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On 9/22/2019 at 6:23 PM, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

emphasis on my wife's pottery & jewelry.

Irondragon, I missed this picture. I can't keep up with everything haha. Good thing I scroll up here and there. I love handmade and glazed pottery. I could go get lessons and learn a bit but I have my hands more full than I want anyway so I just enjoy other work. 

Nice setup. I really need to get a sign made. If I made one it'd be ugly or made of scrap and heavy lol. 

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3 hours ago, ggraham said:

JLP,

Sometimes things can be angled or canted to reduce or eliminate reflections. Not sure if this will help but should be relatively simple to adjust your connection point on the screen to achieve or maybe not. 

George

 

Brilliant.  That is exactly what I will do.   New different eyes.  thanks George. 

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Jennifer:  Your account of people, kids and adults, not knowing how to handle sharp items brought back some memories.  25 years ago my late wife and I were helping at a local living history site.  I was blacksmithing and she was assigned to demonstrate manual washing machines which usually have exposed gears and connecting rods to make the agitators work.  She would warn people, particularly children, to keep their hands and fingers away from the moving machinery but still would have spectators reach out to touch the mechanisms while they were in action.  She was amazed by the lack of self preservation and the recognition that these things can hurt and injure you.

We decided that this is due to two things.  One, everything today is made so safe that people have stopped being aware that they have to be careful with anything, particularly something that is new and unknown to them.  Something that is dangerous is outside their experience.  Two, because everything today is electronic people do not have an understanding of mechanical and analog devices and how they work.  I have had people who do not understand how a crank can blow air into a forge or how rotary motion can be converted into linear motion.  It is magic to them because they do not understand it.  "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."  In the 21st century 19th century technology can appear magical.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

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When I was a kid, I would help my grandmother with the laundry. My job was to put the wet clothes into the wringer (a set of rollers) driven by the motor. As I recall it was my first lesson in moving parts, when my hand got drawn into the wringer because I wasn't paying attention.:o Fortunately my grandmother was close and released the locking lever and I suffered no damage other than to my pride.

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On 9/24/2019 at 3:05 PM, George N. M. said:

Jennifer:  Your account of people, kids and adults, not knowing how to handle sharp items brought back some memories. 

this the Big MOE..  Masseutchsetts Outdoor Expo.   It's put on at a rod and gun club with boyscouts and they have fishing, archer, tomahawk throwing, black powder shooting, skeet, the list goes on and on.   It's free for all and one would assume draws people who are looking for the outdoor adventure. 

My gripe isn't with the kids. It's with the parents.  I knew proper knife handling from about 6 years old.  Most of the kids that were miss treating the knives were 11 and up. 

Last year all the kids handled the sharps just perfect and even other shows I have done this past year have been good with only one incident of having to show how to test the cutting edge. 

it was just strange that the parents just stand there watching the kids.  And never said anything.  Are parents actually doing any parenting? 

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1 hour ago, jlpservicesinc said:

My gripe isn't with the kids. It's with the parents.  I knew proper knife handling from about 6 years old.  Most of the kids that were miss treating the knives were 11 and up.

It's a shame but it's true it's more important that a kid not hear something that might upset them than actually letting them know they're doing something improperly and showing them the correct way to do it.. I had my own.22 by ten years old and would spend hours by myself shooting after I showed I was responsible enough to be unsupervised with it. I wouldn't have had it long if I would have shown anyone otherwise. I was involved in cub/boy scouting and loved every minute of it partly because they're were some great adults at the helm , but  without competent parents  teaching and leading the children it's just babysitting with arts and crafts.

Pnut

 

 

 

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Thanks Daswulf. My Beloved does an awesome layout. If it was up to me, I'd probably have stuff sitting in buckets...... Yeah, other than the wood, it packs fairly well. I teach classes on this style 2 weekends a year. It's enough to let those that are interested see how to do it and it doesn't cost much at all for them to get set up. 

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Nice set up Bo. I've found most folk who come over just want to give it a try and don't want to invest a bunch  in something they may not want to pursue. One of these days I'm thinking of taking a JABOD and piece of heavy scrap to a demo and see how many I can get hooked on the craft.

Ever forge on a smooth boulder? 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Hey Frosty! That's how I get most of the people for my class. I try to teach it as low cost as possible to give a taste. I think of it as Primitive. I am far from proficient in my skills and I am comfortable sharing what I know (as limited as it is) 

My first home 'anvil' was a big rock. I had to start somewhere. :wacko:Needless to say, I became great at making smaller rocks...... 

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I used to be an exploration driller taking soil samples and doing in place tests for bridges, foundations, etc. and spent about 3/4 of our time in the field somewhere, usually tenting it. I welded up a rail anvil to take with, I filled the space between flanges and rail with rail caps I cut off the stick. Not knowing any better I screwed it up by welding a piece of 3/4" plate on top for a face, I ended up with a high carbon body under a mild steel face plate. It weighed about 65 lbs. I have probably 18+ years of "primitive" smithing in all but I'll take my shop at home any day.

The foundations geologist, head guy in our division, joined us on a job and had a laugh because I wasn't able to bring my kit, it was a fly in job. I was known for preferring to play in the fire than drink a half rack of beer after work. I picked a nice smooth boulder maybe 150 lbs. a couple cobbles for hammer stones and used split willow for tongs and later handles on my hammers. I had to find cobbles the right shape to haft. The first thing I forges was a hack so I could cut stock, made him the first non-tool a toasting fork and proceeded to make things. 

A smith shouldn't underestimate the value of a good rock. eh?

There's often a LOT of scrap dumped in or near rivers and we used to do a lot of our drilling and camping on rivers so there was always plenty of stock around. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Dear Frosty,

There are rocks that are better than others for improvised hammers and anvils.  In particular, amphibolite series rocks such as jade or greenstone have a fiberous crystal structure and are VERY tough.  You can really damage a steel rock hammer in getting a sample unless you use natural joints and fissures in the rock.  There are other rocks, such as quartz, which are harder but are much more brittle.  Amphibolites would be much more resistant to impact damage and thermal distress.  This is why lots of late stone age tools are ground to shape green stone rather than flaked/knapped flint.  Brittle rocks like flint and obsidian will give a VERY sharp edge but for something like an axe or hammer you want toughness.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Dear Bo,

In the photo of your goods table what is the item in front of the copper bowled ladles that sort of looks like a giant hair pin?  Some sort of BBQ tongs where you spear the meat with the spike and grasp it with the top arm?

Also, what did you find sold the best?

Thx.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

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  • 1 month later...

My latest table at the local sale...

Next month is a big one for the holidays that I'm building up more stock for.

I need to get the little stringed tags and put out some prices. I tried attaching a business card to each one with a price but the table just looked way too busy with all the cards!

 

 

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Blackegg:  I agree with you about how business card or string tags can really clutter up a display table.  I suggest that you add prices to the labels you already have, e.g. "BBQ forks $X" or "RR spike knives $Y."  For individual pieces you can use adhesive labels in an inconspicuous place.

BTW, nice penannular brooches.  I like the taper.  Whenever I sell one I give a little tutorial because how to fasten one is not intuitively obvious to most folk.  I make the customer actually fasten it in a piece of material because the muscle memory of doing that will last longer than my verbal instructions.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

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  • 1 month later...

Just wanted to share some impressions of the sporadic demos and both of Forge & Furnace Tumulus that were done in 2019. In particular the demos in the Wallonia with many interactions with the public are very nice, and I made many small and large 'boys' happy with their own forged fire poker or mild steel ladies knife. Was oblivious to participate as an ‘eye catcher’ and did not ask a cent for the fired 80 lbs coal and the workpieces manufactured together. The larger work and the sculptures, however, were also exhibited and I was able to amortize the effort from these proceeds by selling several of them.

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