Frosty

SmoothBore: It's not so much political correctness as it is civil language. I don't think I ever got old enough my Mother wouldn't have taken the wooden spoon to me for bad language after the first warning. I agree with the perception of spectators. People who know what's going on and how it's done are going to be the harshest critics. Doesn't matter what's going on experts will hold the demonstrator, speaker, expert, etc. to a higher standard. It's not like Szilard and Fermi stood around and oohed and awed when Einstein said something, they poked harder than anybody. Of course there are the annoying "experts" who's only real experience is watching their great uncle or hearing family stories. Seems the less people actually know about a subject the more they think they know. For the occasionally really annoying spectator I reserve calling them n their opinion. I offer them the hammer. I'm usually rewarded with a look of horror by the "expert" and chuckles from the rest of the audience when they decline the offer. Demonstrating is theater. You're not there to really teach folk, you're there to entertain them and do so honestly. I never do my best work at demos, all my demo projects are simplified so start to finish takes under 10 minutes, 5 is better and I can continue a patter, make eye contact, answer questions, tell amusing stories and make the kids laugh and giggle. One of our members, a much better smith than I was on my best pre accident day does S hooks as a demo, incredibly simple versions that take about 3 minutes and he gives them away still warm from the forge. Having the right demo projects involves them being simple and fast enough folk with no experience or knowledge can follow start to finish and understand what's happening. And simple enough you can crank them out start to finish while reveling in the distractions. Of course that's just my opinion I could be wrong. Frosty The Lucky.

Boy am I glad you jumped in here! Can you give us an idea how much production time went into an episode as opposed to the hour show time? I'm thinking it was a week anyway. Thanks, Frosty The Lucky.

Actually charcoal briquettes are charcoal dust from the manufacture of wood alcohol, acetone, keytone, etc. During WWI Henry Ford was running huge charcoaling ovens to manufacture wood alcohol for the war effort, torpedo fuel comes to mind but there were lots of uses. Anyway, enormous piles of charcoal dust were accumulating, blowing around and generally causing problems. Someone came up with the idea of pressing it into logs for home heating and before long people were cooking with them. Ford realized small press molds worked better, faster and took less energy so he invented the briquette. Powdered charcoal needs a binder to hold it in a briquette and a lot of things were tried including tar but the ones that have come to common use are: Powdered anthracite, liquified wood pulp, milk glue and losing popularity clay. I'm not saying briquettes are good forge fuel but they're not the forge poison common opinion says they are. Modern ones are pretty safe if you break them up into marble size pieces and try to avoid the ones saying Kaolin on the bag as an additive, that's the clay binder and can get clinkery after a while. Frosty The Lucky.

Please don't be too quick to refine or repair the edges, they look pretty good in the pictures and once you remove steel it's a real bear putting it back. I'm just suggesting you use them a while before you decide. I believe someone posted videos of a knife or scissor shop in England where the anvil was a section of face and two dovetails to hold specialty tools. It appeared to work very well for the job and I imagine different tools would make it very versatile. Unlike hardy shank bottom tools dovetails are very solid almost becoming part of the anvil. Solid enough coupling to work very well on power hammers. Frosty The Lucky.

Naw, I'm not calling you any names Charles, especially not when you're spelling is better than mine usually is. ATTABOY!! That and what's the fun if I agree with everything you said? I'd have to have dents in my head or something. Well, there IS the charcoal briquette thing, I don't like them and some brands can be a problem but they CAN be made to work in a forge. Far from ideal but they CAN be MADE to work. I really like a couple broken up briquettes for lighting harder to light fuels such as commercial coke. Breeze (forge coke) is a snap to light, a hand full of wood chips or shavings and a gentle blast and it's off and burning. Commercial coke is pyrolized in a closed container under pressure so it's hard and heavy making it harder to light and keep burning. Breeze is light from expanding as it cokes (pyrolizes) making it much easier to light and providing insulation for the center of the fire. You can really go through breeze if you're not careful with the blast and it tends to keep burning sometimes till it's ash. Side blast forges are good for most any solid fuel and bottom blasts can be MADE to work but can be real fuel hogs with charcoal and breeze so management is different and really important. I suggest you get a bag of both fuels and see which you like. Coal will smoke but there are ways to deal with it. I lit the starter fire with rolled cardboard, a strip around 18" long x 2" wide, rolled it tight and let is spring open a little. I'd pin it in position over the air blast by piling coarse coal around it say 1" or so. Too large to be good forge fire size but good for getting the fire going. I'd pile it in a crater around the coil and pack the outside with wet powder and dust. With a steep crater formed I'd drop a lit wooden match in the center of the coil prying the gap open a little more till the cardboard got burning. Then I give it a very gentle blast till the cardboard is going and cover it with a layer of coarse coal. The trick is to keep flames on the pile so it burns the smoke and slowly add nut size coal to the crater. Cut is the size I used for the most part with powder and dust on the outside of the pile to control where the air went. The cardboard coil burns like a torch, air and flame passing strait up into and through the coal. Cardboard also burns hotter than paper, approx. 750f+ so it gets coal going faster. Gently keep the crater collapsing into the center without destroying it as a crater. Once it stops smoking prodigiously pack it into a dome and she's ready to work. Anything that isn't char is going to smoke as it pyrolizes but some smells good enough the neighbors don't complain. A propane forge doesn't smell at all with the rare exception of burning finger. Yeah, I've smelled my smoking flesh more than once. Aloe for 2nd. and less and Silvadine for 2nd. and worse. Cool it first, then apply other treatments including a ride to the ER or ambulance call! Frosty The Lucky.

Common story for newcomers to a craft. We all imagine what we need before we know what that is. Done it many times. Frosty The Lucky.

DOWNHILL?? through the snow? You got it all wrong NTK if it wasn't uphill BOTH ways it's not worth talking about. SHEESH! Frosty The Lucky.

I made an expanded metal screen on long handles for my old 15gl. quench barrel. Then I forgot to empty it one winter and freezing split the bottom. Frosty The Lucky.

Those ladies have seen some work but all seem to have been pretty well cared for, the broken horn notwithstanding. Did you get any dovetail bottom tools for the big one? Nice score all round! Frosty The Lucky.

35 years ago I bought an index of Bowman cobalts and have never regretted it. They're my go to bits for tough stock. The one downside is they're self centering so you need a special grind stone to sharpen them. However, if you're careful to never drill dirty or ground stock they don't seem to dull. Nothing takes sharp off a drill bit like drilling into steel that's been ground as grit worn off the wheel/disk/belt is embedded in the steel and grinds the edge off the bit. On rare occasion I've needed to drill into a ground surface and sacrifice a file first. Dulls the file but saves my Bowmans. So, that's my $0.02. Good bits and take care of them. NO dirt! I learned to sharpen HSS bits from Dad, metal shop classes were good practice, some of the other guys never got the hang of it. Dad taught me how to sharpen almost anything. Frosty The Lucky.

Fold the end over a couple times with one extending a bit farther past the end and twist with a hanging loop. Basket twists are popular and are easy on the hands. Frosty The Lucky.

Mallets tend to split as the edge is driven into the end grain. I pick up wooden ball bats at yard, garage, etc. sales for cheap. They make excellent whockers and mallets. When I make a mallet, I cut the fat end off, drill it and make the handle from the bat's handle and the rest is a whocker. B ball bats are De Bomb. Frosty The Lucky.

Molasses is a good rust converter because of the phosphoric acid in it. Frosty The Lucky.

I missed the trunnions being pipe. I suppose pressure fittings could be external to the pot. Might be to allow agitation of the load? Inlet and outlet makes sense too. Maybe it's a cat washer! A good solid cast iron kettle and lid bolted down with 32 bolts would be about right to keep me and a ticked off wet cat separated. Frosty The Lucky.

I don't think borax is going to deoxidize anything. I don't get many takers on this but it's worked a treat for me. I dilute Naval Jelly about 50% in water and soak rusty stock overnight or less. Rinse, neutralize with baking soda, rinse again and oil lightly. Naval Jelly says it converts rust back to steel right on the bottle. Seems to do just that. If you don't let it dry it won't leave the phosphate black finish. If you rinse, neutralize, rinse again and don't oil it'll rust quickly. You might give Tristan's (Teenylittlemetalguy) "Alaska Flux" a try. It's basically borax, boric acid and powdered charcoal. The relatively pure carbon, charcoal, will bind with oxy more easily than iron will so may convert the oxy in the rust to CO2 leaving steel. Thats just a thought, I haven't tried it on rusted steel. Search "Alaska Flux" should hit on the ratios Tristan's using. Frosty The Lucky.

Darlin, you don't need to do anything to show Nick up and I haven't even seen his pic. I find it easier to keep a single bevel piece like a knife blade straight by correcting it regularly with a wooden whocker, than trying to counter curve it. I like using a short length of B ball bat so it's striking the edge across the grain. That's just me though and I am not a bladesmith guy. Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah, GVT folk sounding out the written word can lead to misadventure. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard John, glad to have you. Fire management is one of the surprisingly difficult processes to learn. There's a lot more to it than appears. Once you get the hang of it though you don't have to stand there all the time to heat steels you'll have plenty of time at the anvil with just a gentle turn on the handle once in a while. We call those fire rakes and usually draw the end to a point to pick clinker out of the air grate more easily. Nice job on the finial ring. All in all it wins a well done! Keep it so you can look back and see how far you've come on a discouraging day figuring something out. Don't know about the square punchy drift thingy but you've drawn a darned uniform taper, that's a well done too. You're going to fit right in here. Do you like puns? Frosty The Lucky.

That'll work. It's still an awfully large forge. What do you have in mind doing? A lot of us build BIG forges when we're starting out only to discover we only use a small volume, say 9"x9"x6" most of the time. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice score! Frosty The Lucky.

Some of the important parts are dulled but I seem to have a minimum operating list working. I still miss the losses except the nicotine addiction. There are upsides though, I have an unbeatable excuse for almost anything now. Frosty The Lucky.

Insurance companies drive you nuts the way they figure liability. My old Mitusbishi turbo diesel 4x4 pickup got charged as a supercharged off road sports car. It had bucket seats a 2 seater, = sports car. Turbo charged = supercharged muscle car sports car. 4x4 is of course an off road racer. Then we get to my Eagle Talon, that was a darned sporty car but it had a rear seat sort of so it wasn't one. However it was all wheel drive and turbocharged so it fit a pigeon hole as a supercharged off road racer. It also didn't matter that I hadn't gotten a moving violation in 12 years nor filed a claim in ever. Nope, there are consequences to driving such UNconservative vehicles you know. Changed insurance companies but still paid a premium. Hung a plow on out 2013 Silverado and even though I only plow our long driveway(s) it costs us a few hundred bucks a year. Just because. The new plow mounts are sweet, the pump, valves and hoses stay on the plow which hooks up and drops pretty easily. Drive into it, pull the latch lever and plug it in, you don't even have to flip a switch for plow lights. Insurance company doesn't care if it never leaves the yard, it's on there $ $ $ ! Frosty The Lucky.

While I don't know what it was used for, the trunion mounts and bolt flange say it was for purose built for something. I'd think a pressure vessel of some sort or there's no reason for a bolt flange rim. A paper gasket would seal it to significant pressure but it may have contained something hazardous. Interesting find. What are you going to do with it? Frosty The Lucky.

You've got my attention I'm really looking forward to seeing it. Those hands almost creep me out they represent living hands so well. You put such a strong sense of life in your work it's just . . . Oh I don't know what. I love it all. Frosty The Lucky.

Uh, you know J putting both forge and blacksmith shop in the same name is a little redundant again isn't it. On the other hand there really isn't a reason you can't change your shop name if it hasn't become a "BRAND" name. I think going with what the community dubs it is a good thing within reason of course. It's how I prefer to get my nick names. Frosty was never really in question though I stomped on "Jack" as soon as I found out what Jack Frost is. I was dubbed sort of with Frosty The Lucky as a result of surviving being attacked by the great white . . . birch. Then a scadian friend redubbed me "Frostig Den Heldig" I do like letting a name or idea brew for a while before setting it in stone. You know, roll it around your mind to see how it sounds, what folk think, etc. Frosty The Lucky.