Frosty

Boy has this thread been comic stripped! Frosty The Lucky.

No anvil bridge for either of mine and making one isn't in the cards, I have a full week. Nuts. well, I'll see what I can come up with, there's a lot of . . . stuff in the shop. Do you you have a bridge that'll work with a 1" hardy hole? Frosty The Lucky.

Amusement? You actually think you amuse us? I'm afraid you're still operating under an over inflated image of yourself. Not only will the craft not disappear if we talk to you like you were grown up. Nobody was insulting you for amusement sake. Nobody insulted you they just told you to refine your researching skills so you can ask good questions. You took umbrage. In spite of your attitude a number of very accomplished smiths tried to pry enough information out of you to answer your questions and you talked to them like they were playing dumb. You're still talking down to us, explaining how WE should answer your questions when it's you who doesn't know enough to define the problem? I recognize the problem, I've defined it well enough to cope and will solve it by not insulting you with further reply.

It was pretty common for Frankish warriors to carry more than one francesca and they were excellent throwing axes. No plan survives contact with the enemy eh? Frosty The Lucky.

Do NOT use that cobbled together thing!! Whoever sold you that should be FIRED maybe jailed for gross malfeasance! Did he tell you you need a propane regulator? Acetylene regulators generally supply MUCH to high pressure and the diaphrams are NOT rated for propane. Propane is VERY chemically reactive and tends to eat rubber not formulated for it. Just sticking a big tip on your cutting torch is asking for trouble. Trouble of the burn your shop down kind. What happened to your torch is called a B-A-D back fire. Normally a backfire in a torch stays in the tip or at worst the handle and sounds like a machine gun. There's no mistaking a back fire like that. However when it migrates back into the hoses it's a MAJOR danger. I'm speculating as to why it did what it did so don't take this as anything but a possibility. If your fuel regulator was set as high as I think it was and you didn't shut it off properly. Say you shut the torch off with the final adjustment valves or even the handle valves in the wrong order. The high fuel pressure could have back flowed, (forced it's way into the oxy hose) and burned. If there was the smallest flow through the oxy valve the rubber in the hose would burn. Again, that's just speculation but I've seen some scary weird things happen with oxy fuel torches. Search online for "Harris torch company" and their alternative fuel torches. They've been making oxy prop torches that work properly and are as safe as any oxy fuel torch can be. They've been making a hugely good oxy propane torch for at least 50 years that I know of and seeing as the company they made the torches for let the patent lapse Harris is marketing the same system under their trademark for maybe 1/3 the price. It's expensive off the shelf but costs about 2% in oxy fuel as an equivalent oxy acet torch for work done. Whatever you do do NOT use that torch set up like that again! Frosty The Lucky.

My folks especially used to buy elephants for me. I had ONE fun experience with a few at a circus and my rep was established. I have a couple stamped sheet metal elephants intended to do "things" in breezes. Long spring legs, long spring trunk and large wind stopper body. The other has a propeller in the body that spins in the breeze. I've been tempted since I got it to put something on one blade so it'd bounce shimmy, giggle, ? in breezes but nope too far on the back burner. A yard sculpture has a lot of possibilities. An elephant standing on hit's hind legs or maybe one leg mounted on a "kitchen table or chair" stand with a little mousy on the ground. Heck on a table a person could make it rotate like a wind vane. Hmmmm, could be a fun niche. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Yura, glad to have you! If you'll put your general location in the header folk won't wonder where that guy from Poland is if they have tips, referrals, etc. That's a beautiful railing, I'm sure you can find work here, it might take time but that level of craftsmanship is marketable. Not long ago an American company was posting ads to hire on Iforge. Frosty The Lucky.

Disappeared reply and won't accept a cut and paste. I'll be back later if I remember what I was saying. Well, maybe if the edit works. I'm a real proponent of welding a shank to bottom tools rather than forging them. There are several benefits: If you weld the sank to one end rather than the bottom you don't need to scarf heavily or clean up the welds where they'll contact the anvil face. Another is being able to place the bottom tool over the center of the anvil rather than hanging on the heal. Lastly is a little thought for you. If you weld the shank at a little angle so it'll jam in the hardy hole like a hold fast your bottom tool won't move in use no bounce, jitter, rattle, etc. Just make the shank long enough to tap it free from underneath! Fingers crossed, Frosty The Lucky.

No worries there Das, That one one is a certain lag. Frosty The Lucky.

Times change eh? Scrap yards I'm aware of in south central Alaska all operate under single buyer contracts so they're liable if they sell anything to anybody but the contract buyer. It's all been getting loaded on bulk cargo ships bound for China. Well, it seems the Chinese are learning about building a supply faster than the market will bear. They built so many foundries and mills they can't afford to sell to cover fuel combined with how over extended their entire economy is right now they're not buying much of anything. Who knows someone might open a couple American mills eh? I'm waiting for the time when China is found in breach and local scrap yards start selling to anybody again. Frosty The Lucky.

Pretty darn cool elephant. I think it's darned marketable. Some sproingier spring legs and a mouse would make a pretty neat dances in a breeze piece. I like, lots. Frosty The Lucky.

That's a pretty shallow pitch Das. Try harder you don't want to wash-er out this early in the game. Frosty The Lucky.

Sounds good Mark, I was afraid I'd missed it. I'm pretty sure I can get Friday the 15th. clear, I'll check with the boss. Should I bring anything? My portable forge isn't up and working and moving the shop forge does it too much damage. The Soderfors is available as always and I have a number of bottom swages if they'd help. I also have some strap stock though I'll have to check the dimensions. I'll bring something for iron in the hat I have a few goodies, stock wise. Frosty The Lucky.

At least till it's tapped out. Frosty The Lucky.

I get the walking candle stick impression, you did that well. "The Sorcerers Apprentice" exactly, maybe make a bucket the handle can hold. You have a good idea once you've made a few dozen they'll start to come together. I expect your friends and relatives will have all the candle holders they can use by time you have it mastered. Frosty The Lucky.

Before you go to a LOT of effort, time and money maybe you should spend your time developing your skills sets. What you're doing is a common beginner's mistake in most any craft you're trying to find or make the perfect tools. We've all done it one time or another, don't feel special. There really isn't anything making a blade needs a horn or mandrel cone for. Nope not a thing. There are much better things to buy, find or make to make bladesmithing easier. For now though, build a fire and start making. Frosty The Lucky.

You've never had jo blocks weld themselves to each other when left in contact for a day or so? Dad kept his jo blocks in a locked box in the locked drawer in his instrument tool box and would hit the roof if anybody so much as opened the drawer. Heck the master machinist Glen took his jo lock lock box home every night. Picky, touchy, growley, old school machinists eh? Frosty The Lucky.

Electro polishing is easy it pasivates the SS AND shines it up nicely. I agree HC steel is a mistake but SS isn't that hard to form. I just hope he bid enough to cover costs. Frosty The Lucky.

I haven't heard that one before but folk have all kinds of reasons to explain why their preferred method is best. I know a number of farriers and the ones with the worst joints are the ones with the worst hammering techniques regardless of the stands. Farriers tend to work fast you don't want the horse standing there waiting while you fool around, an impatient horse can retire you with one jerk of a leg. You want to get in and out without rushing. Holding the hammer in a hard grip will cause joint damage with time, more certainly than laying your thumb on the handle. A loose grip that lets the hammer rebound off the anvil without jolting you takes care of most joint damage issues. Setting the anvil's height right for you is almost as important as good technique, too low and your back pays, too high and you lose power so work harder for the same effect. Once you have your technique down you want as much impact to rebound into the work as possible. Having the anvil moosh out of the way is just wasted energy. I work hard for my energy I want it to do as much as possible while it's there. Frosty The Lucky.

Sure could, shine them up a bit put a couple drops of 3n1 on the matching faces and leave them set a day or two and they'd become one. I wonder if that'd work for putting a steel face on an ASO? Frosty The Lucky.

Maybe I was looking at the three as a set rather than three individual experiments so the differences in legs stuck out more to me. I usually try for more consistency in overall shape. If my legs are going to be three 90* angles then I make clean distinct 90* angles. Not sharp bends but clean angles between the straight elements. If they're going to be graceful curves then that's the direction I take the entire leg. I find it hard to make say a 90* transition from the holder to the leg the a graceful curve to the vertical and another 90* to the foot. That can work but I find it harder to make look appealing. How are you at forge welding? If you take the 3 legs and make a short faggot weld, the turn into the shaft. You'll have the remaining ends above the weld to use for integral candle holder helix, bottom candle stop and handle. If you're using strip stock as it appears in the pics faggot welding becomes much harder for the void in the center so fill it with a piece of Rd stock. It's easy to trim and clean up later. Of course you can turn a little extra on the bottom into another decorative element. Frosty The Lucky.

Break the edge on the face. I've used sand paper in my palm and worked the hammer face on it while watching TV when I didn't have power tools. If you have a belt grinder slack belt it. Shining it up won't hurt a bit, the more polished it is the less energy will be used making the steel move laterally on the face. When you strike down and the steel moves laterally it slides against both the anvil and hammer faces. The pein wants work, wider radius and rounded ends and giving it a bit of curve helps as well. Frosty The Lucky.

Pretty nice haul. The bottom tools will probably be the most useful, especially the hot hardy and mandrel cone. The fuller is more useful than the swages. Of the top tools you'll use the flatter more than the rest put together. Tongs are good, the more the better and those look like useful shapes to start with. Of course all that opining is just that, you're mileage may vary. Frosty The Lucky.

Naw, 9f. is cold, I stay inside by the fire below mid teens even if I'm feeling ambitious. Cold is cold a thermometer just puts a number to it. Frosty The Lucky.