November 18, 201510 yr 33 minutes ago, Micah Burgin said: Thanks man! And in my expirience, the indians had it right with their old people. Best resource on earth! Now there's a gem of wisdom!
November 18, 201510 yr The ones where they set their old folks adrift on an ice flow? Have you read about soaking cloth aprons in a borax solution to fire proof it---non-toxic and when it gets dirty you throw it in the wash and the borax actually helps clean it! Might work for your blue jean chaps...
November 18, 201510 yr 59 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said: The ones where they set their old folks adrift on an ice flow? Have you read about soaking cloth aprons in a borax solution to fire proof it---non-toxic and when it gets dirty you throw it in the wash and the borax actually helps clean it! Might work for your blue jean chaps... Really?
November 18, 201510 yr Author 1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said: The ones where they set their old folks adrift on an ice flow? Have you read about soaking cloth aprons in a borax solution to fire proof it---non-toxic and when it gets dirty you throw it in the wash and the borax actually helps clean it! Might work for your blue jean chaps... Good to know! We've got a box of 20 mule team in the laundry already, just staked a claim on some of it for flux purposes. And I meant the plains indians, they had a better idea of it, lol
November 18, 201510 yr 39 minutes ago, natenaaron said: Really? depends on which American Aborigines you are talking about doesn't it? Not all things were sweetness and light in the Americas before European Settlement. The tip about borax is good or if welding the use of heavy starch in shirt fronts and pants will prevent burn through from sparks and slag falls. (incidentally like many people in the south some of my ancestors were Choctaw)
November 18, 201510 yr I got partial Cherokee on pretty much all sides; my kids even get some from their mother too. However in my home region most folks are likewise. We have an old atlas that shows where my Mother was born, (OK, USA), as "Indian Territory". In general the "Noble Savage" stereotype doesn't hold up any better than the "civilized europeans" one. As I am from the south I am sometimes asked if my family owned slaves and have to answer that on the white side we were too poor but on the Cherokee side they probably did---they took their slaves on the Trail of Tears you know.... Back a bit more on target---The most famous Cherokee of them all, Sequoyah, did blacksmithing you know!!!!
November 18, 201510 yr Author So anyway, made myself a nice side blast mud forge and it's dry enough for the first go, so I'll start a new thread with some pics and my first day's work.
November 18, 201510 yr We have Modoc on Dad's side and I don't know who else on both, we're Heinz 57 folk and stopped trying to keep track. I think we have slaves and slave owners in the woodpile but not African slaves as recently as the US. Did Modoc own slaves? I don't believe they looked at "ownership" like most folk but. . . I believe the Modoc are the only nation to not agree to treaties with the US Gvt. I think "we're" still at war in fact. Could be wrong though, I often am. Blacksmiths? Oh yeah, we just didn't get any heirloom tools or equipment handed down. Any of us. <sniff> Frosty The Lucky.
November 18, 201510 yr Author It lived. Then dinner called. So, the mix of mud side blast forge and splitting maul anvil worked great! I'm going to need a proper air gate for regulating temp but that thing was cooking hot enough for welding and if I wanted to, maybe even melting! I got a nice charcoal mover and a knife blank in need of some serious post-forge dressing up, but it's only a quench and an oven away from being heat treated!
November 19, 201510 yr See, you listen to the old farts, and all is well. Wish I'd learned that lesson before building a couple of (in retrospect) pretty stupid coffee-can-mud-and-weed-burner "forges".... On 11/17/2015, 11:14:10, ThomasPowers said: I may have to research non-leather fireproof spats for the vegan no-leather crowd Let me know what you find. A work colleague has a son who is going to do a blacksmithing unit at his boarding school in the spring and (being vegan) may balk at leather boots. 7 hours ago, Frosty said: We have Modoc on Dad's side and I don't know who else on both, we're Heinz 57 folk and stopped trying to keep track. I think we have slaves and slave owners in the woodpile but not African slaves as recently as the US. Did Modoc own slaves? I don't believe they looked at "ownership" like most folk but. . . I believe the Modoc are the only nation to not agree to treaties with the US Gvt. I think "we're" still at war in fact. Could be wrong though, I often am. Blacksmiths? Oh yeah, we just didn't get any heirloom tools or equipment handed down. Any of us. <sniff> Frosty The Lucky. My great-great-grandfather was Confederate governor of North Carolina, and his father-in-law was a slave patroller. I'm married to a Black woman. Go figure.
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