Frosty

Over reaction? What, the cattle don't come by anymore? Wasn't that idea or am I missing something? Frosty The Lucky.

Ah, a torture chamber then. No it isn't unless maybe you have an induction forge and don't oil quench. Frosty The Lucky.

Ayup, that's how they work. Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks, lost in antiquity works for me. Now I can speculate wildly and not look any dumber than anyone else! My first thought was a blade catcher not really a "sword breaker" but similar. Were one to parry a blade with the Kukri held perpendicular and slid against the guard it might be possible to catch the other blade between the guard and notches for a disarm. Hmmmm? Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Ashton, 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. Yeah the HB has been ground flat probably seriously reducing it's lifespan if not damaging it. The PW looks to have a pretty thin face too and with the chipping on the edge I'd expect to see more wear or sway in the face. I don't have a strong opinion about this one like I do about the HB. What makes me jumpy is the fellow has all those anvils and is selling the one he's shined up. He's also pretty careful to take pics from angles where the weld line between face and body is, like he doesn't want one to see how thin the face is. Were I in the market I might take a look and rebound test them but It'd have to be a short drive. Frosty The Lucky.

Diamond blades and core barrels aren't hard and are made to resist work hardening. Concrete blades are probably about as hard as diamond blades are going to get. This is because concrete is pretty soft but contains abrasives in the form of sand. The diamonds for concrete are pretty coarse and tend to chip rather than grind. The cement component is actually soft so particles get ripped out and are carried up past the blade where they can wear the blade. The blades themselves rely on things like chrome for hardness as it's more abrasion resistant than carbon. Diamond saws and core barrels are kind of counter intuitive, the harder the rock the softer the barrel matrix. The diamond is what wears/cuts the stone so it's important it is exposed while being protected from being "pried" from the matrix. If the matrix (the metal blade's edge or core barrel bit) is made by sintering with diamond of specified grit included. The sintered edge is the matrix supporting the diamond cutting agent. If the barrel is cutting soft material the cuttings wear the matrix and pop the diamond grit out so the matrix needs to be harder. If on the other hand the stone is hard it's important to keep diamonds exposed and the cuttings will be much finer so the matrix needs to be softer so new diamonds are exposed as old ones wear. Sawing extremely hard stone say Hawaiian blue granite, gemstones, etc. the matrix holding the diamonds is typically a bronze alloy and the diamond grit very fine. Making knives from diamond saw blades is the rough equivalent of making knives from carbide saw blades. Probably okay as a flexible component of a pattern welded billet but not likely to hold an edge long or well. Frosty The Lucky.

You're a barrel of fun Smoothbore. Triage is a preliminary sorting process, especially useful for large quantities of things. For instance a quick sort of scrap for Steel, Aluminum, cast iron. Toss pieces by type in one of three piles and it's been triaged. A loader moves the cast iron to one rail car and the aluminum to another while you toss select pieces from the steel pile in your pickup. The first fast unfussy sort is the triage. The scrap company doesn't have all day for you to go through the whole pile piece by piece but will let you do a hasty sort. You get to choose some of the choice steel scrap while they get the aluminum, cast iron and steel separated for them. It doesn't have to be perfect just fast. Triage is also important in hospitals with mass casualties, say a commuter train wreck: #1 people who need immediate care but can be saved. #2 people who can wait. #3 people who aren't going to make it. It lets medical personnel concentrate their energies where it counts most most. Frosty The Lucky.

I have trouble imagining this guy is anything but a lab tech, he certainly doesn't know enough to attempt any of the things he's asking about. We used to get new lab techs in the materials lab and they were all full of "good" ideas for mix designs and new test methods. They were usually early enough in training they had no idea what a representative sample meant or why consistent results were important. Yeah yeah, I know I were one! You typically spent a couple years running gradations before they let you start learning mix design. A year if you already had an appropriate degree. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Johnny I'd say hi properly but my greeting got Forbidden It's a platform problem. I'll get back soon. Frosty The Lucky.

Heat the coupons in a hydrogen atmosphere? What is the purpose of these experiments? Hydrogen contamination is something most professional steel workers and plants avoid. Frosty The Lucky.

Pics are good. You have a question? Frosty The Lucky.

You might get a LITTLE better deal than M. I'll bet he's not near as cute. Frosty The Lucky.

Oh yeah, that's a cover art cattle crossing and gate. Beautiful use of excess material far better destiny than the scrapper. I like the dog's expression like s/he's asking you if you think that's going to slow him/er down. Silly human. Frosty The Lucky.

Gotta admit a dungeon lit by a charcoal forge, fumes and vapors wafting and thunderous hammering by a . . . Snail? Oh no wait, a teddy bear. Okay, a Teddy Bear fits a dungeon setting better unless we're talking Alice in Wonderland scenes. . . Oh yeah, very Indiana Jonesish. Cool. Frosty The Lucky.

I know this is mighty short notice, my memory is shot. Anyway, This Saturday, July 11th. is a club meeting at Pat's "Arctic Fires Bronze" on Springer loop road. Start time is around 9:00am I believe other than club business the meeting projects will be tools for the upcoming hammer making workshop. See you there. Frosty The Lucky.

I like them. I'll BET they sell well. A good demo project too. Here: Moose, Dahl sheep rams, musk ox and caribou would be popular. Thanks for the look, consider it adopted. Frosty The Lucky.

Grant was marketing his Omnianvil and tooling. The things wouldn't be that hard to make but they're equipment for a production shop rather than a duffer hobbyist like I am. I'd love to have one but I'd no where near work it like it should be. Frosty The Lucky.

One pickup truck axle will make your hot hardy and other bottom tools, most top tools and a raft of hammers. There's a point where looking for the "perfect" . . . anything becomes detrimental. Perfect doesn't exist, even the "best for x" isn't practical. Good enough is usually a bit better than good enough. Outside of certain artistic elements shooting for perfect or even best is a bad thing. Charles has laid out an outstanding hardy that's easy to forge or just saw and grind one made from leaf spring. What you forged from rebar, if made from on old axle and refined a bit would be in your tool kit when you left it to your grand kids. No fooling. We all go through the finding the best tools we can find phase when getting into a new craft, it's normal human behavior. It's just something to unlearn so you can get on with it. Seriously, do you think legends like Samuel Yellin, etc. spent a lot of time making tools perfect? I'll bet he had shelves, boxes and piles of close enough tools he left to his kids. It ain't the tools that do the work. Frosty The Lucky.

I have a "Kukri" question. What are the notches in front of the guard for? They seem to be a pretty common Kukri feature. Frosty The Lucky.

I read it as triage. Of course that's just me, I could be wrong. Frosty The Lucky.

The CBC news clip is pretty extraordinary. Lucky lady and with a traumatic brain injury it isn't surprising if other motorists couldn't get her attention to stop and get 1st. aide. In 43 years here I haven't seen that happen and I've seen a lot of moose vehicle collisions. Usually a moose goes over the hood and roof, IF you're lucky. Occasionally they get hit hard enough and or just right and flip to go through the windshield feet first. This is very BAD for the passengers. Frosty The Lucky.

1952 makes me OLD!? Frosty The Lucky.

I think this is from another mid-east company, probably mid level management looking for who knows what. I'm thinking maybe a translation and misunderstood technology. For example, translate "Hydraulic ram" into Chinese and translate it back and you get "Water Sheep". Of course I'm just speculating but it sure reads like mid level management speccing out fab projects I had to unravel and build back when I was the fabricator on the drill crew. You have NO idea how tempted I was to follow directions literally when the Chief BRIDGE Engineer told me to just get some steel and weld it together. An ENGINEER! Go ahead wonder, I do . Anyway, that's how this OP strikes me but what do I know. Frosty The Lucky.

Valid points all. In the last couple years I've had several students who have never driven a nail. I had to start them out on basic hand skills, one I had driving roofing nails in a birch block. I didn't want to make a sword as a kid, I wanted to build a submarine and had I actually been able to cobble something together even knowing it wouldn't even hold air you can bet your booty I would've figured out a way to get into deep water WITH me in it. I wouldn't bet anything on a teen NOT taking a sword down and trying it out on things. Probably trees, shrubs, etc. but would expect a few to try it on the neighbor's dog, etc. naw, kids are kids. The ones who actually do more than talk about wanting to be an apprentice and show up. I talk to politely, I'm not VERY POLITE to them unless they're special needs kids. Kids like dogs and horses will live up to your expectations, treat them like delicate flowers and that's what they'll become. Treat them like adults who need to learn things and they'll behave like adults. There are always exceptions but that's life. Up front and honest, I tell them the shop rules before they get in the door and spell out the consequences. Everybody makes mistakes but deliberately break a rule and you're out. Period. I'm a nice guy and a good instructor but I put the responsibility where it belongs. My #1 job is keep them as safe, as practicing any inherently dangerous craft can be. #2 present knowledge and supervise their activities. Their job? Learn. I can't TEACH anybody anything it's not like I can take a stick to them for getting it wrong. It's up to the student, it's on their shoulders. Those are the conditions of learning in my shop. I'll show anyone everything I know but I can't teach it to them. I'm instructing a special needs kid now, I had to threaten with sweeping the floor if he wouldn't just SAY he didn't know a thing. Said it with a grin but leaned the broom against the table next to me. About the second time he said "I don't know" he opened up and a good session began. He needs more help than most but he's polite, listens and tries. We're golden, I'll go the limit for him. There is only one attitude that will get a person anywhere in life. Frosty The Lucky.