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Blacksmith Superstitions

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CTaylor, that would darken the anvil face a bit would it? Couldn't hurt!

The spectre of a slovenly Ogre haunts my smithy - the more I try to tidy up, the more cluttered it seems to become.  Robert Taylor

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12 hours ago, Anachronist58 said:

The spectre of a slovenly Ogre haunts my smithy - the more I try to tidy up, the more cluttered it seems to become.  Robert Taylor

I'll come clean it up for you, can't guarantee you'll still have everything...or that any of it will work when I am done. But it'll be clean!

Had a friend who kept "storing" metalworking equipment in his mother's garage.  I told him he had better watch out or I'd show up in my grungies with my old truck and tell her I'd "clean out her garage for US$100---shoot I'd even give her $200 to do it!...."

If it makes you feel any better, I have had no trouble getting welds to stick and blend since your last visit. Iirc, you never stuck that weld though did you? ;D

40 minutes ago, Crazy Ivan said:

If it makes you feel any better, I have had no trouble getting welds to stick and blend since your last visit. Iirc, you never stuck that weld though did you? ;D

No we didn't, that's how ya get the curse to stick so consider yourselves lucky! :ph34r: That hammer head was trying to take you out though, maybe another sacrifice needs to made to Clincus.

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1 hour ago, Crazy Ivan said:

If it makes you feel any better, I have had no trouble getting welds to stick and blend since your last visit. Iirc, you never stuck that weld though did you? ;D

In times of doubt, I blame Nick.

MarcyOHH, let me first cast the clinkers and chicken bones upon the layout plate, to see what may portend - can't be too carefulstitious, eh?

Maybe not a superstition, but...

In the U.S., some old timers kept a Prince Albert tobacco can in the smithy, and they used it as a color guide for hardening high carbon steel, supposedly the same red color as painted on the can.

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Frank I have one I  my shop . Will have to check it out.

Maybe superstition or maybe not but I have read somewhere that a penny (or any copper at all)  tossed into a coal forge will ruin the fire and will have to be cleaned out and started over.

On 2/17/2016 at 1:44 PM, Daswulf said:

Wait! Marcy, what ARE the Somoli Pirates superstitious about? 

They are terrified of SEALs

On 2/20/2016 at 7:02 PM, bigb said:

Maybe superstition or maybe not but I have read somewhere that a penny (or any copper at all)  tossed into a coal forge will ruin the fire and will have to be cleaned out and started over.

Long time urban myth, copper won't poison a forge and I've proved it. To myself as well as the other guys, we just had to know. Gas welding rod and mig wire is plated in copper.

Frosty The Lucky.

The Blast furnace at Steward and Lloyds  Bilston "she was named Lizzy", Had to be lit by a women or bad luck would be prevail and no one would work on it.

Lizzy don't smoke any more they blew her up and sold the work off abroad ,Bilston lost it's soul.

 

I was walking Falki last night and a term came to me while I was thinking of all the guys I've met who thought copper would poison a fire or you couldn't weld in a propane forge, etc. I've personally disproved both a number of times. The term that came to me is "BlacksMyth". Poisoned forges and no weld propane forges are blacksMyths!

Is this a score for Frosty? What do you guys think?

Frosty The Lucky.

2 minutes ago, Frosty said:

 The term that came to me is "BlacksMyth". Poisoned forges and no weld propane forges are blacksMyths!

Is this a score for Frosty? What do you guys think?

Frosty The Lucky.

Perfect! The Frost-ing on the cake!

15 minutes ago, Frosty said:

 The term that came to me is "BlacksMyth". Poisoned forges and no weld propane forges are blacksMyths!

Is this a score for Frosty? What do you guys think?

Frosty The Lucky.

That's a good one Frosty. What other blacksmyths do you know of? 

Think we are already working on Smithstitions. 

13 hours ago, Daswulf said:

That's a good one Frosty. What other blacksmyths do you know of? 

Think we are already working on Smithstitions. 

Shouldn't Hollywood blacksmyths be a thread of it's own?

Lets see: Be sure to make the work hiss dramatically in the slack tub before forging. Use a top tool upside down for a hammer. Put the handle on the knife before forging. Always fight with a red hot sword. Dwarvish power hammers are giant swinging things you hold the steel up so they collide directly over your head. Oh yeah, that's the ticket, it's the BEST way to forge. I wonder why there are so few dwarf master blacksmiths now days?

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty---that's why there are no tall dwarves!

Note they recently found a WWII hidden catch of sabotage stuff in Russia, including explosives made to look like coal---you toss it on a locomotive tender's coal pile and some time later the locomotive stops working...

The fellow who instructed me informed me that old time blacksmiths would, at days end,  set the hammer directly on the anvil face, lying down and the handle would be perpendicular to the side of the anvil. This wards off the evil spirits who live inside the fire. Old time smiths didn't allow the fire to grow cold.  So I am informed by a master smith. They banked the fire and also used hardwood in the fire to retain heat. Thus....lots of evil spirits dwelling within.

Perhaps he read that inside a box of cracker jacks?

1 minute ago, SReynolds said:

They banked the fire and also used hardwood in the fire to retain heat.

Well, I've heard tell of smiths putting a block of wood in the forge to keep the  fire glowing in the absence of an active blast, making it easier to fire up again after a lunch break. Keeping away the evil spirits would be a side benefit.

If you want to keep the evil spirits away from your forge put the bottle in the office!

On 2/17/2016 at 1:07 PM, Frank Turley said:

About keeping the devil out of your shop. Don't leave your hand hammer on the anvil overnight. Some smiths tap the anvil once or twice before leaving the shop for the day. St. Dunstan grabbed the devil by the nose with red hot tongs. That worked for him, but it might not for everyone.

uh oh... mine lives on the anvil....   always....

At the end of the day put a hammer and a tong cross-over on the anvil.

It keeps the devil away because he is scared to get pinched by the tongs.

oh...that is even better. How's come I ain't got the same evil from my wood stove? Is the evil inside the forge fire the reason some have troubles w/forge welds?

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