have to lay off the forge for a few days...

[Archie Zietman]

Hello.
today I just finished my first knife, and know exactly what I'm doing on my second one of the same style. The drawback is that when I got in, my brother was having a get together with his class, who quickly pointed out to me that my hands were bright red, the skin burned through on a few fingers, old burn scars having a little historical reenactmnent and the skin of my knuckles inflamed and splitting open in more that twenty places. I had not noticed this before. now I will have to lay off the forge for a few days, and smear funny pastes on them (my dad is a doctor, not a craftsman so doesn't believe in work hardening one's own flesh) but at least my first knife is done, and I know exactly how to make my second one much better. :D

[T-Gold]

Turn down the blast... glove on tong hand... can't imagine why this is happening... :| Hope you're back at it soon, Archie.

[Archie Zietman]

I am making a better air blocking valve, though my current one makes a big difference, and I have always worn gloves at the forge. I am now going to take a few days to re-evaluate the safety of my setup, so that it might not happen again.
I'll be back! :)

[Mills]

Work hardening? You'll get tough enough without asking for it, if you stay with this stuff. Years ago, as a mechanic I would put hubcaps on with punches that I learned in Tae Kwon Do. Tore up my wrists a bit, they healed mostly, but I am reminded of those days again as I get older and feel the pains again. If you were working with me, I would shut you down and find the cause, just as T-gold says.

[pjskinner]

Lets see a pic of the progress..... :mrgreen: PICS PICS we need PICS. As you can see I like PICS.

Laters,
Pj

Ps. Did I say we need pics?? :mrgreen:

[elkdoc]

With a blower like yours you could rig up a blast port that blows across the opening where you're sticking your work in the fire. Kind of like how some folks direct the heat away from the port in a gas forge.

[HWooldridge]

Everyone has different pain thresholds but I can't imagine you would be frying yourself with heat and still continuing to work at all. Sounds like you might just have very dry skin from a little cold weather compounded by the work/heat. I also took karate as a youngster and once had very hard hands but they become more tender as I grow older - no more board breaking. :cry: However, the calluses from the hammer and tongs remain.

My old standby is Neutrogena lotion. It is the best I have found to keep your hands in good shape. I do not like gloves of any sort (except when arc welding) because my hands give me the best tactile sense of what I am doing. In addition, gloves can be downright dangerous in the wrong place so I don't like putting them on out of habit. However, my son also works hard with his hands but likes a pigskin glove on the left hand so everyone has their own preference. Trouble is that he now has a raft of new, right handed gloves lying around... :D

[Ed Thomas]

Archie: I think Hollis is certainly right. Is your shop heated? When it's cold, the air is much drier and your skin gets less elastic. I get moderate chapping and cracking every winter from working in a cold shop, and it would be worse if I didn't keep an eye out for it.

[Archie Zietman]

When I'm in the shop (The outdoors) I can work for hours and not feel a thing.. I spent a few hours in a T-shirt last tuesday, and only after going inside did I realize that it was probably cold outside. This also applies to my hands.
My mum forced me to go to a nail place and get a manicure, and my hands feel a lot better now, but I am getting caloused backs of my hands now. I put on tons of some funny moisture paste a few hours after being burned, and that combined with not forging for a few days has made the healing go shockingly quickly. My hands were burning right up through yesterday but now they're a ton better.

[ThomasPowers]

Archie; weren't you using wood or charcoal? They throw off a lot more heat than a coal forge and that IR is very drying to your skin. You can put up an IR shield with a working hole too.

Thomas

[Glenn]

Archie,
Read this story --> Working Late at the Smithy

I have been at the forge wearing just 2 t-shirts and working at my own pace, enjoying the time at the fire and using it to decompress. When I looked up everything was covered in white except the fire and the anvil. There was maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of snow everywhere and me in a full sweat and about to take one of the t-shirts off. It is most important to go inside the house and take a shower immediately, leaving the tools outside, and someone in charge of watching the fire. Later when the body has cooled a bit, you can collect the tools.

DO NOT stare into the fire while the metal is getting hot. Look at the sky, the ground, your shoes, anything but the fire. (I still thank Bill Epps for that tid bit ever time I get a chance)

Another thing I have learned to do when I run a fire hot for production is to wear a IR protection glasses. The ones I use are from the welding supply house in a #2 shade for one pair and a #3 shade for the other. I wear them over the prescription glasses that I need to see correctly. It takes away some of the glare but helps tone down the intensity of the fire so you can see the metal. It makes a real difference on the eyes. The glasses were $10 - $15 as I recall, and I would buy them again without giving it a second thought. Gray color lenses are better for me than green, try both and you decide what works for you.

Forging after dark is a real killer on the eyes as the intensity of the fire is much greater than the ambiant light. Been there and don't want to go back any time soon.

[Rantalin]

I was out forging from 11 in the morning till dark yesterday, I got a lot of work done, but when the sun had pretty much set, I couldn't see much of what I was doing. I have an outdoor forge, no protection from the elements. I turned on an outside light to provide some visibility, but it didn't help much. I was so close to finishing a project that night, but quit when it got too dark. Point is, when my visibility was gone, I knew I was going to make mistakes. The only thing I could really see was the fire, it was the only bright object around me. I knew it was dangerous, so I quit. I couldn't hit something I didn't want to hit, like my hand, or tripped over my anvil stand (which happens to be a saw horse with a small vice attached to it) while holding hot metal. Not a good thing to happen. Be safe when you're working. After initially reading this thread, I've occasionally looked at my hands to check for damage. Nothing has happened yet. But iI'm still being careful

[yesteryearforge]

cornhuskers lotion also works well