Blacksmith in Asia

[lbas]

Hello all, I'm from the U.S. and dabbled there, learned the trade in Spain, now live in Asia for the last nearly 10 years. lbas stands for "Life Begins at Sixty" which more or less happened for me. I have forged a lot of very thin knife blades from scrap, made a lot of knife handles from stacked horn washers inlayed with this and that, and made a lot of people happy in the process (including me). Now I'm starting to do the same here. Starting again the benchwork came easier, a way and place to forge still waiting. I'll start outside my apartment door (literally).

Evaluating scrap for tools, knives - I was taught by an old master smith to draw out a thin narrow strip from an end, heat to critical and quench, test with old file, hold with tongs or in vise to hammer test break/bend a short part for brittleness, draw remaining length to different colors and test them the same way. We're talking a piece as long as a finger and of width and thickness suitable to your tools - 3/8 or 1/2 inch wide (10-12mm), not much metal. You can learn a lot in a hurry this way. We'd test each individual piece of rebar scrap this way, and each part of mine rail scrap, because the composition of the top, web, and base pieces could well be different. Yes we cut the rail into those three parts for further use. No power hammer.

Question: how do I submit a story?

Best,
lbas

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Ibas, glad to have you.

That's pretty much, heck exactly, the same way I test unknown steel after spark testing.

What kind of story? If it's an autobiography a lot of folk do it here as part of their introduction. If it's a story about experiences smithing the blacksmith section would be fine or if about knives the knife section. Maybe the "everything else" section would be best, I don't know.

What I do know is if you just go ahead and post a story and the admin folkl think it should go somewhere else they'll move it and let us know. No big deal, it's a pretty easy bunch to get along with.

Can you narrow your location down a bit, like a country? Asia is a pretty big place and we like to know where folk are just in case one of us old farts is traveling and want a snack or place to nap, it's good to know who's in the area. Don't worry (if you are) we don't much care which country you're in it's just good to know.

Frosty

[lbas]

I live in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China. This is the old Manchuria, northeast China, more or less close to South Korea. The city was occupied by the Russians, the Japanese, as it is a strategic port. Lessee if I can find them quickly, coordinates 38

[Frosty]

Cool, Phil is in Sichwan (I think).

If you'll click "User CP" at the top of the page and edit your profile to show your location we won't have to try remembering. I'm lucky to remember where I live sometimes.

For example I've been wanting a power hammer for a couple decades and they're really rare here in Alaska. So, last Saturday one of the club members lets us know there's a nice one for sale not far from here by road. I call the owner, we talk and I decide it's worth driving down with the trailer to check out and buy if there's nothing seriously wrong. Well, we're about two hours into a three hour drive and I realize I don't have my checkbook. Fortunately Deb has her's and has one check left. What a close call!

Can you believe it, looking for all these years and I hare off without my check book.

Frosty