This is just due to a lack of experience but...
Do I spend an hour making a jig or shall I just forge them free hand? They should only take 2 hours. I'll just crack on and do them free hand. 5 hours later & 10 unforseen problems later, I knew I should made the xxxxxxx jig!

Frosty and Ronin, Thank you for explaining 86ing. It is a term I have never heard before and it's certainly not used in Australia. After your post I Googled 86ing (Sorry, should have done that first) and was surprised at the number of theories as to its origin.
Anyway, I now know what it means should I see it again, and hope I am never on the receiving end of it!!

Beginners rule of timing in blacksmithing:

If you carefully calculate how much time you're going to need to complete a project... Well, multiply it by three and consider yourself lucky if you get it done in time.

 

Addition:

If you got your project done in time calculated originally and you're happy with it, it is very much inevitable that you ruined it in some way.

Only use the water when you need to use the water, just because the movies always show the blacksmith quenching, does not mean the blacksmith always quenches. I have a shattered hold down to prove it!

Frosty and Ronin, Thank you for explaining 86ing. It is a term I have never heard before and it's certainly not used in Australia. After your post I Googled 86ing (Sorry, should have done that first) and was surprised at the number of theories as to its origin.
Anyway, I now know what it means should I see it again, and hope I am never on the receiving end of it!!

Thank YOU! I just googled it for the first time and Snopes had a pretty long list. Now I'm thinking the soda shop code is probably a valid candidate or at least older. The TV show Get Smart probably designated Max as agent 86, to foreshadow his bumblyness. His partner was agent 99 and that's soda shop code for a cute female, Babara Eden was indeed a beauty.

 

Oh man I love learning things, especially ones this valuable and useful. <wink>

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty, then IForgeIron would be the place to learn things both valuable, and useful. (grin)

Frosty, then IForgeIron would be the place to learn things both valuable, and useful. (grin)

 

Exactly why I hang out here Glenn, I learn all kinds of wonderful . . . stuff. Well maybe I like it here because the gang is such a tolerant audience. Seriously, how boring would life be if questions only had one answer?

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Greetings,

 

Old machines and anvils never die...  They just rust/rest for a few decades to be rediscovered as a useful tools for our art...

 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

you smash your thumb, throw a tool.... that tool just thrown is the tool that you happen to need

And it breaks when ya throw it.

I had the angle grinder wrench 2 seconds ago?!?!

I tie my Grinder wrench to the plug end of my power cord with a short piece of string.

 

Haven t' lost one since i started doing that... to bad it doesn't work with soap stone...

I used wire to tie my Grinder wrench (both ends) to the power cord just far enough back from the grinder so it can be used. No reason to unplug, 

I attach the drill chuck key or the grinder wrench to the plug end with zip ties so that I have to unplug it to change bits and disks. Haven't lost any skin since.

You suffer numerous burns from scale etc when alone in the forge and most results in a hiss or an ouch..... When demonstrating your hands are made of steel and you "don't feel a thing."

When you started any forge/ hammer/ anvil etc would have been perfect and worth it's weight in gold... You spend years looking and eventually find what you want.... 6 months later you think you could do with bigger/ better/ different style etc etc.

Your newest (in terms of acquisition) hammer is usually your favourite. Your old favourite hammer gives you longing looks every time it's passed up.

You buy tongs on eBay and realise they aren't quite how you imagined when they arrive... Ie much bigger/ smaller than the photo lead you to believe.

You don't forge for a few weeks and your skill level has dropped...

"Do not fall in love with your Damascus until its a finished blade"

 

"A sword has a way of becoming a knife"    "one big knife can easily become 2 smaller knives"

 

 This has bitten me again, I was busy congratulating myself on a job well done and managed to turn a very special sword into  a big bowie knife .

 

Batmans Dad has it right....."we fall down so that we can pick ourselves back up again.....)

when you can forge and when you want to forge are pretty much never at the same time

 

and also, if your shop is far from home and you don't have an easy way of getting there and you take something to finish up at home, you of course forget the only tool you need for it and you don't have anything else that could work

when you can forge and when you want to forge are pretty much never at the same time

 

and also, if your shop is far from home and you don't have an easy way of getting there and you take something to finish up at home, you of course forget the only tool you need for it and you don't have anything else that could work

 

And you forget to take our project back with you next time at the shop. Like this isn't a law of nature?

 

Never, NEVER put something somewhere can't forget, if you ever want to see it again.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

When you're in the habit of keeping your glasses in the top pocket of your overalls and you lose them, the first place to look is in the quench tub.
I mislaid mine and it wasn't till a month later when I drained the murky water from the quench tub that I found them lurking among the offcuts and bits of failed project in the sludge.

Always look around the yard for steel and tools before you mow. Small aspiring blacksmiths love to sneak out to the shop and freely pick up any old scraps or tools left on the anvil.

Or be sure to put things out of reach before you close shop for the night

The spring on my swage always likes to break about midway through texturing my last piece........

Maybe this is just me. Your idea of smithing is making beautiful things by hand and hard work. Your wifes idea of smithing is your and your friends playing with fire.