John Morris

Thanks Goods! Thank you Swede!

Exactly the answer I was looking for. Thanks Jacob. I know it's been years since this was asked, but it applies to me today, I'm going to hook my forge up for the very first time next week and start hammering something. Oh, and thanks for asking your question Forging Carver and taking all the hits! Seems like that's a brave thing to do around here!

Mine stops in a year, retiring Dec 31 this year, selling our home, should be out by next spring and moving east. Growing up as a kid and younger adult here in So Cal was a wonderful experience, it was really nice, but at this point, outta here! I'd always thought Alaska would be really nice I always though, but my wife could not handle the cold, she's pretty warm blooded from Panama, so we are looking at the Carolinas. You can call me what you want, just not late for dinner. Our Americans have forgotten what humor and thick skin looks like. Most my friends I hung with and went to school with George are dead. Today, I'd not want to know them, nor myself when we were younger. Left for the Army, came back and they were still doing the same ol things, self destructive behavior leading to a life of deadends and or jail. Army saved my life. That being said, the town I grew up in was nice, a little beach town named Ocean Beach, San Diego, now it's ridden with homelessness and crime and the once pristine store fronts along the small main st that was mainly mom n pop hardware stores and gift shops and cafes, are now vape shops and weird pop culturish type of head shops and gift shops, attracting a strange crowed with dread locks and sticks hanging out of their hair. Ya, what a long strange trip it's been indeed. That's the spirit Swede!

HA! That does sound about right. I got one that loves sitting on my lap while watching TV, I feel I can't move, or I'll bother her, in reality I can just get up and she'll roll right off of my lap, it's all I gotta do, just get up. But her mesmerizing glare at me tells me to sit down and shut up. LOL Good one Frosty, about sums it up too. One of my favorite creatures of all time Larry. Must admit though, they look pretty funny without feathers LOL!

Dog and cat family here George, I know what you mean, although the only time one of our cats makes it out to the garage is when she slips between my legs while opening the door from our home to the garage, she whizzes on by, it's gotten to the point that I just let her stay out there, I'll close the door, shut off the lights and let her explore and have fun, in a half hour she's scratching and meowing to be let back in. She's an indoor cat, as is our other cat as well. They get out to the backyard supervised, we have some pretty big Owls and Hawks around here that I believe may be able to do some damage to unattended cats, perhaps I'm wrong but we don't want to take that chance. By they way, are cats owned or do they own us! It was a wonderful side track Frosty! Kind of had me in stiches here for a bit I like your suggestion about the bed, bout the only time we throw a bed down for "Lady" (her name by the way) is when she's exiled from the house for being too spastic and chasing our cats all over her kingdom. While I'm woodworking she's free to roam as much as she wants, not really a whole bunch of anything to get hurt with in the wood shop, since most of my work is done by hand tool, planes, saws, shaves chisels etc. But with the upcoming blacksmith operations, setting a designated bed down full time in the area is a good idea and conditioning for her. Thanks for that.

Thanks Iron Dragon for the information, you have some pretty guns there, I can see the quality in those older reps no doubt. Happy shooting! Thanks for the tip, I get the same aches and pains when using my flintlock short starter for any length of time. Booohooo, right? Hey, I'm getting older and older, bones just aren't the same and after a lifetime in the trades and as a surveyor, with hammer in hand and bags hanging off my hips every day, my frame of bones are starting to feel it. I think I got one more last stand in me with Blacksmithing, we'll see.

Swede, thanks for the welcome, I'll tell ya what, so many crafts to be involved in, so little time on earth! Add to that list, Leather. Thanks again. Thanks Frosty, and I'll heed your advice here. As far as California goes, biting lip, I'm bleeding out right now.

Well thanks for that encouragement George, appreciate it greatly. And more importantly thanks for the advice on taking care of Lady while she's in the shop when things are hot, some of that I haven't thought of yet. So again, thanks. Now, I know at the time when that happened to your kitty cat it probably wasn't too funny, but I had to giggle, hope you don't mind.

that's a very fine effort from where I stand Artie. Beautiful build! I'd be very proud of those.

Now that's a new one! LOL. Glad you got her bent back Randy. Never thought of using a cheater, I am now though LOL, after a day of shooting those, palm of my hand starts aching a bit pressing that loading lever down all day! Beautiful revolvers, I am not familiar with ASM, pretty much just the Uberti and Pietta makes and some of the Traditions etc. What is ASM?

I'm not a blacksmith, won't be for a long time. I'm still collecting parts and making time to get going, like that ol blower sitting there, but here is my Woodworking pet, sometime down the road a Blacksmith pet too! She lays around and likes to hang out with ol dad in the garage shop. Been looking at y'alls furred family members, gotta love them all. Thanks for sharing.

George, thanks so much, appreciate the welcome and I'll check out the resources you listed off. Appreciate that. Ya know, I'm thinking Veterans turn out to be crafty and makers cuz we broke a lot of things while in. LOL I'm used to that level of abuse, after 34 yrs of marriage I've learned to lick my wounds and shut up, and pick the battle I know I can win, oh ya, and, never question how much she spent on hair, when she pushes back on a tool purchase. It don't end too well. Thanks for the welcome Melted Socks! Well I'm not familiar with that movie Shainarue, my spelling may have a political bend to it, and reflecting back here, I should not have done that per the rules here. I'll be good from here on out. And thank you for the welcome! Thank you back Billy. And thank you for the welcome, appreciate it much sir. A tip o my hat and bow to ya Randy, and WELCOME HOME! And thanks for bringing the old guns category to my attention here, I didn't even see that! This is going to be fun. My o my, what a storied history your family has, I'll scoot on over and visit those links you provided, thanks again sir.

Introducing myself here, started that login issues discussion but I didn't want to add to that one anymore. My name is John. Wife and three adult kids, one kid just got out of the Army after 5 years and she's with us for a bit, our son is going in end of this month working on UH-60 Black Hawks, and oldest girl is married off and happy. I met my wife of 34 years when I was stationed in Panama from 89-91 (Army). I'm getting ready to retire the end of this year from a career in Land Surveying. I'm a woodworker at heart and been looking into blacksmithing for a couple years now. Favorite things to do is woodworking, black powder revolvers and rifles, I also run a community forum for woodworkers, we focus on the craft and fundraising for our US Veterans and we participate in annual Christmas projects for our active duty over there. I have yet to set hammer to hot steel, I do have some parts to get started, been collecting items over the last 18 months but just haven't had the time to get going on it between family and work, but I expect when I retire and mama and me move to our forever home I'll be setting up shop for woodworking and smithing. My goal at this point is to forge architectural components for 18th and 19th Century furniture, such as hinges, hasps, latches, so I can incorporate them into my woodworking. Perhaps nails too? So far I have an old Cannedy Otto hand crank blower, a Whitlox mini wood fired forge, a few tools, a Vevor 66lb Anvil, some old hammers and a new one, a pair of tongs, I only need to get some tubing to connect my blower to the forge at this point, I hope to get it fired up within the next couple weeks and start hammering things and turn perfectly good looking steel into mush for a little while, starting out with chisels, and hooks and stuff like Black Bear suggests. It's been about a year and a half since I caught the blacksmith bug, and I think I've procrastinated enough. Can't wait to read all over this community and get to know folks, and read all about the talent here and take a ton of information away from here. Been pouring over videos, living the dream thru others at this point, I love Black Bear Forge, and a few others out there. Ok, enough about me, time to get around here and start reading all the wonderful topics. Perhaps someday in the far away future I'll have something to offer in the way of experience, but for now I am afraid I'll be taking more than giving around here as i just find my way around the proper way to even hold a blacksmith hammer and hit things with it. Thanks for having me.