Frosty

Looks like a good useful blade Dave, about as much length as I ever need. Your brother did a fine job of the sheath as well and if I weren't about as full as a boy should be I'd be wanting a slice of your sister's pie. You belong to a talented family. As for Thanksgiving I'd like to offer a belated wish for everybody to enjoy an excellent one. I sincerly hope you all have as much to be thankful for as I do. Eat plenty, sleep well. Frosty The Lucky.

The patience of Job. Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah, Manley is way off the beaten track, we were drilling a bridge site to replace the old steel span but that was I don't remember how long ago, late 70's or early 80's I think. It's been about the same time since I've been to Chena but I've been there a couple few times. I like being able to pick my soak temperature by where I sit in the pool. I've gotten Deb interested and she's thinking about a place we can leave the old dog, Pocket is getting pretty frail. WE have plenty of volunteers for Falki and Baxter so who knows. Jer

Untwisting a basket twist is always the trickiest part, I always end up with a screw driver prying till all the bars are even or as close as I can get them. It's a nice looking ornament however you hang it. A little tweaking and it'll be a beaut. About being satisfied, we'll NEVER be completely satisfied. Our eye will always be draw to any little detail not quite perfect. It's a sign of a perfectionist in a very plastic and tactile craft. It's a GOOD thing. Frosty The Lucky.

I like JM's final solution, "get em saved," I have to remember that one. Still, like Mike says, we're representing an ancient craft that is just making a rebound so we need to make good impressions, even with the nimrods. I've silently offered my hammer to spectators who tell me how a REAL blacksmith does things. Other times I've asked if they have any of granddad's tools or if they're done with them do they want to sell them where they'll get used. Still, there are folk who just aren't going to be happy unless they can show how smart, or whatever, they are by trying to make YOU look a fool. Engaging these folk is a no winner so just let the troll starve. If you don't feed them they will go somewhere they can feed off the angst/etc. they sow. We can't win by engaging them, even if we land a good shot, we lose. They're never the only person in the audience or they'd move on to richer fields, so when we engage them two things happen, they're satisfied by gaining attention and the audience loses some respect for US. Lose lose. Don't feed the trolls Let them starve. Frosty The Lucky.

If you followed Ron's instructions it'll work. Building naturally aspirated burners is an exercise in precision work. Ron spent a lot of time perfecting his designs and they're good. You're going to have to go over what you have step by step and find out where you missed by a tad, correct it and test again. Don't sweat it though, this is common till you've made a few then they go pretty fast and trouble free. Frosty The Lucky.

WE went from below zero to mid-high 20s and rain. Oh what joy. Even with a reasonably new 4x4 pickup and studs we just hung at home and let folk with important errands fill ditches and bend fenders. Where are the nearest hot springs Chena? It's been many a year since I was in the interior but the hot springs stick in one's memory. Manley has a hotel/motel doesn't it? As I recall the entire town was heated by spring water, kind of smelly showers but very nice place. Critter sitters is still out biggest issue to traveling. <sigh> Jer

Another beautiful piece Nick. We're going to have to vote you a title of some kind if you keep doing such high end work. Frosty The Lucky.

I love the roo Andrew and look forward to pics of more of your work. It's one thing to know kangaroos are dangerous on an intellectual level and another entirely to know it on a first hand experience (gut) level. I'm thinking if I lived in kangaroo country I'd be packing a pistol at least. Is it legal to carry a weapon in Au or Oz? How about putting your general location in the header so we won't have to ask? I know for sure I wouldn't let one of our dogs go down without a fight. Family is family. Frosty The Lucky.

Glad to see you're online Bryan, did you lose power? Healing and therapy can be a job in itself but it's worth it. We'll get together for sure, I still need to give Deb the tour of the interior, all we have to do is find folk to tend the animals. Madknight: If the weather holds this warm and we don't get too much freezing rain you can make a run to my place. We can build a fire and abuse steel almost any time. Almost, Deb's night vision means I'm driving her to and from work, dog classes, etc. so we have to coordinate. Frosty The Lucky.

Your flame looks pretty good if a little soft. A flare reduces pressure in the burner tube making induction stronger. This makes the burner less susceptible to breezes and back pressure. I use the thread protectors instead of flares and they do all I need them to. I don't use forge burners outside a forge, I have air/oxy propane torches for that and those work SOOOOO much better. Thanks for posting links to the concept drawings and narrative of my burner, I never can find the darned things. I probably should compose a more together set of drawings with parts list and a better description of construction and tuning. Now, where'd I put those round tuits? I'll be more than happy to answer any questions. Frosty The Lucky.

I don't know what to say that is so outstanding I can't think of a suitable adjective. Frosty The Lucky.

Those'll work just fine. don't sweat using rebar unless you're doing something where consistency counts. Tongs are perfect rebar projects as are log dogs, tent stakes garden lamp stands, plant hangers and such. Don't worry about how it takes a quench from heat treating temperature, don't let your tongs get to red heat and it isn't a factor. cool em every now and then, I keep my quench bucket close for the tongs not the work. Frosty The Lucky.

Chief: I've got to start checking my computer more than every few days! Please don't think we're coming down on you, we're not. It may seem like it but you're young, full of whiz and vinegar, determination, plans and short on life experience. Nothing new there, we've all been there, some of us still are. I REALLY want to thank Highsider for bringing PPE up. A hot shop, be it blacksmithing, welding, casting, metal spinning, etc. is full of things that WILL injure or even kill you. Treat everything in the shop like it's HEAVY, HOT, HARD, SHARP, OFF BALANCE, and just waiting for you to look the other way. Even the soft things in my shop can hurt you. Along the same line as safety is knowing when to take a break or k knock off for the day. Working tired is probably one of the most common causes of accidents I know of. Working with an experienced smith who can tell you when you're getting tired is a really good thing. Most of the folk I've taught didn't notice they were getting tired, the cues are subtle, it's a matter of learning before you recognize them. Fabrication is high on the list of necessary skill sets unless all you think you'll be making are things like nails, coat hooks, etc. Even a pot rack requires fabrication skills and believe me you can join yourself into a corner faster than you'd believe. Sequencing is all about the order you join things to make the whole project piece. In the old books it's called "making up a piece" or "made up pieces." Well, okay I call it sequencing, all it ordering the work or whatever. Do it in the wrong order and you can find yourself cutting it apart again and trying again. Been there, done that. Good learning projects are nails, nails are good warm ups too, lots of the guys here make a few nails when they start a session at the forge. Coat hooks are good learning and warmup projects and can be as involved and precise as necessary. I like leaf finial wall hooks as training projects and like to use 3/8" sq. stock. Steel that thick requires drawing down in three ways: first the hook needs a nice longish UNIFORM taper to a point, Second the shank needs to be draw down to a UNIFORM straight 1/4" sq. Lastly the leaf needs a shouldered stem and a lateral draw to the leaf shape. Once you have the basic dimensions the shank looks MUCH better with a nice twist, do THAT before you counter sink and punch for the screw holes. don't forget to put a finial scroll on the long taper, remember it goes the OPPOSITE direction as the hook! I can't count how many times I've done THAT little trick. <sigh> Last it's time for a little refinement on the leaf and veining. Veining can be done with a chasing tool, I have an old cold chisel with a curved, rounded edge as my veiner but I also have veins chased in a piece of flat stock I can drive a HOT leaf blank into to make veins in the positive. Using the die is trickier as you either have to do it in ONE blow or you MUST realign all the veins between the leaf and die or it'll just look like a pile of sticks. Does sequence count? You BETCHA it does! As a general rule of thumb you want to do the thick sections BEFORE doing the thin sections. If the first thing you do on the leaf hook is the taper to a point there's a good chance it'll get burned off when you heat it to forge the leaf or straight draw. (Yeah, I know I listed the steps with the point first but that is NOT the best way to do it) Oh, the final step in any forged project? Finishing, you need to remove the forge scale, HOT brushing works well but you need a flat bristle butcher block) brush, they work a LOT better than a wire bristle brush. You want to keep your butcher's brush handy through out the forging process, scale WILL form as soon as hot steel hits fresh air and if you don't keep it cleaned off the hammer and anvil will drive it into the steel and leave permanent texture you may not want. Anyway, do a final HOT brushing and once it's cooled to black heat that doesn't blacken a piece of paper or card stock, wipe it down with whatever sealer you like. I mixed up a batch out of Alex Bealer's, "The Art Of Blacksmithing", soot, paraffin wax, linseed oil and turpentine. Mr. Bealer evidently liked paraffin better than bees wax and I don't know which is better I still have plenty from the first batch I mixed up, oh those many years ago. What I've found I like really well now is "Tree Wax" furniture polish, it's carnuba, the stuff they use to armour bowling alleys under the oil. the stuff is tough as all getout and seems to last a good long time. Apply it short of smoking hot and it'll flow into every nook and cranny. If you can find an old Boyscout manual it has a metal working merit badge that requires making a chain, it's an outstanding learning project. I've rambled o WAY longer than necessary but I still have what I wanted to say and got sidetracked. <sigh> Bladesmithing takes a lot of time to learn to do right and even longer to earn a rep that'll earn you almost minimum wage for making them. Years ago I was associated with a "professional" bladesmith and the couple shows we did together it irked him severely when all anyone wanted to do was look at and handle his blades but bought every coat hook I made as part of the demo. I also made a number of special requests and a few repairs. All in all I usually almost covered my out of pocket and my EX associate spent the whole time trying to convince folk they really WANTED one of the BIG fighting knives he made. As I recall all he sold with any regularity were RR spike letter openers and sharpening. Okay, signing off now. Frosty The Lucky.

Another option is to leave one bar long, say 8-10" and bend a ring near the top and at the end. Make the bottom one larger so it'll slip over the top of the tree. A long tapered helix would do the same. Zip ties would be plenty secure but might be a hassle installing, especially if it's a tall tree and a shaky ladder or person on it. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Levi, glad to have you. Claying a cast forge pan won't hurt a thing while using one without that is supposed to be clayed can cause badness to happen. Cast iron doesn't like localized temperature differences or fast changes so a layer of clay disperses the heat to minimize thermal shock. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Zak, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header we'll stop bugging you. . The next meeting is January 18th. at Pat's, I'll send you directions on the side if you don't hook up with one of the other Anchorage smiths and catch a ride. I'm just the other side of Wasilla and if it isn't too cold you can come out and we'll play with fire and hammers. Frosty The Lucky.

Wash your fingers with soap and go sit in the corner for an hour! You see these kinds of folk no matter what's being demoed or done. They tend to be a self curing problem though as soon as a good demonstrator sets up they find themselves laughing at the nothing at their setup. Frosty The Lucky.

Wow, I don't turn my computer on for a couple days and a "T" burner tuning issue comes up. What size jet are you using? If you hit the local plumbing supply and ask for thread protectors they're likely to give them to you. They're screwed onto lengths of pipe to protect the threads in shipment but are not suited for coupling pipe in use so they usually get chucked i a box till someone hauls them to the dump or whatever. A lot of things can cause chuffing but it's usually too low a propane velocity meaning you may be using too large a mig tip. I have my best results with a 0.035" mig contact tip on a 3/4" burner. You describe a fluttery flame which says to me a slow flame and also suggests too small a jet. Back pressure can cause problems too and if the flame velocity is too low back pressure will have more effect. Wind is a hassle naturally aspirated burners are subject to though commercial versions are much less sensitive. They're expensive though. In future shoot your pics from the side of the forge so we can see the dragon's breath and another in the door before it gets, glare the picture out, hot so we can see the flame shape and characteristics. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Medic. Thanks for being one of those folk who run towards danger and disaster. You betcha a brake drum forge and coal will forge weld, it'll only take a while for you to learn to. already been said but it's good to see someone starting out and analyzing mistakes and failures. A HUGE part of the learning process is failure analysis and one of the real hurdles folk often face is emotional investment in their work blinding them to it's faults. About testing blades on melons meaning much, you make you a wooden blade that'll cleanly slice a melon. Now, cleanly parting a free hanging manila rope is a different thing, that takes a fine high quality edge. An edge can be scary sharp but as it starts cutting into the rope fibers they will exert a lot of lateral force on the edge so it if isn't strong as well as hard it'll roll and not part the rope. Last bit of old fart advice; not everybody's advice/opinion is necessarily worth a whole lot. For instance I'm not a badesmith guy, I can do the dance but the music doesn't really sing to me. I may know a thing to two but folk like Steve, Rich and a bunch of the other guys here REALLY know blades. Frosty The Lucky.

Hey Madknight, have we met? Next meeting is January 18th. I don't recall if we set the venue but probably at Pat's again, hopefully someone with a better memory will chime in. Gee thanks for reminding me Bryan. Thinking about it you never make meetings I'm going to have to nominate you for some club office. Hope to see you again someday. Frosty The Lucky.

Yes we are. A 20lb. propane tank will freeze feeding one of my 3/4" burners on a hot day in about two hours. Yes HOT, anything above 70f. is inhuman and we have to suffer days in the 80s even! Cold days, say 10f and below a 100lb. tank will run a 3/4 burner most of the day without freezing provided it's at least 1/2 full. Zero and below the magnetic engine heaters keep propane pressure and volume up enough to run two 3/4 burners. I arm my anvil to keep it from sucking heat from the work but I don't hit the anvil, I don't even tap it. Well, once in a while I give it a tap but not for any reason, it just happens, don't know why. Like Metalmangeler, Mark says, welding can be hard on cold days so I use a trick he showed me and heat a piece of plate in the forge to lay on the anvil and weld on it. Works a charm. Frosty The Lucky.

The eye damage caused by forge and glass blower's fires is "IR cataracts", I don't recall the correct term. The best way to avoid the damage is to not stare into the fire. I've tried forging with tinted glasses but prefer to be able to judge the temperature without having to learn a whole new color set at the reflex level. You can get good quality full coverage eye protection, I wear close fitting side shielded reading glasses as a matter of course. If I'm doing something in the shop that will put a lot of debris in the air, say disk grinding or wire brushing I have full a face shield. A word of warning is necessary here. No matter how good your eye protection you aren't wearing a hood so crud will get into your hair eye brows, etc. and when you take your eye protection off or take a shower even it can fall into your eyes. As a matter of course I bend over at the waist with my eyes closed and ruffle my hair thoroughly, brush my eye brows and give my face a general brushing off. THEN I keep my eyes closed till after I've shampooed my hair in the shower. I've had so much crud in my eyes they won't let me near a MRI and I don't want a spinning piece of metal doing the blender dance in my hide anywhere. Frosty The Lucky.

You're punching 5 holes at a time? I've never seen a leather punch with more than one punch, though I've never seen one in a commercial operation. Were I making a punch I'd use the same layout as a hand squeezed punch and maybe anchor a small spring in the punch blade to push the slug back out. Of course that's just me and this evening's WAG. Frosty The Lucky.

It might make a decent sheet metal forming tool, sort of like a Pull Max but littler and wimpier. Still, if it's a freebe I could probably think of something to use it for. Forging hammer? Not likely. Frosty The Lucky.