ThomasPowers Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 Last night I was frantically loading my truck for Saturday's demo as I had a 6pm dinner invite and got home from work at 4:30. So after stuffing it full, I hefted the propane tanks to see if I had enough on hand for a day long demo. They both felt almost empty and I was trying to juggle my schedule to buy propane today before heading out for the 3 hour drive north. This morning I went out to add them to the load and they felt *full*! Side Effect 1: Moving anvils messes with your weight perception! Side Effect 2: working with hot metal messes with your temperature perception; too hot to hold has a very different meaning in the kitchen between me and my wife. Side Effect 3: the number of shirts with a linear spray of holes just around the height of the anvil face (due to billet welding). Side Effect 4: you tend NOT to grab for stuff falling! Side Effect 5: you tend to get out of the way of falling items. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 Side Effect 6: Seeing a tool you could use but instead of buying it thinking " I could make one of those" Side Effect 7: Collecting mountains of scrap. Side Effect 8: Blackened hands. Side Effect 9: annoying everyone you meet asking them about black smithing tools. Side Effect 10: addiction of checking out old iron work and trying to figure how it was done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 Side Effect 11 (6a): Seeing what they charge for blacksmith's tools in antique shops and thinking "If I fake up a decent patina on some of my old tongs, I could make a killing." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 Side Effect 12: attraction to rust yet also trying to prevent rust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 Side Effect 10(a): Running into the street like a maniac to photograph manhole covers, drain grates, and all manner of cast utility covers (San Francisco, and just about any old town). Robert Taylor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockstar.esq Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 Side Effect 13: Eventually you'll find yourself hauling thousands of pounds worth of "mobile blacksmith shop" to a 2 day hammer-in located in the middle of nowhere. Side Effect 14: You catch yourself "reading" grinder sparks for carbon content, even if they're happening in a TV police chase. Side Effect 15: You'll find yourself saying; "I'll put that fire out just as soon as I complete this task...: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 27, 2017 Author Share Posted October 27, 2017 Side Effect 16: And the fire is your shirt burning! (true story) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 Side Effect 17: you start lining the trail to your shop or driveway with clinker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 27, 2017 Author Share Posted October 27, 2017 (Have to finish covering the dirt floor first!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Side Effect 18: You are so engrossed with taking a better picture of an anvil that followed you home, you misstep and fall on your posterior & side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Side Effect 19: you start collecting anvils. Side Effect 19a: you collect enough anvils to leave one to your kids and nieces and nephews. Side Effect 19b: you wonder if you could have enough anvils for any possible purpose or reason. Side Effect 20: you find any conceivable reason to keep any and all pieces of steel or iron laying around for any possible project you can or cannot make, Just because you can. " I might need this!" Side Effect 21: you need a hole in steel and you debate firing up the forge or getting out the drill. Side Effect 21a: you need to bend metal and you debate firing up the forge or getting out the torches. Side Effect 21b: you laugh at machinists because you can easily punch a square hole and for them it takes some work and time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Side Effect 22: you quit your obsession buying knives when you start making your own. ( then again it's great to own work from those you admire) grr.." Torn" Side Effect 23: you realize Why Good hand crafted work costs what it does! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Side Effect 24: You see an old forging and you don't care how THEY did it, you think about how YOU'D do it. Side Effect 25: Gauging carbon content is so automatic you classify TV sparkyness of everything without thinking about it. After being mentioned here I remember categorizing wreck and collision debris skipping across the pavement on episodes of Cops and Ridiculousness without thinking. Side Effect: 26 You don't debate what tool to use though you do encourage it with students. Well, okay you might have a short internal debate about which is more work, carrying out the easier to use tool or doing it the harder way. Side Effect: 27 Almost permanent hand print on your forehead from all those head slapping moments educating you to the don't have to debate which, what or why of doing it A way, and discovering you're doing it a harder one. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Side Effect 28: “I’ll put a Band-Aid on this cut in just a second.“ = “I’ll put a Band-Aid on this cut when the blood starts making the hammer handle too slippery.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Stephens Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Side effect 29: You spend more time looking for a tool, jig, whatever, you know you had, than it takes to make a new one. Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Side Effect 30: you make one thing, then someone sees it and all of the sudden you have to make a whole lot more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Side Effect 31: The ox/ac was not large enough, or too slow, and you start to consider the forge as a the next larger tool to get something hot. Side Effect 32: You make the first one just for practice so you can figure out how to make the second one better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Side Effect 33: you start having an opinion on the quality of batches of coal. (if using coal) Side Effect 34: you feel it's easier to fire up the forge to punch a hole rather then drill it, or to cut steel on the hot cut rather then using the 4 1/2' cutoff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Side Effect 33: You look for a long time for one particular piece of scrap. When you find a source, you thank them and load up the find. Although you only needed one, and maybe a second one just in case, there was no reason to leave the other pieces behind as you may never find another source any time soon. Besides you may need them, some day, and now you will have them. Side Effect 34: While your know you have just the piece of scrap you need, you have to dig through the entire resource center (scrap pile) and find it on the bottom of the pile. Side Effect 35: You consider the hunt for that one piece of known scrap an archaeological dig thorough time. It was about a year ago so that is about xx feet down from the top. You consider reorganizing the resource center (scrap pile) and decide that you know what it contains, and about where it is located. No reorganizing needed cause you found what you were looking for. Side Effect 36: As you proceed with your archaeological dig through the resource center (scrap pile), you say "Oh yes, I can use that" and pull out select pieces that you can use for other projects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 30, 2017 Author Share Posted October 30, 2017 Side Effect 37: the Brother in law of a friend shows up on a holiday weekend with a broken jackhammer bit and asks if you could fix it so he can remove his old concrete driveway with a rented jackhammer in time to pour a new on Tuesday. (didn't even charge him for it---funny thing when I was building my shop larger, my friend showed up with a 20' trailer and a chainsaw to make the 2 40' utility poles 4 20' long ones and get them to my shop and used his 4wd manipulator to set them in the holes---and didn't charge me! I feel I got the better deal by far!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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