Phil Patrick

When I am welding on my workbench or table, I will pin the lead, or oxy/actel lines between my hip and the edge of the table. This way, I am not supporting all that weight. Also, when I am done, I just step away and let it drop to the floor.

The easy answer is that one must wait 9000 years b4 attempting sword manufacture.

Fantastic info!
I will keep everyone posted as this project matures.

Thanks alot everybody!

Glenn,
Trust me, I have no intention whatsoever of moving forward without sorting out all the fine details. I rigged and moved machinery for the last 15 years and saw too much shoddy equipment and gear to satisfy me.
This project is not for faint of heart. I just need a few more details to finalize my plans. Also, these are not going to be sold to an unwary public. My father and I are building him a horse barn, timber framed. I need some specific rigging to effect some of lifts when we raise it.
This will be the second full barn we have done and are refining some of our techniques.

Looking for a nice picture or photo of a sheet iron pot, circa 1820-1840. This will be for some western fur trade people. At the very least some starting dimensions to go by would also be very helpful.

As usual thank you very much!

Does anyone here about have any good photos or info on the construction of wooden block and tackle? (aka snatch blocks to some). I have an opening to make quite a few but I am still sorting out a few details.
Goals:
Wooden body.
Wooden sheeves
Steel hooks and appropriate tackle.

Any help will be appreciated!!!

A little off topic, but somewhat interesting. The company I work for manufactures brake presses. We use what is called a planetary roller screw for each side of the ram of the press brake to drive it down.
It gives us quite a bit of available tonnage, plus a very quick cycle of the machine.

Wow.
I cannot believe I just read through all of the newest posts to this stupid thread. For crying out loud.
1) who cares?
2) who cares?
3) who cares?
OK, we have established that trying to cut a stone with a sword, dagger, razor blade, nail clippers, sheep shear and any other edged THING mostly likely will not work and does not merit any more effort.
Also, we has established there might be some misinformation to the providence of the tungsten sword. It also falls under the heading of who cares.
I call shenanigans on the whole thread and am sorry I have even bothered stopping by.

Wow,, I had no idea that this thread would grow to such size! There has been a lot of nice info posted here!!

Another nice little tool to make to sell as plunder is a folding ladle for melting lead. I make a hand full of those every year. You can knock them out pretty quick, and with a little imagination can look pretty spiffy. I can get between 10 and 20 bucks a piece for those little beauties. If you look around you can see alot of nice examples.


Keep your powder dry!

Be carefull Dave, all shipwrecks in Erie are historical sites and you can get in ALOT of trouble for taking stuff off of them. I have dove on three around Kelly's Island and it was a blast.

LOL Jeff.
That's pretty funny. I had a vision of you with a giant crowbar yanking the darn things out.

Lindsay books has a book on making homemade crucibles. I am not sure if they are intended for that kind of hard service however. I am inclined to think no.

Calamari,,,,,,,, nom nom nom nom nom nom nom

Went for a bicycle ride Sunday along the Great Miami river. Found the remains of a wooden coffer dam that had long since given up the ghost. In the remains of the timbers along the bank, I found a plethora of large hand made spikes. I am assuming these were used to hold the timbers together. So,, I liberated a few and to the workshop they went. Further testing has shown them to be wrought iron, not steel as earlier suspected!!!!! Can't wait till the river goes down a bit.

Another for the fans

This would be the man himself,, Brock Samson. OSI operative.

Sam,
You are now my favorite knife maker ever.
GO Team Venture.

I would say for sure error on the side of caution. I went to laser service school about 5 years ago. One of the things they asked us at the get go was if we had similar devices on us or in us. The filaments in those slab lasers, even though they are heavily shielded, put out some spooky fields. I agree with Finnr, let's keep you around for as long as possible. Everyone else and yourself has listed good options. Gas weld, forge weld, son weld!!!!

Take care and be safe.

Very nice!! Thanks for sharing.

Here is another interesting article as well.
The fire of creation: Blacksmithing is alive and well

Steve, don't get too bent out of shape over the article. I don't believe it was written as a how to, definitive definition of the manufacture, this is the only way to do it, don't listen to anyone else cause we are the gods of damascus steel. I like to think that at least that even a modern fabrication publication can still take an interest in things out of the norm.

Ciao 4 now.

For those who might be interested in the wacky world of Stainless steel, I dug around in my assorted info here at work and below is a list of stainless steel types/grades.

440A
440B
440C
440F
430
409
410
301
301LN
304L
304L
304LN
304
304H
305
312
321
321H
316L
316
316LN
316L
316L
316
316Ti
316LN
317L
904L
What it all boils down to is resistance corrosion, heat treat properties, strength, things of this nature. It just depends on what application the material is being used for. Most of the food service industry uses (if it is not cosmetic) the cheapest stuff available. The high end appliance makers use the uber nice grained materials.
Oh, by the way, when you have a choice between your nicey SS fridge and the painted one beside it, they both have the same guts inside. Trust me,, I wrote the blanking programs for most of the major fridge and stove manufacturers that use stainless.

I believe that line marked would refer to any identifier that might be ink jet printed on the material itself, or any pvc coating on it.
As for being safe, barring any oils or anything else on the surface, you should be fine.
Stainless is divided by the finish. alloy, etc. At the end of the day, it is the final application that determines the grade required. Cosmetic, structural, etc.

Hope this helps!