northmanlogging

the quote thing makes sense, the editing of NOT foul language, and warning about quotes THAT ARE NOT QUOTES, as well as the Heavy handed READ THE RULES OR ELSE attitude not so much peace out gents, I've seen enough. Mod Note: your overly long quotes have been edited out by staff to remove the problem

hrm... lessee if I get another warning from the mods... 4 posts, 4 rather childish warnings, excellent way to welcome new members BTW Anyway George, I sorta hail from WY, Douglas, Casper, Muddwest/Edgerton Riverton is a nice place If theres some sort of public gathering I might be interested in somethink of that sort, and I'm sure most of ya'll are good folks... However I do live precariously close a large metropolis, but still far enough in the sticks to deal with the local bill hillies, (which can be a good, and bad thang frankly mostly bad) I'm also fairly well known in other weirder circles, so no offense meant by keeping myself anonymous, think of it as an overabundance of justified paranoia

Frosty.... It's not a matter of not wanting to share, I've had plenty of folks over to my forge and got them started, some of them went on to be way better then I'll probably ever be, and I will continue to do so. However, I've had more then my fair share of weirdo's wanting my attention, (I was once almost famous famous...) so its more about keeping my privacy than anything else.

OhRegon.. lol Stealing that Seems like someone or many someones have suggested the NWBA to me in the past, something about a news letter etc... though at the time (pre interwebs, MTV still played music...) I was a broke as a joke kid, and many of the "smiths" I tried to talk to didn't seem real interested in sharing ideas or knowledge, saying lots of things like sorry kid, "its a trade secret" hence why I'm largely self taught. Things are much much better now, I guess the surviving smiths got the memo it was a dying art form? Though shows like farse'd in fire make me wanna scream, they do further the artform so I do try and bite my tongue to some extent "quenching in water! omg its ruined gasp, sob, whine" Never quenched in oil, so far only broke one knife, and that was before a magical thing called tempering it... (I wanted to see just how hard it was, and maybe whacked it a wee too hard lol, start over sigh) I did get to spend some time with a dude named Jess Roe (sp?) RIP who was deaf as a post by the time I met him, but he was an open book for information. Sadly not around an anvil but through things like the SCA and various other arms related thangs.

see now that actually makes sense, especially if you're starting with a fairly cold anvil, or Small stuff (which I'm simply not talented enough to hammer weld small stuff lol) No worries, one of the projects I've been meaning to get around too... is welding chainsaw chain into a billet, but somebody went and started a logging company while working full time as a machinist, so I haven't had a whole lot of time for playing in a couple few years... at one point I was part time blade smithing/armor making etc but knocking down trees paid better, so I've gone that direction, for now anyway. as for location, as a rule I leave that out of forums, other then W Warshington/PNW where its getting harder to find good coal, and I might have to find a propane forge soon. Another vid I recently watch spouted off the idear of "cleaning" the hammer between strikes, hence all the whacking of the poor anvil... it sounds all neato and makes a skookum show for the punters, but its simply wasted movement and hard on the anvil. But some grey beard extolled the importance of it... so now those that know better are going to spend a lifetime trying to correct the wrongs of a 5 min video... (fer the mods... Skookum= big, best, toughest, or rumors, news etc PNW Chinook Jargon) Now if you tap the anvil to reseat ye ole whackin stick in yer lunch hooks to maybe switch from mashing the steel to say creating a taper, etc thats different. Anyway, I get distracted (and i get hit in the head... like a lot...) as for forging drive chains, or roller chains, they are made up of 2 or more types of steel, the pins and rollers are generally high carbon, the side plate medium carbon, and some are sometimes chrome plated, getting and keeping the heat right for welding is I hear the hardest part. so a canister type weld might be a pretty good idear

I'm not new to making metal stuff, been heating and beating iron as a hobby for over 30 years, 98% self taught... some from books some from watching others, most from trial and error (lots of errors) Anyway, been seeing a few you tube vijeo's of folks lately forge welding but starting the intitial welds by tapping with a wooden block on the anvil, and I simply do not understand why? Is this one of them weird grampa tales such as never quenching in anything but oil (I've never quenched in oil) or heat cycling steel (this is how you bleed carbon out of high carbon steel) or the old standby that wrought iron is "stronger" because its grains have been "hammered" tighter. or is a whole bunch of this all for show? Now I do remember a time when at least local knife makers straight refused to teach anybody their methods... (hence why I'm 98% self taught) So i'm just curious where the xxxx some of these idears come from.