Frosty

He passed away this morning. If you're applying enough force to cut a fuel tank you're applying enough force to make sparks. Fuel and air in a combustible ratio will burn if an ignition source is present, vapors will explode. Seeing as it burned Mr. Bush so badly (80%) he ran engulfed in flames and there was a fire ring I believe there was gasoline in the tank. This would mean the air fuel ratio was too rich to burn so it's RELATIVELY safe. The thing that gets so many guys is the oxy jet from a cutting torch, press the lever and you're injecting pure OXYGEN surrounded by a 6,000f flame into a tank full of heated fuel vapor. The shape of the tank and evidence at the scene leads me to think that's what happened. Not that my take on the "what" of it means much. I'll be saying a prayer for Mr. Bush, his family and friends. This kind of pain goes FAR beyond what Mr. Bush suffered, his family will feel the loss for a long time. As has been said today and for many years, if you don't KNOW what you're doing do NOT do it. This kind of mistake can hurt a LOT more than the person making it, think about a couple kids watching or if it'd launched the tank through a widow into the house. This kind of explosion can launch a fuel tank piece hundreds of feet. Ever shoot a "spud gun"? Frosty The Lucky.

Sam: Though it's been abused the damage isn't going to effect it's utility. It's a pretty common mistake everybody makes getting into a trade, craft, hobby or whatever, we want the PERFECT tools and try to get what we want before we know what we need. It's a human thing, no biggy. What makes the draftsman isn't the tool, it's their skills including eye, hand, anticipation, understanding the materials, listening to the customer, mechanical drawing and artistic drawing and maybe most importantly imagination and the stubborn nature necessary to make it happen. Put that beauty to work, there's nothing there to keep you from forging any shape you want. Nothing. It just isn't that badly damaged, I wouldn't do more than brush it off and build her a stand. I'd dearly LOVE a high quality anvil in the 300lb. range. I have a decent 206lb. Trenton but it was "repaired" and has suffered for it. The edges were evidently chipped full length and the "repairman" welded them up and ground them off. The thing s/he did that damaged it was NOT keeping the grinder flat to the face so both edges are tipped for 1 1/2" to the edges. It's a real PITA using an edge for much needing a square edge. Also the original heat treat was damaged and the face is all marked to heck and gone with missed blow marks. She still gets used regularly but she's second string and for no better reason than someone TRIED to repair her without knowing what to do or the skills to use the tools properly. Maybe my experience with a "repaired" anvil is why I'm so vocal about NOT welding on an anvil unless you have no choice. Brother you have a CHOICE, please leave that beautiful lady be and go to work. Frosty The Lucky.

Love it Steve! I'm experiencing giddy sweet anticipation about the LOOK I'm going to get from the guys when I grab a handful out of the forge and munch down. Thanks for the recipe, it's going in the book. Frosty The Lucky.

I understand it's not much of a priority to figure production times at this stage but it's a MUST if you want a successful business. Just keeping the doors open is all about cash in cash out, only after that stage is met can you even consider YOUR wages. Unless you're doing this as a charity, you have to run it as a business. I'm FAR less concerned with the rivet holes than the long open space down the center of the handle. so long as you leave the radius of the hole in solid metal around it, holes do not weaken the structural strength and round holes don't even effect the crush strength significantly. Chamfering them is an excellent move. You can buy drill bits with a counter sink and they will eliminate an operation. You'll still need to flip the blank to chamfer the opposite side but you won't be moving to another drill press or changing bits. The long open space on the other hand does effect strength, especially crush strength. If these are being used in combat situations times WILL come where the guys are going to put a cheater pipe on the handle and two guys are going to use it to rip door posts off a truck or similar. If you run a row of round holes following the radius of solid meat between and around each "rule" you can lighten the hawk without compromising strength. Your stress test with the sledge is a little disappointing, I expected at least one HARD blow, as in full swing two handed smackdown blow. Have you ever seen the old Buck Knife commercial where they drive a Buck sheath knife through a 1/2" bolt? I haven't seen it in several decades, Buck only made TV commercials very briefly but cutting a bolt is their trademark and was the commercial. I don't think the demonstrator used a 6lb hammer but it was certainly a single jack sledge and probably at least 4lb. More significantly he hit it HARD full over the shoulder swing and two blows to sever the bolt. THEN he cut a piece of paper with it without a catch or tear. I'm not being picky but our boys are going to take these into combat and they need the best equipment we can give them. Sure nobody's going to open a tank or APC with a hawk but don't bet they aren't going to be cutting, padlocks, chains, bars, opening truck doors through the post, hacking through bricks and mortar, or who knows what. It's combat, it's test to destruction time. Again, I'm not being picky I just want our boys to have the best available. You're doing an excellent thing, I think the overall design is top shelf and will serve very well indeed. The mid east is amongst other things a blade culture so having a BAD AXE blade means more than just how well it works. Both is best. Your spray booth raises a thought or two. Do or can you use charged spray? I don't remember what it's called but you put a positive charge on the target and a negative charge on the paint and paint booth. The sprayed paint is drawn to the target and repelled by everything else. I wish I remember what it's called but it's industry standard in most large scale operations and many small ones. The whole target gets the same amount of spray coating, the spray doesn't cover other stuff and all the special equipment you need is ventilation. It's just a thought and when you get to the point you're mass producing hawks you can put them on a conveyor line that passes through a spray and on to the drying and curing stations without stopping. Frosty The Lucky.

Lei: Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header we won't keep bugging you about it. Nice piece, especially for a beginner, it has a nice organic flow to it a very good representation of a rose. The framed flower is a little too regular and well centered. that may sound like a pretty shallow critique but it'll be more pleasing to the eye if the subject is a little off center in a frame and flowers are rarely straight so a littl angle or bend in the stem and it'll be more pleasing to the eye. Don't worry about your grammar, it's just fine, we're blacksmiths not english teachers grading papers. Slovakia is about the only Slovakian word I know. Frosty The Lucky.

Debra: I spent some time wandering around your website and am more than a bit agog. Please stick around you'll fit right in with the gang, we're all addicted to creative metalwork. As is common with blacksmiths many of us are interested in other metal arts repousse and mokume gane being high on the list. We have casters, machinists, fabricators, mill owners, a few metal spinners and who knows what else and the more the merrier. Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah, that's two votes for SMOKIN DEAL! Take a close look at all the struck tools, I can see a couple top tools with mushrooming on the struck end, one is REALLY obvious and I haven't looked closely. Grind the mushrooming off and chamfer the edges so chips don't come shooting off at bullet velocity. I call that a shop in a box, virtually everything you need. Congratulations! Frosty The Lucky.

Rest in peace Dan. Frosty The Lucky.

Well there you go! It was to insure he could get a manhole open. You see similar tools pretty frequently, lots of lid lifters, pallet grabbers and thingamagiggy pullers, look just like that, sort of. Frosty The Lucky.

The difference between a "master" and a beginner. A "master" has made more mistakes than a "beginner" as dreamt of trying. Frosty The Lucky.

By "training the staff" are you asking how much it'd cost to train someone enough blacksmithing to teach Scouts? When you describe your question it sounds like you're asking what it'd cost to hire a blacksmith or two to teach Scouts. If you were in my neighborhood I'd do it gratis. My time as a Scout were some of the best times of my life, give me the opportunity to return it I'd be onboard so fast your ears would pop. What smiths in your area would charge is a matter of hitting the phone book, club contact list, etc. and asking. Be sure to point out any time they donate is deductible, all they'd need is a receipt from the Scouts. I'm betting more than a few smiths were Scouts and have great memories and they'd like to help young men build their own. Instructor training MUST lean heavily on safety equipment and practices. You'll need eye wash and flush in the 1st. aid kit as well as burn and cut supplies. There's also a good chance you'll see some hammer mashed fingers so ice packs should be in there too. The kind you kneed around and they get cold. You'd really need someone with a good first aid card, as in certified class, maybe a step better than a RedCross card. When I was a field guy and off the roads by miles for weeks at a time we got to take courses put on by the Fire dept, EMT-1 level classes. Sure, that'd be overkill but it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. thinking about now, I suppose any Scout camp will have folk skilled in first aid all over the place, wearing Scout Uniforms. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Steven, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header we won't have to keep asking you. Getting together with an experienced smith will flatten the learning curve a LOT and if folk don't know you're in the neighborhood . . . Describing how you feel trying to get the process to do what you want is my first guess but seeing as it's already been mentioned I won't make up an amusing story. Breaking the term down you get Set and Up. In general setting at the anvil refers to starting a process so there's a definite isolating shape, element, etc. For instance setting a shoulder is often done on a radiused edge though a butcher makes cleaner sets. So upsetting means you're setting the iron/steel larger than it was, the dimension is going UP. That's just MY take and heck I'm questioning it myself while I type so it means whatever. Another FINE blacksmith's axiom you're running into now goes thusly. Ask two blacksmiths a question and get three (or more) answers. Frosty The Lucky.

Pretty nice opener, a little tweaking and polish (I don't mean shine it up polish) and you'll have a very marketable item. I've found letter openers to be popular sale items at demos, especially if you can make them fast enough to sell it warm from the fire. Frosty The Lucky.

Nice tool James, basically a guided holder for lathe bits. I love it when a tool user adapts tools, faster, better and easier. At first glance I started running the basic principle through my mind in other configurations. Sweet, thank you. I'm going to keep an eye on your posts for sure. I'm an accomplished idea sponge and you my friend are a fertile field. <grin> Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Bud, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header folk won't keep asking you where you live. Nice ladle, especially for a beginner. Are you hooking up with Bryan? He's still too gimpy to spend much time at the anvil but his knee replacement is healing. I'm thinking if you go pester him enough it'll be like therapy and get him up and making stuff sooner. I'm hoping enough of you interior guys will get involved enough to start an interior chapter of the Association of Alaskan Blacksmiths. Our next meeting is in Palmer January 18th. Maybe you can pry Bryan loose for the meet, we haven't seen him in too long. Frosty The Lucky.

Two things come to mind: The #1 cause for huffing is typically exhaust gasses getting in the combustion air flow. OR breezes across the intake. Your home made burner will work a lot better if you use a thread protector rather than a bell reducer for a flare. Bell reducers enlarge the cross section far too abruptly to work well, they induce bad turbulence which inhibits induction. The 1:12 taper is the MAX diameter change without inducing turbulence. Don't scrap your old burner, it only needs a little tweeking. If a Rex is huffing it's probably exhaust in the intake air, I often have to put up a shield when using mine outdoors to break breezes and block the exhaust gasses. Frosty The Lucky.

A HUGE problem with wire wheels and buffs in commercial shops after the huge hazard the are is the guys using them. Seems guys THINK they have to push hard to make them work, it's just the opposite, light pressure is far more effective, the tips of the wire do the cutting and pushing bends the wire over so they don't cut at all, they just rub. Same with buffs, pushing bends the cloth flat so it doesn't work very well. Pushing hard is also really hard on the motor. A little training improves most operations but buffers and wire wheels really need user training for effectiveness and safety. They're two of the most dangerous pieces of equipment in most any shop. Frosty The Lucky.

They make fine letter openers for practical tools. I believe they're so popular sale items is everybody knows what a RR spike is and looks like so the transition into another easily recognized tool is obvious. Even though they make poor blades without a bit welded in a lay person can see the before and after, touch it and use it. I've found RR spikes make good stock for a number of mundane items simply because it doesn't take an expert to see what said item was made from. It's prof positive it was made by a "real" blacksmith. Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. Frosty The Lucky.

Life jackets? <snicker> And couple Gems: chainsaw bar oil and Duralube for lubrication jobs that need to stick and be slick, chainsaw bars of course and I REALLY like it on my Little Giant, less than a 1/4 tsp squirt in the journal pads and it's slicked up for weeks. It's slicked up and doesn't slobber oil. My other Gem is Treewax for finishing, it's carnuba wax and is very hard and durable, it's the stuff used to armor bowling alley lanes. Frosty The Lucky.

Yes, SAE 10 wt. is fine, a few drops in the oil ports at the beginning of a session is all it needs or it'll spew oil all over the place or drain out the bottom. ATF is good too, it doesn't stiffen up like motor oils do but unless it gets really cold light motor oil is fine. ATF has the advantage of being good at cutting sludge, old blowers tend to have a good accumulation of sludge sticking to the inside of the case. Don't use heavy oil like gear oil, it's more trouble than it's worth, the gears need to track it around and a little sling covers the rest. While precisely built blowers come from a time when a lubricant was whatever was handy and though I've never tried it I'll bet a little rendered bacon grease (lard) warm enough to dribble would work just fine. Don't over think it it just needs some lube, 3 in 1 oil or Mazola just nothing heavy and sticky. If you want to go high tech use Dura Lube it's a light weight motor oil additive that provides really high film strength & lubrication at very low viscosity but just a few drops at a time. I use chainsaw bar oil with a little Dura Lube, 1-2 fl. oz./gal. for all my high sling and hot lubrication jobs, the chainsaw bar of course but it works a real treat in my Little Giant, keeps it really slicked up without slobbering all over the place. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard B, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be pleasantly surprised to discover how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance. The NWBA is a strong group, good bunch of guys to hook up with. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Debra, glad to have you. Wax, oil and other various finishes are a regular topic of conversation and experimentation amongst blacksmiths. None are really long lasting and will require some maintenance. My favorite is Treewax, it's carnuba the same stuff they armor bowling allies with. 18 ga. is pretty light so you're right to consider differential heat as a warp hazard. On the up side Treewax becomes darned fluid at 300f or less so a heat gun is plenty for application. I warm the project and apply it with an old cotton sock I keep in the can. Just bellow smoking hot and it's fluid enough to be drawn into very fine nooks and crannies. Now for my SECRET! I actually have two old socks in my wax can, one for applying the wax to hot steel, the other is dry and I use it to wipe off excess. The stuff is hard as nails mighty tough and doesn't yellow with age. Yellowing is one of my main complaints about most oils, unless the work is dark, it'll alter the color, for instance brushed steel can end up looking like it's been ferric chloride patinaed if oils are applied too thickly. Just so you know, this is MY experience, nothing official so YMMV. Frosty The Lucky.

Medium high carbon steel or even salvaged 5160 spring, coil being the best shape for tong stock will give you the properties but you have to be careful to NOT let them get too hot. Let them get medium red, water quench and they're going to be brittle in they don't just break. Metalmangler's 4140 tongs are really outstanding, they're stiff enough they can be light weight and Mark is so fast making tongs he has a wall full, takes less time to make a pair than find one. Mild will work fine but you need to leave more depth in the bolsters and reins so they don't flex too much. Personally I prefer medium carbon and I have a bucket full of car springs. Frosty The Lucky.

Going well?! After ONE production run you're upping the runs by 20% that's more than "going well" in my book. <grin> Good looking hawks and it looks like you have the tricky part handled. What's the production time per unit? What's the coating, phosphate? Frosty The Lucky.

It's been years since I used the epoxy tubes, my greatest experience was testing them in the materials lab. We'd drill a test block of concrete or sawn rock cube and anchor a piece of thatever they needed tested, bolts, rock anchors, rebar, etc. Let them set and put them in the breaking press, it'd either press concrete test cylinders or pull using the attachments. The stuff they used to anchor the rock along Turnagain Arm was in long plastic tubes with the catalyst in a stripe down the side. They'd drill, insert a tube in the hole, sometimes with a stream of water pouring out like a hose, shove the anchor bolt in and spin it till it stalled the air track drill rig. The couple times they overdid it the drill fatigued the 1 1/2" "Stressproof steel" anchor and snapped it, it NEVER broke the glue. All that rambling and I have to say I don't know what the new stuff is like but my experience with epoxy anchor cements from 30+ years back says it's got to be better now. Frosty The Lucky.