Frosty

You need to ditch the cement if you're talking about Portland cement. It's totally unsuitable for the fire contact zone in a forge. It WILL spall throwing hot shards of concrete around it can be pretty dangerous. Frosty The Lucky.

It came right up for me. That must have been a good 3 days, I love kids at demos, they ask the best questions. "Is that what happened to your hair." Being a case in point, how long did it take to stop laughing? Have you yet? Good show, well done. Frosty The Lucky.

Looks good Pete, we won't take the rotation as an omen. We're looking forward to the pics of it mounted. Frosty The Lucky.

That's quite some change Pete. I understand how shedding things that are important frees you. Are you going to keep wandering till you feel like stopping or do you have a time planned? Which side of the Cascades do you like for setting up shop? Does a location or area strike you as THE place? It's been years since I traveled the area but Winton Wa. on Hwy 20 had a shop that sold blacksmith's and other hand made products from all around the area. It's serious winter country though. Frosty The Lucky.

My folks were more 20th. cent and said "spend less than you make." Same message though I think. I always wondered about that seeing as my folks always had bank payments for one thing or another. Here's one from my Maternal Grandmother. "Never push on the wagon, push on the wheel." It's a leverage thing, pushing on the wagon is pushing on the fulcrum where pushing on the wheel is one arm of the lever. Oh here's another, "To each his own the old lady said as she kissed the cow." Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Colin, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. We'd love to take a look at pics of your finds. We LOVE pics and some of the guys are really experienced getting leg vises working properly. Be careful trying to base your learning curve on videos online, anybody with a camera and access can post "expert" videos. Take a look through the Iforge sections on the opening page, not only are there many hours, heck DAYS worth of reading from first session beginner to some really advanced stuff and videos by people who really ARE experts. Frosty The Lucky.

You think I'll annoy them THAT much? Ooooooh! I could be wrong but with some 4,500 users experiencing their quality something like: @purchasing: if productname [ $IP$} then mv $product / pnd/snd/LOL is a likely result. I know I'm a cranky old fart but I figure if you're such good businessmen to drizzlypoo several thousand potential customers or disdain word of mouth effects then just find another job, why make it harder? Frosty The Lucky.

Don't worry about it southern brother we've all been xxxed out a time or two. You only have a short time to edit your posts when the software is working. Looks like admin xxxed it. No worries. Frosty The Lucky.

Even to decorate a neighbor's trees? Frosty The Lucky.

It ain't been a whole year, what's to apologize for? I feel pretty lucky people want to talk to me at all. A couple days a week is a lot better than I got when I was working a paycheck job. A guy can grow considerable skills on that schedule. Nice pieces all, bottle openers and steak turners are popular items and you make nice ones. Frosty The Lucky.

AW shucks Josh. Truth is I'm a living example of why Black Smithing and Bull Shooting have the same abbreviations. I love answering questions even if I have to make up the answers. I have a good friend lives in Minneapolis who did a lot of theatrical props, etc. One of the most creative and mechanical savy people I know. He's a loveable lug with a giant heart. The TPAAAT apparently has a threshold level to get rolling. It makes sense that word has to get out to enough people before it really starts working. The secret is telling E-V-E-R-Y-B-O-D-Y you meet. Best wishes for the couple at the wedding and good luck to you prospecting for. Frosty The Lucky.

Hannes: That's a good find a beautiful anvil no doubt. Other than some wire brushing I can't see anything that needs a grinder. The edges look nice and clean what chips there are are more cosmetic than anything else. Dressing them would be for looks rather than function, IMHO that is. It's your anvil. What are you going to blacken it with? Frosty The Lucky.

Ayup and it's an intermittent problem it lulls you into thinking it's been fixed then disappear one you've worked hard on. After its happened a couple times in one day I start copying the post, save a copy in Word and paste a copy in an email to Charlie asking for an explanation for why it was bounced. All I'm getting now is a boiler plate response so I'm filling his/er mailbox with reasonable requests and evidence of their incompetence. Just sharing the displeasure with their product and being polite. Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah, I keep the Alaska part as quiet as possible, we only want tourists to save enough to get back home. Expect someone to edit and maybe mention this is a family site and even mildly strong language isn't allowed. Where my place is there are no codes or covenants beyond state and federal. If the neighbors were to complain I'd just glare or something. I'd have to do something that endangered them to have the police ASK me to desist. Don't you have plumbing suppliers? You DO have plumbing don't you? I wouldn't make French jokes but you opened the subject and I have serious trouble leaving a straight line lay or ignoring an invite like that. I'm trouble shooting a new T burner how to and will have it up before long. The one I posted years ago is an OLD design I haven't used in decades but I guess once it's on the net it's like the pyramids, there for good. OR bad. I have the build down to not needing fancier equipment than a drill press and a work around if you don't have one. I'm proto typing the new burner build and once I get it tuned I'll get the mechanical drawings done and post it as an IFI blue print. Frosty The Lucky.

Naw, I'm being a pest to Charlie on his/er company email address. I joined their forum where other customers are TRYING to resolve problems IPS seems unable or unconcerned with resolving. The gripes are pretty consistently the same as or similar to ours. It's a pretty easy to read pattern of incompetence and gross neglect of contractual obligations. I figure Charlie will block me from his/er email address, it's not like I've done anything illegal or even against their rules. I'm just taking up a moderate % of his/er inbox with polite requests for explanations about their lousy service. Seriously Charlie is in sales, I haven't found a way into a dept that actually does anything IT. Frosty The Lucky.

SWEET piece! I can see any number of different little "things" to customize it but the product is a beautiful core. Thanks for the look. Frosty The Lucky.

Ah, she just needs to see a bunch of sooty old guys treating kids like royalty and shielding them from danger on all fronts. Strollers are a good way to keep the 3yr. old from swimming in the slack tub and playing in the coal bin. Of course getting the spousal unit to agree is the secret to any endeavor. They have this funny idea of a good time and our job is to go along. Have a good weekend, there will be other meetings, tail gate sales, demos, BBQs . . . ALL the good stuff. Frosty The Lucky.

I've never messed with meteoric iron, it's just too expensive and I haven't found one. It seems meteoric iron was the first iron used for tools. IIRC Tut was entombed with an iron dagger made from forged meteoric iron and his wasn't the first. The blade guys could tell you more accurately but from what I remember the pattern CAN be preserved as a pattern in the finished product if forged and worked at a low temperature. I don't think the actual meteoric crystal pattern survives as such but it leaves a pattern in the blade. Picture welded cable blades, the resulting pattern doesn't look like cable till a person comes to associate cable with that pattern. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Gumbatron, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many IFI folk live within visiting distance. The Chicago Trib. article you linked has an almost word for word copy of the "authority's" article as posted in the Myth Buster's "Historical Myths Debunked" site at an earlier date. Humans have a need for a back story about everything, one almost as strong as needing to name and explain things. Every time a story gets told it grows. Frosty The Lucky.

That's a nice piece of equipment and it can't hurt. You'll make you better, happens to all of us. Frosty The Lucky.

I think this is a good demonstration of how simple this kind of forge can be. There are a LOT of steel boxes that can be easily adapted to a portable forge. I have an old hanging file cabinet I keep my annealing Perlite dry in. I'm using the steel 105 recoilless rocket box to keep my torch and accessories in but it'd be a perfect cavalry type forge with a LITTLE work. That would be a dandy, make a couple clip on shelf brackets and the lid would make a handy work table attached to the forge. Steel boxes with hinged lids are everywhere, something to keep an eye peeled for at yard, garage, rummage sales, flea markets and swap meets. Frosty The Lucky.

I brought home quite a bit of the galvy guard rail posts, used some for the sill plate on the "barn" expansion and they make nice solid posts for whatever you don't want to move. Just painting the surface with tar, mastic, etc. does nothing for the interior and it will rot out. Now, if a person were to thin the heck out of the tar even with gasoline it will penetrate the wood to depth. Please don't tell me I need to tell you to treat open buckets of gasoline like the potential incendiary devices they are. Dry the wood well, wrapping them in an electric blanket on high is better than nothing. Then stand it in the bucket of thinned preservative over night remove, let dry another day or more and THEN paint the exterior with the preservative. While one post is soaking the other can be drying in the blanket. I don't think you can still get the old tyme copper sulphate wood preservative but it was a good prep. Who needs to drink from the well eh? Frosty The Lucky.

You might take a cruise through the photo spreads Scrapartoz has posted. While cool the dragon is the barest glimpse of his imagination and skills. Frosty The Lucky.

I'll bet the kids will LOVE a blacksmith club meeting. Smiths seem to have a soft spot for children in the shop. While a Science Center is a good place, learning about simple physics by word and deed has practical application that many an "official" display doesn't. If they're old enough to get anything from the Center they'll get more from a club meeting. Stop on the way and get them full coverage eye protection! Just a thought. Frosty The Lucky.

Well, there you go seems blacksmiths are coming out of the woodwork. It's good company, a little face to face should put you in touch with more tools and equipment than a boy could want. If you don't have a comfy chair string a hammock just remember to forge good strong hooks to hang it from. Few problems in life can't be solved with a hot enough fire and big enough hammer. Frosty The Lucky.