george m. Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 My theory about everyone's ancestor being a blacksmith is that many farmers had a forge and would do small repairs rather than having to take a day and go to town to visit the blacksmith shop. They weren't professional smiths but they did get things hot and hit them with a hammer. It is similar to welding today. Many people own welders but few make their living doing it. However, I do like the idea that back in the day blacksmiths were as common as Amway reps and just sold back and forth to each other. Maybe Sam Yellin actually was a pyramid scheme promoter who got everyone blacksmithing with promises of easy wealth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianinsa Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Ausfire, thanks to Microsoft it might not improve, as you may well be aware that a lot of new devices that run windows 8.1RT don't like the word color I mean the one with the 'u' (I typed that 4 times but my tablet helped by 'fixing' my obvious error) and I did change my language preference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LastRonin Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Ausfire, I can think of at least one instance where your statement about an apostrophe not being able to be used to indicate possessive tense can be played... "It's hair is so beautiful," Morticia Addams talking about her 'Cousin It'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LastRonin Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 I do understand that it's different there in that "It" in my statement above is a proper noun and therefore not the same word as 'it'. "It's hair is its own, it's not a wig." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 An Australian teaching English lessons on a blacksmithing site. Who would have ever seen that one coming ? (grin) Ausfire Thank you, someone had to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Cousin Itt; Chas was known for doubling letters in names---like Addams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LastRonin Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 I stand corrected. Thank you sir Thomas. I was too energetic of a child (my add wasn't diagnosed yet) to watch the credits, so I made the mistake of assuming Itt was It. At least I remembered the double-d for Addams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 When folks say something like "So all you do is to heat it up and hit it" My reply is "and all you need to do to win the Indianapolis 500 is to drive very fast and turn left". Some of them get it.(My grammar and spelling are not good; but I was a faithful watcher of the Addams Family and started getting his books when I was in College...also Gahan Wilson---"Is Nothing Sacred?") Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 One at the top of my list is folks that assume spelling (and by extensian, grammer, one has to love all the wordsa that sound the same) is related to inteligence, if it is it isnt related to low inteligence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farmweld Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Bit of a story to this pet peeve. I found an anvil on eucalyptus.com that looked reasonable and wasn't too bad price wise so I went for a two and a half hour drive on a 36 degree day to purchase it. Three cwt Peter Wright which was pretty cruddy, had been badly painted and been out in the weather for a while. Plenty of hammer dings on the face but it looked reasonably flat and the edges weren't too bad so in the back of the truck it went and I set off home. Got up this morning and unloaded it and started cleaning it up with a cup brush, found the stamps in the side confirming it was a Peter Wright and the numbers 3 0 ?7 so I was very happy to see them. Unfortunately the cleanup showed that the face had been welded up sometime in the past which is why the face was dinged up so badly (the striker needed a new pair of glasses by the number of miss hits!). I've taken the high spots and mushroomed edges off with a flappy disk so now to work it for a while before I do any more to it. Sorry no pics yet as the phone went flat before I could take them. Anyway, the pet peeve, why is it that some people, having re-pointed and hardened a chisel, have to prove it is sharp by belting it into the side or foot of the anvil leaving a b***dy great divot or even carving a chunk off? I don't know whether this is an Australian thing but about 60-70% of all anvils I have seen have had this done to them and it peeves me because it's abuse of workshop tools. Andrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Coke Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Greetings Farmweld, Just a note.... When I go on the enevetable anvil chase . I always take a ball bearing, a ball pien hammer and a battery powered grinder with a wire wheel and a copy of AIA ., Works for me.. Many times the price lowers with disclosure of problems .. Forge on and make beautiful things Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borntoolate Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 My pet peeves... My pesky day job keeps me away from my hobbies. But I need it to live... My 60 year old house, three vehicles, 6 acres etc. keep me busy often times.... Keeps me away from my hobbies... My wife coming up with more improvements needed in the 60 year old house.... New Floor, bathroom remodels, new countertops etc. But these are all good things in the end! My general laziness after #1, #2 and #3... But it's all good in the end... really. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farmweld Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Hi Jim, I took a hammer and checked all of the face, it didn't have any dull sounding spots and rebound was good so I figured it was OK. The welded section showed up when I cleaned all the gunk off and then I could just pick parts of the weld edge (undercut) which were hard to distinguish from the hammer dings and a slightly different colour/sheen to the metal on the face where it had been buffed by the wire wheel. When I was cleaning off the high spots there was a variation in the sparks from original face to the welded section but they still looked like high carbon sparks so it looks like the repair was done by someone who had some idea what they were doing. The anvil has been well used since it was welded so I don't think it will be a problem, just disappointed that I didn't pick it up on initial inspection as I may have been able to talk the price down a bit. I'll make up a stand and use it for a while and then decide whether to keep it or move it on. I've got two other anvils that have had the face welded and both are perfectly fine to work on. One was a 430# Wilkinson that had the heel broken off and about 1/3 of the face missing. Previous owner had the face welded up and a 1" plate with hardy hole and two pritchel holes welded on to replace the heel with a gusset each side to maintain the visual lines. Its about 370# now and I picked it up for $275 after several "purists" had knocked it back because it was welded. My gain. Andrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crossdawg Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Came across this today, Procrastination is opportunity's assassin.(Victor Kiam) My 2cs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Not just a down under thing; commonly seen on a lot of toolmaker's anvils in the USA. As the body of the anvil is usually dead soft it was rather a cheat for a test in front of a customer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L Smith Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Farmweld when were you here in Texas looking at my anvil? It is not for sale!!! But I must agree with you PW original owners were all chisel sharpeners Mine has all the same grooves and cuts all over the feet. I thought mine was the only victim! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWooldridge Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 OK, while we're talking about pet peeves, not necessarily directly related to blacksmithing I hope you will allow a slight digression. As an admin on a grammar/spelling website, I am astounded that there is so much confusion over the simplest pair of words: it's and its. I will try to relate my examples to blacksmithing comments frequently heard on this site: The steel has lost its heat. (Not it's) A PW anvil. Its ring is very loud. (Not it's) A dangerous hammer. Its handle is too loose. (Not it's) It's can only mean it is (or occasionally it has) and cannot be used as a possessive. You don't put an apostrophe in yours, ours, hers, theirs etc. It's not rocket science, but I have come across teachers (and I was an English teacher for 40 years) who still can't understand the poor old apostrophe. It's a shame its correct use has fallen by the wayside. So there's another pet peeve. Now, back to blacksmithing ... Good luck with the grammar lesson, Ausfire. One of my two BS majors in college was English but I have abandoned correcting anything on the 'net (or in the business world). While good writing skills are no clear indication of innate intelligence, the use of standard grammar is the skeleton which the flesh of comprehension hangs upon. I have heard it said that the written word is simultaneously the best and worst method of communication. Without it, we would not have the Bible or Shakespeare, but humans spoke to each other before they wrote the first vowel so our facial expressions convey a great deal during a face-to-face conversation and it is much easier to misunderstand or take offense to an otherwise innocent remark when it is written rather than spoken. This is obvious from the frequent flaming comments written in threads where no such confrontation would commonly occur in person without bloodshed following closely behind. Unfortunately, texts and tweets will likely doom all written language to a series of abbreviations and acronyms. I agree with your observations but we are fighting a losing battle when entire paragraphs can be reduced to a few symbols. End of related rant, back to blacksmithing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausfire Posted January 8, 2015 Author Share Posted January 8, 2015 Well put, HW. We are all allowed a little rant occasionally, so long as it's not personal.And BTW, I agree. IMO text and tweet language is a death knoll for the Queen's English. LOL.The question of good spelling and its (not it's) correlation with intelligence has been debated many times, and it seems the jury is still out on that one.There are many kinds of 'intelligence' besides the IQ number, and any teacher will tell you they have encountered children with abyssmal spelling ability but have astounding abilities in other areas. I have seen excellent readers and clever mathematicians who struggle with spelling.I think it's more a function of a good memory and a tenacious desire to respect and preserve the integrity of the language rather than 'intelligence'.Anyway, this is a frequent topic for discussion on language sites. It's run its course here. We have had our pet peeves and now we should take Jim's advice - Forge on and make beautiful things! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 I don't know if I would have used Shakespeare in a post on spelling and grammar---how many ways did he spell his own name? Growing up I switched school systems when the family moved and so missed the year they focused on grammar as it was a later year the first place and in the new one it was the previous year. So I muddled along till I ran into a truly great Spanish teacher who proceeded to teach everyone grammar so he could properly teach Spanish. I still had my wife proofread my papers in college when I was getting my second degree. Being a bit older she had gone through the old school grammar classes! As a voracious reader I am twitted on my vocabulary on a regular basis by coworkers who can't understand me; funny I understand them. I recently re-read one of H.P.Lovecraft's stories and looking at it analytically I was amazed at what was considered proper vocabulary for what was a cheap throw-away story for adolescent males. Showing my lack of proper appreciation I still prefer Lovecraft to Dickens or Dostoevsky or Epictetus---I read them but I also read "The Jewish Japanese Sex & Cookbook and How to Raise Wolves" by Jack Douglas....(770 back on the old SAT Verbal, 630 on Math) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SReynolds Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 ...folks who post this type of stuff in the blacksmithing topic/forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Bill Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Altar cleanup after the winter solstice rituals has gotten to be too much and I swear if I have to sharpen one more broadaxe abused on stone... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_K Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Okay. I'll bite. What are they using broadaxes for on the Solstice? Offerings of cervines to the gods? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Bill Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 No, just our local re-enactors. I keep telling them "bronze daggers only!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 shoot everyone knows that you collect the mistletoe with a *silver* sickle! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianinsa Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 silver ? Anyone who has read the "classics " like Asterix knows one must use a golden sickle! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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