other. JHCC I'm totally jelly over that shelf! That's what Ashley wants in the basement to hold her fiber bins for dyeing. We've bought one so far. They're xxxxxxxx expensive!

Goods, I love the decoration on those S hooks! JHCC, your youngsters turned out some nice S hooks as well! Over the last week, I've been mostly doing fiddly stuff in the shop that's needed done for awhile. Rehandling hammers, re-riveting some broken tongs, dressing struck tool ends, splitting wood to make more charcoal, and just overall Spring cleanup. I've also been working on forge welding - trying to get the scarfed fold-over technique to work since it's used in the hook & latch project of the ABANA NC1 curriculum. I'm not stressing too much over it. I know I'll have someone who can help me in-person at the BAM conference the end of April. Tonight I intend to work on a backpacker's trivet - so I might be posting again later to show pics of that!

M3F, that is way cool!

Thanks, everyone. Scott, my wife said, "He's only 18! He doesn't need a bottle opener!" To which I replied that there do exist bottles with caps that aren't alcohol, ya know I personally love the craft brew sodas which almost always have a crimped cap - and not a screw-on crimped cap, lol. I keep a button style opener in my car for these. I should probably gift him some of these craft sodas with the opener so that it's clear that I don't intend it to be used on alcoholic beverages, lol

Aw man, Das, that sucks. Losing our fur-family is always hard, no matter how long they've been with us. My first cat passed in 2012 at the grand old age of 17, and I still sometimes wake up thinking she's laying above my head but then realize it's another cat or my pillow.

This is my first bottle opener, and I'm pretty happy with it. I need to work on making carving tools as explained in a post on this forum somewhere. Still though, I think the rough carving kinda makes it look more Viking-y anyway, lol I'll probably gift this to my oldest nephew since he's really into Nordic stuff. I had looked up some symbols and doodled them on a scrap of paper way back when this challenge was first mentioned. But now that I'm looking for them again to find the meanings, I'm unable to find the 'V' symbol facing the direction I wrote it. I can only find '<'. So that's what I'm going with, lol Triangle = Fire X = Gift, Generosity, Innate Talent < = Opening, Knowledge, Craft No idea what kind of metal this was. I thought it was just a scrap of mild steel from some tongs I made awhile back, but when I was working it, the bit being held in the tongs kept going through the peacock color cycles. So for the finish, I hit it with the flap disc to get it shiny then blasted it with a torch until it turned the rusty looking color then quickly dropped it into the can of Johnsons paste wax. I think it looks pretty cool!

Great job on the rune carvings Scott & Tommy. That was also my idea, and I'm still gonna do it that way despite not being unique, lol. It is my first one after all.

You can also get a metal drain cover - that's what I got to replace the one on my rivet forge. Only the center 7 holes are exposed for air. The other holes lined up for me to attach to the original bolt placement.

I will get a cold shut from the cut-off on quarter inch bar if I don't file it flat before forming the taper. Or leave a lump at the end like Latticino said, which I can then just trim or file off later. For this reason, I prefer to cut 1/4" bar with a hacksaw rather than a chisel or hot cut. It's just as fast, if not faster since I don't have to heat it first. 1/4" takes no time at all to cut through with a hack saw. The cold shut is usually pretty obvious right at the beginning though - so if you don't notice anything until later on, then it's probably from working too cold. 1/4" cools really fast.

Ha, I love this! And with the cornfield visible in the background, I'm immediately seeing it as a scarecrow - absolutely no intention meant toward a scarecrow's resemblance to you, of course.

Learned something new today! That's really cool about the snow, aka 'poor man's fertilizer'. I'm a bit jealous of the snow y'all have - as we seem to have only gotten ice this year and a few dustings of snow. Grass never wasn't green. Upside to the wonderfully mild winter was that I could be outside forging more often. Downside is my allergies are roaring.

Ferritic, that's an awesome axe. There's also a Viking rock band so if this is a guitar used by someone in that band, then it's TOTALLY a Viking Axe!

Those are great!

I finished the phone stand for my wife last night. I had sent her 3 or 4 ideas and this is the one she liked - "J-style". The original J-style design was made all out of one piece and had lots of bends back onto itself. She wanted "less bulk" and asked if I could just do the two sides separately and then weld it to a base. I sent her an in-progress shot and she reminded me she wanted room for a charging cable to be connected while in the base - so I found another piece of scrap bar, pounded it flat and bent it to make a 'table' of sorts to raise the pieces up. I'd do a lot of things differently if I made another of this style. But she's happy to have this one and that makes me happy too.

I love these challenges! They push me to try things I haven't done or had any consideration to doing, lol I'll try to squeeze one in between all the course exercises I'm practicing.

For sure, producing to specs is the hardest part of all of these exercises! Those tools were also recommended in the Mark Aspery videos so I have them noted down look in the drops bin next time I go pick up stock.